Bilhorod Dnistrovs'kyi: A town trapped between past and present identities

Bilhorod Dnistrovs'kyi is no different today from the other many towns that are within the borders of Ukraine’s Odessa Oblast. Trapped between the flat hills of the oblast’s southern section, Bilhorod Dnistrovs'kyi has greatly faded away from its history as a major Romanian economic and military strategic point at the Dnister estuary.

I don’t want to sketch by any means the town’s historic time line, nor do I intend to comment any particular historic event, but rather I would just like to see the way in which the town positions itself within Ukraine’s mainstream culture and the way in which it perceived its legacy from the past.

 An interesting aspect that deeply shaped the town’s history is the cultural and economic policies that were implemented by the states that owned the territory of South Odessa in the past. Even the current name of the town can often become a subject of confusion and controversy among the nations that owned the town in the past. Romanians would call it Cetatea Albă (White Fortress), Ukrainian would call it Bilhorod Dnistrovs'kyi, and Russian would refer to it as Bilgorod Dinstrovsk. Things usually tent to get really messy and twisted when not even the actual name of a settlement is the subject of a dispute; the name is so important because it usually will indicate the party that has actual sovergnty over the town.

When it was part of Romania, most recently until 1940 when it was annexed by the USSR, the oregion of South Odessa, which was back then part of Basserabia, constituted a pitoresque blend of swampy lands and fishing villages with an interesting blend of Romanian, Lipovan, Ukrainian, Russian and Bulgarian cultural influences.

Nowadays this diversity was lost to violent policies of russification that were implemented in the region after its annexation by the USSR, which was followed by the slit of Basserabia between the newly created Moldovan SSR and the Ukrainian SSR.

Back in its glory days, Bilhorod Dnistrovs'kyi: was a important in Basserbia, other important settlements from the former region that are now also of the Odessa Oblast are Kylia and Izmail, both being situated on the Danube, bordering Romania’s Tulcea County.

Its annexation in to the Ukrainian SSR, together with the whole region of South Basserbia, greatly modified the town’s regional status. If we take a look at the current borders of Ukraine we can see a very visible abnormality in its southern region. The Odessa Oblast stretches from the southern most extremely of the country up to its interior, the middle section of the oblast is very narrow, the northern side from the Ukrainian interior and the southern side that borders Romania are united only by a very thin strip of land that is next to the Dnister estuary, just north of  Bilhorod Dinstrovs'kyi. This abnormality in the border line is the result of the fact that the southern side of the oblast was artifically attached to the Ukrainian SSR at the pressure the republic’s rulling class from that period.

The 1940  episode was not the region’s first experience of foreign annexation, it was also for a time part of the Russian Empire. Since 1940, Bilhorod Dinstrovs'kyi became an integral part of the Ukrainian SSR, and later part of the independent Ukraine which was born after the fall of the USSR. Decades went by since that moment and the town rapidly took part in the social and economic life of the Ukrainian nation. There were no reported incidents of local protesting against the foreign annexation of the region, and the decision of the Soviets to grant the region to Ukraine instead of leaving it with Basserabia’s historical borders.

The town and the whole region as successfully integrated within the Ukrainian SSR do to the lack of cultural autonomy at the indigenous Romanians suffered from; another aspect was the fact that the settling of non-Romanians, mainly Slavs, in the region was encouraged greatly by the Soviet authorities in an attempt to minimize the possibility of the region of ever wanting to return within Romania’s borders.

Bilhorod Dinstrovs'kyi’s present image of its Romanian past is greatly limited by the fact that a big segment of its population is non-Romanian and holds many times hostility towards the Romanian national state.

Even so, the region proximities and the town can still be used as a perfect background for a story with fishermen, a tale that would highlight the beauty and sorrow-ish character of the land of South Odessa, dominated by lake and lagoons, villages and sleepy towns.

Curretly the town of Bilhorod Dinstrovs'kyi is really not that different from the majority of other towns of its size from the vast plains of Ukraine. A shortage of job opportunities and a rusty local economy characterize the town, a small local tourist sector has developed since independence from the Soviets but it did not make a major difference for the locals quality of life.

Today one of the towns most well known attraction is its medieval fortress, beautifully preserved, it constitutes a major visiting point for those that are interested in exploring the region’s cultural heritage.

Nowadays the two major characteristics that define the town today are represented by its positioning next to the Dnister estuary, and its medival fortress that can be found on the town’s outskirts.