[4] Landlocked and mountainous, it bordered Tajikistan and China to the south, Uzbekistan to the west and Kazakhstan to the north.

Tyan Shan was the last oblast to be abolished in 1962, and by this point, the rest of the republic with the exception of Osh was divided into districts of republican subordination.

That same year, on 15 December, the Kirghiz SSR was reconstituted as the Republic of Kyrgyzstan after declaring its sovereignty.

Askar Akayev, the first president, unequivocally condemned the putsch and gained fame as a democratic leader.

The country declared its independence on 31 August 1991 and the Soviet Union was formally dissolved on 26 December 1991.

Between March and May 1944 alone, it was reported in the Kremlin that 602,193 residents of the North Caucasus region had been deported to the Kirghiz and Kazakh SSRs, of which 496,460 were Chechens and Ingush, 68,327 of which were Karachays and 37,406 were Balkars.

[14] Under Soviet rule, Islam in Kirghizia was heavily suppressed with people actively encouraging atheism.

After independence, the country enjoyed greater religious freedom and remains to this day a secular state.

Kirghizia, a landlocked republic in Soviet Central Asia shared its borders with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as China on the outside lying between latitudes 39° and 44° N, and longitudes 69° and 81° E. It is farther from the sea than any other individual country, and all its rivers flow into closed drainage systems which do not reach the sea.

The mountainous region of the Tian Shan covers over 80% of the country,[15] with the remainder made up of valleys and basins.

As the Soviet Union respected other cultures even after delimitation, there are a wide variety of cultural items in Kirghizia listed here: Apart from celebrating the New Year each 1 January, Kirghizia, like all Soviet Republics, observed the Great October Socialist Revolution on 7 November.

The tradition of bride kidnapping, which remains illegal to this day, was suppressed by the Soviet regime.