EKATERINODAR

ekaterinodar, a town of south russia, chief town of the province of kuban, on the right bank of the river kuban, 85 m. e.n.e. of novo-rossiysk on the railway to rostov-on-don, and in 45 deg. 3' n. and 38 deg. 50' e. it is badly built, on a swampy site exposed to the inundations of the river; and its houses, with few exceptions, are slight structures of wood and plaster. founded by catherine ii. in 1794 on the site of an old town called tmutarakan, as a small fort and cossack settlement, its population grew from 9620 in 1860 to 65,697 in 1897. it has various technical schools, an experimental fruit-farm, a military hospital, and a natural history museum. a considerable trade is carried on, especially in cereals.