The name "Krasnaya Polyana" was given by the Greek settlers in 1878 because of the thick overgrowth of fern, the leaves of which had a reddish-brown color in fall. Walter Richmond, a historian of the Circassian genocide notes that Krasnaya Polyana was named after the last stand by the Circassian Ubykhs, of whom many died there in 1864.
History
Although the vicinity is rich in prehistoric dolmens and contains ruins of about twenty medieval forts, the settlement first appears in recorded history in 1835, when a Russian spy, Baron Fyodor Tornau, visited the SadzAbkhazian village of Artquaj in the guise of a Circassian mountaineer. Having spent several days in the village, he recorded his observations in a journal. Among other things, Tornau noted that the village was famous for its honey which was exported by the Sadz people to the Ottoman Empire. By the 1860s, the village was known as Kbaade and became populated with the Akhchipsou branch of the Sadz. In 1864, the area was the scene, significant in Circassian history, of the last battles of the Russian–Circassian War. The area was conquered by four main Russian armies and the end of the prolonged Caucasian War declared. The area became a part of the Russian Empire and those residents who did not swear allegiance to the Empire were removed to the Ottoman Empire. The abandoned aul was replaced with the new settlement of Krasnaya Polyana in 1869. The new settlers were ethnically diverse, including not only Russians, but also Greeks from Stavropol and Estonians, who colonized Estosadok, now a ski resort upstream on the Mzymta. On June 19, 1899, Krasnaya Polyana was visited by an official commission under Nikolay Abaza, with a view to transforming it into Tsarskaya Polyana, Nicholas II's hunting ground in the Western Caucasus. A royal hunting lodge was erected in 1901, followed by the chalets of Counts Sheremetev and Bobrinsky, among other nobles and high-placed dignitaries. Although it was never visited by the Tsar, the village was renamed Romanovsk, after the ruling imperial dynasty. A winding mountain road to Adler was inaugurated in 1898. Following the October Revolution of 1917, the exclusive retreat reverted to its former name and status and gradually dwindled into obscurity. The proximity to Sochi, the "summer capital" of Russia, eventually revived its fortunes in the last quarter of the 20th century, when it achieved a modicum of popularity across the former Soviet Union, despite limited hotel capabilities and installations, and difficulty of access through narrow mountain passes. The loss of ski areas in South Caucasus and Tian Shan after the dissolution of the Soviet Union increased Krasnaya Polyana's prestige and importance for Russia's elites. By the 21st century, the locality had emerged as one of the most sought after ski resorts in the country. This is the favorite skiing area of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who can easily reach Krasnaya Polyana by helicopter from his country residence of Bocharov Ruchey near Dagomys.
Climate
Location and facilities
Krasnaya Polyana is sited against the scenic backdrop of the Caucasus Mountains, which exceed in elevation, at a distance of from the center of Sochi by road and from the Adler-Sochi International Airport. The settlement has been plagued by transport problems: in order to improve this for the 2014 Winter Olympics, a railway line was built, connecting the area with the airport, Sochi Olympic Village, and central Sochi. Krasnaya Polyana today offers many chalets, hotels, and restaurants. Its reputation owes a lot to the development of heliskiing in the middle of the 1990s, which provides access to an important skiing domain. Amateurs can ski downhill through a not-too-dense birch forest, with a vertical drop of. The station at Rosa Khutor has four chairlifts and of delimited tracks., the Alpika Service was being developed by the Gazprom.
Structures
An electricity pylon looking like a snow leopard .
