SUMMARY:

Blending Soviet archival materials with Kyrgyz lineage genealogies, this article examines how the coming of the Soviet regime, with its emphasis on antagonistic classes, affected hierarchical power relationships within traditional Kyrgyz lineage society. In doing so, the article analyzes the history of Kyrgyz lineage relations from the imperial to the Soviet periods. It argues that the emergence of contested politics was a result of deliberate efforts by the Soviet authorities to elevate previously disenfranchised and weak (bukara) lineages in Kyrgyz nomadic society, which had formerly been dominated by established, powerful (manap) lineages. This situation was a direct result of the Soviet regime’s attempt to promote class conflict in Soviet Kyrgyzstan.
The Soviet principle of the clash between classes, imposed on the Kyrgyz lineage society, evolved into a confrontation between powerful and weak lineage groups, the latter officially supported by the state. In the long run, attempts to create “lineage proletariats” had lasting effects on the Soviet project in Central Asia. The fact that a self-proclaimed socialist regime promoted lineage stratification by exploiting preexisting hierarchies to further its cause ultimately contributed to the conservation of lineage identities in the region.