The genocide of the people of South Ossetia, carried out by the Menshevik government of the so-called Georgian Democratic Republic in 1920, was a logical continuation of the course taken by Georgia in the Middle Ages to destroy South Ossetia not only politically but also as geographically. It is significant that, on the one hand, the Georgian Bolsheviks led by Ordzhonikidze acted as provokers of the uprising, while on the other hand, Georgian Mensheviks led by Jordania were the executioners of South Ossetia, under the guise of pressure.
Even in the period when Georgia itself was going through the hardest military-political times, it always had the time and the energy to seizure another piece of land, expelling its legitimate owners. The history of the settlement of Irakly II's favorite by the name Achba in the Ossetian lands north of Tskhinval is just one of many examples. The Ossetians were exiled from there, except for those who agreed to change their name to Georgian and considered themselves Georgians. Achba became Machabeli, and the mean word "Samachablo" was given to his fiefdom. Themean because there was such a subtext here, as if it was the original, historical name of the area, and Ossetians never lived there.
In general, during the period of major political disorders, Georgia always tries to reduce the number of Ossetians. At the same time, it does not matter who heads the country, what kind of social order there is. So it was during the period of Irakly II, and in the period of the opposition of princes, when another punitive expedition attacked Ossetia under the guise of suppressing the uprising of Prince Yulon. And what about the expedition of Rennenkampf, unleashed at the instigation of the Georgian nobility? There are many such examples.
The events of 1920 were not an exception. It is significant that if the previous punitive operations against South Ossetia during the tsarist period were committed by Georgia or incited to commit them on the pretext that the Ossetians allegedly started something against the tsar, against Russia, judging by the Menshevik period newspapers, it was promoted the thesis that Ossetians, "have always been agents of the Kremlin and once again betrayed Georgia."
It is appropriate to remind that the same propaganda thesis was widely used in the anti-Ossetian campaign of the late 1980s and early 1990s, accompanied by genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Georgia both then and now claimed and claims that it is ready to build good relations with Russia. However, it is probably necessary to think about what its true attitude should be, if it exterminated the Ossetian population with such an inhuman cruelty only on charges of sympathy for Russia...
The events of 1920 are not studied enough. On the one hand, this is a consequence of the course taken in the Soviet period for interethnic reconciliation, and on the other hand, South Ossetia was forcibly subordinated to Georgia and, of course, not only studies, but also reminders of those horrors were strictly forbidden.
And here again we have to return to the idea of creating the Museum of the Genocide of the Ossetian people, where not only historical artifacts and exposition materials, but also archival materials, not only in 1920, would be collected.
Many will ask the question: ''Are the lessons of 1920 learned? '' I think that, yes. Our people passed the exam on these issues for 20 years, from 1988 to 2008, and passed successfully.
The main wisdom of the lesson, taught by the southern neighbor in 1920, consists in the life-leading conclusion "It1s better death than submission to Georgia".
