Islam and Ethnicity in the Republics of Russia
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TITLE : ISLAM AND ETHNICITY IN THE REPUBLICS OF RUSSI A AUTHOR : SUSAN GOODRICH LEHMANN, Columbia Universit y THE NATIONAL COUNCI L FOR SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARC H TITLE VIII PROGRA M 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, N .W . Washington, D .C . 20036 PROJECT INFORMATION : 1 CONTRACTOR : Columbia Universit y PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR : Susan G . Lehman n COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER : 808-1 4 DATE : June 14, 1996 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION individual researchers retain the copyright on work products derived from research funded b y Council Contract. The Council and the U .S. Government have the right to duplicate written report s and other materials submitted under Council Contract and to distribute such copies within th e Council and U.S. Government for their own use, and to draw upon such reports and materials fo r their own studies; but the Council and U.S. Government do not have the right to distribute, o r make such reports and materials available, outside the Council or U .S. Government without th e written consent of the authors, except as may be required under the provisions of the Freedom o f Information Act 5 U .S.C. 552, or other applicable law . 1 The work leading to this report was supported in part by contract funds provided by the Nationa l Council for Soviet and East European Research, made available by the U . S. Department of State under Title VIII (the Soviet-Eastern European Research and Training Act of 1983, as amended) . The analysis and interpretations contained in the report are those of the author(s) . CONTENTS Abstract 1 Introduction 2 The 1993 Russian Election Study 4 The Role of Sufism 7 Variation in Religiosity Across Ethnic Groups 1 1 Demographic Characteristics of Religious Practitioners 1 3 Alternative Explanations for Religious Variation 1 5 Implications for Economic and Political Beliefs 1 9 Conclusion 20 Bibliography 22 Tables 25 ISLAM AND ETHNICITY IN THE REPUBLICS O F RUSSIA1 SUSAN GOODRICH LEHMANN Assistant Professor of Sociolog y Columbia University ' Abstract This paper concerns the state of Islam in the 5 Muslim Autonomous Republics i n Russia at the end of the Soviet era . Based on survey data collected by the author in 1993 . it is clear that the strength of Islam both as a religious and social institution varied regionally despite the shared experience of Soviet anti-religious policies . Muslims i n Chechnia and Dagestan were much more likely to report that they actively practice d Islam than Muslims living in Kabardino-Balkaria, Tatarstan . and Bashkortostan . Most importantly religious practice in Russia in 1993 was high among non- traditional groups of Chechens and Dagestani . The young, the urban migrants, the highl y educated, and men reported high levels of active worship . In Bashkortostan, Tatarstan , and Kabardino-Balkaria in contrast, active religiosity was primarily confined to old rura l women with low levels of education . These differences, I hypothesize, are linked to th e Sufi Islam tradition present in Chechnia and Dagestan but absent in the other Musli m regions . From a strategic point of view these data suggest that Islam is less likely t o facilitate Russian/minority conflict in those regions where it is weak, but very likely to facilitate such conflict in Chechnia and Dagestan were it is strong and widespread amon g young urban males . Sufism in Russia contains a strong nationalistic element . which causes Sufi Muslims to view issues of national identification in a less compromisin g manner than non-Sufi Muslims . According to the data, Sufism is less relevant i n determining attitudes toward economic reform which show greater consistency across th e Muslim Republics . ' This article was written with support from National Council for Soviet and East European Research Gran t 808-14, National Science Foundation Grants SBR-94-12051 and SBR-94-02548, the Carnegie Foundation, th e MacArthur Foundation, and the Harvard Russian Research Center . 2 Mailing Address : 420 Fayerweather Hall, Columbia University, New York, N .Y . 10027 3These findings and those of a follow-up study of religious knowledge and practice and ethnic toleranc e sponsored by the U .S. Department of State and conducted in the summer and fall of 1995 in Tatarstan . Bashkortostan, Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkaria are the subject of ongoing research . 1 Introductio n Becoming modern normally means moving to the city and assimilating to a complex of urba n behavior and values ranging from smaller family size and attenuation of extended family ties, t o increasing commitment to education, to linguistic assimilation to the dominant ethnic group, to mor e participatory political attitudes . Often this process of urbanization is viewed as a rational response t o objective, primarily economic, stimuli .' With the focus on economic factors the role of cultura l values, especially ethnic and religious values, tends to be inadequately incorporated into analyses o f the modernization process . Among the important features of modernization among Christian nations has been the tendency towards secularization of religious attitudes . It is understood that newcomer s to the city sometimes adopt fundamentalist attitudes, but in the long run religiosity declines as a population becomes more urban . ' Some have argued that the phenomenon of religious assimilation may differ for Musli m nations . Braibanti observed , The reemergence of Islamic national identity is part of a larger global trend o f developing nations turning to indigenous modes of development . Disenchantment wit h foreign models and growing self-confidence in a national identity encourage suc h "endogeneity ." This search for roots leads inevitably to a reconsideration of Islam .6 Both the survival of religious values during the transition from rural to urban society and th e role of religion in Russian/minority relations have been under-analyzed in Soviet studies . ' More attention has been given to Islam than Orthodoxy . Even then religion is usually viewed only as a component of nationality . ' Silver does note that Islamic regions lag behind Christian regions in th e degree of Russian language assimilation, but variation within the Muslim republics is assumed to b e insignificant or non-existent.' The numerous sovietologists who expressed concern in the seventie s about the Muslim threat to the Union likewise failed to distinguish among the Muslim republics . Thi s 'See, for example, Gary Becker, The Economic Approach to Human Behavior (Chicago: University o f Chicago Press, 1976) . 'Welch, Michael and John Baltzell, " Geographic Mobility, Social Integration and Church Attendance , Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 23 (1984): 75-91 ; Robert Wuthnow, "Recent Patterns o f Secularization : A Problem of Generations?" American Sociological Review, vol . 41 (1976): 850-867 . "Ralph Braibanti, "Recovery of Islamic Identity in Global Perspective," in The Rose and the Rock, ed . Bruce B . Lawrence (Durham: Duke University Programs in Comparative Studies on Southern Asia, 1979) : 185 . 'For an exception see Bohdan Bociurkiw, "Nationalities and Soviet Religious Policies," in The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society, ed. Lubomyr Hajda and Mark Beissinger (Boulder: Westview Press , 1990) . 'Robert A. Lewis, "The Mixing of Russians and Soviet Nationalities and its Demographic Impact," i n Soviet Nationality Problems (New York : Columbia University Press, 1971) . 'Brian Silver, " Language Policy and the Linguistic Russification of Soviet Nationalities, in Sovie t Nationality Policies and Practices, ed. Jeremy Azrael, (New York: Praeger, 1978) . 2 assumption of Islam's unvarying nature is peculiar given Bennigsen's detailed scholarship on th e distinctive character of Sufism in the Northern Caucasus of Russia . 1 0 One reason for the lack of differentiation in the analysis of religion in the former Soviet Unio n is that Westerners could not engage in opinion polling until the late 1980s . Even then the size o f samples was usually too small for fine-tuned analysis . A very large scale study of the 1993 Russia n election allows us to do such analysis for the first time . As part of the sample, 1,000 respondent s each were selected from 16 former autonomous republics of Russia. Five of these republics have a n Islamic religious tradition : Tatarstan, Bashkortostan . Chechnia . Dagestan . Kabardino-Balkaria . It turns out that the level of religiosity varies enormously among these Muslim people . This study will make the case that while the transition to urban life generally produces a decline i n religiosity, the character of the dominant type of Islam in a region has a great impact on the rate o f secularization. Bennigsen's hypothesis that Sufi Islam, found in Chechnia and Dagestan . was peculiarly successful in surviving communist attempts at secularization is confirmed . This is in contrast to Jadidist Islam, followed by Tatars and Bashkirs, which was peculiarly weak in staving of f decline in religious observance . In our study 65% of Chechens/Dagestani both believe and practic e Islam compared to 18% of Kabardians/Balkars and 19% of Tatars/Bashkirs . The data demonstrate that at the end of the Soviet period Islam was a widespread and activ e religion which cut a broad swath through the social strata only in those regions dominated b y Sufism . It is particularly noteworthy that in Sufi dominated areas Islam continued to draw activ e support among young men. Among the Kabardians/Balkars . which are influenced neither by Jadidis m or Sufism, the level of religious practice was low while religious belief remained strong . In Tatarsta n and Bashkortostan Jadidism coupled with urbanization led to substantial decline in both religiou s belief and religious practice by the end of the Soviet era . Religious and national identity are often intertwined. Studies of the rate of ethnic assimilatio n in the former Soviet Union have assigned causal significance to the date of Russian conquest, th e experience of deportation, the presence/absence of native language schooling, and variation in level s of inter-ethnic marriage.