Local historians have published a book on the true history of Odessa's streets

The M. S. Hrushevsky Odessa Regional Universal Scientific Library hosted a presentation of the book *Odessa Streets* by local historian Dmytro Zhdanov and philologist Kyrylo Bulakhovsky. The authors researched the toponymy of the city center and debunked popular myths about the origins of the street names.

An Intenta correspondent attended the event. 

The authors worked on this popular science book for half a year. In this first volume, the researchers focused on the city center, examining the history behind the names of Deribasovska, Havanna, Hretska, Nizhynska, and other streets, as well as the prominent figures who lived there.

According to the book’s co-author, Kirill Bulakhovsky, working on the book was a quest for historical and toponymic truth. The researcher notes that little-known facts lie behind many familiar names. For example, Deribasovskaya Street was actually named not after the founder of Odesa, José de Ribas, but after his brother Felix, whose house was located on that street.

The initial print run is 300 copies. If demand is high, the authors plan to reprint the book and are already preparing their next study.

“We focused only on the city center. We’ll also be writing about what we call the city’s residential neighborhoods. There are interesting names there, too,” noted Dmytro Zhdanov. 

According to Dmytro, although the book is structured like a guided tour of Odesa, there is no audio version available yet. However, the authors are open to the idea of creating an audio guide if they can find partners to help bring the project to life. 
 

Юлія Калабайда