Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European Part of the USSR and Siberia in The System of International Contacts of the USSR during the Cold War (1944—1955)

The Spiritual Administrations of Muslims of the USSR were official organizations accountable to the Council for Religious Affairs, which concerned with regulation the life of religious communities in the allocated territory. Their competence included functions of a theological nature, statistical treatment, observation of cult objects and believers. Under the pressure of post-war circumstances, the beginning of the Cold War, religious organizations were engaged in the propaganda foreign policy tasks of the USSR. In permitted international contacts, they created a positive image of the country and demonstrated freedom of religion. The article examines the participation of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European part of the USSR and Siberia in the spread of the Soviet ideological project abroad. Territorially, the spiritual administration was located in Ufa, the materials of the National Archives of the Republic of Bashkortostan offer an insight into such forms of interaction with the foreign world as: staff meetings of the spiritual administration with representatives of foreign states, visits of Islamic spiritual leaders to Muslim countries, their publication in foreign editions, participation in international conferences, the presence of believers of the USSR in Saudi Arabia during the Hajj. In the 1950s DUMES has been converted regularly subjected to demonstrations to foreign guests of Bashkiria and all kinds of delegations as a symbol of freedom of conscience in the USSR. The Muslim clergy had promoted of the Soviet lifestyle and the country’s achievements in a deep crisis of religious life in the USSR

Administration (probate law · Conscience · Cult · Foreign policy · Ideology · Islam · Political science · Politics · Sociology · World War II · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Historical and Architectural Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Law