The Georgian-Ossetian conflict comprises a series of uprisings that take place in the Ossetian-inhabited areas of what is now South Ossetia, a breakaway republic in Georgia, against the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic and then the Menshevik-dominated Democratic Republic of Georgia, which claims several thousands of lives and leaves painful memories among the Georgian and Ossetian communities of the region.Duing its brief tenure, the Menshevik government of Georgia encounters significant problems with ethnic Ossetians who largely sympathize with the Bolsheviks and Soviet Russia.

The reasons behind the conflict are complex.

An overdue land reform and agrarian disturbances in the poor Ossetian-populated areas intermingle with an ethnic discord and the struggle for power in the Caucasus.