Mozdok

The town's name comes from "мэз дэгу (mez dugu)", a Kabardian word meaning "the dense forest".Barrett, Thomas M. (1999). At the edge of empire: the Terek Cossacks and the North Caucasus frontier, 1700-1860. Westview Press, {{ISBN|0-8133-3671-6}}, p. 44.

During the reign of Catherine II the Russian army started entering Circassian soil and Russia started building forts in an attempt to quickly annex Circassia. In 1763, Russian forces occupied the village of Mezdeug in Eastern Circassia, and established Mozdok as a Russian fort, settling the families of the Volga Cossacks in stanitsas around it.{{cite book|title=Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire|first1=Jane|last1=Burbank|first2=David L.|last2=Ransel|pages=159–161|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-253-21241-2}} Thus, the Russo-Circassian War began.

In 1764, one of the first Ossetian schools was opened in Mozdok.{{Cite web |date=2014-03-03 |title=О включении города Моздока Ставропольского края в состав Северо-Осетинской АССР {{!}} Моздокский "Стыр ныхас" |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303004940/http://nyhasmozdok.ru/o-vklyuchenii-goroda-mozdoka-stavropolskogo-kraya-v-sostav-severo-osetinskoy-assr/ |access-date=2025-04-15 |website=web.archive.org}}

In 1764, the Kabardian leaders' request to the Russian government that the fortress be destroyed went unanswered. In the years that followed, the Kabardians tried to besiege the town, but they were eventually compelled to retreat. With the foundation of Mozdok, Russian authorities encouraged Ossetians, Georgians, Armenians, Spiritual Christians and other Christians to populate the town. It soon emerged as a key Russian military outpost linked to Kizlyar with a fortified line as well as the center of local trade, ethnic diversity, and Russian-Caucasian interchange. In 1789, 55.6% of its population was Armenian and Georgian. Ossetian settlement particularly increased in the 1820s when the Russian commander Yermolov began removing Kabardians from the area of the Georgian Military Road and settling Ossetians there.

Moving south from Mozdok, Russia established contact with eastern Georgia through the Darial Gorge. Mozdok remained the northern terminal of the Georgian Military Road leading to Tbilisi until being succeeded by Vladikavkaz, founded in 1784 midway between Mozdok and the Darial Pass.John Channon and Robert Hudson (1995). The Penguin historical atlas of Russia. Viking, {{ISBN|0-670-86461-7}}, p. 72. During the Russian Empire, the town was the administrative capital of the Mozdoksky Otdel of the Terek Oblast. In the beginning of the 19th century, some Muslim Ossetian families from Digoria settled in Mozdok establishing a Muslim Digor community there which still exists today.

The Brothers Dubinin created the world's first oil refining apparatus in Mozdok in 1823. {{cite web|url=https://forpost-sz.ru/a/2021-07-24/neizvestnye-genii-neftyanoj-otrasli|last=Taran|first=Natalya|title=Неизвестные гении нефтяной отрасли|website=Форпост Северо-Запад|language=ru|date=24 July 2021|access-date=22 March 2023}}

On August 23, 1942, it was conquered by German troops during Case Blue. It was recaptured by the Red Army on January 3, 1943.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}}

In June 2003, a suicide bomber struck a bus full of Russian air force personnel with their car.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3020231.stm BBC News mentions bombings] On August 1, 2003, a military hospital in the city was targeted by a suicide bomber driving a large truck bomb. The building was substantially damaged and over fifty people were killed in the blast. These attacks are just two of a string of attacks on Russian facilities in Mozdok since the start of the Second Chechen War.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}}

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Mozdok serves as the administrative center of Mozdoksky District.Law #34-RZ As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Mozdoksky District as Mozdok Town Under District Jurisdiction. As a municipal division, Mozdok Town Under District Jurisdiction is incorporated within Mozdoksky Municipal District as Mozdokskoye Urban Settlement.Law #16-RZ

The Museum of Regional Studies in Mozdok holds an assortment of displays and artifacts related to Mozdok's history.

{{Historical populations|1897|9300|1926|14000|1939|19081|1959|25611|1970|32350|1979|34394|1989|38037|2002|42865|2010|38768|2021|36784|type=|footnote=Source: Census data}}As of 2002, the ethnic makeup of Mozdok was as follows:{{citation needed|date=October 2012}}

• Russians: 62.7%
• Ossetians: 7.7%
• Armenians: 6.1%
• Kumyks: 4.6%
• Chechens: 4.3%
• Kabardians: 3.2%
• Koreans: 2.4%
• Other: 9.0%

There is an airbase near the town. From 1961 to 1998, the 182nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment of Long Range Aviation, flying Tupolev Tu-95s, was based there.Butuwski, International Air Power Review, Summer 2004, No. 13, 82. The airbase has been used to support military operations in Chechnya during the First Chechen War, Second Chechen War, and in the Russo-Georgian War.{{cite book |title=The Guns of August 2008: Russia's War in Georgia |first1=Svante E. |last1=Cornell |first2=S. Frederick |last2=Starr |publisher=Routledge |ISBN=978-1-317-45652-0 |year=2015}}{{cite book |title=Russian Security and Air Power, 1992-2002 |first=Marcel |last=De Haas |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-135-76778-5 |page=139}}{{cite book |title=Outlaws Inc.: Under the Radar and on the Black Market with the World's Most Dangerous Smugglers |first=Matt |last=Potter |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-60819-539-8 |page=56}} In June 2003, a female suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying pilots and other personnel employed at the airbase on the Mozdok-Prokhladnoye motorway, killing approximately 15 and wounding 12.{{cite news |url=http://www.pravdareport.com/news/hotspots/05-06-2003/50483-0/ |title=Criminal case opened after blast in North Ossetian bus |author=Pravda.ru |author-link=Pravda.ru |year=2003}}{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/3643350.stm |title=Two years of attacks |date=12 September 2004 |publisher=BBC News}}

• Sergei Aslamazyan, was a Soviet Armenian cellist, composer, People's Artist of Armenian SSR (1945), awarded the Stalin Prize (1946).

{{Reflist}}

• {{RussiaAdmMunRef|se|adm|law}}
• {{RussiaAdmMunRef|se|mun|list|mozdoksky}}

• [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-08/03/content_251362.htm China Daily comments on the attacks]

{{Republic of North Ossetia–Alania}}

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Category:Cities and towns in North Ossetia–Alania

Category:Terek Oblast

Category:Populated places established in 1759

Category:Terrorist incidents in Russia in 2003

Category:1763 establishments in the Russian Empire