Returning from the South Ossetian congress (Menshevik) Ramishvili shared his impressions.
May 27 morning with comrade Gagloev, representative of the Ossetian National Council, I went to the congress of representatives of the Ossetian people of Transcaucasia.
In Gori, we arranged a brief exchange of views with representatives of a local organization ...
Then we went to the village of Dzhava-to the place of the congress. Other delegates from Tiflis also came with us ... We had to spend the night in Tskhinval.
On the morning of the 28th, we left for Dzawa. We had to drive about 30 versts. The road passes through the most beautiful places – on the right Bank of the Liakhva river. Nature is rich, luxurious, and full of flowers. I couldn't help but draw a comparison with the beautiful Guria, whom I had recently visited.
What difference is in everything. There, the people are alarmed, in continuous motion, armed, seeking a way out of a difficult situation, and starving. Here, on the contrary, the people are calm, satisfied, do not feel the fear of war, do not even think about it and its danger ...
The only topic discussed here is Bolshevism. It is agitating persistently.
Upon our arrival in Dzhava, a congress immediately opened.
It was opened by the Chairman of the Ossetian National Council, comrade Georgy Gagloev.
72 delegates came to the congress (per 1 thousand people)
The first day of the meeting (May 28) was dedicated to greetings and the election of the presidium ...
The next day, the leader of the Bolsheviks Philip Makharadze came from Tiflis ...
The election of the presidium caused a major clash of parties.
At the beginning of the congress, the Bolsheviks felt themselves masters of the situation and the sympathy of the majority of the congress was on their side. Therefore, not a single Menshevik went to the podium.
A. Tibilov, representative of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, was elected the Chairman, and 2 Bolsheviks as the Chairman’s comrades.
The agenda was as follows: reports from the field, the current moment, the construction of a wheeled road through the (Caucasian) ridge, the election of members of the national Council, the Tskhinval events, the question of forests, the national regiment.
The report of the representative of the North Caucasus national Council Zaraev, who called himself a Bolshevik, who outlined the true state of Affairs in the North Caucasus, stood out from the field reports
The local Tiflis Bolsheviks assured the Ossetian people that in the north the Bolsheviks had great forces and excellent orders, and that they were sending troops against the counter-revolutionary Transcaucasia, especially against the Mensheviks.
Local Bolsheviks even sent a delegate with a special commission to expedite the Bolshevik campaign on Tiflis, urged Ossetians to take part in this campaign ...
The report lasted 1.5 hours with intense attention of the audience.
The questions asked after the report were varied ...
Then an engineer R. Gagloev presented to the congress a report on the construction of the road from Tskhinval to Zaramag.
The main provisions of the report were adopted and an economic and road committee was immediately elected consisting of: Chairman V. Kochiev, builder R. Gagloev, secretary A. Dzhatiev, clerk E. Tskhovrebova and treasurer I. Sanakoev ...
From the very first steps of its activity, the National Council ran into opposition among nationalists dissatisfied with its composition.
The activities of the National Council resulted mainly in the form of cultural work: agitation and propaganda in the villages, raising the question of the wheel road, etc.
After the report of the Chairman of the (National) Council, the latter resigned, and suggested the congress to outline its new composition.
The elections were stormy. The Bolsheviks conducted intensified agitation among the delegates and presented a list of 30 persons, which included mainly ... the Bolsheviks and several Social Revolutionaries, but not one Menshevik ...
The Mensheviks presented a general list, which included representatives of all movements ...
Then the Bolsheviks brought from the "dark room" (the name of the room where the group that arrived from Tiflis, headed by Philipp Makharadze, were discussing all the questions arising and gave instructions to their supporters, stubbornly remaining in the shadows) a statement and made protest ...
The Bolsheviks declared their unwillingness to work in such a composition and their resignation from the council.
In my report, I emphasized that the Tskhinvali events were not of the nature of the national movement of the Ossetian people against the Georgian, but were one of the branches of the Bolshevik movement in Russia with the goal of instilling "socialism" and that the soldiers who returned from the front were Georgians and Ossetians, who were part of the previously disarmed Georgian regiment ...
The newspaper "Struggle" 1918, No. 86, 87.
6 June 1918.
From the book "The struggle of the working people of South Ossetia for the Soviet power" (1917-1921). Documents and materials. Compiled by I.N. Tskhovrebov.
