On June 8, 1920, at a mass rally in Tskhinval, Revkom proclaimed Soviet power. The events preceding this date and those that followed it entered the history of South Ossetia as the first and the bloodiest genocide of South Ossetia by the then Menshevik Georgia.
In May 1918, the Mensheviks of Georgia announced the creation of an independent state and presented their rights to the territory of South Ossetia. By this time, the National Council of South Ossetia already functioned in the region, which included representatives of various political parties. In its resolution, the National Council spoke in favor of granting "the right of free self-determination" to the South Ossetians.
On May 25, 1920, the Georgian government sent troops to South Ossetia. However, the Ossetian rebels resisted. The main forces of the Georgian invaders were defeated in Dzau, where more than 250 soldiers were captured. The rest retreated to Tskhinval, but by the evening of June 7, the city was liberated by the rebels, and on June 8 at a mass rally in the capital of South Ossetia, the Revolutionary Committee proclaimed “Soviet power from Oni to Dusheti”.
This was the reason for the Georgian government to start a long-standing large-scale armed invasion. Punitive detachments were sent to South Ossetia, which launched an operation against the peaceful population of the Republic. On June 20, the political leadership of South Ossetia was destroyed by the punishers - 13 Communards were shot.
The scale of the genocide is evidenced by the documentary materials of a special commission that worked with the participation of Georgian representatives as well. Georgian punitive troops killed more than 5,000 people, including women, old people and children, which at the time was 20% of the population of South Ossetia. More than 7 thousand South Ossetians were forced to leave their homeland.
The power of the Soviets was restored in South Ossetia only on March 5, 1921.
The events of the beginning of the twentieth century were repeated at its end, even if not on such a tragic scale. History repeats itself in the form of a spiral, but one day this circle should be broken.
The independence of South Ossetia proclaimed on May 29, 1992 was recognized by the Russian Federation and a number of other countries after another bloody turn of Georgian aggression in August 2008.
