Friday, January 7, 2011: 2:30 PM
Room 208 (Hynes Convention Center)
After charting the ups and downs of the revolutionary initiatives characterizing
the first two decades of Soviet rule, this paper will argue that World
War II profoundly impacted the Party-state’s ideological dispensation towards
religion and Islam in particular. By the end of the war the Communist Party
had, for all practical purposes, abandoned the hope that religion would
disappear completely in the Soviet Union. Senior bureaucrats monitoring
religious life stated that cultural advancement, scientific education, and
popular awareness of the ethical foundations of Soviet legislation concerning
religion would all work something of a magical effect on the rank-and-file
Muslim, making the shallowness of his religious faith clear to him.
Realistically, this objective would achieve fruition in the end of history. In
the meantime, the postwar dispensation required the Party-state to form
partnerships with a select group of senior Islamic figures in the country to
cooperate in the management and regulation of religious life.
In the course of describing and explaining the evolution of state attitudes
towards Islam during the eight decades comprising Soviet history, the piece
will also place these policies within broader foreign and domestic contexts.
Domestically, the position of the Russian Orthodox Church vis-à-vis the
Party-state resembled that of Muslim institutions in some respects. While
displaying a striking degree of sensitivity to the canonical and historical
differences separating Christianity from Islam, Soviet bureaucrats viewed all
religious traditions as constructs based on economic exploitation and
psychological manipulation. Internationally, the state accorded increasing
prominence to the Russian Orthodox Church and the four Soviet muftiates in the
realization of its foreign policy objectives. The paper will highlight
Khrushchev’s use of the muftiates to further Soviet interests in the
decolonized nations of Africa in the 1960s, as well as their role in Occupied
Afghanistan during the 1980s.
the first two decades of Soviet rule, this paper will argue that World
War II profoundly impacted the Party-state’s ideological dispensation towards
religion and Islam in particular. By the end of the war the Communist Party
had, for all practical purposes, abandoned the hope that religion would
disappear completely in the Soviet Union. Senior bureaucrats monitoring
religious life stated that cultural advancement, scientific education, and
popular awareness of the ethical foundations of Soviet legislation concerning
religion would all work something of a magical effect on the rank-and-file
Muslim, making the shallowness of his religious faith clear to him.
Realistically, this objective would achieve fruition in the end of history. In
the meantime, the postwar dispensation required the Party-state to form
partnerships with a select group of senior Islamic figures in the country to
cooperate in the management and regulation of religious life.
In the course of describing and explaining the evolution of state attitudes
towards Islam during the eight decades comprising Soviet history, the piece
will also place these policies within broader foreign and domestic contexts.
Domestically, the position of the Russian Orthodox Church vis-à-vis the
Party-state resembled that of Muslim institutions in some respects. While
displaying a striking degree of sensitivity to the canonical and historical
differences separating Christianity from Islam, Soviet bureaucrats viewed all
religious traditions as constructs based on economic exploitation and
psychological manipulation. Internationally, the state accorded increasing
prominence to the Russian Orthodox Church and the four Soviet muftiates in the
realization of its foreign policy objectives. The paper will highlight
Khrushchev’s use of the muftiates to further Soviet interests in the
decolonized nations of Africa in the 1960s, as well as their role in Occupied
Afghanistan during the 1980s.
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