Islam in the USSR in 1979: a View from France on Soviet Religious Policy

The events of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1978-1979 led to a noticeable increase in interest in Europe, particularly in France, in the study of Islam and its role in the transformations that were taking place at that time. The article analyzes the French view of Soviet policy on the Islamic issue based on documents from the archives of the French Foreign Ministry. The author shows that France paid serious attention to studying the growth of the Muslim population in the USSR and the potential influence of the demographic factor on the integrity of the Soviet state in the medium term. In the analytical notes of the French Foreign Ministry, primarily the French Embassy in the USSR, it was concluded that, according to all significant socio-economic criteria, the situation with the Muslim population in the USSR in the late 1970s significantly contrasted with that which caused the events in Iran or Afghanistan, and the sharp increase in demography in the national republics did not carry centrifugal risks for the USSR. The entire Soviet policy on the Islamic issue as a whole was also assessed positively. It was noted that Moscow managed to build a system of relations between Islam and the state, in which religion even acted as a stabilizing factor for the national policy of the USSR.