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Soviet Union and Kyrgyzstan have always been influencing each other politically and culturally. Kyrgyzstan and Soviet Union have had their politics and their societies altered by each others impact. The Soviet Union had colonized Kyrgyzstan for the greater part of the 1900s.
Earlier the Kirghiz were a nomadic people pastoral in lifestyle, however under the Soviet rule there was rapid and mass industrialization and a predominantly agriculturist society was encouraged to grow. Yet the people of Kyrgyzstan did not completely let go of the age old rites, rituals, culture and more importantly profession of animal husbandry and stock farming.
Much of the fertile land fit for intensive agriculture was populated by Russian settlers and the Kirghiz naturally were unhappy at what they considered as land grabbing by the outsiders. The bloody yet futile uprising of 1916was the direct consequence of this feeling of animosity towards the settlers. It was granted autonomy in 1926. Kyrgyzstan was granted the status of a constituent republic in 1936.
Kyrgyzstan, on Aug. 31, 1991, declared its independence from the Soviet Union. December 1991, saw the country join in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The IMF and the UN were joined by the country in 1992 and espoused an extreme economic reformation program. Hence the equations between the Soviet Union and Kyrgyzstan changed and with the dissolve of the Soviet Union has only been resting with the Russians.
Currently many Russians, approximately 18% of the population is living and earning in Kyrgyzstan. In the month of March 1996, the Kyrgyz legislature revised the constitution to make Russian an official language along with Kirghiz in work places and regions where Russian-speaking citizens greater in number.
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