ABSTRACT
The Muslim nations of Russia are seeking their national identity, which cannot be separated from their religious rebirth. Groups of Muslims sympathizing with the ideas of fundamentalism exist virtually in every region populated by Muslims. The Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) considered itself ‘a religious and political organization uniting Muslims who disseminate Islam’. It declared the necessity of regulating the economy ‘on the basis of the Shariat’ and rejected ‘the artificial schemes of social development which have brought humanity to a full crisis in all fields of life’. The Russian national-communists were partly ready to accept the idea of Islamic fundamentalism. Like Muslim fundamentalists, Russian ‘patriots’ repudiate the idea of democracy and maintain the ‘consonance’ of religion and politics. Political Islam remains a reality of Russian public life. Political Islam in Russia will never be on the same scale as that in Tajikistan and some other Muslim territories of the former USSR.
