Sochi has a long history that dates back to Ancient Greek and Roman times when the area was inhabited by the Zygii people. After the 15th century, the region making up Sochi was known as Ubykhia and was controlled by local mountaineer clans.
The word "Sochi" appears to have come from the Circassian "Sshetche". That was the name of an Ubykhi tribe, who lived in the early 19th century were Sochi now stands.
Ubykhi had a developed culture and language. The Western Caucasus had once been populated by numerous tribes of mountaineers. Between the 10th and 12th centuries many other tribes merged to form the Adyghe nationality with common language, which, however, had several delegates. South of them lived the Abkhazians.
The Adyghe majority in that large area united with the Russian state in the middle of the 19th century. Soon a large part of the Western Caucasus came under Turkey. The Adrianople Treaty of 1892 returned the Black Sea coast to Russia. But the Caucasus actually reunited with Russia much later -- after the drawn out war of the Caucasus.
(to be continued...)
