evidence: The Fergana Valley has long served as a bread basket and trading hub for the civilizations that have occupied the surrounding mountains. Thus, the area has traditionally been ethnically diverse, with substantial Uzbek, Tajik, and Kyrgyz populations which tend to live in large pockets rather than within easily discernible boarders. The area is also home to significant Russian, Kashgarian, Kipchak, Bukharan Jew, and Romani minorities. [...] After the revolution, and after a very brief period as part of an independent Turkestan, Osh and the valley were absorbed into the Soviet Union. In 1924, the eastern part of the Fergana Valley was divided between the newly created Soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, even though the entire valley had traditionally been heavily Uzbek. Further, when the Soviets industrialized Osh during the 1960s, they encouraged the local Kyrgyz to move from the countryside into the city and take jobs in manufacturing and public administration. [...] As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate during the late 1980s, ethnic relations in the Fergana Valley deteriorated as well. Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities each formed their own activist political organizations. The Uzbek Adolat ("Justice") movement called for the establishment of an autonomous Fergana Valley region within the Kyrgyz SSR, and even pushed for full integration with Uzbekistan. Other Kyrgyz political groups, meanwhile, called for a takeover of Uzbek agricultural land.