Albanians in Odesa

From: Dorian Koçi

During the Ottoman occupation, especially during the National Renaissance, the Albanian colonies maintained constant ties with the motherland and made outstanding contributions to the national movement and the declaration of independence of Albania.

The great revivalists, from Naum Vekilharxhi, Jeronim De Rada, the Romanian princess of Albanian origin Elena Gjika or Dora D'Istria, Andon Zako Çajupi, Thimi Mitko, Fan Stilian Noli, Faik Konica were outstanding personalities of the diaspora in the design of the program of Albanian National Movement, in the development of education and culture, in the creation of patriotic societies, etc.

The Albanian diaspora, in addition to the important centers in Bucharest, Sofia, Istanbul, Cairo, also had an important center in Odesa. The Albanians had been settled since the beginning of the establishment of Odesa, where they served as mercenaries and small traders, known as Arnauts. In the middle of the 19th century, there was a stream of emigration from Korça, Përmeti and Kolonja towards Odesa.

Albanians in Ukraine immigrated there in the 60s and created a colony of Albanians. This colony of Albanians were first settled in Dnevna near Varna in Bulgaria. In the first quarter of the 1806th century, these Albanians moved and settled in Bessarabia where they founded the village of Karakurt. A part of these migrations are the result of the suffering of Albanians in the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish wars of 1812-1828 and 1829-XNUMX, but also migrations in various indirect ways, especially that with the push of the Russian consuls who were in many cities of the empire, especially with the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway that began at the end of the XNUMXth century.

So, we have emigration of Albanians in many places, such as in Odesa, in the Crimea, in the Caucasus and elsewhere. P. Kërpeu, who did research in 1850 among the Albanians of Karakurt, notes that there are 109 families with 1060 people living there. He also announces that in the city of Boograd there were 10 families with 37 people, in Kombart 28 families with 164 people, in the villages of Çishme-Qoj one family with nine people, Voolkanesh three families with 41 people, as well as in Çadar Lunga, Bash Gjor . [1]

According to Qemal Haxhihasni, with the expedition he made in the district of Kolonja, it gives information that many Albanians went to Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, who were originally from South-Eastern Albania from Kolonja, Bezhan. Kreshovo, Korçë, Ohrid, Cermenike, Gollobërde and elsewhere. So the Albanians spread from the Caucasus, Odesa and Kraków to Irkusk and Vladivostok. Albanian families from Albania and Italy also lived in Hush, Moldova. These inhabitants belonged to the Catholic faith, but being oppressed by the Russians, they were forced to convert to Orthodoxy.

The Albanians of Odesa have made an important contribution to the solution of the Albanian national issue. The city of Odesa was a cosmopolitan city where all populations were found. In the years 1823-1824, the great Russian writer Pushkin was exiled there, who wrote that "the air is full of Europe". In Odesa, there are two streets, Arnauti i Vogël and Arnauti i Madh, which today are called "Albanian Street" and which testify to the Albanian presence in this large urban center.

Pushkin reflected the figure of the Albanian (arnaut) in his story "Kërxhaliu" in literature. The story is an echo not only of Pushkin's direct memories of the outbreak of the Greek revolution, but also an illustration of the romantic motifs of strong and picturesque characters from the Balkans. Pushkin in the story "Kërxhaliu" combined the historical and fantastic narrative style which was dominant in the era of romanticism during the first decades of the 19th century. In using these forms he introduced reliable, informative, and eyewitness accounts, along with legends and tales about popular rebel heroes. In this way, he created a literary account of a brave, noble and romantic character, the use of which began before, during and after the end of the Heterist campaigns in the principalities. From this period are also two original drawings by Pushkin of the Albanian warriors he encountered in Bessarabia. Pushkin often drew black-and-white sketches both in his personal letters and on the pages of his manuscripts. As another direction of his creativity, Pushkin's sketches - so beloved in Russia that they have been compiled and published many times - but remain almost unknown in other countries. The Albanians of Odesa would participate in the national awakening. As part of the Orthodox community, they would support the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Albania.

In Brooklyn, on February 9, 1908, Fan S. Noli was ordained a priest in order to free the Albanian Orthodox Church from the Greek one. Noli did this more for patriotic reasons, seeing that the Greek state trumpeted loudly through the doors of Europe that the Orthodox of Albania were supposedly Greeks and on the basis of that this land should be given to them. The ordination of Noli as a priest took place in the presence of three priests, from Russia, Ukraine and Romania. He said the first mass in the Albanian language on March 22, 1908. The efforts to establish the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the USA would also be reflected in the Albanian diaspora where there were many Orthodox believers, such as in Romania, Bulgaria, Odesa and Egypt.

In 1908, the Albanians of Bucharest led by Nikola Naço were able to open a church for Albanians. The members of the colony raised funds for the church building and to pay the priest. Saint George the Old was chosen as the church, while Harallamb Çalaman was appointed as the priest. Also, with the collected funds, an organ was bought and the payment of the leader of the church choir, who was one of the well-known musicians prof. Cyriac. A notable event was the first mass in the Albanian language in 1908, where undoubtedly the church choir of the Albanian colony of Bucharest was a part of it. The Albanians of Bucharest had a church choir and had rented a hall where they rehearsed. Three years later, Fan Noli in 1911 preached in Albanian in Odesa in the Church of the Holy Trinity or Holy Triad. It was located between the bazaar and "Arnaut i Madh" street at "Ekaterinskaya 67".

The content of the mass that he held in the Albanian language contained this text:

"Brothers and sisters, many faithful who participate in this Mass today. For me it was a pleasure and at the same time a great happiness that I was first given the opportunity to present this mass before the members of the Albanian colony in the Albanian language, in our mother tongue, in the language that our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers spoke. , language with which we have sinned, with which our heads have fallen to the ground. The Greeks say that they are Christians, they are Greeks, because they are Orthodox. But orthodoxy is one thing, and nationality is something else. We are neither Greeks nor Bulgarians, we are simply Albanians. This, dear brothers and sisters, was proven to us best by our mass today, which you listened to so attentively, because you understood that it was kept on your tongue, which is as sweet to us as mother's milk! May you all be blessed."

In this way, the Saint Triadh Church in Odesa entered the spiritual map of the Albanian nation as one of the Orthodox churches where the Orthodox mass of the Albanian community in Odesa echoed in Albanian.

After the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and the fall of Odesa under Bolshevik rule in 1920 and the famine in 1922, the Albanian community gradually began to diminish. The writer Milto Sotir Gurra emerged from the commercial Albanian community of Odesa. Gurra is from the village of Marjan i Opari in Korça. He spent most of his life in emigration, starting from Odesa, America, Istanbul, Sofia and Constanta. He has actively collaborated with many national and literary press bodies in exile, often under the pseudonyms Nomadhi, Gjon Zeza and D. Toçkas. Meanwhile, he himself was the publisher or co-publisher of a number of magazines such as the political and literary organ Atdheu of Konstancë in 1912 and of Durrës in 1914, of the monthly "Skhëndija" of Korça in 1921, of the satirical-humorous organ "Zegthi" of Korça in 1922, and the biweekly "Zëri i Populli" of Korçë in 1922. In these organs, Gurra published his first stories, the best of which were written during the years he lived in Russia. In 1938 he published the book of stories "Plagët e kurberti". Gurra also made a contribution to the translation of Russian literature. He brought prose works by Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky, etc. into Albanian.

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[1] Islam quoted according to L. Miletiq; Avzi Mustafa: Noli among the Albanians of Ukraine. page 60