The Odesa printing house that bypassed imperial bans but did not survive the developers

The debate about the myth of Odesa continues unabated. In the realities of the war, Odessans are trying to realize their city, to treat the past differently and, through it, to the future. This article is not about the monuments that are in line to be dismantled, but about the printing house that circumvented the imperial ban on printing Ukrainian books, where the money of the Ukrainian People's Republic was printed, but which lost the fight against developers.

Bypassing bans

At the end of 1883, when the Russian Empire had already introduced the Valuev Circular (1863) and the Ems Decree (1876), an entrepreneur from the Chernihiv region, Yukhym Fesenko, opened a printing house in Odesa.

Yukhym Fesenko. Photo: Odesa National Scientific Library

It was here in 1885 that a Ukrainian book, the literary almanac Niva, was published for the first time despite the ban. The two-thousand-copy edition was sold out within a few months. Booksellers came from Kyiv to buy Niva, and Ivan Franko congratulated the Odesa community on the publication of the collection in the Zoria. In the same year, Yukhym Fesenko published three texts from the almanac in separate editions: "The Devil's Temptation" by I. Nechuy-Levytsky, "The Drowned" by M. Starytsky, and "The Witch Doctor" by by Dniprova Chaika.

The Niva almanac. Photo: Digital collection of the Odesa National Scientific Library

Since then, the entrepreneur has also been actively publishing Taras Shevchenko. It was he who first published Kateryna as a separate book in Odesa, and on the occasion of Kobzar's 75th birthday he also published The Princess, Moskaleva Krynytsia, and the drama Nazar Stodolya. In addition, M. Komarov published his index "Taras Shevchenko in Literature and Art" at Fesenko's. This work, which was reprinted in Odesa in an expanded edition, laid the foundation for Shevchenko's scientific bibliography.

The printing house, which had already moved to 47 Rishelievska Street, published collections of Ukrainian songs with sheet music, P. Kulish's Black Rada (including an illustrated one), works by O. Plyushch, and H. Komarova's only collection of poems.

Historian Oleh Luhovyi tells Intent how Fesenko managed to publish Ukrainian literature despite the bans: "It could only be done in Russian spelling. That is, it was a game of Little Russian dialect: since it is a dialect, the spelling must be Great Russian, but the words are just distorted. This concession made it possible to circumvent the decree (Emsky - ed.). And after 1905, it became even more ineffective and was no longer followed."

From 1885 to 1918, Fesenko published about 75 titles in Ukrainian. For comparison, the city printing house published about 20 books between 1834 and 1854.

Photo: kraeved.od.ua

At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, printed materials were unaffordable for the mass reader. At that time, Yukhym Fesenko was one of the first to practice publishing inexpensive books and brochures. Made of cheap paper, they were affordable for peasants, workers, and employees, but retained the high-quality artistic design inherent in Fesenko's publications.

Money of the Ukrainian People's Republic

When the Ukrainian Central Rada proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the fall of 1917 with its third universal, Fesenko's printing house was one of the few printing houses whose technical capabilities allowed for the production of banknotes.

Odesa city change tickets, 1917. Photo from the archive of the Podil City Museum of Local Lore

"During the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, the printing house began to issue banknotes. Initially, these were Odesa stamps, the paper equivalent of 15, 20, and 50 kopecks, the design of which was developed by Ukrainian artist Ambrosii Zhdakha. On May 17, 1918, Yurii Fesenko's printing house signed an agreement with the Ministry of Finance to print karbovanets for the Ukrainian state," says Oleh Luhovyi.

Protests against the dismantling of the printing house

Protest near the city hall in 2021. Photo: Izbirkom

In July, the Odesa District Administrative Court began considering a case regarding the construction of Yukhym Fesenko's printing house and the Richelieu Theater at the suit of the Automaidan NGO.

Earlier, the Odesa District Administrative Court held the last preparatory hearing on the lawsuit filed by the private company Odesa City, which is demanding to cancel the orders from the Ministry of Culture and the regional department of culture to ban construction on the territory of Fesenko's printing house and the Richelieu Theater.

As reported, judge of the Odesa District Administrative Court Lyubov Tokmilova suspended the order of the Department of Culture, Nationalities, Religions and Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Odesa Regional State Administration to ban any construction work on the territory of Fesenko's printing house and the former Rishelievsky Cinema.

On June 11, Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko visited Odesa and visited Fesenko's printing house, a former architectural monument that is to be demolished. On his Telegram channel, the minister noted that until the appeal is heard in court, the ministry will oppose the decision in favor of the developers.

In 2021, despite community protests, ODESA-CITY LLC dismantled the building of Yukhym Fesenko's printing house and began construction work on its site. Today, another residential complex has been built on the site of Fesenko's printing house, but has not been put into operation.

Ольга Козел