Kuban Oblast

The militarized nature of the Kuban meant that, rather than a traditional imperial guberniya (governorate) with uyezds (districts), the territory was administered by the Kuban Cossacks as an oblast which was split into otdels (regions [отдел], of which there were seven in 1888). Each otdel would have its own sotnias which in turn would be split into stanitsas and khutors. The ataman (commander) for each region was not only responsible for the military preparation of the Cossacks, but for the local administration duties. Local stanitsa and khutor atamans were elected, but approved by the atamans of the otdel. These, in turn, were appointed by the supreme ataman of the Kuban host, who was in turn appointed directly by the Russian emperor. Prior to 1870, this system of legislature in the oblast remained a robust military one and all legal decisions were carried out by the stanitsa ataman and two elected judges. Afterwards, however, the system was bureaucratized and the judicial functions were independent of the stanitsas.

Ethnic groups in 1897; yellow represents Ukrainians and red, Russians (in Ukrainian)

In 1897, 1,918,881 people inhabited the oblast. Ukrainians constituted a relative majority in the population, with Russians and several much smaller minorities making up the remainder. The total Slavic population was 1,742,162 (90.8%).

Ethnic groups

Ethnic groups in the oblast in 1897 were as follows:[1]

TOTAL	1,918,881	100%
Ukrainians	908,818	47.4%
Russians	816,734	42.6%
Circassians	38,488	2%
Karachays	26,877	1.4%
Germans	20,778	1.1%
Pontic Greeks	20,137	1%
Armenians	13,926	0.7%

A 1916 map of Kuban Oblast with the neighboring Black Sea Governorate and part of Sukhumi Okrug (in Russian).