Sochi

The coast was home to the Zygii, ancestors of the Adyghe, in antiquity; from the 6th to the 11th centuries it belonged to the Georgian kingdoms of Lazica and Abkhazia, which built a dozen churches in the area — the wall of an 11th-century basilica still stands at Loo — and Genoa kept trading posts here in the late Middle Ages. From the 14th to the 19th centuries this was Ubykhia, part of historic Circassia. Russia occupied the coast in 1829, and in 1838 founded the fort of Alexandria, soon renamed Navaginsky, at the mouth of the Sochi river. The Russo-Circassian War ended here in 1864: at its close almost all the Ubykhs and much of the Circassian population of the area were killed or expelled to the Ottoman Empire, in what is known as the Circassian genocide.

Settlers from across the empire — Russians, Armenians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Germans and Georgians — arrived from 1866. The settlement took the name of the river in 1896, its first resort opened in 1909, and it became a town in 1917. The coastal railway arrived in 1923, and under Stalin, who had his favourite dacha here, the coast filled with Neoclassical sanatoriums and the population grew from 17,000 in 1932 to 72,000 in 1939. Greater Sochi, stretching from near Tuapse to Adler, was created in 1961.

After the Soviet collapse Sochi took over from Crimea as the country's unofficial summer capital and the president's holiday residence. It won the 2014 Winter Olympics in 2007; the budget grew from 12 to about 51 billion dollars, making them the most expensive Games in history. The city hosted the Russian Grand Prix from 2014 to 2021 and World Cup matches in 2018. After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 it lost the Grand Prix, and two earthquakes struck the city in January 2025.

Sochi's culture is that of a resort and a showcase. Stalin-era landmarks — the seaport, the railway terminal, the Winter Theatre and the art museum — set its tone, and its sanatoriums, palms and beaches have made it the place Russians associate with the south and with luck: a well-known saying runs, 'If I'd known the trump card, I'd live in Sochi.' It was also long the home of Kinotavr, at one time Russia's largest national film festival, held each June from 1991 until it was cancelled in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine; it was not held in 2022 or 2023.

The city is unusually diverse. Russians make up about 70 per cent of the population and Armenians about 20 per cent, most of them descendants of Hamshen Armenians from Turkey's Black Sea coast, with more than half the population of the Adler district. Around thirty Orthodox churches, about ten Armenian churches, two Catholic churches and a mosque built in 2008 serve them, and a small Muslim Shapsug community, part of the Circassian nation, lives in the hills near Lazarevskoye. Many place names come from Ubykh, Abkhaz and Circassian.

Sport has been central since the Olympics. HC Sochi plays ice hockey in the Kontinental Hockey League at the Bolshoy Ice Dome, PFC Sochi plays football, and Krasnaya Polyana has become a major ski resort. Grand Slam tennis champions Maria Sharapova and Yevgeny Kafelnikov both learned the game at a local tennis school.

The city had about 445,000 residents in 2025, and up to 600,000 live in the wider urban area, mostly in a narrow strip along the coast divided among four districts: Tsentralny, Lazarevsky, Khostinsky and Adlersky. In summer the number of people in the city at least doubles with visitors, and millions come each year. Since 2019 part of the Imereti Lowland around the Olympic Park has formed the separate settlement of Sirius, made Russia's first federal territory in 2020.

The economy rests on trade, construction and tourism, with hundreds of hotels, dozens of sanatoriums and close to two hundred beaches. Retail sales per head are among the highest in Russia, driven by tourists and by high local wages. Farms grow vegetables, citrus, feijoa, medlar, kiwi and flowers, and five companies grow and process tea. The city has its own universities, including Sochi State University and the Russian International Olympic University, and research institutes working on subtropical crops, mountain forests and medical primatology.

Life follows the seasons: crowded beaches, traffic jams and rented rooms in summer; quieter streets, rain and ski trips to the mountains in winter. The president's residence at Bocharov Ruchey, near Dagomys, regularly brings foreign leaders to the city. Since 2022 the war has been close, with civil flights at other southern airports suspended for years and drone strikes on the oil port of Tuapse up the coast.

Sochi's most local product is its tea. Grown around Sochi since 1887, on plantations at Dagomys, Solokhaul and Adler, Krasnodar tea is one of the northernmost teas in the world, and visitors to the tea houses of Dagomys and Uch-Dere drink it from a samovar with pirozhki, pancakes and jam. The subtropical climate also produces citrus fruit, feijoa, medlar and kiwi, and trout is farmed in the Adler district.

The everyday table is that of southern Russia. Borscht, the soup of beetroot, cabbage and other vegetables in meat or bone stock, is a staple, and home-made wine is sold at the city's markets. Adyghe or Circassian cheese, a mild cheese often eaten fresh, comes from the Circassian lands of the North Caucasus.

Wine is the region's other pride. Most Russian wine comes from Krasnodar Krai, where Abrau-Dyurso near Novorossiysk has made sparkling wine since the 19th century; local brandy is also made in the krai. Wines from neighbouring Abkhazia are widely sold, among them the semi-sweet red Lykhny from Isabella grapes and the dry red Chegem. Restaurants in the centre serve everything from Russian standards and fish to Italian and Japanese food.