Russian Black Sea coast () also rarely Circassian coast (, ; , ) was the coast of historical

Circassia Circassia ( ), also known as Zichia, was a country and a historical region in . 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 ...

on the Black Sea before 1864, extending from

Anapa Anapa (, , ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea near the Sea of Azov. As of the 2021 Russian census, it had a population of 81,863. It is one of the largest ...

in the north to Adler in the south, and including cities like

Tuapse Tuapse (; , Ṫuapsă ) is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, south of Gelendzhik and north of Sochi. Population: Tuapse is a sea port and the northern center of a resort zone which extends sou ...

and

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...

. The coastline was ceded to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in 1829 as a result of the

Caucasian War The Caucasian War () or the Caucasus War was a 19th-century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It consisted of a series o ...

and the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

, However, in 1828 the

Circassians The Circassians or Circassian people, also called Cherkess or Adyghe (Adyghe language, Adyghe and ), are a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation who originated in Circassia, a region and former country in t ...

did not admit Russian control over

because Circassia was not considered a part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, instead claiming the

were the real owners of Circassia. Thus, they kept resisting the newly established Russian outposts along the coast and the inner lands in the

Russian–Circassian War The Russo-Circassian War, also known as the Russian invasion of Circassia, was the 101-year-long invasion of Circassia by the Russian Empire. The conflict started in 1763 ( O.S.) with Russia assuming authority in Circassia, followed by Circa ...

.Exposition of the Historical Museum of Sochi, partly reflected in Russian i
История Сочи
(History of Sochi) at the official site of the city
information from the Historical Museum of Sochi A significant part of the Black Sea coast of Russia is located in the subtropical zone of varying degrees of humidification and is a

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that aims to provide most of a vacationer's needs. This includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel ...

area for most of its length.

Geography

The Russian part of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and Crimea lies in the extreme northern part of the subtropical zone. The Anapa-Tuapse, Alushta-Kerch and Hero City of Sevastopol strips of the Russian Black Sea coast are arid subtropical regions of Russia, similar in climate to the southern Caspian coast of the

Republic of Dagestan Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...

. The Tuapse-Sochi (Adler) and Yalta-Alushta strips are the only humid subtropical regions in Russia and the northernmost in the world. In the eastern part of the Black Sea, the boundary between climatic zones runs right along the chains of the Main Caucasian Ridge, i.e. the Greater Caucasus is a natural obstacle, a barrier separating two different air masses. To the north lies the temperate zone, and to the south the subtropical zone. The mountain system of the Greater Caucasus reinforces the boundary between them, making it difficult to transfer cold air masses from north to south, to Transcaucasia, and warm air masses from south to north, to Cis-Caucasia. The mountain barrier in the form of the Greater Caucasus is particularly noticeable in winter, when the Cis-Caucasus is filled with cold air masses from the north and northeast, and Transcaucasia is protected from their invasion. In the far north, the coastline of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus is winding, lowland, there are many swamps (the Kuban Delta), fresh lakes and brackish estuaries (Vityazevsky Liman and others). There are sand spits, shoals, alluvial deposits, floodplains, islands and peninsulas (Taman). After Anapa, the coast becomes mountainous, with two large bay ports (Novorossiysk Bay and Gelendzhik Bay). After Gelendzhik, the coast is flat, interrupted only by the mouths and

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

s of small rivers flowing from the Caucasus Mountains into the Black Sea. In places the coast is steep and rocky, the most prominent being Kiseleva Rock near the town of Tuapse. A distinctive feature of the Russian Black Sea coast is the presence of several types of beaches in a relatively short 500 kilometre stretch. There are soft beaches with fine sand, hard beaches with large pebbles, bays and rocky beaches. In the Anapa region there are quartz sand beaches.

References

{{Black Sea, state=collapsed Circassian history Geography of North Caucasus Coasts of the Black Sea Coasts of Russia