Muslims in the Soviet Petrograd-Leningrad // Baltic Worlds. – 2017. – Vol. X. – P. 111-114.

Nowadays, Islam in the Soviet Union is a topic that kindles researchers’ interest both in Russia and in the West. In addition to studies of state policy on Islam and Muslims, research is conducted on Islamic institutions, including informal ones, that functioned in some regions of the country during Soviet times. It appears that studying the history and forms of Islam’s existence in the USSR is important because among other reasons this period is not so far away from us. Many religious leaders of Muslim congregations and heads of Muslim religious organizations in different cities across the former USSR grew up and graduated from university during Soviet times. That time seems long past in view of the fact that most witnesses of that epoch, ordinary people who lived during that time and took part in the day-to-day religious practices in different regions of the Soviet Union (including Leningrad) from 1920 to the 1970s, are already gone. Unfortunately, of the sources of information created by Muslims themselves, capturing some moments of everyday religious life in Leningrad, very few have survived.