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The Krai’s ethnic composition is, however, complex. Although Russian’s account for 85%
of the population according to the 1989 Soviet census, a good number of these Russians identify
themselves as Cossacks—around 27% of the total Russian population. 101 In addition, Ukrainians
comprise 3.9%, 102 Armenians 3.6%, 103 and Adygeis 2.3%, with these three groups concentrated in
specific districts. Krasnodar is also densely populated, with a density of 60 people per square
kilometer in contrast to 8.4 per square kilometer in the Russian Federation as a whole. The
population pressure in the Krai has been increased by a steady flow of predominantly Russian
migrants and refugees—for example, 203,878 between 1988-1991 and almost 80,000 in 1993. 104
The territorial disputes that are a feature of the intensifying competition for land and housing
in Krasnodar are the legacy not of the deportations but of the settlement of Russians and Cossacks in
the Tsarist period and the division of the North Caucasian peoples in the 1920s and 1930s.
Adygeia:
Adygeia was formerly an AO within Krasnodar Krai until it was upgraded to an autonomous
republic in July 1991 and transferred from the Krai’s jurisdiction. Although the republic is the titular
territory of the Adygei people, the Adygei account for only 22% of the total population with ethnic
Russians comprising 68%. In part because of their minority status within their own republic, the
Adygei national movement proposes the unification of the Circassian peoples of the western North
Caucasus (collectively referred to as the Adyge in Russian sources), of which the Adygei, Shapsug,
Cherkess, and Kabardinians were all part from Tsarist times until the late 1930s when they were
101 Figures for those Russians identifying themselves as Cossacks in Krasnodar Krai (i.e. by having one or more
ancestor who belonged to the Cossack military caste) are based on the results of a public opinion survey carried
out in the Krai in the summer of 1992, the results were published in Kubanskii Kur’er, September 18, 1992
(Krasnodar). Those who carried out the survey estimated that as many as 80,000 people were actively affiliated
with Cossack organizations based on the region’s history as the traditional base of the Kuban Cossacks. The
Kuban Cossack leader, Ataman Gromov, has also claimed 341,000 registered members of his organization (this
information was obtained in an interview with Brian Boeck in 1993).
102 Before the Russian Revolution, approximately 80% of Krasnodar’s population was Ukrainian-speaking––due to
the fact that a Ukrainian dialect was the language used by what was then a predominantly Kuban and Don
Cossack population with strong ties to the Ukrainian steppe. Soviet Russification policies in the 1930s have
been largely responsible for the dramatic decline in Ukrainian language use in the region. There are presently no
mass Ukrainian national movements in the Krai, although there is a small Ukrainian cultural organization in
Krasnodar.
103 Although they are not directly involved in any territorial disputes, relations between the Armenians and Cossack
have been particularly strained, especially after an influx of Armenian refugees into the Krai as a result of the
war in Nagorno-Karabakh and the increasing economic crisis in Armenia. The Armenians are concentrated in
the Black Sea region around Tuapse and Sochi where they account for 20% of the population. Cossack groups
accuse the Armenians of attempting to ‘infiltrate’ the region and of being heavily involved in crime and land
speculation. See, for example, reports on the increasing tension between Armenians and Cossacks in Severnyi
Kavkaz, July 1, 1992.
104 See Severnyi Kavkaz, No.130, July 30, 1992, and Alexander Kritskii, “Krasnodar: Ethno-Demographic
Situation,” in CMG Bulletin, October 1994, pp.30-33. The 1994 figures for migrants and refugees are not yet
available.
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