Authors

Discussion

The phenomenon of social mobilization in the USSR during the so-called Great Patriotic War and its relationship to religion remain a still little studied phenomenon. Equally difficult to explain is the emergence of the phenomenon of the Soviet Muslim, for whom there is no contradiction between Soviet patriotism and Islam. To understand all this, we must take a close look at the atmosphere of the final years of the war and the post-war period. The patriotic intensification of the „Great Patriotic War” fueled by Soviet propaganda brought some concessions to religion limited by Soviet anti-religious legislation to some nations and exclusion to others. Those ethno-religious groups that participated in the Soviet narrative mythologizing the war effort were able to develop some forms of religious activity to a limited extent. Communities excluded from this narrative, on the other hand, were forced to cultivate their religious traditions underground for a very long time. The latter ones were also devoid of any umbrella religious organizations and church structures. This meant that, unlike in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in this case we had a situation where the pursuit of religious freedoms took place not according to the pattern of church vs. state, but citizens vs. state. This phenomenon is particularly well seen in northern Kazakhstan, where, as a result of the deportation of many nationalities, ethno-religious groups of very different status lived side by side.