Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, situated on the Black Sea coast near the border between Georgia and Russia. Greater Sochi sprawls for 145 kilometers (90 mi) along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains. The city has a permanent population of 343,000; up from 329,000 recorded in the 2002, making it Russia’s largest resort city.
Sochi was established as a fashionable resort area under Joseph Stalin, who had his favorite dacha built in the city; Stalin’s study, complete with a wax statue of the leader, is now open to the public. During Stalin’s reign the coast became dotted with imposing Neoclassical buildings, exemplified by the opulent Rodina and Ordzhonikidze sanatoriums. The centerpiece of this early period is Shchusev‘s Constructivist Institute of Rheumatology (1927–31). The area was continuously developed until the demise of the Soviet Union.
Following Russia’s loss of the traditionally popular resorts of the Crimean peninsula (transferred away from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 by Nikita Khrushchev), Sochi emerged as the unofficial summer capital of the country. During Vladimir Putin‘s term in office, the city witnessed a significant increase in investment, although many Russian holidaymakers still flock to the cheaper resorts of neighbouring Abkhazia (Georgia), Ukraine, or to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.
[caption id="attachment_231038" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Very interesting. While a Persian carpet with the motif of an orgy can be admired in the museum, thousands of women are currently being abused, raped and/or killed outside the museum because they no longer want to wear a headscarf and ...
