From atheism to anti-colonialism: Fitrat’s writings from the 1910s to the 1930ies

Abstract

In the beginning of the twentieth century Russian Empire in Turkistan strengthened propaganda against religion to separate people from their roots of religious faith, encouraging the imitation of European culture. In 1925 through the 1940s a number of organizations, newspapers and journals that focused on atheism such as Khudosizlar(“khudasizlar”-atheists) were founded and propaganda of atheism was spread among writers, and authors of “the best atheistic works” were appointed to high governmental positions and received state awards. Abdurauf Fitrat (1886-1938) is also wrote works touching on faith such as “Unfair Ishan”, “Faith of Zakhro”, “Judgement Day”, “Revolt of Satan Against God”. From the title and presumable content of these works, critics of soviet literature assessed his works as pieces written under the spirit of the struggle against religious prejudice and accepted him as a person “loyal to the Soviet position”, who had “changed his faith.” Such early interpretations paved the way for Fitrat to be canonized (before his repression) as a genuine atheist. Yet during the 1920s and 1930s in order to avoid repression and Soviet censorship Abdurauf Fitrat successfully used his religious knowledge forstruggle against Soviet colonialism. This study analyzes the process that Fitrat was canonized as masters of atheistic aesthetics by strategically using ambiguity and antimony as weapons and trying to prove how he succeeded in spreading his truth through his so-called “atheistic works.”.