Soviet and post-soviet Islamic revivalin a Tatar village in Mordova

Abstract

The author of this article examines the contemporary Islamization of the Tatar village Belozer’e in Mordova in the context of the village’s particular socioeconomic development. While Mordova as a whole was characterized by a massive emigration from rural areas in the late Soviet period, the Tatar population of Belozer’e continued to grow. Although the kolkhoz declined, regional authorities displayed a surprising lack of concern for Belozer’e, which allowed the “shadow” economy to flourish. At the same time, Islam was developing locally without much attempt at institution building. Nonetheless, the case demonstrates that social differentiation in the wake of private entrepreneurship, and that continued ethnic and confessional isolation and of the non-interference of Soviet authorities left palpable imprints on the course of reIslamisation after the collapse of the Soviet regime. In the village there are several religious societies, each of which is tied to a muftiate. Also Belozer’e has introduced Islamic non-conformism, however, limited only at the end of the 1990s.

Keywords

• belozer’e
• kolkhoz
• islam
• islamic revival
• mordova
• private economy
• re-islamisation
• soviet period
• post-soviet period
• tatars