History of Kabardinka

Kabardinka sits on the northern shore of Tsemes Bay, in a narrow corridor between the Markotkh Ridge and the sea. This corridor shaped its entire history: first it was used by Greek traders and Circassian communities, then it became a section of the Russian Empire’s Black Sea Coastal Line, and by the end of the 19th century it had turned into a convenient harbour for summer residents and early holidaymakers. In less than two centuries, the village managed to be a military fort, a Greek colony, a front-line zone and an urban-type settlement before finally settling into the status of a seaside resort.

Before the fortress

People settled here long before Russian barracks appeared. Archaeologists have found fragments of amphorae and ceramic vessels from the 5th–7th centuries BC in the surrounding area — traces of ancient Greek seafarers who put in at the coves of Tsemes Bay. In the Middle Ages, the narrow coastal strip between the sea and the Markotkh Ridge belonged to the habitat zone of the Circassian (Adyghe) communities. On the site of the future fortification stood a small aul, and its name stuck to the surrounding area long before regular cartography appeared.

For Russia, the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus remained a border zone for a long time, reached only by rare expeditions. The situation was changed by the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829: the eastern shore of the Black Sea passed to the empire, but there was no real control over the mountain peoples. To close the coast to arms smuggling and maritime trade with the Turks, the government began building a chain of forts from Anapa to Abkhazia — the Black Sea Coastal Line.

The Alexandrian fortification and the Caucasian War

Work in the area of present-day Kabardinka began in the summer of 1836. On 19 July, a detachment under the command of Lieutenant General A. Velyaminov founded a new military fortification at the foot of Mount Doob, at the mouth of the small Nakopse River. It was named Alexandrian — in honour of Nicholas I’s consort, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. A few months later it emerged that a fort of the same name was also being built in the south, in the area of the future Sochi. To distinguish the names, on 15 May 1839 Nicholas I renamed the northern fortification Kabardinsky — after the 80th Kabardinsky Infantry Regiment, whose soldiers built and guarded it.

By 1841, the garrison had grown to 330 infantry, and seven artillery pieces stood behind the earthen ramparts. Service here was considered one of the hardest along the entire coastal line: malaria, dysentery and constant raids by the mountain peoples. The fort closed the entrance to Tsemes Bay and the approaches to the future Novorossiysk, but had almost no autonomy of its own — supplies came only by sea, and rare forays into the mountains ended in gunfights.

The Crimean War broke this system. In 1854, faced with the threat of an Anglo-French fleet landing, the Russian command decided to abandon the coastal line’s fortifications and blow them up so they would not fall to the enemy. The garrison of the Kabardinsky fort was evacuated by sea, and the stone and earth structures were destroyed. For several years the coast was again left without a Russian presence.

The Russians only returned here after the end of the Caucasian War in 1864. The mass exodus of the Circassian population to the Ottoman Empire — the Muhajir movement — freed up vast lands along the coast, and the government began systematic colonisation. This ended the military chapter of Kabardinka. The ruins of the fort stood here for a few more years, and then a completely different settlement rose above them.

Greek settlers and the first dachas

The civilian history of Kabardinka opens in 1869: that year, the settlement near the former Kabardinsky fort was officially given its present name. The government called on Pontic Greeks, retired Cossacks and soldiers to settle the empty lands, promising exemption from taxes and land allotments. The main flow came from Turkey and the southern shore of the Caucasus, and the settlers occupied the strip by the sea near the fortress ruins.

The 1870 family census recorded 65 Greek families here — the first generation of the new village’s founders. The community established itself quickly: the Greeks brought with them skills in viticulture, tobacco growing and sea trades, opened their own schools, and traded with Novorossiysk and Gelendzhik. In 1872, a stone church in the name of Saint Panteleimon was built in the village with funds raised by the parishioners.

By the end of the 19th century, the settlement was becoming known beyond Kuban. Thanks to the ridges that shield the coast from precipitation, the dry, mild climate drew capital-city doctors, retired officers and part of the Saint Petersburg nobility. New residents took plots for dachas, built manor houses, planted vineyards and laid down wine cellars. An informal dacha class began to take shape. It was precisely this class that laid down the tradition of using the coast as a resort — a tradition that would outlive both the revolution and the war.

From the revolution to the Great Patriotic War

The revolution and the Civil War did not spare the coast either: changes of power, requisitions and population outflow became common troubles of the region. Nevertheless, Kabardinka held on: according to the 1920 census, about 2,140 people lived in the village and two schools were operating. These figures made Kabardinka a noticeable and well-developed settlement compared with the neighbouring stanitsas.

In 1922, the best coastal dachas, nationalised by the new government, were transferred to the Administration of Resorts of Kuban and the Black Sea Region. Rest homes and sanatorium-colonies for homeless children were opened in the former manorial houses. This was the first wave of “socialist” resort development on the coast. By the end of the 1920s, Kabardinka had established itself as a small medical spot: dry air, a pebble beach and no industry.

The 1930s hit the Greek population particularly hard. Mass dekulakisation, repressions and deportations led to the closure of the Greek school, and part of the community was forced to leave these places. At the same time, new health facilities were being built. By the summer of 1941, ten sanatoriums and rest homes were already operating in Kabardinka, receiving holidaymakers from across the Union.

The Great Patriotic War turned Kabardinka from a quiet seaside village into a front-line zone. In the autumn of 1942, German troops approached Novorossiysk, and Tsemes Bay came under attack from land, air and sea. The rest homes in Kabardinka were converted into military hospitals: the settlement’s buildings and parks became a rear medical base for the defenders of Novorossiysk and Malaya Zemlya.

On the neighbouring Cape Penay, five kilometres from Kabardinka, Captain Andrey Zubkov’s stationary Battery No. 394 was deployed — four gun emplacements cut into the rocky ground. The battery fired on German transports entering the bay and for almost a year kept the waters of the Tsemes Gulf under control, despite constant bombardment and shelling from the enemy-held shore. This section of the defence is considered one of the key ones on the Novorossiysk axis. The name of Zubkov, who became a Hero of the Soviet Union, was later given to the battery complex itself, which was turned into a memorial.

The war years cost Kabardinka dearly. The settlement and its surroundings contain four mass graves. The largest holds the remains of about 820 Red Army soldiers, sailors and civilians who died in 1942–1943. By the time Novorossiysk was liberated in September 1943, the sanatoriums of Kabardinka had been partly destroyed, and part of the residential development had to be rebuilt.

From urban-type settlement to today’s resort

Post-war reconstruction went hand in hand with a new wave of resort development on the coast. In 1958, Kabardinka received the status of an urban-type settlement. The authorities saw it no longer as a village but as a promising link in the resort network. In 1960, a separate decision began to develop it as a children’s climatological resort. Pioneer camps and health groups of schoolchildren from all over the country were sent here; the emphasis was placed on the dry air and mild climate. Boarding-house buildings were built, parks were laid out, and the embankment was reinforced.

Kabardinka retained its urban-type settlement status until 1992. With the collapse of the Union and the reform of local self-government, it was returned to the category of rural settlements, but in essence nothing changed: sanatoriums, year-round boarding houses and the private sector continued to operate. In the 1990s, departmental health facilities gradually passed to new owners, guest houses and mini-hotels were added, and from the early 2000s a network of private resort infrastructure grew up along the shore and into the interior of the settlement.

The hallmark of this new era became the Old Park — a themed architectural ensemble in Kabardinka itself. It was begun in the 1990s by a local journalist, Alexander Alekseev, who had no formal architectural education. Gradually, scaled-down replicas of an ancient temple, a Japanese pagoda, an Egyptian pyramid, a medieval castle and more than two dozen other era-zones appeared in the open air. By the 2010s, the park had become one of the most recognisable spots in the Gelendzhik district, and Kabardinka ceased to be perceived solely as a Soviet-style children’s health resort.

According to the 2021 census, 8,690 people lived in Kabardinka. This figure is comparable to pre-war levels, yet the settlement itself has changed beyond recognition: today it is first and foremost a resort rather than a rural settlement. Administratively, Kabardinka is subordinate to Gelendzhik and lives in a special rhythm: a quiet off-season gives way to a noisy summer, when the settlement’s population grows several times over thanks to the holidaymakers. Nearly 190 years have passed since the founding of the Alexandrian fortification in 1836. During this time, Kabardinka has changed its appearance more than once, but the narrow strip of shore squeezed between the sea and the Markotkh Ridge has remained the same as it was on the day the first fort was laid.