Kuban Oblast
The drives seem to have started in 1861–62. Some wealthy Circassians had already left in 1860 and 10,000 Kabardians in 1861. In April 1862, 15,000 Temirgoys were driven to the coast and in May the pacified Natukhajs. In May 1862 a commission was formed to organize the deportation. Each deported family was to be given 10 rubles. The number of people expelled was several hundred thousand, with a large percent dying on the march, waiting on the beach, on overloaded boats or of plague after arrival on the Turkish shore. The future Kuban Oblast lost 94 percent of its population. Richmond estimates population changes in the northwest Caucasus as follows: (1835 and 1882, in thousands) Circassians: at least 571 to 36 and Kabardians: 15 to 15; non Circassian Abazas : 70 to 10; and Karachays: 24 to 17. Russians and Ukrainians however increased: 110 to 926. The surviving Circassians were south of Krasnodar, inside the Laba River bend and on the west side of the upper Kuban and some Shapsugs around on the Black Sea coast.