RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN WAR AND THE CONFLICT IN GEORGIA’S PROVINCE OF SOUTH OSSETIA

ETHNIC MAKEUP OF THE AREA

By Andrew Andersen and George Partskhaladze

At least since the 11^th century, Georgia saw some Ossetian immigration (most of them coming as mercenaries). However, mass migration of the Ossetian peasants into the Georgian lands across the Caucasus range did not occur earlier than the middle of the 18^th century, predominantly into Georgian provinces of Shida Kartli (at that time, the Kingdom of Kartli) and Racha (Kingdom of Imereti). Depopulated by a series of wars that ravaged through Georgia throughout the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the territory of Upper Kartli a part of which was in the early 20s of the 20^th century converted into South Ossetian Autonomous Province, was re-settled not only by the Georgians but also by representatives of other ethnic groups that included but were not limited to the Armenian and Greek refugees coming from the Ottoman Empire and Ossetians coming from the north across the Greater Caucasus range.

The below excerpt from the ethnic map of the South Caucasus by Andrew Andersen and George Partskhaladze based on Russian imperial statistics of the late nineteenth century depicts rather complicated ethnic palette of the future “South Ossetia” where Georgian settlements are lemon-colored and Ossetian settlements are dark red. Pink color goes for Armenians, golden for Greeks, light brown for Russians, light blue for Germans and orange for Vainakhs.

According to the map, Ossetian settlements were scattered all over the Upper Kartli forming majority predominantly in underinhabited highlands of the north along the Georgian Military road. Please note that according to Russian statistics of the described period there was no single Ossetian inhabitant in the village of Tskhinval (Tskhinvali) inhabited by Georgians and Jews.

By the beginning of the 20^th century, most of the Ossetians of the South Caucasus lived in a bunch of enclaves scattered across the borderlands of the Counties of Dushet, Tskhinval, Shorapani and Racha (mainly in the rural counties of Tskhinval, Ksani, Sachkhere and Oni) as well as in the historical Georgian province of Trialeti at the described period included into the County of Gori (sector of Khidistavi and part of the sector of Borjomi). Smaller amount of Ossetians (several hundred people) also resided in the Territory of Kars. Unlike many other ethnic enclaves of the South Caucasus, Ossetian settlements did not tend to be monoethnic, and most of the Ossetian villages had Georgian and other ethnic elements in them.

The below tables clearly illustrate the amount of Ossetians in the Russian Caucasus as well as the ethnic makeup of the core Georgian provinces of Tiflis and Kutais

Province/Territory	Nr of Ossetians	Territory	Nr of Ossetians
Tiflis Province	67 268	Terek Territory	114 592
Kutais Province	3 795
Kars Territory	430
Total / S.Caucasus	71 493	Total / N.Caucasus	114 592

Table 2-14 Distribution of Ossetians in the South and North Caucasus (1901)

The Province of TIFLIS			The Province of KUTAIS
Ethnic origin	Number	%	Ethnic origin	Number	%
Georgian	465 537	44.3	Georgian	807 583	88.1
Armenian	196 189	18.7	Armenian	19 390	2.7
Tatar (Azeri Turk)	107 383	10.2	Jewish	5 082	0.5
Russian & Ukrainian	85 772	8.2	Russian	11 907	1.4
Ossetian	67 268	6.4	Ossetian	3 795	0.4
Avar	34 130	3.2	Apsua	29 432	3.2
Greek	27 118	2.6	Greek	29 603	3.2
Ottoman Turk	24 722	2.3	Ottoman Turk	2 864	0.3
Other	42 913	4.1	Other	7 101	0.76
TOTAL	1.051 032	100	TOTAL	916 757	100

Table 2-2 Ethnic Makeup of the two provinces making Georgian Core Area (1901)

Eighty years later the ethnic makeup of the South Ossetian Autonomous Province of Georgian SSR looked as follows:

S.Ossetian Auton. Prov. (Georgian SSR)
Ethnic origin	Number
Ossetian	65 000
Georgian	28 000
Russian	2 000
Others	3 000
TOTAL	98 000

Table 0-00 Ethnic Makeup of the South Ossetian Autonomous Province of Georgian SSR (1979)

To be continued