During the years of the Civil War, an independent Kuban People’s Republic (1918–1920) was proclaimed on the lands of the former Kuban Oblast. Executive power in the republic was exercised by the Kuban Regional Government. In March 1918, the Bolsheviks captured the capital of Kuban, Yekaterinodar, and in April of the same year the Kuban Soviet Republic was formed. In August 1918, the troops of the Volunteer Army (a formation of the White movement) occupied Yekaterinodar and the Kuban Oblast. After the liberation of Kuban by the Red Army (May 1920), the Kuban People’s Republic and its government were abolished, and Kuban became part of the RSFSR.
In the period from 1918 to 1919, the Kuban Regional Government issued three stamp issues with surcharges indicating new denominations on stamps of the Russian Empire.
The first issue of eight stamps appeared in September 1918, in accordance with an order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A typographic overprint in black ink—either the denomination numeral alone or the denomination numeral with the letter “r”—was applied to Russian Empire stamps of the 17th and 21st issues. The stamps were valid for use within Kuban and in localities occupied by the Volunteer Army.
The second issue, produced in 1919, consisted of a typographic overprint on Russian postage stamps of the 17th and 21st issues and on savings stamps, in black ink: in one line, the denomination numeral and the letter “k,” or in two lines, the denomination numeral and the word “ruble” (“rubles”).
The third issue, of 1920, consisted of a typographic overprint in black ink in two lines: the denomination numeral and the abbreviation “kop.” (“rubles”) on Russian stamps of the 17th and 21st issues.