[1] Although in the 1930s, Joseph Stalin divided the rich Fergana Valley among Kirghizia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, nationalities were not necessarily confined to the borders drawn for them.
[2] Because of the region's oil reserves, the local intelligentsia was able to obtain a significant degree of affluence, but infrastructure remained underdeveloped.
[3] In addition to economic discrepancies, the ethnic ratios of the region's administrative posts did not respond to the demographics of the population.
[5] At the same time, Osh Aymaghi, a Kyrgyz nationalist group, was petitioning for its own demands, the foremost of which was the redistribution of land belonging to Lenin Kolkhoz, a mostly Uzbek collective farm.
The violence began on 4 June in the city of Osh after large groups of Kyrgyz and Uzbeks gathered in the territory of Lenin Kolkhoz.
The violence was not just confined to urban zones; in the villages surrounding Uzgen and the Osh countryside, Kyrgyz herders, often going by horseback, terrorized Uzbek farmers with rape, murder, and property destruction.
[9] In the foothills of Bak-Archa, four Kyrgyz shepherds rode many kilometers to kill the family of an Uzbek beekeeper.
[16] Personal testimonies from victims, witness and participants revealed chemical intoxication[example needed] was a significant influence on the rioters' actions.
With the 1991 independence of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbeks were not ensured much autonomy in the new government of Akayev and were held with deep suspicion by the general populace.
[18][19] A stone monument commemorating the riots was erected in the field where they ignited, with plaques in Russian, English, and Old Turkic.