Sochi

Sochi (Russian: Сочи, IPA: [ˈsotɕɪ] ^ⓘ, from Ubykh: Шъуача – seaside) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, and up to 600,000 residents in the urban area. The city covers an area of 176.77 square kilometers (68.25 sq mi), while the Greater Sochi Area covers over 3,502 square kilometers (1,352 sq mi). Sochi stretches across 145 kilometers (90 mi), and is the longest city in Europe, the fifth-largest city in the Southern Federal District, the second-largest city in Krasnodar Krai, and the sixth-largest city on the Black Sea.

Sochi hosted the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games in 2014. It hosted the alpine and Nordic Olympic events at the nearby ski resort of Rosa Khutor in Krasnaya Polyana. It also hosted the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix from 2014 until 2021. It was also one of the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The general consensus (also recognized by the city's own website) is that the name "Sochi" (Russian: Сочи) is the Russified form of the Circassian "Ş̂açə" (Adyghe: Шъачэ) which in turn is of Ubykh-Circassian origin, coming from the Ubykh name "Ş̂uaça" (Ubykh: Шъуача). It is a compound made up from the two Ubykh words "шъуа" (sea) and "ча" (side) and roughly translates to "Seaside/coast". There are other claims and theories, according to Georgian sources, the word comes from the Georgian word for the fir tree, "soch'i" (Georgian: სოჭი).

Colchis 13th century BC–63 AD
Achaemenid Empire 511 BC–330 BC
Kingdom of Pontus 111 BC–62 BC
Roman Empire 62 BC–337 AD
Kingdom of Lazica 337–697
Byzantine Empire 697–786
Kingdom of Abkhazia 778–1008
Kingdom of Georgia 1008–1490
Mongol Empire 1242–1259
Principality of Abkhazia 1491–1829
Ottoman Empire 1578–1829
Circassia 1829–1864
Russian Empire 1864–1917
Russian Republic 1917–1918
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic 1918
Georgian Democratic Republic 1918–1919
South Russia 1919–1920
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic 1920–1991
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic 1922–1991
Russian Federation 1991–present

Before the whole area was conquered by Cimmerian, Scythian and Sarmatian invaders, the Zygii (Proto-Adyghe) people lived in Lesser Abkhazia under the Kingdom of Pontus, then the Roman Empire's influence in antiquity. From the 6th to the 11th centuries, the area successively belonged to the Georgian kingdoms of Lazica and Abkhazia, who built a dozen churches within the city boundaries, the later was unified under the single Georgian monarchy in the 11th century, forming one of the Saeristavo, known as Tskhumi extending its possessions up to Nicopsis. The Christian settlements along the coast were destroyed by the invading Alans, Khazars, Mongols and other nomadic empires whose control of the region was slight. The northern wall of an 11th-century Byzantine basilica still stands in the Loo Microdistrict.

Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the Republic of Genoa had the monopoly of the trade on the shores of the Black Sea, and established colonies and trading posts in the region of the present-day Sochi, the large ones were Layso and Costa.

From the 14th to the 19th centuries, the region was dominated by the Abkhaz, Ubykh, Abazin and Adyghe tribes, the current location of the city of Sochi (Ş̂açə) known as Ubykhia was part of historical Circassia, and was controlled by the native people of the local mountaineer clans of the north-west Caucasus, nominally under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, which was their principal trading partner in the Islamic world.

The coastline was occupied by Russia in 1829 as a result of the Russo-Circassian War and the Russo-Turkish War, 1828–1829; however, the Circassians did not accept the Russian control over Circassia and kept resisting the newly established Russian outposts along the Circassian coast (Adyghe: Адыгэ хы Iушъо). Provision of weapons and ammunition from abroad to the Circassians caused a diplomatic conflict between the Russian Empire and the British Empire that occurred in 1836 over the mission of the Vixen.