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Vladikavkaz| Capital of the autonomous republic of Alania (formerly North Ossetia), in the Russian Federation, sited on the River Terek in the Caucasus Mountains; population (2002) 315,600. Vladikavkaz is an important industrial city, producing lead and zinc, machine tools, vehicles, glassware, and textiles. |
| Vladikavkaz was founded in 1784 as a frontier fortress. It became a town in 1860, and a provincial capital in 1863; it was also capital of the shortlived Mountain Peoples' Autonomous Republic (1921–24). The city was renamed in 1931 after Grigory Ordzhonikidze, a Georgian who imposed Bolshevism on the Caucasus region. |
| In the German invasion of the USSR during World War II, Vladikavkaz was the most easterly point ever reached by Nazi forces (December 1942). A military highway crosses the Caucasus Mountains from here, and runs to the Georgian capital Tbilisi. |
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