Researcher basic information

• https://researchmap.jp/MirlanBektursun?lang=en

• https://jglobal.jst.go.jp/detail?JGLOBAL_ID=201901012891757410

• 201901012891757410

• Humanities & Social Sciences, History of Asia and Africa, 中央ユーラシア研究；中央アジア地域研究；ロシア史

Research activity information

• Apr. 2025, Ab Imperio, Ab Imperio Award for the best study in new imperial history and history of diversity in Northern Eurasia, up to the late twentieth century
  "The Rise of the “Lineage Proletariat”: The Soviet State’s Class Policy and Kyrgyz Lineage Society in the 1920s"
• May 2024, Central Asian Survey, The annual Irene Hilgers Prize for best article by an early career scholar published in Central Asian Survey
  'Two parts – one whole’? Kazakh–Kyrgyz relations in the making of Soviet Kyrgyzstan, 1917–24 '

• Narrating the Nation and National Heroes: Kyrgyz Historical Discourse in the Post-Soviet Era (2010–2023)
  Bektursunov Mirlan
  Asian Research Trends New Series, 19, 19, 37, May 2025, [Peer-reviewed], [Invited]
  English, Scientific journal
• The Rise of the “Lineage Proletariat”: The Soviet State’s Class Policy and Kyrgyz Lineage Society in the 1920s
  Mirlan Bektursunov
  Ab Imperio, 2024, 1, 97, 125, Project MUSE, 2024, [Peer-reviewed]
  Scientific journal,

  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. Резюме: Сочетая анализ советских архивных материалов и кыргызских генеалогических источников (санжыра), статья исследует влияние со-ветской власти, с ее акцентом на классовой борьбе, на иерархические властные отношения внутри кыргызского традиционного родового общества в 1920-е гг. Реконструируя динамику межродовых отношений в позднеимперский и раннесоветский период, статья показывает фор-мирование и активизацию конкурентной политики среди кыргызских родов в результате вмешательства советских властей в эти отношения. Поддерживая традиционно бесправные и слабые (букаринские) роды, над которыми прежде господствовали основные (манапские) роды, советский режим надеялся разжечь классовый конфликт в кыргызском кочевом обществе. Навязанный киргизскому родовому обществу, советский принцип классовой борьбы перерос в противостояние сильных и слабых родо-вых групп, в которой последние пользовались официальной поддерж-кой советского государства. В долгосрочной перспективе попытки создания “родового пролетариата” имели последствия для советского проекта в Центральной Азии. Продвижение родовой стратификации самопровозглашенным социалистическим режимом, эксплуатировав-шим существующие иерархии в своих целях, в итоге способствовало сохранению родовой идентичности в регионе.

• [Review] Akiyama Tetsu. The Oïrghïz Baatïr and the Russian Empire: A Portrait of a Local Intermediary in Russian Central Asia
  Mirlan Bektursunov
  The Nairiku Ajiashi Kenkyu (Inner Inner Asian Studies), 38, 41, 50, Oct. 2023, [Invited]
  Japanese, Research society
• ‘Two parts – one whole’? Kazakh–Kyrgyz relations in the making of Soviet Kyrgyzstan, 1917–24
  Mirlan Bektursunov
  Central Asian Survey, 42, 1, 109, 126, Informa UK Limited, 16 Jun. 2022, [Peer-reviewed]
  Scientific journal
• THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION AND THE KYRGYZ POLITICAL ELITE: THE KNOWN AND UNKNOWN PAGES OF HISTORY
  Mirlan Bektursunov
  Vestnik of the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, 22, 6, 3, 11, State Educational Institution of Higher Vocational Education Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, 2022, [Peer-reviewed]
  Russian, Scientific journal
• How Did the Soviet State Contain Local Nationalism? On Local Elites’ Opposition to European Cadres in the Early Soviet Kyrgyzstan: “The Affair of 30”
  Mirlan Bektursunov
  JACAS BULLETIN, 1, 18, Jul. 2020, [Peer-reviewed]
  Japanese, Scientific journal
• [Review] Critical Review of Kanibek Imanaliev’s Book Kyrgyzstan: A Word about the Homeland (2002)
  Mirlan Bektursunov
  キルギス日本語教育研究, 4, 120, 125, Feb. 2020, [Invited]
  Japanese, Research society
• Создание Советcкого Кыргызстана: появление и развитие национализма кыргызской политической элиты в раннесоветский период
  Bektursunov Mirlan
  SLAVIC STUDIES, 66, 25, 53, Aug. 2019, [Peer-reviewed]
  Japanese, Scientific journal

• 2021 - Present
  Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
• Oct. 2020 - Present
  Japanese society for the Study of Russian History
• Mar. 2017 - Present
  The Japan Association for Central Asian Studies
• 2017 - Present
  Central Eurasian Studies Society