The Krasnodar Territory is a large and diverse Russian region, which includes a huge and agriculturally flat part, the Black Sea coast fenced off from the plain by mountains, where the most popular Russian resorts are located, the low-lying coast of the Sea of Azov, as well as the mountainous regions of the Western Caucasus. In addition to all this, the region completely absorbed the Republic of Adygea, which is an independent subject of the Russian Federation, but in many respects is inseparable from the Krasnodar Territory.
The Black Sea coast is the main resort area not only in the Krasnodar
Territory, but throughout Russia. During the season, coastal cities and
towns are packed to capacity with vacationers, however, there is
something to do outside the beach. The mountains come close to the sea,
on their slopes there are numerous rocks, caves, waterfalls. Here and
there, traces of ancient civilizations - dolmens - come across. When
moving south, the climate becomes milder, in addition to the ubiquitous
pines, cypresses and even palm trees appear. If all this is not enough
for you, then you can go to the mountains to Krasnaya Polyana or visit
Novorossiysk - a port and industrial city with impressive military
memorials.
The Azov coast consists of two parts, not very similar
to each other. The Taman peninsula was inhabited in ancient times, and
the number of ancient Greek objects found here is amazing. On the whole
peninsula there is a very beautiful steppe, indented by hills and
estuaries; in some places there are mud volcanoes, grapes are grown on
the coast. To the north of the Taman Peninsula, the terrain becomes
flat, birds nest on the swampy shores of the Sea of Azov, and lotuses
grow here and there. Located in the very north of the Krasnodar
Territory, the city of Yeysk is interesting for its old merchant
buildings; this is the main resort on the Azov coast.
Kuban is
the main agricultural region of Russia. For tourists, it is not very
interesting, since it is an endless plain, almost completely plowed and
planted with agricultural crops, along which one-story, stretching for
kilometers and rather monotonous cities or towns that have grown out of
Cossack fortresses and villages are scattered. There is nothing older
than the 19th century in the Kuban, but city lovers should visit
Krasnodar, where there is a lot of good architecture. Small towns and
villages are interesting for their way of life - for example, huge
markets and war memorials, which are larger and more impressive here
than in other regions of Russia.
Krasnodar resembles a huge Kuban
village. The parade buildings of several central streets with
magnificent monuments of eclecticism and modernity here are abruptly
replaced by blocks of one-story private houses stretching for many
kilometers. On the same central streets you can find one of the Shukhov
towers, good examples of Soviet architecture from the times of
stagnation and the largest local history museum in the region, as well
as theaters, a philharmonic society and, by Russian standards, not very
interesting, but for the Kuban very significant red-brick churches of
the XIX century.
Anapa is a Black Sea
resort located on the site of the ancient Greek city of Gorgippia. The
ancient ruins and the accompanying archaeological museum are adjacent
here to a noisy embankment, which presents all types of resort
entertainment, and a little to the side are the Russian Gates, left over
from the Turkish fortress, and a rather ordinary Orthodox church of the
19th century. The sights of the city are exhausted by this, therefore,
for most travelers, Anapa is nothing more than a transit point on the
way from the station and airport to the beauties of the Black Sea coast,
whether it is a relic juniper-pistachio forest in the Bolshoy Utrish
nature reserve or the picturesque surroundings of Novorossiysk.
Armavir is the largest city in the eastern
part of the Krasnodar Territory. The coincidence of the name with the
Armenian Armavir is not accidental: the city grew up around the Armenian
colony, and it even has an Armenian church of the century before last,
and besides it, a rather unusual Tatar mosque in these parts. The
building of Armavir is utterly provincial and very monotonous, only
corner houses decorated with tall “onions” attract attention. For most
travelers, Armavir will be nothing more than a transit point, which, in
which case, can be passed without stopping.
Goryachiy Klyuch is a
balneological resort halfway between Krasnodar and Tuapse. Losing in
entertainment to any of the cities of the Black Sea coast, Goryachiy
Klyuch can, nevertheless, offer travelers a picturesque valley of the
Psekups River covered with dense and lush greenery, where, walking
through the resort park, you will climb the Petushok rock above the
river, and then pass between rocks through the narrow Dantovo Gorge. The
city itself is completely unremarkable, and from it you will either
return to Krasnodar, or go further to the coast.
Yeysk is the
largest city on the Azov coast. A local resort specializing in
therapeutic mud and beach holidays. They say that "Kuban begins from
Yeysk", although both in terms of location and in essence the city
gravitates towards the Rostov region. The well-preserved
pre-revolutionary buildings resemble not the Cossack stanitsa, but the
urban merchant one: there are especially many old stone gates in Yeysk,
which are completely uncharacteristic for the Kuban. Not far from Yeysk
is the Dolgaya Spit, which separates the Taganrog Bay from the Sea of
Azov.
Novorossiysk is a port and
industrial city on the Black Sea coast. Novorossiysk, which arose around
cement plants, has never been a resort in its history, and many of its
monuments are tragic: from the memorial of ships sunk in the Civil War
to numerous traces of the Great Patriotic War. Many pre-revolutionary
buildings have been preserved in Novorossiysk, including a huge
red-brick elevator and an authentic village of an old cement plant.
There is also a nice building of the post-war period, and an embankment
with numerous monuments, and just the atmosphere of a large city open to
the sea.
Sochi is a unique city in many ways. Its coastal part is located in
the warm subtropics, and the mountainous part is located 500-600 m above
sea level and is the best ski resort in the country. In a narrow sense,
Sochi is the most luxurious of the resorts on the Black Sea coast, where
you can find elite boarding houses at exorbitant prices, or, on the
contrary, you can see old dachas and masterpieces of Soviet architecture
for free. The Sochi Arboretum contains an excellent collection of
southern plants. A little further, in Khost, there is an ancient
yew-boxwood grove. If you drive along the coast to the very Abkhaz
border, then you will find yourself in Adler, where prices are lower and
the Olympic Park is located.
Timashevsk is a city in the steppe
north of Krasnodar. A large industrial and transport hub. The
development is dominated by the private sector. Of the attractions: the
city has a functioning monastery.
The name Abrau-Dyurso is known to
almost everyone in Russia. Exactly to the Crimea, this is
the main place in the country where champagne is produced
according to the classical technology, and tours of the wine
cellars are arranged for tourists with a demonstration of
the entire technological process and subsequent tasting. The
village is located near Novorossiysk on the shore of the
beautiful mountain lake Abrau. If you drive to the Black Sea
coast, then you will find yourself in Dyurso - the
northernmost point where the mountains still approach the
coast. Further on is the Bolshoy Utrish reserve, and behind
it is Anapa, where the terrain becomes almost flat.
The Guam Gorge is a valley hidden in the mountains of the
Western Caucasus, along which an operating narrow-gauge
railway is laid. Getting here is not very convenient, but
travelers will be rewarded with the opportunity to drive
through the gorge on a sightseeing train or climb one of the
surrounding mountains. Around the gorge there are caves,
waterfalls and a whole range of characteristic natural
attractions.
The Caucasian Biosphere Reserve unites
the most interesting places in the Western Caucasus. On its
territory there are all the main peaks of the Krasnodar
Territory - Fisht, Oshten, Tsakhvoa, Chugush. The landscapes
here vary from deciduous forests to alpine meadows, glaciers
and rocky mountains with altitudes over 2500 and even 3000
m. In the vicinity of the Lago-Naki plateau and Krasnaya
Polyana there are places that can be visited in one day, but
most of the reserve will require multi-day hiking over the
mountainous area. A pass is required to visit the reserve.
Kamennomostsky is a small village in the valley of the
Belaya River, a kind of gate to the mountainous part of
Adygea. Behind the village, the road passes through the
narrow Khadzhokh gorge, which is interesting in itself, and
in the side valley there are also beautiful and, moreover,
easily accessible Rufabgo waterfalls. On the outskirts of
Kamennomostsky stands the most famous dolmen in Adygea, next
to it is a museum of stone and fossils. 12 km from the
village is the Mikhailo-Athos Trans-Kuban Hermitage - an
Orthodox monastery that is not frequent in these parts.
Krasnaya
Polyana is a ski resort an hour's drive from Adler,
which allows you to move from the warm coastal subtropics
into real winter in winter, and in summer use the ski lifts
to effortlessly climb to a height of up to 2300 m above sea
level and enjoy mountain landscapes or even take a small
hike to a pass. The modern infrastructure remained from the
Winter Olympics in Krasnaya Polyana, the local ski slopes
are considered the best in Russia. From Krasnaya Polyana,
tourist routes begin in the Caucasian Reserve.
Taman is a village on the shore of
the Kerch Strait with a wonderful view of the Crimea. One of
the most interesting places in the Krasnodar Territory,
where an archaeological museum, excavations of the ancient
Greek Hermonassa, an old Turkish well, the Lermontov Museum,
a Cossack fortress, a church from the time of the Russian
development of the Kuban, and, if all this is not enough for
you, the Ataman ethnographic complex are collected in a
small area. The Taman Peninsula is the main wine-growing
region of the Krasnodar Territory, there are several
French-style chalet-style wineries with restaurants and
tasting opportunities.
The tourist center of the
Krasnodar Territory is the Black Sea coast, where from
spring to late autumn hundreds of thousands of people go to
relax on the sea, and at the same time, maybe not only spend
time in a cafe or on the beach, but also visit mountains,
forests, waterfalls and other natural beauty of this region.
Mountain tourism enthusiasts leave the coast a little
further in order to conquer the peaks of Adygea and the
northwestern Caucasus, but the main, flat part of the
Krasnodar Territory does not attract the attention of
travelers. The Kuban and the Azov coast are really not rich
in sights, although even there, and especially in Krasnodar
itself, there is also something to see. Moreover, only in
these regions, unpopular with tourists, you can see all the
features of the South Russian Cossack way of life, expressed
in the Kuban much more strongly than in the Rostov region or
Stavropol.
A monument of national importance is the
archeology of the Taman Peninsula, where in ancient times
the Greek Hermonassa and Phanagoria were located, and later
- Tmutarakan, which became a household name. In Taman, a
small but very rich museum entirely dedicated to archeology
is one of the best museums of its kind in Russia. Another
Greek ruins are located in Anapa. Another aspect of ancient
history is dolmens, ritual stone structures of the mountain
tribes that lived in the Caucasus. There are hundreds of
dolmens on the territory of the region. Almost all of them
are located on the Black Sea coast or, more rarely, in
Adygea and the mountain valleys bordering it. If you go to
this area, then there will certainly be some kind of dolmen
along the way.
The time interval from antiquity to
the Russian development of the Kuban in the Krasnodar
Territory is poorly represented. Monuments of this period
are the ruins of the Abkhazian temple in Loo (Sochi), the
gates of the Turkish fortress in Anapa and the Turkish well
in Taman. In the flat part of the Krasnodar Territory,
nothing special happened all this time, and a few monuments
of the material culture of the Circassian peoples are now
collected in the national museum of Adygea in Maykop.
The accession of the territory of the modern Krasnodar
Territory to Russia began with the construction of a line of
fortresses along the Kuban and Laba rivers. None of them, of
course, has been preserved in the form of a fortress,
although fragments of earthen fortifications - a kind of
settlement - are very picturesque: they are, for example, in
Taman or Ust-Labinsk, where even a primitive reconstruction
was carried out. The first Russian settlers in the Kuban
were the Cossacks. Their ethnography in one form or another
is presented in almost every local history museum, but, on
the other hand, there has never been a true Cossack freemen
in the Kuban, and, therefore, there are no monuments
comparable to Starocherkassk in the Krasnodar Territory. The
influence of the Cossacks is felt in the Kuban in their very
presence - whether on advertising posters or, for example,
in the security service of the Krasnodar airport - and also,
of course, in the very structure of the Kuban villages and
in the fact that most of these villages are still called
villages and farms. In Taman there is a large ethnographic
complex Ataman, which, although a remake, will be the best
place in the region to get acquainted with the Cossack
traditions.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of
pre-revolutionary buildings in the Krasnodar Territory. In
every second village there is an old building of the ataman
administration, a Cossack school, or something else of that
kind. On the other hand, even for architecture lovers, only
Krasnodar itself is of interest, where there are beautiful
monuments of modernity and eclecticism, Novorossiysk with
its pre-revolutionary workers' settlements and pleasant
post-war buildings, as well as Sochi, where in Soviet times
the best architects of the country designed theaters,
railway stations and sanatoriums (in Sochi, the best
selection of old pre-revolutionary dachas). There are few
churches in the Kuban and other parts of the Krasnodar
Territory; there are no masterpieces among them.
The
mediocrity of architectural monuments is more than offset by
the quantity and quality of simple monuments, ranging from
monuments to Lenin, which are everywhere in the Kuban (in a
rare regional center there are not at least two or three),
and ending with military memorials. In the 20th century, two
wars went through the territory of the Krasnodar Territory -
the civil and the Great Patriotic War - therefore there are
a lot of monuments of glory and just mass graves. They are
decorated very creatively, and sometimes they produce an
effect no less than the large military memorials in
Volgograd and Brest. Novorossiysk has the title of a hero
city and in many ways repeats the fate of Sevastopol with
sunken ships and heroic defense - in this case, Malaya
Zemlya, to which several very strong memorials are dedicated
at once.
There are no less natural monuments in the
Krasnodar Territory than all the others. There are many
rocks, caves, waterfalls along the Black Sea coast, and most
of them have good roads and public transport, and even if it
is not there, then in the season there will certainly be
organized excursions or private traders ready to give you a
ride. A characteristic feature of the Caucasus Mountains is
narrow gorges, which are not called canyons here, although
they, in fact, are. A narrow-gauge railway passes through
the Guam Gorge, even a sightseeing train runs on it during
the season, and all this together is a very unusual
attraction for Russia. There are also picturesque gorges on
the old road from Adler to Krasnaya Polyana and in Adygea.
Moreover, the entire valley of the Belaya River in Adygea
is, in a sense, the mainland analogue of the Black Sea
coast, since here, on a small stretch of the road, many
natural beauties are collected. On the coast, however, there
are also exotic plants for Russia, such as cypresses and
palm trees. On the territory of the city of Sochi, there are
two good botanical gardens - an arboretum and a park
"Southern Cultures", here an ancient yew-boxwood grove
marked by UNESCO, and the so-called Colchis forest grows
along the entire southern coast.
If you want to go
higher into the mountains, then there are all the
possibilities for this too. Many routes start in Krasnaya
Polyana, where several lifts operate at once, reaching
heights of 1500-2300 m above sea level. Another convenient
transfer is through Adygea, where the road leads to the
Lago-Naki plateau, a picturesque plateau at an altitude of
about 2000 m. The main peaks of the northwestern Caucasus,
Fisht and Oshten, are located near Lago-Naki, and in general
there are very a lot of. Almost all of them are on the
territory of the Caucasian Reserve, which has a special
(but, in principle, accessible) visiting regime.
Natural monuments of a completely different kind are located
where the mountains end. The Taman Peninsula is a very
beautiful steppe, indented by hills and estuaries, in which
there are very exotic objects - mud volcanoes. To the north,
on the coast of the Sea of Azov, the hills end, and the
terrain becomes completely flat, but the swampy shores and
sandy spits stretching far into the sea also have their own
charm. Lotuses grow in places. The flat part of the
Krasnodar Territory looks rather monotonous, although there
are nice places there too - for example, the large Krasnodar
reservoir or the high banks of the Kuban, which offer views
of the plain stretching to the horizon.
Big Azish
Cave (20 km from Dakhovskaya station). 08:30–18:30, visit
only with a guided tour every 30 min. 400 RUB, coat rental
— 50 RUB. In the northwestern Caucasus, this is the largest
of the equipped caves: 220 meters of illuminated paths and
stairs leading through several large halls. The most
interesting thing here is thousands of stalactites,
stalagmites and stalagnate columns of different colors and
sizes, often taking unusual shapes. The constant temperature
in the cave is +5 degrees, so outerwear (you can rent a
coat) will not be superfluous.
How to get there: only by
car along the Dakhovskaya-Lago-Naki highway. From the
highway to the left there is a dirt road to the cave; on a
four-wheel drive car, you can easily drive up to the barrier
in front of the cave, but you can also park right on the
highway and walk 400 m to the cave on foot. Along the road
and around the entrance - all conceivable tourist
infrastructure: souvenir rows, cafes, attractions
Wine tourism, such as Chateau le Grand Vostock
Throughout the Krasnodar Territory, the Russian language is perfectly
understood, and most often it is spoken. However, for Krasnodar and the
flat part of the region, a “Ukrainian” accent is very characteristic.
This, however, does not mean that everyone says so - the speech of many
local residents cannot be distinguished by ear from ordinary Russian.
Residents of Adygea can communicate with each other in Russian, or
they can communicate in Adyghe. The Adyghe language is close to the
Kabardino-Circassian language (spoken respectively by the Kabardians and
the Circassians), so much so that sometimes the two languages are
considered as dialects of the same language. He has no other close
relatives. In Adygea, many signs are duplicated in Adyghe, although, for
example, in stores everything is written in Russian. Adyghe speech is
sometimes heard on the streets of Maykop, but it is not predominant
there. If you hear some incomprehensible language in Krasnodar, then it
can be either Adyghe or any other language of one of the Caucasian
peoples, since there are enough visitors to the city.
The Krasnodar Territory is quite large and has at least two major
transport hubs - Krasnodar and Sochi, where you can independently come
from other regions of Russia and even from abroad.
By plane
There are 4 airports in the Krasnodar Territory with regular passenger
traffic: Krasnodar, Sochi, Anapa and Gelendzhik. Gelendzhik Airport is
active only in the summer, in winter they fly to Anapa mainly from
Moscow, but Krasnodar and Sochi are two large (by Russian standards)
airports, where there are both domestic and international flights,
including daily flights from Moscow, St. Petersburg , Istanbul and
Yerevan.
By train
Usually, resort trains travel to the
Krasnodar Territory, following to Novorossiysk, Anapa or Adler. The
latter almost always pass through Krasnodar, and their points of
departure can be cities in various parts of the country, up to Vorkuta
and Murmansk. If you are traveling to the north-eastern part of the
Krasnodar Territory, then the Adler trains are less convenient, but all
trains to Kislovodsk and the North Caucasus will do: they pass through
Armavir and Kropotkin. It is more convenient to go to Adygea through
Belorechensk: those trains to Adler stop here, which take a longer route
through Armavir.
Suburban communication with neighboring regions
is poorly developed, as usual in Russia. Two ordinary "parrots" and two
high-speed "Swallows" go daily from Krasnodar to Rostov. It is already
more difficult to go there with transfers, but, in principle, it is
possible to travel without transfers by a long-distance train: for
example, it is night to travel from Rostov to Sochi. In the direction of
Mineralnye Vody, the train does not run every day, there are
long-distance trains that are not optimal in terms of price and time.
There is a daily night train from Adler to Mineralnye Vody and further
to Kislovodsk or Vladikavkaz. To Abkhazia, only the Moscow-Sukhumi
train, not every day. The Crimean train on the territory of the
Krasnodar Territory does not stop at all, with the exception of loading
at the Kerch ferry, so you can only leave for Crimea by bus.
By
bus
All buses pass through the territory of the Krasnodar Territory
in the direction of Mineralnye Vody and the republics of the North
Caucasus, and these buses can go from anywhere - even from Moscow. The
cities of the Black Sea coast (Sochi, Novorossiysk, Gelendzhik) have
fairly regular communication with neighboring regions - the Stavropol
Territory, the Rostov Region and the Crimea. Most of these buses (with
the exception of the Crimean ones) pass through Krasnodar. There are
almost no direct buses to Abkhazia, you need to cross the border on foot
and use local transport.
By car
From the Rostov region, most
motorists drive along the main M4 Don highway in southern Russia. It has
four lanes and a good road surface, but during the peak season,
vacationers do not fit even on two lanes: if you drive during the day in
the middle of summer, there is a good chance of getting stuck in a
traffic jam. If you need to get to the western part of the region in the
summer - to Taman, Anapa, Novorossiysk and even Krasnodar - you should
choose the P268 highway, which runs about 40 kilometers west of the M4.
From Stavropol and the republics of the North Caucasus along the
P217 highway you will get to the eastern part of the Krasnodar
Territory: to Armavir, Kropotkin and Tikhoretsk. You can get to Crimea
via the Crimean bridge or by ferry across the Kerch ferry. The only
border crossing to Abkhazia is located on the southern outskirts of
Sochi: there is only one road, and you will have to return the same way,
since you cannot drive further into Georgia by car.
On the ship
You can arrive in Sochi by sea from Georgian Batumi or Turkish Trabzon,
but both lines do not operate every day, and tickets for them are
expensive. In summer you can take a catamaran from Gagra, Abkhazia.
Cruise ships sometimes also come to Sochi.
Passenger-and-freight
ferries run from Novorossiysk to Feodosia and Sevastopol, but they do
not take individual passengers on board. Catamarans also operate in the
summer along the Anapa-Feodosia-Yalta route, but whether they will
operate in 2015 is still unknown. The main route to the Crimea is the
Kerch ferry.
By plane
Donavia planes fly from Krasnodar to Sochi twice a day.
Tickets from 2200 rubles (2015), which is approximately the same price
as a compartment if you decide to travel by night train, and about three
times more expensive than a daytime seated train, which, however, runs
only once a day and spends 4.5 hours on the road (other trains go even
longer).
By train
The Krasnodar Territory is covered with a
dense network of railways. On many of them there is a commuter service -
however, infrequent. With the exception of the Lastochka express trains,
all transportation is carried out by the North Caucasian Suburban
Passenger Company, whose ticket offices and schedules are usually
located not inside the stations, but in windows somewhere on the side or
even on the platform. The route network is tied to Krasnodar, outside of
which there is an active commuter service only on the Tuapse-Adler
section. Long-distance trains can go the most bizarre routes, sometimes
writing out cunning squiggles. In some cases, they are useful for short
trips, but long-distance train tickets are always more expensive than
train or bus tickets.
At the beginning of 2015, it makes sense to
travel by train in the following directions:
Krasnodar - Timashevsk -
Starominskaya - Rostov
Krasnodar — Novorossiysk
Krasnodar -
Goryachiy Klyuch - Tuapse - Adler: here, however, all electric trains
are mismatched, therefore, with the exception of short sections, you
need to travel by long-distance train
Rostov - Tikhoretsk - Kropotkin
(Kavkazskaya) - Armavir - Nevinomyssk: main line with very mediocre
commuter service, but you can think of something for short sections, and
for longer ones there are long-distance trains
Electric trains
also run from Krasnodar to Kropotkin via Ust-Labinsk, from Armavir to
Tuapse with a change in Belorechensk and along Adygeya from Belorechensk
to Kamennomostsky (Khadzhokh) via Maykop, however, the number of trains
and their speed are such that it is faster and easier to go by bus.
Express trains "Lastochka": twice a day from Krasnodar to Rostov and
once a day from Krasnodar to Adler. They stop in all major settlements,
but don’t flatter yourself - tickets cost 1.5-2 times more than for an
electric train, they are sold with indication of places, and you still
need to be able to buy them.
Suburban express trains: twice a day
from Krasnodar to Rostov, Maikop-Belorechensk-Tuapse (daily),
Krasnodar-Kropotkin-Armavir-Mineralnye Vody (3 times a week).
By
bus
There are many buses in the Krasnodar Territory. Minibuses, on
the other hand, are rare. On popular destinations, such as
Krasnodar-Maikop, taxi drivers are active, picking up passengers in a
car for the price of a bus - this is not the most comfortable, but,
compared to any official transport, a much faster way to travel.
Unlike suburban trains, which mostly depart from Krasnodar, buses run on
the most bizarre routes like Temryuk-Labinsk and Gelendzhik-Maikop.
However, they usually visit Krasnodar.
By car
Road conditions
in the Krasnodar Territory range from good in the flat terrain to
mediocre in the mountains and on the Black Sea coast, but overall the
roads are significantly better than the Russian average. Krasnodar
drivers behave in a more or less disciplined way, which is facilitated
by cameras hung everywhere, found even in the most remote corners of the
region. In many settlements, the speed limit is 40 km/h. Be careful.
Popular rumor reports the unpredictability of drivers from Adygea
(region 01rus), but they - on tuned cars with rumbling music - can be
seen from afar.
In addition to the M4 highway, four-lane sections
are sometimes found on local roads. More often come across three-lane
sections or just lanes for overtaking. In particular, they are on the
mountainous section of the Sochi highway, but in summer even this does
not save you from traffic jams, and the road along the coast from
Dzhubga to Gelendzhik is generally entirely two-lane and at the same
time very winding. The passes in the Krasnodar Territory are low and
open all year round; snow rarely falls.
Thanks to the abundance
of vacationers, the car rental service has been developed in the
Krasnodar Territory. At the airports of Krasnodar, Anapa and Sochi, you
can find counters of local and even international car rental companies.
Most of the interesting places on the coast are achievable by ordinary
car, you are unlikely to need an SUV, and high in the mountains there
are usually no roads at all, and horses remain the only transport.
The colorful cuisine of the Kuban combines the traditions of
Ukrainians, Greeks, and various Caucasian peoples. It is characterized
by the predominance of vegetables, herbs, spices, seasonings and sauces.
Meals are quite satisfying and contain a lot of calories. Staying in the
Krasnodar Territory, one cannot help but taste delicious local dishes.
Shish kebab (the name of this common dish in the middle of the 18th
century, Russian soldiers adopted from the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks after a
trip to the Crimea: in the Crimean Tatar language, “shishlik” means
“something on a skewer”).
Khachapuri (flat cake with homemade cheese)
in Imereti (with a closed top) and in Adjarian (with an open top,
“boat”).
Dishes from sea and river fish (pelingas, mullet, flounder,
pike perch, red mullet, trout, garfish) and seafood: Black Sea fish
soup, grilled fish, mussel salad, pilaf from rapana, fried shrimps.
Cheeses: Traditional local cheeses are made from cow's and sheep's milk:
smoked chechil, chechil "noodles", suluguni, feta cheese.
Sauces and
seasonings: adjika (spicy seasoning made from red pepper, garlic,
walnuts, cilantro seeds, dill, thyme, basil and salt), tkemali (spicy
sauce made from sour plums (cherry plum), garlic, salt, ground pepper,
green cilantro or parsley.
Fruits and berries: grapes, strawberries,
figs, cherries, watermelons, melons, persimmons, apricots, peaches,
feijoa, tangerines, kiwi, etc.
Sweets: churchkhela (walnuts and other
nuts in a shell of boiled grape juice), feijoa grated with sugar, fig
jam, jam from young walnuts, nuts in honey, dried persimmon, dried figs.
Kuban wines
On the territory of the Krasnodar Territory, grapes
were grown and wine was made from it by the ancient Greeks in their
city-states more than two thousand years ago. After a long break caused
by the destruction of ancient Greek settlements, viticulture began to
revive here in the 19th century. In 1870, the specific estate
"Abrau-Dyurso" was founded in the Novorossiysk region, in 1874 a
vineyard near Anapa was organized by retired colonel D.V. Pilenko.
Currently, about 70% of all Russian wine material is produced in the
Kuban on vineyards located on the Taman Peninsula, near Anapa,
Novorossiysk, Krymsk and Gelendzhik.
Throughout the region, you
can buy many varieties of wine, from home without a name to aged
collection wines in souvenir boxes. To protect yourself from left-handed
alcohol, you need to buy it in chain supermarkets. The best brands are
Fanagoria and Myskhako, both factories are located in Novorossiysk; the
Abrau-Durso factory is known for its sparkling wines, from Soviet
Champagne to exclusive vintage brands.
The Temryuk brandy factory
produces brandy and cognac drinks: from 150 rubles for a regular bottle
to 2,500 rubles for high-quality souvenir brands.
Krasnodar tea
The only tea that grows in Russia, the northernmost in the world.
Plantations are located in Dagomys (Lazarevsky district) and in Adler.
The volume is quite small, so they are difficult to find outside the
Krasnodar Territory. Tea brand "Baloven" is made at the Dagomys tea
factory, it can be bought throughout the region. The tea factory can be
visited with a guided tour.
Precautionary measures
The Krasnodar Territory is one of the
relatively calm Russian regions. There were no echoes of the Chechen war
here, but the general wariness remains high. If you use trains or buses,
be prepared for the fact that they are usually allowed onto the platform
only through a metal detector frame, and in some cases, police officers
will also want to check your documents, and in general, the search here
is not an empty formality, as in most regions of Russia. Photographing
stations, railway bridges and anything that can be considered a
strategic object is fraught with communication with the police.
On the Black Sea coast, tourists are familiar, which means there are
those who are trying to get hold of tourists. Prices in cafes can be
quoted in such a way that you will pay more than you expect. Taxi
drivers can be very annoying and ask inexperienced travelers much more
than they should: do not hesitate to bargain. The abundance of police
does not mean complete safety: if you wander around dark alleys, and
even drunk, it will not end in anything good.
In the flat part of
the Krasnodar Territory, tourists, on the contrary, are infrequent,
which means that it is better to merge with the local population here
and not give yourself away as a stranger. There are a variety of rumors
about Adygea: for example, Maykop is considered a troubled city,
although it is hardly more dangerous than any major Russian regional
center. There are few settlements in the mountainous part of Adygea, and
on the contrary, there are many tourists in summer, so, unlike the
republics of the North Caucasus, communication with the indigenous
population does not pose dangers and threats. Although Adygea is a
Muslim region, the attitude towards food and alcohol here is the most
liberal. Local residents are, by Russian standards, excessively
hospitable, but this is almost certainly a manifestation of hospitality
and tradition, rather than malicious intent.
When traveling by
car, the mentality of local drivers should be taken into account. People
living in the flat part of the region drive in a completely different
way than those living in the mountains. Traffic on the main highways is
often dense, and in cities, even not very large ones, traffic jams are
possible. The city of Krasnodar itself is better to bypass the tenth
road: the traffic here is very intense, so you can get stuck for a long
time. There are several key roads in the region, on which exit traffic
police posts (by cars) are on duty day and night in "hot places".
Ambushes are also possible. There are few obvious set-ups, although
there are cases of extortion. They mainly slow down the guests of the
region, but the locals also get it. There are a lot of cameras
everywhere, sometimes they even come across in small farms of 20 yards,
so do not disturb, but rather get a good radar detector - this will help
to avoid many problems. The Crimean bridge and the entrances to it are
completely under cameras.
From the west, the Krasnodar Territory is bounded by the waters of
the Azov and Black Seas, through the Kerch Strait separating them, it
borders on the Crimea. In the north, the region adjoins the Rostov
region, in the east - to the Stavropol Territory, beyond which it is not
far to Kalmykia. In the south, the Caucasus Range begins, to the west of
which Abkhazia is located, and to the east - Karachay-Cherkessia and the
region of the Caucasian Mineral Waters.
The entire northern and
central part of the region is occupied by the Azov-Kuban plain, which is
sloping and drops from 150-200 m above sea level in the east to the
level of this same sea on the coast. Visually, the slope is
imperceptible, to a large extent it is created by the high banks of the
rivers flowing along the plain. The main ones - the Kuban and its left
tributary Laba - separate the plain from the foothills of the Caucasus.
Closer to the sea, the Kuban breaks up into many channels, as if
surrounding the Taman Peninsula: due to this, it simultaneously flows
into the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. There are no large lakes on the
plain, but there are several reservoirs. The largest of them is
Krasnodar. In ancient times, the Azov-Kuban plain was a nomadic steppe.
Now almost all of it is open.
The Main Caucasian Range forms the
southern border of the region. Three-thousand-meter peaks, including the
highest point of the Krasnodar Territory - Mount Tsakhvoa (3345 m), are
located near the border of the Krasnodar Territory with Abkhazia and
Karachay-Cherkessia. The closest highland area to the sea is the Fisht
massif (2750-2900 m), popular with tourists, on the border with Adygea.
The forest grows to heights of 1500-1800 m, alpine meadows begin higher,
but such heights are only in the interior mountainous regions. The peaks
closest to the Black Sea coast are below 1000 m. All of them are covered
with dense forest, in some places they break into the sea with rocks.
In the mountainous regions of the Krasnodar Territory, vegetation
can be very different - from a not very interesting mixed forest in the
interior to special Colchis forests on the humid Black Sea coast, where
beeches, boxwoods and yews grow, not to mention firs and pines. A
variety of living creatures live in the mountains, up to bears and
bison, but to see one of them is a rarity, but immeasurably small
harmless lizards, which even yard cats are chasing.
Birds of prey
often circle over the Kuban plain, and only Georgians can be observed
from the animals, which they hunt (and there are also many crows,
magpies, gulls and other lovers of grubging in the fields). However,
there are also enough hare hares, and in winter they are allowed to
shoot (under license).
The Krasnodar Territory is one of the oldest Russian regions in the
sense that when most of the modern territory of the country was in the
Stone Age, there were already all signs of civilization here. Dating
back to 4,000 B.C. The Maikop culture, named after the burial mound
excavated in Maykop, made bronze products and ornaments with might and
main, and also left behind non-trivial stone carvings. Traces of the
dolmen culture that replaced it (2500-1300 BC) are much larger: as the
name implies, dolmens are large stone “boxes”, usually with a round
hole, which simultaneously served as sanctuaries and burials. The inner
walls of the dolmens were decorated with something between petroglyphs
and murals, you can see this in the national museum of Adygea in Maykop,
and many monuments of the Maikop and dolmen cultures are exhibited in
the Hermitage and in the historical museum in Moscow.
In the 7th
century BC. Greeks appear on the shores of the Black Sea. By the 5th
century BC. their cities on both sides of the Kerch Strait unite into
the Bosporus kingdom, which extended south to Gelendzhik (Torik), and
north to the mouth of the Don (Tanais). Although the Bosporan kingdom
regularly fought with the steppe peoples, sorting out relations with
other Greek colonies along the way, it existed in one form or another
for almost a thousand years, until the beginning of the 3rd century AD.
era of the migration of peoples, leaving behind a huge material culture,
which has been dug on the Taman Peninsula for decades and, probably,
will be explored for a very long time.
The end of the Bosporan
kingdom is associated with the invasion of the Huns, who destroyed
almost all the cities of the northern Black Sea region. Some of these
cities were abandoned, others were restored one way or another, falling
under the rule of Byzantium, and later the Turkic and, finally, from the
middle of the 7th century, the Khazar Khaganate. The Kaganate lasted
until the second half of the 10th century, until it was destroyed by the
ancient Russian state, which temporarily took possession of the lower
reaches of the Don and the Taman Peninsula, where an independent
Tmutarakan principality even arose. However, Russian domination in these
southern lands was short-lived: Tmutarakan disappears from the annals as
early as the 12th century, that is, a hundred years before the Mongol
invasion. After the Mongol invasion, the Kuban steppes pass to the
Golden Horde and later to the Nogai Horde that broke away from it, which
lasted until the end of the 18th century. For some time, the Genoese
appeared on the coast, dug in in the southern part of the Crimea, while
in the mountains Circassia gradually formed, uniting the Adyghes,
Ubykhs, Shapsugs and dozens of other tribes living in the Western
Caucasus.
At first, Christianity actively penetrated into
Circassia, missionaries from Europe regularly visited here, but later
Islam began to dominate. However, the Islamization of Circassia was very
slow and lasted almost the entire period of Turkish rule, ending just at
the moment when Turkey was pressed by the Russian Empire. The annexation
of the right-bank Kuban to Russia was nothing more than a side effect of
the Russian-Turkish wars in Bessarabia and the Crimea: in 1783,
Catherine II issued a manifesto that liquidated the Crimean Khanate and
announced the annexation of all the steppes up to the Kuban to Russia,
completely ignoring the opinion the Nogais who lived there, and even
before that, in 1777-78, under the leadership of Suvorov, a line of
fortresses was built along the Kuban and Laba, from which many modern
cities later grew. In 1792, Catherine II grants the Kuban lands to the
Cossacks, with which, in fact, the Cossack spirit of the modern
Krasnodar Territory is connected, as well as the widespread cult of
Catherine II, which came to quite real plans to return the original name
Ekaterinodar to Krasnodar.
Throughout the first half of the 19th
century, the Kuban remained a rather dangerous place due to regular
raids by the Circassian peoples. The Caucasian War, begun to pacify
them, continued until 1864, and some of its episodes took place on the
territory of the Krasnodar Territory: it was for this reason that
Lermontov ended up in Taman, and some of the exiled Decembrists managed
to serve in the fortresses of the Black Sea coast at the site of the
future Sochi. As a result of the colonization of the Caucasus, most of
the Circassians were forced to move to Turkey, the rest completely
submitted to Russia.
In the second half of the 19th century, the
Kuban and the northern part of the Black Sea coast developed rapidly,
numerous railways and a new port city, Novorossiysk, were built there.
The southern part of the Black Sea coast, on the contrary, remained a
rather wild place and was not really inhabited until the revolution
itself. In 1918-20. in the Kuban, a confrontation unfolded between the
Red Army and the Volunteer Army under the command of Denikin. The first
series of mass graves and memorials found throughout the Krasnodar
Territory is connected with these events, and the second series is
dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. In August 1942, the German army
occupied the entire Kuban and was stopped only in Tuapse and
Novorossiysk. The fighting on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory
lasted more than a year and ended only in the autumn of 1943. In
addition, in the 1930s, collectivization took place in the Kuban, and
the Cossacks were actually destroyed, and then there was a terrible
famine, as elsewhere in the south of the USSR.
Before the
revolution, the Krasnodar Territory was not an independent
administrative unit. Its modern territory was divided between the Kuban
Oblast, centered in Yekaterinodar, and the Black Sea Governorate,
centered in Novorossiysk. After the establishment of Soviet power, the
territorial division changed almost every year, until in 1937 a separate
Krasnodar Territory was created within borders close to modern ones.
Since 1922, the Adyghe region existed as an autonomy within the region,
and after the collapse of the USSR, it became a republic and an
independent subject of the Russian Federation.
The Krasnodar Territory looks like a very prosperous region with good
roads and a slightly higher level of service than the national average.
Evil tongues claim that this well-being is partly imaginary and is based
on budget injections related to the 2014 Winter Olympics, but, anyway,
here you will more often than in other Russian regions walk not through
mud, but along paved sidewalks, and even in the most remote villages you
will find well-groomed squares with paths and flower beds. This
neatness, however, does not entail the aesthetics of the urban
environment, which here is peculiar, but hardly beautiful.
Cities
and towns of the Krasnodar Territory, with the exception of resorts on
the coast, are mainly divided into two groups - farms with several dozen
houses and villages, where there can be hundreds or thousands of houses.
There are also towns and villages (quite officially), but there are not
so many of them, and there are auls in Adygea.
Without exception,
all the villages have a rectangular or close to it layout with a weakly
expressed center, where there is a market, shops and one or more squares
with an obligatory military memorial (there are really many of them
here) and a monument to Lenin. There will also be some old
pre-revolutionary houses. Outside this conditional center, the buildings
are exclusively one-story, and each house has a small plot of land,
fenced off by a deaf two-meter fence. For this reason, even those
villages where 10-20 thousand people live stretch for many kilometers,
and the city of the Krasnodar Territory looks surprisingly monotonous:
just pull the corner of Labinsk and you will get Krasnodar, and reducing
it will return to Tikhoretsk or Kropotkin . Travelers (autotourists)
from remote areas of the country (and there are more and more of them
every year) note the widespread low-rise dominating in the region and
sometimes blatant crowding of buildings, as well as the narrowness of
streets and driveways.
The economy of the Krasnodar Territory
consists of several sectors: agriculture (everything is grown in the
Kuban - from wheat to grapes), tourism, transport and industry. There is
a large cement plant in Novorossiysk, oil is being extracted near
Krymsk. There is a lot of food industry, in the cities there are shops
of local factories that sell only Kuban products.
Although the
Kuban Cossacks were virtually destroyed during the Soviet years, they
quickly revived after the collapse of the USSR. The Cossack theme has
become a brand of the Krasnodar Territory, and the words "Kuban" and
"Krasnodar Territory" are now used as synonyms, although a good half of
the region has nothing to do with the Kuban. In schools, they teach not
local history, but “Kuban studies”, while on the Internet a stable meme
“kubanoid” has appeared, which has the same derogatory connotation as
“Khokhol”. Many things in the Kuban are really hypertrophied, and the
Cossacks in full uniform look strange when they patrol the streets with
the police. Being a highly Russian region, the Krasnodar Territory
differs no less than the national republics from the rest of Russia, and
therefore is of independent ethnographic interest.
By Russian standards, the Krasnodar Territory is a warm region. There
is almost no winter on the Black Sea coast, snow does not fall every
year. The coast south of Tuapse is generally a subtropical zone.
However, in the winter months, such a wind can blow from the sea that
even at positive air temperatures you will not be able to stay outside
for a long time, and Novorossiysk and Gelendzhik are generally
characterized by a special natural phenomenon (boron), when cold air
“rolls” over the mountains and abruptly falls on the coast, which is
akin to a natural disaster. There are frosts in the flat part, winter
weather changes in an unpredictable way from +15 to quite decent (by
local standards) frosts. Snow falls and melts several times during the
season, and the roads are always covered with mud and ice. Four or five
months of dull grayness with almost no sun and high humidity with
surface fogs make the winter completely uncomfortable, chilly and sad.
And it can also rain here at sub-zero outside temperatures, instantly
causing freezing of houses, trees, and everything in general.
Summers are very hot (up to +40 in the shade), and although the sea
warms up to a comfortable temperature during this period, it can be
difficult to be outside the beach. The infrastructure is not adapted to
the heat, there are no air conditioners in public transport, and they
are not always available in hotels.
The best hike in the region
is in spring and autumn, when there is neither heat nor dankness. Autumn
on the Black Sea is the so-called. velvet season: you can still easily
swim in the sea, but it’s not so hot anymore. The Sea of
\u200b\u200bAzov is very shallow, so the water temperature sharply
depends on weather conditions, so with the advent of autumn, the
swimming season immediately ends.
In the mountains, the weather
is the same as everywhere in the Caucasus: in the highlands, the snow
melts not earlier than May, and glaciers are found above 2500 m. In
autumn, snow falls already in October, so the mountain hiking season is
summer.
With a population of more than 5.5 million people, the Krasnodar
Territory is in third place in Russia in terms of the number of
inhabitants after Moscow and the Moscow Region. At the same time, only
55% of the inhabitants live in cities, the rest in the villages, towns
or farms. In the region there are large villages with a population of
20-30 thousand people (and the largest village in Russia - Kanevskaya,
44 thousand inhabitants), officially considered rural settlements, not
cities.
The Russian population dominates (88%), the largest
minority are Armenians (5.5%), found in different parts of the region -
from Armavir to Adler. Almost 0.5 million more people live in Adygea.
Russians also dominate there (64%), but there are also a lot of
indigenous people - Adygs (26%).
In Krasnodar itself, as well as
in resort towns, there is simply a sea of migrants who came for
permanent residence from the northern and eastern regions of the Russian
Federation in search of a better life. The population in the region is
very colorful in their mentality and life principles.