Sochi Totally Explained

Everything about Sochi totally explained

Sochi () is a Russian resort city, situated in Krasnodar Krai just north of the southern Russian border. It sprawls along the shores of the Black Sea against the background of the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus Mountains. At, Greater Sochi is claimed to be the longest city in Europe. As of the 2002 Census, it had a population 328,809, down from 336,514 recorded in the 1989 Census. In 2006, the population was estimated to be 395,012. The city has been selected to host the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014.

History

Zygii lived in the area in antiquity. From the 6th to the 15th centuries, the area successively belonged to the Christian kingdoms of Western Georgian Kingdom Egrisi and Abkhazia who built a dozen churches within the city boundaries. The Christian settlements along the coast were destroyed by the invading Gokturks, Khazars, and other nomadic empires whose control of the region was slight. The northern wall of an 11th-century Byzantinesque basilica still stands in the district of Loo.
   From the 15th century onward, the area, known as Ubykhia, was controlled by the local mountaineer clans, nominally under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, which was their principal trading partner in the Muslim world. The coastline was ceded to Russia in 1829 as a result of a Russo-Turkish War, but the Russians had no detailed knowledge of the area until Baron Fyodor Tornau secretly investigated the coastal route from Gelendzhik to Gagra and across the mountains to Kabarda in the 1830s.
   In 1838, the fort of Alexandria, renamed Navaginsky a year later, was founded at the mouth of the Sochi River as part of the Black Sea Coastal Line, a chain of fortifications set up to protect the area from recurring Circassian incursions. At the outbreak of the Crimean War, the garrison was evacuated from Navaginsky in order to prevent its capture by the Turks, who effected a landing on Cape Adler soon after.
   The war over, the bulk of the Circassians relocated to the Ottoman Empire, leaving the littoral largely depopulated. As the coast was being resettled by Russians, Armenians, and Greeks, the abandoned fort was rebuilt in 1864 under the name of Dakhovsky, or Dakhovsky Posad (as it became known in 1874). In 1896, the burgeoning settlement was incorporated into the Black Sea Governorate and acquired its present name, which refers to the local river. Sochi was granted municipal rights in 1917. During the Russian Civil War, the littoral saw sporadic armed clashes involving the Red Army, White movement forces and the Democratic Republic of Georgia. In 1923 Sochi acquired one of its most distinctive features, a railway which runs from Tuapse to Abkhazia within a mile or two from the coastline. Although this branch of the Northern Caucasus Railway may appear somewhat incongruous in the setting of beaches and sanatoriums, it's still operational and vital to the region's transportation infrastructure.
   Sochi was established as a fashionable resort area under Joseph Stalin, who had his favourite dacha built in the city; Stalin's study, complete with a wax statue of the leader, is now open to the public. It was at that time that the coast became dotted with imposing Neoclassical edifices, exemplified by the opulent Rodina and Ordzhonikidze sanatoriums. The centerpiece of an earlier period is Shchusev's Constructivist Institute of Rheumatology (1927-31). The area was extensively developed until the demise of the Soviet Union.
   Following Russia's loss of traditionally popular resorts of the Crimean peninsula (which was summarily detached from the RSFSR by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954), Sochi emerged as the unofficial summer capital of the country. During Vladimir Putin's term in office, the city witnessed a significant increase in investment, although many Russian vacationers still flock to the cheaper resorts of neighbouring Abkhazia(Part of Georgia) or to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

Population

Year	Total population	Urban population
1897	1,300	no data
1926	13,000	no data
1939	71,000	no data
1959	127,000	no data
1979	287,300	no data
1989	336,514	no data
2002	397,103	328,809
2006	395,012	329,481
2007	402,043	331,059

Climate

Sochi has a humid subtropical climate (Koppen climate classification Cfa) at the lower elevations; with winter temperatures rarely falling much below freezing and with the average winter temperature of . The average summer high temperature ranges between and with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding . Average annual precipitation is 1,400 mm.

Layout and landmarks

Sochi is almost alone among larger Russian cities as having the aspect of a subtropical resort. Apart from the scenic Caucasus Mountains, pebbly and sand beaches, the city attracts vacation-goers with its subtropical vegetation, numerous parks, monuments, and extravagant Stalinist architecture. About two million people visit Greater Sochi each summer, when the city is home to the annual film festival "Kinotavr" and a getaway for Russia's elite.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 2,957 km² (730,690 acre) Caucasian Biosphere Reserve, lies just north from the city. Sochi also has Europe's most northerly tea plantations. It is served by the Adler-Sochi International Airport. The Sochi Light Metro is being built, with construction projected to be complete by 2014.

Sochi proper

Central City District, or Sochi proper, covers an area of and, as of 2002 Census has a population of 133,935. The highlights include:

Michael Archangel Cathedral, a diminutive church built in 1873-91 to Kaminsky's designs in order to commemorate the victorious conclusion of the Caucasian War.
The red-granite Archangel Column, erected in 2006 in memory of the Russian soldiers fallen in Sochi during the Caucasian War. It is capped by a 7-metre bronze statue of Sochi's patron saint, Michael the Archangel.
Sochi Art Museum occupies a large building with a four-columned portico, completed in 1939. The elegant Neoclassical design is considered to be the masterpiece of Ivan Zholtovsky.
Arboretum, a large botanical garden with tropical trees from many countries and the Mayors Alley - the line of palm-trees planted by the mayors of different cities of the world.
The Winter Theatre (1934-37) is another rigorously Neoclassical edifice, surrounded by 88 Corinthian columns, with a pediment bearing the statues of Terpsichore, Melpomene and Thalia, all three cast by Vera Mukhina.
The Maritime Passenger Terminal (1955) is notable for its distinctive 71-metre-high steepled tower and four statues symbolizing the cardinal points.
The Railway Terminal Station (1952) is probably Sochi's most familiar building, being the first landmark seen by visitors on approach to the city. It is a remarkable example of Stalinist architecture.
The Riviera Park was established by Aleksey Khludov's son in 1898 in the part of the city which later became known as Khludovskaya. The park is popular with tourists and local residents alike. It has a variety of attractions, including an outcrop of funny statues and a "glade of friendship" where magnolia trees were planted by every Soviet cosmonaut, among other notables.
The Tree of Friendship is a lemon tree planted by Otto Schmidt in 1934. Multiple cultivars from foreign countries were grafted onto this tree as a token of friendship. The associated museum boasts a collection of 20,000 presents from all over the world.

Lazarevsky City District

Lazarevsky City District lies to the north-west from the city centre and has a population of 63,239 people (2002 Census). It is the largest city district by area, covering some and comprising several microdistricts:

Lazarevskoye, 59 km from the downtown core, contains a delphinarium, an old church (1903) and a new church (1999). The settlement was founded as a Russian military outpost in 1839 and was named after Admiral Lazarev.

Loo, 18 km from the city centre, was once owned by Princes Loov, a noble Abkhazian family claiming patrilineal descent from King Anos, whose royal title was sanctioned by Emperor Heraclius in 623 AD. The district contains the ruins of a medieval church, founded in the 8th century, rebuilt in the 11th century, and converted into a fortress in the Late Middle Ages.

Dagomys, 18 km from the city centre, has been noted for its botanical garden, established by order of Nicholas II, as well as tea plantations and factories. A sprawling hotel complex was opened there in 1982. Dagomys adjoins Bocharov Ruchey, a dacha built for Kliment Voroshilov in the 1950s, but later upgraded into a country residence of the President of Russia, where he normally spends his vacations and often confers with leaders of other states.
This will be the Russian Federation's first time to host the Winter Olympic Games. Russia was a Soviet Socialist Republic of the former Soviet Union when Moscow hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics. The Russian government has committed to a $12 billion investment package, shared 60-40 between the government and private sector.

Environmental impact

"Sadly, the Olympic bid is being used as a way for construction companies simply to get their hands on the most valuable land," Greenpeace Russia’s Mikhail Kreindlin said. "The last time the Russian government looked at this issue, which was in January, 2007 they made no mention of the Olympic bid. They simply said that the land could be used for social infrastructure, whereas it was patently obvious that it would be snapped up by elite resorts and golf clubs [with] nothing to do with the Olympics." Putin had apparently chided construction firms working round-the-clock to get Sochi up to ready, the St. Petersburg Times reported. "It would be a huge mistake not to take into account what the environmental organizations think", said Putin. "We are going to make sure that builders maintain contact with" environmentalists, who had voiced concerns about the work’s impact on the Sochi National Park, in Western Caucasus.
Greenpeace Russia had told the US-funded Radio Liberty on 12 September 2006 that it wanted to prevent construction work inside a national park, which it said would break Russia's environmental protection laws.

Construction work

State-controlled Unified Energy Systems would spend 30 billion roubles (about US $ 1.17 billion) on upgrading the electricity infrastructure in the Sochi area by 2014, the utility had announced on 5 July 2007, Moscow’s Kommersant daily reported the next day. The utility would have to build or modernize four thermal power stations and four hydroelectric plants — and replace the Central-Shepsi electricity transmission line, which, the daily said, often failed in bad weather. The new power line would run partly on pylons and partly across the bed of the Black Sea. By 2011, UES would increase the resort’s power supply by 1129 MW — of which 300 MW would be used for Olympic sports facilities “The cost of the work is estimated at 83.6 billion roubles (about US $3.26 billion), of which 49.9 billion roubles (about US $1.94 billion) will go to investments in the electricity grid,” utility head Anatoly Chubais said. He wouldn't say how much of the bill the state would foot. In February 2007, when UES had planned to spend 48.8 billion roubles (about US $1.9 billion) on the Sochi area, the share the state had been ready to pay had been 38 billion roubles (about US $1.48 billion) of that.

Notable people from Sochi

Yevgeny Kafelnikov - tennis player

Boris Nemtsov - former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia

Mordechai Spiegler - 1970s Russian-Israeli football player and manager.

Sister cities

Sochi is twinned with the following cities:

Cheltenham, United Kingdom, from 1959

Menton, France, from 1966)

Rimini, Italy, from 1977

Espoo, Finland, from 1989

Long Beach, USA (1990)

Trabzon, Turkey, from 1991

Pärnu, Estonia, from 1994 Further Information

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