The History of Kyrgyzstan Through the Eyes of Witnesses offers a compelling, multidimensional journey through the country’s turbulent past — from the last years of the Russian Empire to the Stalinist purges. Rather than presenting history as a distant, abstract narrative, this book weaves together archival documents, Soviet textbooks, and the personal testimonies of eyewitnesses and their descendants. Readers will follow the dissolution of the Kokand Khanate, the colonisation of Turkestan, and successive waves of migration that brought Dungan, Uyghur, Tatar, Korean, German and other communities into Kyrgyzstan. The book explores the dramatic transformations of the Soviet era — collectivisation, dekulakisation, and the Great Terror — showing how these events shaped entire villages and families. Special attention is devoted to Interhelpo, the unique cooperative from Czechoslovakia whose members — often called “communist missionaries” — came to build factories and a socialist future in Frunze. The book also examines the suppression of religious life, the closing of mosques and churches, and the quiet resilience of faith that endured despite persecution. By combining the “grand narrative” of history with vivid, individual life stories, this work reminds us that repression touched all layers of society — intellectuals and party leaders, peasants and herders, believers and members of minority groups — and that its legacy continues to shape Kyrgyzstan’s collective memory and moral consciousness to this day.