ПУБЛ., ВСТУП. ARTICLE AND COMMENT BY D. Y. ARAPOV The Bolsheviks officially declared their benevolent attitude towards Islam and Muslims, the second largest confessional group in Russia (after the Orthodox), in the first days after they came to power1. This was done on November 20 (December 3), 1917, in an appeal "To all Muslim workers in Russia and the East", signed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Russia V. I. Lenin and the People's Commissar for Nationalities I. V. Stalin. The beliefs and customs of Russian Muslims and their religious institutions were declared " free and inviolable." The document contained an impassioned appeal to all Muslims of the East to give the Bolsheviks "sympathy and support" in the struggle for the "liberation of the oppressed" of the whole world from social, especially imperialist, oppression [Decrees..., 1957, pp. 114-115]. In the same period of time, guided both by well-known, essentially purely educational principles, and by its specific political goals, the Soviet leadership promulgated a Decree of January 20 (February 2), 1918, according to which the church was separated from the state, and the school-from the church [Decrees..., 1957, p. 4. 373 - 374]. The last part of this legislative act has caused almost equally negative reaction among domestic confessional, including Muslim, communities. It should be noted, however, that in the difficult conditions of the civil war of 1918-1920 and the first years of NEP, the implementation of the "school section" of the 1918 Decree was extremely slow in the Islamic environment [Chebotareva, 2004]. A whole complex of internal and external circumstances largely determined the rather flexible and cautious policy of the Bolsheviks and the Soviet authorities, including its special services, in relation to Muslim spiritual circles and their flock. During these years, Islam and its ministers were, on the whole, undoubtedly in a much more favorable position than the Russian Or ... Read more