God Save the USSR

During the Second World War as the Soviet Red Army was locked in brutal combat against the Nazis Joseph Stalin ended the state's violent decades-long persecution of religion. In a stunning reversal priests imams rabbis and other religious elites--many of them newly-released from the Gulag--were tasked with rallying Soviet citizens to a Holy War against Hitler. To the delight of some citizens and to the horror of others Stalin's reversal encouraged a widespread perception that his war on religion was over. A revolution in Soviet religious life ensued: soldiers prayed on the battlefield entire villages celebrated once-banned holidays and state-backed religious leaders used their new positions not only to consolidate power over their communities but also to petition for further religious freedoms. Offering a window on this wartime religious revolution <em>God Save the USSR</em> focuses on the Soviet Union's Muslims using sources in several languages (including Russian <br>Tatar Bashkir Uzbek and Persian). Drawing evidence from eyewitness accounts interviews soldiers' letters frontline poetry agents' reports petitions and the words of Soviet Muslim leaders Jeff Eden argues that the religious revolution was fomented simultaneously by the state and by religious Soviet citizens: the state gave an inch and many citizens took a mile as atheist Soviet agents looked on in exasperation at the resurgence of unconcealed devotional life.<br>