Introduction: Debating the Wartime "Religious Revolution" -- The Setting: From the Years of Repression to Stalin's "New Deal" -- Praying with Stalin: Soviet Islamic Propaganda of the Second World War -- Negotiating Stalin's Tolerance: Muslim Institutions in Wartime -- Red Army Prayers and Homefront Lyrics: Glimpses of Soviet Muslim Life in Wartime -- Bureaucrats Bewildered: Monitoring Muslims in Postwar Kazakhstan.
Summary:
"During the Second World War, as the Soviet Red Army was locked in brutal combat against the Nazis, Stalin ended the state's violent, decades-long persecution of religion. In a stunning reversal, priests, imams, rabbis, and other religious elites--many of them newly-released from the Gulag--were tasked with rallying Soviet citizens to a "Holy War" against Hitler. To the delight of some citizens, and to the horror of others, Stalin's reversal encouraged a widespread perception that his "war on religion" was over. A revolution in Soviet religious life ensued: soldiers prayed on the battlefield; entire villages celebrated once-banned holidays; and state-backed religious leaders used their new positions not only to consolidate power over their communities, but also to petition for further religious freedoms. As a window on this wartime "religious revolution," this book focuses on the Soviet Union's Muslims, and it uses sources in several languages (including Russian, Tatar, Bashkir, Uzbek, Persian, and Kumyk). Drawing evidence from eyewitness accounts, interviews, soldiers' letters, frontline poetry, agents' reports, petitions, and the words of Soviet Muslim leaders, the book argues that the religious revolution was fomented simultaneously by the state and by religious Soviet citizens: the state gave an inch, and many citizens took a mile, as atheist Soviet agents looked on in exasperation at the resurgence of unconcealed devotional life"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.