First gal

In the north-west and north, the rural administration (village) of the First Gal is bordered by s / a (village) Mahur ; in the north - with s / a (village) Okum ; in the east - with s / a (villages) Gumrysh and Rechkhu ; in the south (along the Eristskali River (Ertskar) ) - with the city of Gal and s / a Mahundzhra of the Gali district ; in the west - with the village of Shashalat, Ochamchira district .

According to the 1989 census, the population of the Pirveli-Gali Village Council (without the village of Tskhiri ) was 5,552; according to the 2011 census, the population of the First Gal rural administration was 2,256, mostly Georgians (91.4%) and Mingrelians (6.1%) as well as Abkhazians (1.4%). ^{[1] [2]}

In the XIX century, the territory of the modern city of Gal was part of a single village of Gali Gali rural community. According to the census of 1886, Orthodox Christians lived in the village of Gali - 2401 people, there were no Muslims - Sunnis . According to the class division in the village there were 76 noblemen , 39 representatives of the Orthodox clergy and 2,286 peasants . Princes and representatives of the "urban" estates did not live in Gali.

According to the same census, the villagers were counted as ethnic "Samurzakans" . According to the 1926 census, slightly less than half of the inhabitants of the First Gala were registered by Abkhazians , the rest by Georgians . However, only 1.1% of the inhabitants of the First Gala (or 2.4% of the Abkhazians of the village) indicated Abkhazian as their native language, while Mingrelian was the mother tongue for the rest of the First-Gal people.

By the end of the 19th century, Samurzakan was already clearly divided into 2 main linguistic zones: Abkhaz - speaking and megre-speaking . The first covered the upper (northern) villages of the Samurzakan site; the second, larger in territory and population, is the lower (central and southern) villages. Between these two zones were mixed villages, including the First Gal. According to G. Shukhardt, at the end of the 19th century “Abkhazian speech is heard in the communities of the Bedi , Okum , Chkhortol , Gali , Tsarchinsky communities; in Saberio , Otobaya , Dichazurges they speak Mingrelian ” ^[3] .

According to the 1926 census , only 1.1% of the inhabitants of the First Gala named Abkhazian as their native language , despite the fact that almost half of the villagers retained Abkhazian ethnic identity. After the establishment of Soviet power in Abkhazia , a Georgian school was opened in the First Gala. By the middle of the 20th century, the Abkhazian population of the village was already completely Georgianized and lost ethnic identity.

During the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-1993, First Gal, like other villages of the Gali district , was under the control of Georgian troops. After the war, the bulk of the inhabitants of the First Gala left the village, but in 1994 many returned to their homes. The population of the First Gala in the postwar period declined sharply.

In 1994, a new reform of the administrative-territorial division was carried out in Abkhazia , the village of Pervy Gal was transferred from the Galsky district to the Tkuarchalsky .

According to the 1994 Moscow agreement on ceasefire and separation of the parties ^{[4], the} village of Pervy Gal is included in the Security Zone , where the CIS CPKF is located ^[5] .

The village of First Gal is historically divided into 6 villages (abkh. Aҳabla ) ^[6] :

• Alakumhara (Lekumhara)
• Gal Achayua (Zemo Gali, Upper Gal)
• Kohora
• Nago
• Sabasario
• Samikaio