Krasnodar is a city and the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Kuban River, approximately 148km northeast of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 744,995.NameKrasnodar was founded on January 12, 1794 as Yekaterinodar . The original name meant "Catherine's Gift", recognizing both Catherine the Great's grant of land in the Kuban region to the Black Sea Cossacks and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, who is considered to be the patron of the city. City status was granted in 1867.On December 7, 1920, as a result of the October Revolution, Yekaterinodar was renamed Krasnodar . The new name consists of Krasno- ; and dar .HistoryThe city originated in 1793 as a military camp, then as a fortress built by the Cossacks to defend imperial borders and to assert Russian dominion over Circassia, a claim which Ottoman Turkey contested. In the first half of the 19th century, Yekaterinodar grew into a busy center of the Kuban Cossacks, gaining official town status in 1867. By 1888 about 45,000 people lived in the city, which had become a vital trade center for southern Russia. In 1897 an obelisk commemorating the two-hundred-year history of the Kuban Cossacks (seen as founded in 1696) was erected in Yekaterinodar.