Fedenko O. The Role of the Italian Community of Odessa in Social-Economic Life of Dnieper Ukraine at the Late 18th and Early 20th Centuries.

The topicality of this theme stems from an insufficient coverage and a need for careful thought and interpretation of the role of the Italian community of Odessa in economic development of Dnieper Ukraine as one of the most important episodes of the national and regional history, as well as for devising the strategies of the national and economic policies. The author offers a new framework approach to the study of the problem by means of segregation of the economic activities carried on by the Italians of Odessa from the background of economic development of Dnieper Ukraine. A voluminous body of archival materials from the repositories of the Ukrainian and Italian archives has been introduced into scientific discourse, which allows backcasting an entire view of the economic activity of members of the Italian community in Odessa in the late 18th and the early 20th centuries. There have been singled out stages of formation of the Italian community in Odessa, the dynamics of its numerosity, the linguistic appurtenance, state and occupations of its members being described.