A report of Alexander Dzhatiev to the South Ossetian Revolutionary Committee about the attack of the Menshevik detachment on the partisan guard post in the Roсk district
I bring to the attention of the Revolutionary Committee that on the night of May 15, 1920, near the village of Koshka, the enemy detachment attacked our guard post.
The enemy fled after the shootout. The Georgian government is encroaching on this part of Soviet Russia.
Please bring this to the attention of the authorities, from today we are at war.
1920 May 15.
A. Dzhatiev
The Party Archive of the South Ossetian. Regional Committee. The original, handwritten.
A return note by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia to the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR.
MOSCOW
To the People's Commissar Chicherin
In response to your note dated May 17, No. 1133, about new landings in Georgia in the Batumi region the troops and the intention of the Government of Georgia to suppress the Soviet Republic in South Ossetia, I have the honor to report the following:
As you well know, the process of reconstituting Georgia within its inalienable borders has not yet ended and the harassment of Georgia, based on its historical rights, as well as on the indisputability of cultural, ethnographic and strategic principles, has not yet been fully implemented. In particular, the city of Batum and its region remained outside of Georgia, only an insignificant part of which the Georgian troops have recently been able to occupy. Alienated by force of arms from Georgia as a result of the unequal struggle of the latter against Turkish imperialism, the Batumi region with the victory of the Entente became an object of occupation by the consent powers.
Considering the Batumi region with Batum an integral part of Georgia and not thinking of the truly independent existence of Georgia without this region. The Government of the Republic of Georgia has always taken and is now taking energetic measures to reunite the Batumi region with Georgia. The work in this direction is proceeding with due intensity. Of course, as the Government of Georgia is approving and spreading power in the territory of the Batumi region, we will be implementing all the points of the peace treaty there, as we are doing, on the territory actually occupied by Georgia now. The necessary materials on the actions of the occupation authorities will be urgently sent through our representative. Noting with satisfaction the tendency expressed in your note to contribute to the restoration of Georgia within its historical borders, the Government of Georgia is extremely puzzled by the part of your note that states that Georgia intends to suppress the Soviet Republic in South Ossetia by force of arms. I consider it a duty to draw your attention to the fact that there is no South Ossetia within Georgia, and the Ossetian villages located in Georgia, are located in the Gori district of Tiflis province; These villages are located on the indisputable territory of Georgia, to south of the old border of the Tiflis province, to south of the border line between Georgia and Russia. The Georgian administration is functioning in the form of local democratic authorities throughout this region. Your message about the existence of the Soviet power in South Ossetia concerns, obviously, the village of Rocki, located on the pass, where, as we have already informed you, a detachment of Soviet troops, consisting of 18 people with two guns, penetrated from the Terek region. This detachment is still there, despite the promise to remove it. We hope that you will take urgent measures to recall the Soviet detachment located there from Rocki. After the Soviet Russia pledged to prevent an organization on its territory that had set itself the goal of combating the existing governance order in Georgia, it seems incomprehensible and based on a misunderstanding your statement in defense of the Soviet regime, allegedly existing in one of the Georgian provinces.
In view of the fact that this circumstance can contribute to creating an atmosphere of mutual misunderstanding, I would greatly appreciate your clarification on this subject. No. 4047.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hegechkori.
1920 May 20.
TsGAOOR and SS Gr. SSR, f. 13 s, d, 69, l 43. Copy, typewritten
From the book "The struggle of the working people of South Ossetia for Soviet power" (1917-1921). Documents and materials. Compiled by I.N. Tskhovrebov.
