An important stage of the project was the research trip of Anna Umanska, a member of the historical research team, to Odesa - a city that was one of the most important centers of Jewish cultural, religious, and intellectual life in the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries.
The research focused on two leading institutions: the State Archives of the Odesa Region and the Odesa Literary Museum. These institutions hold a substantial body of sources that make it possible to reconstruct the history of the region’s Jewish community, trace the evolution of its cultural practices, and examine its responses to the political transformations of the Russian Imperial and Soviet periods.
During work at the State Archive of the Odesa Region, fonds descriptions were reviewed, and copies of a number of particularly important documents required for further analysis and their introduction into scholarly circulation were ordered. In particular, fonds P-41 was examined - the Party Archive of the Odesa Regional Committee of the CP(b)U: the City Committee of the Odesa Jewish Communist Party «Poalei-Zion» (1919–1921). The materials of this fonds include circulars, resolutions, minutes of meetings, reports, and correspondence that shed light on the ideological and organizational activities of the party among the Jewish population, in particular women, youth, and working-class groups, during the period of the establishment of Soviet power in Odesa.
An important place is also occupied by fonds 442 - the Committee of the Odesa Branch of the Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews in Russia (OPE), 1880–1919. Its materials reflect activities in the field of Jewish education: the operation of cheders, Talmud Torahs, private and public educational institutions, as well as educational initiatives for socially vulnerable groups. Statistical data, financial reports, information on teaching staff and curricula make it possible to reconstruct the actual state of Jewish education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Fonds 42 - the Chancellery of the Trustee of the Odesa Educational District (1834-1920) - contains documents recording the mechanisms of state regulation of Jewish educational institutions. Reports, correspondence, and inspection materials allow us to trace the interaction between Jewish educational institutions and the administration, as well as shifts in educational policy regarding the Jewish population in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
An equally important research site was the Odesa Literary Museum, particularly its personal archival fonds. Of special value are the materials related to Isaak Guberman - a Jewish playwright and figure of the Odesa branch of GOSET (the State Jewish Theatre). Manuscripts, correspondence, theatre programmes, and administrative documents open new possibilities for studying the development of Jewish theatrical life in interwar Odesa.
The documents from the personal fonds of Khanan Vainerman, a Jewish poet and journalist, preserve unique manuscripts, materials related to public appearances and literary events, as well as reviews of his work within Ukrainian and Jewish cultural circles. A separate body of documents reflects the artist's experience of repression and subsequent rehabilitation.
The archival materials from the fonds of Note Lurye centre on manuscripts of fiction and documentary works, diary and autobiographical texts, as well as correspondence with leading cultural figures - Pavlo Tychyna, Irme Druker, Pavlo Zahrebelny, and Genekh Kazakevich. The fonds allows for a deeper understanding not only of Note Lurye's creative path, but also of the mechanisms of cultural adaptation, repression, and return to literature after the labour camps, making it a key source for the study of Soviet Jewish cultural history.
A significant portion of the processed archival materials remains understudied to this day. It is for this reason that work in Odesa's archives constitutes not only an important component of the current research project, but also a meaningful step toward a deeper understanding of the Jewish historical and cultural heritage of Ukraine.
All activities within the project are organised with the financial support of the European Union. Their content is the sole responsibility of the partner and does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Union.