This article describes the background of the Russo-Georgian War.
Formation of Georgia
Kingdom of Abkhazia was formed in the 780s under Leo II.Anchabadze, Yu. D. (1994) "Abkhazy," in Tishkov, Valeriï Aleksandrovich (ed.) (1994) Narody Rossii: Entsiklopediya Institut ėtnologii i antropologii im. N.N. Miklukho-Maklaia, Nauchnoye Izdatel'stvo, Moscow, in Russian Western Georgia was included in the Kingdom of Abkhazia in the ninth century. Kutaisi was adopted as the capital and the Georgian language soon became dominant in the kingdom. In the early 10th century AD, the bishoprics in the Kingdom of Abkhazia transferred their allegiance from Constantinople to the Iberian patriarchate in Mtskheta, which used Georgian language for liturgy instead of Greek. The Abkhazian kings probably used Georgian as a state language. The ecclesiastical unification laid foundation for the political union. In the 10th century AD, Georgia for the first time emerged as an ethnic concept in the territories where the Georgian language was used to perform Christian rituals. The concept was elaborated by the Georgian monk Giorgi Merchule. The Abkhaz kingdom was expanding eastward and the royal intermarriage led to the merger of Abkhazia, Tao-Klarjeti, Kartli and later Kakheti-Hereti into a single entity. The inclusion and subsequent adoption of the Emirate of Tbilisi as capital in 1122 marked the culmination of the Georgian unification. After the Mongol invasions of the region, the Kingdom of Georgia eventually was split into several states. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire gradually took over the Georgian lands and incorporated them into Tiflis Governorate (eastern Georgia) and Kutaisi Governorate (western Georgia including Abkhazia). Russification of Georgians was unsuccessful and the Russians responded by renouncing the Georgian nationhood and broke down Georgian people into several sub-ethnic groups. In the aftermath of the Russian revolution, Georgia declared its independence on 26 May 1918. The Georgian constitution granted autonomy to Abkhazia. During the independence of Georgia in 1918–1921, Georgia did not manage to fully integrate Abkhazia. Although Georgia's independence was recognized by Russia in May 1920, the Russian Bolsheviks invaded independent Georgia in 1921.
Soviet Georgia included three autonomous entities. These were Abkhazia, Adjara, and South Ossetia. Only case of religious distinctness was Ajaria due to it being populated by Ajar adherents of Islam. A shared language among other common traits of Ajars and Georgians largely averted the tensions between Tbilisi and Batumi. Although Orthodox Christianity is common among ethnically distinct South Ossetians and Abkhaz people, fierce conflicts arose between the central government in Tbilisi and these autonomous entities. Abkhazia and South Ossetia were given the hypothetical right to break away from the union republic by Joseph Stalin, and this "time bomb" was used against Georgia in 1991. Ethnic self-determination and state formation has never been among Adjara's aims.
Georgian-Ossetian conflict Ossetian arrival in Transcaucasia
The Ossetians are an Indo-European ethnic group descended from the Alans, one of the Sarmatian tribes, and speaking the Ossetian language which is an Iranian language similar to the Pathan language spoken in Afghanistan. The Ossetians are indigenous to North Ossetia, located in the North Caucasus. Controversy surrounds the date of Ossetian arrival in Transcaucasia. According to one recent theory, they first migrated there during the 13th and 14th centuries AD after Mongol and Timur's invasions. According to another theory, Ossetian migration to central Georgia began in the 17th century with the permission of the Georgian authorities. Ossetians lived alongside the Georgians peacefully for centuries.
When the Ossetians first came into contact with Tsarist Russia, geography and faith contributed to a pro-Russian stance of the Ossetian people. Many representatives of the Ossetian people served in the Russian army during both the tsarist and Soviet period; they boast to have generated proportionately more heroes of the Soviet Union than other constituent Soviet peoples.
1918-1920 conflict and the Soviet period In 1918, conflict began between the landless Ossetian peasants living in Shida Kartli, who were affected by Bolshevism and demanded ownership of the lands they worked on, and the Menshevik government backed ethnic Georgian nobility, who were legal owners. Although the Ossetians were initially discontented with the economic stance of Tbilisi authorities, the tension shortly transformed into ethnic conflict. The first Ossetian rebellion began in February 1918, when three Georgian princes were killed and their land was seized by the Ossetians. The central government of Tiflis retaliated by sending the National Guard to the area. However, the Georgian unit retreated after they had engaged the Ossetians. Ossetian insurgents then proceeded to occupy the town of Tskhinvali and began assaulting ethnic Georgian natives. During uprisings in 1919 and 1920, the Ossetians were covertly supported by Soviet Russia, but even so, were defeated. By inciting ethnic unrest in Georgia, the Bolsheviks intended to subjugate Georgia easily. The claim of 5,000 Ossetian deaths in the conflict of 1920 is questioned as exaggerated.
The independent Democratic Republic of Georgia was invaded by the Red Army in 1921 and a Soviet government was installed. The Soviet Army was supported by the Ossetians. The Soviet invasion of Georgia made possible for Ossetians, who were peasants inhabiting the Georgian feudal lands, to secure the claimed territory. The government of Soviet Georgia created an autonomous administrative unit for Transcaucasian Ossetians in April 1922, called the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast. The creation of this oblast took place under pressure from Kavbiuro (the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party). Historians such as Stephen F. Jones, Emil Souleimanov and Arsène Saparov believe that the Bolsheviks awarded this autonomy to the Ossetians in exchange for their help against the Democratic Republic of Georgia, since this area had never been a separate entity prior to the Russian invasion. The drawing of administrative boundaries of the South Ossetian AO was quite a complicated process. In addition to Ossetian-inhabited parts of Gori Uyezd and Dusheti Uyezd of Tiflis Governorate, parts of Racha Uyezd of Kutaisi Governorate (western Georgia) were also included within the South Ossetian AO. All these territories historically had been indigenous Georgian lands. Many Georgian villages were included within the South Ossetian AO despite numerous protests by the Georgian population. While the city of Tskhinvali did not have a majority Ossetian population, it was made the capital of the South Ossetian AO.
Historical Ossetia in the North Caucasus did not have its own political entity before 1924, when the North Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was created. South Ossetia requested to be united with North Ossetia in 1925; however, this request was denied. Ossetian mass migration to Tskhinvali took place during the Soviet era. The opening of Roki Tunnel in 1985 made the overland communication between North and South Ossetia possible.
There was no conflict between Georgians and Ossetians during the Soviet era. Within South Ossetia, Georgian and Ossetian villages were tangled. Around 65 thousand Ossetians lived in South Ossetia, while 100 thousand lived in Georgia proper. Ossetians living in Georgia proper had better commanding of the Georgian language than other ethnic minorities living in Georgia. South Ossetia had a Georgian ethnic minority of around 28,500 out of the total population of 98,500 in 1989.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 1991-1992 war
Nationalism in Soviet Georgia gained momentum in 1989 with the weakening of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin endorsed South Ossetian nationalism as a counter against the Georgian independence movement. It was the KGB that stoked the ethnic tensions. The Kremlin used South Ossetian and also Abkhaz separatists as its ethnically based proxies to inflame ethnic conflicts in Georgia, undermine the Georgian independence movement and assert its control over the strategically important South Caucasus. Mikhail Gorbachev declared that if Georgia attempted to leave the "brotherly union", it would face problems in the regions on its own territory.
In 1988, the South Ossetian activists had established South Ossetian Popular Front (Adamon Nykhas). On 10 November 1989, the Georgian Supreme Soviet was asked by the South Ossetian regional council to upgrade the region to the status of an autonomous republic. The resolution of the South Ossetian authorities to create the South Ossetian ASSR escalated the conflict and this decree was canceled by the Georgian Supreme Soviet on 11 November 1989. The First Party Secretary of the oblast was removed from his position. Georgian civilian march on Tskhinvali was organized on 23 November 1989; however, it was stopped at the entrance of the city by Ossetians and Soviet troops and there were victims. The Georgian Supreme Soviet passed a law against regional parties in summer 1990 and South Ossetians responded by issuing a declaration of sovereignty as part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on 20 September 1990. In October 1990, the Georgian parliamentary elections were won by "Round Table" block, headed by Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Georgian elections were ignored by South Ossetians. Instead, separate Ossetian elections were appointed in December 1990. On 11 December 1990, the Supreme Soviet of Georgia, responding to South Ossetia's attempt at secession, annulled the region's autonomy.
When the Georgian parliament issued a decree proclaiming a state of emergency in the territory of the former South Ossetian AO on 12 December 1990 in response to the deadly clashes, both Georgian and Russian interior troops were sent to the region. The post of the mayor of Tskhinvali was given to Georgian police commander. National Guard of Georgia was legally established in early January 1991. A military conflict broke out between Georgia and South Ossetian separatists in January 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, canceled decisions of both South Ossetian and Georgian Supreme Soviets regarding the status of South Ossetia in January 1991. Although South Ossetia was a part of Georgia during the declaration of independence of Georgia in April 1991, it decided to secede on 21 December 1991. A referendum to join Russia was held in January 1992, in which no Georgian resident of South Ossetia voted.