Islam in the Soviet Union

Last updated October 20, 2024

After it was established on most of the territory of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union remained the world's largest country until it was dissolved in 1991. It covered a large part of Eastern Europe while also spanning the entirety of the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Northern Asia. During this time, Islam was the country's second-largest religion; 90% of Muslims in the Soviet Union were adherents of Sunni Islam, with only around 10% adhering to Shia Islam. Excluding the Azerbaijan SSR, which had a Shia-majority population, all of the Muslim-majority Union Republics had Sunni-majority populations.^[1] In total, six Union Republics had Muslim-majority populations: the Azerbaijan SSR, the Kazakh SSR, the Kyrgyz SSR, the Tajik SSR, the Turkmen SSR, and the Uzbek SSR.^[2] There was also a large Muslim population across Volga–Ural and in the northern Caucasian regions of the Russian SFSR. Across Siberia, Muslims accounted for a significant proportion of the population, predominantly through the presence of Tatars.^[2] Many autonomous republics like the Karakalpak ASSR, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, the Bashkir ASSR and others also had Muslim majorities.

Following their seizure of power, the Bolsheviks wanted to include as much territory of the former Russian Empire as possible into the nascent Soviet Union. However, they experienced difficulties during their attempts to impose communism within regions that had been under traditionalist Islamic influence for centuries (i.e., onto the Turkic peoples). While the communist state actively pursued a policy of state atheism, Soviet authorities allowed limited religious activities to continue in the six Muslim-majority Union Republics.^[3] Mosques operated in most large cities within these territories, though their numbers decreased dramatically; there were 25,000 mosques across the Russian Empire at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, and only 500 mosques across the Soviet Union in the 1970s.^[4]

In 1989, as part of new Soviet policies that relaxed religious restrictions throughout the country, a number of new Muslim associations were formed and many of the mosques that had been closed by the government were reopened. The Soviet government also announced plans to permit the education of a limited number of imams in the cities of Ufa and Baku.

In the years leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, between 45 and 50 million Soviet citizens identified as Muslims, though only around 500 mosques were in operation across the country. Islam was prosecuted^[5] and Soviet law forbade all Islamic religious activities outside of mosques and madrasas. All Islamic religious facilities were supervised by four "Spiritual Directorates" established by the Soviet government in order to provide oversight. Sunni Muslims were overseen by the Spiritual Directorate for Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Spiritual Directorate for the European Soviet Union and Siberia, and the Spiritual Directorate for the Northern Caucasus and Dagestan. Shia Muslims were overseen by the Spiritual Directorate for Transcaucasia, though this establishment served Sunni Muslims as well.

Lenin's rule

In 1917, Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin published Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism , a highly influential text that shaped communist attitudes towards anti-capitalist struggles, and led to a policy of cultivating left-wing nationalists within the Muslim communities of the Russian Empire and in foreign colonies. Before the Bolshevik Revolution, the first Muslim All-Russian Congress was held in Moscow in May 1917, celebrating the end of Tsarism.^[6]

Compared to the Christians (who comprised the state majority), Muslims in the Soviet Union were initially given more religious autonomy. This was in contrast to life under the tsars, when Muslims were suppressed and the Eastern Orthodox Church served in an official capacity in the Russian Empire, an erstwhile Christian state. On 24 November 1917, weeks after the Bolshevik Revolution, the Bolsheviks issued an appeal to "All the Muslim Workers of Russia and the East" under Lenin:^[6]

Muslims of Russia… all you whose mosques and prayer houses have been destroyed, whose beliefs and customs have been trampled upon by the tsars and oppressors of Russia: your beliefs and practices, your national and cultural institutions are forever free and inviolate. Know that your rights, like those of all the peoples of Russia, are under the mighty protection of the Revolution.^[7]

Lenin further oversaw the return of certain Islamic artifacts, such as the Uthman Quran (to the Uzbek SSR).^[7] Furthermore, some principles of Islamic law were instituted alongside the communist legal system,^[7] Jadids and other Islamic socialists were given positions of power within the government,^[7] and an affirmative action system called korenizatsiya was implemented to help local Muslim populations develop an ideological harmony with Soviet communism.^[7] In the Union Republics of Central Asia, all of which hosted overwhelmingly Muslim-majority populations, Soviet law mandated Friday as a legal day of rest.^[7]

Basmachi movement

Muslim national communism

Left-wing socialist Muslims began to develop a distinct variant of communism (i.e., national communism), which continued in the Soviet Union until 1928. National communists believed that the fate of the worldwide communist revolution ultimately depended on events within Asia and not within Europe. They also argued that alliances with the Russian bourgeoisie were necessary for the success of such a revolution; the overarching fear was that the failure to lessen class divisions would lead the bourgeoisie to ally with the Western world and thus ensure the collapse of the Soviet Union and the communist ideology.

The Soviet government believed that such variation from the traditional doctrines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union would draw the attention of capitalist Western powers, inviting foreign intervention. It prompted the communist establishment to reject the arguments of the national communists as impractical at the Congress of the Peoples of the East, held in Baku in September 1920. Later, the perceived lack of united ideals also triggered further action against the larger national communist movement.^[8]

In 1928, a large-scale purging of the Muslim-majority Union Republics' leadership began with the execution of Veli İbraimov of the Tatar Communist Party and Milliy Firqa, which sought to push a nationalist ideology in favour of the Crimean Tatars. These were followed by the elimination of the leaders of the Muslim Social Democratic Party, the Tatar Communist Party, the Tatar Union of the Godless, and the Young Bukharans.^{[ citation needed ]}

Stalin's rule

When Joseph Stalin consolidated power in the second half of the 1920s, his policies regarding religion had changed. Mosques began to be closed or turned into warehouses throughout Central Asia, religious leaders were persecuted, religious schools were closed down, and waqfs were outlawed.^[9] The Soviet government interpreted the paranja (a traditional Central Asian female robe) as an embodiment of Muslim oppression against women; Stalin's policies led to the initiation of Hujum, a Soviet campaign that sought to strong-arm Islamic systems in Central Asia in order to eliminate practices that were seen as perpetuating male–female inequality, particularly the practice of pardah, which directed the large-scale seclusion of women from society.^[7]^[10] However, the campaign was unsuccessful, and Islamic veiling practices became more popular than ever among Muslim workers, whereas it had formerly been worn only by Muslim bourgeoisie.^[11] In the 1930s, during the period of Stalin's Great Purge, thousands of Muslim religious clerics were arrested and executed. Between 1929 and 1941, the vast majority of the country's mosques were shut down.^[12]

In addition to his anti-religion policies, Stalin's cult of personality effectively shut out Soviet citizens' freedom to practice Islam, Christianity, or any other religions.^[7]^[10]

Ethnic cleansing of Crimean Tatars

During World War II, particularly in 1943–1944, the Soviet government carried out a series of deportations to Siberia and the Union Republics of Central Asia. Collaboration with Nazi Germany was cited as the official reason for this policy, but this has been disputed by individuals and organizations who characterize them as Soviet attempts at ethnic cleansing. Among the ethnicities subject to deportation policies (excluding non-Muslims) were the Crimean Tatars,^[13] the Chechens,^[14] the Ingush, the Balkars, the Karachays, and the Meskhetian Turks.^[15] The Soviet deportation campaign resulted in a massive loss of life, in addition to widespread displacement.

Formally, the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars began on 17 May 1944. More than 32,000 officers of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) participated in displacing over 193,865 Crimean Tatars; 151,136 were sent to the Uzbek SSR, 8,597 were sent to the Mari ASSR, 4,286 were sent to the Kazakh SSR, and the remaining 29,846 were sent to various regions within the Russian SFSR. According to official NKVD figures, nearly 20% of the deportees died over the following year and a half, while Crimean Tatar activists have instead placed the casualty rate at around 46%.^[16]^[17]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Tatarstan</span>

Islam in Tatarstan existed prior to the tenth century, but it began major growth in 922, when Bulgar ruler Almış converted to Islam. This was followed by an increase in missionary activity in Volga Bulgaria. Islam remained the dominant religion through the Mongol invasion and subsequent Khanate of Kazan. In 1552, the region was finally conquered by Russia, bringing the Volga Tatars and Bashkirs on the Middle Volga into the tsardom. Under Russian rule, Islam was suppressed for many years, first during the Tsardom and Empire and later during the Soviet era. Today, Islam is a major faith in Tatarstan, adhered to by 47.8–55 percent of the estimated 3.8 million population, making it one of the two dominant religions in the region, the other being Orthodox Christianity.

The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was a Soviet state that governed the former Emirate of Bukhara during the years immediately following the Russian Revolution. In 1924, its name was changed to the Bukharan Socialist Soviet Republic. After the redrawing of regional borders, its territory was assigned mostly to the Uzbek SSR and some to the Turkmen SSR.

Soviet leaders and authorities officially condemned nationalism and proclaimed internationalism, including the right of nations and peoples to self-determination. Soviet internationalism during the era of the USSR and within its borders meant diversity or multiculturalism. This is because the USSR used the term "nation" to refer to ethnic or national communities and or ethnic groups. The Soviet Union claimed to be supportive of self-determination and rights of many minorities and colonized peoples. However, it significantly marginalized people of certain ethnic groups designated as "enemies of the people", pushed their assimilation, and promoted chauvinistic Russian nationalistic and settler-colonialist activities in their lands. Whereas Vladimir Lenin had supported and implemented policies of korenizatsiia, Joseph Stalin reversed much of the previous policies, signing off on orders to deport and exile multiple ethnic-linguistic groups brandished as "traitors to the Fatherland", including the Balkars, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, Karachays, Kalmyks, Koreans and Meskhetian Turks, with those, who survived the collective deportation to Siberia or Central Asia, were legally designated "special settlers", meaning that they were officially second-class citizens with few rights and were confined within small perimeters.

The deportation of the Meskhetian Turks was the forced transfer by the Soviet government of the entire Meskhetian Turk population from the Meskheti region of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic to Central Asia on 14 November 1944. During the deportation, between 92,307 and 94,955 Meskhetian Turks were forcibly removed from 212 villages. They were packed into cattle wagons and mostly sent to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Members of other ethnic groups were also deported during the operation, including Kurds and Hemshins, bringing the total to approximately 115,000 evicted people. They were placed in special settlements where they were assigned to forced labor. The deportation and harsh conditions in exile caused between 12,589 to 50,000 deaths.

The main wave of Crimean Tatar repatriation occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s when over 200,000 Crimean Tatars left Central Asia to return to Crimea whence they had been deported in 1944. While the Soviet government attempted to stifle mass return efforts for decades by denying them residence permits in Crimea or even recognition as a distinct ethnic group, activists continued to petition for the right of return. Eventually a series of commissions were created to publicly evaluate the prospects of allowing return, the first being the notorious Gromyko commission that lasted from 1987 to 1988 that issued declaring that "there was no basis" to allow exiled Crimean Tatars to return en masse to Crimea or restore the Crimean ASSR.

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