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DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2022.18.11.009

1100th ANIVERSARY OF THE BAPTISM OF ALANIA IN SOCIO-POLITICAL AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE OF NORTH OSSETIA

Sinanov, Boris A.
Kavkaz Forum. 2022. Issue 11.
Abstract:
The proposed article analyzes the current problems of the development of
the modern religious situation in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, which
are reflected in the socio-political and scientific discourses. A significant part of
the agenda of discussions in recent years has been formed by the actualization
of such an important historical date as the 1100th anniversary of the baptism
of Alanya. Events and activities directly related to the anniversary included not
only restoration, scientific and educational, publishing and exhibition activities,
but also served as a pretext for heated controversy among subscribers of popular
groups on social networks on the Internet and in the media. If in 2017-2018 the
topics for discussion were the very date of the baptism of Alania and the “dispute
about the Alanian heritage”, then in 2019–2022. The issue of controversial topics
brought to the surface a wide range of issues in which religion acts as a factor
in the formation of group identities. For more than a decade, the socio-political
and scientific discourse of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (RNO-A) has
been focused on questions related to the search for the religious identity of the
Ossetians. Unlike other regions of the country, the civilizational choice here is not
so obvious and unambiguous. The key question of religious self-identification is
“who are we?” turned into a historical retrospective and largely depends on the
answer to another worldview question – «who were our ancestors?».
This makes it necessary and important for the research attention of a wide
range of specialists to the history of ancient Alania, its interstate and interethnic
contacts, the evolution of traditional spiritual ideas of the Ossetians, and
monitoring the current religious situation.
Keywords: North Ossetia, religious identity, Christianity, traditional Ossetian beliefs, new religious movements, modern religious situation
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