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North Ossetia-Alania

(Redirected from Northern Ossetia)

The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Russian: Респу́блика Се́верная Осе́тия-Ала́ния, Respublika Severnaya Osetiya-Alaniya) is a federal subject (a republic) of the Russian Federation, located in the northern Caucasus. The Ossetian population of North Ossetia is predominantly Christian with a Muslim minority, speaking Ossetic and Russian. The name of the republic in the Ossetic language is Республикæ Цæгат Ирыстон.

Республика Северная Осетия-Алания
Respublika Severnaya Osetiya-Alaniya
(In detail) (In detail)
Image:RussiaNorthOssetia.png
Capital Vladikavkaz
Area

- total
- % water

Ranked 85th

- 8,000 km²
- No data

Population

- Total
- Density

Ranked 22nd

- 678,200 (2002)
- 84.8/km²

Political status Republic
Federal district Southern
Economic Region North Caucasus
Official language Russian
President Alexander Dzasokhov
Prime Minister Alan Boradzov
National anthem No data
Time zone UTC +0300


Contents

History

The territory of North Ossetia has been inhabited for thousands of years, being both a very fertile agricultural region and a key trade route through the Caucasus mountains. The ancestors of the present inhabitants were a people called the Alans, a warlike nomadic people who spoke an Indo-Iranian language. Part of the Alan people eventually settled in the Caucasus around the 7th century AD. By about the 9th century, the kingdom of Alania had arisen and had been converted to Christianity by Byzantine missionaries. An archbishopric was established in western Alania under the authority of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and many large churches were constructed. Alania became a powerful state in the Caucasus, profiting greatly from the legendary Silk Road to China, which passed through its territory.

From the Middle Ages onwards, Alania was beset by external enemies and suffered repeated invasions. The invasions of the Mongols and Tatars in the 13th century decimated the population, who were now known as Ossetians. Islam was introduced in the 17th century through the Kabardians , a Muslim Caucasian people. Incursions by the Mongol-ruled Khanate of the Crimea and the Ottoman Empire eventually pushed Alania/Ossetia into an alliance with Russia in the 18th century. North Ossetia was among the first areas of the northern Caucasus to come under Russian domination, starting in 1774, and the capital, Vladikavkaz, was the first Russian military outpost in the region. By 1806, Ossetia was completely under Russian control.

Russian rule

The arrival of the Russians led to the rapid development of the region, with industries founded and road and rail connections built to overcome Ossetia's isolation. The Georgian Military Road, which is still a crucial transport link across the mountains, was built in 1799 and a railway line was built from Vladikavkaz to Rostov-on-Don in Russia proper. The Ossetians' traditional culture inevitably underwent some russification, but their new connections with Russia and the West helped to boost local culture; the first books in the Ossetian language were printed in the late 18th century. Ossetia became part of the Terskaya Region of Russia in the mid-19th century.

After the Russian Revolution, North Ossetia became part of the short-lived Soviet Mountain Republic in 1921. It became the North Ossetian Autonomous Region in July 1924 and was then made the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), within the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, in December 1936. In World War II, North Ossetia saw the high water mark of the invasion of Russia by Nazi Germany; the Germans attempted to seize Vladikavkaz in November 1942 but were repulsed. North Ossetia finally became the first autonomous republic of the RSFSR to declare national sovereignty, on June 20, 1990 (although it still remains firmly part of the Russian Federation).

After the USSR

The dissolution of the Soviet Union posed particular problems for the Ossetian people, which were divided between North Ossetia, which was part of the Russian SFSR, and South Ossetia, part of the Georgian SSR. Upon achieving independence in 1991, Georgia abolished the autonomous Ossetian enclave, and much of the population fled across the border to North Ossetia. Some 100,000 South Ossetian refugees were resettled in North Ossetia, sparking clashes with the predominantly Ingush population in the Prigorodny District.

Historically, the part of the Prigorodny District on the right bank of the Terek River had been part of Ingushetia, but it was granted to North Ossetia in 1944, following Stalin's deportation of the Ingush to Central Asia. Although they were eventually allowed to return to their homes, the territory itself was never returned to Ingushetia, causing considerable tension in the region. A local law passed in 1982 actually prohibited ethnic Ingush from obtaining residency permits in the republic. The massive influx of South Ossetian refugees in the early 1990s and the ensuing conflict between the two rival groups eventually caused many Ingush to flee to Ingushetia. While efforts are underway to settle the refugee problem, the conflict between the two republics has yet to be resolved.

As well as dealing with the effects of the conflict in South Ossetia, North Ossetia has had to deal with refugees and the occasional spillover of fighting from the war in neighboring Chechnya. The bloodiest incident by far was the September 2004 Beslan hostage crisis, in which Chechen Muslim separatists seized control of a school. In the firefight between the terrorists and Russian forces that ended the crisis, 335 civilians, the majority of them children, died.

Geography


Administrative Divisions

Districts

Republic of North Ossetia-Alania consists of the following districts (Russian: районы):

  • Alagirsky (Алагирский)
  • Ardonsky (Ардонский)
  • Digorsky (Дигорский)
  • Irafsky (Ирафский)
  • Kirovsky (Кировский)
  • Mozdoksky (Моздокский)
  • Pravoberezhny (Правобережный)
  • Prigorodny (Пригородный)

Major Towns

Economy

Despite the inevitable economic burden of a sizeable refugee population, North Ossetia is the most well-to-do republic in the northern Caucasus. It is the most urbanized and the most industrialized, with factories producing metals (lead, zinc, tungsten, etc.), electronics, chemicals, and processed food s.

Natural resources include minerals, timber, hydroelectric power, and untapped reserves of oil and gas.

Local agriculture focuses primarily on livestock, especially sheep and goats, and the cultivation of grains, fruit, and cotton.

Demographics

Population: 710,000, incl. approx. 415,000 Ossetians and 200,000 Russians.

There was also a sizeable Ingush population, but most left for Ingushetia with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the outbreak of interethnic conflict in the region.

See also


Federal subjects of Russia Flag of the Russia
Republics Adygeya | Altai | Bashkortostan | Buryatia | Chechnya | Chuvashia | Dagestan | Ingushetia | Kabardino-Balkaria | Karelia | Khakassia | Komi | Kalmykia | Karachay-Cherkessia | Mari El | Mordovia | North Ossetia-Alania | Sakha | Tatarstan | Tuva | Udmurtia
Krais Altai | Khabarovsk | Krasnodar | Krasnoyarsk | Primorsky | Stavropol
Oblasts Amur | Arkhangelsk | Astrakhan | Belgorod | Bryansk | Chelyabinsk | Chita | Irkutsk | Ivanovo | Kaliningrad | Kaluga | Kamchatka | Kemerovo | Kirov | Kostroma | Kurgan | Kursk | Leningrad | Lipetsk | Magadan | Moscow | Murmansk | Nizhny Novgorod | Novgorod | Novosibirsk | Omsk | Orenburg | Oryol | Penza | Perm | Pskov | Rostov | Ryazan | Sakhalin | Samara | Saratov | Smolensk | Sverdlovsk | Tambov | Tomsk | Tver | Tula | Tyumen | Ulyanovsk | Vladimir | Volgograd | Vologda | Voronezh | Yaroslavl
Federal cities Moscow | St. Petersburg
Autonomous Oblasts Jewish
Autonomous Districts Aga Buryatia | Chukotka | Evenkia | Khantia-Mansia | Koryakia | Nenetsia | Permyakia | Taymyria | Ust-Orda Buryatia | Yamalia
Last updated: 11-10-2004 16:23:48