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Living Cosmopolitanism? 'Tolerance', Ethnoreligious Differences, and Local Identity in Odessa

Tanya Richardson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harriman Institute, Columbia University

Date & Time

Monday
May. 1, 2006
12:00pm – 1:00pm ET

Overview

At a recent Kennan Institute talk, Tanya Richardson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, argued that many residents of the city of Odessa share a strong sense of local identity, based on the idea that their city is uniquely tolerant and cosmopolitan. According to Richardson, the "trope of tolerance" in local discourses is based both on literary and historical images of Odessa as a diverse port city on the periphery of the Russian empire, and on the influence of Soviet internationalism. Drawing on the experience of her fieldwork in Odessa in 2001-02 and 2005, Richardson described discourses of tolerance in Odessa as well as the limits of toleration.

Historically, Odessa has been an ethnically and religiously diverse city. According to Richardson, in 1897 the city was comprised of 58 percent Slavic-speaking (primarily Russian) residents and 32 percent Jewish residents. In 2001, by contrast, the city was 62 percent Ukrainian, 29 percent Russian, and 9 percent other, with Bulgarians and Jews comprising the largest minority groups. The city remains religiously diverse today, although Richardson noted that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) is dominant. Odessan history includes instances of violence between different groups—particularly pogroms against Jews—but contemporary Odessans tend to overlook this aspect when speaking about their city's historic tolerance, according to Richardson. She contended that Odessan discourses emphasize the importance of commercial pragmatism over ethnic nationalism and the creation of a distinctly Odessan personality and identity out of the ethnic and religious mix.

Richardson explained that liberal political theorists have developed concepts of negative tolerance (acceptance of the rights of others, even if disliked) and positive tolerance (openness to and acceptance of others as people). Other scholars have theorized the concept of cosmopolitanism, describing it in terms of multiple allegiances beyond one's own national group and concern for humanity as whole. In this context, Richardson said, Odessans exhibit aspects of both positive and negative tolerance, and express a "place-based cosmopolitanism in which local discourses circulate literary and historical images of the city's pre-revolutionary past." Odessan discourses tend to privilege assimilation and the creation of a distinct Odessan "type" through cultural mixing, which has certain parallels with Soviet internationalism. By privileging and encouraging assimilation, Odessan discourses in fact mute differences that generate the conditions where toleration becomes and issue.

There are limits to the practices of toleration in Odessa, Richardson noted. The revival of ethnic and religious communities in the post-Soviet period has tested Odessans' capacity for toleration. In post-Soviet Odessa, there have been cases where Jewish organizations have been vandalized, and refugees and visible minorities have experienced racism and occasionally violence. Odessans' "traditions of tolerance" were also tested during Ukraine's contentious 2004 presidential election. In particular, she noted that political tensions existed between supporters of the Moscow and Kyiv patriarchates of the Orthodox Church. Despite such tensions, Richardson said, Odessa remained relatively calm during the Orange Revolution, at least in part due to Odessans' sense of the importance of tolerance and civility.

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Kennan Institute

The Kennan Institute is the premier US center for advanced research on Russia and Eurasia and the oldest and largest regional program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Kennan Institute is committed to improving American understanding of Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange.  Read more

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