HISTORY

The 2200th Anniversary of Kyrgyz Statehood

On December 20, 2002 at its 57th session, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Resolution designating the year of 2003 as the 2200th anniversary of Kyrgyz statehood.

“The Kyrgyz nation is one of the most 
ancient nations in Central Asia. “
Academician Bartold V. V.

Kyrgyz History. It was only in the 1990s, after Kyrgyzstan gained its independence, when the interest to the nation’s history and glorious past greatly increased among the citizens of the country. At the same time historians were finally able to conduct research on the origins and development of Kyrgyz statehood, free from all ideological constraints of the Communist Party. They could trace Kyrgyz statehood far back.

Early History.The first written records of a Kyrgyz civilization appeared in Chinese chronicles as early as 201 B.C. The Kyrgyz, a nomadic people, originally inhabited an area of present-day northwestern Mongolia. In the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., Kyrgyz groups were among the raiders who persistently invaded Chinese territory and stimulated the building of the original Great Wall of China in the 3rd century B.C. The Kyrgyz achieved a reputation as great fighters and traders. In the centuries that followed, some Kyrgyz tribes freed themselves from domination by the Huns by moving northward into the Yenisey and Baikal regions of present-day south-central Siberia. The first Kyrgyz state, the Kyrgyz "Khanate" (named after the leaders who were called "Khans"), existed from the 6th until the thirteenth century A.D., expanding by the 10th century southwestward into the eastern and northern regions of present-day Kyrgyzstan and westward to the headwaters of the Irtysh River. In this period, the khanate established intensive commercial contacts in China, Tibet, Central Asia, and Persia. In the meantime, beginning about 1000 B.C., large tribes collectively known as the Scythians also lived in the area of present-day Kyrgyzstan. Excellent warriors, the Scythian tribes farther west had resisted an invasion by the troops of Alexander the Great in 328-27 B.C. The Kyrgyz tribes who entered the region around the 6th century played a major role in the development of feudalism. The Kyrgyz reached their greatest expansion by conquering the Uighur Khanate and forcing it out of Mongolia in 840 A.D., then moving as far south as the Tian Shan range, a position the Kyrgyz maintained for about 200 years. By the 12th century, however, Kyrgyz domination had shrunk to the region of the Sayan Mountains, northwest of present-day Mongolia, and the Altay Range on the present-day border of China and Mongolia. In the same period, other Kyrgyz tribes were moving across a wide area of Central Asia and mingling with other ethnic groups.

Mongol Domination. The Mongols' invasion of Central Asia in the 13th century devastated the territory of Kyrgyzstan, costing its people their independence and their written language. The son of Genghis Khan, Dzhuchi, conquered the Kyrgyz tribes of the Yenisey region, who by this time had become disunited. For the next 200 years, the Kyrgyz remained under the Golden Horde and the Oriot and Jumgar Khanates that succeeded that regime. Freedom was regained in 1510, but Kyrgyz tribes were overrun in the 17th century by the Kalmyks, in the mid 18th century by the Manchus, and in the early 19th century by the Uzbeks.The Kyrgyz began efforts to gain protection from more powerful neighboring states in 1758, when some tribes sent emissaries to China. A similar mission went to the Russian Empire in 1785. Between 1710 and 1876, the Kyrgyz were ruled by the Uzbek Quqon (Kokand) Khanate, one of the three major principalities of Central Asia during that period. Kyrgyz tribes fought and lost four wars against the Uzbeks of Quqon between 1845 and 1873. The defeats strengthened the Kyrgyz willingness to seek Russian protection. Even during this period, however, the Kyrgyz occupied important positions in the social and administrative structures of the khanate, and they maintained special military units that continued their earlier tradition of military organization; some Kyrgyz advanced to the position of khan.

Russian Control. In 1876 Russian troops defeated the Quqon Khanate and occupied northern Kyrgyzstan. Within five years, all Kyrgyzstan had become part of the Russian Empire, and the Kyrgyz slowly began to integrate themselves into the economic and political life of Russia. By 1915, however, even many Central Asians outside the intelligentsia had recognized the negative effects of the Russian Empire's repressive policies. The Kyrgyz nomads suffered especially from confiscation of their land for Russian and Ukrainian settlements. Russian taxation, forced labor, and price policies all targeted the indigenous population and raised discontent and regional tension. The Kyrgyz in Semirech'ye Province suffered especially from land appropriation. The bloody rebellion of the summer of 1916 began in Uzbekistan, and then spread into Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere. Kazaks, Turkmen, Uzbeks, and Kyrgyz participated. An estimated 2,000 Slavic settlers and even more local people were killed, and the harsh Russian reprisals drove one-third of the Kyrgyz population into China. 

Soviet Period. Following a brief period of independence after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution toppled the empire, the territory of present-day Kyrgyzstan was designated the Kara-Kyrghyz Autonomous Region and a constituent part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) in 1924. In 1926 the official name changed to the Kyrgyz Autonomous Republic before the region achieved the status of a full republic of the Soviet Union in 1936.

Independence and Sovereign Statehood. In 1991 Kyrgyzstan acquired state sovereignty and became a democratic republic. As a sovereign state, the Kyrgyz Republic looks to further development of international relations and cooperation with other countries of the world to support its position in the world arena and to be a full member of the world community of nations.