Religious Minorities of the Empire

Revolution and Civil War through the Perceptions and Actions of Muslim Clergy in Dagestan, 1917–1921

The article analyzes how the Revolution and the Civil War have been perceived by the Muslim clergy in Dagestan and how the clergy reacted. The author shows various forms of involvement of the clergy, their participation in power institutions, creation of coalitions and alliances, and their internal cleavages. The views and political agendas of the two leaders, Nazhmutdin Gotsinsky and Ali‑Hajjah Akushinsky, are further presented as major examples.

Transformation of Islamic Institutions in Revolutionary Russia: The Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly and the Muslim Clergy of the Volga-Ural Region in 1917 — early 1918

This article is devoted to an analysis of institutional changes in religious administration of Muslims of the former Russian Empire during 1917 and early 1918. Its focus is the Muslim clergy and the Tatar population inhabiting European Russia, the Volga‑Ural region, and Siberia that were under the jurisdiction of the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly. The Muslim congresses (including the first Turco‑Tatar national parliament, the Millät Mäjlise), as well as the Tatar‑language press, discussed a variety of key social and political issues.

The Concept of “New Muslim” between the Two Revolutions on the Pages of “Shura” Journal (1908–1917)

The periodical press of the Tatar Muslims of the Volga‑Urals region of the Russian Empire, which was published between the two Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, was a public platform that allowed geographically dispersed communities of Muslims in Russia to lead open discussions of various urgent social issues. The “Shura” journal became one such platform that responded to challenges coming from large‑ scale social changes in Russia and in other key regions of the Islamic world (Al‑Nahda in Egypt, the decline and collapse of the Ottoman Empire).

Evangelical Christians and Baptists of Russia in the Revolutionary Process of 1917–1922: Transformation of Identity (Based on Materials of the Confessional Press)

The article deals with the process of political self‑determination of the leaders and believers of Russian evangelical denominations — evangelical Christians and Baptists, during the years of the Revolution and the Civil War in Russia (1917–1922), as reflected in the confessional periodicals. The author studies this question through changes in the views of denominational leaders.

New Israel and Red October: A Movement of Russian Religious Dissent at the Turn of Epochs

The article is devoted to the analysis of the circumstances under which the New Israel group of Russian Spiritual Christians repatriated from Uruguay to Soviet Russia in the 1920s. New Israelites were the largest of all overseas “sectarian” groups that responded to the Soviet authorities’ call to return to the country and take part in creating collective agricultural enterprises. The co‑operative enterprise established by that religious community on the territory of the present day Rostov Region endured for a few years.

The Sangha in the Age of Degradation. Responses of the Russian Buddhists to the Russian Revolution and Civil War

The Buriat Buddhists who constituted the majority of the Buddhist population of the former Russian Empire did not stay away from the revolutionary events. The secular segment of the Buriat society viewed the collapse of the monarchy as the unfolding opportunity to get rid of the colonial legacy, including discrimination of their religion. However, already in 1918 the deviation of the positions of clerical and secular segments of the Buriat society became obvious.