Discourse about the Russian Muslims in the Materials of the Special Meetings of 1905-1914

Abstract

This article provides a short overview of the so called five “Special meetings” organized by various imperial ministries on the issues of faith tolerance and above all on the situation of Muslims in Russia, from 1905 to 1914. For each of these meetings, the authors give the names of the major protagonists within the imperial elite: officials, Church leaders, Orientalists/ethnographers, and then a short sketch of topics discussed. The conclusion is that over these ten years, the discourse became tougher, and switched from the discussion of religious freedom and Muslim education, to a direct search of the ways of containing the growing Muslim political intelligentsia. This trend culminated in an anti-Jadid policies and the turn towards “traditionalism” (keeping the Russian language and secular subjects out of the maktabs and madrasas; stopping the influx of foreign Islamic preachers, etc.).