Odessa,Ukraine, is a beautiful city on the northwest coast of the Black Sea situated 32 km from the mouth of the Dnestr River. Its population is now approximately 1,100.000. The city's name is derived from Odessos, a nearby ancient Greek settlement (sixth Century before our era)  in reality situated where is now the city of Varna, Bulgaria. It was founded in 1794 on the site of a Turkish settlement - the fortress Khadzibei - after the armies of Catherine II had wrested control of the Black Sea coast from the Turks.  Odessa is situated on terraced hills overlooking Odessa Bay, an inlet of the Black Sea that forms a natural harbor. From the central part of the city, a monumental stairway - somehow the symbol of the city - descends to the waterfront. It was made famous in the Russian film Potemkin, directed by Sergei Eisenstein, which depicts the naval mutiny that occurred during the Revolution of 1905. This stairway was namedat that time  "Richelieu", from Armand Emmanuel du Plessis de Chinon, Duke of Richelieu, a French politician (1766-1822), who served in the Russian army against the Turks and who was nominated Governor of the province of Odessa (1803-1814) by the Tsar Alexander I.  

Odessa grew rapidly, especially in the latter half of the 19th century, when railroad construction in the southern Ukraine made it Russia's principal port for grain exports. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the nation's economy turned inward and Odessa stagnated. Its development was also set back during World War II when it fell to German and Romanian forces in October 1941 after a 69-day siege....... 

The city has a relatively warm, dry climate, with January temperatures averaging -2°C and July temperatures, 22°C. Precipitation totals 351 mm annually. The moderate climate and coastal lagoons nearby have given rise to beach resorts famous for therapeutic mudbaths. A diversified manufacturing center, Odessa produces a wide range of machinery and equipment, including machine tools, farm machinery, hoisting equipment, and refrigerators, as well as chemicals. Shipyards and a small petroleum refinery are important to the economy. Food processing in flour mills, stockyards, canneries, and sugar refine-ries is based on the city's proximity to rich Ukrainian farmlands. Odessa's cosmopolitan atmosphere can be attributed to its importance as one of the major foreign trade ports and fishing fleet bases of the region, with traffic to and from the countries of the Mediterranean basin, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. 

Odessa was and maybe still is a leading educational and cultural center, the seat of Odessa State University (1865) and Odessa Polytechnic Institute (1918) and a number of specialized institutes. It also has an opera and both Ukrainian and Russian dramatic theaters. The well-known Ukraine Experimental Institute for Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy is also situated in Odessa.