“Licensed” and “underground” religious revival in postwar northern Soviet Kazakhstan

DOI:
https://dx.doi.org/10.7160/KS.2024.230207

Author: Jerzy Rohoziński
Affiliation: The Center for Totalitarian Studies, The Pilecki Institute, Foksal Street 17, 00-372 Warsaw, Poland
Email: j.rohozinski@instytutpileckiego.pl

Language: English
Issue: 2/2024 (23)
Pages: 152-188 (37 pages)
Keywords: Religious revival, Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, Postwar period, Licensed religion, Underground religion, Ethnic communities

Abstract

The patriotic fervour surrounding the „Great Patriotic War,“ amplified by Soviet propaganda, led to concessions for some religious groups, though still constrained by Soviet anti-religious legislation, while others were excluded entirely. This paper argues that ethno-religious groups that aligned with the Soviet narrative, which mythologised the war effort, were able to engage in limited religious activities. In contrast, communities excluded from this narrative were compelled to maintain their religious traditions clandestinely for a prolonged period. These excluded groups were also deprived of any centralised religious organisations or church structures. Consequently, unlike in Central and Eastern Europe, the struggle for religious freedoms in this context did not follow the typical church vs. state model, but rather a citizens vs. state dynamic. This phenomenon is particularly evident in northern Kazakhstan, where the deportation of various nationalities resulted in the coexistence of ethno-religious groups with vastly different statuses.

Dr. Jerzy Rohoziński

Dr. Jerzy Rohoziński (born 1971) is a distinguished historian and cultural anthropologist, currently a lecturer at the Centre for Totalitarian Studies at the Pilecki Institute. His academic focus spans the social and religious history of Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. Dr. Rohoziński has authored several notable works in Polish, including Saints, Flagellants and Red Khans: Developments in the Sphere of Muslim Religiosity in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan (2005), Cotton, Samovars and Sarts: The Muslim Peripheries of Tsarist Russia, 1795-1916 (2014), and The Most Beautiful Jewel in the Tsar’s Crown: Georgia under Russian Rule, 1801-1917 (2018). His latest book, Pioneers in the Steppe? Kazakhstani Poles as an Element of the Soviet „Modernization“ Project (2021), further cements his expertise in Soviet history. Dr. Rohoziński’s contributions are critical to understanding the complex interplay of religion, ethnicity, and power in the Russian and Soviet eras.

Celý příspěvek / Full Text Paper:

PDF

---

Introduction: Religion’s resilience in the Soviet Union

The 1937 census, the only one in Soviet history to include a question about the respondent’s religion, provided Stalin and his inner circle with unwelcome results: it revealed that religion would not disappear as quickly as they had anticipated. The census marked the collapse of the simplistic anti-religious propaganda—though not of the accompanying repression—disseminated largely by the League of Militant Atheists, led by Yemelyan Yaroslavsky. There would be no further ‚atheist five-year plan‘. In an address to the activists of his organisation in April 1939, Yaroslavsky delivered what amounted to a last will and testament, highlighting new, underground forms of religiosity that were far more difficult to control.

Enemies of socialism work through religious organisations. And where there are no religious organisations, where there is no Orthodox church, another kind of church, synagogue or mosque, frequently an ‘itinerant Orthodox priest’, a ‘traveller Orthodox priest’, moving from one place to another appears, or runaway monks, religious sect leaders knocked off the pedestal, former church elders and suchlike people from the past work their magic.[1]

The organisation was quietly dissolved in the summer of 1941, coinciding with Nazi Germany’s attack on the USSR. While anti-religious propaganda was somewhat muted during the war, it became increasingly subtle, offering an alternative in the form of an expanded number of state holidays and various quasi-religious cults centred on Soviet statehood. Although religious holidays were not directly targeted, efforts were made to restrict their observance, such as shortening the week to six days or replacing significant dates in the liturgical calendar with Soviet holidays.[2]

In any case, the outbreak of the „Great Patriotic War“ brought a small degree of freedom for the faithful of some religions, but not for others.

The religious landscape of northern Kazakhstan

To date, research on the religious revival in the Soviet Union following World War II has primarily concentrated on Nazi-occupied territories or central Russia, with a particular emphasis on Orthodoxy and the policies of Stalin and the Soviet leadership towards the Orthodox Church and its hierarchs.[3] The few studies devoted to other Christian denominations have framed their analyses within the context of the Cold War.[4] Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to the remote region of Kazakhstan, where, as a result of Soviet forced resettlement policies, a veritable religious mosaic emerged, representing the diversity of the entire Soviet Union in microcosm. In this context, it is also valuable to trace the process of religious revival at a grassroots level. It is worth noting that the roots of the retreat from the aggressive anti-religious policies of the Soviet Union extend back to the pre-war period.

The anti-religious campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s in Kazakhstan remain poorly researched. What do the records show? Between 1918 and 1931, 1,630 places of worship in Kazakhstan were closed, including 782 mosques—just under half. By 1933, 499 mosques remained in the republic, although the process of closure had not yet been completed. In Petropavlovsk, for instance, three Tatar mosques were still operational in early 1937, while five had been closed between 1930 and 1935, with three being converted into clubs. Semipalatinsk continued to be an important Islamic centre in the Kazakh steppe, having historically served as a hub for Muslim scholarship and Sufi mysticism, resistant to the reformist movements that swept the intellectual life of Russian Muslims in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1917, the city housed 12 mosques. During the first half of the 1920s, as part of the Bolsheviks’ tactical concessions to Islam, this tendency persisted and even intensified. As of 1 January 1924, of the 19 madrasas (religious schools) in Kazakhstan, 8 were located in Semipalatinsk Province. However, by the following year, only 13 remained[5].

Undoubtedly, the assault on religious institutions in the 1930s caused significant disruption in northern Kazakhstan. In 1917, the Spiritual Muslim Association in Orenburg was restructured into the Central Spirituál Administration of the Muslims of Inner Russia and Siberia, based in Ufa (TsDUM). Under the statute approved by the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR in November 1923, its geographical jurisdiction was extended to include the Kazakhs, including those from the southern regions along the Syr Darya and Semirechye[6]. As can be inferred from the correspondence between the OGPU and the Kazkraykom in 1925, this situation soon began to raise concerns. The potential influence of Tatar mullahs on the Kazakh people was criticised, much as it had been before the revolution, particularly since the Bashkir Rizaetdin Fakhretdinov had been appointed as the mufti of the Administration—a group culturally very close to the Volga Tatars. The institution itself was disparaged as „the centre of the most counter-revolutionary clergy in Russia.“ The recommendations were as follows:

it is necessary to take the most energetic and deeply considered measures against the penetration and strengthening of the influences of the Tatar clergy in the Kazakh ASSR, with the necessary reservation that the initiative to reject the grievances of the Central Spiritual Administration should come from the people themselves[7].

Fakhretdinov’s death in 1936 signalled the start of repression against the Administration as a whole, which was severely decimated in what became known as the „TsDUM case.“ A new mufti was never elected, and Gabdrakhman Rasuliyev, from a prominent Bashkir family of Muslim scholars and mystics, assumed the role of acting mufti. In the years leading up to 1940, show trials continued against various alleged „espionage,“ „sabotage,“ „counter-revolutionary,“ and „pan-Islamist“ organisations within the Muslim clergy of Central Asia, particularly centred in Kazakhstan, accused of preparing „an armed uprising of the Kazakh people.“[8]

Undoubtedly, irreparable damage was inflicted on local Islam. The traditional legal and financial frameworks, such as religious endowments (waqfs), which had sustained the functioning of Muslim education (madrasas and maktabas) and various forms of worship (sacred sites like mazars), were dismantled. The continuity of written tradition was disrupted by the alphabet changes—from Arabic to Latin, and later to Cyrillic script. Finally, many educated members of the elite were physically eliminated.[9] This disruption contributed to the increased penetration of more or less ecstatic Sufi rituals into broader social circles within the sphere of Muslim observances. Soviet ethnography classified this process as ‚the survival of relics of shamanism.‘[10] At the same time, the closer integration of men into the Soviet public sphere led to women—referred to as atyn/otyn, or ‘female mullahs’—assuming a greater role in the transmission of religious knowledge, teaching young Muslims prayers in Arabic.[11]

What was the situation of Orthodox Christianity, Kazakhstan’s second-largest religion in terms of the number of adherents? In this case, the anti-religious campaign began earlier, shortly after Soviet rule had been consolidated in these territories. During the 1920s, in the phase of ideological ‚persuasion‘, propaganda events were organised to ‚promote‘ the Bolshevik Decree on the separation of the Orthodox Church from the state and the school, issued on 23 January 1918. For example, ‚women’s conferences‘ were held, involving ‚housewives, peasant women, and workers’ wives‘. However, more forceful measures were soon implemented. In February 1924, for instance, the presidium of the Kostanay provincial executive committee (gubispolkom) received a report from the secretary of an RCP(B) cell in the village of Yeriskovskiy regarding the takeover of the local Orthodox church:

under the decision of the general meeting of the residents of the village of Yeriskovskiy the Orthodox church in that settlement was liquidated, and the building with all the liturgical implements was handed over for equipment of the school and the village club.. the silver and liturgical objects were placed in the charge of the gubispolkom, where they have remained until now. As upon closing the church the residents expected all the church property, including the silver, to be allocated for the equipment of the school and the club, and it was in that spirit that the decision was made, I hereby request the gubispolkom to consider the demand for the committee to receive the silver objects against a charge, so that the people may use the resulting money to finish the initiated  investment[12].

The final words are quite telling, as they essentially testify to the theft of Orthodox Church property by local party activists and administrators, who used the residents to legitimise the act under the guise of ‚utilising it for useful purposes.‘ Successively, larger shrines in more prominent centres were also closed and plundered. This fate befell the Orthodox churches in Semipalatinsk: the St. Aleksander Nevsky Church was repurposed as an officers‘ club in 1929; the St. Nicholas Church, where a Religion and Atheism Museum was established in February 1935; the Annunciation Church, converted into a Turksib workers‘ club; and the small wooden Our Lady of the Sign Orthodox Church, which was closed in January 1930. Similarly, in Ust-Kamenogorsk, the Vasily Blazhennyi Cathedral was turned into a grain store, the Holy Trinity Church and the two sacred buildings of the Living Church (the so-called Obnovlentsy, a reform movement within the Orthodox Church supported by the Bolsheviks) were also closed, as was the Assumption of Our Lady Church, the only Orthodox church in Ridder, which ceased operations in 1937.

In Kokchetav, the local dvadtsatka (the official representatives of the Orthodox community) received an offer they could not refuse from the authorities in 1938: to renovate the Mikhail the Archangel Orthodox Church at their own expense within two months. When the funds could not be raised, the building and all its property were taken over by the municipal council, which transformed it into a public club. In 1938, the Sts. Constantine and Helena Cathedral in Akmolinsk was also closed. The years 1937 and 1938 marked a turning point across the region. In Petropavlovsk, five Orthodox churches and one prayer house were still operational in early 1937, as well as two small village churches in the surrounding area. Between 1930 and 1935, one church was closed, and another was demolished. In Kostanay, 1937 saw the demolition of the St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker Cathedral, built with funds raised by the faithful and consecrated in 1898, as well as the destruction of a nearby nunnery.[13]

Although the history of Catholicism in the Kazakh steppe dates back to the post-revolutionary period, the Church structures in the region were only weakly developed before 1917. The Bolshevik takeover led to the complete disappearance of ecclesiastical structures, which had already been poorly established. By late 1922 and early 1923, only 15 parish and 25 filial churches were functioning across the entire Asian part of the vast Mohylev archdiocese. At that time, the largest Catholic communities were in Semipalatinsk, with around 500 believers; Oziornoye and Kustanay, with a combined total of 6,000; and Petropavlovsk, with approximately 5,000. These communities were served by just two priests, one residing in Omsk and the other in Ishim. The rest of the faithful, scattered over vast distances, were entirely deprived of pastoral care and lacked churches. For instance, records show that in 1923 there was not a single church or prayer house in Kustanay District. The church in Petropavlovsk is last mentioned in Soviet administrative records in 1925, when it appears on a list of insured buildings used for religious purposes, with the community of the faithful registered there in 1924. In the second half of the 1920s, the church building was repurposed as a warehouse, and by the 1930s, it had been reconstructed to serve as housing for regional party committee secretaries and guest rooms for visiting party officials.[14]

When the Catholics (Poles and Germans) deported from the border regions of the Ukrainian SSR arrived in these territories in 1936, it did not lead to any revival of ecclesiastical structures. While there were 332 Catholic parishes in Soviet Ukraine in 1925, and 292 by 1 January 1928, in Kazakhstan only informal communities of former parishioners remained, with no trace of organised parish structures. The Bolsheviks actively suppressed the Catholic faith, hoping it would eventually disappear following the deportations.

As a result, both Christian churches and mosques began to vanish from Kazakhstan’s cultural landscape around the same time. In both cases, little is known about any resistance from the population, though it can be assumed that any opposition was sporadic and not particularly violent, given the devastation caused by collectivisation, deportations, and famine.[15]

Religious leaders in the face of the „Great Patriotic War“

During this period, religious leaders, expressing their patriotism and loyalty to the Soviet homeland, initiated a new phase of religious revival in the USSR. As early as 22 June 1941, Patriarch Sergius of Moscow called on the Orthodox clergy „not to entertain thoughts of possible benefits from the other side of the frontline.“ While he invoked the citizens‘ love for their country, his rhetoric focused on the concepts of „homeland“ and „nation,“ with little direct reference to the Soviet authorities.

By 1942, these expressions of devotion began to bear fruit: the Orthodox Church was permitted to open a bank account to raise donations for the Red Army (it had lacked legal personality since 1918) and to organise Easter processions. Some Orthodox churches were also reopened. A pivotal moment came on 4 September 1943, when Stalin met with three Orthodox patriarchs, marking a new chapter in relations between the state and the Orthodox Church. While open persecution ceased, the concessions from the authorities remained limited. Of the 4,292 applications for the reopening of Orthodox churches filed in 1944–1945, only 716 were approved, primarily in territories liberated from German occupation. Furthermore, in 1944, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the ACP(B) issued a decision on „propagating the scientific worldview,“ designed to curtail „religious propaganda.“[16]

In the Kremlin’s plans, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was envisioned as an ‚Eastern Vatican‘, tasked with executing the Soviet authorities‘ directives in foreign policy and public diplomacy on the international stage. Additionally, it was intended to work towards dismantling Greek Catholic structures in Ukraine. By January 1946, 10 out of the 13 Orthodox bishops in the Ukrainian SSR were KGB agents.[17] In the post-war years, the Moscow Patriarchate met these expectations. This period also marked the end of the Living Orthodox Church project (the so-called Obnovlentsy), a breakaway group loyal to the authorities, led by Patriarch Aleksandr Vvedensky, who had similarly declared his patriotism in response to Nazi Germany’s attack on the USSR.[18]

This alliance between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet authorities soon led to tangible signs of an Orthodox religious revival in Kazakhstan. In April 1944, the Resurrection Orthodox Church in Semipalatinsk was reopened, housing the Icon of Our Lady of the Sign of Abalak, which had previously belonged to the Obnovlentsy. That same year, a prayer house for a group of Orthodox believers was registered in Pavlodar. Institutionally, the number of Orthodox eparchies in Kazakhstan increased to three: the Alma-Ata, Semipalatinsk-Pavlodar, and Petropavlovsk-Kustanay eparchies (the latter founded in 1957).

However, on a personal level, Kazakhstan and Central Asia continued to function, to some extent, as places of exile. Archbishop Nicholas (Mogilevski), who had been imprisoned and held in labour camps for an extended period, was exiled to the Aktobe Region in Kazakhstan in 1941 and later appointed Archbishop of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan. A similar case was that of Archbishop Guriy (Yegorov) of Tashkent and Central Asia, who had been exiled to the Solovetsky Islands, and later to Tashkent and Samarkand, where he founded underground monastic communities.[19]

For Islam in the USSR, Germany’s attack on 22 June 1941 also marked a turning point. However, this shift in approach was not immediate. About a month after the Nazi invasion, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR, Nikolay Skvortsov, warned local party organisations about the „anti-Soviet activities“ of the „Muslim clergy.“ In September 1942, he further expressed concerns about the influence of „pro-fascist mullahs“ among collective farmers. Yet, in the same directive, Skvortsov instructed local party cells to disseminate the „patriotic declarations“ of the „Muslim clergy.“[20] Most importantly, Stalin and the Soviet leadership in Moscow began to gradually view Islam, like Orthodox Christianity, as a potential instrument for patriotic mobilisation. Several Muslim clerics were released from prisons and labour camps, and some recognised that this was the moment to demonstrate their loyalty to the Soviet state—something Stalin clearly expected of them. The Bashkir mufti of Ufa, Gabdrahman Rasulaev, became the chief propagandist. He called on the faithful to pray in mosques for the Red Army’s victory and warned that Hitler sought to „annihilate the religion of Islam,“ drawing parallels between the Nazis and the Crusaders in his keynote address, which was produced under the watchful eye of Deputy NKVD Commissar Bogdan Kobulov. Rasulaev was supported by the Soviet press, which wrote extensively about German atrocities against Muslims in Crimea. To demonstrate his patriotic commitment, Rasulaev personally donated a significant sum of 50,000 rubles towards the construction of a new tank column. Islam was also reactivated institutionally, with the re-establishment of territorially divided Spiritual Administrations of Muslims—bureaucratic bodies originally modelled on the Most Holy Governing Synod of the Orthodox Church during the tsarist era, which had been abolished by the Bolsheviks.[21]

The Uzbek mufti Ishan Babakhan, like Rasulaev, came from a distinguished family of Sufi sheikhs from the Naqshbandiyya brotherhood, which staffed the structures of the institution. He was appointed head of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan (SADUM). Incidentally, the organisation remained dominated by Uzbeks, and Uzbek was used as its working language. The Kazakhs were granted their own republican qaziyat (Muslim court), but it lacked even a bank account and was entirely financially dependent on the central administration in Tashkent, with the institution’s budget coming primarily from the voluntary donations of the faithful. Abd al-Gaffar Shamsutdinov, a Tatar born in Ust-Kamenogorsk, was appointed as its head.

At the founding assembly (kurultai) of the Spiritual Administration on 20 October 1943, Babakhan called on all Muslims in Central Asia to „join the other nations of the Soviet Union in waging a great war against the Nazi murderers.“ He also stated that „the Soviet Union had from the very beginning become the homeland of its nations“ and quoted a hadith in which the Prophet is reported to have said that „loving one’s homeland is part of faith.“ Babakhan further emphasised that the war against the Nazis was a holy war of Islam (jihad, ghazawat), and that „every Muslim who sacrifices himself for God in the cause of religion is a martyr (shahid), and every Muslim who kills the damned and treacherous enemy is a warrior for the faith (mujahid, ghazi).“

This rhetoric may have been, to some extent, a response to Nazi propaganda targeting Soviet Muslims, which was disseminated through the Gazawat newspaper, published in Russian and Caucasian languages. Babakhan also addressed the issue of „patriotism on the home front,“ urging Muslims to contribute diligently in sovkhozes, kolkhozes, and factories in support of the army. He asked Muslims to say a prayer (namaz) each day for „victory from God“ for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in „our Red Army, which tirelessly liberates villages and cities.“ Interestingly, in portraying the threat posed by the Nazis to Soviet Islam, Babakhan warned the faithful of the potential desecration and profanation of sacred sites and graves (mazar). In contrast, during Khrushchev’s later anti-religious campaign, he issued a fatwa declaring that pilgrimage to such sites was inconsistent with the teachings of „true“ Islam.[22]

We do not know the actual reach or impact of Babakhan’s appeal (although it may have influenced the naming of children with male names ending in -gazi), but it is clear that by 1943, military boards in Central Asia abandoned their previous distrust of Muslim conscripts and began sending them to the frontline en masse. In terms of absolute numbers of those who fell on the frontline, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, among the Soviet republics, and their residents earned the right to share in the heroism associated with the Great Patriotic War. Notably, from that time onward, military service became the primary means of socialising Muslims in the USSR and integrating them into the Soviet system.[23] However, it is important to note that Soviet propaganda within the Red Army during the war avoided invoking the rhetoric of Muslim jihad to boost soldiers‘ morale. Instead, the emphasis was placed on the „brotherhood of the nations of the USSR,“ and it was in this spirit that the heroic acts of soldiers from Central Asia were celebrated and publicised.[24]

Patriotism of the „Great Patriotic War“ and the Islamic Revival in Northern Kazakhstan

In one way or another, grassroots expressions of religiosity under the banner of Soviet patriotism were largely preceded by activities initiated by official state structures responsible for religious affairs—structures that were not initially well-prepared for such tasks. As early as September 1944, Ivan Polansky, head of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults, felt compelled to instruct Nurtas Undasynov, chairman of the Council of the People’s Commissars of the Kazakh SSR, that it was unacceptable for some regional executive committees to approve the opening of prayer houses for followers of religions other than Orthodox Christianity, based on recommendations from field agents of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church.[25]

The field agents often had limited knowledge of their territories. For example, in his 1945 report, a representative of the Council for West Kazakhstan Region could provide no information on the religious practices of the Baptists and Molokans and admitted ignorance about the religious composition of the population in the rayispolkoms. He even requested some sort of ‚textbook‘ for guidance. On the other hand, his observations on the religious revival among Muslims are of significant importance. In kolkhozes and factories, workers elected elderly men from among themselves to serve as mullahs, though, according to him, they lacked formal religious education and certification from the Administration (they were ‚non-registered‘).

Similarly, the agent for Pavlodar Region, in his report for the same period, was not well-versed in the ‚social composition of the faithful.‘ Nonetheless, he noted that a mosque in Pavlodar, officially entered into the cult building register in 1945, was functioning with an attached registered community. However, in the kolkhozes, prayers were also being led by self-appointed mullahs with only basic religious knowledge (in 1949, the imam of the urban mosque was reportedly selling photographs of Muhammad and Ali!). Despite these unofficial activities, no one referred to a ‚religious underground‘. Why? Because, as the report states, ‚during the war, the faithful Muslims in the region actively promoted the patriotic spirit, donating 60,000 roubles to the Red Army’s armoured forces, and they continue to provide material assistance to war invalids who defended their homeland.‘

Collective prayers were held even before the official handover of the mosque to the faithful, during which the self-appointed mullahs raised 150,000 roubles for the Red Army, for which they received thanks from Comrade Stalin himself. These mullahs also travelled across the region, collecting funds as part of an official delegation from the oblispolkom. This religious revival extended to other denominations in the region, though their success in legalising their religious structures did not match that of the Muslims. For instance, Evangelical Christians, specifically the Baptists of the village of Krasilovka, applied for permission to build a church, but their application was rejected with the remark that they needed to first register their community (which, in turn, was deemed ‚incompatible with the instruction‘).

Reports of ‚religious and patriotic activities‘ by Muslim communities emerged from other regions as well. In North Kazakhstan Region, a newly opened mosque was functioning in Petropavlovsk in 1945, and the local Muslim community engaged in ‚religious and patriotic activities‘ both during and after the war. Additionally, non-registered mullahs and communities remained active, though they were reluctant to register due to fears of taxation. According to an instruction from the Council, the nomadic traditions of the Kazakhs, who historically managed without permanent mosques, came to the fore in this region, though the rule of ‚one mullah per mosque‘ was still expected to be followed.[26] Muslim communities also became more active under the influence or with the participation of clergy who had previously been subjected to repression, particularly those from regions known for their strong religious traditions. For instance, in early 1949, the faithful of Kokchetav invited an Uzbek mullah from Shchutsinsk, originally from the Fergana Valley and a graduate of the renowned Mir-Arab madrasa in Bukhara. This mullah had been exiled to the region for five years in 1941.[27]

In the case of the ‘punished peoples’, the situation looked differently. As the agent for Kokchetav Region wrote in his report for the fourth quarter of 1946, ‘the faithful from among the Chechens and the Ingush do not join the local people, Kazakhs and Tatars, in performing various religious rites’.[28] The report from North Kazakhstan Region for the first quarter of 1948 concluded that the Chechens and Ingush had taken ‚an expectant position‘ and ‚did not demonstrate a willingness to formalise the status‘ of their communities. They were scandalised by the practice of elderly Kazakh and Tatar women visiting the Petropavlovsk mosque, something unthinkable in their own culture. Over the years, this mutual isolation deepened, and mixed marriages did not occur.[29]

In northern Kazakhstan, the religious revival was closely intertwined with the „patriotism of the Great Patriotic War“, but it is difficult to discern the extent to which this process was spontaneous or a manifestation of opportunism. Certainly, individuals with a keen understanding of the situation and the shifting realities, such as Khasan Shamsutdinov, the mullah of the Petropavlovsk mosque, played a significant role in this process. It is unclear what his exact nationality was; the official account states that his father was from the Kazakh poor, although he reportedly left behind a hundred cattle when he died. Shamsutdinov is said to have been a mullah at that time and reportedly pursued religious studies in Bukhara, but he was also claimed to have completed a course for Marxism-Leninism instructors. Between 1934 and 1938, he served as a member of the city council, was part of the local electoral commission for the 1936 USSR Supreme Council elections, and became its deputy chairman in 1938. According to reports, on 6 March 1953, the day after Stalin’s death, he ‚tearfully addressed the faithful gathered in the mosque… with an emotional speech about the painful loss suffered by all Soviet people and workers worldwide.‘

Setting aside the question of specific individuals, it is clear that lending religious sanction to the Soviet war effort had significant social and religious implications. Prayers for fallen soldiers or raising donations for orphans and war invalids became both expressions of loyalty to the Soviet homeland and religious rites or acts of charity. This dynamic also worked in reverse, as the charisma of a frontovnik (frontline veteran) earned a combatant, twice wounded in the Great Patriotic War, an appointment in 1949 as the imam of the mosque in Semipalatinsk—the only one that had functioned continuously since the tsarist era.[30]

It is important to note that, despite the revival of religious life, the achievements in terms of legally functioning religious buildings during this period were not particularly impressive. As of 1 January 1957, there were only 25 registered mosques in the Kazakh SSR, averaging two per district. In the northern regions of the republic, there was typically one mosque in the regional capital, as was the case in Akmolinsk, West Kazakhstan, Kokchetav, Pavlodar, and North Kazakhstan Regions. Aktiubinsk and Karaganda Regions each had two mosques, while Semipalatinsk Region had three.[31] However, there was one area where the ‚achievements‘ of the post-war religious revival were significantly greater: cemeteries. The Council’s agent for Tselinograd (formerly Akmolinsk) Region described the situation in his jurisdiction in July 1972 as follows:

Until recently, many cemeteries in Tselinograd Region remained in the hands of religious organisations and the clergy. They kept the cemeteries in good condition and watched over the order of burials. Cemeteries were organised according to religious rules: Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, etc. Later, secular cemeteries were founded. And except for those secular cemeteries, clerics forbade to bury the dead in a secular, non-religious ceremony … Religious symbols: crosses and crescents, were placed on cemetery gates. And the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR adopted decisions on cemeteries twice, in 1965 and in 1967 … Meanwhile, non-registered members of the Muslim clergy … continued their activities in some localities … The local councils are not very effective in restricting their illegal activities … In 1971, more than half … of the funerals in the region were held according to religious rites. There are both communists and Komsomol members among those interned according to the dictates of Islam. Funerals Soviet in their form, but religious in their contents, also occur.[32]

„Underground“ Islam

The flip side of these concessions to „official Islam“ was the brutal deportation of Muslim peoples from the Caucasus to Kazakhstan and other Central Asian republics. These included Karachays, Balkars, Chechens, Ingush, Meskhetian Turks, Adjarians, Hemshins, and Crimean Tatars, who were deported on charges of alleged collaboration with the Germans. This, to some extent, was a response to Nazi propaganda that promoted the idea of „liberating Islam“ in the northern Caucasus.[33] Shortly after the deportations, the NKVD leadership instructed its branches in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan to register all Caucasian mullahs and Sufi religious leaders in special records. Those deemed loyal were encouraged to cooperate with official SADUM structures in promoting the patriotic ideology of „selfless labour“ and „submission to the authorities.“ It was also recommended that they be assigned lighter work and appointed as brigade leaders to attract their co-religionists to work alongside them. Official NKVD reports mentioned 170 „patriotically inclined“ mullahs and other religious figures who, by citing Quranic verses, „positively influenced the political attitudes“ of the deportees. If such cases occurred, they likely involved persuading Caucasian Muslim special settlers to adopt less extreme or uncompromising positions in an effort to reduce mortality rates and alleviate the despair caused by their inability to return to their homeland.[34]

As a result of the deportations, Islam in northern Kazakhstan took on a new, more defiant character, influenced by the distinct forms of Sufi religiosity practiced by the Chechens and Ingush deported in 1944. Initially, two brotherhoods (tariqas)—the Naqshbandiyya and the Qadiriyya (particularly following the teachings of the 19th-century Sheikh Kunta Haji Kishiyev)—dominated the religious landscape of the highlanders resettled from the Caucasus. These brotherhoods played an active role in funerals, organised collective Quranic study sessions, sought to attract new followers, and celebrated the zikr (dhikr), a mystical practice involving the chanting of God’s names accompanied by a whirling dance.[35] Although these activities were primarily confined to the Chechens and Ingush, they did permeate, to some extent, into the public sphere. For example, Poles I interviewed were struck by the fact that when travelling by car or bus with a Chechen or Ingush, their fellow traveller would check the time and stop the vehicle at certain moments to pray.[36] Atbasar, Krasnaya Polana, Timofeyevka, Bestiube, Novo-Georgiyevka, and Preobrazhenka became major religious centres of Caucasian Sufism. In exile, two new religious leaders emerged among the deportees: Sheikh Bagautdin Denis Arsanov and Uveys Vis Haji Dzhagiyev. New religious movements, colloquially known as the Arsanovtsy and the Beloshapochniki (White Hat People), began to form around them. Unlike the traditional tariqas, these movements directed the faithful’s focus not on returning to their Caucasian homeland, but rather on staying, adapting, and preserving traditional values, while avoiding confrontation with Soviet authorities. In 1956–1957, most Chechens and Ingush returned to the Caucasus, but some remained, specifically for religious reasons. After Dzhagiyev’s death, his grave in Krasnaya Polana gained the status of a sacred site and became a pilgrimage destination for Kazakh Chechens and Ingush.[37]

In addition to being illegal (non-registered), these forms of worship were also deemed ‚inconsistent with sharia‘ according to the fatwas issued by the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.[38] In 1977, following instructions from the Council for Religious Affairs, a Dagestani qadi from Makhachkala, Akhmad Dakayev, conducted an inspection of the religious practices in the village of Pyotrokovka, Tselinograd Region (Balkhash District), together with the imam of the Alma-Ata mosque. In his report, he concluded as follows:

The Chechen followers of the sect of the late Sheikh Vishaji, known as the Beloshapochniki by the locals, violate both Soviet law and sharia: (1) they forbid young people from attending school, (2) they marry off minor girls without their consent, often to elderly men, (3) they practice polygyny (even though this is against sharia), and (4) they involve women and children in the celebration of zikr, during which they beat drums, play music, and the women and children fall into a state of ecstasy.[39]

The qadi held ‚educational‘ discussions with the residents, and when he returned three months later on an ‚evaluation‘ mission, he reported that the brotherhood had split into two groups: the traditionalists, who remained faithful to the ‚vestiges of the past‘ (perezhytki proshlogo), and the reformers, who had abandoned some of the ‚harmful customs‘ (otkazalis’ ot nekotorykh vrednykh adatov).[40]

„Underground“ Christianity

How did matters stand with other religions in Kazakhstan? In addition to Orthodox Christianity, the all-republican report of March 1951 listed the following denominations in the Kazakh SSR: ‚the second place after the Muslim faith is held by Evangelical Christians—Baptists, followed by Old Believers (in groups and individually), Lutherans, followers of Judaism, Seventh-Day Adventists, and others.‘ Additionally, ‚Buddhist Koreans and Kalmyks‘ were also mentioned.[41] An agent of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church reported the existence of six religious communities in North Kazakhstan Region (in addition to Orthodox Christianity): Muslims, Baptists, Lutherans, Jews, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Pentecostals. Regarding Catholics, the previous agent had some knowledge of their presence; in January 1945, when requesting instructions from the Council on granting registration approvals, he mentioned ‚Catholic priests, mullahs, presbyters of Evangelical Christians and Baptists, as well as clerics of other faiths.‘ However, it is clear that Catholics were entirely absent from this post-war religious revival. Even if they are mentioned once or twice, the references are vague, and there are no reports of official attempts by Catholics to register a community or a prayer house during that period.[42]

Thus, the postwar religious revival in Kazakhstan was not limited to ‚official‘ Islam and Orthodox Christianity, but also included ‚underground‘ forms of religiosity practiced by the deported peoples. As a result of these deportations, not only Muslim communities but also numerous Christian ones, including Roman Catholic and various Protestant denominations, were relocated to northern Kazakhstan. What did the religious landscape in these territories look like, and to what extent did it reflect the new postwar hierarchies?

The Soviet (and earlier Russian) policy of deportations and resettlements led to the presence of more than 100 nationalities—and numerous religions—within the Kazakh SSR. The coexistence of such diverse religious communities side by side produced a unique paradox: a form of practical everyday ecumenism unlikely to be found anywhere else in the world. At the same time, a sui generis hierarchy of religious denominations, more or less accepted by the authorities, emerged in the public sphere:

The Soviet government does not treat all religions and denominations equally, as observed by Rev. Władysław Bukowiński in his Wspomnienia z Kazachstanu. Orthodox Christians who recognise the Moscow Patriarchate are viewed most favourably by the authorities. They are followed by Baptists, other sectarians, Lutherans, and Muslims. Catholics, particularly Catholic priests, are regarded with less favour and are often seen as ‚agents of the Vatican.‘ However, the groups that face the harshest treatment are the Orthodox opposition and sects with global centres in the United States, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses.[43]

This observation was fully corroborated by the decisions of the Soviet authorities. Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were deported in 1951 from the Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, and Moldovan SSRs, as well as from the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, were explicitly excluded from the Decision of the USSR’s Council of Ministers on 5 June 1954, which lifted some restrictions on the legal status of special settlers (individuals and groups forcibly resettled to remote areas of the Soviet Union).[44] The same applied to the ‚Orthodox opposition,‘ though this term requires further clarification. In the context of the Kazakh SSR, this primarily referred to Old Believer communities, which operated underground for most of the postwar period, primarily concentrated in the so-called Rudny Altai (East Kazakhstan Region). These communities, diverse and represented by various branches (soglasiya), were severely diminished during the collectivisation of the 1930s, as they were targeted as wealthy peasants (kulaks). Apocalyptic sentiments and desertions from the Red Army during the war drove their followers further underground. Ust-Kamenogorsk became the main centre for Old Believers in the Kazakh SSR, where two communities—Pomeranian and Pokrov (of the Austrian/Byelokrynitsa hierarchy)—illegally operated after the war. The more radical Pomortsy, belonging to the priestless faction, lost their prayer house in the 1950s, and were unable to reclaim it until the collapse of the USSR. The Pokrov Byelokrynitsans held services in private homes and did not succeed in registering their community until 1983.[45]

The observations made by Rev. Bukowiński can be supplemented by data provided by the agent of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults for Tselinniy Country in 1962. Of the 20 religious communities registered at that time, 12 were Orthodox churches, four were mosques, three were Evangelical Christian (Baptist) prayer houses, and one was a Lutheran church. The other communities—nearly 300 in total—operated unregistered in the religious underground. Notably, there was not a single unregistered Orthodox community, as Orthodox Christianity exhibited extreme legalism in this regard, operating exclusively within the framework established by the authorities.

Islam, benefiting from discreet support from local authorities in some areas, had 44 such unregistered communities. Lutherans accounted for 62, Evangelical Christians (Baptists) for 86, Mennonites for 33, Pentecostals (subbotniki) for 28, Catholics for 27, Seventh-Day Adventists for 9, and Jehovah’s Witnesses for 5. Additionally, the Molokans and Old Believers (both priestless and Murashkovtsy: ‘Evangelical Christian Holy Zionists’) each had one community.[46]

As we can see, the Baptists were the dominant group within the religious underground. According to the agent of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults:

Absolutely all Baptist congregations have a reactionary and, one might say, anti-Soviet profile. The preachers of these communities systematically violate Soviet legislation on religious practices, involve children in religious activities, and divert Soviet citizens from fulfilling their duties.[47]

To support this opinion, a statement was quoted from a pastor in Shortandy, who reportedly told representatives of the raiyspolkom in October 1961: „God forbids fulfilling and submitting to the laws of the Soviet authorities.“[48] Contrary to their tradition of independently operating parallel communities, the Protestants—referred to as Baptists in the USSR—were granted an overarching institution in 1944, known as the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists. This was typical of the period’s trend towards the institutionalisation and bureaucratisation of religious life. However, in 1961, a split occurred within the union, raising the question of whether or not this division was influenced by the Soviet authorities.[49]

It was not the Catholic, Baptist, Mennonite, or Lutheran communities that posed the greatest challenge to the authorities of the Kazakh SSR, but rather the religiosity of the German population. Fears surrounding the ‘German religious revival’ were reflected in successive resolutions and documents adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan in 1956, 1958, and 1963, which were dedicated to ‘strengthening political work among the German population’. The authorities were particularly concerned about the activities of the West German Red Cross and other charitable organisations, which were accused of spreading ‘ideological diversion’ and distributing ‘anti-Soviet literature’ (likely referring to religious texts) through these communities.

The KGB closely monitored both formal and informal German religious leaders, including the Lutheran pastor Yevgeniy Bakhman, the Mennonite Yakov Mantler, who openly declared that he ‘did not believe in communism’, the Catholic leader Anna Gey from Krasnoarmeysk, and various Baptist leaders.[50] Bakhman, a graduate of Evangelical Lutheran Bible courses in Leningrad, was deported to Siberia in 1941. After his release in 1954, he joined his family in Akmolinsk (renamed Tselinograd in 1961). Despite constant KGB surveillance, he began holding Lutheran services for the faithful upon his arrival. In 1957, he successfully registered a Lutheran community there—the first not only in the Kazakh SSR, but in the entire USSR. From that point on, Akmolinsk/Tselinograd became the centre of Lutheranism in Kazakhstan.[51]

During Khrushchev’s anti-religious campaign, the leaders of such communities were often held criminally liable and, in some cases, sent to correctional labour camps. As the authorities closed prayer houses, the faithful were forced to gather in private homes, pushing the German population into the religious underground. According to the agent of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for Pavlodar Region, in 1976, of the 1,059 faithful working in local sovkhozes and kolkhozes, as many as 1,010 were of German nationality. Yet, in January of that year, out of the 51 religious communities operating in the region, only four were officially registered, and none of them was Catholic or ‚German‘.

Furthermore, the faithful were dispersed rather than concentrated, as was the case in major urban centres, which further disadvantaged them. In cities, registering a community was much easier. For instance, in Karaganda, the German Baptist community was registered as early as 1946, and the Lutheran community in Tselinograd followed 10 years later. In rural areas, however, the situation was much worse. In Pavlodar Region, the Baptists in the village of Trofimovka (Kachyry District) were the first to register a community, but only in 1975. They were followed by the Lutherans in several villages, and finally by the Catholics in Shcherbakty (1979, with 54 believers) and Krasnoarmeyka (1980, with 31 believers). ‚Illegal‘ Catholic communities began to emerge as early as the 1950s, consisting mainly of Volga Germans deported in 1941, though these communities were often rooted in pre-revolutionary German settlements.[52]

This ‚underground‘ Catholic religiosity was noted in reports from Soviet security services, particularly under the spetskomendantura regime (in effect until 1956). In a note dated 10 December 1952, the deputy commander of the MGB division for Chkalovo District in Kokchetav Region reported the following:

There are 14 villages in the district inhabited by Poles and Germans, who were forcibly resettled. Religious sects operate among them, gathering in the homes of various residents to perform religious rites, while simultaneously engaging in anti-Soviet agitation designed to divert young people from the social, cultural, and educational activities carried out in the villages. For instance, in 1951, a religious group in the village of Kalinovka, led by Adolf Szulc and Wilhelm Wolski, was disbanded. This group used to bring together 30-40 people for religious ceremonies and once led kolkhozniks to the cemetery, where almost 400 people gathered. The organisers were arrested and prosecuted under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RFSSR. Currently, religious gatherings are held in the village of Beloyarka, in the home of a German woman, Attylia Rode, and in the village of Podolske, in the flat of seventy-year-old Anna Kosowska. Such religious groups operate in every resettled village and exert a significant influence on young people, drawing them away from social life in the village and into religious sects that also attend these gatherings.[53]

In Kokchetav Region, there was a wave of arrests at that time, and, as we learn from a report by the regional UMGB to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, the ‚anti-Soviet agitation‘ during religious gatherings included, among other things, the argument that ‚on Sundays and religious holidays, it is not allowed to work, because it is a sin‘.[54] A special party committee that visited Kellerov District at the time concluded:

Religious fanaticism is evident among the resettled populations of all contingents. Young people are influenced by their parents‘ performance of religious rituals, making them reluctant to join the Pioneer and Komsomol organisations… The manifestations of religious fanaticism are also seen in the fact that the resettled populations are currently observing the Advent fast and do not attend cinemas, clubs, or other places of social entertainment.[55]

The abolition of the Gulag system marked a significant turning point for the development of Catholicism in Kazakhstan. After 1956, the release of Rev. Władysław Bukowiński, Bronisław Drzepecki, and Józef Kuczyński from the camps provided a powerful impetus for the revival of Catholic religious life in the region. Rev. Bukowiński worked in Karaganda and travelled across Central Asia, while Rev. Drzepecki carried out pastoral work in Zelenyi Gai, near Tselinograd, where, according to one repatriate, his sermons ‚made everybody cry.‘ Rev. Kuczyński resided in Tainsha (Krasnoarmeysk) from 1956 to 1958, where he opened a church, which was soon closed after his re-arrest for distributing catechisms, prayer books, and devotional items.

A German priest from the Volga region, Father Aleksander Schtaub, was exiled to Kazakhstan in 1945 after serving 10 years in a forced labour camp and settled in Karaganda in 1956, where he continued pastoral work until his death in 1961.

From 1962, the Uniate bishop and rector of the Uzhhorod seminary, Rev. Aleksander Khira, along with Rev. Aleksander Zaritskiy (Żarecki), also worked there underground. Bishop Khira lived to see the official registration of a parish in 1977 and received permission to build a church in Karaganda, which he consecrated in 1980. By the time of his death in 1983, a total of 12 parishes had been legalised. Father Aleksander Bień, who was arrested in Zhytomyr in 1945, resided in Kokchetav Region between 1953 and 1956, and after his release, he celebrated secret religious services. In 1975, he obtained consent to organise a parish in Kustanay. Father Alojzy (Serafim) Kaszuba, a Capuchin monk from Lviv, was banned from serving as a priest in Rivne (1958). He travelled across Latvia, Crimea, and Kazakhstan, seeking to provide pastoral care to the faithful. For this, he was repeatedly arrested, exiled, and persecuted. He eventually settled in Tselinograd in 1970 and continued his work there until his death in 1977.[56]

Karaganda became the centre of Catholicism in Kazakhstan, often referred to as the ‚Vatican of the USSR.‘ While this status was solidified by the construction of a church in the late 1970s, the roots of the phenomenon go back further. During the war, thousands of German Catholics were conscripted into labour battalions in the Karaganda Coal Basin, and their families later sought to join them. Polish, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian prisoners, along with special resettlers, including Catholic priests, also worked in the city. In 1956, three chapels were erected: one for Germans, one for Poles, and another for Ukrainian Greek Catholics. Although all were closed in 1957, priests continued to hold secret services, resulting in a further influx of Catholics into the city, drawn by the belief that ‚one can always find a priest‘ there.[57]

Outside large urban centres, however, the situation was quite different, and it was much more difficult to legalise the activities of a religious community. Polish Catholics in Shortandy District (Akmola Region), whom I interviewed, only managed to obtain permission to build a church in 1990, meaning that for nearly the entire Soviet period, they operated in the religious underground. Although the memory of those ‚itinerant‘ priests has somewhat faded, it remains very much alive among them. Some individuals still remember and knew members of that group of priests.[58]

In other parts of Kazakhstan, Catholics occasionally made successful attempts to register their communities under Soviet legislation, but official registration was achieved relatively late compared to other ‚certified‘ denominations. As ‚agents of the Vatican‘ and special settlers with limited rights until 1956, Polish and German Catholics were unable to participate in the religious revival of the ‚patriotic uprising of the Great Patriotic War.‘ This deprived them of the opportunity to legalise their religious practices and condemned them to years of clandestine existence, isolated from the Soviet public sphere into which they sought to integrate through this ‚second, official life.‘ Their entry into this sphere came extremely late.

For instance, in the State Archive of the Akmolinsk Region (Kokchetav/Kokshetau), documents reveal the efforts of two Catholic communities to obtain official registration in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Both were eventually successful, although in one case the process was relatively swift, while in the other it took nearly a decade. In both instances, the communities were characterised by a similar age structure, consisting mainly of old-age and disability pensioners and the elderly. In one case, the group was predominantly female. This situation was acceptable to the Soviet authorities, as pensioners and elderly women, able to ‚devote themselves to religious matters in their old age‘ in a building on the outskirts of the city, posed little impact on the public and professional spheres or on young people. At the same time, these groups found it easier to organise religious practices, as they had more time and did not feel the ‚pressure of the workplace.‘ This was also a continuation of the situation during the ‚religious underground‘ period, with elderly women acting as quasi-priests of the community.[59]

When we place these dates on the timeline of the Kazakh SSR, it becomes clear just how belated these ‘successes’ were in comparison to the broader religious revival in the republic following the end of the war and in its immediate aftermath. It is also important to note that not long after these registrations, a new era began, marking the end of the post-war prosperity that had peaked during the Brezhnev era, especially for other local faiths, particularly Islam. The relative economic prosperity, felt especially in the Muslim regions of the USSR, had led to conspicuous consumption at religious and family ceremonies. This behaviour drew criticism from the new CPSU General Secretary, the puritanical Yuri Andropov.

Discussing the conclusions of the June 1983 Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee and the subsequent tasks for ethnography, Yuri Bromley, a long-serving director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, called for an end to the indulgence of religious rituals disguised as national traditions:

Important tasks face the science of ethnography in combating religious vestiges. This is particularly urgent today, as numerous religious phenomena are surfacing under the guise of national rites and customs… These rites have become an integral part of the Soviet lifestyle and play an increasing role in the social consciousness of the people… The rising living standards, which should lead to further expansion of socialist lifestyle manifestations, have instead, in this case, resulted in a distortion of socialist principles and customs. Sumptuous weddings, remembrance ceremonies, anniversaries, and the like have flooded the southern regions—the republics of Transcaucasia and Central Asia—in a wide wave, and as ethnographers have noted, are increasingly making their way into the northern regions, including those inhabited primarily by the Russian people.^[60]

[1] M. I. Odintsov, Religiozniye organizatsyi v SSSR: Nakanune i v perviye gody Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyny (1939–1943 gg.), ‘Otechestvenniye arkhivy’ 1995, vol. 2, p. 38.

[2] P. Froese, Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed?, ‘Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion’ 2004, vol. 43, No 1, pp. 35–50; D. Pospielovsky, A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice, and the True Believer, New York 1987, p. 56.

[3] Cf. Adriano Rocucci, Stalin i patriarch: Pravoslavnaia tserkov´ i sovetskaia vlast´, 1917–1958, Moscow: ROSSPEN: 2016; Mikhail I. Odintsov, Anna S. Kochetova, Konfessional’naia politika v Sovetskom Soiuze v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny 1941–1945 gg., Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2014; Daniel Peris, ‘God Is Now on Our Side’: The Religious Revival on Unoccupied Soviet Territory during World War II, „Kritika: Explorations in Russian & Eurasian History”, [s. l.], vol. 1, n. 1, pp. 97–118; Johannes Due Enstad, Prayers and Patriotism in Nazi-Occupied Russia: The Pskov Orthodox Mission and Religious Revival, 1941–1944, „The Slavonic and East European Review”, vol. 94, no. 3, 2016, pp. 468–96; David Harrisville, Unholy Crusaders: The Wehrmacht and the Reestablishment of Soviet Churches during Operation Barbarossa, „Central European History”, vol. 52, no. 4, 2019, pp. 620–649; Karel C. Berkhoff, Was There a Religious Revival in Soviet Ukraine under the Nazi Regime?, „The Slavonic and East European Review”, vol. 78, no. 3, 2000, pp. 536–567; Ulrike Huhn, Stimmen Aus Jerusalem. Die Macht Der Gerüchte Und Die Religiöse Renaissance in Der Sowjetunion, 1941–1948, „Journal of Modern European History”, vol. 10, no. 3, 2012, pp. 341–361.

[4] Cf. Miriam Dobson, Protestants, Peace and the Apocalypse: The USSR’s Religious Cold War, 1947–62, „Journal of Contemporary History”, vol. 53, no. 2, 2018, pp. 361–390

[5] Materials for the Islamic History of Semipalatinsk: Two Manuscripts by Ahmad Walī al-Qazānī and Qurbān’ali Khālidī, ed. A. Frank, M.U. Usmanov, Berlin 2001, p. 1–9, 34ff, 82; A. Zhanbosinova, The Evolution of Soviet State and Religion Interrelation (1920s–early 1950s), ‚Byliye Gody‘ 2013, vol. 28, No 2, p. 52, 53, 55; GARF, folio R-5263, series 2, dossier 16, Postoyanna Komissiya po voprosam kulta pri Prezidiumie VTsIK, sheets 1–2, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

^[6] GARF (State Archive of the Russian Federation), folio 1318, series 1, dossier 1550, Ustav Tsentralnogo Dukhovnogo Upravleniya Musulman 1923 g. (30.11.1923), sheets 32–37, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam, https://islamperspectives.org/rpi [access: 25.02.2020].

[7] RGASPI (Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History), folio 613, series 3, dossier 197, Tsentralnaya Kontrolnaya Komissiya VKP(b) (TsKK). Polozheniya, tsyrkulary, direktivy, otchoty i svodki 1922–1934, sheets 1–3, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

^[8]  Y.N. Gusyeva, Mrachnoye ekho „Dela TsDUM”: „Tsep’ Korana” i riepressii protiv musulmanskoy elity SSSR (1940 god), ‚Noviy istoricheskiy vestnik‘ 2017, vol. 52, No 2, p. 85–102.

[9] S. Keller, To Moscow, Not Mecca, p. 213–245, 247–255.

[10] D. DeWeese, Shamanization in Central Asia, p. 326–363.

[11] A. Khalid, Islam after Communism, p. 102; H. Fathi, Otines, p. 27–43; A. Krämer, Otin, p. 77–79; N. Tohidi, ‚Guardians of the Nation‘, p. 39–58; S. Kleinmichel, Halpa in Choresm (Hwàrazm) und âtin âyi im Ferghanatal; D. DeWeese, Shamanization in Central Asia, p. 333–346.

[12] Sotsyalisticheskoye stroitelstvo v Kazakhstane, documents No 368 and 369, p. 531ff.

[13] A. Zhanbosinova, The Evolution of Soviet State and Religion Interrelation, p. 55; Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’ w Kazakhstane. Ofitsyalniy sayt Kokshetauskoy i Akmolinskoy yeparkhii, http://pravest-kokshe.kz/index.php/eparchy/history [access: 28.04.2020]; Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’ Mitropolichiy okrug w Respublike Kazakhstan, http://sobor.kz/node/7152 [access: 28.04.2020]; GARF, folio R-5263, series 2, dossier 16, Postoyanna Komissiya po voprosam kulta pri Prezidiumie VTsIK, sheets 1–2, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam; Kustanay – Kostanay: ocherki istorii. S drevneyshikh vremion do 1936 goda, ed. I.K. Ternovyj, Kostanay 2012, p. 162–168.

[14] Khram Presvyatogo Serdca Iisusa, http://katolik-petropavlovsk.com/prihod/hram-presvyatogo-serdca-iisusa [access: 26.02.2020]; L. A. Burgart, Vliyane migratsyonnykh faktorov na formirowanye i razvitiye Katolicheskoy Tserkvi v Kazakhstanie, v: Etnodemograficheskiye protsessy w Kazakhstanie i sopredelnykh territoriyakh, ed. A. Alekseyenko et al., Ust’-Kamenogorsk 2006, pp. 54–61; AAN, 2/510/70, Ambasada RP w Moskwie, Statystyczny wykaz kościołów i księży w Archidiecezji Mohylowskiej; GAKO, f. 237, op. 1, d. 149, Spiski tserkvej, molitevnykh domov, mechetey i kostiolov 1923 g.

[15] On the famine and collectivization see: R. Kindler, Stalinskiye kochevniki. Vlast’ i golod w Kazakhstane, Moskva 2017;  S. Cameron, The Hungry Steppe. Famine, Violence and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan, Ithaca–New York 2018;  eadem, The Kazakh Famine of 1930–1933: Current Research and New Directions, ‚East/West. Journal of Ukrainian Studies‘ 2016, vol. 3, No 2, p. 117–132; N. Pianciola, Famine in the Steppe. The Collectivization of Agriculture and the Kazak Herdsmen 1928–1934, ‚Cahiers du Monde russe‘ 2004, vol. 45, No 1–2, p. 137–191; M.B. Olcott, The Collectivization Drive in Kazakhstan, ‚The Russian Review‘ 1981, vol. 40, No 2, p. 122–142; I. Ohayon, La sédentarisation des Kazakhs dans l’URSS de Staline. Collectivisation et changement social (1928–1945), Paris 2006.

[16] D. Pospelovsky, Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’ v istorii Rusi, Rossii i SSSR, Moskva 1996, pp. 283–303; S. Gordun, Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’ v period s 1943 po 1970 god, ‘Zhurnal Moskovskoy Patriarkhii’ 1993, vol. 1, pp. 39–45; A. Rokkuchchi, Stalin i patriarkh. Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’ i sovetskaya vlast’ 1917–1958, Moskva 2016, pp. 151–158;
M. I. Odintsov, Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’, nakanune i v epokhu stalinskogo sotsyalizma 1917–1953 gg., Moskva 2014, pp. 145–315.

[17] GDA SBU, f. 16, op. 2, d. 562, Dokladnaya zapiska o rabote i povedenii agentury iz chisla episkopata russkoy pravoslavnoy tserkvi na Ukrainie, 15.01.1946, l. 141–152.

[18] N. A. Bielakova, Gosudarstvennaya vlast’ i religiozniye instituty v poslevoyennomSSSR: rossiyskiye pravoviye traditscyi i noviye idieologicheskiye ustanovki, ‘Vestnik SPbGU’ 2012, series 2, vol. 4, pp. 207–210; I. Solovyov, Shtrikhi k istoricheskomu portretu„obnovlencheskogo” metropolita Aleksandra Vvedenskogo, in: XIX Yezhegodnayabogoslovskaya konferentsiya Pravoslavnogo Svyato-Tikhonovskogo gumanitarnogo universiteta: materialy, vol. I, Moskva 2009, pp. 300–307; M. Maszkiewicz, Mistyka i rewolucja. Aleksandr Wwiedeński i jego koncepcja roli cerkwi w państwie komunistycznym, Kraków 1995; F. N. Kozlov, Gosudarstvenno-tserkovniye otnosheniya v 1917 – nachale 1940-kh gg. V natsyonalnykh regionakh SSR (na primere respublik Mariy El, Mordovii i Chuvashii), Moskva 2017, pp. 130–149; W. Kolarz, Religion in the Soviet Union, London–New York 1961, pp. 57–72; A. Rokkuchchi, Stalin i patriarkh, pp. 240–260.

[19] A. Zhanbosinova, The Evolution of Soviet State and Religion Interrelation, p. 55; Pavlodarskaya yeparkhiya, Istoriya yeparkhii, http://pavlodar-eparhia.ru/info/istoriya-eparkhii [access: 28.04.2020]; W. Kolarz, Religion in the Soviet Union, p. 88;A. Rokkuchchi, Stalin i patriarkh, p. 345.

[20] Roberto J. Carmack, Kazakhstan in World War II. Mobilization and Ethnicity in the Soviet Empire, Lawrence (Kansas) 2019, p. 110-111.

[21] D. Motadel, Islam and Nazi Germany’s War, Cambridge (Mass.)–London 2014, pp. 174ff, V. A. Akhmadullin, Deyatelnost’ organov gosudarstvennogo upravleniya SSSR rukovoditeley dukhovnykh upravleniy musulman po sozdaniyu vsesoyuznogomusulmanskogo centra, ‘Vlast’ 2015, vol. 8, pp. 155–158; R.J. Carmack, op. cit., pp. 111-112, 114..

[22] J. Eden, A Soviet Jihad against Hitler: Ishan Babakhan Calls Central Asian Muslims to War, ‘Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient’ 2016, vol. 59, pp. 237–264; B. Babadzhanov, O fetvakh SADUM protiv „neislamskikh” obychayev, in: Islam na postsovetskom prostranstve: vzglad iznutri, eds. A. Malashenko, M. Brill Olcott, Moskva 2001, pp. 65–78; Z. A. Dzhandosova, Kazakhstan, in: Islam na territorii byvshey Rossiyskoy impierii, vol. III, pp. 47–52; D. Motadel, Islam and Nazi Germany’s War, pp. 290–300; B. Babadzhanov, M. B. Olkott, SADUM, in: Islam na territorii byvshey Rossiyskoy impierii. Entsyklopedicheskiy slovar’, vol. IV, Moskva 2003, pp. 69–72.

[23] R. J. Carmack, Kazakhstan in World War II, pp. 19–22, 153; M. E. Tasar, Islamically Informed Soviet Patriotism in Postwar Kyrgyzstan, ‘Cahiers du Monde russe’ 2011, vol. 52, No 2–3, pp. 387–404; Istoriya Kazakhskoy SSR s drevneyshykh vremion do nashykh dney, pp. 600–641.

[24] K. Feferman, Between „Non-Russian Nationalities“ and Muslim Identity: Perceptions and Self-Perceptions of Soviet Central Asian Soldiers in the Red Army (1941–45), in: Combatants of Muslim Origin in European Armies in the Twentieth Century. Far from Jihad, eds X. Bougarel, R. Branche, C. Drieu, London 2017, pp. 121–136.

[25] GARF, f. 6991, op. 3, d. 3, Razyasneniye Polanskogo predsedatelu Sovnarkoma Kazakhskoy SSR tov. Undasynovu o nedopustimosti rassmotreniya Upolnomochennymi po delam RPTs zayavleniy veruyushchikh drugikh verospovedaniy i nebokhodimosti utverzhdeniya Upolnomochennogo SDRK pri SNK Kazakhskoj SSR i sootvetstvuyushchikh Oblispolkomakh KazSSR, 22.09.1944, l. 44, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[26] GARF, f. 6991, op. 3, the Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Periodical reports of the Agents of the Council for the Kazakh SRR for West Kazakhstan, Pavlodar and North Kazakhstan Regions, d. 10, l. 61–73; ibidem, d. 29, l. 81–86, 91–103, 107–108, 113; ibidem, d. 30, l. 197–203, 210–212, 229, 231, 237; ibidem, d. 23, l. 4–7; ibidem, d. 20, l. 106, 108, 109, 133–136, ibidem, d. 339, l. 15, 17, 20–24, 175, 177–181, 188; ibidem, d. 397, l. 2–3, 6–8, 11, 23; ibidem, d. 3, l. 44; ibidem, d. 348, l. 49–50;ibidem, d. 360, l. 5–6, 18–19; ibidem, d. 374, l. 16–17; ibidem, d. 405, l. 27; ibidem, d. 393, l. 12–14; ibidem, d. 398, l. 18–19; ibidem, d. 350, l. 212; ibidem, d. 401, l. 95, 99–100, 181–182; ibidem, d. 406, l. 84, d. 407, l. 115, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[27] GARF, f. 6991, op. 3, d. 394, Report of the Agent of the Council for Religious Cults for Kokchetav Region of the Kazakh SRR for 1949, l. 40–42, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[28] GARF, f. 6991, op. 3, d. 394, Report of the Agent of the Council for Religious Cults for Kokchetav Region of the Kazakh SRR for 1949, 09.01.1947, l. 13, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[29] GARF, f. 6991, op. 3, d. 399, the Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Periodical reports of the Agents of the Council for the Kazakh SRR for North Kazakhstan Region, 15.04.1948, l. 181, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[30] GARF, f. 6991, op. 3, Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Periodical reports of the Agents of the Council for the Kazakh SRR for Semipalatinsk and Regions, d. 10, l. 61–73; ibidem, d. 30, l. 197–203, 210–212, 229, 231, 237; ibidem, d. 23, l. 4–7; ibidem, d. 20, l. 106, 108, 109, 133–136; ibidem, d. 339, l. 15, 17, 20–24, 175, 177–181; ibidem, d. 397, l. 2–3, 6–8, 11, 23; ibidem, d. 3, l. 44; ibidem, d. 348, l. 49–50; ibidem, d. 360, l. 5–6, 18–19; ibidem, d. 374, l. 16–17; ibidem, d. 405, l. 27; ibidem, d. 398, l. 18–19; ibidem, d. 401, l. 95, 99–100, 181–182; ibidem, d. 406, l. 84; ibidem, d. 407, l. 115, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[31] GARF, f. 6991, op. 3, d. 132, Kratkaya spravka o deyatelnosti religioznykh obyedineniy musulmanskogo kulta w respublikakh Sredney Azii i Kazakhstana v 1956 godu, 01.03.1957, l. 30, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[32] GARF, f. 6991, op. 6, d. 470, Report of the Agent of the Council for Tselinograd Region, 30.07.1972, l. 103–106, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[33] J. O. Pohl, Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937–1949, Westport 1999, pp. 79–92, 109–118; S. Ciesielski, G. Hryciuk, A. Srebrakowski, Masowe deportacje radzieckie w okresie II wojny światowej, Wrocław 1994, pp. 106–133, 146–163; J. Burds, The Soviet War against“Fifth Columnists“, pp. 267–314; D. Motadel, Islam and Nazi Germany’s War, pp. 140–150.

[34] V.A. Kozlov [et al.] (ed.) Vainakhi i imperskaia vlast’: problema Chechni i Ingushetii vo vnutrennei politike Rossii i SSSR (nachalo XIX – seredina XX veka), Moscow: ROSSPEN 2011, pp. 697-698; R.J. Carmack, op. cit., p. 147.

[35] Shaikh Kunta–haji Kishiev prohibited waging wars, exacting bloody revenge, drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco; he also ordered humility towards the authorities. In his teachings, ecstatic mysticism blended with social sensitivity and concern for the poorest, see V. Kh. Akayev, Sheykh Kunta-Khadzhi, Grozny 1994; A. Bennigsen, The Qādirīyah (Kunta Haji) Tariqah in North East Caucasus, 1850–1987, ‘Islamic Culture’ 1988, vol. 62, No 2–3, pp. 63–78.

[36] Account by Halina Habowska (b. 1964), Środa Wielkopolska, 30.09.2020.

[37] M. Pohl, „It Cannot Be that Our Graves Will Be Here“, pp. 401–430; A. S. Musagaliyeva, R. M. Musabekova, U. M. Sandybayeva, Severniy Kazakhstan, pp. 189–192.

[38] B. Babadzhanov, M. B. Olkott, SADUM, pp. 70ff.

[39] GARF, f. R–6991, op. 6, d. 1355, Otchot kadiya Makhachkalinskoy mecheti A. Kh. Dakayeva o poyezdke v Balkashinskiy rayon Tselinogradskoy oblasti, 27.12.1977,l. 1–4, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[40] Ibidem, l. 6.

[41] GARF, f. 6991, op. 3, d. 350, Dokladnaya zapiska chlena Soveta po delam religioznykh kultov pri Sovete Ministrov SSSR Prikhodz’ko Polianskomu o rezultatakh komandirovki v Kazakhskuyu i Kirgizskuyu SSR, 02.06.1951, l. 261, quoted after: Russian Perspectives on Islam.

[42] GARF, f. 6991, op. 3, Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Periodical reports of the Agents of the Council for the Kazakh SRR for North Kazakhstan Region d. 29, l. 81–86, 91–103, 107–108, 113.

[43] W. Bukowiński, Wspomnienia z Kazachstanu, p. 34.

[44] Spetspereselentsy v Karagandinskoy oblasti, p. 216.

[45] Poliakov L., L’epopée des vieux-croyants, Paris 1991, pp. 184–186; N. I. Romanova, Sovremennoye polozheniye Russkoy Pravoslavnoy Staroobriadcheskoy Tserkvi v Kazakhstane i Sredney Azii, in: Staroobriadchestvo. Istoriya, kultura, sovremennost’. Materialy, ed. V. I. Osipov, N.V. Zinovkina, J. I. Sokolova, A. I. Osipova, Moskva 2002, pp. 230–244.

[46] A. S. Musagaliyeva, R. M. Musabekova, U. M. Sandybayeva, Severniy Kazakhstan, pp. 211–213. Tselinnyi Krai is an administrative unit that existed from December 1960 to October 1965, formed from the regions of North Kazakhstan, Kustanay, Kokchetav, Pavlodar and part of Tselinograd (formerly Akmola).

[47] Quoted after: A. S. Musagaliyeva, R. M. Musabekova, U. M. Sandybayeva, Severniy Kazakhstan, p. 213.

[48] Ibidem, pp. 222ff.

[49] I. V. Podberezskij, Les protestants en Russie, ‘Revue d’études comparatives Est-Ouest’ 1993, No 3–4, pp. 139–153; M. I. Odintsov, A. S. Kochetova, Konfessionalnaya politika v Sovetskom Soyuzie v gody Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyny 1941–1945 gg., Moskva 2014, pp. 255–263.

[50] A. S. Musagaliyeva, R. M. Musabekova, U. M. Sandybayeva, Severniy Kazakhstan, pp. 215–225.

[51] R. M. Musabekova, ‘Bog zapretil vypolniat’ zakony sovetskoi vlasti’. Represirovannaia religioznaia zhizn nemtsev Severnogo Kazakhstana (1950-1960-ye), “Ezhegodnik Mezhunarodnoi assotsiatsii issledovatelei istorii I kultury rossiiskikh nemtsev“, p. 99; Leningradskie nemtsy: sud’ba voennykh pokolenii (1941-1955 gg.), St. Petersburg: “Nestor-Istoria” 2011, https://bessmertnybarak.ru/books/person/2011109/ (access: 24.03.2023)

[52] Y. I. Podopriroga, Nemtsy Pavlodarskogo Priirtyshya, pp. 63–71.

[53] Iz istorii polakov v Kazakhstane (1936–1956 gg.), p. 79.

[54] Ibidem, pp. 80ff.

[55] Ibidem, pp. 83ff. On the secret religious services at Beloyarka, the native village of the painter Feliks Mostowicz, see A. Milewska-Młynik, Feliks Mostowicz i jego droga do polskości, ‘Zesłaniec’ 2007, vol. 30, pp. 197–199. The term ‘religious fanaticism’ itself, as applied to the Catholic clergy and faithful, is not a Soviet innovation; for example, it was used back in the mid-19th century by Governor-General Illarion Vasilchikov with reference to the entire clergy and Polish gentry in Ukraine: ‘the spirit of religious fanaticism has not disappeared altogether. It manifests itself now and then in the hidden and helpless hatred of the Orthodox faith and the Russians’ (quoted after: D. Beauvois, Trójkąt ukraiński, p. 423).

[56] B. Michalewski, Katecheza w czasach ks. Władysława Bukowińskiego i jemu współczesnych kapłanów w Kazachstanie, ‘Zesłaniec’ 2007, vol. 30, pp. 101–117; by the same author, Głosiciele dobrej nowiny w Kazachstanie. Lata 1936–1990, ‘Zesłaniec’ 2016, vol. 66, pp. 25–54; R. Dzwonkowski, Praca księży polskich w Kazachstanie po II wojnie światowej, in: Polacy w Kazachstanie. Historia i współczesność, pp. 471–493; A. Hlebowicz, Kościół katolicki w Kazachstanie, in: ibidem, pp. 495–501; Kniga pamyati. Martirolog Katolicheskoy Tserkvi v SSSR, ed. B. Chalitskiy, I. Osipova, Moskva 2000, pp. 267ff, 270, 279ff, 283, 286, 296, 322, 410; W. Bukowiński, Wspomnienia z Kazachstanu, pp. 9–12, 48ff, 66–68, 70–73; J. Kuczyński, Między parafią a łagrem, Paryż 1985; H. Warachim, Włóczęga Boży. O. Serafin Kaszuba – kapucyn, apostoł Wołynia, Kazachstanu i Syberii, Kraków 1991, pp. 162–198; Account by Halina Habowska (b. 1964), Środa Wielkopolska, 30.09.2020.

[57] A.L. Burgart, Vlianie massovykh deportatsii i trudovykh mobilizatsii na formirovanie Karagandy kak tsentra katolicheskoi very v SSSR, [in:] idem, Iż istorii katolicheskoi very v Kazakhstane, Ust-Kamenogorsk 2012, pp. 17-32.

[58] Interviewed by me in November 2018.

[59] GAAO, f. 730, op. 1, d. 23, Katoliki g. Krasnoarmeyska 1975–1979; GAAO, f. 730, op. 1, d. 30, Zaregistrirovannoye obshchestvo katolikov v g. Krasnoarmeyske 1977–1982 gg; GAAO, f. 730, op. 1, d. 51, Zaregistrirovannoye obshchestvo katolikov s. Letovochnoye. The last file was erroneously titled, as the records in it concern the village of Lineyevka, founded in 1901 and inhabited by German Catholics, and not the village of Letovochnoye, founded in 1936 for Polish and German spets-settlers, cf. the entries  Liniejewka, Lietowocznoje, in: Die Deutschen Russlands. Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebieten. Lexikon, ed. W. A. Auman et. al., Moskau 2006.

[60] Y. Bromley, O nekotorykh aktualnykh zadachakh, p. 22.

Archival Sources

Abbreviations: f. – fond (folio), op. – opis’ (series), d. – delo (dossier), l. – liniya (sheet)

ARCHIWUM AKT NOWYCH W WARSZAWIE (AAN). Franciszek Kamiński file, 2/2806/73.
ARCHIWUM AKT NOWYCH W WARSZAWIE (AAN). Ambasada RP w Moskwie, 2/510/70; 2/510/71; 2/510/184; 2/510/185.

RUSSIAN STATE ARCHIVE OF SOCIO-POLITICAL HISTORY (RGASPI). Politburo of the CC of the AUCP(B) and the CPSU, f. 17, op. 132, d. 258; op. 92, d. 327; op. 93, d. 477, 503, 505, 523, 548.

STATE ARCHIVE OF AKMOLINSK REGION IN KOKCHETAV (GAAO). Council of People’s Deputies of Kokchetav Region and the Executive Committee of the City of Kokczetav, f. 730/1451, op. 1, d. 4 (Registered Catholic community in Krasnoarmeysk 1977–1982), d. 51 (Registered Catholic community of the village of Letovochnoye), d. 23 (The Catholics of the city of Krasnoarmeysk 1975–1979).

STATE ARCHIVE OF KUSTANAY REGION IN KOSTANAY (GAKO). Kustanayskiy uyezdni ispolkom of Kustanay Province, f. 237, Spiski tserkvey, molitvennykh domov, mechetey i drugikh religioznykh sooruzheniy po Kustanayskomu uyezdu, op. 1, d. 149.
STATE ARCHIVE OF KUSTANAY REGION IN KOSTANAY (GAKO). Council of People’s Deputies of Kustanay Region, f. 268, Correspondence concerning special settlers, February–December 1945, op. 11, d. 66.

STATE ARCHIVE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (GARF). Council for Religious Cults, f. R-6991, op. 3, d. 3, 10, 20, 23, 29, 30, 44, 132, 339, 348, 350, 360, 374, 393, 394, 397, 398, 401, 405, 406, 407, 470.

SBU STATE ARCHIVE IN KIEV (GDA SBU). USRR GPU – KGB Secretariat, f. 16, op. 1, d. 59; op. 2, d. 562.

Interviews

Interviews conducted in Shortandy District (Akmolinsk Region), Kazakhstan, 2–5 November 2018 (interviewers: J. Rohoziński, W. Saramonowicz, G. Czerniak). Participants: Wiktoria Czebaniuk (b. 1952), Walenty Kaszubski (b. 1945), Mieczysław Kuczyński (b. 1957), Raisa Marchevska (b. 1938), Walentina Matwiejewa (b. 1959), Stanisława Musiewicz (b. 1931), Anna Niewęgłowska (b. 1933), Franciszka Olejnik (b. 1935), Leonid Ostrowski (b. 1945), Ludmila Rebintseva (b. 1968), Stanisław Skowroński (b. 1950), Janina Stachowska-Ulrich (b. 1925), Anna Stawska (b. 1930), Zofia Zaremba (b. 1957), Ludmiła Żewłakowa (b. 1943).

Interviews conducted in Zhetisay District (South Kazakhstan Region), Kazakhstan, 2–5 September 2018 (interviewers: J. Rohoziński, W. Saramonowicz, G. Czerniak). Participant: Sergei Mishchenko (b. 1958).

Interviews with Poles who returned from Kazakhstan to Ukraine, Dovbysh, 3–5 February 2019 (interviewers: A. Kaczyński, K. Zacharuk). Participants: Maria Karpińska (b. 1937), Franciszek Karpiński (b. 1935).

Interviews conducted in Kamianets-Podilskiy, 6 April 2019 (interviewers: G. Czerniak, K. Zacharuk). Participant: Rafała Wróblewska (b. 1923).

Interviews with Poles from the Grodno region exiled in 1952 to South Kazakhstan Region, conducted in Warsaw and Białystok, 6 June 2018, 20 April 2019 (interviewers: G. Czerniak, J. Rohoziński, J. Sobotka). Participant: Walenty Jabłoński (b. 1930).

Interviews with Polish repatriates from Kazakhstan, Środa Wielkopolska and Poznań, 5–7 December 2019, 25–28 June 2020, and 30 September–1 October 2020 (interviewers: D. Panto, A. Latusek, J. Rohoziński). Participants: Antoni Brzeziński (b. 1954), Anna Czirkowa (b. 1980), Ludmiła Dębicka (b. 1946), Halina Habowska (b. 1964), Amelia Homycz (b. 1942), Ewelina Korzeniewska (b. 1941), Leontia Kownacka (b. 1952), Maria Lewkowicz (b. 1938), Bronisława Linok (b. 1948), Franciszek Linok (b. 1945), Maria Linok (b. 1946), Wiktor Musiewicz (b. 1948), Emilia Rudnicka (b. 1960), Wiktor Rudnicki (b. 1956), Maria Sokowska (b. 1951), Jadwiga Szewczuk (b. 1942), Stanisława Wołyńska (b. 1954).

Interviews with Polish repatriates from Kazakhstan, Pułtusk, 22 November 2019 (interviewers: R. Wyszyński, J. Rohoziński, W. Bożek). Participants: Józef Siedlecki (b. 1945), Zofia Żurpsa (b. 1943).

Interviews with Kazakh scholars, Astana, 1 November 2018 (interviewers: J. Rohoziński, W. Saramonowicz, G. Czerniak). Participants: Prof. Roza Musabekova, Prof. Arailym Musagaliyeva, Raisa Zhaksybayeva.

Interviews with Kazakh scholars, Warsaw, 25 June 2019 (interviewers: B. Bolesławski, O. Lebiediewa). Participant: Prof. Dmitri Liogkiy.

References

ABASHIN, S. A Prayer for Rain: Practising Being Soviet and Muslim. Journal of Islamic Studies, 2014, vol. 25, No 2, pp. 178–200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etu020

AKAYEV V. Kh. Sheykh Kunta-Khadzhi. Grozny, 1994.

AKHMADULLIN, V. A. Deyatelnost’ organov gosudarstvennogo upravleniya SSSR rukovoditeley dukhovnykh upravleniy musulman po sozdaniyu vsesoyuznogo musulmanskogo centra. Vlast, 2015, vol. 8, pp. 155–158.

ANDERSON, J. Islam in the Soviet Archives: a Research Note. Central Asian Survey, 1994, vol. 13, No 3, pp. 383–394. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02634939408400868

ANES G., ORAZBEKOV Y., GADEYEVA A. G., BAYMEN Kh. (eds.). Narody Kazakhstana. Entsyklopedicheskiy spravochnik. Almaty, 2003.

BABADZHANOV, B. O fetvakh SADUM protiv „neislamskikh” obychayev. In: MALASHENKO, A.; BRILL OLCOTT, M. eds. Islam na postsovetskom prostranstve: vzglad iznutri. Moskva, 2001, pp. 65–78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/00006324-200101010-00016

BABADZHANOV, B.; OLKOTT, M. B. SADUM. In: Islam na territorii byvshey Rossiyskoy imperii. Entsyklopedicheskiy slovar’, vol. IV, Moskva, 2003, pp. 69–72.

BEAUVOIS D. Trójkąt ukraiński. Szlachta, carat i lud na Wołyniu, Podolu i Kijowszczyźnie 1793–1914, transl. K. Rutkowski, 2nd edition. Lublin, 2011.

BELAKOVA, N. A. Gosudarstvennaya vlast’ i religiozniye instituty v poslevoyennom SSSR: rossiyskiye pravoviye traditsyi i noviye idieologicheskiye ustanovki. Vestnik SPbGU, 2012, series 2, vol. 4, pp. 207–210.

BENNIGSEN, A. The Qādirīyah (Kunta Haji) Tariqah in North East Caucasus, 1850–1987. Islamic Culture, 1988, vol. 62, No 2–3, pp. 63–78.

BERKHOFF, K. C. Was There a Religious Revival in Soviet Ukraine under the Nazi Regime? The Slavonic and East European Review, 2000, vol. 78, No 3, pp. 536–567.

BLAUVELT, T. K. Military Mobilisation and National Identity in the Soviet Union. War and Society, 2003, vol. 21, No 1, pp. 41–62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/072924703791202041

BROMLEY, Y. O nekotorykh aktualnykh zadachakh etnograficheskogo izucheniya sovremennosti. Sovetskaya etnografiya, 1983, No 6, pp. 10–23.

BUKOWIŃSKI W. Wspomnienia z Kazachstanu. Rome, 1981.

BURDS, J. The Soviet War against „Fifth Columnists“: the Case of Chechnya, 1942–4. Journal of Contemporary History, 2007, vol. 42, No 2, pp. 267–314. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009407075545

BURGART L. A. (ed.). Iz istorii katolicheskoy very i tserkvi v Kazakhstane. Ust’-Kamienogorsk, 2012.

BURGART, L. A. Vliyane migratsyonnykh faktorov na formirowanye i razvitiye Katolicheskoy Tserkvi v Kazakhstanie. In: ALEKSEYENKO, A., et al. eds. Etnodemograficheskiye protsessy w Kazakhstanie i sopredelnykh territoriyakh. Ust’-Kamenogorsk, 2006, pp. 54–61.

BURGART, L. A. Vtoraya mirovaya i nemtsy-katoliki v SSSR (k voprosu o posledstviyakh). In: INOYATOVA, D. ed. Grazhdanskaya identichnost’ i vnutrenniy mir rossiyskikh nemtsev v gody Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voyny. Moskva, 2010, pp. 255–280.

CAMERON S. The Hungry Steppe. Famine Violence and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan. Ithaca–New York, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501730436.001.0001

CAMERON, S. The Kazakh Famine of 1930–1933: Current Research and New Directions. East/West. Journal of Ukrainian Studies, 2016, vol. 3, No 2, pp. 117–132. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21226/T2T59X

CARMACK R. J. Kazakhstan in World War II: Mobilization and Ethnicity in the Soviet Empire. Lawrence (Kansas), 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvqsf3jn

CIESIELSKI S. Polacy w Kazachstanie 1940–1946. Zesłańcy lat wojny. Wrocław, 1996.
CIESIELSKI S., HRYCIUK G., SREBRAKOWSKI A. Masowe deportacje radzieckie w okresie II wojny światowej. Wrocław, 1994.

CIESIELSKI, S. Masowe deportacje w ZSRR – charakterystyka wybranych aspektów zjawiska. Dzieje Najnowsze, 2001, vol. 33, No 3, pp. 29–56.

CORLEY, F. Believers’ Responses to the 1937 and 1939 Soviet Censuses. Religion, State and Society, 1994, vol. 22, No 4, pp. 403–417. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09637499408431668

DEWEESE D., GROSS J.-A. (eds.). Sufism in Central Asia. New Perspectives on Sufi Traditions, 15th–21st Centuries. Leiden–Boston, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004373075

DEWEESE, D. Shamanization in Central Asia. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2014, vol. 57, pp. 326–363. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341351

DOBSON, M. Protestants, Peace and the Apocalypse: The USSR’s Religious Cold War, 1947–62. Journal of Contemporary History, 2018, vol. 53, No 2, pp. 361–390. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009417719997

DZHANDOSOVA, Z. A. Kazakhstan. In: PROZOROV, S. M. ed. Islam na territorii byvshey Rossiyskoy impierii. Entsyklopedicheskiy slovar’. Moskva, 2001, vol. III, pp. 47–52.

DZWONKOWSKI, R. Praca księży polskich w Kazachstanie po II wojnie światowej. In: CIESIELSKI, S.; KUCZYŃSKI, A. eds. Polacy w Kazachstanie. Historia i współczesność. Wrocław, 1996, pp. 471–493.

EDEN, J. A Soviet Jihad against Hitler: Ishan Babakhan Calls Central Asian Muslims to War. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2016, vol. 59, pp. 237–264. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341398

ENSTAD, J. D. Prayers and Patriotism in Nazi-Occupied Russia: The Pskov Orthodox Mission and Religious Revival, 1941–1944. The Slavonic and East European Review, 2016, vol. 94, No 3, pp. 468–496. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.94.3.0468

EUVÉ, F. La loyauté de l’Église russe vis-à-vis du pouvoir soviétique. Réflexions autour de la déclaration du métropolite Serge. Revue d’études comparatives Est-Ouest, 1993, vol. 24, No 3–4, pp. 107–120. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/receo.1993.2630

FATHI, H. Otines: The Unknown Women Clerics of Central Asian Islam. Central Asian Survey, 1997, vol. 16, No 1, pp. 27–43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02634939708400967

FEDOROWICZ T. Drogi Opatrzności. Lublin, 2007.

FEFERMAN, K. Between „Non-Russian Nationalities“ and Muslim Identity: Perceptions and Self-Perceptions of Soviet Central Asian Soldiers in the Red Army (1941–45). In: BOUGAREL, X.; BRANCHE, R.; DRIEU, C. eds. Combatants of Muslim Origin in European Armies in the Twentieth Century. Far from Jihad. London, 2017, pp. 121–136.

Files of informers of the KGB of the Latvian SRR. [online] [cited 17 May 2020]. Available from: https://kgb.arhivi.lv.

FRANK A. J. Gulag Miracles. Sufis and Stalinist Repression in Kazakhstan. Wien, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvrzgw4t

ABDYKALYKOV M., PANKRATOVA A. (eds.). Istoriya Kazakhskoy SSR s drevneyshykh vremion do nashykh dney. Alma-Ata, 1943.

FROESE, P. Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2004, vol. 43, No 1, pp. 35–50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2004.00216.x

GORDUN, S. Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’ v period s 1943 po 1970 god. Zhurnal Moskovskoy Patriarkhii, 1993, vol. 1, pp. 39–45.

GSOVSKI, V. Legal Status of the Church in Soviet Russia. Fordham Law Review, 1939, vol. 8, No 1, pp. 1–28.

HARRISVILLE, D. Unholy Crusaders: The Wehrmacht and the Reestablishment of Soviet Churches during Operation Barbarossa. Central European History, 2019, vol. 52, No 4, pp. 620–649. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938919000876

HLEBOWICZ, A. Kościół katolicki w Kazachstanie. In: CIESIELSKI, S.; KUCZYŃSKI, A. eds. Polacy w Kazachstanie. Historia i współczesność. Wrocław, 1996, pp. 495–501.

Hram Presvyatogo Serdca Iisusa. [online] [cited 26 February 2020]. Available from: http://katolik-petropavlovsk.com/prihod/hram-presvyatogo-serdca-iisusa.

HUHN, U. Stimmen Aus Jerusalem. Die Macht Der Gerüchte Und Die Religiöse Renaissance in Der Sowjetunion, 1941–1948. Journal of Modern European History, 2012, vol. 10, No 3, pp. 341–361. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17104/1611-8944_2012_3_341

HUSBAND, W. B. Soviet Atheism and Russian Orthodox Strategies of Resistance, 1917–1932. Journal of Modern History, 1998, vol. 70, No 1, pp. 74–107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/235003

CHUMAKOVA, T. Karta religiy dla neudavsheysya Vsesoyuznoy perepisi 1937 g.: zabytaya stranitsa sovetskogo religiovedeniya. Gosudarstvo. Religiya. Tserkov’, 2012, vol. 30, No 3–4, pp. 106–133.

Iz istorii deportatsii. Sbornik dokumentov. Vol. I. Kazakhstan 1930–1935 gg. Almaty: s.n., 2012; Vol. II. Kazakhstan 1935–1939 gg. Almaty: s.n., 2014; Vol. III. Kazakhstan 1939–1945 gg. Almaty: s.n., 2019.

Iz istorii islama v Pavlodarskom Priirtysh’ie 1919-1999. Sbornik dokumentov. Pavlodar: s.n., 2001.

Iz istorii nemtsev Kazakhstana (1921–1975 gg.). Sbornik dokumentov. Almaty: s.n., 2000.

Iz istorii polakov v Kazakhstane (1936–1956 gg.). Sbornik dokumentov. Almaty: s.n., 2000.

KALINOVSKY, A. M. Not Some British Colony in Africa: The Politics of Decolonization and Modernization in Soviet Central Asia, 1955–1964. Ab Imperio, 2013, No 2, pp. 191–222. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/imp.2013.0044

Katolicheskaya Tserkov’ v Kazakhstane. [online] [cited 30 December 2007]. Available from: http://catholic-kazakhstan.org.

Kazakhstanskaya Natsyonalnaya Elektronnaya Biblioteka. [online] [cited 20 March 2021]. Available from: http://kazneb.kz.

KELLER S. To Moscow, Not Mecca: The Soviet Campaign Against Islam in Central Asia, 1917–1941. Westport–London, 2001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9798216026174

KHALID A. Islam after Communism. Religion and Politics in Central Asia. Berkeley–London–Los Angeles, 2007.

KHAN V. S., YONG S. Kh. Koreytsy Tsentralnoy Azii: proshloye i nastoyashcheye. Moskva, 2014.

KINDLER R. Stalinskiye kochevniki. Vlast’ i golod w Kazakhstane. Moscow, 2017.

KLIMOVICH L. Islam w tsarskoy Rosii. Moskva, 1936.

KLIMOVICH L. Soderzhaniye Korana. Moskva, 1929.

KOLARZ W. Religion in the Soviet Union. London–New York, 1961.

KOZLOV F. N. Gosudarstvenno-tserkovniye otnosheniya v 1917 – nachale 1940-kh gg. V natsyonalnykh regionakh SSR (na primere respublik Mariy El, Mordovii i Chuvashii). Moskva, 2017.

KOZLOV V. A. [et al.] (eds.). Vainakhi i imperskaia vlast’: problema Chechni i Ingushetii vo vnutrennei politike Rossii i SSSR (nachalo XIX – seredina XX veka). Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2011.

KRÄMER, A. Otin. In: PROZOROV, S. M. ed. Islam na tierritorii byvshey Rossiyskoy impierii. Entsyklopyedicheskiy slovar’, vol. III, Moskva, 2001, pp. 77–79.

KUCZYŃSKI J. Między parafią a łagrem. Paris, 1985.

KUDAYBERGENOVA, A. I. Vsesoyuznaya perepis’ naseleniya v epokhu stalinizma (na primere perepisi v Kazakhstane v 1937 i 1939 gg.). Istoricheskiy yezhegodnik, 2019, pp. 363–384.

KUDELA W. (ed.). Z ziemi kazachskiej do Polski…, vol. I. Deportacje Polaków z obwodu winnickiego Ukrainy Sowieckiej w latach 30. XX wieku, vol. II. Wspomnienia repatriantów z Kazachstanu, wysiedlonych w latach 30. XX w. w głąb ZSRR. Kraków, 2007.

Literatura, istoriya i kultura nemtsev Rossii. [online] [cited 14 February 2020]. Available from: https://bibliothek.rusdeutsch.ru.

MASZKIEWICZ M. Mistyka i rewolucja. Aleksandr Wwiedeński i jego koncepcja roli cerkwi w państwie komunistycznym. Kraków, 1995.

Materials for the Islamic History of Semipalatinsk: Two Manuscripts by Ahmad Walī al-Qazānī and Qurbān ali Khālidī, eds. A. Frank, M. U. Usmanov. Berlin: s.n., 2001.

MICHALEWSKI, B. Głosiciele dobrej nowiny w Kazachstanie. Lata 1936–1990. Zesłaniec, 2016, vol. 66, pp. 25–54.

MICHALEWSKI, B. Katecheza w czasach ks. Władysława Bukowińskiego i jemu współczesnych kapłanów w Kazachstanie. Zesłaniec, 2007, vol. 30, pp. 101–117.

MILEWSKA-MŁYNIK, A. Feliks Mostowicz i jego droga do polskości. Zesłaniec, 2007, vol. 30, pp. 197–199.

MORAWIECKI J. Krajobraz po odwilży. Poradziecka tożsamość religijna mieszkańców współczesnych miast syberyjskich. Kraków, 2018.

MOTADER D. Islam and Nazi Germany’s War. Cambridge (Mass.)–London, 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674736009

MUSABEKOVA, R. M. ‘Bog zapretil vypolniat’ zakony sovetskoi vlasti’. Represirovannaia religioznaia zhizn nemtsev Severnogo Kazakhstana (1950-1960-ye). Ezhegodnik Mezhunarodnoi assotsiatsii issledovatelei istorii I kultury rossiiskikh nemtsev, pp. 96–106.

MUSAGALIYEVA A. S., MUSABEKOVA R. M., SANDYBAYEVA U. M. Severnyi Kazakhstan kak region politicheskikh repressii i deportatsiy narodov SSSR. Astana, 2017.

Nestor-Istoria. Leningradskie nemtsy: sud’ba voennykh pokolenii (1941-1955 gg.). St. Petersburg, 2011.

NIKOLSKIY V. K. (ed.). Religiozniye verovaniya narodov SSSR. Sbornik etnograficheskikh materyalov. Moskva–Leningrad, 1931.

NURTAZINA N. Great Famine of 1931–1933 in Kazakhstan: A Contemporary’s Reminiscences. Acta Slavica Iaponica, 2012, vol. 32, pp. 105–130.

ODINTSOV M. I. Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’, nakanune i v epokhu stalinskogo sotsyalizma 1917–1953 gg.. Moskva, 2014.

ODINTSOV M. I., KOCHETOVA A. S. Konfessionalnaya politika v Sovetskom Soyuzie v gody Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyny 1941–1945 gg.. Moskva, 2014.

ODINTSOV, M. I. Religiozniye organizatsyi v SSSR: Nakanune i v perviye gody Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyny (1939–1943). Otechestvenniye arkhivy, 1995, vol. 2, pp. 35–43.

OHAYON I. La sédentarisation des Kazakhs dans l’URSS de Staline. Collectivisation et changement social (1928–1945). Paris, 2006.

OLCOTT, M. B. The Collectivization Drive in Kazakhstan. The Russian Review, 1981, vol. 40, No 2, pp. 122–142. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/129204

OSIPOV V. I., ZINOVKINA N. V., SOKOLOVA J. I., OSIPOVA A. I. (eds.). Staroobriadchestvo. Istoriya, kultura, sovremennost’. Materialy. Moskva, 2002.

Pavlodarskaya yeparkhiya. [online] [cited 28 April 2020]. Available from: http://pavlodar-eparhia.ru/info/istoriya-eparkhii.

PERIS, D. ‘God Is Now on Our Side’: The Religious Revival on Unoccupied Soviet Territory during World War II. Kritika: Explorations in Russian & Eurasian History, [s. l.], vol. 1, No 1, pp. 97–118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/kri.2008.0135

PODBEREZSKIJ, I. V. Les protestants en Russie. Revue d’études comparatives Est-Ouest, 1993, No 3–4, pp. 139–153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/receo.1993.2633

PODOPRIGORA Y. I. Nemtsy Pavlodarskogo Priirtyshia. Almaty, 2010.

POHL J. O. Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937–1949. Westport, 1999.

POHL, M. „It Cannot Be that Our Graves Will Be Here“: The Survival of Chechen and Ingush Deportees in Kazakhstan, 1944–1957. Journal of Genocide Research, 2002, vol. 4, No 3, pp. 401–430. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520220151989

POLIAKOV L. L’epopée des vieux-croyants. Paris, 1991.

POSPELOVSKIY D. Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’ v istorii Rusi, Rossii i SSSR. Moskva, 1996.
POSPIELOWSKY D. A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice, and the True Believer. New York, 1987.

Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’ v Kazakhstane. Kokshetauskaya i Akmolinskaya Yeparkhiya. [online] [cited 28 April 2020]. Available from: http://pravest-kokshe.kz.

ROCCUCCI A. Stalin i patriarkh. Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’ i sovetskaya vlast’ 1917–1958. Moskva, 2016.

ROHOZIŃSKI J. Święci, biczownicy i czerwoni chanowie. Przemiany religijności muzułmańskiej w radzieckim i poradzieckim Azerbejdżanie. Wrocław, 2005.

ROMANOVA, N. I. Sovremennoye polozheniye Russkoy Pravoslavnoy Staroobriadcheskoy Tserkvi v Kazakhstane i Sredney Azii. In: OSIPOV, V. I., et al. eds. Staroobriadchestvo. Istoriya, kultura, sovremennost’. Materialy, Moskva, 2002, pp. 230–244.

ROY, Y. Islam v Sovetskom Soyuze posle vtoroy mirovoy voyny. In: IORDAN, M. V. et al. (eds.) Islam w Yevrazii. Moskva, 2001, pp. 157–169.

Russian Perspectives on Islam. [online] [cited 25 February 2020]. Available from: https://islamperspectives.org/rpi.

Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov’. Mitropolichiy okrug w Respublike Kazakhstan. [online] [cited 28 April 2020]. Available from: http://sobor.kz.

SARTORI, P. Of Saints, Shrines, and Tractors: Untangling the Meaning of Islam in Soviet Central Asia. Journal of Islamic Studies, 2019, vol. 30, No 3, pp. 367–405. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etz001

SARTORI, P.; BABAJANOV, B. Being Soviet, Muslim, Modernist, and Fundamentalist in 1950s Central Asia. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2019, vol. 62, pp. 108–165. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341476

SHABLEY, P. Rossiyskaya impieriya i musulmane Semipalatinska: disbalans vlasti i neodnorodniye obshchestva v konce XIX veka. Ab Imperio, 2019, No 3, pp. 47–87. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/imp.2019.0065

Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University. [online] [cited 8 September 2020]. Available from: http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/index-e.html.

SOLOVYOV, I. Shtrikhi k istoricheskomu portretu „obnovlencheskogo” metropolita Aleksandra Vvedenskogo. In: XIX Yezhegodnaya bogoslovskaya konferentsiya Pravoslavnogo Svyato-Tikhonovskogo gumanitarnogo universiteta: materialy, vol. I, Moskva, 2009, pp. 300–307.

STROŃSKI H. Represje stalinizmu wobec ludności polskiej na Ukrainie w latach 1929–1939. Warszawa, 1998.

Svyatoy Iosif iz Maykuduka (film). [online] [cited 18 September 2020]. Available from: https://youtube/9ff-x8DJPYs.

SZUBTARSKI, G. Antykościelne ustawodawstwo w ZSRR za rządów Włodzimierza Lenina 1917–1923. Kościół i Prawo, 2013, vol. 15, No 2, pp. 63–75.

TABULDENOV A. N. Deportatsyi i evakuatsiya naseleniya v Severniy Kazakhstan (1937–1956 gg.). Kostanay, 2015.

TASAR E. M. Soviet and Muslim: The Institutionalization of Islam In Central Asia, 1943–1991. New York, 2018.

TASAR, M. E. Islamically Informed Soviet Patriotism in Postwar Kyrgyzstan. Cahiers du Monde russe, 2011, vol. 52, No 2–3, pp. 387–404. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/monderusse.9340

TERNOVYJ I. K. (ed.). Kustanay – Kostanay: ocherki istorii. S drevneyshikh vremion do 1936 goda. Kostanay, 2012.

TOHIDI, N. „Guardians of the Nation“: Women, Islam and the Soviet Legacy of Modernization in Azerbaijan. Journal of Azerbaijani Studies, 1999, vol. 2, No 1, pp. 39–58.

TOLTS, M. Ethnic Composition of Kazakhstan on the Eve of the Second World War: Re-Evaluation of the 1939 Soviet Census Results. Central Asian Survey, 2006, vol. 25, No 1–2, pp. 143–148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02634930600903171

TROFIMOV J. F., NIKIFOROV A. V., SINYAKOV O. V. (eds.). Religiozniye obyednineniya Severo-Kazakhstanskoy oblasti: istoriya i sovremennost’. Informatsyonno-analiticheskiy spravochnik. Petropavlovsk, 2016.

WARACHIM H. Włóczęga Boży. O. Serafin Kaszuba – kapucyn, apostoł Wołynia, Kazachstanu i Syberii. Kraków, 1991.

WIERIŻNIKOWA, I. G. Prehistoria Kościoła Katolickiego w Kazachstanie. [online] Credo, 2007, vol. 2. [cited 30 December 2007]. Available from: http://www.catholic-kazakhstan.org/Pl/teksty/prehist.html.

Zesłaniec. Organy Rady Naukowej Związku Sybiraków. [online] [cited 8 September 2020]. Available from: http://zeslaniec.pl.

ZHANBOSINOVA, A. The Evolution of Soviet State and Religion Interrelation (1920s–early 1950s). Byliye Gody, 2013, vol. 28, No 2, pp. 51–56.

ZHIROMSKAYA V. B., KISELEV I. N., POLAKOV Y. A. Polveka pod grifom ‘sekretno’. Vsesoyuznaya perepis’ naselenia 1937 g. Moscow, 1996.

ZHIROMSKAYA, V. B. Otnoshene naseleniya k religii: po materialam perepisi 1937 goda. Trudy Instituta rossiyskoy istorii RAN, 1997–1998, vol. 2, pp. 324–338.

ZHIROMSKAYA, V. B. Religioznost’ naroda v 1937 godu (po materialam Vsesoyuznoy perepisi naseleniya). Istoricheskiy vestnik, 2000, vol. 5, pp. 46–54.

ŻYWUTSKI S. Deportacja ’36. Wspomnienia Polaka uprowadzonego z Podola przez bolszewików. Łomianki, 2017.