ETHNIC MAKEUP OF THE AREA
By Andrew
Andersen and George Partskhaladze
At least since
the 11th 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 18th
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 17th and 18th
centuries, the territory of Upper Kartli a part
of which was in the early 20s of the 20th 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 20th 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
|