ODESA—It is hard to imagine a sharper, more brutal contrast than between wartime Odesa and, two hours by car eastward, Mykolaiv. Even in the best of times, they felt completely different. One a joyful city firmly grounded in its Russian empire origins and the myths—multicultural Odesa, Jewish Odesa, gangster Odesa, refined Odesa—it carefully built about itself, the other an industrial, serious city of shipbuilders that churned out submarines, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers until the fall of the Soviet Union and the slow spiral of perpetual decline that followed it.
The Long War #4
The Long War #4
The Long War #4
ODESA—It is hard to imagine a sharper, more brutal contrast than between wartime Odesa and, two hours by car eastward, Mykolaiv. Even in the best of times, they felt completely different. One a joyful city firmly grounded in its Russian empire origins and the myths—multicultural Odesa, Jewish Odesa, gangster Odesa, refined Odesa—it carefully built about itself, the other an industrial, serious city of shipbuilders that churned out submarines, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers until the fall of the Soviet Union and the slow spiral of perpetual decline that followed it.