above them. In 1850 when Georgia was fully under the control of Russian Empire, Georgian powerful family Machabeli complained to Russian authorities about not being able to seize control over mountain gorges where the Ossetian populations lived. Here is what Russian officials, collegiate assessors Yanovsky and Kozachkovsky, wrote in 1831 about the relationship between Georgian feudal lords and the Ossetian population of mountain gorges in their “Notes on Ossetian gorges appropriated by the princes Eristov-Ksani”: “...in more distant gorges, such as: Magrandoletsky, Tliysky, Chipransky, Gvidisk, Knogsky and others, for which the Eristavi's declare a claim, there are no traces of their control. Before being conquered by our troops, the Ossetians living in these gorges were a model of primitive peoples. In the villages and gorges there was absolutely no order and obedience. Everyone who was able to carry weapons considered himself completely independent. The example of the Eristavi's gave rise to the princes of Machabeli to appropriate the newly conquered Ossetians living along the Bolshaya Liakhva, in the gorges of Roksky, Jomaksky, Urschuarsky, who never obeyed and did not belong to them." South Ossetia as a part of the Soviet Union Following the Russian revolution, the area of modern South Ossetia became part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. In 1918, conflict began between the landless Ossetian peasants living in Shida Kartli (Interior Georgia), who were influenced by Bolshevism and demanded ownership of the lands they worked, and the Menshevik government backed ethnic Georgian aristocrats, who were legal owners. Although the Ossetians were initially discontented with the economic policies of the central government, the tension soon transformed into ethnic conflict. The first Ossetian rebellion began in February 1918, when three Georgian princes were killed and their land was seized by the Ossetians. The central government of Tiflis retaliated by sending the National Guard to the area. However, the Georgian unit retreated after they had engaged the Ossetians. Ossetian rebels then proceeded to occupy the town of Tskhinvali and began attacking the ethnic Georgian civilian population. During uprisings in 1919 and 1920, the Ossetians were covertly supported by Soviet Russia, but even so, were defeated. According to allegations made by Ossetian sources, the crushing of the 1920 uprising caused the death of 5,000 Ossetians, while ensuing hunger and epidemics were the causes of death of more than 13,000 people. The Soviet Georgian government, established after the Red Army invasion of Georgia