Aka's Slavic ancestors appeared a long time ago in Kyrgyzstan, starting with the epic of Manas, where they are described as having legs “as long as a minaret,” going by foot, and eating “the dust of the earth.” Interviews of inhabitants of remote Kyrgyz villages and the capital Bishkek, including the archpriest of the Russian Orthdox church in Karakol, share their opinions about the colonization of nomadic lands by Cossack and Slavic (predominantly Russian and Ukrainian) settlers, and Soviet Russian political, cultural and linguistic hegemony. Archival material testifies of past Slavic life and culture today in this country.