The Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan became an independent nation in 1991. Before independence, it had been a republic of the Soviet Union. After breaking away from the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan established a democracy & enacted many political & economic reforms. The country's official name is the Kyrgyz Republic. The nation's capital is Bishkek (formerly named Frunze).
Kyrgyzstan has an area of 77,200 square miles (199,900 square kilometers). The country is surrounded by l& on all sides. It is bordered by Kazakhstan on the north & by China on the east & south. Tajikistan lies to the southwest, & Uzbekistan lies to the west.
Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country. The massive Tien Shan mountain system runs throughout Kyrgyzstan & extends into China. Snow & ice cover its peaks year-round. The highest point in both the Tien Shan range & Kyrgyzstan is Victory (Pobedy) Peak. It st&s about 24,406 feet (7,439 meters) above sea level, on the Chinese border to the east. Mount Khan-Tengri, on the northern border with Kazakhstan, is also among the higher peaks of the Tien Shan. Several other mountain ranges run along the country's borders.
The country's mountains contain many glaciers & lakes. Lake Issyk-Kul, in the northeast, is one of largest mountain lakes in the world.
Kyrgyzstan's main rivers are the Chu & the Naryn. The Chu River runs near the border with Kazakhstan, in the north. The Naryn River cuts westward across Kyrgyzstan & drains into the Fergana Valley, which lies mostly in Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan's most important lowl&s are the Fergana & Chu valleys.
In general, the country's summers are hot & the winters are quite cold. The climate varies by elevation. The lower areas of Kyrgyzstan lie in belts of hot desert winds. The higher elevations are a cold desert. In between them is a zone that generally receives more rain & snow.
Meadows are found in Kyrgyzstan at all but the highest elevations. Evergreen forests grow in the lower valleys & on the slopes of the mountain ranges that face north. White spruce, larch, & juniper trees are among the most common. The country is home to the world's largest naturally growing walnut forest.
In the country's forests live brown bears, wild pigs, lynx, gray wolves, & ermines. The valleys are home to mountain sheep & goats, deer, & snow leopards. Hares, yellow gophers, & large-eared hedgehogs live in the deserts of Kyrgyzstan.
Nearly two thirds of the people are ethnically Kyrgyz. The first Kyrgyz groups settled in the Tien Shan region in ancient times. The Kyrgyz speak a Turkic language & are mainly Muslim. The largest minority groups are Uzbeks & Russians.
Kyrgyz & Russian are the official languages. There is no official religion, but about three fourths of the people are Muslim. Most of the rest of the population is nonreligious or Russian Orthodox.
Most of the people live in the Fergana Valley in the southwest or in the Chu Valley in the north. About 60 percent of the population lives in rural areas. The south of Kyrgyzstan tends to be more rural, while the north has more cities & towns. The largest city is Bishkek, the capital. It lies near the border with Kazakhstan, in the north. The other major cities include Osh, Dzhalal-Abad, Tokmak, & Karakol.
About half of the workforce of Kyrgyzstan works in agriculture. Raising livestock has been the traditional occupation of the Kyrgyz people, & it is still important to the economy. Sheep are raised for their wool & meat. Meat & milk are produced from cattle, goats, & horses. The country's main crops include cotton, tobacco, grains, potatoes, melons, & other fruits & vegetables.
Kyrgyzstan mines gold, coal, antimony, & mercury. The country also has small reserves of petroleum & natural gas. The main industries produce machinery, electronics, food products, cement, cloth, & footwear. In addition, the nation uses waterpower to produce electricity, which it then sells to other countries.
The Kyrgyzstan region was inhabited hundreds of thous&s of years ago. However, the origins of the Kyrgyz people are uncertain. By the 1st century BC, they were probably living in central Siberia, in what is now Russia. The Kyrgyz were nomads, or people who w&er across a range of territory. They tended to live in forests. It is believed that the Kyrgyz began moving southward into the Tien Shan range in the 10th century AD.
In the 13th century the Mongolian armies of Genghis Khan invaded Central Asia & conquered the region. By the 17th century, most of the Kyrgyz had moved to the mountains of the Tien Shan. A western Mongolian people called the Dzungars began fighting the Kyrgyz. In 1757 China defeated the leader of the Dzungars. The Kyrgyz then became part of the Qing (Manchu) empire of China.
In the early 19th century, the Kok& state, from what is now Uzbekistan, seized control of the Kyrgyz region. Two different Kyrgyz tribes began fighting each other. Both sides received help at times from the Kok&ians & then the Russians.
In the late 19th century, Russian peasants fleeing bad living conditions moved into the Kyrgyz l&s. The Kyrgyz were forced to move off the area's good farml& & into the mountains. Russia gradually took control of all the Kyrgyz territory. In 1916 the Kyrgyz & other groups in Central Asia rebelled. However, the Russians brutally crushed the revolt.
The Russian Empire fell during the Russian Revolution of 1917, but the Kyrgyz l&s remained part of the Russian Federation. The territory became part of the newly formed Soviet Union in 1924. In 1936 it was made the Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the republics of the Soviet Union.
During the second half of the century, the economy of the republic grew. However, tensions remained high between the Russians & the Kyrgyz people. As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Kyrgyzstan declared its independence. Askar Akayev was the nation's first president. Kyrgyzstan's economy was seriously hurt by the splitting apart of the Soviet Union. However, the economy began to recover by 1995. Population (2001 estimate), 4,934,000.
