How appropriate that our favourite speaker, Graham Sutherland, should give the opening talk for this year‘s Cosmo spring session! In fact, we hadn‘t had a meeting since the Advent tea at the end of Nov., so we were excited for several different reasons. This topic had been agreed on many months before the war in the Ukraine began, but it couldn‘t have been more topical.
At the beginning, Graham made it clear that it was not to be a political talk, but rather an historical overview, which has become important for understanding, not accepting the situation.
Odessa was founded by Katherine the Great in the early 18th century as she pushed to expand Russia westwards. It was a planned city, no crooked, winding streets, and it‘s on 2 levels: the seaport and the main part of town. There are impressive stairs (Potemkin) to demonstrate this. Graham underlined his descriptions with fotos and maps. Odessa lies in the southern corner of the Ukraine, on the Black Sea, and quickly became an important port. Even today it is a bustling seaport.
The population contains many Russians, which may be a reason that it has not been heavily attacked so far.
At the end of his lively, humorous (he always includes pertinent antedotes) talk, Graham generously gave his ‚Cosmo envelope‘ to our collection of donations for the Ukraine. Barbara had announced at the beginning that Katie had suggested to collect for the Ukraine and Barbara provided a blue and yellow bag to do so. As it turned out, we collected € 390, which will be duly sent to a reputable organisation.
Now we‘re all looking forward to a meeting at the end of March, then several in May and June, until we can enjoy the Year End party on June 29.