In Their Words: Russians in Kyrgyzstan

Going along with the last post, I thought I’d write a little about the Russian minority in Kyrgyzstan. Russians used to make a large percentage of the population here. As of a few years ago, they made up only about 12%, and that number seems to be dropping. I spoke with a young woman, a ethnically Russian student who grew up in Kyrgyzstan. She repeated what I have heard from a lot of people here—Russians in Kyrgyzstan share more important similarities with the Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan than they do with the Russians in Russia.

Researcher: Do you get any benefit from the fact that you are a citizen of this country?

Informant: I like living here. I love my country. So I get benefits in the sense that I like living here, but other benefits…I don’t know.

Researcher: Why do you love your country?

Informant: Because I was born here. My friends are here. This is my home.

Researcher: Did you ever live anywhere else?

Informant: No, I traveled, but I didn’t live anywhere for a long time.

Researcher: Have you been to Russia?

Informant: I’ve been to Russia. That’s a separate country, also difficult. It’s easier to get along with people here. I was born and raised here so I know people’s interests, mentality better here than in Russia. Russia is a different country and the people are different. Russians who grew up here are totally different.

Researcher: That’s interesting. In what way are they different?

Informant: They’re different in every way. In their understanding, their way of life, their principles.

Researcher: Can you give me an example?

Informant: For example, our people are more open. I can talk about pretty much anything even with people in the university here with whom I’m pretty unfamiliar. There you don’t do that—it’s just you by yourself. And your neighbors there in Russia, if you are from Kyrgyzstan and then you start to earn well, earn more than them, then right away they start punching holes in your tires, things like that. They figure that if you’re from Kyrgyzstan, you’re nobody. That’s how they treat you. I have a friend who lives there. We went to school together. She moved to Russia and has been living there for seven years. She doesn’t tell people that she’s from Kyrgyzstan, because she knows that if she tells people, they’re going to treat her poorly. Now if she tells people she is from Kyrgyzstan, they tell her they figured she was just from a different part of Russia. Basically, if you don’t tell, they can’t tell.

Researcher: What if people come here from other countries? Will people treat them
similarly?

Informant: People here treat newcomers well. Tourists, students. I, at least, treat them well. My parents treat them well too. But that also depends on the person.