The Ossetian people, divided between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Georgia, is one of the Caucasian peoples that have struggled the most for their right to self-government throughout the XX and XXI centuries. The fact that the territory has not witnessed a long-term armed conflict has kept Ossetia away from the notoriety achieved by nations such as Chechnya or Ingushetia. Ossetians are descendants of the Alans, an Iranian nomadic people that settled in the Caucasus around VII AD.

Ossetia is currently governed by two different administrations. On the northern flank of the Caucasus range there is the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, which constitutes a republic within the Russian Federation. It has a population of around 300,000 Ossetians, making up 53% of the total population. Russians are the second largest ethnic group (30%). Both Ossetian and Russian languages are granted official status. That is not the case of Ingush, which enjoys no legal recognition whatsoever even though it is spoken in Prigordni, one of the eastern regions of North Ossetia where Ingush people were majority until Stalin deported them under accusation of collaborationism. Today, Prigordni is inhabited by North and South Ossetians and Ingush people, but the latter are not granted the same rights.

On the other hand, South Ossetia is a de facto independent state within Georgia, only recognized by Russia and Nicaragua. Approximately 70,000 people live in South Ossetia, although constant conflicts and displaced populations make the number of both Ossetians and Georgians difficult to estimate. In 1989 the Ossetian population amounted to 70,000, while another 100,000 Ossetians lived in the rest of Georgia. Thirteen years after, the number of Ossetians living in Georgia proper dropped to 38,000 people.

During the soviet era, South Ossetia tried to join North Ossetia, but Georgia stopped the move by force. However, Tbilisi's influence over Tskhinvali would not last much longer, since violence broke off between South Ossetian pro-independence supporters and Georgian authorities in November 1991, shortly after Georgia proclaimed itself independent. By then the country had promoted strong nationalist policies opposing any demand of Ossetian political, cultural and linguistic autonomy.

A de facto independent South Ossetia ensued from the 1992 cease fire. The Republic had the support of the Russian Federation, against which Georgia did not want to come into open conflict. South Ossetia's status has remained unaltered until 2008, a period in which the republic enjoyed its own political institutions -government and parliament elected in regular elections-, official status for the Ossetian language and a considerable political and economical stability with the exception of the 2004 conflict. On August 6 2008 South Ossetian and Georgian military forces accused each other of breaking out hostilities, sparking off a war between the armies of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Russia, and Georgia.

The Russian military victory against Georgia allowed South Ossetia to finally severe all political ties with Georgia. Only a few days after the end of the armed conflict Russia took another step to show its commitment towards South Ossetia and Abkhazia by recognizing them as independent states, a move that Nicaragua followed shortly after. As a consequence, South Ossetia -together with Abkhazia- joined the list of states with limited recognition, which includes the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Kosovo, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Palestine, among others. You can find a chronology of the South-Ossetian conflict at Nationalia.

Further information on the Ossetian people at Minority Rights Group.