Situated on the Kuban River, Krasnodar is a city in southern Russia. It is the administrative center of the Krasnodar Krai region and it began life as a Cossack fortress. Krasnodar was originally named Ekaterinodar which mean "Catherine's Gift" in recognition of the fact that the land it was built on was given to the Black Sea Cossacks by Catherine the Great. The city became a busy center of trade for the Kuban Cossacks and one of the most vital in southern Russian. However, after the Russian Revolution of 1917 it was renamed Krasnodar which can either be translated "beautiful gift" or "gift of the reds". Krasnodar saw its fair share of struggles and damage during the Great Patriotic War but was quickly rebuilt afterwards.
