Sadzen was an ill-defined region on the eastern shore of the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

, which used to be settled by the Sadz

Sadz

The Sadz or Asadzwa, also Jigets are a sub-ethnic group of the Abkhazians. They are sometimes purported to have originated from the Sanigoi tribe mentioned by the Classic authors...

 people, hence the name. In the mid-19th century, it came to be known in Russian and Western literature as Lesser Abkhazia.

Lesser Abkhazia was the term used to refer to those lands of Abkhazia

Abkhazia

Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...

 that were not subject to the direct control of the ruling Chachba dynasty. After the Russian-Circassian War

Russian-Circassian War

The Russian–Circassian War refers to a series of battles and wars in Circassia, the northwestern part of the Caucasus, which were part of the Russian Empire's conquest of the Caucasus lasting approximately 150 years, starting under the reign of Tsar Peter the Great and being completed in 1864...

, the bulk of the mountaineers relocated

Muhajir (Caucasus)

Circassians, the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Caucasus were cleansed from their homeland at the end of the Caucasian War by victorious Russia, which by its manner of suppression of the Caucasus directed at the Crimean Tartars and Circassians can be credited with "inventing the strategy of...

 to the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, while the depopulated coastline was gradually colonized by Christian settlers of various ethnicities.

The northern part of Sadzen today forms part of Greater Sochi, while the southern part falls within the borders

Gagra district

Gagra District is a district of Abkhazia. It corresponds to the Georgian district by the same name. In medieval times, it was known as the southern part of Sadzen. It is located in the western part of Abkhazia, and the river Psou serves as a border with Krasnodar Kray of Russia. Its capital is...

 of Abkhazia

Abkhazia

Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...

. The Sochi conflict

Sochi conflict

Sochi conflict was a three-party border conflict which involved the counterrevolutionary White Russian forces, Bolshevik Red Army and the Democratic Republic of Georgia each of which sought the control over the Black Sea town Sochi and the adjacent region...

took place in Sadzen in 1918-1920.