Chikola (Digorsk. Tsikola, Ironsk. Tsykola) is a village in the Irafsky region of the Republic of North Ossetia - Alania. Village is the administrative center of the Irafsky region. The village is located in the northern part of the Irafsky district, not far from the right bank of the Urukh River, on both banks of the Chikola (Zmeika) river of the same name. It is located 70 km north-west of Vladikavkaz.
19th century
After the annexation of Ossetia to the Russian
Empire, the tsarist administration tried to pursue a policy of separate
settlement of Ossetian Muslims and Ossetian Christians. Thus, in 1852, a
commission headed by Prince M. S. Vorontsov forcibly evicted Ossetian
Muslims from the villages of Stur-Digora, Akhsau, Makhchesk, Galiat,
Fasnal and Dur-Dur, relocating them to the place where they later
founded the village of Volno-Dur. Magometanovskoe (now Chikola).
Along with the peasants, feudal lords (badelats) were also resettled.
The entire 19th century was marked by class conflict between the
Tuganovs (Free Mohammedan Badelats) and the peasantry. The basis of the
conflict was land disputes - the Tuganovs appropriated the best lands,
moved boundary markers, etc. In 1852, more than 500 souls lived in
Volno-Mahometan, and according to the 1860 census, there were already
817 people who had 4,633 acres of land.
According to the 1886
census, the population was 2,052 people (297 households). of these, men
- 1088, women - 964: 88 surnames: Tsorievs - 15 households; Makoevs - 14
households; Tavasievs - 11 households; Tsarikaevs, Zoloevs - 9 yards;
Balikoevs - 8 yards; Tuskaevs, Lagkuevs, Kertanovs, Dedegkaevs, Batyrovs
- 7 households; Gutsunaevs, Dzarasovs, Budtuevs, Khekilaevs, Khastsaevs
- 6 households; Aidarovs, Guluevs, Medoevs, Tamaevs, Tokaevs - 5
households; Tsavkaevs, Tsagolovs, Tavkazakhovs, Marzoevs, Mostievs,
Kardanovs, Dzadzaevs, Gokoevs, Besolovs, Bichilovs - 4 yards; Tsomaevs,
Toboevs, Salkazanovs, Mairansaovs, Malkarovs, Dzagurovs, Kairovs,
Gatsalovs, Uvzhikoevs, Gazdarovs, Bataevs - 3 yards; Temirovs,
Albegonovs, Gazdanovs, Gatievs, Guguevs, Gamakharovs, Kadokhovs,
Malikievs, Malievs, Soskievs, Tsavkilovs - 2 yards; Babochievs,
Bekiyevs, Butyevs, Gokinovs, Darchievs, Gularov, Dzansolovs, Ikaevs,
Zekeevs, Karaevs, Kabegovs, Kodoevs, Kumykovs, Sultanovs, Margoyev,
Oziev, Pinovs, Sabanovs, Zaeva, Sugkoevs, Tadeevs, Totonovs, Tegaevs,
Tettsoevs, Tetzaevs, Tutkaevs, Tukkaev Khadonovs, Khakievs, Khimilonovs,
Khortievs, Tsopanovs, Shiukonovs - 1 yard. The oldest at the time of the
census was Ali Gabisovich Kadokhov - 108 years old. Aslangeri Bagievich,
Tatarkan Papunovich, Karase Papunovich, Khazbi Batyrov, Umar Dedegkaev,
Dzandar Dzagurov, Ibragim Dzadzaev could then speak in Russian.
Among the rural enterprises, there was one trading store and seven water
mills on the Chikola and Urukh rivers. There were 4 wooden mosques and
one primary school (madrassa) in the village. Administratively,
Volno-Magometanskoe belonged to the 3rd section of the Vladikavkaz
district of the Terek region.
1900—1917
A constant problem in
Free Mohammedan was the lack of land. The situation was worsened by the
policies of the Caucasian administration. The most fertile lands were
given to the Cossacks and landowners. In Volno-Mahometan, the land per
capita was 5-6 times less than in the neighboring Cossack villages, and
10-12 times less than that of the landowners. The state's resettlement
policy worsened the situation even further. The Terek region became the
object of Russian and Ukrainian settlement. Near Volno-Mohammedan, 12
resettlement farms were formed. In conditions of severe land hunger,
someone had to give in. And after the revolution of 1905, settlers began
to leave, selling their farms to the Free Mohammedan fists.
During the revolution of 1905, an uprising occurred in Free Mohammedan.
In a week, the Mohammedans cut down and removed 200 hectares of the
Tuganovsky forest, after which 150 people committed a pogrom in the
village administration, seizing decisions on fines for cutting down
state-owned forest (appropriated by the Tuganovs). The uprising was
suppressed by the punitive detachment of Colonel Lyakhov. As a result of
the shelling of Magometansky, about 40 residents were killed and
wounded.
1917—1941
By the time of the October Revolution, the
Badeliates in Digoria owned 227 thousand dessiatines of land, and the
peasants were forced to pay high rents, which reached 40 rubles per
dessiatine.
By a resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive
Committee of the RSFSR dated April 1, 1934, the village of
Magometanovskoye, Digorsky District, was renamed the village of
“Tsikola”.
Anti-Soviet uprising of 1930
During
collectivization in 1930, an anti-Soviet uprising took place in Chikola.
The collective farm was destroyed, all papers and records were burned,
and the livestock and equipment were dismantled by the previous owners.
Some peasants from Chikola, plowing their fields in the spring, even
attached self-made flags with anti-collective farm slogans to the yokes
of the oxen.
In March 1930, the leader of the uprising, Khadzimet
Medoev, who worked as a supply farmer on the Chikola collective farm,
went into the forest, where work began on organizing an armed
detachment. The rebel detachment, organized and led by Medoev, numbered
270-300 people. Subsequently, the Balkar Nukhtar-Pasha Atskanov joined
him with his detachment. Local military forces were not able to cope
with the uprising, and therefore GPU troops and parts of the Red Army
were sent to the North Caucasus, and Khadzimet Medoev’s wife and her
infant child ended up in prison. The role of the patron in relation to
Khadzimet Medoev was played by the head of the Vladikavkaz OGPU Gorga
Arsagov. He asked his friend, the old partisan Tatarkan Medoev, to go
into the forest to Khadzimet Medoev and tell him the following: the
uprising will undoubtedly be defeated; further resistance will entail
huge casualties among the population; he, Arsagov, invites Khadzimet
Medoev to surrender, guaranteeing that he will not be shot.
The
continuous arrests of hostages, who were threatened with execution, put
pressure on the psyche of Khadzimet Medoev and forced him to surrender.
Medoev received 10 years in concentration camps. He served his sentence
and lived before the war in the Karachay region.
Arsagov died in
1938 when the chairman of the regional executive committee of Ossetia,
Torgoev, was shot. Gorga was arrested. Knowing better than anyone else
what awaited him, during interrogation he killed an NKVD investigator
with a stool and was shot dead. According to rumors, Arsagov exclaimed
at the same time: “You, dogs, make it good to die!”
According to Anastasia Tsagaeva, the translation of the toponym is based on the Nogai uch - “freeze” and col - “lake”, - “frozen lake” or “three lakes”, where uch - “three lakes”, where uch - “three” and col (kel) – “lake”.
The village is located in the northern part of the Iraf region, at the foot of the Wooded Range, in the interfluve of the Urukh and Chikola (Snake) rivers. It is located 70 km northwest of Vladikavkaz.