A state entity that existed on the territory of the former Kuban region of the Russian Empire, where the Kuban Cossacks lived (a military-agricultural and service class with autonomism traditions).

 

It was proclaimed as part of the future Russian Federative Republic on January 28, 1918, by the Kuban Regional Host Rada headed by Nikolay Ryabovol. Yekaterinodar became the capital of the Republic. The Kuban Regional Rada was the supreme authority, from which the Kuban Legislative Rada was set apart later. The executive power was headed by an elected Chief Ataman (he was the commander-in-chief at the same time) who appointed the Government accountable to the Legislative Rada. Aleksander Filimonov was elected the first Ataman of the Republic.

 

On March 14, 1918, the Red troops took Yekaterinodar. On March 30, the exiled regional government (chaired by Luka Bych) signed an agreement on the Kuban Army detachments joining the Volunteer Army with subordination to its command (since January 1919, the command of the Armed Forces of the South Russia). After Yekaterinodar was taken by the Volunteer Army in August 1918, the Republic’s authorities returned to the city, and elections to the Rada were held. It was torn by disagreements between the Chernomortsy (led by Luka Bych), who tended towards an alliance with Ukraine and advocated federative relations with Russia, and the Lineytsy (lead by Aleksander Filimonov), who wanted the autonomy of the Kuban region as part of Russia.

 

The Kuban government supported the fight of Anton Denikin against the Soviet government but not his slogan about a united and indivisible Russia. Within the Republic, it significantly restricted the rights of nonresidents (immigrants from other regions, who made up about half of the Kuban population), which aggravated the Civil War in the region. Part of the Kuban leaders (Luka Bych, Nikolay Ryabovol, Aleksey Kulabukhov) openly criticized the Volunteer Army leadership, demanded the independence of the Kuban army, conducted independent negotiations with the Ukrainian State and the Democratic Republic of Georgia. The murder of the chairman of the Kuban Legislative Rada Nikolay Ryabovol in June 1919 (the perpetrators were not found, the officers of the Volunteer Army were suspected) caused unrest in the Kuban and led to a crisis in relations with Denikin.

 

In autumn, Rada representatives headed by Luka Bych sent a separate delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. The delegation signed an agreement with representatives of the former Mountainous Republic Government, which threatened the position of the Whites in the Caucasus. In response, on November 7, 1919, Denikin imposed martial law in the Kuban and handed over power to the military governor Viktor Pokrovsky, who put the signatories of the treaty with the Mountaineers on trial for high treason (Aleksey Kulabukhov was executed). After that, the Kuban Rada adopted a declaration of unity with the Volunteer Army. The power of the Ataman who was given the right to dissolve the Rada was strengthened. At the beginning of 1920 amidst the Red offensive, Denikin made some concessions and agreed to create an independent Kuban army (commanded by Andrey Shkuro, since April, by Sergey Ulagay) and established the Supreme Host Krug [Assembly] of the Don, Kuban, and Terek.

 

In March 1920, the Kuban was occupied by Soviet troops. The Kuban People’s Republic ceased to exist. Part of the Kuban army evacuated to the Crimea, part surrendered.