ABSTRACT
INGUSH Own name: Galgai (originally the name of the largest tribal group); Russian name: Ingushi. The Ingush live mostly in the west of the Checheno-Ingush ASSR.
1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Ingush are closely related to the Chechen and, like them, are an indigenous Caucasian people. They have been settled in their present habitat for many centuries (an Armenian geographical work of the seventh century refers to them as one of the tribes of the Caucasus). They originally lived in the mountains, but from about the sixteenth century began to move to the plains. By the late eighteenth century a number of them had settled along the River Sunzha and in the nearby valley of the River Terek. One of their first settlements on the plains was called Angush (or Ingush) and the Kabardians took to using this as the name of the people. It was in turn adopted by the Russians. (The Ingush called themselves by their tribal names, e.g. Galgai.) The Ingush came under Russian rule in 1810, much earlier than the Chechen. In 1817 they were evacuated from the Sunzha area and concentrated around the military base of Nazran' (near the border of the present-day North Ossetian ASSR). Ingush from the mountains were also moved here and it became one of the main centres of the Ingush territory. The migrations continued throughout the nineteenth century (particularly between 1830 and 1860) and by the end of the century most of the Ingush were settled on the plains.
