José de Ribas José Pascual Domingo de Ribas y Boyons ( June 6 , 1749 – ) , known in Russia as Iosif ( Osip ) Mikhailovich Deribas ( ) , was an Italian admiral who founded the city of Odessa . Odessa ' s most famous street , Deribasovskaya , is named after him . Son of the Spanish consul in Naples and his Irish wife , he had been born in that city , then dynastically joined to the Kingdom of Spain , and served in the Neapolitan army in the late 1760s , but he joined the Russian Army as a " member of the Spanish nobility " in 1772 , taking part in the Russo - Turkish War of 1768 - 1774 and afterwards remaining " on the margins of the empress ' s court " as " one of the many young men hoping to gain [ her ] favor . " When the Russo - Turkish War of 1787 - 1792 broke out , he was made the liaison between Potemkin and the unit commanded by John Paul Jones : He worked assiduously to smoothe relations between Jones and the European officers , especially Nassau - Siegen , as well as with Potemkin . He dealt with cases of insubordination and drunkenness by talking firmly with the offenders rather than exacting immediate punishment . His performance was noted and rewarded . Potemkin personally transferred him from the navy and placed him in charge of an army detachment under the operational command of Count Ivan Gudovich , one of the most decorated and accomplished generals in the southern theater . In late 1789 , de Ribas ' s grenadiers captured Khadjibey ( the village on the future site of Odessa ) without a battle : " It was , in fact , one of the great non - battles of the war . The entire affair lasted no more than half an hour . The Ottoman garrison , a few - dozen startled soldiers and their senior officer , surrendered on the spot . " His greatest deed was the storming of Izmail in 1790 under the supreme command of Alexander Suvorov . De Ribas proposed a plan of attack , which was approved by Suvorov , and led both Russian navy and land forces to capture the mighty fortress . The defeat was seen as a catastrophe in the Ottoman Empire , while in Russia it was glorified in the country ' s early , unofficial national anthem , " Let the thunder of victory sound ! " . In 1791 de Ribas was promoted to Rear Admiral and commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet . He was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1795 and to full Admiral in 1796 . Shortly after the end of the war , he proposed a plan to Catherine of transforming the Ottoman garrison town of Khadjibey into a major Russian port with an ice - free harbor ; she accepted the idea , and on May 27 , 1794 she issued an edict ordering its development as a commercial and shipping center and naming de Ribas the chief administrator ( " glavnyi nachal ' nik " ) of the project . He began constructing stone houses and administrative buildings and may have been the one to suggest naming the city after the ancient Greek town of Odessos ( though Catherine is said to have insisted on a feminine ending , making it Odessa ) . As a son - in - law of Ivan Betskoy and a secretary to Prince Potemkin , he became one of the earliest administrators of the New Russia . He may have been involved in the conspiracy to overthrow Emperor Paul , but died several months before the coup took place . Contemporaries thought he had been poisoned by one of the conspirators , Count von der Pahlen , to keep him from revealing the plot under the effects of the fever . De Ribas died in Saint Petersburg . His tomb is in the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery .