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Kosta Levanovich Khetagurov was a national poet of the Ossetian people who is generally regarded as the founder of Ossetian literature. He was also a talented painter and a notable public benefactor. Khetagurov was born in the village of Nar in what is now Alagirsky District in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. He studied at the Stavropol Gymnasium from 1871 to 1881, and entered the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1881, but had to abandon his studies due to financial constraint in 1885. Back in his native Ossetia, he became a prominent poet, whose poems composed in Ossetic quickly spread throughout Ossetian towns and villages in an oral form. He also published a number of poems, stories and articles in the Russian-language newspapers Severny Kavkaz, and Kazbek. His paintings also gained in notable popularity, one of them depicting Saint Nino, a 4th-century Christian baptizer of the Georgians, was particularly welcomed by the Georgian society. Due to his criticism of the Imperial Russian government he was twice exiled from his motherland from 1891 to 1896 and again from 1899 to 1902. The last exile significantly shattered the poet's health and deprived him of the ability to continue his creative and social activities. Khetagurov died shortly afterwards in Karachay in 1906.