The Science of the Kyrgyz in the 18th - Early 20th Century

The second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century marked an era of scientific discovery in Kyrgyzstan. To gain an advantage in the covert struggle with Great Britain for control over Kyrgyzstan, Russia allocated significant funds for a comprehensive study of this region. A number of Russian scientific institutions sent their scholars — ethnographers, historians, geographers, mining engineers, and other specialists — to these areas of Central Asia as part of regular military expeditions. The primary goals of these expeditions were mainly military intelligence, but the researchers, each in their own field, collected information and materials for scientific generalizations and conclusions. Among them was Ch. Ch. Valikhanov, who introduced the unexplored region into the sphere of interest of world science. A significant contribution to the study of the Tien Shan mountains, including the Issyk-Kul basin, was made by P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky (1827-1914), who created an orographic map of the region and gathered extensive scientific material about the Tien Shan mountain system. The role of local historian N. M. Przhevalsky (1839-1888) is invaluable.

A notable contribution to the systematization of the history of the Kyrgyz people was made by scholars V. V. Bartold, N. A. Aristov, and S. E. Malov. The works of Russian researchers N. A. Severtsev, A. V. Kaulbars, A. P. Fedchenko, I. V. Mushketov, German scholars M. Friedrichsen, M. Kertsbacher, Frenchman G. Capieu, and Americans W. Davis and E. Huntington served as the foundation for subsequent studies of Kyrgyzstan. Thus, it was with Kyrgyzstan's incorporation into Russia that its systematic and comprehensive scientific research began.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the phased conquest of the Kyrgyz by Russia, extensive scientific studies of the society, history, culture, and nature of Kyrgyzstan began. During military, reconnaissance, and scientific expeditions, Russian and other scholars, studying the geography, ethnography, folklore, and history of this region, laid the groundwork for the subsequent development of Kyrgyzstan in the global community.