Organization of Religious Life of Muslim Tatars workers in the European part of Russia and Siberia at the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries

Abstract

Industrialization and the emergence of new industrial centers of Russia led to the emergence of workers communities and emergence of seasonal work (otkhodnichestvo) phenomenon. Analyzing the distribution of Tatar workers by the country’s enterprises, the author notes that most of them did not work in non-Muslim factories, forming there a local Muslim groups. Muslim workers faced to the need to transform traditional social institutions in the new environment. The article addresses such issues as an arrangement of religious life, introduction of religious holidays to the working schedule, the establishment of the official religious community and the right to build the mosque, fulfillment of funeral rites. Particular attention is paid to the issue of election of a Muslim cleric (mullah) in such communities and his salary.