The history of the Kyrgyz people and the land now called Kyrgyzstan goes back more than 3,000 years. Although geographically isolated by its mountainous location, it had an important role as part of the historical Silk Road trade route. Turkic nomads, who trace their ancestry to many Turkic states such as the First and Second Turkic Khaganates, have inhabited the country throughout its history. In the 13th century, Kyrgyzstan was conquered by the Mongols; subsequently it regained independence but was invaded by Kalmyks, Manchus, and Uzbeks. In 1876, it became part of the Russian Empire, remaining in the USSR as the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic after the Russian Revolution. Following Mikhael Gorbachev's democratic reforms in the USSR, in 1990 pro-independence candidate Askar Akayev was elected president of the SSR. On 31 August 1991, Kyrgyzstan declared independence from Moscow, and a democratic government was subsequently established.
The Kyrgyz people are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia. They primarily reside in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and China. A Kyrgyz diaspora is also found in Russia, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. They speak the Kyrgyz language, which is the official language of Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia, lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the capital and largest city. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and China to the east and southeast. Ethnic Kyrgyz make up the majority of the country's over 7 million people, followed by significant minorities of Uzbeks and Russians.
The State Flag of the Kyrgyz Republic consists of a red field charged with a yellow sun that contains a depiction of a tunduk, the opening in the center of the roof of a yurt. Adopted in 1992, just over seven months after the country's independence was declared, to replace the flag of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, it has been the flag of Kyrgyzstan since that year. The red on the flag is said to be inspired by the pennant lifted by Manas, the country's folk hero.
Russian Turkestan was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories, and was administered as a Krai or Governor-Generalship. It comprised the oasis region to the south of the Kazakh Steppe, but not the protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva. It was populated by speakers of Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tajik.
Razzakov, formerly known as Isfana, is a small town in the extreme western end of Batken Region in southern Kyrgyzstan. The town is located in the southern part of the Fergana Valley, in a region surrounded on three sides by Tajikistan. It was renamed by President Sadyr Japarov in honour of Iskhak Razzakov on March 18, 2022.
Abdukadyr Urazbekov was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Kirghiz ASSR (1927–1937) and the first Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (1937).
National delimitation in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the process of specifying well-defined national territorial units from the ethnic diversity of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its subregions.
The Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan, also known as the Jogorku Kenesh, is the unicameral parliament of Kyrgyzstan. Before Kyrgyzstan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it was known as the Supreme Soviet of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic.
Sultan Ibraimovich Ibraimov was a Soviet politician who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic from 22 December 1978 until his assassination in 1980. The slow movement of the investigation created distrust in the Soviet system during a period of intense corruption, and the eventual discovery of the perpetrator's identity as an ethnic Russian ethnonationalist exacerbated ethnic tensions. Since his death, Ibraimov has become an important figure in Kyrgyzstan.
Soviet Central Asia was the part of Central Asia administered by the Russian SFSR and then the Soviet Union between 1918 and 1991, when the Central Asian republics declared independence. It is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkestan in the Russian Empire. Soviet Central Asia went through many territorial divisions before the current borders were created in the 1920s and 1930s.
The emblem of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on 23 March 1937 by the government of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic. The coat of arms is based on the coat of arms of the Soviet Union. It shows symbols of agriculture on a backdrop of the Ala-Too mountain ranges, surrounded by a frame of folk art of the Kyrgyz people. The red star was added in 1948. The rising sun stands for the future of the Kyrgyz nation, the star as well as the hammer and sickle for the victory of communism and the "worldwide socialist community of states".
The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic, KySSR or Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. It was also known by the names Kyrgyzstan and Soviet Kyrgyzstan in the Kyrgyz language, and as Kirghizia and Soviet Kirghizia in the Russian language. Landlocked and mountainous, it bordered Tajikistan and China to the south, Uzbekistan to the west and Kazakhstan to the north. The Kirghiz branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union governed the republic from 1936 until 1990.
Women in Kyrgyzstan traditionally had assigned roles, although only the religious elite sequestered women as was done in other Muslim societies. Rural inhabitants continue the traditional Siberian tribal practice of bride kidnapping. Bride kidnapping, known as ala kachuu, girls as young as 12 years old are kidnapped for forced marriage, by being captured and carried away by groups of men or even relatives who, through violence or deception, take the girl to the abductor's family who forces and coerces the young woman to accept the illegal marriage. In most cases, the young woman is raped immediately in the name of marriage.
In 1919, the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was created in Soviet Russia. This was the precursor to the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic which was established in 1936 as republic in its own right within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
Christianity has a long history in Kyrgyzstan, with the earliest archaeological remains of churches belonging to the Church of the East in modern-day Suyab dating back to the 7th century. By the 9th century an archdiocese of the Church of the East cared for the Christians of Kyrgyzstan and adjacent areas in eastern Turkestan. Although primarily Turkic there was also an Armenian community in what today is Kyrgyzstan by the 14th century. By the 15th century, however, there were no longer ecclesiastical structures of any church caring for what is today Kyrgyzstan and Islam gained the ascendancy amongst the Kyrgyz people.
The Syr-Darya Oblast was one of the oblasts of the Russian Empire, a part of Russian Turkestan. Its center was Tashkent.
The Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic was an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union within the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic existing from 1926 until 1936.
Kuluypa Konduchalova was a Kyrgyz-Soviet teacher, politician and cultural minister. She is most-known as a patron of culture and for the work she did to promote Kyrgyz arts to international audiences. She was honored as a Hero of the Kyrgyz Republic, twice honored with the Order of Manas in the 1st and 3rd degrees, decorated as a Commander of the Order of Lenin and was twice awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.
Abortion in Kyrgyzstan is legal up to 12 weeks in normal cases. This can be extended to 22 weeks for "social reasons" as agreed upon by a health professional. In cases of medical necessity, abortion is legal at any time. However, a majority of Kyrgyzstan's population is opposed to abortion due to it being considered haram under Islamic law.
