Kyrgyzstan is wedged in Central Asia between the great mountain ranges and the countries that end with stan, literally the land of. Land of the Kyrgyz, a people who emerged from the alliance of forty tribes that settled in the territory and, over the years, formed a single cultural and linguistic identity. However, the mixture of origins is still visible in the physiognomy of the population's faces. Although the strong impact and imprint that belonging to the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union has left on current social and political life cannot be forgotten, there is a very strong Kyrgyz national sentiment, which can be summarized in the epic of Manas, a legendary hero venerated with giant statues. However, this identity is not based on their own language, which has not shaken off the label of secondary, nor on the three decades of being an independent countryRussian and Kyrgyz coexist in a textbook diglossia, allowing the media, schools, culture, and politics to operate in Russian, although in rural areas, Kyrgyz is the majority language.