Kudartsy

The Kudars were allegedly mentioned in the 7th century Armenian geography (“Ashkharatsuyts”) in the form of Kowdētk (where the last -k is the Armenian plural formant, and -ēt- is the Georgian topoformant ) ^{[7] [8]} . The localization of the ethnonym coincided with the modern one ^[9] .

Various assumptions were given to explain the etymology of the topo- and ethnonym Quydar ^{[10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]} . Khugaev V., similarly to the point of view put forward by A. T. Agnaev, compares the ethnonym “kuydar” with the Pamir toponym “Kudar” - the name of the river and gorge, which, when divided into “K'wy + dar”, is connected, from his point of view, to the first part with the Persian “kuh 'mountain'” , and in the second - with the Persian “dar 'door'” ^[15]

Yuri Dzizzoyty, criticizing the rest of the versions, offered his understanding of the origin of the ethnonym from the self-name of the ancient Scythians (from the Scythian * skuda / * skuta / * skuδa ) ^[9] . According to him, in the process of subsequent development according to the phonetic laws of the Ossetian language, the word changed and was already used with the suffix -ar and without the initial c as a toponym, from which the corresponding ethnonym has reappeared.

According to Vahushti Bagrationi, the Kudars are descended from the Dvals .

... and besides, the inhabitants of Bolshaya Liakhva, Malaya Liakhva, Ksanis-Khevi and Kudaro are also dalts who have been evicted from this Dvaletiya ... ^[19]

Before the accession of Ossetia to the Russian Empire, Ossetians lived in private in the mountains of the Central Caucasus on both its slopes. During this period, Ossetia was a confederation of mountain societies, which were located in various gorges that made up its territory. Kudar society (which in some later documents was also called Chasavalsky ) was the largest among them. It bordered from the south and east with the Dzausk (Java) society, in the north with the Tual society, and in the west with the Georgians - the Racians . ^[20]

Kudar society, like most other Ossetian societies , was democratic - it was governed by a popular assembly called Nykhas ( Ossetian nykhas - literally "speech", "conversation", "conversation"), which gathered in the village of Sadzhilzaz , which was the center of society. There was also a people's court ( Osset. Trhon ) that regulated disputes between residents of the community ^[21] .

Kudar Gorge was repeatedly subjected to military incursions from Imereti . In 1601, a campaign in the lands of South Ossetians was made by the Imereti king Rostom. The last attack of Imereti on the Kudars refers to 1770.

The territory of the Kudars of that period, called Dvaleti, is described by the German traveler Johann Güldenstedt ^[22] .

The lands of the Kudars became part of the Russian Empire along with other southern Ossetian societies. Kudaro of this time was visited by the German botanist-dendrologist Karl Koch during his trip to the Caucasus in 1837, who noted in his notes:

In the basin of Ierzo Ossetia is characterized by completely different features that are reflected in its inhabitants and their homes. While in the east, with its wild-valued valleys and ravines, Ossetians are distinguished by their rude lifestyle and warlike disposition, the inhabitants of the Ierzo Valley and Kudaro County, where I soon got, are wider and more welcoming. Residents live peacefully next to each other and are engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. Also, the walls of houses here are not made of stones lying on top of each other, covered from above with a flat roof; the population cuts down trees in neighboring forests and builds houses for them. The roofs are not flat, but sloping. The houses resemble Swiss ...

Not far from Ierzo, near the village of Tsono, Quirila flows from the above-mentioned lake ...

From Ierzo ... accompanied by a few Ossetians, I reached the village of Samtareti, 2 hours away ... Active residents of the village accepted me friendly and provided horses for further travel ... Those on the slopes of the field, like in Switzerland or Thuringia, are surrounded by a hedge; meadows are located along narrow valleys. Broad-shouldered fair-haired and blue-eyed people came out to meet ...

Along Kiramula, the road led us to the top of the waterfall and the source of the river ... Downstairs lay the pleasant Dzhejora valley with its 9 villages, and the snowy mountains of Kedela and the Riona glacier towered over it ... After going down, after 2-3 hours we got to the Dzhedzora valley, where I decided to stay . Ossetian, who belonged to the fraternity of kudars, received me in his house, located in the village of Chassavali ...

The Jejora Valley is fertile, and its inhabitants are peaceful. Earlier, however, they often raided Imereti, so King Solomon made a devastating campaign in the Kudaro region and destroyed all the castles that were famous earlier and were larger than the rest of the Ossetians. Therefore, the Chassavali castle is destroyed and empty ... ^[23]

In the 1920s, Kudar villages along with the rest of the regions of South Ossetia were attacked by armed detachments of the Georgian Democratic Republic , which contributed to the massive outflow of refugees to the northern slopes of the Caucasus through mountain passes.

With the formation of the South Ossetian Autonomous Region in 1922, the lands of the Kudars began to enter the Kudaro region, and were later incorporated into the formed Javan region .

The territory of the Kudar settlement is the historical and ethnographic region of Kudaro , which mainly occupies land in the Dzhozhory basin (Stirdon) ^{[21] [24]} , as well as in the Quedrula valley ( Kozidon ) and in the upper Kvirila .

Before the establishment of the Russian administration in the region, the population of this territory was Kudar society , which consisted of the Kudar (in the Dzhozhory basin) and Tsonskaya (in the upper reaches of the Kvirila ) communities ^[25] .

Societies in the gorges of Patsagom and Cheselt ^[26] , which were located to the east and separated from the Kudaro by the Rachin ridge, could sometimes be considered as components of the Kudar society.

In Kudar society there were many large and small settlements, some of which are now abandoned or do not have a permanent population ^{[27] [28]} .

The Kudar people speak the Kudar -Java dialect of the ironic dialect of the Ossetian language . According to all the main phonetic, morphological and lexical features, the Kudar-Djava dialect merges with the Ironic dialect and opposes the Digor dialect ^[29] .

Some authors, such as G.S. Akhvlediani, Yu. A. Dzizzoyty, and I. Gershevich, distinguish the Kudar-Java dialect as the third dialect in the Ossetian language (in particular, on the basis of a special future-tense paradigm of the verb). I. Gershevich In addition, he pointed to the proximity of Kudar-Java to a number of Scythian reflexes, considering this dialect a descendant of the Scythian, in contrast to the Iron dialect, which, in his opinion, is a descendant of the Sarmatian. In turn, F. Tordarson believed that the Kudar-Djava dialect in some respects is a more archaic dialect, in contrast to its sister North Iron. And J. Harmatt He expressed the opinion about the possible connection of some reflexes in Old Kudarodzhavsky directly with the ancient Iranian ^{[30] [31] [32] [33] [34]} .

Most of the Kudars are Orthodox Christians ^[35] . Also traditional Ossetian beliefs, preserved from pre-Christian times and subjected to significant influence of Christianity at certain historical stages, are popular among the Kudars.

The Kudars, like all Ossetians , retained their clan organization and are divided into large related groups - surnames ( Osset. Myggag ), originating from a common ancestor, whose name is their name. Surnames, in turn, can be patronymic branches of a larger clan group, which includes several related surnames ( Osset. Ærvadæltæ ).

According to the folk traditions of the Ironians, all the ironic surnames come from five tribes, coming from the five sons of the legendary Os-Bagatar, who is considered the ancestor of all the Ironians ^{[36] [37]} . And the main part of the gorge population comes from the five sons of Gular who moved to these places, descending from Tsakhil - the youngest son of Os-Bagatar ^{[21] [38] [39]} . The Ironites of North Ossetia, whose only self-name is the ethnonym iron, do not give this name to the Digorians, or the Tuals, or even less to the South Ossetians - the Kudars. Digorians also do not extend the ethnonym iron to South Ossetians. ^{[40] [41]}

With the beginning of the establishment of statehood as a part of the USSR in the post-revolutionary period and with the next round of development of the literary common Ossetian language among numerous ethnic groups of Ossetians, natural consolidating processes were outlined that contributed to their fairly rapid rapprochement between themselves and blurring of the differences between them.

However, now this process cannot yet be called completed, since there are still several large ethnic groups within the Ossetians that have developed from smaller ones during the 20th century.

According to some scholars in ancient times, the ethnonym "Kudars" spread much wider than the current understanding and covered the territory of the settlement of medieval Dvals (modern Kudars, Javians, Tuals and Urs-Tuals). In our time, this is reflected in the dialects of the North Ossetians, which are still called “kudars” by the entire population of modern South Ossetia , and sometimes the Naro-Mamison depression ^[42] .

Bibliography

• Ostaty A. Tsardivn (uatsau) // Razdyzyrdt. - Tskhinval, 1989. 48-66. (osset.)

Periodicals

• Perevalenko V. F. A trip to the Kudar Gorge // Newspaper "Caucasus". No. 39. - Tiflis, 1849.
• Dunkel-Welling N. Some lawsuits of the Ossetians of the Kudar-Mamison gorge // Kavkaz newspaper. No. 24. - Tiflis, 1855.
• Vashakidze E. C. From the life of the Ossetians of the Chasavalsky society // Newspaper "Tersky Vedomosti". No. 224. - Vladikavkaz, 1903.

Reference cards

• Tsutsiev A.A., Tskhovrebova Z.D. North and South Ossetia: from the past to the present. All villages of the North and South. - Vladikavkaz, 2000

Sites

• Tskhinval and South Ossetia. The history of wars and entry into state formations Portal about South Ossetia on the website Runivers.ru

Geographic Maps

• Map Sheet K-38-52
• Map Sheet K-38-40