A study of the origins, evolution and current state of the Soviet use of its official Islamic establishment as a means of increasing its influence among Muslim elites in the Islamic world, especially in the Persian Gulf. Case studies and recommendations for US policy are included.

In this study, Bennigsen and Wimbush trace the development of the doctrine of national communism in Central Asia and the Caucasus. At the heart of this doctrine—as elaborated by the Volga Tatar, Mir-Said Sultan Galiev—was the concept of "proletarian nations," as opposed to the traditional notion of a working class. With such ideological innovations, Sultan Galiev and his contemporaries were able to reconcile Marxist nationalisms and Islam and devise an "Eastern strategy" whereby the national revolution was to be spread. The authors show that the ideas of Muslim national communism persist in the land of their birth and have spread to such developing societies as China, Algeria, and Indonesia. This doctrine is an important factor in the ideological split and increasing tensions between industrial and nonindustrial nations, East and West, and now North and South, which grip the world communist movement.

Based largely on official Soviet archive material, this study describes and analyses all aspects of Islam which relate to the Soviet domestic scene, with the purpose of demonstrating how it survived in the face of Soviet repression and secularisation.

First published in 1983, this book traces the historical and cultural development of the Soviet Muslim population. Going back to the Mongol Empire and the Russian conquest of Muslim lands under the Tsars, it demonstrates how the present Soviet Islamic culture has emerged. It also examines how Soviet Muslims interact with the Muslim world abroad and how Soviet Muftis have been used as ambassadors of the USSR in Muslim countries.

This richly detailed study traces the shared history of Russia and Islam in expanding compass - from the Tatar civilization within the Russian heartland, to the conquered territories of the Caucasus and Central Asia, to the larger geopolitical and security context of contemporary Russia on the civilizational divide. The study's distinctive analytical drive stresses political and geopolitical relationships over time and into the very complicated present. Rich with insight, the book is also an incomparable source of factual information about Russia's Muslim populations, religious institutions, political organizations, and ideological movements.

First published in 1987. The aim of this historical and statistical handbook is to answer three basic questions about the Islamic peoples of the USSR: who they are, where they are and how many of them there are. It is convenient to speak of them as 'Soviet Muslims', grouping them all together under a single, collective heading, but they are in fact quite disparate. For this reason it was decided to treat each ethnic group individually here.