The article is devoted to policy of authorities during the post-war period in the religious sphere and its impact on Islam, Muslim believers, and clergy in Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Liberalization of religious policy in Dagestan of the postwar period created favorable conditions for existence of Muslim religious associations during the post-war period. To the end of the 1950s rather stable state and religious relationship after the termination of the Great Patriotic War had come to a new threshold which was characterized by forcing of antireligious moods. This course was dictated not only by religious activity of the population of the country, but also by change of political consciousness in power structures. The author also mentions the role of Muslim clergy in foreign policy of the USSR. Against the background of positive changes in Islamic life of the Soviet believers, the author covers transformational processes connected with an attempt to replace all the “Islamic things” with the secular ones. However, according to statistical data, the degree of religiousness of the population in the republic remained. On the basis of archival documents the author analyzes in details features of state and religious relationship in 1950–1965 in Dagestan ASSR and comes to a conclusion that the policy of power structures concerning clergy and religion was in general purposeful and flexible.
Keywords: USSR, Dagestan, politics, religion, Islam
DOI: 1022250/2072-8662.2017.1.16-22
About the author
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Olga B. Khalidova – PhD (History), Research Fellow at the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Dagestan, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences; 75 M. Yagarsky str., Makhachkala, the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, 367030; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |