Nazran okrug
The Nazran okrug, known after March 1917 as the Ingush okrug, was a district of the Terek Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, and after 1921, the Mountain ASSR of the Russian SFSR within the Soviet Union. The district had a population of 59 thousand and area approximating, the smallest of all the Terek Oblast's subdivisions in both measures. The administrative centre of the district was the city of Vladikavkaz.
Due to the Tsarist government's redistribution of land to Cossacks, local peasantry were forced to rent land from the Cossack landowners. As a result of the constant hostilities with the neighbouring Cossacks, the district was formed in 1905 as a separate subdivision for Ingush people. The district passed between the Mountainous Republic of the North Caucasus, the Terek Soviet Republic, and the Armed Forces of South Russia, until finally passing to the control of the Red Army. The area of the Nazran okrug presently corresponds to part of the North Caucasian Federal District of Russia.
In 1916, the district was almost exclusively populated by North Caucasians—predominantly Ingush—with Russians forming less than 1 percent of the population. The district contained 135 settlements, some of which underwent a series of repressions due to raids by local Ingush outlaws.
History
Establishment
Due to mutual hostility and constant conflicts between Ingush and Cossack peoples, the Russian government was forced to form a separate district for Ingush. By a decree of, the Ingush populated land, consisting of seventeen plain villages and four mountain societies, was carved from the Sunzhensky otdel to temporarily create Nazran okrug. Despite the fact that this territorial reform was intended to solve the immediate practical problem not in favor of the Ingush and with the reform subsequently displacing numerous Ingush farms and entire villages located on lands leased from the Cossacks outside the otdel, the Ingush met this reform with great enthusiasm. The very fact of the restoration of the national-territorial district inspired great hopes, especially since the government itself admitted that the ataman of the Sunzhensky otdel, under whose control the Ingush were previously, due to his military duties, didn't have the opportunity to pay due attention arrangement of civil and economic life of the Ingush population.Due to the reform being temporary, the local population was worried. In January 1908, elected from the Ingush people, lieutenant Tatre Albogachiev, Shaptuko Kuriev and Duguz Hadzhi Bekov arrived in Tiflis in order to intercede with the Viceroy of Caucasus, Illarion Vorontsov-Dashkov, on "the approval of the temporarily formed Nazran okrug." The request was granted and the Nazran okrug within its specified boundaries was approved on 10 June 1909. The okrug's administration and the mountain verbal court were established on a common basis with other okrugs of Terek Oblast] By a decree of, Nazran okrug was deemed permanent.
The seat of the district administration was appointed Nazran which, in practice, didn't function as the seat of the administration due to a lack of suitable buildings. Instead, Vladikavkaz was appointed the seat of the administration up until January 1917 by a decree of February 1913 of the State Council and the State Duma.
Imperial Russian rule
In 1905, displays of mountaineers' disloyalty to the administration and its local representatives increased. At meetings of various villages, the Ingush population demanded the return of lands that previously belonged to them which were seized under the control of the state property department. It was during the beginning of December of the same year when more serious clashes between local residents and the authorities in Ingush villages started to happen.On 23 December 1905, the Nazran okrug's head, Lieutenant Colonel Ya. E. Mitnik, was killed during attempt to disarm the highlanders in the village of Barsuki. His murder was a response to the ongoing terror conducted by the Tsarist administration in the okrug. Mitnik's death, along with the railway strike that had been ongoing since 8 December and the Lagir peasant uprising that broke out on 21 December, played a role in the introduction of martial law in the entire Terek Oblast on 23 December.
Furious over the robberies and raids of the abreks Zelimkhan and Sulumbek,, together with Ingush tsarist officers, gathered the entire Ingush clergy in Vladikavkaz on 23 September 1910. He spoke to them with insults and announced to them that the Ingush were deprived of the right to use the Cossack lands they leased, that he was depriving the okrug of the right to elect elders and that he would submit a petition to the viceroy of the Caucasus for the demolition of all Ingush farms and villages of the Assa Gorge. This meant the forceful property seizure from the disadvantaged mountain population. Furthermore, Mikheev began to petition Russian government to organize a punitive expedition to the Ingush mountains, the allowance for which would be entrusted to the Ingush mountaineers, who were already in poverty under the yoke of the military-police regime.
In 1911, as wave of severe repressions swept across the okrug, the villages Koki, and were destroyed. 360 representatives of the family, including children, women and old people, were jailed in a Vladikavkaz prison for three months and then exiled to the Yeniseysk Governorate. Fearing an uprising of the mountaineers for independence under the leadership of influential clergy, Russian authorities also exiled prominent spiritual figures of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. According to Lemka Agieva, more than 30 people from among the highest Chechen and Ingush clergy were exiled.
Moreover, the Ingush, Chechens and other mountain peoples were accused of all the mortal sins. For example, the Cossack nationalist Georgy Tkachev published in 1911 the book Ingush and Chechens in the Family of Nationalities of the Terek Region where he justified the Cossack and military-police lawlessness against the Chechens and Ingush, explaining that the reason for the robberies on the part of the mountaineers "lies in the very character of the Ingush–Chechen people".
World War I and Russian Civil War
The outbreak of the World War I dealt another serious blow to the economic situation of the Nazran okrug which was already quite adverse. New military conditions, an increase in old taxes and the introduction of new ones, in fact, an emergency regime further aggravated the economic and political situation of the okrug.The February Revolution of 1917, which overthrew the Tsarist autocracy, found a wide response by local masses. Already in early March 1918, civil committees were created in the Terek Oblast which served as a local representation of the Russian Provisional Government. By 1 May 1917 National Councils had also been created in individual okrugs of the Terek Oblast, including Nazran okrug, which became known as Ingush okrug from March 1917. The Ingush National Council was headed by. His brother Magomed Dzhabagiev was the representative of Ingushetia within the Civil Committee in Vladikavkaz, being the latter's commissioner for the okrug.
During the Russian Civil War in 1917–22, the Cossacks and the local mountain populations of the okrug had armed clashes. One part of the population supported the Terek Soviet Republic formed in March 1918 while the other part supported the Mountain Republic founded in May 1918. During the North Caucasus Operation of the Red Army in 1920, the territory of the okrug was occupied by the Red Army.
Soviet rule
The first congress of the Ingush people was held in Nazran on 4 April 1920. It was attended by prominent Bolshevik revolutionaries like Sergo Ordzhonikidze and Sergei Kirov who were welcomed by 15,000 Ingush. The congress ended with the proclamation of the restoration of Soviet power in the Ingush okrug and approval of the composition of the Ingush District Revolutionary Committee, which included,, and others. After the death of the first chairman of the committee, Gapur Akhriev, the first re-organization took place in April with Albogachiev becoming the next chairman. The created on 8 April 1920 also approved the new composition of the Ingush Revolutionary Committee.In early 1920s a purge of people in Ingush okrug who were deemed dissidents and unreliable people by the Soviet regime began. For instance, in the summer of 1920, the former head of the Ingush State Guard Magomed Kotiev and Colonel Kerim Goigov were arrested. The collection of food tax to which the population became subject to was a disaster as they, exhausted by war, devastation and drought, could not pay on time and in full. Although in 1924 there was a Cossack-Ingush clash near the village of Yandare, in general the interethnic atmosphere improved somewhat in the okrug after the Russian Civil War's conclusion.
From 26 March to 1 April 1921, the Congress of Soviets of the Ingush okrug was held. Delegates from 28 villages of the okrug were present at the congress. Idris Zyazikov was elected chairman of the executive committee of the congress. Issues of taking measures to combat robberies and banditry were discussed at the congress. It ended with the election of the executive committee, which included Idris Zyazikov,, Inaluk Malsagov, Yusup Albogachiev, Sultan Aldiev and others.
On 21 January 1921, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree on the formation of the Mountain Republic on the territory of the former Terek Oblast. Paragraph 8 of the decree read: "The Autonomous Mountain Socialist Soviet Republic is divided into 6 administrative districts, each with its own district executive committee: 1) Chechen; 2) Ingush; 3) Ossetian; 4) Kabardian; 5) Balkar; 6) Karachai." The Congress of Soviets of the Ingush okrug held on 26 March to 1 April 1921 fully approved and welcomed the creation of an autonomous republic. The process of the creation of Mountain ASSR ended on 16–22 April 1921 with the Founding Congress of Soviets of the Republic in Vladikavkaz, which on behalf of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party welcomed Sergei Kirov. From Ingush okrug, Idris Zyazikov entered the governing bodies of the ASSR—to the Central Executive Committee as deputy chairman and to the Council of People's Commissars as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. On 27 January 1922, he was also elected chairman of the Mountain Central Executive Committee.
After the Founding Congress of the GASSR on 22 April 1921 approved the elimination of Cossack stripes due to the strong need of land by mountaineers, the territory of Ingush okrug expanded from 184,438.90 dessiatines to 292,193 dessiatines which made it possible for the majority of residents of the mountainous region to move to the plain. In 1920–22 the plots of the former Cossack stanitsas of,, Tarskoye and farms were distributed between 4 mountain Ingush societies—Dzherakh, Fyappins, Khamkhins and Tsorins. The total area of Ingush okrug grew by 58.4% from the lands that were transferred from Sunzhensky otdel, Vladikavkazsky okrug and Nalchisky okrug. However, the per capita supply of all land in the okrug increased by only 0.78 dessiatines, and the provision of convenient land alone by only 0.07 dessiatines. Thus, the crisis of land shortage in the okrug wasn't resolved. The drought in Ingushetia in the summer of 1921 resulted in meager grain harvests in Keskem, Nazran and other places.
In May–June 1922, the Extraordinary Commission of the City Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Mountain ASSR concluded a number of serious shortcomings in the work of the party and Soviet bodies of the Chechen, Digor, and Ingush okrugs. The role of the Bolsheviks in Soviet construction was insignificant and there weren't enough experienced party and Soviet workers. Based on the materials of the Extraordinary Commission, the State Central Executive Committee passed a resolution on 13 June 1922 which dissolved the Chechen, Nazran, Digor and Sunzha okrug executive committees and appointed instead revolutionary committees from the most experienced party and Soviet workers, tested in practical work. The revolutionary committees were strengthened by the Bolsheviks.
In May–June 1922, the Extraordinary Commission of the City Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Mountain ASSR concluded a number of serious shortcomings in the work of the party and Soviet bodies of the Chechen, Digor, and Ingush okrugs. The role of the Bolsheviks in Soviet construction was insignificant and there weren't enough experienced party and Soviet workers. Based on the materials of the Extraordinary Commission, the State Central Executive Committee passed a resolution on 13 June 1922 which dissolved the Chechen, Nazran, Digor and Sunzha okrug executive committees and appointed instead revolutionary committees from the most experienced party and Soviet workers, tested in practical work. The revolutionary committees were strengthened by the Bolsheviks.
The zoning of the Mountain ASSR was completed by September 1923. The republic was divided into Ossetian, Ingush and Sunzha okrugs. The Ingush okrug was divided into three raions—Nazran, Psedakh and Galashkin; it included 39 village executive committees.
On 7 July 1924, with the abolition of the Mountain ASSR, Ingush okrug was succeeded by the Ingush Autonomous Oblast.