THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, February 1, 1980
The Soviet Union's Internal Thorn: Close-Knit Moslem Minority
By EDWIN EYTAN
PARIS (JTA) — East
European experts, Krem-
linologists and intelligence
experts believe that the
Soviet Union moved into
Afghanistan, provoking a
major East-West crisis for
strategic reasons, but also
because of its own internal
Moslem problems.
These experts are con-
vinced that the Soviet
Union's Moslem population
is increasingly turbulent in
its demands for local au-
tonomy and cultural deter-
mination. Since Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini's re-
turn to Iran a year ago, mil-
lions of Soviet Moslems
regularly listen to Radio
Teheran and are increas-
ingly attracted to his teach-
ings.
Europe's best known ex-
pert on Soviet ethnic prob-
lems, Helene Carrerre
d'Encausse, is convinced
that the Russian empire,
outwardly a close-knit state
over whiclf Stalin's iron fist
hung less than a generation
ago, is now bursting at the
seams. Dozens of
nationalities, mainly Mos-
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lems from the Kalmuks to
the Kazaks, openly aspire
towards a certain form of
national independence and
resent traditional Russian
domination.
The most restless ele-
ment are the Soviet
Union's 50 million Mos-
lems. In a generation
from now they will
number 80 million and, if
current demograp)iic
trends continue, will be-
come the Soviet Union's
majority by the middle of
the next century.
The Asian Moslems who
border Iran and Afghanis-
tan already openly resent
Slavic authority, kneel
towards Mecca five times a
day, celebrate with un-
abated fervor Moslem reli-
gious holidays and aspire
towards an Islamic cultural
and national revival.
Soviet official statistics
quoted by Prof. Carrere
d'Encausse show that they
contract no outside mar-
riages in spite of intense
atheistic state propaganda
and even managed to con-
vert to Islam the nomadic
tribes in the deep south.
For the Soviet Union's
Moslems, Karl Marx, after
60 years of Communist rule,
is still only a minor prophet,
somewhere between
Buddha and Jesus. The in-
tensity of Khomeini'i
preachings and the dangers
of an Islamic republic in Af-
ghanistan were reportedly
seen by the Kremlin as a di-
rect threat to Soviet state
integrity.
The Soviet Union was
always preoccupied by
the relations between the
various nationalities.
Lenin dealt with it and so
did Trotsky but the real
expert was Stalin. It was
"the little father of the
peoples" who gave the
Soviet Union its Russian
character and it was dur-
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ing his rule that the Rus-
sian and in general Slavic
domination over the
other 51 nationalities be-
came absolute.
With Khrushchev's rise
to power the various
nationalities started show-
ing their ethnic and reli-
gious particularities. Since
the early 1970s, this process
has been accelerating.
This national process is
also accompanied by a de-
mographic explosion. While
in 1959 the Russians repre-
sented over 55 percent of the
Soviet Union's total popula-
tion and the Moslems 12,
the Russians now represent
less than half of the popula-
tion and the Moslems close
to 16 percent.
The Soviet Union is a
country of huge internal
migrations. Every year a
minimum of 15 million
people change their place of
residence, sometimes mov-
ing over thousands of
kilometers. But most of
these migrants are the
Slays, Russians and Ukrai-
nians, who settle in the far
off territories, further de-
pleting their own republics
and drowning in the mass of
the native inhabitants.
The Slays are the ad-
ministrators, the techni-
cians, often the higher eche-
lon experts in most of the
non-Slavic republics. The
first secretary of the local
Communist party usually is
a native but the second sec-
retary, the man who holds
the reigns of real power, is a
Russian or Ukrainian.
Within the Moscow
Central Committee, 82
percent of the members
are Slays and within the
Politburo 14 out of 16 are
Slays. Within the
Secretariat, all 11 mem-
bers, from Leonid
Brezhnev down, are
Slays.
Within the army. Slavic
and especially Russian
domination is complete. Al-
though army units are offi-
cially integrated and of
mixed nationality, the Mos-
lems find themselves in
such branches as the infan-
try, which require less for-
mal schooling, and the Rus-
sians are in the Air Force.
At the end of World War
II, this disproportion was
even greater. Ninety per-
cent of the men serving in
artillery units were Slays
and 90 percent of the offi-
cers were Russians. A re-
cent statistic published by
the Red Army newspaper,
"The Red Star," reveals that
even for junior officers 82.5
percent come from workers
families and only 17.5 per-
cent from farming villages.
Most Slays are employed in
industry; practically all
Moslems in agriculture.
As far as senior officers
are concerned, Western in-
telligence sources find that
91 percent of generals pro-
moted between 1940 and
1976 are of Slavic origin
with 60 percent Russian, 20
percent Ukrainian, four
percent Byelorussian, two
percent Poles and five per-
cent of unknown origin.
This anti-Moslem dis-
crimination was accom-
panied by a national and
religious renaissance. In
the Karakalpak Republic
(part of Uzbekistan) close
to 80 percent of the in-
habitants officially de-
clared themselves prac-
ticing Moslems — this in
spite of the dangers
inherent in such a dec-
laration.
Over 25 percent of the
population said they were
"fervent" Moslems and even
in the northern Caucasus,
close to Moscow and central
influences, only 20 percent
of the Moslem school chil-
dren said in school tests that
they were atheists.
While the Soviet Moslems
are divided, as elsewhere,
between Sunnites and
Shiites, they invariably de-
fine themselves as "plain
Moslems" and explain that
for them their religion is
"belonging to the Umma,
the Islamic community."
The Moslems follow their
religious precepts and when
they cannot, due to govern-
ment imposed restrictions,
they try to find another
solution. Thus the Soviet
authorities have forbidden
the killing of animals for
the "feast- of the sacrifice."
The Moslem Religious
Council issued a "fetwa"
(edict) saying that the sac-
rifice can be replaced by a
financial contribution equal
to the value of the animal
which would have been kil-
led.
In this way, the Soviet
laws are respected. But
not only do the faithful
continue their ancestral
practices but their com-
munal organizations and
funds grow ever more
prosperous.
Another "fetwa" replaced
the feast of Mavlud, celeb-
rating the birth of the Pro-
phet, which is normally ac-
companied by a gathering
in the mosque, with private
celebrations. Thus, accord-
ing to Soviet observers
quoted by Carrere d'En-
causse, for every mosque
celebration more than 90
private ceremonies are held
in homes, out of the
authorities' sight.
Even the pilgrimage to
Mecca, which the Soviet
government forbids, has
been replaced with pilgrim-
ages to local sites within the
Soviet Union.
Practically all Moslems
undergo religious weddings
and the number of mixed
marriages is practically nil.
When such a rare marriage
does occur, it usually in-
volves a Moslem and a
non-Moslem woman. The
children are invariably
raised in their father's reli-
gion
O
Soviet
legislation for-
bids the marraige of
minor girls or paying a
price for the bride. In
spite of these laws, the
traditional practices con-
tinue unabated. In 1965,
the Central Committee of
the Uzbek Communist
Party even laid down a
ruling for what it consid-
ered the "normal" price:
500 Rubles, 200 kilog-
rams of flour, 80 kilog-
rams of rice, two sheep
and nine suits, or a total
of 2000-3000 Rubles for a
good looking and healthy
wife.
Another instance of tradi-
tional practices occurred in
1972 when one of Tash-
kent's main Communist
leaders died. The Moscow
Central Committee sent an
official •representative who
organized a state funeral in
the city's cemetery — a
non-religious institution in
which all deserving Com-
munists are buried. The
family, including his Com-
munist Party member sons,
adamantly refused and
opted for a religious burial
in the Moslem cemetery.
When a foreign journalist
on a visit to Uzbek asked
last year on the eve of
"Revolution Day" what is
the Soviet Union's most im-
portant holiday, he was in-
variably told: the end of the
Ramadan.
While• practically all
nationalities have accepted
the Cyrillic alphabet, in
Daghestan the local central
committee officially asked
for the adoption of the
Arabic alphabet, explaining
in its request "that it is the
Latin of the East."
Moslem vitality, religious
and cultural, is not only
more intense than in the
rest of the Soviet Union but
seems to be growing
stronger every year.
U.S., Israel Sign
Health Accord
WASHINGTON (jta) —
The United States and Is-
rael signed a health
cooperative agreement this
week that incorporates
servic4s in seven areas, in-
cluding research and direct
assistance.
The ceremony was con-
ducted in the conference
room of Secretary of Health,
Education and Welfare,
Patricia Harris. She signed
for the United States and
Health Minister Eliezer
Shostak signed for Israel.
HEW officials said that
while the two countries had
been cooperating in various
fields of health for many
years, this will be their first
formal agreement.
The areas of mutual
interest incorporated in
the agreement include
planning health and
services;
manpower
health economics and
financing; health infor-
mation; public health re-
lated to the environment;
biomedical research; and
research in the evolution
of health services.
In the United States pro-
gramming for this agree-
ment, officials said, each
field will have an American
specialist working with the
Israelis. The cooperative ef-
fort will begin immediately
after the signing of the
agreement.
Exchanges of specialists
and seminars in both coun-
tries will be conducted to
explore services and re-
search to be undertaken.