Introduction

Despite the liberalization of relations between the state and religious organizations during World War II, even at the beginning of 1948 the mechanism of arrests and prosecutions was initiated once again against those holders of religious beliefs who, committed to traditional Muslim literature and culture, continued their religious practices. In February 1948, state security officers of the Molotovskaya Oblast`“revealed evidence” of the “sectarian group of Ishanism” that “was engaged in anti-Soviet activities,” as stated in the investigative documents.

In 1999, my investigations in the archive revealed the so-called “Anti-Soviet Ishanism Establishment Case” (hereafter ASIEC), containing documents related to the arrests in 1948 of a group of people residing in the southern districts of the Permskaya Oblast` (Molotovskaya Oblast` at the time), which was densely populated by Muslims. During the case of 1948, many Muslims were interrogated, charged and finally sentenced as Ishanism devotees. It is typical for the Perm Region that since ancient times, the Tatars and Bashkirs living in its southern parts have traditionally practiced Islam. Those who were arrested in 1948 were accused of professing Ishanism, a form of Sufism that existed in the Volga-Ural Region. The findings were included in an article which was published in 1999 (Selyaninova 1999, 72-79).