The Kyrgyz Republic is a landlocked and mountainous republic in the eastern part of Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan, China, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Part of the Russian Empire since the late 1800s, Kyrgyzstan had existed as an autonomous region, and later a republic, in the USSR for over 65 years. Modern-day Kyrgyzstan is multiethnic, with Kyrgyzs—a Turkic-speaking people—comprising only a slight majority over Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, and Germans. The practice of Sunni Islam is one of the few cultural commonalities that exist across ethnic lines. Kyrgyz society is a unique meld of Nomadic traditions, an agrarian-based economy, and Soviet-style governance.