Abstract:
The article presents the results of the identification of members of
the Odesa Greek community who belonged to a special estate (state, social
standing) of the Russian Empire – the honored citizens. Based on archival
materials, a list was compiled of those Odesa Greeks who personally attained
the status of honored citizens, that is, those who were the first in their families
to acquire this legal standing through formal petitions to the government. The
originality of the study lies in the introduction into scholarly circulation of data
derived from the holdings of the State Archive of the Odesa Region, which has
made it possible to fill an existing gap in the history of the Greek community of
Odesa by identifying lesser-known individuals. The analysis of the ethnic
dimension of the social institution of honored citizenship, examined within the
estate-based legal framework, has enabled the construction of a social profile of
the Greek honored citizens. The overwhelming majority of them were
merchants registered in the upper guilds – a prerequisite under the law for
obtaining honored citizenship, which facilitated their inclusion in this status,
most often on a hereditary basis. The privileges associated with honored
citizenship made it attractive to Odesa Greeks during their integration into the
estate-based society of the Russian Empire. In turn, the institution of honored
citizenship functioned as an imperial attempt to consolidate the commercial and
financial elite.
