ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the outcome of Soviet policy regarding religion in the Soviet Muslim areas. The chief hypothesis is that the mobilization of the Muslim ‘toiling masses’ and the creation of a new Soviet man in the Muslim areas were inconceivable without their secularization. In Judaism the Haskala, or Enlightenment, movement of the late 18th century led to a secularistic outlook that at first clashed with the religious authority, yet in the course of time what has come to be known as modern orthodox Judaism, adopted something similar to the Protestant model. The intelligentsia in most of the successor states and Muslim areas of Russia tend to regard Islam as a national asset, as a political instrument, but not as a spiritual value, let alone a belief system or way of life, which has its own intrinsic significance that should constitute some sort of guiding force in their lives.
