History of the Kyrgyz Republic

The history and culture of the Kyrgyz Republic are diverse and multi-sided as well as its people, which united representatives of over 80 ethnicities. The territory of the Kyrgyz Republic is still remaining the memorials of the passed ages – cave-dwellers’ sites, unique runic cues on the boulders, wonderful petroglyphs and stony sculptured figures, ruins of the antic settlements and medieval fortresses.

The history of the Kyrgyz people is rooted in the remote past. The Kyrgyz are considered one of the most ancient ethnoses in the world. The first written statements of the Kyrgyz people appeared in the Chinese chronicles dated 201 year B.C. For a long time the Kyrgyz were almost the sole inhabitants of Southern Siberia and Central Asia. However, the fact the Kyrgyz written language has developed only by the end of the 19th century, all written statements of the Kyrgyz ethnos appeared only in Chinese, Iranian, Turk and Arabian chronicles.

The Kyrgyz people adopted the basics of the state sovereignty in the end of the 1st millennium B.C. in the heyday of the powerful nomad Gunn Empire. Later, the chronicles mentioned the heyday of the Yenisei’s Kyrgyz state. However, the great-power state of the Kyrgyz People wasn’t long. In 10th century A.D., the Kyrgyzs controlled only Altai, Jungaria and a part of eastern Turkestan. In 13th century A.D., the state of the Yenisei’s Kyrgyzs did no longer exist and Kyrgyzs spread among other Turk tribes.

The idea of the Kyrgyz sovereignty regenerated only in 20th century A.D., after the territory populated by the Kyrgyzs was initially annexed by the Russian Empire in 1864-1876, and later it developed into an autonomic area within the Turkestan ASSR in 1918; later it acquired a status of the Autonomic Republic in 1924 and, finally, a Union Republic in 1936. The Kyrgyz people were able to establish a sovereign state – the Kyrgyz Republic – only in 1991.

A significant part of the Great Silk Road passes through Kyrgyzstan. It is widely known, that the Western World did not suspect of such a country as China in the past. The mountain ranges of Tien Shan, Himalayas and Pamir, as well as waterless deserts have divided the Eurasia into two different cultural worlds. In 2nd century B.C., a Chinese traveler Chzhan Tsan dared to overpass the mountain ranges and reach Sohgd, Northern Afghanistan and other countries. Upon return to China Chzhan Tsan described wonders and richness of the countries occupying the western territories. Soon, the Camel Cades with goods followed the route beaten by the Chinese traveler. A significant part of the route passed through the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan, which has developed into a bridge connecting East and West and a crucial part of the Great Silk Road.