ABSTRACT
The modernization of the Muslim educational system, promoted by the Crimean Tatar, Ismail Gas-prinski, followed the Russian and German models. Before 1917 even the most radical revolutionary wing of Muslim socialism refused to reject the religious basis of the society and to assimilate modernization to secularization. In many fields, such as education, politics, language, literature, the process of modernization was already well advanced. The fight for the "modernization" of the Muslim family had started already early in the twentieth century. The Soviet authorities with the entire support, since World War II, of the Muslim religious authorities, have been fighting for the complete modernization of the family and the destruction of medieval survivals. Considered from the point of view of Central Asia and the Caucasus, the contacts between Soviet Islam and the Muslim world abroad may appear unimpressive. But since World War II, the movement is no longer unilateral.
