Bogoyavlensky Staro-Golutvin Monastery as a Socialist Utopia or «House of God» in the Eyes of the Soviet Tatar Muslim Woman
Abstract
The article, using the memories of the life of Radjabova Salikha Idiyatovna (born 1926) — the Soviet Muslim woman, examines the processes and practices of constructing identity of Muslims of USSR in the interdiscourse space of the Bogoyavlensky Staro-Golutvin Monastery monastery in Kolomna in the 20–50s years of the 20th century. The author focuses on the interaction of three key components of this process: Muslim, ethnic and Soviet discourses, and analyzes their influence on the construction of the identity of the article’s heroine. Drawing upon Yuri Lotman’s notion of subjectivity and examining the practices of Soviet Muslims that focus on identity construction, along with their agency and various forms of interaction or resistance to dominant power narratives — particularly the responses of individuals to the encroachments of external discourses, this work seeks to articulate the concept of Muslim subjectivity.
Keywords
About the Author
D. E. DzansolovRussian Federation
Damir E. Dzansolov — PhD student
Moscow
References
1. All-Union Population Census of December 17, 1926: Brief Summaries (1927–1929). Vol. 10. Moscow: Central Statistical Office of the USSR. (In Russian)
2. Anderson, B. (2016) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. Moscow: Kuchkovo Pole. (In Russian)
3. Arendt, H. (1996) The Origins of Totalitarianism. Moscow: TsentrKom. (In Russian)
4. Assanova, D. (2023) “Aspiration for Truth as a Driving Force to Live and Write: Lifestory and Memories of Gulnar Dulatova (1915–2013) — Daughter of Myrzhakyp Dulatov”, Bulletin of the L. N. Gumilyov ENU. Historical sciences. Philosophy. Religion Series 145 (4): 41–57. (In Russian)
5. Bessmertnaya, O. Y. (2023) “What are We to Do with ‘Muslim Subjectivity’? Prospects and Pitfalls of the Research Approach in a Historiographical Context”, RUDN Journal of Russian History 22 (2): 174–187. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-8674-2023-22-2-174-187; EDN: MMYOEE. (In Russian)
6. “‘Biography as Art’: An Unpublished Article by Yuri Lotman”, Arzamas. Special Project “The History of Yuri Lotman” [https://arzamas.academy/materials/2388, accessed on 22.12.2024]. (In Russian)
7. Blackwood, M. A. (2016) “Fatima Gabitova: Repression, Subjectivity and Historical Memory in Soviet Kazakhstan”, Central Asian Survey 36 (1): 113–130.
8. Bobrovnikov, V. (2013) “The Language of Soviet Propaganda in the Muslim East Between the Two World Wars (1918–1940)”, in The Poster of the Soviet East. 1918–1940, pp. 7–24. Moscow: Mardjani Foundation; State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia. (In Russian)
9. Bustanov, A., Usmanov, V. (eds) (2022) Muslim Subjectivity in Soviet Russia: The Memoirs of ‘Abd al-Majid al-Qadiri. Paderborn: Brill.
10. Foucault, M. (1996) The Will to Truth: Beyond Knowledge, Power, and Sexuality. Works from Various Years. Moscow: Kastal. (In Russian)
11. Hellbeck, J. (2021) Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary Under Stalin. Moscow: New Literary Observer. (In Russian)
12. Kalinin, I. (2012) “The Oppressed Must Speak: Mass Recruitment into Literature and the Formation of the Soviet Subject, 1920s — Early 1930s”, in A. Etkind, D. Uffelmann, I. Kukulin (eds) There, Inside: Practices of Internal Colonization in Russia’s Cultural History, pp. 587–663. Moscow: New Literary Observer. (In Russian)
13. Kefeli, A. N. (2014) Becoming Muslim in Imperial Russia: Conversion, Apostasy, and Literacy. Ithaсa, London: Cornell University Press.
14. Korchagin, K. (2023) “Muslim Subjectivity and Modernity: Between Sociology and History of Ideas”, Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov’ v Rossii i za rubezhom 41 (3–4): 586–602.
15. Kotkin, S. (2001) “Speaking Bolshevik”, in M. David-Fox (ed.) American Russian Studies: Landmarks of Recent Historiography. The Soviet Period, pp. 250–329. Samara: Samara University. (In Russian)
16. Lotman, Yu. M. (1996) Inside Thinking Worlds. Man — Text — Semiosphere — History. Moscow: Languages of Russian Culture. (In Russian)
17. Makarenko, A. S. (1967) March of 1930. Moscow: Prosveshchenie. (In Russian)
18. Meyer, J. H. (2023) Red Star over the Black Sea. Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
19. Nora, P., Ozouf, M., de Puymège, G., Winock, M. (1999) Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University Press. (In Russian)
20. Official Website of the Staro-Golutvin Monastery. [https://starogolutvin.ru/istoriya-monastyrya-1, accessed on 22.12.2024]. (In Russian)
21. Pinsky A. (ed.) (2018) After Stalin: Late Soviet Subjectivity (1953–1985): A Collection of Articles. St. Petersburg: European University at St. Petersburg Press. (In Russian)
22. Plungyan, N. (2016) “‘Soviet Woman’ and the Political Potential of Transmasculinity in PreWar Visual Culture”, in G. Mamedov, O. Shatalova (eds) Concepts of the Soviet in Central Asia: Almanac of Shtab No. 2: Central Asian Art-Theoretical Publication, pp. 294–336. Bishkek: Shtab-Press. (In Russian)
23. Priymak, N. I., Valegina, K. O. (2018) Memoirs, Diaries, Letters as a Historical Source: A Textbook. St. Petersburg: LEMA. EDN: YQYKBE. (In Russian)
24. Safarov, M. (2020) “Zuleikha Awakens the Identity: How the TV Series’s Debates become “Battles for History”, Islamology 10 (1): 105–114. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24848/ islmlg.10.1.06; EDN: QBDEVC. (In Russian)
25. Studer, B., Unfried, B. (2011) Stalin’s Party Cadres: Practice of Identifi ation and Discourses in the Soviet Union of the 1930s. Moscow: ROSSPEN; Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center. EDN: QVMNTX. (In Russian)
26. Yurchak, A. (2014) Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. Moscow: New Literary Observer. (In Russian)
27. Zhuravsky, A. V. (2023) Introduction to Islam. 12 Lectures for the Magisteria Project. Moscow: Rosebud Publishing. (In Russian)
Review
For citations:
Dzansolov D.E. Bogoyavlensky Staro-Golutvin Monastery as a Socialist Utopia or «House of God» in the Eyes of the Soviet Tatar Muslim Woman. State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide. 2026;44(1):63-92. (In Russ.)
JATS XML





































