Krasnodar

Krasnodar [Краснодар]. Map: VIII-19. City (2018 pop 899,541) in the Kuban region and capital of Krasnodar krai (Russian Federation), located on the Kuban River. It was founded in 1794 as Katerynodar and assumed its present name in 1920. The city was settled by former Zaporozhian Cossacks and was the main center of the Black Sea Cossacks and then the Kuban Cossack Host (from 1860). At the end of the 19th century it became an important trade and transport center, through which much of the agricultural produce of Kuban passed. There was also some local industry, mainly food processing, located there. In 1897 the population was 66,000. The capital of the Kuban People's Republic in 1918–20, it was an important center of Ukrainian life in the early 20th century. Under Soviet rule the machine building (lathes, compressors, electronic-testing equipment), chemicals, petroleum-processing, food-processing, and textile industries were developed. Krasnodar is also home to Kuban State University (from 1920 to 1970 the Kuban Pedagogical Institute), several other institutions of higher education, and historical-regional and art museums.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]