Tskhinvali
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Tskhinvali (also spelled Cchinvali or Cxinvali) (Georgian: ცხინვალი, Ossetic: Цхинвал) is the capital of the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia, a separatist region of Georgia. According to Georgia's current official administrative division, Tskhinvali is a city in the Shida Kartli region.
It is located on the Great Liakhvi River approximately 100 km (62 miles) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
[edit] Name
The name of Tskhinvali is derived from Georgian Krtskhinvali (ქრცხინვალი, literally meaning "the land of hornbeams"), which is a historical name of the city. From 1934 to 1961, the city was named Staliniri, after Joseph Stalin. Modern Ossetians call the city Tskhinval, choosing to leave off the 'i', which is nominative case ending in Georgian; the other Ossetian (unofficial) name of the city is Chreba.
[edit] History
The area around the present-day Tskhinvali was first populated back in the Bronze Age. The unearthed settlements and archaeological artifacts from that time are quite unique in that they reflect influences from both Iberian (east Georgia) and Colchian (west Georgia) cultures with possible Sarmatian elements.
Tskhinvali was first chronicled by Georgian sources in 1398 as a village in Kartli (central Georgia) though a later account credits the 3rd century AD Georgian king Asphagur of Iberia with its foundation as a fortress. By the early 18th century, Tskhinvali was a small "royal town" populated chiefly by monastic serfs. Tskhinvali was annexed to Imperial Russia with the rest of eastern Georgia in 1801. Located on a trade route which linked North Caucasus to Tbilisi and Gori, Tskhinvali gradually developed into a commercial town with a mixed Jewish, Georgian, Armenian and Ossetian population. In the 1910s, its censused population was 5,033 with 42.3% Jews, 33% Georgians, 13.4% Armenians and 11% Ossetians.
The town saw clashes between Georgian National Guard and pro-Bolshevik Ossetian peasant rebels during the 1918-20 period, when Georgia enjoyed brief independence from Russia. Soviet rule was established by the invading Red Army in March 1921, and a year later, in 1922, Tskhinvali was made a capital of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR. Subsequently, the town became largely Ossetian due to intense urbanization which induced an inflow of the Ossetians from the nearby rural areas into Tskhinvali. It was essentially an industrial center, with lumber mills and manufacturing plants, and had also several cultural and educational institutions such as a venerated Pedagogical Institute (currently Tskhinvali State University) and a drama theatre. According to the last Soviet census (1989), Tskhinvali had a population of 42,934.
During the acute phase of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, Tskhinvali was a scene of ethnic tensions and ensuing armed confrontation between Georgian and Ossetian forces. The 1992 Sochi ceasefire accord left Tskhinvali in the hands of Ossetian separatists that prompted most of ethnic Georgian population to leave the town.
Currently, Tskhinvali functions as the capital of the self-styled republic of South Ossetia and has a population of approximately 20,000. It is now relatively peaceful, although significantly impoverished in the absence of a permanent political settlement between the two sides.
The city contains several monuments of medieval Georgian architecture, with the Kavt'i Church of St George being the oldest dating back to the 8th-10th centuries.
[edit] References
- Tsotniahsvili, MM. [History of Tskhinvali]. Tskhinvali, 1986 (in Georgian)
