Muslim Educational Institutions in Kazakhstan under the Anti-Religious Policy of the Soviet State in the 1920s

Abstract

The given article presents the results of studying the system of Muslim education in Kazakhstan in the context of the anti-religious policy of the Soviet state and the struggle against ethno-confessional educational institutions in 1920s. The authors explore the features of state policy in the field of Muslim education, its impact on the quantitative growth of Muslim schools in the first half of the 1920s and their almost complete elimination by the end of the decade applying the methods of discursive analysis of previously unused archival sources and regulatory documents. The article considers the main methods of counteraction of the Soviet party and state bodies to the creation and expansion of the network of Muslim educational institutions, the teaching of the Muslim faith in Soviet schools. Based on the results of the study, it was possible to establish that the loyal policy of the Soviet state in relation to Islamic education in 1917–1926 was due to the political tasks of strengthening the power of the Bolsheviks in the region. Its consequence was the growth of the Muslim movement in the republic, and the network of ethno-confessional educational institutions that had been formed before October 1917 not only grew in number, but also successfully competed with Soviet schools both in material and organizational terms. With the strengthening of the power of the Soviets and with the beginning of the formation of a totalitarian system in the country in the late 1920s, the struggle of the Soviet state with Islamic religious institutions acquired a tough and uncompromising character. Mass liquidation of Muslim religious worship objects began in the republic, mektebs and madrasahs were closed. Such a policy caused the natural resistance of Muslims, suppressed by the authorities with administrative and repressive measures.