Editing Odesa (section)

=== World War II ===
{{See also|Romania during World War II}}
[[File:Odessa Soviet artilery.JPG|right|thumb|A Soviet gun crew in action at Odesa in 1941]]
During [[World War II]], Odesa was attacked by Romanian and German troops in August 1941. The [[Siege of Odessa (1941)]] started on 5 August and lasted for 73 days. The defense was organized on three lines with emplacements consisting of trenches, anti-tank ditches and pillboxes. The first line was {{cvt|80|km|abbr=on}} long and situated some {{cvt|25|to|30|km|abbr=on}} from the city. The second and main line of defense was situated {{cvt|6|to|8|km|abbr=on}} from the city and was about {{cvt|30|km|abbr=on}} long. The third and last line of defense was organized inside the city itself. [[Lyudmila Pavlichenko]], the famous female sniper, took part in the battle for Odesa. She recorded 187 confirmed kills during the defense of Odesa. Pavlichenko's confirmed kills during World War II totaled 309 (including 36 enemy snipers).

The city fell to the [[Axis powers|Axis]] on 16 October 1941, and it was henceforth subject to Romanian administration.{{Sfn|Mykhailutsa|Niculcea|2020|pp=197–198}} By that time, the Soviet authorities had been able to evacuate 200,000 people as well as weaponry and industrial equipment.{{Sfn|Mykhailutsa|Niculcea|2020|pp=192, 198}} A day later, Odesa was made the capital of [[Transnistria (World War II)|Transnistria]].<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Güney-Doğu Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi - the Journal of Southeastern European Studies|volume=35|year=2020|doi=10.26650/gaad.794916|title=The Southern Bug - Dnister Interfluve During World War II: Administrative Organization, Staffing and Statistics|first1=Mykola|last1=Mykhailutsa|first2=Igor|last2=Niculcea|issue=35|page=195|s2cid=243955109|url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1290366|access-date=22 March 2022|archive-date=21 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521210724/https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1290366|url-status=live|doi-access=free}}</ref> Partisan fighting continued, however, in the [[Odesa catacombs|city's catacombs]].

[[File:Odessa opera house advertisement transnistria times.jpg|thumb|Soldier reading the announcement of Opera House in Odesa during the Romanian occupation in 1942. The name of the city in Romanian is spelled as Odesa with one letter 's'.]]
Following the siege, and the Axis occupation, approximately 25,000 Odesans were murdered in the outskirts of the city and over 35,000 deported; this came to be known as the [[1941 Odessa massacre]]. Most of the atrocities were committed during the first six months of the occupation which officially began on 17 October 1941, when 80 per cent of the 210,000 Jews in the region were killed, compared to Jews in Romania proper where the majority survived.<ref name="Richardson, p.33">[[#Richardson|Richardson]], p. 33.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/05/the-antonescu-paradox-romania-world-war-ii-hitler/|title=The Antonescu Paradox|date=5 February 2016|website=Foreign Policy|access-date=19 June 2018|archive-date=6 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206082954/https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/05/the-antonescu-paradox-romania-world-war-ii-hitler/|url-status=live}}</ref> After the Nazi forces began to lose ground on the Eastern Front, the Romanian administration changed its policy, refusing to deport the remaining [[Jewish population]] to extermination camps in German [[History of Poland (1939–1945)|occupied Poland]], and allowing Jews to work as hired labourers. As a result, despite the events of 1941, the survival of the Jewish population in this area was higher than in other areas of occupied eastern Europe.<ref name="Richardson, p.33"/>

[[Orders, decorations, and medals of the Soviet Union|A Soviet medal]], [[Medal "For the Defence of Odessa"|"For the Defence of Odesa"]], was established on 22 December 1942. It was one of the first four Soviet cities to be awarded the title of "[[Hero City (Soviet Union)|Hero City]]" in 1945. (The others were [[Siege of Leningrad|Leningrad]], [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]], and [[Siege of Sevastopol (1941–42)|Sevastopol]]). The city suffered severe damage and sustained many casualties over the course of the war. Many parts of Odesa were damaged during both its siege [[Odessa Offensive|and recapture on 10 April 1944]], when the city was finally liberated by the [[Red Army]]. Some of the Odesans had a more favourable view of the Romanian occupation, in contrast with the Soviet official view that the period was exclusively a time of hardship, deprivation, oppression and suffering – claims embodied in public monuments and disseminated through the media to this day.<ref>[[#Richardson|Richardson]], p. 103.</ref> Subsequent Soviet policies imprisoned and executed numerous Odesans (and deported most of the German population) on account of collaboration with the occupiers.<ref>[[#Richardson|Richardson]], p. 17.</ref>

<gallery>
File:Odessa (timbre soviétique).jpg|Postage stamp of the USSR 1965 "Hero-City Odesa 1941–1945"
File:Defence of Odessa OBVERSE.jpg|Obverse of the Soviet campaign medal "For the Defence of Odesa"
File:Defence of Odessa REVERSE.jpg|Reverse of the Soviet campaign medal "For the Defence of Odesa"; inscription reads "For our Soviet homeland".
File:Наградное удостоверение к медали За оборону Одессы.jpg|alt=Certificate "For taking part in the heroic defense of Odessa" Logvinov Petr Leontievich was awarded the Medal for the Defense of Odessa.|Certificate "For taking part in the heroic defense of Odesa"; Logvinov Petr Leontievich was awarded the Medal for the Defense of Odesa.
</gallery>