car there was manufactured in Russia. The textbooks used in the school at which I taught
were written in Russian, and lessons in English language textbooks told stories of
communist superiority to the West. People I met would first speak to me in Russian
before learning that I could speak Kyrgyz. There were two channels on television, when
electricity was available, one in Russian and the other in Kyrgyz. The quality of
programming on the Russian channel was by far a higher standard. A number of
newspapers were available at the post office, the majority of which were in Russian. In
order to communicate in the Capital City of Bishkek it was a requirement to be able to
speak Russian.