The 1991–1992 South Ossetia War (also known as the First South Ossetia War) was fought between Georgian government forces and ethnic Georgian militias on one side and the forces of South Ossetian separatists and Russia on the other. The war ended with a Dagomys Agreement, signed on 24 June 1992, which established a joint peacekeeping force and left South Ossetia divided between the rival authorities.
Background
The territory of South Ossetia was part of Georgian kingdoms throughout antiquity and Middle Ages. Ossetian migration to the region began in the 13th and 14th centuries and is believed to be connected to the fall of Kingdom of Alania in the North Caucasus to the Mongols and later to Timur's armies. They retreated into the mountains of the central Caucasus and gradually started moving south, across the Caucasus Mountains into the Kingdom of Georgia. In the 17th century, under pressure from the Kabardian princes, Ossetians started a second wave of migration from the North Caucasus to the Kingdom of Kartli.
In 18th century, Ossetians became the first people in the Caucasus to form an alliance with Russia. 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 1830, Ossetia was completely under Russian control.
Following the breakdown of the Tsarist regime in Russia, Ossetians allied with the Russian Bolsheviks, fighting a war against the newly independent Menshevik Georgia. Initially Georgia was successful, but in 1921, the Red Army invaded and conquered the country. In 1922 South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was established within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (SOAO) by the Soviet administration under pressure from Kavburo (the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party). It is believed that the SAOA was established by central Soviet government in exchange for Ossetian loyalty and support of Russian Bolsheviks in their fight against Georgian Mensheviks. 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. 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. Between 1944 and 1952 Ossetian language schools were closed by the Soviet Union and the broadcasting and publishing in Ossetian was curtailed.
During the collapse of the Soviet Union, the tensions began to grow between Georgians and Ossetians as Georgians pushed for independence from the Soviet Union, while Ossetians wanted to remain within the renewed federation. In 1989, around 98,000 people lived in South Ossetia. Of these, 66.61% were Ossetian and 29.44% Georgian. Another 99,000 Ossetians lived throughout the rest of Georgia. The South Ossetian Popular Front (Ademon Nykhas) was created in 1988, a first Ossetian nationalist organization in the region which called for separation from Georgia. On 10 November 1989, the local South Ossetian authorities made a decision to transform South Ossetia into an "autonomous republic". This decision was revoked by the Georgian Supreme Soviet. On 23 November 1989, Georgians led by dissident Zviad Gamsakhurdia planned to organize a rally against what they saw as growing separatist tendencies of South Ossetian authorities in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. South Ossetians prevented this by blocking the road. Violent clashes broke out resulting in several people being wounded. The Kremlin encouraged Ossetian separatism to undermine stability in Georgia and weaken its national independence movement. South Ossetia's territory cuts through historically Georgian lands. Its separation would wreak havoc on Georgia's territorial integrity, communications, and economy.
To counter pro-independence movements in the constituent Soviet republics, the Soviet government under Mikhail Gorbachev adopted a policy of supporting separatist entities within these republics to pressure them to remain in the Soviet Union. In April 1990, a law on the 'Delimitation of Powers' was passed by the USSR Supreme Soviet, which equalized rights of autonomies with those of the union republics. This meant that they could participate in negotiating New Union Treaty, which many union republics rejected. Gorbachev warned Georgia that if it tried to leave the "brotherly union", it would face problems in the regions on its own territory. Anti-Georgian sentiment began to grow in South Ossetia and Abkhazia with clandestine and open support from Moscow. The Ossetian and also Abkhaz separatists began to voice demands against Georgia, and received the arms and financial assistance from the Kremlin.
To counter Gorbachev's plans, the union republics passed the declarations of sovereignties which asserted the priority of the constituent republican power over the central power on their territories. While this did not mean full secession from the USSR, it was an important step towards such development. In May 1990, Georgian SSR passed a declaration of sovereignty. At the same time, at an extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR convened on 9 March 1990, the Soviet invasion of Georgia was officially denounced as "an occupation and effective annexation of Georgia by Soviet Russia." The Soviet Georgian government made another concession to the pro-independence movement in Georgia after officially dubbing the 1921 Red Army Invasion of Georgia as an "illegal occupation" and announced first multiparty election in the republic to take place in October 1990.
Meanwhile, on 11 September 1990, the regional South Ossetian Oblast Soviet declared independence from Georgia. The South Ossetian Soviet Democratic Republic was proclaimed within the Soviet Union. This contradicted plans of Georgian dissidents who wanted to declare independence from the USSR. The Georgian dissidents claimed that the Soviet authorities were using Ossetian separatism to pressure Georgia to remain in the Soviet Union. On 28 October 1990, the first free parliamentary elections were held in Georgian SSR, which saw a coalition of pro-independence Georgian dissidents led by Zviad Gamsakhurdia winning the majority in the Supreme Soviet. The election was boycotted by South Ossetians, and they responded by organizing their own vote for a South Ossetian parliament.
On 11 December 1990, Zviad Gamsakhurdia's government declared the South Ossetian election illegitimate and abolished South Ossetia's political status altogether to counteract separatism. Gamsakhurdia said that Ossetians had no right to declare independence on Georgian territory.
Combatants
South Ossetian forces consisted of militia, volunteers from North Ossetia and other regions in North Caucasus. Most of their equipment and arms were former Soviet arms abandoned following the break-up of the Soviet Union. Former Georgian president, Eduard Shevardnadze, accused Russia of military involvement in the conflict. At the same time, the Ossetians claimed that Russian military and police failed to protect the local civilian population during Georgian attacks on Tskhinvali and surrounding Ossetian villages. The Georgian side claimed there was overt help from military units of the Russian Federation.
In early 1990, South Ossetia had only 300–400 poorly armed fighters. Led by the South Ossetian "Defense Minister" Oleg Teziev, a militia network across the region was created and professionalized as the South Ossetian force grew to 1,500 full-time fighters plus 3,500 volunteers. Georgia's forces were in much poorer shape. The ragtag Georgian forces composed of ethnic Georgians were not as well trained and equipped as their opponents. The Georgian National Guard that fought in the war was formed in January 1991, just before the fighting started. It was supposed to be a 12,000 strong force raised by conscription, but because of financial difficulties it had to be formed from volunteers instead.
Several informal Georgian militias also participated in the conflict, including White Eagles (splinter group of the National Guard), White George, Black Panthers, Kutaisi National Guard and Merab Kostava Society.
In late 1991, Gamsakhurdia purchased from Romania 1,000 AK-47 rifles at an apparently discounted price, $150 each, when the typical price for a Kalashnikov rifle during 1990–1991 was in the $250–$300 range.
War
In December 1990, the situation in the region became increasingly chaotic. Towards the end of 1990, the situation for ethnic Georgians in Tskhinvali worsened sharply. There were reports of multiple cases of lootings and beatings committed both by Georgian and Ossetian paramilitaries. On 12 December 1990, gunmen driving a car in Tskhinvali opened fire from a submachine gun, killing three Georgians and wounding two in what has been described as a terrorist attack and an act of ethnic violence. Following this, Georgia declared a state of emergency in South Ossetia. The units of the Georgian MVD and the KGB entered the region to enforce the state of emergency. The commander of the Georgian Interior Ministry troops was appointed as mayor of Tskhinvali.
TASS reported on 28 December that some 2,000 people had stormed police headquarters in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, on 27 December and taken a group of Georgian policemen hostage. The hostages were released only after police set free a local man arrested for illegal possession of a firearm. By 1 January 1991, Ossetians had built barricades in Tskhinvali with concrete slabs, sandbags and trolley buses.
In the first days of January 1991, several Georgian militiamen were assassinated in Tskhinvali. On the night of 5 to 6 January 1991, the additional Georgian MVD units and the Georgian National Guard entered the city. According to Georgian media, the units sent to South Ossetia numbered 3000 men. Georgia also imposed an economic blockade on South Ossetia and blocked the road to Tskhinvali, while the Ossetians blockaded Georgian villages.
The urban warfare raged in Tskhinvali in the following three weeks. Tskhinvali was divided into an Ossetian-controlled western part and a Georgian-controlled eastern part. Ossetians engaged in shoot-outs with Georgian troops and threw home-made bombs, but later began to shoot from houses as Georgians tried to flatten the barricades with APCs. On 7 January, the Soviet President Mikheil Gorbachev ordered all armed formations to leave the region except those of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. This also meant removal of the Georgian MVD and KGB troops which had been placed there since 12 December 1990. Gorbachev declared the South Ossetian declaration of independence from Georgia (while April 1990 law granted autonomies many new rights, it still did not grant them right to change their status) and Georgia's abolition of South Ossetia's autonomy as illegitimate. On 9 January, the Georgian Supreme Soviet held an extraordinary session and declared Gorbachev's decree as "interference into Georgia’s internal affairs". Chairman of Georgia's Supreme Soviet Zviad Gamsakhurdia stated that Gorbachev had provoked the confrontation to impose a direct presidential rule in the region, and that Georgia would not obey his decrees. Meanwhile, North and South Ossetia supported Gorbachev's decision.
On 25 January 1991, a ceasefire was negotiated by the Soviet troops between Georgian Minister of Internal Affairs Dilar Khabuliani and Ossetian representatives, which led to the Georgians withdrawal to the hills around the city. However, the economic blockade of South Ossetia was kept in place.
On 30 January, a leader of South Ossetian separatists, chairman of South Ossetian Oblast Soviet Torez Kulumbegov was arrested in Tbilisi. Georgian MVD had completed their withdrawal from Tskhinvali and according to a Georgian MVD spokesman, no shooting had been reported in the town for past three days.