ABSTRACT
Odessans had to contend with difficulties ranging from scarce housing to shortages of books. The Jews among them faced the additional hurdle of official discrimination in employment and in admission to universities. At the height of Brezhnev's moderately repressive rule, scores of cultural undertakings and a wide variety of entertainments—all subsidized by the state—were available to Odessans of all ages, particularly to the young. It is, paradoxically, the experience of Odessa's emigres abroad that attests to the success of the resistance. Odessa was no cultural or intellectual desert. For a city its size, it offered an impressive array of theaters, concerts, museums, libraries, and educational institutions. Bella Davidovich is now one of this country's leading musicians, and Yakov Smirnov, once a provincial comedian in Odessa, now delights millions of Americans with his thickly accented jokes.
