[1] Its autonomy was revoked on December 11, 1990 by the Supreme Council of the Georgian SSR after illegally holding rival elections, leading to the First South Ossetian War.

[4] 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.

This was indeed proposed by Ossetian authorities in July 1925 to Anastas Mikoyan, the head of the kraikom (Bolshevik committee in charge of the Caucasus).

[6] Stalin initially approved, but later decided against it, fearing it would lead to other ethnic groups in Russia demanding to leave the RSFSR, which would destroy the federation.

On 12 December, gunmen driving a car in Tskhinvali opened fire from a submachine gun, killing three Georgians and wounding two in what has been described as a terrorist attack and an act of ethnic violence.

[8][9] The Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR responded to these illegal actions by annulling the autonomy of South Ossetia and declaring the state of emergency to restore order.

[13] Originally written in Cyrillic, Ossetian was switched to a Latin-based script in 1923, as part of the Latinization campaign of the Soviet Union.