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POLES
IN ODESSA
The history of Polish in Odessa on the Black Sea coast.
Odessa. Municipal Opera and Ballet Theatre.
On May 27, 1794, the
city of Odessa was founded, built by the city's first mayor (from
1794 to 1797), Admiral José de Ribas, according to the plan of
Colonel Franz de Volan.
In 1795, in the southwestern governorates (Braclaw, Podolia, and Volhynian voivodeships), the nobility living from agriculture (excluding feudal lords) numbered 183,314, including 33,006 nobility on their own land, and 150,308 nobility living on rent and dependent land.
In the 1830s, Polish patriots living in Novorossiya supported the Polish uprising, the defeat of which negatively impacted the situation of its participants.
The Odessa Oblast State Archives contain documents concerning the deportation of Galicians and the ban on entry of "Polish emissaries" to Russia (including Karolina Nakwaska-Potocka, Lenczkowski, Wassojevicz, and others).
The Potocki, Sabański, and Czartoryski families, who were involved in the uprising, were harmed.
The Central Commission established in Kyiv in 1840 dealt exclusively with nobles whose nobility was approved by the nobility assembly between 1840 and 1845, and rejected as many as 160,000 individuals from this group.
In 1857, the jednodvortsy were finally separated from the nobility and classified as free farmers.
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By decree of Tsar Paul I in July 1795, over 100 noble families arrived in the Kherson and Odessa regions with the intention of improving their living conditions.
Most of the resettlers were Polish noble families from Podolia, Galicia, and Silesia.
Germans and Jews from these regions also arrived with them.
The Black Sea region was settled primarily by Catholics – Italians, French, Poles, and Germans – Lutherans.
The new opportunities in the vast, uninhabited areas of Novorossiya generated considerable interest in the Kingdom of Poland.
Among those in Odessa were Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz ("Historical Journeys")
and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski ("Memories of Odessa, Yedisan, and Budjak").
Seweryn Potocki
Count Seweryn Potocki, Srebrna Pilawa coat of arms (1762-1829), settled permanently in Novorossiya.
During the Great Sejm, he was a patriotic activist and did not join the Targowica Confederation.
Between 1805 and 1810, he built a palace in the Classicist style in Odessa.
Since 1899, the palace has housed the Museum of Fine Arts.
Prince Armand-Emanuel Richelieu, who fled to Russia from the French Revolution – governor of Novorossiya and mayor of Odessa from 1803 to 1805 – made significant contributions to the city's development, as did later governors – Prince Michael Vorontsov and Count Paul Kotzebue.
It should be noted that Prince Richelieu spoke Polish.
Tsarina Catherine II Square in Odessa.
From the very
beginning, the Polish community, unlike other ethnic communities in
Odessa, was not distinguished by its significant numbers, unity, or
common purpose.
The main reason for this was the lack of unity of views on Russia's policy on the Polish issue.
A certain number of Polish noblemen, including the Potockis, belonging to the aristocratic circle of Odessa, led by Mikhail Vorontsov, Governor-General of Novorossiya and Governor of the Bessarabian Oblast, held liberal views towards the Russian government.
Others remained in constant opposition to the government and dreamed of restoring the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The rest simply maintained neutrality.
This was one of the key reasons that prevented the Polish community from establishing its own Polish charitable society in the first half of the 19th century.
As long as Polish men were occupied with political discussions, the female half continued traditions and maintained family ties, the Polish Church remained more important to them than the official Orthodox Church.
Elizabeth Woroncowa née Branicka.
At that time, charity was primarily the domain of a small number of Polish patrons.
A striking example is Elizabeth, wife of Michael Vorontsov, who came from the distinguished Polish Branicki family but was Orthodox.
In 1829, she founded the "Novorossiysk Society of Women for the Care of the Poor," later renamed
the "Odessa Society of Charitable Women," whose goal was to engage wealthy women from Odessa families in charitable and social activities.
In 1859, Elizabeth Vorontsov Branicka built a home for orphan boys with her own funds, naming it the Michael-Siemionowski Orphanage in honor of her husband.
It was not until the second half of the 19th century that, in addition to the personal activities of individual Polish philanthropists,
the Catholic Church began collecting donations from wealthy parishioners to help the poor.
In 1873, a shelter for
orphans was established at the church using funds bequeathed by M.
Mykolicz.
The first Catholic charitable association was
founded in 1882 by a Pole, Konstanty Wołodkowicz.
His
activities significantly contributed to the growth of national
awareness among the Polish community during this period.
Zofia Witt-Potocka
Of
course, among the numerous Potockis, the name most frequently
mentioned is Sofia Witt-Potocka.
The heroine of love adventures, well known throughout the Empire and beyond its borders.
Sofia owned one of the first palaces in Odessa.
Olga Potocka
Not
far down the street, Olga Potocka, the daughter of Sofia and
Stanisław Szczęsny,
built a palace in 1824 that now houses the Odessa Museum of Fine Arts.
Stanisław Szczęsny
Potocki with his sons Stanisław and Jerzy Szczęsny.
Stanisław
Potocki, along with Richelieu, participated in the establishment of
the city's first educational institutions -
a commercial gymnasium, the Municipal Girls' College, and the Nobility Institute, which later became the Richelieu Lycée.
"Cleopatra of Odessa"
Karolina Sobańska,
sister of Ewelina Hańska née Rzewuska,
wife of Honoré de Balzac.
The most
dangerous woman in Odessa – Polish Countess Karolina Rozalia Tekla
Sobańska, née Rzewuska (1795–1885).
The
"Cleopatra of Odessa" was an agent of the Tsarist
Russian secret police,
the lover of Alexander Pushkin and Adam Mickiewicz, and the sister-in-law of Honoré de Balzac.
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