Krasnodar Women

Dynamo Krasnodar carries a name that has run through Soviet and Russian sport since the club took shape in 1946.

The late 1990s brought the club to its lowest point, a last-place finish in the 1997–98 Super League and relegation. It took until 2009, when Dynamo won the Higher League and returned to the top flight, for the club to begin building toward something else. What followed is remembered in Krasnodar as the golden era: bronze medals in the Super League across 2009–10, 2010–11 and 2015–16, the Russian Cup in 2014 and 2015, and back-to-back CEV Cups in 2014–15 and 2015–16, after already lifting the CEV Challenge Cup in 2013. Yulia Podskalnaya captained the side through much of that run and still holds the club record for appearances.

Matches against the other clubs carrying the Dynamo name — Moscow, Dynamo-LO, Dynamo-Netar, Dynamo-Actar — are known simply as the Dynamo derby. The club has also functioned as a pipeline into the national team, with Olympic champions such as Valentina Ogienko, Vera Duyunova and Natalia Kudreva having come through Krasnodar on their way to the top level of Russian volleyball.

The 2016 financial crisis cut the momentum short. Results slid afterward, bottoming out with a last-place finish in 2018–19, and since then Dynamo has settled into the middle of the table.