Kyrgyz Management System
POWER SYSTEM AND MANAGEMENT INSTITUTIONS
According to historical sources, the Kyrgyz people went through a series of stages of state-political development from the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd century BC to the first half of the 19th century. This development ranged from the simplest political organization in the form of "ownership" to a centralized medieval empire in the 9th-10th centuries. In Southern Siberia and Eastern Turkestan, until the early 18th century, there were several Kyrgyz principalities and khanates that played a significant role in the military-political history of the Central Asian region. These entities existed independently of one another and had different political orientations.
Political fragmentation was also characteristic of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. Tribes united only to repel external aggression; at other times, they existed autonomously, with their own system of power and governance. Each tribe or group of tribes entered into international relations with neighboring states or khanates independently, and thus international obligations applied exclusively to the specific tribe. Knowing this feature, neighboring states and khanates tried to establish contacts with the leaders of specific tribes. Thus, there was no single center of power and governance; Kyrgyz tribes independently built military-political, diplomatic, and trade relations with Qing China, the Kokand and Bukhara khanates, Kazakh khanates, and unstable state formations of Eastern Turkestan, and later with the Russian Empire.
The Kyrgyz governance system was not characterized by the institution of Chinggisids, which existed among the Kazakhs, nomadic Uzbeks, and also among the peoples that split off from the Golden Horde. In Kyrgyz political practice, legitimacy of power was predominantly held by the so-called natural khans.
In the 18th - first half of the 19th century, the southern Kyrgyz tribes were part of the Kokand Khanate alongside Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Kipchaks. The northern Kyrgyz tribes lived autonomously for a long time, until the first quarter of the 19th century, not being part of any state; only from 1825 to 1863 were they nominally subordinate to the Kokand Khanate, while constantly staging uprisings against it. The general uprising of the southern Kyrgyz tribes in 1873-1876 led to a deep crisis in the khanate, which the Russian Empire took advantage of, forcibly annexing most of the rebellious tribes.
Overall, although the Kyrgyz had experience in state-building, they did not overcome the system of clan-tribal relations. Clan-tribal solidarity remained the foundation of the social structure, the leading trend of political development, and the organization of the system of power and governance until the early 20th century, and its recurrences manifested even during the Soviet era. In the period of post-Soviet development, this system is experiencing a revival, becoming one of the active components of the political culture of the early 21st century.
Military-Police Institute and the Institute of Eldership among the Kyrgyz
