摘要：The article first discusses the historiography of the social class structure of the population of Abkhazia. The highlanders of Abkhazia resided in the area between the mouth of the Bzyb river to the river Ingur. In the first half of the XIX century there lived the Abkhazians, tsebeldintsy and samurzakanians inhabitants. The data on the population of the territory at a specified time are extremely contradictory, while a class population is almost not reflected. The authors have selected as sources of statistical materials of 1800-1860-ies, including those published in the modern period. As a result of comparison of different sources there were calculated in the proportion of the population by social classes, namely the share of princes, nobles, free citizens, dependent inhabitants, slaves (separately for coastal and mountain societies). In addition to this there were involved the sources of personal origin – diaries, and memoirs of travelers living among the Abkhazians, as well as scientific literature. The authors used the methods of demographic statistics for reconstruction of the population of Abkhazia seeing the presence of incomplete data, for example in determining the number of privileged castes of Abkhazia (Sukhumi area), as well as for the analysis of socio-demographic relations in determining the population of coastal and mountain Abkhazians. At the conclusion of the study, the authors provided the obtained statistical information about the total population, population by class and by gender.
