Introduction

Abstract

The Second World War was a period of “religious revolution” in the Soviet Union. The Introduction describes how this book, focusing on Soviet Muslims, approaches pivotal developments related to this revolution: the way religion was mobilized as a new tool of state propaganda; the way religious repression receded, and then changed shape; and the way Soviet Muslim communities responded to the dawn of unprecedented religious freedoms, some of which were shepherded by the state and some of which were achieved thanks to its incompetence or indifference. The Introduction then addresses debates on the biggest questions of all: Why did the revolution in religious life take place? What role did “popular” religiosity and public religious devotion play? Why did the Soviet state, just a few years after slaughtering religious elites by the tens of thousands during the Great Terror of 1937–38, shift dramatically toward religious tolerance?