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Beslan: Siege of School No. 1
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North Ossetia

Political Status: Republic within Russian Federation
Population: 709,900
Capital: Vladikavkaz
Common Languages: Ossetian, Russian
Major Religion: Christianity

Background:
North Ossetia has the distinct advantage and disadvantage of being the North Caucasus republic with the closest relationship to Moscow. North Ossetia is the most developed republic in the region, with more industry and advanced urbanization than any of the other republics in the area. However, North Ossetia's relative stability has not saved it from the violence and general unrest that plagues the region. North Ossetia endures an ongoing conflict with neighboring Ingushetia, which in 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, turned bloody and resulted in tens of thousands of ethnic Ingush fleeing North Ossetia.

History of Conflict:
The dispute between North Ossetia and Ingushetia goes back to 1917 and the Bolshevik Revolution. The majority of Ossetians received privileged treatment from the Tsarist government and supported the anti-Bolshevik White Guards. The Ingush, on the other hand, were in favor of the Bolshevik desire to redistribute land and resources. The conflict turned violent and in August of 1918 the Bolshevik army defeated the Tsarist White Guard troops and began a period of repression against the Tsarist regime and its supporters, the Ossetians. The Ossetians still hold the Ingush responsible for having upheld the Bolshevik side of this conflict.

Then, during World War II, the Ossetians were the favored ones. The Ingush (along with the Chechens) were moved to the far-eastern regions of the USSR. The Prigorodny region, located in the Northern area of what is currently North Ossetia, had been inhabited mostly by Ingush but was resettled by Ossetians while the Ingush were displaced. The Ingushetians suspected that this was no accident -- that in fact Stalin and many of his advisors were of Ossetian descent and were therefore using their substantial power to help North Ossetia. Eventually Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev allowed the Ingush to return to their native land, but did not return the Prigorodny region to the Chechen-Ingushetian Republic that originally laid claim to it. This gave credence to the theory that the Russian government favored Ossetians at the expense of Ingushetians.

During the final years of Gorbachev's presidency, attempts were made to make reparations to those who had experienced repression and deportation at the hands of the Russian government. The Russian Supreme Soviet drafted on statute on the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples that promised to restore the borders in the North Caucasus region to their previous status. In accordance with this new statute (which was drafted in April 1991) the Prigorodny region rightfully belonged to the Ingushetians. However, the government was less adept at enforcing the statute than they were at supporting its ideological underpinnings, so in the fall of 1991 Ingushetian extremists attempted to reclaim the Prigorodny region by force, transforming what had been a solely ideological dispute between the Ossetians and the Ingushetians into a full-blown bloody conflict. Harassment of the sizeable Ingushetian population in North Ossetia resulted in a mass exodus of anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 refugees, as Ingushetians fled the increasingly hostile lands of North Ossetia. Though the Russian government's stance was that the region in question was to remain a part of North Ossetia, it took months of rising conflict between Ossetians and Ingushetians before the government intervened, and then they did so in what was seen as such a pro-Ossetian way that their efforts did little to jumpstart the peace process.

Current Status:
For the most part the North Ossetians are seen as the reliable, loyal-to-mother-Russia good kids of the North Caucasus family, and the Ingushetians are seen as the renegades. Some suspect that the rational behind favoring the North Ossetians is racial because the North Ossetians are primarily Christian while the Ingushetians are primarily Muslim. Whatever the reason, now Russia has a vested interest in maintaining favorable relations with North Ossetia because major cities with the republic like Vladikavkaz and Mozdok have become the primary Russian military bases in the area.

Beslan, sight of the siege of school No. 1, is located in North Ossetia. It is widely believed that those responsible for the attack are terrorists fighting in support of Chechen independence, who have an interest in brining their conflict onto the soil of other republics in order to divert Russian forces and exacerbate the already deep-seated local tensions. However, some people, including those native to the North Ossetia and Ingushetia border regions, believe that with the years of hatred built up between these neighboring peoples, it's hard to know who exactly is responsible for the siege of School No. 1.