The main and only ideology in the USSR was communism. There was no place for any other teachings, especially religious ones, in the country of the victorious proletarian revolution. Everyone knows exactly how the Soviet state fought against the Orthodox Church. What about Islam?
Deprivation of property
At first, until 1929, the official policy of the state with respect to Islam was the most favorable compared to the line pursued with respect to other confessions and religious groups. In November 1917, the Soviet government adopted an appeal "To all working Muslims of Russia and the East." It said: “Muslims of Russia, Tatars of the Volga region and Crimea, Kirghiz and Sarts of Siberia and Turkestan, Turks and Tatars of Transcaucasia, Chechens and mountaineers of the Caucasus, all those whose mosques and chapels were destroyed, whose beliefs and customs were trampled by the kings and oppressors of Russia! From now on, your beliefs and customs, your national and cultural institutions are declared free and inviolable."
But after 1929, the situation changed a lot. They began to close the mosques en masse. In 1930, in Tatarstan alone, out of 12,000 mosques, more than 10,000 were closed, and up to 97% of mullahs and muezzins were deprived of the opportunity to carry out their duties. In other regions where Islam was practiced en masse, the situation was the same. By the 60s, for example, not a single mosque remained in Turkmenistan.
Destruction of religious education
An even more painful blow was the closure of religious schools. In 1929, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the USSR banned the teaching of the Muslim faith. In general, the situation was very similar to that of the Orthodox Church: the same persecutions and arrests, confiscation and closure of mosques and madrassas. And just like with Orthodoxy, the situation softened somewhat during the Great Patriotic War. They even managed to open several religious schools. However, the general educational level of the Islamic clergy was rather low. For example, by 1990, out of 857 imams and muezzins in Russia, only 21 had a higher education. Many members of the clergy did not have a religious education. In the Soviet Union, only one madrasah functioned in Bukhara and an Islamic institute in Tashkent. The Soviet government did not allow opening additional Islamic educational institutions. So,The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European part of the USSR and Siberia, which was in charge of 211 mosques, was able to open theological courses for clergy only in 1989.
Promotional video:
The fight against the Arabic language dealt a big blow to Muslim education. Many copies of the Koran in Arabic were destroyed, among which were unique works of book art.
A blow to traditions and customs
Despite the declarations on the inviolability of traditions, the Soviet government fought them purposefully. In the 1920s and 1930s, the “hujum” movement for women's emancipation developed in Central Asia. Outwardly, this was expressed in the removal of the burqa.
At a later time, the authorities in the regions where Islam was spread - in the republics of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Tatarstan, etc. periodically organized "round-ups" to identify those who still live by the norms of religion. Medical examinations were organized to see which of the parents circumcised their sons. In this regard, there was an active trade in medical certificates confirming that the boys had undergone an operation necessary for their health.
In order to promote atheism, the names of Muslim holidays were used. So, in Tatarstan, at the same time when the holiday of the sacrifice of Kurban-Bairam is taking place, the Komsomol members organized "Krasny Bairam" - lectures and various events aimed at promoting the atheistic worldview.
