Информационная записка о праздновании мусульманами СССР праздника Ураза-Байрам в 1956 году Memorandum on the celebration by the Muslims of the Soviet Union in 1956 of the religious holiday of Uraza Bairam

Translation

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Secret

Copy No. 3

CPSU CC[,] USSR Council of Ministers

No. 41-110s 30 July 56

The Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults hereby attaches a memorandum on the celebration by the Muslims of the Soviet Union in 1956 of the religious holiday of Uraza Bairam.

This year, as in past years, the manifestation of religiosity among believers intensified significantly in the days preceding Uraza Bairam and during its celebration. In a number of communities that do not have registered mosques, believers submitted petitions to open them. There were specific cases in which collective farms during the days of the holiday did not go to work. At the largest mosques, several thousand people took part in collective prayers on the first day of the holiday. For example, at the Tillya Sheikh Congregational Mosque in Tashkent, where the service was conducted by Ziiautdin Babakhanov, the son of Mufti Ishan Babakhan and a member of the World Peace Council, the service was attended by at least 15,000 people, primarily men. Overall, however, mosque attendance and cash collections around the USSR were roughly on the level of previous years. Clerics delivered sermons during the holiday, as a rule, on subjects related to defending peace and called on believers to help to strengthen peace through active labor in collective-farm fields and at enterprises.

Attachment: 9 pages.

Acting Chairman of the Council (Gostev)

True copy: [Signature]

…

Nos. 1-2—addressees

No. 3—file.

600, 28.7.56

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Secret

Copy No. 3

Memorandum

on the celebration by the Muslims of the Soviet Union of the religious holiday of Uraza Bairam in 1956

This year Muslim believers in the Soviet Union commemorated their annual religious holiday of Uraza Bairam in the European part of the USSR from 11 to 13 May, and in the Asian part from 12 to 14 May. The holiday was preceded by the 30-day fast of Uraza [Ramadan], during which Muslims, following the precepts of their religion, can consume food only after sundown and must attend daily evening services at mosques to listen during the first 10-15 days to the Quran, which is recited by heart. At the end of the fast, every believer must make a donation for himself and all family members in the form of a so-called fitr, the amount of which per person is determined each year by the religious directorates, based on the market value of 2 kg of grain. The fitr donation is made either in kind (in grain) or in money. During the days of fasting the most well-to-do believers, following evening services, hold the collective feast of so-called fitr (feast after sundown), to which relatives, neighbors and acquaintances are invited. The clergy must take part in the iftar [meal] and read excerpts from the Quran and prayers. Usually such feasts are attended by at least 30 people.

A study of the aforementioned holiday and fast shows that religious traditions are still holding on fairly strongly among broad strata of the Muslim population in the USSR and especially in the republics of Central Asia and Azerbaidzhan.

The religious activity of believers during the days of fasting, and then on the holiday, largely depends on the activities both

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of the registered and unregistered clergy. Since they are interested in having believers bring as many donations as possible to mosques during the days of fasting and on the holiday, the clergy usually reminds believers long before the fast begins of the need to perform all of the rites prescribed by religious traditions, but mainly not to forget to contribute a fitr to the mosque, which this year ranged from 3 to 6 rubles per person, and not to stint in making other donations.

The year in Ufa, Rostov, Astrakhan, Andizhan and other towns and settlements, mosque representatives made the rounds, the day before the holiday and early in the morning on the day of the holiday, of believers' apartments and reminded them not to forget to come to the holiday service.

The Muslim population, anticipating the start of the holiday, worked on preparing for it almost everywhere. Muslims cleaned up buildings, performed repairs on mosques, cleaned up courtyards and streets and bought new chapans [robes], kerchiefs, tiubeteikas [embroidered skullcaps] and food. In many communities during the three days of the holiday, there was more animation on the street and people went to visit one another. On certain collective farms, the collective farmers did not go to work during the holiday (Stalingrad, Astrakhan and Arzamas oblasts). In a number of towns (Saratov, Molotov, Gorky, etc.) where Muslims live but there are no registered mosques, during the days preceding the holiday there was an increase in requests to open mosques (Namangan and Andizhan oblasts in Uzbek SSR; Kabardin ASSR; Molotov Oblast; etc.).

At most mosques in Central Asia, the service on the first day of the holiday was conducted, as in previous years, outdoors, since these prayers are attended in the towns by several thousand people, and in villages by the majority of the adult population. In places where clerics are inside the mosques during the service, as is the case at the majority of mosques in the central areas of the USSR, such as in Moscow, Kazan, Ufa and other cities, the most ardent believers already begin occupying seats the night before, so as to be in the first rows of worshippers and to hear the cleric's sermon better.

A holiday service was conducted at almost every mosque early in the morning and ended before the start of the workday. Muslims dressed in holiday attire,

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walked to mosques in groups and individually in an exuberant mood, and many of them sang the takbir (a short prayer exalting Allah).

The number of believers who visited mosques on this year's holiday was determined by a number of factors. At some mosques, where sermons were delivered by the leaders of the Muslim clergy or authoritative clerics, the number of believers in attendance was larger than in past years. This phenomenon took place, for example, in Tashkent at the Tillya Sheikh Mosque, where as many as 15,000 people took part in the holiday service. (Last year it was as many as 10,000.) The sermon was delivered by Ziiautdin Babakhanov, vice-chairman of the Muslim Religious Directorate of Central Asia and Kazakhstan and a member of the World Peace Council. The service at that mosque was attended by 13 foreigners from Indonesia and Syria, and the Indonesian representative delivered a sermon. This fact also accounted to a certain extent for the increased religious activity of the believers attending the service and the increase in cash proceeds that day. In Ufa, a sermon was delivered by the vice-chairman of the Muslim Religious Directorate of the European part of the USSR and Siberia, Tuguzbaev. In Baku, Sheikh-ul-Islam Khakim Zade, chairman of the Muslim Religious Directorate of Transcaucasia, spoke at the Tazapir mosque. Authoritative clerics delivered sermons in Semipalatinsk, Kazan and other cities. The number of worshippers increased over previous years at mosques where the local authorities have implemented administrative measures in regard to the mosques and believers. This occurred, for example, in Batumi, where 1,000 more people gathered for this year's service than last year's, and many believers, even residents of Batumi, already came to the mosque the day before and spent the night there. Believers in Batumi are persistently seeking to vacate the mosque from outside tenants. In other plans, where, for example, there was inclement weather, or religious congregations are headed by insufficiently authoritative spiritual leaders, there was a decrease in worshippers. For example, in the city of Osh it rained on 12 May, and the number worshipping at the Mosque of Ravat Abdullakhan, situated at the foot of the Taht-i-Suleiman mountain, which is revered by Muslims, was 5,000, which was only a quarter of the number who worshipped on this holiday last year.

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The especially fanatical believers, however, despite the rain, worshipped outside, sat in the mud and bowed down on the ground, soiling their holiday clothes.

In some religious congregations, the clergy found a solution to the predicament, as was the case, for example, in the village of Sheit-Tepe, Osh Raion. The local mullah there clarified to the believers before the start of the holiday service that, since it was not possible to bow down to the ground due to the rain and mud, worshippers could do so on one another's backs, i.e. those standing in the back rows could lower their faces onto the backs of those in front of them instead of the ground, which the believers in that religious congregations did.

The holiday services at the two mosques in Ufa were attended, like last year, by up to 8,000 believers, and more than 30,000 rubles in donations were collected. In Kazan, 7,000-8,000 prayed, a little more than last year, and about 100,000 rubles in donations were collected during the fasting period and on the holiday, as opposed to 90,000 rubles last year; at the two mosques in Astrakhan, 6,500 people attended, and more than 70,000 was collected, as opposed to 53,000 last year; up to 2,400 believers prayed at Baku's mosques, as opposed to 2,000 in 1955, more than 44,000 rubles in donations were taken in at those mosques, as opposed to 33,000 rubles last year, and so forth.

Despite the fact that there were fewer worshippers at some mosques than in past years, their cash donations remained at the previous level or even increased somewhat. For example, 99,400 believers prayed at registered mosques in the Uzbek SSR on the holiday this year, whereas last year 156,000 did; income, however, totaled 943,000 rubles and 815,000 rubles, respectively. At the seven mosques in the Kazakh SSR, 23,800 people worshipped on the day of Uraza Bairam this year, as opposed to 22,800 last year, while cash income at the same mosques totaled 202,000 and 186,000 rubles.

In accordance with the Muslims' existing tradition, at the conclusion of the holiday service believers set off for cemeteries to visit the graves of their deceased relatives. In Rostov-on-Don, more than 500 Muslims visited a cemetery, and a large number of Muslims spent time at cemeteries after the service on the first day of the holiday in Moscow, Astrakhan, Ufa, Kazan and the majority of other communities.

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As is well known, a sermon by clerics is a component of the Friday and holiday services at mosques. The heads of the Muslim religious directorates, as well as the most politically literate clerics who are loyal to the Soviet state, strive on the days of the annual holidays to deliver sermons to believers on subjects related to defending peace and supporting the Soviet government's foreign and domestic policies. This year, at one of the mosques in the city of Ufa, a sermon was delivered to believers, as was mentioned above, by Baimukhamed Tuguzbaev, vice-chairman of the Muslim Religious Directorate of the European part of the USSR and Siberia, who said: "We all heard with great joy on the radio the announcement by our Government of the new draft law on state pensions. Dear believers, one can sense in every line of this law our Soviet state's deepest concern for people's needs, without regard for their nationality or religious beliefs. We must thank the Soviet state with all our heart for its tireless concern for our brethren who by their long years of honest labor have earned a well-supported old age." Tuguzbaev went on to inform the believers of the opening of a mosque in Leningrad, and the believers listened with close attention and even some excitement to Tuguzbaev's sermon. Joyous exclamations of approval for the Soviet Government's measures could be heard.

At the Tazapir mosque in Baku, a sermon was delivered to believers by Sheikh-ul-Islam Khakim Zade, chairman of the Muslim Religious Directorate of Transcaucasia, who called on believers to defend peace and strengthen friendship between peoples.

At the mosque in the city of Irkutsk, after the service the chairman of the executive body read from the newspaper Izvestia of 20 March 1956 the item, "Presentation of the International Stalin Prize for Strengthening Peace Between Peoples to Sheikh Mukhammed Al-Ashmar" and the speech by Sheikh Mukhammed Al-Ashmar.

In Semipalatinsk, the head of the mosque, Abdullakhakim Omarov, described the peaceful foreign policy being conducted by the Soviet Government and called on believers to take an active part in the cause of defending peace.

In Novosibirsk, Mullah Nazyrov ordered believers to promote the strengthening of peace through their labor, to educate worshippers in this vein

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and to combat hooliganism and drunkenness, especially among young people.

The Muslim clergy and the most active believers, both before the fast began and during it, explained to believers that it was mandatory for them to observe the fast and that it was a "godly" act to make voluntary donations to religious congregations and the clergy. According to a report by the Plenipotentiary of the Council in the Kazakh SSR, the clergy of registered mosques assured believers every day that their donations should be made only to the cash offices of mosques, i.e. all donations given to unregistered mullahs, invalids and the indigent in general supposedly do not reach Allah. In addition, according to available information, the clergy at registered mosques also assured believers that observing Uraza was not mandatory for believers engaged in hard physical work, the sick and the elderly, pregnant women, etc., and that that category of persons could and should fast at another time that was more propitious for them, or make an expiatory sacrifice in the form of a contribution of a certain sum of money to the mosque.

It is impossible to determine the number of believers who observed the fast this year. This ritual was performed more zealously in the republics of Central Asia and Azerbaidzhan than in other areas. According to the report by the Plenipotentiary of the Council in Kazakhstan and from other areas, the fast was observed mostly by nonworking people of advanced age; observance of the fast by middle-aged and even young people took place among Uzbeks, Dungans, Uighurs, Azerbaidzhanis, Chechens, Ingush and Karachais. The observance of the fast was especially noticeable in Kirgizia. Cde. Bektemirov, the secretary of the Molotov Raion Party Committee (Osh Oblast), reported that in the first week of the fast the Raion Party Committee had to do a lot of work on collective farms in order to accomplish a cessation of the mass observance of the fast by believers, which could have had an adverse effect on collective-farm production. Aga Kishi Salikhov, a resident of the village of Nardaran, Mashtaga Raion, in the Azerbaidzhan SSR, said in a conversation: "There is not a single elderly person in our settlement who does not observe the fast." Another Muslim by the name of Suleimanov, a resident of the settlement of Alvady, Massaly Raion, in the Azerbaidzhan SSR, said: "Our settlement of Alvady has up to 200 households, but there is not a single family that does not observe the fast and does not make a fitr to the need as required of it every year according to Sharia."

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There are areas where the number of believers observing the fast declines year after year. For example, in the Cherkess Autonomous Oblast this year, despite the fact that the Muslim fast occurred when field work on the collective farms had not yet begun, it did not produce any particular religious upsurge among the populace.

Throughout the fast, unlike normal times, services are held daily at the mosques. On days when the Quran is recited by heart, the number of believers at prayer meetings increases sharply, and the number of worshippers also increases at Friday services during the days of fasting. For example, in Kazan this year the mosque was attended during Friday prayers by as many as 1,200 people, whereas before the fast on those days the number of believers at the mosque was no more than 700-800. It was the same in Astrakhan, where the number of believers during the fast on Friday went as high as 700, twice as many as on normal Fridays.

The end of the recitation of the Quran is considered a festive time for believers and is usually accompanied by cash collections for religious needs. At 14 mosques in Kirgizia this year, more than 31,500 rubles in donations were collected on this occasion, as opposed to 23,200 rubles in proceeds at the same mosques last year.

A large number of believers took part in the iftars that took place in the evening this year, just as in previous years. For example, the mullah of the mosque in the city of Petropavlovsk (Kazakh SSR) received at least four invitations a day to participate in iftars. In Andizhan Oblast (Uzbek SSR), reports the Plenipotentiary of the Council, iftars were held at virtually every believer's home.

In Kirgizia the average amount of the fitr this year was set at between 3 and 4 rubles per person. In 1956, Kirgizia's registered mosques collected an amount covering 90,500 people; it must be borne in mind, however, that the vast majority of Kirgizia's raions do not have any registered mosques, and in those raions Muslims give a fitr to unregistered clergy and the amount is not recorded. In fact, in communities where mosques exist, some believers do not donate the fitr at the mosque but give it to poor relatives, orphans, etc. In Kazan, the fitr was set at 5 rubles, and 61,000 rubles was collected, as opposed to 59,000 last year. This year Kirgizia's religious congregations

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transferred 422,140 rubles from their income during the fast and the holiday to the Muslim Religious Directorate of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, and in 1955, 330,036 rubles. The yearly increase in the proceeds of Muslim religious congregations is largely attributable to the improvement in the organizational activities of the latter; as a result, the influence of unregistered clergy on believers diminishes, and their proceeds decline.

In the numerous communities where Muslims live but where, for various reasons, there is no officially operating, registered mosque, believers, in equal degrees, observed the fast and conducted holiday services under the guidance of the unregistered clergy. Unregistered groups in particular were active during the days of Uraza [fast] and Uraza Bairam in the Central Asian republics, as well as in a number of places in the central part of the USSR and specifically where Muslims are seeking to have an officially operating mosque opened or where local authorities are exerting administrative pressure on groups. In the city of Gorky, Muslims have been continually clamoring for several years to have the building of a former mosque turned over to them. Despite a general resolution of the issue by the RSFSR Council of Ministers and the Gorky oblast organizations in the Muslims' favor, the transfer of the mosque to the Muslims has been dragged out under various pretexts. As a result, believers are restive. On the day of Uraza Bairam, Muslims in the city of Gorky prayed at services in two places: at an adapted home and in a cemetery. The house of prayer at 37 Luganskaya, the adjoining courtyard and part of the street were occupied by worshippers. It was so crowded that believers could not perform their bows, which are supposed to be done in a seated position, and had to stand. More than 2,000 believers gathered. At the cemetery, the prayer was conducted in an oak grove located deep inside the cemetery. This year the donations collected total about 15,000 rubles, which was three times as much as last year.

There was a similar situation in the city of Molotov, where representatives of believers visited the secretary of the City Executive Committee the day before the holiday to ask for permission to hold a holiday prayer meeting at some public facility or in one of the city's squares. After receiving a rejection, the Muslims held

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their prayer meeting without permission at the city cemetery. Despite the inclement weather, at least 1,500 believers had already gathered at the cemetery by 7 a.m., and many of them prayed kneeling and bowed down to the ground.

Approximately the same picture prevailed in the town of Cheremkhovo, Irkutsk Oblast, and in a number of communities in the Udmurt ASSR, Kuibyshev, Stalingrad and other oblasts.

On the days of fasting and the three days of the holiday in the Central Asian republics, many believers, besides participating in prayer meetings, visited so-called mazars (revered graves), of which there are quite a few in all of the oblasts of the Uzbek, Tadzhik, Turkmen and the southern parts of the Kirgiz and Kazakh SSR. In addition to men, these graves were visited during the days of fasting and especially the holidays by a large number of women and children.

An especially large number of believers visited such revered sites in the Turkmen SSR, which is attributable to the fact that in all of Turkmenia there are only four officially operating, registered mosques, and therefore most of the believers perform their religious rites under the guidance of unregistered clergy at the numerous revered graves of various kinds.

The republican and oblast Plenipotentiaries of the Council informed the Councils of Ministers of the Union and autonomous republics, Oblast Executive Committees, Central Committees and Oblast Committees of the Communist Parties in a timely manner both of the start of the Muslim fast and the holiday, and of all the noteworthy facts related to how they proceeded.

Council Member (Prikhodko)

True copy: [Signature]

3-ap

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No. 489, 25.7.56