Russian Hajj. Empire and pilgrimage to Mecca. Kane A.

At the end of the 19th century, the Government of the Russian Empire was organizing an important religious practice for Muslims - pilgrimage to holy places, Hajj. Thus, the authorities tried to take control of the Muslim population of Russia, integrate it into imperial space, and also expand its influence in neighboring countries. In the 1920s, Soviet power restored the imperial infrastructure of Hajj. Although with the strengthening of Xenophobic trends in the 1930s, Hajj was folded, the influence of the USSR in the Middle East was largely based on the remnants of the previous infrastructure.

, on the example of the organization of pilgrimage practices, historian Ailin Kane in detail analyzes the attitude towards Islam in the Russian Empire and in the USSR, paying special attention to the international context. Thus, the history of Russian Hajj appears in a monograph as part of the global history. Ailin Kane - Specialist in Islam, professor of history at the Connecttikutsk College, USA.