Krasnodar

Yekaterinodar, "Catherine's Gift", began in 1793 as a military camp and then a fortress of the Black Sea Cossacks, the former Zaporozhian Cossacks to whom Catherine the Great had granted the Kuban lands. It was built to defend the imperial frontier and to assert Russian control over Circassia, which the Ottomans disputed. In the first half of the 19th century it grew into the busy centre of the Kuban Cossacks, gained town status in 1867 and by 1888 had about 45,000 people and a role as a trading centre for southern Russia.

The Civil War brought the city under Red and White control in turn. Yekaterinodar became the de facto capital of the White south of Russia and of the Kuban People's Republic, and the White general Lavr Kornilov was killed by a shell while besieging the city in April 1918. On 7 December 1920 it was renamed Krasnodar, "Gift of the Reds". The famine of 1932–33 cost it more than 14 per cent of its population. German forces occupied the city from August 1942 to February 1943 and killed thousands of Jews, Communists and suspected partisans, using gas vans among other methods; in July 1943 Krasnodar held the first Soviet trial of collaborators, ending in eight public executions.

The city was rebuilt after the war and ringed with large housing estates in the 1970s and 1980s. It has since become the economic centre of southern Russia, growing rapidly through internal migration; the 2021 census was the first to count more than a million people within the city limits.

Krasnodar's identity is Cossack and southern. The Black Sea Cossacks were formed from former Zaporozhian Cossacks, and balachka, the traditional speech of the Kuban Cossacks, mixes southern Russian and Ukrainian features; the Kuban Cossack Choir, one of Russia's leading folk ensembles, is based here, and an obelisk of 1897 marks the history of the Kuban Cossack host. In the census of 1897 almost two-fifths of the city's people gave Ukrainian as their language, and the city has long had an Armenian community.

The city supports a dense stage scene for its size: the Gorky Drama Theatre, a ballet theatre, a musical theatre, a puppet theatre, a circus and the Ponomarenko Philharmonic, whose concert hall is admired for its acoustics. The Kovalenko Art Museum is the oldest public art museum in the North Caucasus, and the Pushkin regional library dates from 1900.

Football has become part of the city's image since FC Krasnodar's stadium opened, surrounded by a park paid for by the businessman Sergey Galitsky that has become one of the city's top sights. Evening life centres on Krasnaya Street, part of which closes to traffic and fills with people walking.

About 1.15 million people lived in the city at the start of 2025, and up to 1.26 million in the wider urban okrug, making Krasnodar the largest city in southern Russia and one of the fastest-growing in the country through internal migration. Large Soviet microdistricts built in the 1970s and 1980s surround the older centre.

The economy rests on agriculture and food processing, which make up over two-fifths of industry, along with energy supply, and on trade: the city has the largest annual turnover in the Southern Federal District and more malls per person than anywhere else in Russia. For several years Forbes named it the best city in Russia for business. In 2015–16 it had more cars per head than any other Russian city.

Life follows the southern climate, with long warm evenings outdoors on Krasnaya Street and in the parks. Since 2022 the war has been close: civilian flights at the airport were suspended from February 2022 until it reopened in September 2025.

The Kuban kitchen brings together Russian, Ukrainian and Adyghe traditions. Borsch, brought by the Zaporozhian Cossacks at the end of the 18th century, is its signature dish, made in many versions — traditionally on a mutton broth with local beetroot, coloured red with tomatoes, and also as a green borsch with nettles, sorrel and egg. Vareniki dumplings, a legacy of Ukrainian cooking, pirogi, shashlyk, dolma and blini all appear on Kuban tables.

Adyghe cheese, found across the North Caucasus and often eaten fresh, comes from the neighbouring republic, and the Vostochny Market on Stasova Street sells fresh produce. Fish was always important to the Cossacks — fried, baked, boiled or salted — and boiled crayfish were a favourite.

Herbs such as parsley, dill and coriander are used not only as seasoning but as dishes in their own right. The krai is one of Russia's main wine-growing areas, and Abrau-Dyurso near Novorossiysk is known for its sparkling wine.