THE POPULATION OF KVEMO KARCHOKHI VALLEY IN THE 60S OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Abstract

The paper talks about the population of Kvemo Karchokhi valley in the 60s of the nineteenth century. The geographical area of the valley and the importance of the roads and paths there in the political and economic life of Ksni Saeristavo and the country are reviewed.

The notebooks of Samtavisi Sakdr of the X-XV centuries were studied, where we find the first information about the villages of the Karchokhi valley, we localize the villages that no longer exist today. Attention is paid to the "records" of the Georgian historian and geographer Vakhushti Batonishvili and the German traveler Johann (Anton) Guldenstedt, a participant of the expedition of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, who visited Karchokh directly and left us important information about the population living here.

Important sources about the population of Karchokhi valley are the statistical descriptions of the Saeristavo of Ksni in the second half of the 18th century, the register of the seat of Samtavisi of the same period, the description of the Kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti. References of the royal census of Ioane Batonishvili of 1803, Russian chamber censuses, which are properly studied and compared with the chamber census of the 60s of the nineteenth century, which is given special attention due to the research topic. An important news is that the archival material of the given period is published for the first time.

According to the census of 1860, we can conclude that estates and serfs in the Kvemo Karchokhi valley belonged to the lords: Mamuka Jambakur Orbeliani's Kneina Ketevan himself, Eristavas: Davit

Luarsab son, Alexander, Mikheil, Nikoloz Levan son, Revaz Luarsab son, Alexander Shanshe son, Elizbar Pavles son.

The population of Karchokhi valley was historically Georgian. Since the 18th century, Ossetians who emigrated from the North Caucasus have settled in several villages (Lomisi, Okhiri, Nazpoeti), who left these villages in the second half of the 20th century. Some of them moved to the bar of Kartli and Kakheti, some returned to the North Caucasus.

The past is compared with the present and with the demographic situation of the pre-occupation period in Kvemo Karchokhi valley. The severe consequences of the August 2008 war in this area are highlighted. Today, the indigenous population of the Georgian valley has been expelled from their land and water and continues to live mainly in the refugee settlements of the villages of Mtskheti municipality: Frezeti and Tsreovani.

Key words: Kvemo Karchokhi valley; statistical descriptions; funds; chamber lists; Komli; nobles of Ksni; Sabatono estate; migration; nasoflars; occ.