The Union of the Muslims of Russia (Ittifaq, short for tt-Cyrl, Иттифак әл-мөслимин, ''Ittifaq âl-Möslimin'' and , ''Ittifaq al-Muslimin'') was a
political organisation
A political organization is any organization that involves itself in the political process, including political parties, non-governmental organizations, and special interest advocacy groups. Political organizations are those engaged in politica ...
and
party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
of
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
in the late
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. The organisation was founded during the
1905 Revolution
The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...
and came to an end after the
February Revolution
The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...
. Its political agenda was liberal-constitutional, closely aligned to that of the
Kadet Party
)
, newspaper = ''Rech''
, ideology = ConstitutionalismConstitutional monarchismLiberal democracyParliamentarism Political pluralismSocial liberalism
, position = Centre to centre-left
, international =
, colours ...
; the Islamic reform movement of
Jadidism was an important influence. The Ittifaq was dominated by
Volga Tatar
The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars ( tt-Cyrl, татарлар, tatarlar) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are Russia's second-largest ethnicity after t ...
intellectuals, but also included Muslim representatives of other ethnicities such as
North Caucasians
The peoples of the Caucasus, or Caucasians, are a diverse group comprising more than 50 ethnic groups throughout the Caucasus.
By language group
Language families indigenous to the Caucasus
Caucasians who speak languages which have l ...
,
Azeri
Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic people living mainly in Azerbaijan (Iran), northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republi ...
s,
Crimean Tatars,
Caucasusians and
Central Asian
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former S ...
s.
Background
Islam in Russia before 1905
According to official statistics, the Russian Empire had 14 million Muslim subjects around 1900; Muslim
Duma representatives even claimed a number as high as 30 million. The core of the Muslim population was located around
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
, which had been conquered by
Ivan the Terrible
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584.
Ivan ...
in the 16th century. Other areas with significant Muslim populations were the
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
,
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
,
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
and
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
.
Periods of toleration and repression alternated. Under Ivan, noble Muslims were allowed to keep their titles and their Russian serfs, while the middle part of the 18th century saw the destruction of 418 of Kazan's 536 mosques.
Catherine II
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...
followed the different strategy of promoting a new Muslim clerical structure, especially the
Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly
The Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly (russian: Оренбургское магометанское духовное собрание) was a state-controlled religious administration in the Russian Empire that had jurisdiction over certain aspects ...
, to strengthen Russian rule over
Khazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
and other Muslim communities.
The conquest of Central Asia in the latter half of the 19. century had seen Muslim leaders call for
Jihads against the Russian soldiers. Together with imperialist and
social darwinist
Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in W ...
influences from Western Europe, this created a new picture of Central Asian Muslims as "fanatics" beyond rational discourse; this also reflected on Russian attitude towards "older" Muslim populations, for example in Kazan. Islam became an object of study in the new subject of
Orientalism
In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
(''Vostokovediene''). Under
Nikolay Ilminsky
Nikolai Ivanovich Il'minskii (russian: Николай Иванович Ильминский; 1822–1891) was a Russian professor of Turkish languages at Kazan University and known as "Enlightener of Natives".
Following a highly successful care ...
, the Russian administration started opening schools in Kazan in which the
Tatar language
Tatar ( or ) is a Turkic languages, Turkic language spoken by Volga Tatars, Tatars mainly located in modern Tatarstan (European Russia), as well as Siberia. It should not be confused with Crimean Tatar language, Crimean Tatar or Siberian Tat ...
was only taught in the first four years, while Russian was taught all through the curriculum. The desired effect was for "backwards" Muslim culture to "die out" over time without provoking a "fanatical" answer.
[ Noack, Christian: ''Muslimischer Nationalismus im Russischen Reich. Nationsbildung und Nationalbewegung bei Tataren und Baschkiren, 1861-1917'', Stuttgart 2000, p. 111.]
Jadidism
On April 22, 1883, the newspaper ''
Tercüman
''Tercüman: Halka ve Olaylara'' was a Turkish daily newspaper. It was founded in 1955 by Kemal Ilıcak (1932–1993), and associated with the center-right. The newspaper closed after Ilıcak's death, and the name was acquired by the Çukur ...
'' ("Interpreter") was published for the first time in the
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
n town of
Bakhchysarai
Bakhchysarai ( crh, Bağçasaray, italic=yes; russian: Бахчисара́й; ua, Бахчисара́й; tr, Bahçesaray) is a town in Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Re ...
. Its publisher,
Ismail Gaspirali
Ismail bey Gasprinsky (also written as Gaspirali and Gasprinski: crh, İsmail Gaspıralı, russian: Исмаи́л Гаспри́нский ''Ismail Gasprinskii''; – ) was a Crimean Tatar intellectual, educator, publisher and Pan-Turkist pol ...
, became the ideological forerunner of the Jadid movement. This movement was more than a response to the expansion of Russian rule into the cultural life of its Muslim subjects. It was a genuinely Muslim reform movement, the goal of which was a modernisation of all of society. The superiority of orthodox Russia was seen as a menace to an "authentic" Muslim way of life, but this menace was also seen as self-caused by backwardness and conservatism.
The main part of the Jadid reform program was the introduction of the
phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
"new method" (''usul al-jadid'') of teaching Arabic in
Maktabs. Until then, the instruction had consisted out of memorizing
Surah
A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...
s from the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
without translation. The Jadids also demanded the introduction of worldly topics of education. However, it is important to note that the Jadids were not
secularizers, but religious reformers. Additionally, they promoted the cultural unification and "awakening" of Russian muslims through the adoption of a single language,
Ottoman. The Jadids did not oppose Russian rule itself, but Russian attempts at forced assimilation as well as cultural and religious patronization. Especially the
Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly
The Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly (russian: Оренбургское магометанское духовное собрание) was a state-controlled religious administration in the Russian Empire that had jurisdiction over certain aspects ...
was seen in a critical light.
The Jadid medium of choice was the press. The founding of ''Tercüman'' marked the beginning of an extremely lively Muslim newspaper milieu, especially after the Russian administration ended its opposition to Tatar language newspapers in 1905/06. In Central Asia, where printing had only been introduced after the Russian invasion, the Jadids founded ''Kutubkhana'', combined bookstores and publishing houses. From 1905 to 1917, the total number of Tatar newspapers and magazines founded was 166, though most of them were short-lived. According to M. Pinegin, an
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
official tasked with censorship, their ideological alignment was rather clear: "The ideals and aims of nearly all Muslim newspapers and journals are the same, and their orientation can only be described as Nationalist-Progressive".
![The publishers of Ülfät newspaper](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/The_publishers_of_%C3%9Clf%C3%A4t_newspaper.jpg)
However, this did not mean the Jadids did not face Muslim opposition: Their reform program was not accepted by the majority of the
Ulama
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
. These
Kadimists (Adherents of the "old method", ''usul i-qadim'') were especially opposed to the theological reinterpretations of Jadidism and the attempts at rationalization of traditions and branded the Jadids heretics or youthful hotheads.
The Jadids were a very heterogenous movement. Among
Volga Tatars
The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars ( tt-Cyrl, татарлар, tatarlar) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are Russia's second-largest ethnicity after t ...
, most reformers were young Ulama, who had often gone to Russian schools. Central Asian Jadids were influenced by Tatar ideas, but consisted out of a bourgeois middle class created by a cotton boom. Khazakh reformers even defined themselves through their resistance against Tatar patronization. Meanwhile, the most important factors in
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
were a cultural "de-Iranization" and hostility against non-Turkic ethnicities.
Still, Jadidism remained a project for the elites up until 1917, with the Kadimists traditionalism prevailing among the majority of the Muslim population. The reason for Jadid dominance can instead be found in the fact that the introduction of a rational, public discourse about necessary reforms of society was itself an integral part of their program, while the Kadimists accepted the new ways of communication only grudgingly. This should also have an effect during and after the
1905 Revolution
The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...
, when the conflict between Jadids and Kadimists took a back seat to all-Russian Muslim organization.
History
First congress
Between 1904 and 1907, old problems of the Russian Empire (rising politicisation, economic crisis and agrarian question) met with short-term causes, especially the
St. Petersburg Bloody Sunday. Together, they resulted in the
1905 Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...
. During the next years, a decay of autocratic power allowed opposition groups to discuss the foundations of the Russian state in a never-before seen scope. The Muslims of Russia also took part in this discussion.
The main figure was
Abdurasid Ibragimov. He was a Tatar
Ulama
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
who had emigrated to
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
in 1893 as protest against the Russian policy regarding Islam. In 1904, he was deported to Odessa on demand of the Russian government. He was soon let go there and minister of the interior
Pyotr Sviatopolk-Mirsky
Prince Pyotr Dmitrievich Svyatopolk-Mirsky (russian: Пётр Дми́триевич Святопо́лк-Ми́рский, tr. ; , in Vladikavkaz – , in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Russian general, politician, and police official.
...
even encouraged him to write a petition to the Tsar in the name of Russia's Muslims. With this petition, Ibragimov succeeded in starting a large-scale campaign of Muslims, especially of Jadids.
On January 23, 1905, leading members of Muslim Kazan first met, including not only Ulama but also intellectuals and merchants. They sent letters to Gaspirali and other Muslims in the Crimea and the Caucasus in which they invited them to a meeting in St. Petersburg. At a second meeting, they adopted a draft resolution in which they connected specifically Muslim demands (inclusion of Muslims in the process of drafting laws that concerned them, autonomy of the spiritual administration) with general liberal demands.
During the summer, Muslim delegations from the whole empire met in St. Petersburg. For the first time able to lead an encompassing discussion, a base consensus of Jadid reform interests soon became apparent. On April 8, the delegations arranged an All-Russian Muslim Congress in
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...
. In order to cover it from the authorities, it was scheduled to take part at the same time as the
Nizhny Novgorod Fair
Nizhny Novgorod Fair (''old name — Makaryev Fair'') (russian: Нижегородская ярмарка) was a fair in Nizhny Novgorod held annually every July near Makaryev Monastery on the left bank of the Volga River from the mid-16th century ...
in August 1905.
The participants of the first Muslim congress were not chosen by any formal criteria. They consisted out of the merchants who were present anyway as well as Ulama and intellectuals who had come specifically for the congress. After authorities had denied a formal permission for a meeting due to a "improper choice of place and time", the congress was moved to the river steamer ''
Gustav Struve
Gustav Struve, known as Gustav von Struve until he gave up his title (11 October 1805 in Munich, Bavaria – 21 August 1870 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary), was a German surgeon, politician, lawyer and publicist, and a revolutionary during the Germa ...
''. The congress organisers tried to hinder some younger participants from joining by giving them a wrong start time. However, these participants rented a boat, chased the steamer and were let on board after a warning.
[Noack: ''Muslimischer Nationalismus im Russischen Reich'', p. 229.]
After a ten hour meeting, the delegates in a final statement pledged themselves to the founding of a Union of the Muslims of Russia. The question of whether this Ittifaq should be a party or some kind of big-tent organisation was tabled. A second congress was scheduled that should debate this and further questions. The debate between national Muslim unity and concrete political programme was to be a feature of the Russian Muslim movement until 1917.
Second congress
During the break between first and second congress, the Jadid activists of Kazan decided to take part in the
upcoming Duma election as part of an existing party. On November 18, they met with different parties which presented their programmes. Unsatisfied, the Kazan Jadids, despite the first congress' decision not to found a party, formed a commission for an own political programme.
A regional congress was scheduled for December 3 to decide on the draft programme. After intensive discussion, an extraordinary All-Russian Congress seemed inevitable and was scheduled for January 16 in St. Petersburg. However, the delegates there would only be able to discuss made facts: Ibragimov and
Yusuf Akçura
Yusuf Akçura ( tt-Cyrl, Йосыф Акчура; 2 December 1876 – 11 March 1935) was a prominent Turkish politician, writer and ideologist of ethnic Tatar origin. He developed into a prominent ideologue and advocate of Pan-Turkism during the ...
, two of the most prominent Volga Tatars, had in the meantime joined the central executive committee of the
Kadet Party
)
, newspaper = ''Rech''
, ideology = ConstitutionalismConstitutional monarchismLiberal democracyParliamentarism Political pluralismSocial liberalism
, position = Centre to centre-left
, international =
, colours ...
.
[Noack: ''Muslimischer Nationalismus im Russischen Reich'', p. 241.]
In December 1905, there had already been a meeting with leading Kadets including
Pavel Milyukov
Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov ( rus, Па́вел Никола́евич Милюко́в, p=mʲɪlʲʊˈkof; 31 March 1943) was a Russian historian and liberal politician. Milyukov was the founder, leader, and the most prominent member of the Con ...
and
Peter Struve
Peter (or Pyotr or Petr) Berngardovich Struve (russian: Пётр Бернга́рдович Стру́ве; pronounced ; 26 January 1870 in Perm, Russia, Perm – 22 February 1944 in Paris) was a Russian Political economy, political economist, ph ...
in St. Petersburg. Afterwards, Ibragimov and Akçura attended the Kadet's second party congress. There, the Kadets adopted several of their suggestions to their party program: The traditional rights of Muslims should be respected, the
Muftiate
A muftiate (alternative spelling: muftiyat) bs, Muftijstvo or ; sq, Myftini; bg, мюфтийство; kk, мүфтият; russian: Муфтият; tt-Cyrl, мөфтият; ro, muftiat; uk, Муфтіят) is an administrative territorial en ...
should be autonomous and school education should take place in the mother tongue of the pupils. Akçura was also voted into the Kadet's Kazan regional committee. There also was an agreement that Ittifaq would call for the election of the Kadets everywhere where its own candidates would have no chance of success.
None of this had been discussed with other Ittifaq members beforehand. Crimean Tatars and
Transcaucasia
The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...
n Muslims saw Ibragimov's and Akçura's deal as a sign that Ittifaq was becoming an organisation for and by Volga Tatars. Gaspirali nearly did not come at all, because he did not want to work together with an opposition party.
Several of the more radical delegates, organised around the newspaper ''
Täng'' (Dawn) and ideologically nearer to the
Social Revolutionaries
Social revolutions are sudden changes in the structure and nature of society. These revolutions are usually recognized as having transformed society, economy, culture, philosophy, and technology along with but more than just the political syst ...
, instead voted for an alliance with Socialist parties. Other members of the
intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...
opposed the transformation of the Ittifaq into a political party because "Muslim workers and farmers cannot be brought together in one party with land owners and capitalists."
The Volga Tatars finally pushed through their proposal. The organisation of Ittifaq was changed and now showed much more party-like structures. For example, the congress adopted election procedures for the delegates to the annual party conferences. The Kazan proposal for the Ittifaq's party programme was discussed and adopted as "preliminary".
Third congress
The third All-Russian Muslim Congress, which began on August 16, 1906, was again overshadowed by Ibragimov doing something without prior consultation with the party. This time, he had sent a letter to the Interior Ministry, distancing himself in the name of the Ittifaq from Socialism, Anarchism and
Pan-Islamism
Pan-Islamism ( ar, الوحدة الإسلامية) is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic country or state – often a caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. Pan-Islamism was ...
. Ibragimov then used that opportunity to again start a programmatic debate, which in essence followed that of the second congress. The left members of the Ittifaq more pointedly criticised the creation of a party ignoring the element of class, but acknowledged the Union's primacy despite Ibragimov's provocations.
While arguing against the leftist members of the Ittifaq, Yusuf Akçura called on the examples of Poles and Czechs within Austria-Hungary as successful examples of parliamentary representations of ethnic groups. The congress established several commissions for the further debate of the party programme, but tabled their results until the next congress. At the same time, the newly established Central Committee of the Duma parliamentary group was tasked with the official registration of the party, which marked the de facto victory of the proponents of establishing a formal party.
![Members of the 2nd State Duma 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Members_of_the_2nd_State_Duma_2.jpg)
In the Duma
25 Muslims were voted into the first Duma. They first joined the Kadet's parliamentary group according to their alliance, but formed their own group at the end of June. The Muslim delegates actively participated in the Duma, but all structures like party or press organs where still under construction. Six delegates signed the
Vyborg Manifesto
The Vyborg Manifesto (russian: Выборгское воззвание, translit=Vyborgskoye Vozzvaniye, fi, Viipurin manifesti, sv, Viborgsmanifestet); also called the Vyborg Appeal) was a proclamation signed by several Russian politicians, pri ...
following the first Duma's dissolution and where as a result not allowed to stand for the second Duma's election.
[Noack: ''Muslimischer Nationalismus im Russischen Reich'', p. 247.]
In the second Duma, Muslims held 36 seats as a result of their alliance with the Kadets. Five representatives split from the main group, demanding a more radical agricultural policy, and formed the group of the "laborious Muslims", which oriented itself on the
Trudoviks
The Trudoviks (russian: Трудова́я гру́ппа, translit=Trudovaya gruppa, lit=Labour Group) were a social-democratic political party of Russia in early 20th century.
History
The Trudoviks were a breakaway of the Socialist Revolut ...
. In practice, they still mostly followed the Ittifaq line, especially voting together with the Kadets against Prime Minister
Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin ( rus, Пётр Арка́дьевич Столы́пин, p=pʲɵtr ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ stɐˈlɨpʲɪn; – ) was a Russian politician and statesman. He served as the third prime minister and the interior minist ...
's agricultural policies. Meanwhile, the Ittifaq increasingly institutionalised itself, for example by founding the newspaper ''Duma''. However, this newspaper was taken over by sympathisers of the Social Revolutionaries and quickly closed by officials.
Decline
When
Stolypin dissolved the second Duma and subsequently changed election procedures, Central Asian Muslims were completely barred from voting. This marked the end of the high phase of Muslim activity in the Duma.
The Ittifaq was also prohibited from formally registering as a party. Its delegates postponed the fourth All-Russian Muslim Congress in order to not unnecessarily displease the authorities. However, they achieved the opposite: The organisation structures, which in any way had never been very strong, simply began dissolving. In the third Duma, the Muslim group only had eight delegates. These also had to fight increasing nationalist tendencies within the Kadets. The Muslim movement therefore fell back to the regional level. Only in the press was the national discussion continued.
The conflict between Jadids and Kadimists, silent during the 1905 Revolution, now came to the forefront again. This also included campaigns by conservative rural Ulama, who in petitions declared lists of Jadids to be "pan-Turkists, pan-Islamists, and singers of the Marseillaise" who were collecting money for the Turkish fleet. Indeed, state repression against any form of "pan-Islamism" was stronger between 1910 and 1912 than ever before.
During a state-sanctioned fourth All-Russian Muslim Congress in the summer of 1914, the delegates could only agree on the old Jadid principles. However, these increasingly stood in contrast with a new generation of Muslim reformers, whose idea of nation was ethnic-cultural and not religious. This was especially the case with the Volga Tatars, whose press and literature increasingly were published in Tatar between 1905 and 1914. When the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
dragged on, Muslim political activity came to a halt.
End during the revolution
The
February Revolution
The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...
and the return of about a million of highly politicised Muslim soldiers invigorated the Ittifaq, as it did other parties. In contrast to 1905, the movement now had mass backing and its activists had political experience and structures to call back on. Meanwhile, the alienation from the Kadets continued. The left wing of the Ittifaq continued to come closer to the Socialists ideologically, but stayed within the party.
However, the first All-Muslim Congress, which came together in Moscow on May 1, 1917, was to be the end of a united Muslim movement within Russia. The 900 delegates, among them 112 women and representatives of the
provisional government
A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...
, where split along the lines of "Federalists" and "Unitarists". The ones proposed a federal structure, the others cultural autonomy within a unity state inspired by
Austromarxism
Austromarxism (also stylised as Austro-Marxism) was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner, Max Adler and Rudolf Hilferding, members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria in Austria-Hungary and ...
. In the end, the congress voted to include the creation of federal republics within its programme by 446 votes to 271.
This angered the Volga Tatar delegates, who had called for cultural autonomy. This, the dominance of Volga Tatars in the newly-created Muslim National Council (''Milli Sura'') as well as their attempts at an alliance with the provisional government led to their complete isolation. At the second All-Muslim congress, which was held in July 1917 in Kazan, only Volga Tatar delegates were present. By calling for cultural autonomy for all Muslims against the wishes of the first congress, they completed the split within the movement.
[Noack: ''Muslimischer Nationalismus im Russischen Reich'', p. 156.]
Noteworthy members
*
Abdurrashid Ibrahimov
*
Ismail Gaspirali
Ismail bey Gasprinsky (also written as Gaspirali and Gasprinski: crh, İsmail Gaspıralı, russian: Исмаи́л Гаспри́нский ''Ismail Gasprinskii''; – ) was a Crimean Tatar intellectual, educator, publisher and Pan-Turkist pol ...
*
Musa Bigiev
Musa Bigiev (sometimes known as Luther of Islam) (1870Azade-Ayşe Rorlich: ''The Volga Tatars'', Stanford 1986; pp. 59–61./75Charles Kurzman: ''Modernist Islam, 1840–1940. A Sourcebook'', New York 2002, p. 254. in Novocherkassk,Elmira Akhmet ...
*
Fatih Kerimi
*
Alimardan Topchubashov
Alimardan bey Alekber bey oghlu Topchubashov ( az, Әлимәрдан бәј Әләкбәр оғлу Топчубашов, italic=no, Əlimərdan bəy Ələkbər oğlu Topçubaşov; 4 May 1862, Tiflis – 8 November 1934, Paris) was a prominent ...
*
Yusuf Akçura
Yusuf Akçura ( tt-Cyrl, Йосыф Акчура; 2 December 1876 – 11 March 1935) was a prominent Turkish politician, writer and ideologist of ethnic Tatar origin. He developed into a prominent ideologue and advocate of Pan-Turkism during the ...
Literature
* Kanlidere, Ahmet, ''Reform within Islam. The Tajdid and Jadid Movement among the Kazan Tatars (1809-1917): Conciliation or Conflict?'' (Istanbul, 1997).
* Scheibert, Peter, ''Die russischen politischen Parteien von 1905 bis 1917'' (Darmstadt, 1972).
* Khalid, Adeeb, ''
The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform''. (Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1998).
* Bospflug, Elizabeth, ''The Muslim "Federalist Debate" in Revolutionary Russia'', in: Ab Imperio (2017, Nr. 1), p. 131.
* Noack, Christian, ''Muslimischer Nationalismus im Russischen Reich. Nationsbildung und Nationalbewegung bei Tataren und Baschkiren, 1861-1917'' (Stuttgart, 2000).
*
Zenkovsky, Serge A., ''Pan-Turkism & Islam in Russia'' (Cambridge, 1960).
* Usmanova, Dilara M., ''The Activity of the Muslim faction of the State Duma and its significance in the formation of a political culture among the Muslim peoples of Russia (1906-1917)'', in: Kügelgen, Anke von; Kemper, Michael; Frank, Allen J.: Muslim Culture in Russian and Central Asia from the 18th to the Early 20th Centuries (Berlin, 1998).
* Usmanova, Dilara M., ''Die tatarische Presse 1905-1918: Quellen, Entwicklungsetappen und quantitative Analyse'', in: Kemper, Michael; von Kügelgen, Anke; Yermakov, Dmitriy: Muslim Culture in Russia and Central Asia from the 18th to the Early 20th Centuries (Berlin, 1996), p. 239.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ittifaq Al-Muslimin
Islamic political parties
Political parties of minorities in Imperial Russia
Liberal and progressive movements within Islam
Political parties established in 1906
Political parties disestablished in 1917