Langheron beach Live Cam

Terrace of the Nemo Hotel, 5th and 6th floors


Advertisement


Hosted by:

A port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine

The name "Odessa" itself evokes a special atmosphere due to its territorial location and the mixture of residents of different nationalities. Today people of more than 130 nationalities live in Odessa. Since its inception, Odessa has hosted numerous adventurous migrants (from artists to artisans, from merchants to sailors) from Italy, France and other European countries. Follow in their footsteps! Every family, every courtyard, every street will be able to tell you its secret story, sad or happy, long or short, but always intriguing. After staying here, your experience will exceed all possible boundaries!

There are only two Ukrainian airlines that sell their tickets online: Aerosvit and Ukraine International Airlines. Aerosvit was the first company in the Commonwealth of the Independent States which introduced e-ticketing technology for its New-York - Kyiv flight. A lot of international airlines fly to major Ukrainian airports in Kyiv, Lviv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and others. The Boryspil International Airport in Kyiv is Ukraine's busiest airport serving thousands of people every day.

Odessa - city of the unusual biography where each street, the area, the old house slightly opens a new historical page of a life of unique edge. It cannot leave indifferent any person. Offered excursions will help to expand even more an outlook about the present and the past of Odessa.

General City Orientation. by bus or the car on a route - city centre, Arcady, the Big Fountain, the French parkway (bases of rest and sanatoria, a botanical garden, a factory of sparkling faults, a film studio here are located), the prospectus of Shevchenko, street the Pushkin, customs area, See Port, ancient streets and other remarkable objects of our city.

In the beginning of the 15th century Galicia and the majority of other Kyiv's successors became more or less autonomous parts of the Great Princedom of Lithuania. Wealthy, powerful and orthodox, the Ruthenian nobility of these lands was the major powerbreaker in this new empire. Lithuanian rulers married Ruthenian princesses and were the members of the Orthodox church, the leader of which, until 1403, resided in Kyiv. Even after the Patriarch ran away to Moskow, Kyiv was generally considered to be the Ortodox center.

Sometime after 1420s, however, the Catholic and Polish influence in Lithuania started to grow rapidly. When the Lithuanian Prince Jagello married the Polish princess Jadwiga, the integration between Lithuania and Poland began. The new state was going to come to pass - Rzech Pospolita, The Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania.

The role of Galicia and the rest, which, under previously signed agreements, were autonomous, was intentionally neglected. Poles and their Catholic bosses out west feared the Orthodoxes, especially those wealthy and powerful. That's why they elaborated a plan which seemed to bring success in destruction of Ruthenian influence in Lithuania and on Lithuanian affairs.



A group of treaties were signed between Polish (and now Lithuanian) kings and nobility, which were to diminish the role of high nobility (the magnates), especially Ruthenian, and that of the Orthodox clergy. These treaties set conditions under which Ruthenian magnates could remain rulers of their estates - they were to abandon habits of self-government, speak Polish and accept Catholicism. Lithuanian nobility and clergy did that already.

As for Ruthenian magnates, a very small number of them did and were threafter ostracised. The leader of the noble opposition, Konstantin Ostrozhsky, the magnate of Ostroh, was the one to found the Academy, where the first Ukrainian language books were printed. His academy was a stronghold of patriotism, Orthodoxy and resurrectionism. A different way to oppose Poles was found by a group of Orthodox bishops - they went to Rome and agreed with Pope to establish the Uniate, or Greek Catholic Church, which preserved all Orthodox ceremonies and orders, but recognized the Pope as its leader. Even though these two ways of opposition were widely practiced, the tension grew.

The Polish oppression was especially hard on peasantry and city craftspeople. The latter, however, bargained with the magnates on the cities' self-government - The Magdeburg Law - and they succeeded in that. As for rural areas, however, the oppression regime was even worse. Polish magnates employed Jewish leaseholders who were especially harsh. In the minds of Ruthenian peasantry and in, for, certainly other reasons, Ruthenian nobility, the hate towards the Poles, who were robbing their lands and Turcs, who whose devastating raids destroyed what was left, started to grow.

The outbreak of this hate and this cry for help was felt and heard by one of the most prominent Orthodox nobles, Prince Dmytro Bayda - Vyshnevetzki, who, in 1490, founded the fortress of Hortizya on the lower Dnipro River, among almost uninhabited, wide prairy territories between Rzech Pospolita, Crimean Khanate and rapidly growing Muscowy, and which came to be known as Zaporizhya.

The fortress of Hortyzia housed thousands of desperate refugees from Galicia, Volhynia, Moldova, who knew how to use the sword and a rifle and hated Turkish scavengers as much as Polish oppressors. Prince Bayda waged several wars on Turcs and Crimean Khanate until his capture and execution in Ottoman Empire in 1499. But Khortyzya didn't die with him - it expanded and became the center of a semimilitary state, came to be known as Sich.

That was the time when Galician, Volhynian and Kyivite lands started to be called "Ukraine", "the Edge", because they found themselves now at the very East of gigantic Polish state. The dwellers of the edge, the Ukrainians, which were still called Ruthenians by other nations and in Galicia, and their nobles, reduced in power and wealth, dreamt to get rid of Poles and Turcs. And now they had a hope, a big Ukrainian Dream, if one wishes - the Cossacks, the "Free Riders", and their state, the Cossack Sich.

The Sich soon established its governing traditions. On the top of the ladder there stood the Hetman - an elected supreme official and, what was much more important, commander-in-chief. The Hetman was elected by the general assembley of all the Cossacks - "the free riders", who carried arms - the "Rada". The next in the hierarchy was the Clerc General, "Heneral'ny Pysar", the supreme civil official with his "starshyna" (some adequate of the cabinet) who were carrying out Rada's decisions in what concerned minor legal cases, calling for Rada sessions due to reasons other than military and diplomatic activities.

The Rada's tribunal was the major judicial institution. Cossack Sich was a military democracy - Hetmans held no particular terms and could be dismissed anytime due to various reasons - unsuccessful military operations, high unpopularity or immoral conduct. The territory of Sich - modern Zaporizhia, partly Kherson, Donetz'k and later Cherkassy and Poltawa provinces of Ukraine (the Podniprovia - the Upper Dnipro Lands), was divided into Kureni - a mixture of an administrative and military unit. A Kurennyi Otaman was at the head of every Kuren'. Once the Hetman didn't want or was not able to lead the army he appointed one of the Otamans -the Nakaznyi ( literally - the appointed) Otaman to substitute for him. The Kureni were divided into Polky - some kind of military divisions, led by Polkovnyki - the Colonels. Every kuren' and polk had their Clerc, his starshina and the Rada.

During 1500s-1580s Sich was engaged in long heavy wars with Crimean Khanate and Ottomans. Those were wars for profit. The Cossacks often served as mercenaries. The population of the Sich swelled, because of thousands of peasants running away from their masters. Neither Poles, nor Turcs could not do much to Cossacks - they could won a battle but not the war. Moreover, Sich's leadership with its one of the most trained armies in Europe was always supportive to one or other side, when Poles fought Turcs, Moldavians fought Poles, Hungarians fought both or vice versa.

The situation changed, however, when Cossacks started to intrude into what was called "internal Polish affairs" on the enslaved Ukrainian lands. Beginning from 1580s, the number of uprisings led by dying out Ruthenian nobility, inspired by Cossacks' military successes and attempting to drive out Poles and unite those oppressed lands with Sich, increased. Most of them were hopeless, because Cossacks and especially their leaders thought of themselves as very different from other Ukrainians - even a different nation - nation of Warriors, the free riders, and they rarely left Sich and Sich's territories - recognized and established Cossack lands, for something other than profit.

The first insurrectionist to ask Cossacks directly for help was little Galician noble, Kzhyshtoff Kosynsky by name.

In 1592 Kosynsky was elected Hetman and led a little army of peasants and Cossacks against Poles. He defeated Poles at Ostrog, but was killed during the siege of the city. The uprising died out. Peasants ran away and Cossacks returned to Sich, not willing to engage into diplomatic difficulties with Poles. But since that time a number of prominent Cossacks started to create the idea of Cossacks' mission - to liberate Ukraine.

First three decades of the 17th century were greatly influenced by the above idea - Cossacks freed thousands of Ukrainian captives from Turkish hands, virtually stopped for a long time Turkish and Crimean raids, devastated a number of Turkish and Crimean cities. They were especially successful under Hetman Petro Konashevich Sahaydachny, who, together with some Polish troops destroyed Ottomans' army at Khotyn in 1630s. Cossack leaders before Sahaydachny also engaged in anti-Polish uprisings on Ukrainian lands, which came up one after another. They were fairly unsuccessful, but impressive. This epoch ( 1600-1630s) in Sich's history is called the Glory of Sich, the time of both success and stability.

After Sahaydachny's death, Poles forced and bargained Cossacks out of their Ukrainian affairs for long. Cossacks closed themselves up on their territories and estates and their leaders after Sahaydachny were not to adventurous, risky and strong to leave the Sich and run after fortune. Poles call this period the "Golden Peace". But the peace was not to endure for long.

In 1648 a little Ruthenian nobleman, Bohdan Khmel'nytzky suffered a severe injustice from a Polish king. He was imprisoned without any guilt and run away from Ukraine to Sich. Many Cossacks supported his cause and he was elected Hetman. Khmel'nytzky proclaimed a final war against Poles and with more than 5,000 Cossacks invaded Ukrainian lands. People met him as a liberator they waited for 150 years - this war will be later called Ukrainian war for independence.

Khmel'nytzky defeated two big Polish armies at Zhovti Vody and Korsun' with thousands of Poles dead, captured and ran away. More than 300,000 people joined Cossacks and they got Crimean Khanate as their ally. A final battle at Pilyavtsi put an end to Polish domination of the lands to the East from Dnipro - nearly 50 thousand Poles killed. Polish masters and their Jewish leaseholders ran away to Poland. But, passing through Kyiv, where Hetman Khmel'nytzky was met as a Great Prince and greeted by the Metropolyte, countless hordes of Cossacks, peasants and Crimean Tartars crossed Dnipro and entered Galicia.

The Colonel Maksym Kryvonos ceased L'viv and Khmel'nytzky invaded Poland. Polish peasants started to join his troops. Poland was doomed.

Khmel'nytzki forced the Polish Seim to put a new King on the throne. He demanded that Poles secure the Cossack Lands. He took away many territories inhabited by Ukrainians. He demanded the reduction of the Polish army. The fate of Galicia and Volhynia was questionable. After the talks. Khmel'nytzki returned to Kyiv.

He had to decide for himself, for the Cossack Sich, for Ukrainian peasantry and nobility, for the world - who was he - another Cossack Hetman, who will resign if the Cossack Rada in a faraway Sich will say so, another successful Cossack warlord, who just wanted to grab a handful of lands inhabited by peasants, with whom the Cossacks and their state didn't have anything in common - and turn them into slaves of new masters - this time Orthodox, after seeing them struggling for their freedom? Or was he a newborn monarch, a new Prince of Kyiv, to sit upon the throne abandoned for four hundred years - a Cossack Monarch, a traitor of Cossack traditions of democracy? Was Sich Ukraine, or Ukraine - Sich?

The ultimate ruler of a wast land bordering with Muscovy in the east and core Polish lands in the west, Khmel'nytzky was the only one responsible for the answer - and depending on this answer the way for Cossack and Ukrainian history, this time united, was to be be drawn.