What is it about?

The great architect of the Soviet atheist geopolitical system, V.I. Lenin, would roll over in his grave if he knew that one of his main objectives was now facilitating religious conversion. Soviet authorities placed a high priority on “russification,” that is the assimilation of non-Russian peoples into Russian patterns of life, thought and worldview. Yet this social process has now been found to be a significant factor in Central Asian Muslims converting to Christianity in the post-Soviet era.

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Why is it important?

Religious change in the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union has often been over simplified into a narrative of national revival or Islamic radicalization. Therefore, it is important for us to understand other aspects of this fluid religious landscape.

Perspectives

Too often ethnographic writing is filled with the researcher’s own perceptions of those we study, and contain very little of their actual words and thoughts. In this article I try to present a significant picture of the words and thoughts of converts themselves, without digressing to merely the anecdotal.

Dr Daniel Hoskins
Pulaski Technical College

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This page is a summary of: Russification as a factor in religious conversion. Making Lenin roll over in his grave, Culture and Religion, October 2015, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2015.1109531.
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