Makedon V. National-сultural associations of Odessa in the second half of the nineteenth century – beginning of the twentieth century: origin, structure and activity

On the base of archival materials, published sources and scientific literature NCA formation and institutionalisation in Odessa is analysed; their specific features and directions of activity are revealed; the role of these associations in the social and cultural life of certain ethnoses and the city as a whole is examined. It was established that during the period under study in Odessa there were 165 officially registered associations of 21 nationalities, which in respect to their declared goals and tasks are interpreted as NCA. It was detected that Odessa was not such a "melting pot", in which a "nationality of Odessa" has appeared, as it is often declared in regional literature and journalism; it was rather fully developed multicultural society of European type, in frames of which every ethos and ethnolinguistic community, even that one whose Odessa diaspora was very modest by quantity, has tried not only to maintain but also to develop their national specific features.