In connection with the latter, during the formation of the Gorskaya ASSR, a considerable amount of land was returned to the Ingush, while the Terek Cossacks were evicted.

On July 7, 1924 the Gorskaya ASSR was abolished and divided into the North Ossetian and Ingush Autonomous Regions and the Sunzhensky District.

During the period of industrialization no new city emerged on the territory of Ingushetia that could take on the role of a national center, and the subsequent tragic history of the Ingush did not give them such a chance.

That is why the issue of transferring part of Vladikavkaz to house the capital administration of the newly formed republic became one of the most important demands of the radical wing of the Ingush national movement.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 7, 1944, the Chechen-Ingush Republic was liquidated, and all Chechens and Ingush were deported, mainly to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

[11][12] Soon, on 8 May 1944, the North Ossetian Regional Committee, headed by Kubadi Kulov [ru], replaced the toponymy in the former Chechen and Ingush raions of Chechen-Ingush ASSR.

At the same time, the destruction of Chechen and Ingush cemeteries began, the tombstones from which were used for building material, and 25-35 thousand Ossetians from Georgian SSR were resettled to the Prigorodny District.

[17] During the Soviet period, programs in support of Ingush language and culture in North Ossetian ASSR were totally lacking.

The internal police and local courts where Ossetians dominated treated the Ingush with prejudice, especially during the state of emergency imposed in Prigorodny in April 1992.

Ensuring the rights and cultural needs of the Ingush in North Ossetia, not only in the Prigorodny district but also at the level of the republican center, was poor.

[26] In 1989, the Nijskho public movement was formed, which advocated the restoration of Ingush autonomy and the transfer of Prigorodny district under its jurisdiction.

In March 1990, an article in Pravda perceived by the Ingush as denying their claim to the Prigorodnyi region provoked almost a week of demonstrations that reportedly drew 10,000 people.

[27] Moscow approached the problem insufficiently decisively: the federal center practically withdrew itself, did not stop the arming of both sides and could not contain the growing tension.

At the same time, there was a steady increase in incidents of organized harassment, kidnapping and rape against Ingush inhabitants of North Ossetia by their Ossetian neighbours, police, security forces and militia.

[3] Ingush fighters marched to take control over Prigorodny District and on the night of October 30, 1992, open warfare broke out, which lasted for a week.

The fighting, which lasted six days, had at its root a dispute between ethnic Ingush and Ossetians over the Prigorodnyi region, a sliver of land of about 978 square kilometers over which both sides lay claim.

[30] President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree that the Prigorodny district was to remain part of North Ossetia on November 2.

[citation needed] According to Human Rights Watch:[3][32] The fighting was the first armed conflict on Russian territory after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

According to the 1989 census 32,783 Ingush lived in the North Ossetian ASSR; three years later the passport service of the republic put the number at 34,500.

According to the migration service of North Ossetia, about 9,000 Ossetians were forced to flee the Prigorodnyi region and seek temporary shelter elsewhere; the majority have returned.

[33] As a result of the conflict, the Ingush population of Vladikavkaz and Prigorodny district (with the exception of some residents of Karts, Mayskoye and Ezmi) fled almost entirely from North Ossetia to Ingushetia.

Special correspondents of the Kommersant newspaper who visited North Ossetia wrote about what they saw: The result of the "separation" was the completely extinct and scorched Prigorodny district, from which the entire 30,000-strong Ingush population was deported.

Not far from the village of Alkun, on the mountain trails in Ingushetia, we saw the flow of Ingush refugees from North Ossetia, which has not stopped since November 2.

When the conflict escalated, the Center shared the primitive version of "Ingush aggression", and instead of separating the parties and stopping inter-communal violence, its representatives rashly distributed automatic and other weapons to Ossetian civilians, and even more riskily decided to reach Chechnya with armored vehicles using the might of the Russian army, which had pounded Ingush villages in North Ossetia and part of Ingushetia.

A program unveiled in May 2005 for expediting the return of the Ingush displaced persons to their abandoned homes in Prigorodny Raion by the end of 2006 was only partially implemented.

Consequently, as of October 2016, just 23,430 Ingush had succeeded in returning, with a similar number still in Ingushetia, according to Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the NGO Mashr.