Odesa Greeks among the honored citizens: attaining state in the estate-based society of the 19th century

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.