Heterogeneity Of Political Protest In Kyrgyzstan: Features Of Participants And Their Interactions In The Protest Events Of 2010 And 2020

In the fall of 2020, we saw another round of the cycle of political protests in Kyrgyzstan – mass discontent of completely different segments of the population, cooperation with the police and activists from other cities, the storming of administrative buildings in Bishkek eventually led to the transfer of power from Sooronbay Jeenbekov to Sadyr Zhaparov. This paper analyzes the reasons for the cyclical nature of the Kyrgyz protests through the prism of mobilization theories in the context of the April 2010 and October 2020 protests. For the empirical part, the chosen method is the analysis of deep semi-structured interviews with participants of protest movements, through the prism of «grievances and opportunities» of the actors of the protest movement. The results show the contradictory role of new media as a tool for mobilizing the population in authoritarian regimes and demonstrate the contribution of the lack of a leader and a unified agenda to the success of the protest. The work contributes to the actualization of the theories of mobilization in a more modern context, as well as has practical significance in the analysis of the probability of repetition of the scenarios of mobilization of the Kyrgyz population.