Muslims of the Soviet East
The magazine was published quarterly from 1974 to 1990 by the "Muslim Religious Council for Central Asia and Kazakhstan".
This archive of the English edition offers researchers from various disciplines a unique insight into the lives of Soviet Muslims, despite the journal's obvious propagandistic orientation.
The database has a full-text search function. Individual articles can be downloaded in their original layout as PDF files.
The programme is available throughout Germany and at German institutes abroad via the system of national licences free of charge. Ask your library for the registration of this licence if access is not yet possible.
History
Founded in 1968 by the "Muslim Religious Council for Central Asia and Kazakhstan", Muslims of the Soviet East was the only Islamic magazine to bear the official seal of approval of the Soviet government. Originally published in Uzbek, the journal expanded its linguistic base in the following years to include Arabic (1969), French and English (1974), Farsi (1980) and Dari (1984). A Russian version appeared surprisingly late, in 1990, one year before the magazine was discontinued.
Like many foreign-language publications in the Soviet Union, the magazine was not aimed at its own citizens, but at readers abroad. Consequently, the original Uzbek edition was written exclusively in the traditional Arabic script, Yana Imla, a form of writing that was disappearing in Soviet Central Asia but was used in Uzbek communities in countries such as Afghanistan.
While the publication of the magazine in Arabic, Farsi and Dari was intended to familiarise readers in these countries with the lives of their co-religionists in the Soviet Union, the introduction of the magazine in "Western" languages served an additional propaganda purpose, namely to counter the prevailing idea in the West that the USSR was anti-religious through and through.
Muslims of the Soviet East contains a mixture of sermons by renowned Central Asian clerics calling for Islamic piety, discussions of regional Islamic history, and the role of Soviet Muslims in the cultural and political life of the USSR.(Source: East View Information Services)
Expenditure
The archive contains the most complete collection available for this journal in English. It comprises 57 issues, 860 articles and almost 2,000 pages. However, the following 9 issues are missing:
- 1974 № 2
- 1975 № 1
- 1978 № 1-4
- 1979 № 3
- 1980 № 1
- 1988 № 2