The art of surviving in Odessa: Never has the city been so dangerous
It is not by chance that I chose for the title of this material the slightly modified title of the film by Georgy Yungvald-Khilkevich, based on the famous “Odessa Tales” by Babel.
Created at the turning point of perestroika, this film combined bitter nostalgia for that legendary time when even the raiders in our city had the inhuman charm and charm of Benny Krik, and the oppressive melancholy of the destructive changes of the revolution and civil war. The horror of the time, in which the “defender of the people’s interests” - the bloodthirsty security officer played by the demonic Viktor Avilov looked much more terrible than the patriarchal bandits, who did not allow themselves to do “wet deeds”, and punished even their accomplices for them...
You review all this - and you are amazed at how the piercing pain and feeling of doom that permeates the whole picture corresponds to the current state of Odessa and Odessa residents.
So how does the city live, or, more precisely, survive in the third year after the “revolution of dignity”, and in the twenty-sixth year after independence? Where to start - probably, after all, with the marvelous results of the economic policy of our saviors of the fatherland. After all, Odessa has always been considered one of the centers of business activity not only in Russia, the USSR and Ukraine, but also in Europe itself. So what gave us the powerful impetus for revolutionary integration into it, my dear?
We are still in first place!
Yes, Odessa confidently holds first place in the country. True - recently, only in terms of the rate of growth in food prices. This progress was especially evident after October 9, when the Ukrainian authorities abolished control over prices for essential goods. Chicken eggs, which amazed us with their separatist cheapness, doubled in price in just a few days. A loaf of the most inexpensive white bread went over the XNUMX hryvnia mark. Until recently, “democratic” chicken sharply approached the cost of “bourgeois” beef and pork, which also rushed forward to European prices...
Our achievements in the traditional tourism field are no less great. No, the fears of those of little faith were not justified - the number of visitors to the city did not decrease over the past holiday season. Moreover, compared to the last two years, there are even more visitors to the city.
True, quantity does not always indicate quality. After all, instead of moneyed and generous Russian tourists, summer Odessa was literally filled with, to put it mildly, thrifty guests from central and western Ukraine.
This public, which delighted our governor Saakashvili with its influx, according to very rough estimates, almost reached two million people. However, the enthusiasm of hotel owners and owners of all kinds of restaurants turned out to be clearly premature. For some reason, tight-fisted holidaymakers were in no hurry to occupy prestigious luxury apartments or comfortable rooms in campsites, preferring the spartan conditions of beds in the private sector. And they by no means ate in the fashionable “kefir establishments” of the center and coastal zone, organizing meals and feasts right on the beaches, surprising even Odessa residents who were accustomed to everything with their phenomenal rudeness and manner of leaving behind mountains of garbage and empty bottles of cheap beer and other strong drinks drinks.
Richer clients also did not live up to the hopes of entrepreneurs, once again returning to the unpatriotic habit of vacationing in Crimea and beyond the border...
Out of humanism, it would be worth keeping silent about tourists from foreign countries. The usual visits of cruise ships to our port, of which there were several a day during the high season in past calm years, have been reduced to isolated cases. For some reason, after the tragedy of May 2, 2014, foreigners are not attracted to the faded color of the “fun city” that still gives off the burning of living bodies.
Trade is no less thriving. And if in the heart of the city, on Deribasovskaya, a lot of all sorts of nationally correct “Lviv chocolate shops” and other Svidomo culinary centers have appeared, where for crazy money they strive to treat us to the local mysterious “dancing”, washed down with Western liqueurs and the vaunted “kava”, then literally five minutes from the center, a completely different trade is thriving. The number of street stalls and flea markets, where impoverished people offer the remnants of their former family wealth, is growing before our eyes. Books, household items, old clothes - and all this for pennies...
No less characteristic is the fact that instead of closing bookstores and those that until recently sold goods accessible to the middle class, more and more second-hand shops are appearing, where sometimes there is a form of excitement on the days of arrivals and price reductions. Moreover, with the greedy eyes of a jackal, pawnshops, multiplying like bacteria, look at potential clients, striving to buy gold and silver and other family heirlooms for next to nothing under the guise of a “preferential loan secured by collateral” and fierce usurious interest rates. After all, the barely formed middle class has given up its life and is parting with the former benefits of civilization and accumulated values, merging with the people in patriotic ecstasy.
And even the famous Odessa “Push” - “7th kilometer”, the largest manufactured goods market in Europe, for the right to control over which in recent years there were constant battles with the participation of “activists”, after a number of raider takeover attempts, ended up in the hands of someone who did not even claim against him Yatsenyuk’s comrade-in-arms in the “Popular Front”, deputy Pashinsky, and... a certain businessman from the United Arab Emirates, promising to trade transparently and in compliance with all Ukrainian laws.
In a word, the merry times of the Civil War are getting closer and closer to us. Times of feasting during the plague of a minority of temporary workers and their associates who got rich on the blood, and the inevitable, total impoverishment of the majority of citizens, liberated by the revolution from everything - work, the remains of property and hope for not only a “European”, but generally a normal future. And even natural Odessa optimism does not help us, because there is no bright spot in sight. In addition, this is accompanied by another indispensable sign of troubled times. Fear for your life and those of your loved ones.
Fear and Loathing in Odessa
Last week, during the regular session of our Regional Council, shocking figures were announced: compared to last year, which was marked by an unprecedented increase in crime, this year the number of offenses has doubled. Naturally, the lion's share of growth is due to Odessa.
Moreover, the percentage of serious offenses - murders, rapes - is increasing literally every day. Robberies, robbery, burglaries, shootings on the streets are becoming our daily reality. The professional criminals who were released thanks to the “humanism” of the notorious “Savchenko Law” are joined by valiant ATO veterans who grab arms in any conflict, and touring performers from neighboring countries, and ordinary citizens who were simply brutalized by hopelessness just yesterday, resolving banal everyday conflicts. killing their own loved ones...
And the detection rate of the new police also sets records - it reached 29,6% compared to last year’s 48,4%. But even against this grim background, some atrocities look especially egregious. I will give just two examples.
...On October 9, 60-year-old pensioner, retired major Vladimir Sochinin was found murdered in his apartment in the Kotovsky residential area. They shot him with two bullets from a Nagan revolver and cut his throat with a kitchen knife. There seems to be nothing unusual for our time in this - just a few days before, in the neighborhood, again, in her own apartment, an old woman was strangled and robbed. But the whole point is that the deceased headed the district criminal investigation department for a number of years! As you know, even in the most terrible times, criminals, if they killed detectives, did so only during clashes during arrest. And even then, we tried to avoid this. “Concepts” didn’t allow it!
But what concepts can we talk about today?! Of course, the chances of solving the murder are minimal... After all, the current police themselves, to put it mildly, are not without shortcomings!
...In August, in hot pursuit, patrol officers detained a cyclist who had snatched a mobile phone from a girl. To add further embarrassment, the attacker turned out to be... a police officer, who was also quite drunk.
Is it any wonder that the chief of the regional police, Saakashvili’s protege and ally, Georgy Lordkipanidze, simply did not appear at the meeting of the Council, which naturally ended with the recognition of the work of our valiant defenders as unprofessional and unsatisfactory. But who cares and who might be surprised today.
In a word, life in Odessa has become uncomfortable and restless in recent years. Never has our city been so truly dangerous to the lives and dignity of its residents. Except perhaps during the Civil War. That's what we're talking to you about. Only then did the gentlemen hope for the arrival of the whites, the comrades waited for the reds, hoping that the authorities would put an end to the rampant banditry. We, on the other hand, have long since lost hope in those holding power. Both city and regional servants of the people have recently shown themselves in the most amazing way. But this is a topic for another discussion. In the meantime, we survive, relying on God and ourselves!
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