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coming to an end, and the potential of civic consciousness and participation is gradually merging in Russian society.
Today our society has come to the critical line when people will either search for ways and methods of greater influence on life surrounding them. On the whole, while remaining outside "big-time" policy and mistrusting most state and public institutions, Russian people, nevertheless, demonstrate interest in and real readiness for collective actions and self-organization. Young people and the middle sections of the population are awakening. It can be said with relative certainty that these groups and sections will not only join public and political life, but also will demand the creation of democratic institutions and procedures for the realization of their interests.
"Filosofskiye nauki," Moscow, 2013, No 1, pp. 55-61.
A. Martynenko,
D. Sc. (Hist.), Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute MUSLIMS OF MORDOVIA: PROBLEMS OF OVERCOMING INTERNAL CONFLICT
In the latter half of the 1980s - early 2010s there was a tumultuous development of religious life in the Republic of Mordovia, just as in entire Russia. The most influential and widespread confessions are Russian Orthodox Christianity and Islam (Sunna umma). However, there are also quite a few representatives of other confessions (Lutheran, Baptist, Adventist, Pentecostal, and others).
It should be said that stability and tolerance are inalienable features of the ethnopolitical and ethnoconfessional life of modern Mordovia.
However, starting from the early 2000th and up to now an intra-religious conflict has been developing in the Muslim umma of the Republic of Mordovia.
In 2000 the Muslim umma of the Republic of Mordovia, whose nucleus is formed by Tatars, became divided into supporters of the two rival muftiates - the Regional spiritual board of Muslims (RSBM) and the Spiritual board of Muslims (SBM). The former was oriented to the Central spiritual board of Muslims of Russia (CSBM) in Ufa headed by the mufti Talgat Tajuddin, and SBM supported the Council of muftis of Russia (CMR) in Moscow headed by mufti Ravil Gainuddin.
In the autumn of 2008 the split of Muslims of Mordovia became still more aggravated by the emergence of the third muftiate - the Central spiritual board of Muslims of the Republic of Mordovia (CSBM RM). It was headed by Fagim Shafiyev, graduate of the faculty of the Arab language at the Islamic University in Medina (Saudi Arabia).
CSBM RM united part of Muslims in the Tatar villages of Aksyonovo, Bolshaya Elkhovka and Tatarskaya Tavla.
The reaction to this event was negative. The formation of CSBM RM was regarded as a factor aggravating the split among the Muslims of Mordovia.
On September 20, 2009, there was an open confrontation between supporters and opponents of Fagim Shafiyev at the mosque in the village of Aksyonovo.
On November 12, 2010, the expert of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and well-known scholar of Islam R. Silantyev visited Saransk, the capital of the Republic of Mordovia. He delivered a public lecture on Muslim sects at the Mordovian State University. Its main subject was the Wahhabi trend in Islam. He said that in the past fifteen years Wahhabis in Russia had killed fifty imams and two muftis
who did not share their religious views, as well as six Russian Orthodox priests. In his view, the number of supporters of radical Islam was rapidly growing in Russia. R. Silantyev maintains that "Russian Islam is sick." There are 73 muftis in Russia and each one of them has his own understanding and interpretation of religion. But the most dangerous are sects of Islamic origin. They are aggressive and do not tolerate dissidence. If the state does not interfere with the situation and does not support its real allies in Islamic community, there would be no peace and tranquility in the inter-religious world.
R. Silantyev's visit to Mordovia has once again reflected the complex character of the intra-Muslim conflict in the republic.
In December 2010, CSBM RM joined the newly-formed structure of the spiritual board of Muslims - the centralized religious organization "Russian Association of Islamic Accord" (RAIA), or the "All-Russia Muftiate."
This organization includes regional muftiates of Stavropol territory, Perm territory, Republic of Mordovia, Ryazan region, and several regions of the Urals, which position themselves as independent. The mufti of Stavropol territory Muhammad-hajji Rakhimov became the chairman of the organization.
RAIA proclaimed the "real solution" to the problems of the Russian Muslim community as its aim, in close cooperation with the Russian authorities at all levels (the Federal center and regional authorities). This muftiate declared that it plans to create a council of ulems and also its structural subsections which would recreate the Russian Muslim theological school, develop Islamic information area in the Russian Federation, and inspect Islamic religious publications.
RAIA has immediately expressed a critical attitude toward Ravil Gainuddin, , the head of CMR in Moscow.
For his part R. Gainuddin called RAIA a "community of dirty people and puppets," and a "pocket muftiate."
The April 2011 issue of the newspaper Islam v Mordovii (Islam in Mordovia) published an article under the title "RAIA - There Is No Future Without Repentance." The article described crimes and reprisals against religious cults, particularly Islam, perpetrated by Soviet power, and Lenin personally. A great many mosques and madrasahs were destroyed, Islamic books were burnt, tens of thousands of imams and rank-and-file Muslims were arrested and killed. Then the article suddenly accused mufti Shafiyev of "adherence to Lenin's ideas..." Indeed, the Internet has placed an interview given by F. Shafiyev in which he mentioned the experience of the leader of the Russian Bolsheviks. Shafiyev took Lenin's premise that the basic problem of any revolution is the problem of power. Something similar is taking place in the Muslim umma of Russia. "In order to become consolidated our Muslims should first disunite and then come closer together," Shafiyev claimed. But this statement of his was immediately used against him by his opponents from SBM RM.
A majlis-congress of SBM RM was held in Saransk on September 14, 2011, at which it was announced that R. Khalikov was appointed deputy chairman of the Council of muftis of Russia (CMR). The 30-year-old Abdulkarim-khazrat Abdrashitov, graduate of the Russian Islamic University, became a new mufti of SBM RM.
Unfortunately A. Abdrashitov lost his life in a car crash in November 2011. Ildus-khazrat Iskhakov was elected new mufti of SBM RM on November 27.
Unfortunately, the formation of RAIA has increased the polarization of forces in the Muslim umma of Russia, particularly, in the Republic of Mordovia. Sides do not hear one another, there are no negotiations, personal attacks are a common thing, etc., etc. Such
situation may have pernicious consequences for the Muslim community.
"Etnopoliticheskaya situatsiya v Rossii i sopredelnykh gosudarstvakh v 2011 godu". Moscow, 201, pp. 110-113..
Oleg Tsvetkov,
Ph. D. (Philosophy), Institute of Socio-economic and Humanitarian Research, Southern Scientific Center RAS "CHERCESSIAN PROBLEM" IN POLITICAL PROCESSES
The Chercessian problem has a major significance for the political process in the North Caucasus. Its main essence is the idea about the Caucasian war of the 19th century as the "genocide of the Adygi people." At present the Chercessian problem includes: demands that Russia should officially recognize the genocide of the Adygi people during the years of the Caucasian war (1817-1864); demands that Adygis living abroad (descendants of those who had left their native country due to the Caucasian war) be given entry visas and residence permits to return and live in Russia, Russian citizenship, and favorable conditions for adaptation to a new life in the Russian Federation; demands to form a larger "Adygi" part of the Russian Federation, which would unite Adygea, Karachay-Chercessian Republic, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic and, possibly, part of the Krasnodar and Stavropol territories; demands to form the Chercessian autonomous region.
Some of the active proponents of the Chercessian question (certain Adygi organizations) voice opposition against holding the
