- published: 09 Aug 2014
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Stavropol Krai (Russian: Ставропо́льский край, Stavropolsky kray) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai). Its administrative center is the city of Stavropol. Population: 2,786,281 (2010 Census).
Stavropol Krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the northern slopes of Caucasus Major. It borders on Rostov Oblast, Krasnodar Krai, the Republic of Kalmykia, the Republic of Dagestan, the Chechen Republic, the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, and the Karachay–Cherkess Republic.
Stavropol is traversed by the northeasterly lines of equal latitude and longitude.
According to the 2010 Census, the population of the krai is 2,786,281; up from 2,735,139 recorded in the 2002 Census and further up from 2,410,379 recorded in the 1989 Census. The population of the krai is concentrated in the Kuban River and the Kuma River drainage basin, which used to be traditional Cossack land (see History of Cossacks). The Kuban Cossacks are now generally considered to be ethnic Russians, even though they are still an important minority in their own right in this area. Other notable ethnic groups include the Armenians (mostly Christian Hamsheni) and Greeks who have been settling here since at least the 18th century.
Stavropol (Russian: Ста́врополь; IPA: [ˈstavrəpəlʲ]) is a city and the administrative center of Stavropol Krai, Russia. Population: 398,266 (2010 Census preliminary results); 354,867 (2002 Census); 318,298 (1989 Census).
Stavropol was founded on October 22, 1777 following the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 as a military encampment and designated as a city in 1785.[citation needed] Prince Grigory Potemkin, who founded Stavropol as one of ten fortresses built between Azov and Mozdok at the request of Catherine the Great, played a leading role in the creation of the city. Don Cossacks, particularly those from the Khopersky Regiment, settled the area in and around the cities of Stavropol and Georgiyevsk with a mission to defend borders of the Empire.
The name "Stavropol" is a Russian rendition of a fictitious Greek name, Stauropolis (historically the name of an unrelated archbishopric in Caria, a Roman province in present Anatolia), meaning "the city of the cross". According to a legend, soldiers found a huge cross made out of stone when they were building the fortress in the future city location.[citation needed]