Day 3 — Political and economic insights
The morning was used to finish previous reflections and to discover hidden places in the city by ourselves. Lunch was held in a Georgian restaurant, reflecting the diversity of the cities food once more. After eating, we met at Soborna Square in the city center for the Odessa history identity tour by tour operator Tudoy Sudoy. During the identity tour, we interviewed the tour guide Aleksandr who was honest and direct about economic and political issues in Odessa and Ukraine in general.
Aleksandr, the tour guide working for the tour operator Tudoy Sudoy is an Odessian native. His ancestors have long background of living and working in the black sea metropole. He graduated as a history student at university and majored in Greek language. He speaks fluent Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Greek and English. The identity tour was an extension of our historical background analysis and with his personal views about the situation of the city he confirmed the first impressions we got from our previous business partners. Concerning the business meeting with the city council, we asked specifically about how he perceives the impact out of multiple projects of the major and his departments.
When the trained historian talks about the founding phase of the city, he likes to highlight the cultural diversity. In this phase of development, the city grew constantly in high rates due to the very liberal economic programs provided by the respective governors of the city. Growth rates of 500 to 600 percent were achieved by giving free land to the citizens, with the obligation to build houses within two years. Jewish writers highlighted the city as a Jewish Eldorado because of its cultural and economic richness. Interestingly, Aleksandr compared Odessa with the United States due to foreigners coming to a terra incognito forming a new world. Additionally, he shared some stories of eccentric city officials and entrepreneurs living and working in this melting pot of cultures.
The questions were mainly directed towards our theses, like the insufficient infrastructure or problems related to economic development. First of all, he talked about the absent support of the city government for the common citizen and the lack of sustainable long term development of Odessa. In his opinion, better accessibility by reconstruction of the transportation infrastructure to ensure the development of the touristic city center is desperately needed. In general, the main reason for this inefficiency is the attitude of the state officials, which are, in the opinion of the citizen, working for their own benefit. This problem begins on the lowest level of interaction between people and the government, such as in working with the police and even with teachers, which then leads to this kind of shadow economy. According to the tour guide, citizen and private institutions have to substitute governmental tasks in order to keep the things going. He told us about efforts to raise money to equip soldiers fighting in the Eastern Ukraine with basic military gear, such as boots and bulletproof vests.
Despite the problems which were described in this business meeting, Aleksandr is a proud Odessian and Ukrainian. He is politically active to break out of the vicious circle of the rigged system and to create a better future with its respective possibilities for young people.
After an intensive three-hour tour with a lot of anecdotes about Odessa, we met Ksim, the director of Tudoy Sudoy for a business interview at their head. After his early retirement, the former police officer realized that the pension fund is not enough to provide for his three children. Therefore, the history graduate founded the tour operator Tudoy Sudoy. Aleksandr was also present to translate the conversation from Russian to English. The organization, which started as a one-man show, today offers 35 different tours including the catacombs of Odessa and several identity and underground tours. The 30 different guides have the opportunity to create their own tours in the winter. The ones that are economically attractive and entertaining are implemented. They tend to fit each tour for the respective target group, for example Viking history in Odessa for Norwegian guests.
Since the political disturbance between Russia and Ukraine, the guests coming from Russia decreased dramatically and they had to change tours to fit the needs of Ukrainians and Westerns. They even had to close the office for a year in 2014. One of the main challenges of Tudoy Sudoy is to submit Soviet history and basic understanding of the culture to western oriented people.
Ksim was not born in Odessa, but he told us that the city is like a caring mother, uniting all different people and giving them a feeling of belonging. Despite this fact, he regularly thought about leaving the country, but hesitated due to his patriotic feelings towards Ukraine. Aleksandr and Ksim were both present on the Maidan protest in Kiev and they had contact to the frontline of the Ukrainian resistance. For their political commitment, both had to fear capital punishment if Russian troops would have concurred Odessa. The fear of follows them every day, but they arranged themselves. Today, Ksim is still engaged in the fight against corruption and arbitrariness.
Tomorrow, our journey continues outside the city of Odessa. Stay tuned!
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Kevin S.
Studyweek Odessa — A project from nine students of HTW Chur
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