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Meaning & History
Polonization of KIRGIZIYA, the Russian name for the country of KYRGYZSTAN. In Poland, this name was primarily used during the Soviet era. It referred to the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, which after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 became the independent country of Kyrgyzstan. Today, the name continues to be used to refer to what is now Kyrgyzstan, but it is quite rare and will eventually fall out of use.