Kist peopleThe Kists (ქისტები, kist'ebi; Kistoj, Kisti, Nokhcho/Nakhcho; Phengisxuoj) are a Chechen subethnic group in Georgia. They primarily live in the Pankisi Gorge, in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, where there are approximately 9,000 Kist people. The modern Kists are not to be confused with the historical term Kists, an ethnonym of Georgian origin, which was used to refer to the Nakh peoples in the Middle Ages. Currently there are six Kist villages in Pankisi: Duisi, Dzibakhevi, Jokolo, Shua Khalatsani, Omalo (different from the village of Omalo in Tusheti), and Birkiani.
FyappiyThe Fyappins were an Ingush subgroup (society) that mostly inhabited the mountainous region of Ingushetia, Fappi. Historically they bordered on the west with Dzherakh, on the east with Khamkhins, on the north with Nazranians, and lastly in the south with Gudomakarians. The centre of the society was the fortified village (aul) of Erzi or Metskhal. Approximately during the 16–17th centuries, part of the Fyappins migrated to Georgia, Tusheti, due to a lack of land. The descendants of the migrants are known as Bats people.
Chechen languageChechen (UKˈtʃɛtʃɛn, UStʃəˈtʃɛn) (Нохчийн мотт, Noxçiyn mott, ˈnɔxt͡ʃĩː muɔt) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by approximately 1.7 million people, mostly in the Chechen Republic and by members of the Chechen diaspora throughout Russia and the rest of Europe, Jordan, Austria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Central Asia (mainly Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) and Georgia. Chechen is a Northeast Caucasian language. Together with the closely related Ingush, with which there exists a large degree of mutual intelligibility and shared vocabulary, it forms the Vainakh branch.
Republics of the Soviet UnionThe Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Union Republics (Сою́зные Респу́блики) were national-based administrative units of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet Union was formed in 1922 by a treaty between the Soviet republics of Byelorussia, Russian Federation, Transcaucasian Federation, and Ukraine, by which they became its constituent republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union).
Vainakh religionThe Vainakh peoples of the North Caucasus (Chechens and Ingush) were Islamised comparatively late, during the early modern period, and Amjad Jaimoukha (2005) proposes to reconstruct some of the elements of their pre-Islamic religion and mythology, including traces of ancestor worship and funerary cults. The Nakh peoples, like many other peoples of the North Caucasus such as Circassians and Ossetians, practised tree worship, and believed that trees were the abodes of spirits.
Internal TroopsInternal troops, sometimes alternatively translated as interior troops, interior ministry forces (etc.), are military or paramilitary, gendarmerie-like law enforcement services, which are found mostly in states of the former Soviet Union, primarily Russia. Internal troops are subordinated to the interior minister (and interior ministries) of their respective countries. Perhaps the most prominent example, since the Soviet era have been the Russian Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел (ВВ) Vnutrenniye Voiska (VV) Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del, or "Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs" (MVD) (until 2016).
