The theme of this publication is "The Everyday Life of Kyrgyz People."
In the image, you can see the Przhevalsky beys, also known as nepmen.
The photograph was taken in 1934, which means it was captured 91 years ago.
This photograph is stored in the collections of the Central State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Documents of the KR.
Reference: Nepmen is a term referring to private entrepreneurs who operated in Soviet Russia and the USSR during the period of the New Economic Policy (NEP) from 1921 to 1931. The word originated from the abbreviation NEP. Nepmen were allowed to engage in small business and trade, which played an important role in the recovery of the economy after the civil war and war communism. However, they did not have voting rights and were perceived by the official ideology as "non-labor elements."
In the second half of the 1920s, nepmen began to be gradually pushed out of the economy due to high taxes and administrative restrictions. In 1931, private trade was completely banned, leading to repressions against many of them. Society had an ambiguous perception of nepmen: on one hand, they were seen as economic "saviors," while on the other, they were criticized as social outcasts for having a higher standard of living compared to workers and peasants.
