Winter Olympics Part II: Sochi, Russia

Part II in my three(ish) part series on the Winter Olympics, today is all about the host city for the 2014 Olympic Games: Sochi, Russia.

Sochi, Russia lies on the west coast of the Black Sea, just a few miles west of the Caucus Mountains, one of the traditional divides between Europe and Asia (the others being the Ural Mountains and Dardanelles straights, if you were curious).

Location of Sochi, Russia on the Black Sea. (Wikipedia)

Due to its position on the Black Sea, Sochi enjoys a subtropical climate (roughly the same as the Southeastern United States), and is one of the few places in Russia you can see Palm trees.

Sochi from the Black Sea (Wikipedia Commons)

Beginning in the 14th century, the area, known then as Ubykhia, was controlled by the native people of the nearby Caucus Mountains, the Circassians, and was generally known as Circassia. During this time, the area was supposedly a part of the Ottoma Empire and the Circassians were predominantly a part of Sunni Islam.

In the mid 19th century, Russia, under the Tsars Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander II, began a push to expand its territory into Central Asia. The Ottoman Empire was expelled from the Eastern Caucuses  in 1955, but the Circassians continued fighting in the Western Caucuses until 1964, when Russia took complete control of the region.

Dombay, Caucasus, Russia (by acidka on Flickr)

After the Russian victory, the Muslim Circassians fled to Sochi and were expelled from Russia, generally into other parts of the Ottoman Empire. Numerous Circassians died during the flight and the expulsion and many Circassians today consider this an instance of genocide.

The city of Ubykhia was renamed Sochi in 1896 after a local river. In the first decade of the 20th century, Sochi began to grow into a resort town that would host numerous government officials and wealthy Russians through the harsh Russian winter. The town was favored by Stalin and a key tourist attraction is his Summer Residence, complete with a wax figure of Stalin himself. 

Sochi continued to be developed through the first part of the 20th century, but  didn't regain its status as the Summer Capital of Russia until after the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of the Crimea to Ukraine.

Today, Sochi is home to more than 300,000 people and around 2 million people visit every year. It is also one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Russia,  home to more than 100 ethnic groups.

For more on the People of Sochi today, take a look at this National Geographic article: Sochi, Russia
And the USA Today feature: Where in the World is Sochi?