Abstract
Abstract Fazliddin Muhammadiev’s Dar on dunyo (“In the other world”), first published in Tajik in 1965 and later translated to Russian, Uzbek, and many other languages, is the only known fictionalized account of the ḥajj produced in the Soviet Union. Based on a trip made by the author in 1963, the novel provided the Soviet reader a rare glimpse into this sacred rite. Drawing on archival sources, contemporary responses, and the text itself, this article traces the origins and publication history of the novel, situates it within Soviet domestic and foreign policy goals, and analyzes the text to see how the author tried to reconcile competing ideological priorities.
Highlights
Via free access bobrovnikov and kalinovsky “Traveling on an il-18, we are going on the ḥajj.”[1]
Muhammadiev was not there as a pious Muslim; rather, he was a member of the Communist Party, a journalist and talented writer entrusted with carrying out a delicate task: representing the Soviet Union, demonstrating its respect for religious tradition, and at the same time showing that these religious traditions were receding into the past
While there is still disagreement about the way Soviet rule affected religious authority, most scholars today recognize that religious practice could be a site of resistance to Soviet rule in an everyday sense, there was no religiously rooted political resistance to Soviet rule in any significant sense until the end of the Soviet period.[6]
Summary
The Soviet Union was not the first non-Muslim state to use the ḥajj for political ends. On the importance of restored Muslim monuments in Central Asia for Soviet foreign policy see A.M. Kalinovsky, Laboratory of Socialist Development: Cold War Politics and Decolonization in Soviet Tajikistan (New York: Cornell University Press, 2018), 26–27; Sh. Shikhaliev, “Islamskaia pressa v rannem sovetskom Dagestane i zhurnal ‘Musul’mane Sovetskogo Vostoka’”, Islamology 7:2 (2017), 84–86. Perhaps most importantly, these accounts connected Soviet citizens – most of whom had no hope of seeing the world outside the socialist bloc – with the wider world, and provided them with an awareness of world affairs and the ussr’s role on the right side of history in the confrontation with the United States In other words, such publications helped the ussr achieve its goal of creating conscious citizens, ones who were aware of political development and their own place in history, without taking the risk of truly opening borders and possibilities for travel. If travel accounts in other contexts sometimes offered an opportunity for the writer to suggest ways to improve things at home, the Soviet travel accounts never allowed the possibility that life elsewhere was better, or that Soviet people had something to learn abroad
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
