Kuban in the context of South Russia (1919–1920)

Krasnodar Krai (Russian: Краснода́рский край, romanized: Krasnodarskiy kray, [krəsnɐˈdarskʲɪj kraj]) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and is administratively a part of the Southern Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Krasnodar. The third most populous federal subject in Russia, it had a population of 5,838,273 as of the 2021 Census.

Krasnodar Krai is formally and informally referred to as Kuban (Russian: Кубань), a term denoting the historical region of Kuban situated between the Sea of Azov and the Kuban River which is predominantly within the krai. It is bordered by Rostov Oblast to the north, Stavropol Krai to the east, Karachay-Cherkessia to the south-east. Adygea is an enclave entirely within the krai. Krasnodar Krai shares an international border with Georgia and borders annexed Crimea to the west, across the Kerch Strait.

The Soviet famine of 1930–1933 was a famine in the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine and different parts of Russia (Kazakhstan, North Caucasus, Kuban, Volga region, the southern Urals, and western Siberia). Major factors included the forced collectivization of agriculture as a part of the First Five-Year Plan and forced grain procurement from farmers. These factors in conjunction with a massive investment in heavy industry decreased the agricultural workforce. It is estimated that 5.7 to 8.7 million people died from starvation across the Soviet Union. In addition, 50 to 70 million Soviet citizens starved during the famine but ultimately survived.

During this period Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the kulaks (land-owning proprietors) "to be liquidated as a class". As collectivization expanded, the persecution of the kulaks, ongoing since the Russian Civil War, culminated in a massive campaign of state persecution in 1929–1932, including arrests, deportations, and executions of kulaks. Some kulaks responded with acts of sabotage such as killing their livestock and destroying crops designated for consumption by factory workers. Despite the vast death toll in the early stages, Stalin chose to continue the Five Year Plan and collectivization. By 1934, the Soviet Union had established a base of heavy industry, at the cost of millions of lives.

Circassia (/sɜːrˈkæʃə/ sir-KASH-ə), also known as Zichia, was a country and a historical region in Eastern Europe. It spanned the western coastal portions of the North Caucasus, along the northeastern shore of the Black Sea. Circassia was conquered by the Russian Empire during the Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864), after which approximately 80–97% of the Circassian people were either exiled or massacred in the Circassian genocide.

In the medieval era, Circassia was nominally ruled by an elected Grand Prince, but individual principalities and tribes were autonomous. In the 18th–19th centuries, a central government began to form. The Circassians also dominated the northern end of the Kuban River, but were eventually pushed back to the south of the Kuban after suffering losses to military raids conducted by the Mongol Empire, the Golden Horde, and the Crimean Khanate. Their reduced borders then stretched from the Taman Peninsula to North Ossetia. The term Circassia is also used as the collective name of various Circassian states that were established within historical Circassian territory, such as Zichia.

The Kuban oblast was a province (oblast) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of the Kuban and Circassia regions. It was created in 1860 out of Kuban Cossack territories that had once been part of the Crimean Khanate and the land of the Circassians. It was dissolved upon the assumption of supreme authority by the Kuban Rada in 1917 and the independence of the Kuban People's Republic in 1918. Its capital was the city of Yekaterinodar (present-day Krasnodar).

Kuban Cossacks (Russian: Кубанские казаки, romanized: Kubanskiye kazaki; Ukrainian: кубанські козаки, romanized: kubanski kozaky), or Kubanians (Russian: кубанцы, kubantsy; Ukrainian: кубанці, kubantsi), are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Most of the Kuban Cossacks are descendants of different major groups of Cossacks who were re-settled to the western Northern Caucasus in the late 18th century (estimated 230,000 to 650,000 initial migrants). The western part of the region (Taman Peninsula and adjoining region to the northeast) was settled by the Black Sea Cossack Host who were originally the Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine, from 1792. The eastern and southeastern part of the host was previously administered by the Khopyour and Kuban regiments of the Caucasus Line Cossack Host and Don Cossacks, who were re-settled from the Don from 1777.

The Kuban Cossack Host (Кубанское казачье войско), the administrative and military unit composed of Kuban Cossacks, formed in 1860 and existed until 1918. During the Russian Civil War, the Kuban Cossacks proclaimed the Kuban People's Republic, and played a key role in the southern theatre of the conflict. The Kuban Cossacks suffered heavily during the Soviet policy of decossackization between 1917 and 1933. Hence, during the Second World War, Cossacks fought both for the Red Army and against them with the German Wehrmacht. The modern Kuban Cossack Host was re-established in 1990 at the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Kuban People's Republic or Kuban National Republic (Russian: Кубанская Народная Республика, romanized: Kubanskaya Narodnaya Respublika; Ukrainian: Кубанська Народна Республiка, romanized: Kubanska Narodna Respublika, abbreviated as KPR or KNR, Cyrillic: КНР) was an anti-Bolshevik state during the Russian Civil War, comprising the territory of the Kuban region in Russia.

The republic was proclaimed by the Kuban Rada on 28 January 1918 and declared its independence on 16 February. It included the entire territory of the former Kuban Oblast of the Russian Empire. During its brief independence, it unsuccessfully sought union with the Ukrainian People's Republic. The Kuban People's Republic was de facto occupied by the forces of Anton Denikin on 6 November 1919, before being fully occupied and annexed by the Soviets in the spring of 1920.