Kists or Kistins is an old exonym of all Nakh peoples (Ingush, Chechens and Batsbi), under which local societies later were designated, and conditionally divided into nearby Kistins and distant Kistins. In Russian sources of the 19th century, the term nearby Kistins referred to the inhabitants of the Kistin Gorge in the vicinity of river Armkhi, and distant Kistins referred to the inhabitants of the upper reaches of the Argun. Today the name is mostly used to refer to the Chechens who compactly live in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia.

In 1795, when describing the peoples inhabiting Russia, the Kists are mentioned as follows: Kistins, or Kisti, who are divided into different tracts of which it is known to exist: Chechens, Ingush and Karabulaks, they live along the Sunzha River, and in the middle mountains of the Caucasus.

The historian of the Caucasus S. M. Bronevsky described the borders of the Kist lands as follows:

The Kist lands stretch from the right, or eastern, bank of the Terek, which lies opposite the Ossetians, to the left bank of the Aksai, along the northern slope of the Caucasus, occupying from south to north part of the high slate mountains at the foot of the snowy ridge, part of the calcareous ridge, and finally, the advanced mountains even up to foothills to hilly valleys. They border to the northwest on Minor Kabarda, separated by the Sunzha, and on a small part of the Kizlyar district, separated by the Terek; to the west with Ossetia, to the south with a high snowy ridge; to the east with Lezgistan and with the Aksaev Kumyks.

The historical area where the Kists lived was called "Kisteti", as well as "Kistia" or "Kistinia". The Georgian prince, historian and geographer of the 18th century Vakhushti Bagrationi quite definitely localizes it along the gorge of the Armkhi river (the historical "Kistinka"), that is, in mountainous Ingushetia. Kists, in a narrow sense, as one of the Ingush societies, are noted in the "Review of the political state of the Caucasus in 1840", and in 1851 in the “Military Statistical Review of the Russian Empire, published by the highest command at the 1st branch of the Department of the General headquarters". The Kist society, as part of Ingushetia, was part of the Vladikavkaz district, the Ossetian military district and the Ingush district.

They bordered in the west with the Dzherakhins, in the east with the Galgaevs, in the south with Georgia, in the north the borders reached the Tarskoye Valley. The Kist society was also synonymously called "Fyappinsky", after the name of its constituent ethno-territorial group - the Fyappins (Ingush: Фаьппий), and later, in the second half of the 19th century, it became known as "Metskhalsky", after the name of the principal village Metskhal.

Guldenstedt divided the Kistins into the following districts:

• District (Kachilik) Endre and Yakhsay
• Achkingurt County
• Ardahl County
• Vapi County
• Angusht County
• Shalkha District
• District of Chechen
• Atahi District
• Kulga District, or Dganti
• Galgai County
• Dshanti District
• Chabrillo County
• Shabet County
• Chishrikaker District
• Karabulak District
• Meesti County
• Meredji District
• Galashka County
• Duban County

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