3,581,044,325 visitors served.

forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters

Krasnodar

Krai (territory) in the southwestern Russian Federation; area 83,600 sq km/32,278 sq mi; population (1996) 5,044,000 (54% urban). The capital is Krasnodar, and Armavir, Novorossiysk, Maikop, and Sochi are other cities. The territory is in northwestern Caucasia, adjacent to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and crossed by the River Kuban. It is lowland with black earth soil (chernozem) in the north, with the heavily forested northwestern part of the main Caucasian range in the south. There are oil, natural gas, and cement-marl deposits. Industries include food processing, engineering, oil extraction and refining, cement production, and manufacture of farm machinery. It is one of the main agricultural regions of the Russian Federation, growing wheat, sunflowers, rice, tobacco, fruit, and wine, and there is extensive livestock rearing.

History

The area north of the River Kuban formerly belonged to the Crimean Khanate (territory ruled by a kahn), which was annexed by Russia in 1783. The Black Sea littoral (coastal region) was captured from Turkey in 1829, and the Circassians south of the river were conquered by 1864. The first Russian and Ukrainian colonists were Don and Zaporizhzhya Cossacks. The Kuban region was one of the strongholds of anti-Bolshevik resistance in the Russian Civil War 1918–20, and in the campaign against the collectivization of agriculture 1929–33.

Krasnodar

Capital city, economic and cultural centre of Krasnodar krai (territory), Russian Federation; population (1996 est) 648,000. The city stands on the River Kuban, 250 km/155 mi south of Rostov-on-Don, in the centre of a highly fertile agricultural region. Its industries include food processing, engineering, and oil refining. It is also an important railway junction. There has been considerable development of financial, business, and other services since the collapse of communism in 1991. It is linked by pipeline with the Caspian oilfields.

Krasnodar was founded in 1793 by Cossack colonists from Zaporizhzhya; it became capital of the Kuban Cossack region in 1860. It was a centre of anti-communist resistance in the Russian Civil War (1918–20), and was occupied by German forces in 1942–43.