History of Ossetia

Stone Age

During the Mindel glaciation, the glacier covered the entire Ossetian plain to the Sunzhensky ridge . During the Ries glaciation, the glacier reached approximately the modern city of Beslan . During the Wurm glaciation, the glacier did not go to the plain, was located within the Rocky Range .

The oldest human site in North Ossetia (about 150 thousand years ago) is located at the Popov farm , 4 km south-west of Vladikavkaz , and belongs to the Ashel culture , the carriers of which were the early Neanderthals . On this site, stone blanks, flakes, flakes, hand choppers were found . The sites of the Mousterian era (30-40 thousand years ago) were found near the village. Redant-1, villages Kardzhin , Zamankul , Old Batakyurt .

Although the mountain ranges divide Ossetians into northern and southern, they share a culture and language.

Koban culture

Modern North and South Ossetia are located on the territory where the Alans were supplanted by the Mongols in the 15th century . At present, in the scientific literature the point of view has become universally recognized, according to which the basis of the people was the Alans mixed with the Caucasian tribes.

The name "Alan" appears in the work of the authors of the 1st century. AD Pliny, Second, Josephus , Dionysius. " The tribe of the Alans is part of the Scythians living around Tanais (Don River) and Meotian (Azov) Lake ." (Josephus Flavius. 1 century A.D.). But the Alans are localized in the North Caucasus only after the Hunnic invasion. In the middle of the first millennium, they established ties with the local population and began to advance into the mountainous regions. On the territory of West Ossetia, Alan monuments of the 5th century AD subsequent centuries noted in the Bark - Ursdon, on the river. Ursdon , at the confluence of the rivers Skummidon and Swardon, between the rivers Malki and Uruha . Around the same time, the Alans established control over the Central Caucasus, through which the shortest route to Transcaucasia passed. The Darial passage is invariably called “Alansky” (“The Gates of Dar - and - Alan”). The natural course of events was disrupted by the Great Migration of Peoples , caused by the movement of Hunnic tribes from East to West. Together with the Huns, a huge number of Alans left for the West. The great migration of peoples also influenced the Alans who remained in the Caucasus. In the V - VI centuries, after the Hunnic invasion, an important stage in the formation of the Alanian nationality begins. Since that time, the Alans were in different historical, geographical, cultural and economic conditions compared to ancient times . If in the sources up to the 5th century the Alans appear as nomads, then in the 6th - 7th centuries they have features that connect them with the settled Caucasian ethnocultural world. Around the same time, the Alans formed two proto-state formations: the western - with a center in the upper Kuban , and the east, gravitating towards Darial. At the beginning of the X century there was a union of the Alanian proto-states.

Alanya of the 10th- 11th centuries is an early feudal society with early feudal statehood, whose kings pursued an active foreign policy. It reached its heyday during the reign of Tsar Durgulel the Great, a major political figure who played a large role in the history of the Caucasus and the Middle East . Among the important political events that were of great importance for the fate of the Alans, we should mention the invasion of the Mongols in the 13th century . The Mongol-Tatar invasion dealt a severe blow to the peoples of the Caucasus. But its consequences were especially grave for the Alans. A significant part of the ethnic group moved to Europe, Byzantium , Hungary , and the Far East . Alans lost their flat lands - a powerful industrial base. For a long time, the process of development of some areas of society was suspended. Alan Timur completed the rout, after the campaigns of which the plain Alania became a “ desert without owners ”. However, it should be noted that the Mongols failed to conquer the mountain Alans. Guillaume de Rubruk , who traveled to the capital of the Mongol Empire Karakorum in 1253-1255 and met with the Alans in the Ciscaucasia several times, reported that the Alans "are still fighting against the Tatars." “The Alans on these mountains are still not conquered,” wrote Rubruk. The famous Alanian city of Dedyakov was taken by storm by Timur on February 8, 1378 .

Alania was a large state entity associated with countries such as Byzantium, Russia , Khazaria , etc. The high military and political potential of Alanya at that time was the result of internal socio-political development. Since the XII century, Alanya entered a period of feudal fragmentation. began the collapse of the state into small principalities, and then the kingdom. In 1238, the long-term struggle of the Alans with the Tatar-Mongol invaders began , as a result of which the flat part of Alanya was captured. In mountainous conditions, a new stage in the life of the Alans begins, now known as Ossetians.

In the XVII century , the Ossetians had a need to resettle in the valleys due to extreme low land. Ossetia was also important for Russia as the only controlling strategically important passes in the Caucasus.

Historians did not agree on when Ossetia was incorporated into the Russian Empire. Many traditional sources indicate the date of accession in 1774 ^{[5] [6]} .

However, Ossetian scholars M. M. Bliev and R. S. Bzarov on the basis of archival documents proved ^[7] that the project for the accession of Ossetia, prepared by the Astrakhan Governor-General P. N. Krechetnikov , was submitted to Catherine the Second only in 1775 . Moreover, the Ossetian project of the Governor General did not allow him to maintain his post, and in the same 1775 P. N. Krechetnikov was dismissed. There is also no evidence that the empress supported the accession project of Ossetia, or returned to its consideration in subsequent years.

Most likely, the legislative registration of the inclusion of Ossetia in the Russian Empire occurred much later, already in the XIX century .

In 1784, an Ossetian settlement was near the Ossetian village . Dzæudzhihuæu founded the fortress of Vladikavkaz to control the Darial road .

Until 1830, mountainous (South) Ossetia remained outside the control of the tsarist administration, although it was nominally considered the possession of Russia. The actual accession of South Ossetia took place in 1830 after a crushing military expedition of the Russian troops led by General Rennenkampf . In 1843, in the territory of South Ossetia, the Ossetian district named after General Rustes was formed as part of the Tiflis province , which included part of the territory of the modern Russian Federation; The administrative management of the Ossetian district was carried out by the Java district chief and the chief of the Mountain peoples. The inclusion of South Ossetia in the administrative-territorial system of the Russian Empire was not accompanied, however, by the recognition by Russia of any dependence of South Ossetia on Georgia. Therefore, the representatives of the Georgian feudal nobility, the princes Machabeli and Eristavi, made an attempt already within the framework of the Russian Empire to gain control of South Ossetia with Russian weapons, placing its population in a dependent position. However, the claims of the Georgian nobility against South Ossetia were rejected by the Senate , which decided "the Georgian princes Machabelov to refuse harassment to recognize their serfdom over Ossetians ." The emperor’s opinion was as follows: “ Whatever the decision of the highest judicial places, it will be difficult to recognize and enforce it in favor of the princes Machabelovs, as it has been experimentally established that mountain Ossetians will never fulfill the following duties without the use of military force and that "on the other hand, one must not allow the idea that every two or three years it is necessary to dress up troops and expeditions there ." By order of the emperor, the South Ossetians were transferred to the category of state and state peasants and, thus, excluded from the system of feudal dependence , and hence political control by the Georgian nobility, having received a special socio-economic status. This was a prototype of the future political autonomy of South Ossetia, due to its historically established special situation in the Caucasus ^[8] .

With the advent of Soviet power, Ossetia was divided into two parts - part north of the ridge fell under the jurisdiction of the RSFSR , south of the Georgian SSR .

In 1921, Ossetia became part of the High Soviet Republic , received the status of an autonomous region in 1924, and in 1936 was transformed into the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic .

World War II

During World War II , fierce battles took place on the territory of the republic, most of (North and West) North Ossetia was occupied by the 1st Panzer Army of General Kleist . ^{[9] The} troops of the Northern Group of Forces fought against them. From November 6 to 11, 1942, during the Nalchik defensive operation of the 37th Army of the Northern Group of Forces against Army Group A, German troops were stopped at the approaches to Ordzhonikidze ( Vladikavkaz ). ^[10]

During the Great Patriotic War, almost the entire territory of the deported Ingush was annexed to North Ossetia, where Ossetians were forcibly settled ^[11] . In 1957, after the restoration of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Soviet Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic returned to the Ingush all regions, except for a part of the Prigorodny district.

In 1944, Mozdok was transferred from the Stavropol Territory to the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ^[12] . In 1944, after the deportation of Chechens and Ingush, Malgobek was transferred to the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and remained there until 1957, when he was returned to the restored Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

From the time they returned after the deportation, the Ingush demanded that they return their legal territory to the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia . In 1992 , an armed conflict broke out due to territorial disputes. During the armed clashes, civilians on both sides of the conflict died, after which the conflict became frozen.

With the collapse of the USSR and the separation of Georgia from it, the South Ossetian Autonomous Okrug also expressed a desire to become an independent state, due to the wave of nationalism in Georgia and the abolition of Ossetian autonomy. There is a three-year armed conflict, the result of which is the victory of Ossetian militias.

In 2008, the Georgian army attacked South Ossetia , but again was defeated.

After the conflict, the independence of South Ossetia was recognized by Russia , Nicaragua , as well as partially recognized by Abkhazia and the unrecognized republics of Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria . In 2009, Venezuela recognized the independence of South Ossetia ^[13] .

Thus, at present, Ossetia-Alania is divided into two parts - North Ossetia (a republic within the Russian Federation) and South Ossetia (partially recognized state).

• Ossetia
• North Ossetia
• South Ossetia
• Ossetians
• Ossetians in Turkey
• Ossetian architecture

• Ossetia // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Scythians. Discoveries of Soviet archaeologists. 1974
• History of Islam in Ossetia