Ethnic hatred

With the breakup of centralized Soviet rule, problems of ethnic hatred are coming to the fore in every Soviet region and republic, and are particularly acute in the Caucasus, where dozens of national and ethnic groups mingle in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Ossetians speak a language related to Persian. In the early 1920's, they were persecuted by the Georgians, and in 1991 it was reported that Georgians had again burned 80 villages, killed 214 Ossetians, wounded 740 and caused 106 to disappear. By 1991, 83,000 Ossetians, half of Georgia's Ossetian population, had fled through the mountains to the North Ossetia Autonomous Republic in the Russian Empire.