The Bolsheviks' Muslim: Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev's Islamic Communism and Revolution in the Soviet East (Research Brief)

The long-term objective for this project is to write a political and intellectual biography of Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev (1892-1940), his milieu, time, and role in the Soviet Union’s nation-building project, as well as his tragic fate. On the eight-week trip to Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia, I carried out intensive archival research, mostly in the former-party archive (Central State Archive of Historical-Political Documentation of the Republic of Tatarstan), but also in the National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan. In addition, I made contacts with scholars in Kazan, and I took an intensive course in the Tatar Language. My trip was very successful: I gathered almost all the materials in Kazan relating to the topic and made substantial progress in learning Tatar.

Download the pdf at the top of this page for the full brief.

Mark Baker, of California State University, Bakersfield, was a 2009-10 Short-Term Travel Grants (STG) fellow.