View source for Kuban

{{Short description|Geographic region of southern Russia}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Cuban (disambiguation){{!}}Cuban}}
{{Coord|45|2|N|38|58|E|display=title}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
[[File:Kuban Tartary.jpg|thumb|Kuban Tartary and surroundings around 1700 - [[Herman Moll]]]]
[[File:Кубанская область 1900.svg|thumb|Map of [[Kuban Oblast]] in 1900]]
{{Location map+|Russia Southern Federal District|width=250px|float=Right|relief=1|thumb|caption=Federal subjects in the Black Sea-Caspian area. Smaller areas along the north Caucasus are the republics: [[Karachay-Cherkessia]], [[Kabardino-Balkaria]], [[North Ossetia-Alania]], [[Ingushetia]], and [[Chechnya]]
{{legend|#fefee9|[[Southern Federal District]]}}
{{legend|#f5f5f5|[[North Caucasus Federal District]] {{small|(southern area only; grey areas to the north are parts of the Volga and Central Federal Districts)}}}}
|places=
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=43.92|long=41.78|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=bottom|label=[[Karachay-Cherkessia|KC]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=43.70|long=43.40|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=bottom|label=[[Kabardino-Balkaria|KB]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=43.50|long=44.50|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=bottom|label=[[North Ossetia-Alania|Oss]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=43.20|long=44.97|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=top|label=[[Ingushetia|In]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=43.70|long=45.72|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=bottom|label=[[Chechnya|Ch]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=45.03|long=38.97|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=top|label=[[Krasnodar Krai]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=44.80|long=40.70|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=left|label=[[Adygea]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=45.20|long=41.98|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=right|label=[[Stavropol Krai]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=47.00|long=41.00|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=top|label=[[Rostov Oblast]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=49.00|long=44.52|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=top|label=[[Volgograd Oblast]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=47.68|long=46.20|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=right|label=[[Astrakhan Oblast]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=46.50|long=44.00|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=right|label=[[Kalmykia]]}}
{{Location map~|Russia Southern Federal District|lat=43.75|long=46.20|mark=Clear pog.svg|position=right|label=[[Dagestan|Dage-<br/>stan]]}}
}}

'''Kuban''' ([[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]: Кубань; {{langx|ady|Пшызэ}}) is a historical and geographical region in the [[North Caucasus]] region of southern [[Russia]] surrounding the [[Kuban (river)|Kuban River]], on the [[Black Sea]] between the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe|Don Steppe]], the [[Volga Delta]] and separated from the [[Crimea|Crimean Peninsula]] to the west by the [[Kerch Strait]]. [[Krasnodar Krai]] is often referred to as ''Kuban'', both officially and unofficially, although the term is not exclusive to the krai and also accommodates the republics of [[Adygea]], [[Karachay-Cherkessia]], and parts of [[Stavropol Krai]].

==Lesser Nogai Horde==
{{Seealso|Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe|Kuban Campaign (1711)}}
The [[Lesser Nogai Horde]] was the [[Nogais|Nogai Tatar]] territory in Kuban, allied with the [[Crimean Khanate]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Brian |title=Empire and Military Revolution in Eastern Europe Russia's Turkish Wars in the Eighteenth Century |date=2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781441168801 |pages=17-20 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Empire_and_Military_Revolution_in_Easter/H1cSBwAAQBAJ?hl}}</ref>

==Cossack settlement==
The [[Cossack]] settlement of Kuban and of the adjacent Black Sea region occurred gradually for over a century, and was heavily influenced by the outcomes of the conflicts between Russia and [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="KubanATS">Azarenkova et al., pp.&nbsp;8ff.</ref>  In the mid-18th century, the area was predominantly inhabited by the [[Adyghe people|Adyghe tribes]].<ref name="KubanATS" />  After the [[Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774)|Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774]], the population of the area started to show more pro-Russian tendencies.<ref name="KubanATS" />

In order to stop Turkish ambitions to use Kuban region to facilitate the return of the [[Crimea]], Russia started to establish a network of fortifications along the Kuban River in the 1770s.<ref name="KubanATS" />  After the Russian annexation of Crimea, right-bank Kuban, and [[Taman Peninsula|Taman]] in 1783, the Kuban River became the border of the Russian Empire.<ref name="KubanATS" />  New fortresses were built on the Kuban in the 1780s–1790s.<ref name="KubanATS" />

Until the 1790s, these fortresses and the abandoned [[Cossacks|Cossack]] settlements on the [[Laba River]] and in Taman remained the only indication of Russian presence in the area.<ref name="KubanATS" />  More intensive settlement started in 1792–1794, when [[Black Sea Cossack Host]] (created in 1787 in southern [[Ukraine]] from former [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]]) and [[Don Cossacks]] were re-settled to this area by the Russian government in order to strengthen the southern borders.<ref name="KubanATS" />

At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, the right bank of the [[Kuban River]] was settled.<ref name="KubanATS" /> At the same time, first settlements appear on the coast of the Black Sea and on the [[plain]] between the Kuban and [[Bolshaya Laba River]]s.<ref name="KubanATS" /> During the second half of the 19th century, the settlement rate intensified, and the territory was administratively organized into [[Kuban Oblast]] and [[Black Sea Okrug]] (which later became [[Black Sea Governorate]]).<ref name="KubanATS" />

The location of the territory along the border had a significant effect on its administrative division, which incorporated the elements of civil and military governments.<ref name="KubanATS" />

==See also==
<!---♦♦♦ Please maintain alphabetical order. ♦♦♦--->
{{Div col}}
* [[Circassia]]
* [[Circassian genocide]]
* ''[[Cossacks of the Kuban]]''
* [[FC Kuban Krasnodar]]
* [[Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic]]
* [[Kuban bridgehead]]
* [[Kuban Cossacks]]
* [[Kuban Offensive]]
* [[Kuban People's Republic]]
* [[Kuban Soviet Republic]]
* [[PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban]]
* [[Ukrainians in Kuban]]
{{Div col end}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite book
|last1=Азаренкова [Azarenkova]
|first1=А.&nbsp;С.
|first2=И.&nbsp;Ю.
|last2=Бондарь [Bondar]
|first3=Н.&nbsp;С.
|last3=Вертышева [Vertysheva]
|title=Основные административно-территориальные преобразования на Кубани (1793–1985&nbsp;гг.)
|trans-title=The main administrative and territorial changes in the Kuban region (1793-1985 biennium).
|year=1986
|publisher=Краснодарское книжное издательство [Krasnodar Publishing House]
|language=Russian
|url=http://www.knigafund.ru/books/33778
|access-date=28 November 2015
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208121204/http://www.knigafund.ru/books/33778
|archive-date=8 December 2015
|url-status=dead
}}

== External links ==
{{Commonscat}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Kubañ (province) | volume= 15 |last1= Kropotkin |first1= Peter Alexeivitch |author1-link= Peter Kropotkin| last2= Bealby |first2= John Thomas| pages = 934&ndash;935 |short= 1}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Kuban| ]]
[[Category:Geography of Krasnodar Krai]]
[[Category:Historical regions in Russia]]
[[Category:History of the North Caucasus]]
[[Category:North Caucasus]]