From alans to ossetians. The ossetian factor in history north Caucasus and Georgia
Authors:   Национальный педагогический университет им. М.П.Драгоманова / Киев, Украина доктор исторических наук, Валентинович Пилипчук Ярослав 
Published: May 2021

The Mongol conquest and the invasion of Timur dealt a blow to the Alanian society and Christianity among the Alans. However, they launched the processes of Alans' eviction to the mountains and the ethnogenesis of Ossetians. Ossetians assimilated the Dvalians and a subethnos of Ossetians-Tuals was formed on the local soil in the XV-XVI centuries. Ossetians actively penetrated Georgia in the 16th-18th centuries. At the end of the 16th and 18th centuries. Kartli suffered from Ossetian raids on Georgian settlements. South Ossetians often did not pay their duties and robbed Georgians. The power of the Kartlian and Imeretian kings over the South Ossetians was relative, which did not exclude the granting of their lands to Machabeli and Eristavi. Also, the Ossetian peasants were under the rule of the state (king). With the arrival of Russian power in Georgia, the South Ossetians wanted to maintain their autonomy. It took the Russians a series of punitive expeditions in the 19th century to pacify the South Ossetians. They rebelled, responding to the calls of the Georgian princes. They opposed the Georgian Tavads, who were patronized by the Russian authorities. North Ossetian societies wanted to become Russian citizens in order to become independent from the Kabardian pshi. They wanted self-government and opposed imperial unification. The North Ossetians from the Tagauria and Kurtatia societies also rebelled against the Russians. Digoria and Alagiria became part of the Russian Empire voluntarily, but there were unrest among the Digorians. Before the arrival of the Russians, the Ossetian societies were in close cooperation with the Kabardian pshi. The ties between Digoria and Kabarda were especially close. Under Kabardian influence, feudalism developed in Digoria and Tagauria, and local Ossetians were vassals of Little and Greater Kabarda. Ossetians acted as allies of the Kabardians against the Crimean khans. The Ottomans and Qizilbashs came to the Ossetian lands sporadically and this was not accompanied by the subordination of the Ossetians to these Turkic states. Relations with the Nakhs were good neighborly. The Ingush and Chechens found shelter for the Ossetian nobility who fled from blood feud. A number of Ingush surnames were of Ossetian origin. Ossetian colonization led to the displacement of the Ossetian-Ingush border to the east. Relations between Ossetians and Balkars were good-neighborly. Ossetians were moved to Balkaria. We can only talk about a certain influence of Georgia in Ossetia in the 15th and 17th centuries. Some part of the Ossetian nobility joined the Imeretian and Kartlian aristocracy. Despite all the difficulties, Christianity in Ossetia was preserved and maintained thanks to contacts with Georgia. The Islamization of the Ossetians was superficial and mainly affected only the social top. The term syncretism is best suited to characterize the religion of the Ossetians, where Christianity and Islam were combined with traditional beliefs. Key words: Ossetians, Kabardians, Ingush, Kartli, Russians, Digoria, Alagiriya, Kurtatia, Tagauria