The South Ossetian Soviet Democratic Republic was proclaimed in the USSR on September 20, 1990. In the USSR, the Constitution of the USSR must be observed. And in the Constitution of the USSR it is written that South Ossetia is part of the Georgian SSR. So South Ossetia in fact proclaiming the republic did not withdraw from the GSSR and did nothing to arouse suspicions of separatism.
Nevertheless, taking advantage of the fact that South Ossetia did not have access to the union press, there was no Internet (there were only regular correspondents of the GSSR mass media in Tskhinval, but with the beginning of events their materials ceased to be accepted, and then completely fired), Georgian propaganda manage to imposed the media image of South Ossetia as a separatist one. While separatist were the actions of the GSSR itself against the USSR. South Ossetia did not adopt any document that either provided withdrawal of South Ossetia from Georgia.
Our people also often forget that the political and legal delimitation between South Ossetia and the rest of the Georgian SSR occurred not because of the decision of South Ossetia, but because of Georgia's decision. I will explain. In 1990, the USSR adopted a law on the procedure for resolving issues related to the withdrawal of the union republic from the USSR, which literally gave autonomous entities the right to decide their own destiny (in law). In accordance with this Law, the supreme body of state power of South Ossetia - the Executive Committee of the Council of People's Deputies - adopted a resolution that in case of Georgia's withdrawal from the USSR, the laws of the USSR will be in force on the territory of South Ossetia. That is, South Ossetia remains part of the USSR. It was in the end of 1990.
Despite this, after the adoption of this Decree, the Supreme Council of Georgia in April 1991, adopted the Act of Restoration of State Independence of Georgia and withdrew from the USSR, thereby deliberately and purposefully separating from South Ossetia and leaving it as part of the USSR. From this moment, from a purely legal point of view, the Georgian armed groups committing acts of violence in the villages of South Ossetia automatically turned into the status of foreign aggressors and invaders in the territory of the USSR!
However, as we know, the leadership of the USSR, with it special services and law enforcement agencies that took a treacherous position, did not react properly, did not fulfill their constitutional and official duties. There was not given due attention to this fact by the large army of political scientists and analysts...
On the day of adoption of the Act of Restoration of State Independence of Georgia on April 9, 1991, Georgia separated and South Ossetia, ceasing to be part of the GSSR, remained part of the USSR. It was not only de jure, but also de facto. Those normative legal acts of Georgia that contradicted the laws of the USSR did not work in South Ossetia, in particular, until August 1991, were functioning authorities of the Communist Party and the South Ossetian Regional Committee of the Georgian Communist Party itself became directly subordinated to the CPSU and was named as the South Ossetian regional committee of the CPSU, which was printed in the newspapers. South Ossetia, separated from Georgia by the separatist decision of Georgia itself, continued to remain part of the USSR until the legal registration (extremely flawed, to put it mildly) of the collapse of the USSR in December 1991.
Here is an interesting point. Opponents of South Ossetia often cited the fact that the leaders of the newly independent states agreed to draw the borders of their republics along the lines of the former borders of the Union republics of the USSR. However, this agreement does not apply to South Ossetia, because the territory of South Ossetia was no more a part of any of the former Soviet republics at that time: Georgia itself separated South Ossetia, leaving it in the USSR on April 9, 1991, and none of the other former republics wished to accept it. Thus, this statement is not also an argument against the independence of South Ossetia.
But even after the collapse of the USSR, South Ossetia, even in conditions of military aggression unleashed by official Tbilisi, massacres of Ossetians and the burning of more than 100 Ossetian villages, South Ossetia did not give up hopes of building a joint state with Georgia on the principles of equality and mutual respect. On the roof of the South Ossetian State Drama Theater until the end of May 1992 (!) was the flag of the GSSR. However, everything changed on May 20, 1992. The next massacre of Ossetian civilians (they did not yet know about the Ered tragedy, although they suspected something) indicated that the Georgian leadership did not at all want political or other subordination of South Ossetia, but only complete destruction of Ossetian population in South Ossetia did not even want to hear about any compromises and half-measures
In these conditions, South Ossetia, which was outside the state borders of any country, adopted the Act on proclaiming the state independence of South Ossetia.
Thus, the struggle of the people of South Ossetia has nothing to do with separatism.
