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.