Pink Ukraine (Ukrainian: Малиновий Клин, Russian: Малиновый Клин) is a region in Kuban with a significant Ukrainian population.[1]
Ukrainians first began settling in the region at the end of the 18th century following the dissolution of the Cossack Hetmanate, mainly of Zaporizhzhian Cossacks and peasants. As the 7th Russo-Turkish war brewed, the Russian Empire needed military power, and General Grigory Potemkin helped re-create Cossack hosts to fight alongside Russian soldiers against the Ottomans, most notably the Black Sea Cossack Host. These Cossack soldiers later founded at least 40 towns in the Kuban region, and many resettled there.
The Kuban Rada was formed by Cossack delegates of the regional congress of representatives from the settlements of Kuban following the February Revolution of 1917. In November of the same year, it elected its own regional government from among the members, then declared the creation of the Kuban People's Republic on January 28, 1918. this state was centered around the city of Yekaterinodar, and dissolved by 1920.
Up until the early 20th century, many of the settlers considered themselves "Little Russians" (Ukrainian: малоросів), another name for Ukrainians. Many also often preserved their ancestors' language and cultural traditions. According to censuses in the 1930s, around 62% of the population in the Krasnodar Territory self-identified as Ukrainian, but this share significantly dropped during the Holodomor.[2]
In the present day, around 82% of the population in Krasnodar Krai self-identify as "Russians", even though their dialect still somewhat resembles the dialects around the Dnipro river.[3]
Based on the 1897 Russian Census for Kuban Oblast, there are a total of 1,918,881 people at the time. Here are the following results based on ethnicity:[4]
The demographic data for Kuban Okrug in the 1926 Soviet census is as follows:[5]
There were other regions with significant Ukrainian population in modern-day Russia, including Yellow Ukraine in the Volga Basin, Grey Ukraine in Central Asia and Green Ukraine in the Russian Far East.