Soviet Intelligence Discourse about Caliphate Question in 1920s: Musa Bigiev, Eastern Department OGPU and Islamic political unity

Abstract

This article deals with the study of the views of the Soviet intelligence on the so-called short-lived “Caliphate movement”, which originates from the then British India. Even after its official abolition in 1924, this institution did not lose its symbolic appeal for Muslims across the world. As an idea it continued offering the Muslims a sense of the umma i.e. the global community of Muslims. The author offers the Soviet intelligence interpretation of the idea of the Caliphate movement in the context of the Soviet “eastern” foreign policy. The article describes this issue through the prism of interaction between the Eastern Department of the OGPU (USSR Secret service) and Musa Bigiyev, a prominent Russian Muslim leader of the 19th–20th cent. Based on hitherto unknown archival materials and the most recent Russian and foreign historical studies, the author offers a comparative analysis of the attitudes of various Soviet and Communist Party institutions to the Caliphate idea and the Caliphate movement in the context of anti-colonial, anti-European struggle. In conclusion article shows the discrepancy between the strategy and tactics of Soviet intelligence services as opposed to the views of European (in particular, British) intelligence services. As a result, these activities contributed to the restriction of independence of the Russian Muslim elite on one handside, strengthening the anti-Caliphate feelings and Islamophobic views among the Soviet management elite on the other.