# South Ossetian Expedition of 1830

South Ossetian expedition 1830 - The South Ossetian Expedition is an expedition of the Russian Empire in 1830 directed against the mountainous part of South Ossetia, which refused to submit to the tsarist administration

## Background

In 1801, Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, according to the Treaty of Georgievsk, became part of the Russian Empire. However, the ossetians refused to submit to the Georgian feudal lords and the tsarist administration.
The Georgian Machabeli princes considered the territory of the Ossetians their possessions, although the Ossetians never submitted to them
In 1810 there was a complete armed expedition of Russian troops to South Ossetia, which was not successful. However, already in 1829 the Turkish-Russian war ended, so Ivan Paskevich decided to pacify the rebellious Ossetians.
Back in May 1830, the issue of sending a punitive expedition to South Ossetia was agreed upon by Paskevich with Nicholas I. Having received the approval of the emperor, Paskevich gave the order to send troops to Tskhinvali. From here began the expeditionary march to Java - a settlement that, according to Paskevich, was considered “The key to all gorges”.

## Cheselt Gorge expedition

On June 16, a detachment was formed in Tskhinvali from a battalion of Kherson grenadiers, two companies of the Erivan regiment, two Don hundreds and 4 mountain guns. In numbers it was 2300 infantry and 300 cavalry. To this were added 1,000 ethnically Georgian volunteers. On June 19, Russian troops entered Java. The Ossetians living there surrendered without a fight. Rennenkampf began military operations. He occupied the villages quickly enough.
The small forces of the Ossetian rebels could not resist the well-armed regular troops. Residents of the Cheselt Gorge left their villages and went to the mountains to continue the fight against the punitive forces. Deserted Ossetian villages were burned
The first serious battles took place on 21 June. Ossetian rebels from the village of Mairam put up resistance. This village was burned, and the Ossetian rebels retreated to the mountainous area.
On the 21 June Russian troops began an assault on the village of Daudonasto. By the evening of the 22 June, Russian troops were able to take the village, losing 19 soldiers wounded and killed.
The military actions in Cheselta convinced Rennenkampf of how difficult it was to solve the problem of conquering South Ossetia. Having received additional forces, he began to resort to the tactics of armed blockade of individual gorges and populated areas. Such a blockade usually involved large forces, consisting of several military detachments. Rennenkampf used similar tactics during military operations in the mountains.
After this, on June 22, the battles for Zekarskaya Mountain began. Rennenkampf made several attempts to take the mountain, suffering heavy losses. The Russian captain of the dragunn regiment, Vasili Bebutov, launched another attack, as a result of which the Ossetians were driven to the highest points. Due to the cold fog, Rennenkampf decided to retreat to the village of Daudanosto. These battles had a strong impact on the Ossetian rebels, who were trapped in the mountains and began to experience problems with food and ammunition. On the 24 June, ossetian rebels voluntarily surrendered and handed over the amanats. Only the Ossetian Kochiev family refused to surrender and fortified themselves near the Kolo castle

## Battle on Kolo

While many residents of the Cheselt Gorge, after several battles for Mount Zekara, admitted themselves to be conquered, Bega Kochiev and about 22 other people from his family continued their resistance, taking refuge in the family tower in the village of Kola.
On June 26, Rennekampf's troops surrounded the village of Kolo, which had a large battle tower. After this, they began to fire at the tower from mountain weapons, which did not produce any results. Rennenkampf led the attack with 500 soldiers, but it was unsuccessful and the Russians lost 22 soldiers as a result of this attack.
The fighting continued all day, but the rebels continued to hold out and refused to surrender. After this, Russian troops burned the tower with the help of fires, the Ossetian rebels tried to escape, but 9 of them were raised at bayonets, and Bega Kochiev was captured. The defeat of Bega Kochiev detachment influenced other ossetians and forced them to surrender.
On July 1, the last Ossetian rebels surrendered, and South Ossetia was finally conquered.

## Aftermath

The main goal to conquer the south ossetians was accomplished. South Ossetia was divided into 4 districts. Georgian nobles were placed at the head of these districts.
Bega Kochiev was imprisoned in Gori, but was able to escape from there. However, despite the cessation of hostilities, Ossetia continued to remain a very troubled region. Despite the armed expedition whose goal was to conquer the Ossetians, a certain part of Ossetia continued to remain unruly to Russia until 1838.