ABSTRACT
The circumstances surrounding the transition in Kyrgyzstan have certainly been no more benign than those in other post-Soviet states. Indeed, in the first years of independence, Kyrgyzstan suffered a collapse in economic production that was among the most dramatic of those experienced by the former Soviet territories. In a country whose traditional livelihood was shepherding, the number of sheep fell from almost 10 million in 1991 to only 3 million in 1996. As a result of declines in industrial and agricultural production, by the mid 1990s, 20 percent of the population was effectively without work. The deepening crisis of unemployment in the countryside fed large-scale migration to the cities, which strained urban social services and threatened political stability. Alienated, uprooted Kyrgyz youth represented both a threat to public order and a potential support base for extremist politics.
