Humans first settled in the area around present-day Tskhinvali in the
Bronze Age. The unearthed settlements and archaeological artifacts from that time are unique in that they reflect influences from both
Iberian (east Georgia) and
Colchian (west Georgia) cultures with possible
Sarmatian elements. Tskhinvali was first chronicled by Georgian sources in 1398 as a village in
Kartli (central Georgia), though a later account credits the 3rd-century AD Georgian king
Aspacures II of Iberia with its foundation as a fortress. By the early-18th century, Tskhinvali was a small "royal town" populated chiefly by monastic serfs. Tskhinvali was annexed to the
Russian Empire along with the rest of eastern Georgia in 1801. Located on a
trade route which linked
North Caucasus to Tbilisi and
Gori, Tskhinvali gradually developed into a commercial town with a mixed
Georgian Jewish,
Georgian,
Armenian and
Ossetian population. In 1917, it had 600 households with 38.4% occupied by
Georgian Jews, 34.4% by Georgians, 17.7% by Armenians and 8.8% by Ossetians. The town saw
clashes between the Georgian People's Guard and pro-
Bolshevik Ossetian peasants during the 1918–20 period, when Georgia gained
brief independence from Russia.
Soviet rule was established by the
invading Red Army in March 1921, and a year later, in 1922, Tskhinvali was made a capital of the
South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the
Georgian SSR. Subsequently, the town became largely Ossetian due to intense urbanisation and to the Soviet ("nativization") policy which induced an inflow of the Ossetians from the nearby rural areas into Tskhinvali. The settlement was essentially an industrial centre, with lumber mills and manufacturing plants, and had also several cultural and educational institutions such as a venerated Pedagogical Institute (currently Tskhinvali State University) and a drama theatre. According to the last
Soviet census (in 1989), Tskhinvali had a population of 42,934, and according to the census of Republic of South Ossetia in 2015, the population comprised 30,432 people. During the acute phase of the
Georgian-Ossetian conflict of 1989 and following, Tskhinvali was a scene of ethnic tensions and ensuing armed confrontation between Georgian and Ossetian forces. The 1992
Sochi ceasefire accord left Tskhinvali in the hands of
Ossetians.
Russo-Georgian War in Tskhinvali A considerable part of the population of South Ossetia (at least, 30,000 out of 70,000) fled into
North Ossetia–Alania prior or immediately after the start of the
Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. However, many civilians were killed during the shelling and the following
Battle of Tskhinvali of 8 to 11 August 2008 (162 civilian deaths were documented by the Russian team of investigators and 365 – by the South Ossetian authorities). The town was heavily damaged during the battle due to extensive shelling by the
Georgian Army.
Andrey Illarionov visited the town in October 2008 and reported that Jewish Quarter was in ruins, though he observed that the ruins were overgrown with shrubs and trees, which indicates that the destruction took place during the
1991–1992 South Ossetia War. However,
Mark Ames, who was covering the last war for
The Nation, stated that Tskhinvali's main residential district, nicknamed Shanghai because of its population density (it's where most of the city's high-rise apartment blocks are located), and the old Jewish Quarter, were completely destroyed. ==Geography==