The Odesa Dictionary — Landmarks & Legends of Letter H-Kh

Letter H-Kh / Х

The story of Odesa begins at Khadzhibey — a windswept Black Sea outpost once held by Tatars and Turks, stormed by Cossacks and the troops of the Ukrainian-born General Ivan Hudzovych in 1789. From that fortified shore would grow a cosmopolitan city of trade, art, and ambition. Nearly a century later, Odesa's creative spirit found a new home in the Grekov Odesa Art School, founded in 1865 as the first art academy in Ukraine. Together, these two landmarks trace the city's journey from frontier fort to cultural capital — from cannon smoke to canvas.

• Хаджибей
• Художественное Училище

Khadzhibei

Then:
In old Odesa, the word "Khadzhibei" still echoes — though its true origin, like that of the name "Odesa" itself, remains uncertain. Historically, "Khadzhibei" referred to a small Rus'-Ukrainian settlement that once occupied what is now the city's central district. Earlier still, in the 14th and early 15th centuries, it was sometimes recorded as Kachibey.

When the Tatars and later the Ottomans temporarily established control over the northern Black Sea steppe in the 15th–18th centuries, the name evolved to Khadzhibei or Hadjibey. The Turks themselves, however, called the small fortress they built here in 1764 Yeni-Dünya — "New World."

According to the 1971 Soviet guidebook, this Turkish fortress stood where today's Prymorskyi Boulevard now runs. Yet that account reflected the imperial narrative of the era, celebrating the "liberation" of the Black Sea coast by the Russian Empire while downplaying that most of the Cossack troops involved were actually Ukrainian, fighting invaders — first Ottoman, then Russian — on their own ancestral lands.

Plan of the city of Hajibey and the military harbor, 1794.

On the night of September 14, 1789, during the Second Russo-Turkish War, forces led by General Ivan Vasylovych Hudovych — himself an ethnic Ukrainian educated in Europe — joined the Black Sea Cossacks under Antin Holovaty and Zakharii Chepiha in storming the fortress of Khadzhibei. Advancing under cover of darkness through the ravines, they assaulted the Ottoman walls at dawn. The battle was fierce and chaotic — cannon fire from the shore and the Turkish ships in the bay filled the air, but the attackers pressed on. By morning, the fortress had fallen, and the Russian flag was raised over its main tower.

Allegory of Catherine's Victory over the Turks, by Stefano Torelli, note the propaganda aspects; Russians leading the Cossacks (who went first), wood ladders instead of Cossack rope ladders.

The victors seized 112 cannons, barrels of powder, and Turkish standards, along with the fortress commander, Ahmet Pasha. In the imperial telling, General Suvorov congratulated his troops on their "victory at Hadzhibei," urging them toward further triumphs. Soon after, in 1793–94, a Russian military fortification was built nearby, on the site of today's Taras Shevchenko Park. On August 22 (September 2, New Style), 1794, the new port was officially founded on the site of the former Khadzhibei settlement — marking a new chapter in the region's long-contested history.

Now:
Today, the name Khadzhibei lives on in the Khadzhibei Liman — the vast lagoon north of the city — and in local lore. Modern historians note that the battle and its retellings reveal much about imperial myth-making: Odesa's origins are neither purely "Russian" nor "Turkish" but deeply Ukrainian, shaped by the frontier culture of the steppe, the Cossack spirit, and centuries of struggle for freedom on the Black Sea shore.

Odesa Art School (Khudozhnie Uchylyshche)

Then:
In June 1865, Odesa's cultural life reached a milestone — the founding of its first Drawing School (Rysuvalna Shkola). At that time, it had neither a permanent home nor state funding, yet its creation was driven by the city's progressive intelligentsia, who dreamed of an art academy for gifted young people of the South. Only 42 students were enrolled at first, hauling their easels from one patron's house to another, surviving on donations, charity events, and even art raffles — where paintings by masters like Ivan Aivazovsky and Rufin Sudkovsky were occasionally offered as prizes.

By 1885, the school had earned official recognition as a secondary-level institution and became known as the Odesa Art School. Yet life for students was far from easy. Families had to sign a formal pledge to clothe their children in uniform, provide supplies, and pay tuition. Unsurprisingly, many poor but talented students struggled to stay enrolled. One Odesa newspaper of the era lamented: "The irony of fate is that the most gifted are usually the poorest."

Among those who nearly dropped out for lack of means were future luminaries like Kyrylo Kostandi, the fisherman's son from nearby Dofinivka; Ivan Shulha, the peasant boy from Skadovsk; and many others whose artistic promise was recognized and supported by sympathetic mentors. Their perseverance — and the solidarity of the city's artistic community — turned Odesa into a southern beacon of creativity within the empire.

(Read here about how Moscow has been looting Ukrainian art from the occupied territories)

By the early 20th century, the school had become a center of independent thought. Its students took part in workers' demonstrations during the 1905 Revolution, distributed underground pamphlets, and painted banners for rallies — acts that alarmed the tsarist police. Prime Minister Stolypin even warned the emperor of the school's "rebellious spirit." When rifles were later found hidden inside the school, authorities confiscated them, but the students' true weapons — their posters, their art — continued to speak loudly in the streets.

After 1919, under Soviet rule, the Odesa Art School was reorganized and fully nationalized, with free tuition and materials for all students. Hunger and hardship remained, yet its spirit endured. Professors received payment in potatoes, and students painted revolutionary posters for the local press, YugROSTA. Despite the regime's ideological pressure, Odesa's school nurtured many of the great names of 20th-century Ukrainian art, including Mykola Hrekov (whose name the school now bears), Anton Shovkunenko, and Borys Iofan.

As painter Ilya Repin once said: "I can always recognize artists from Odesa — their work glows with southern light, rich in spirit and form."

Now:
Today, the Hrekov Odesa Art School (Odeske khudozhnie uchylyshche imeni Mytrofana Hrekova) stands as the oldest art school in Ukraine and one of the country's most respected centers of creative education. Founded in 1865 as the Drawing School of the Odesa Society for the Advancement of the Fine Arts, it has survived empires, wars, and revolutions — and still trains new generations of painters, sculptors, and designers who carry Odesa's vibrant artistic spirit across the world.

Through the decades, the school evolved from a modest drawing workshop into a postsecondary academy, a polytechnic, and finally a professional art college under its present name, honoring one of its distinguished alumni, Mytrofan Hrekov. It weathered Soviet rule, a devastating 1993 fire that destroyed its library and hall, and numerous reorganizations, yet it remains a symbol of artistic resilience and southern creativity.

Today the Hrekov School offers four main departments — Painting, Sculpture, Artistic Environmental Decoration (including ceramics and batik), and Design — each rooted in traditional studio training but open to contemporary expression. The four-year program enrolls about 250 students, grouped in small classes that echo its original workshop spirit. Even as Ukraine's cultural landscape changes, the Hrekov Odesa Art School continues to embody what its founders envisioned 160 years ago: a living home for art, education, and the bright light of the Black Sea coast.

Sources and Notes

Dictionary Index — Letters A–Z

Introduction
Letter A / А
Letter B / Б
Letter C / Ц
Letter CH / Ч
Letter D / Д
Letter E / Э
Letter F / Ф
Letter G / Г
Letter H-Kh / Х
Letter I / И
Letter J / (There is no equivilent letter)
Letter K / К
Letter L / Л
Letter M / М
Letter N / Н
Letter O / О
Letter P / П
Letter Q / Ку
Letter R / Р
Letter S / С
Letter T / Т
Letter U / У
Letter V / В
Letter W / В
Letter X / Х
Letter Y / Ы
Letter Z / З