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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 (city)

Novorossiysk

Sochi