Azerbaijan 15.04.2026 Religion in Soviet Azerbaijan: between Allah and the KGB — historian Jamil Hasanli’s first article Baku Share Share Religion in Soviet Azerbaijan In the former Soviet Union, including Soviet Azerbaijan , religious life — particularly Islam and its followers — went through a difficult and dramatic period. During the last 50 years of Soviet rule, both overt and covert struggle for control over religion took place between the KGB and Allah. Throughout this period, in line with communist ideology, the abbreviation KGB was always written in capital letters, while the word “Allah” often appeared in lowercase in official discourse.
Azerbaijan’s Hijab Debate: Constitutional Rights vs School Restrictions The practice of barring female students wearing the hijab from attending classes has once again resurfaced in Azerbaijani schools Jamil Poladkhan oglu Hasanli is a prominent Azerbaijani historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences and professor. He was born in 1952 in the village of Aghalykend in the Bilasuvar district. Over many years, he has worked as a professor at Baku State University and Khazar University.
He is known for his in-depth research on the history of Azerbaijan and the Soviet Union in the 20th century, the Cold War period, South Azerbaijan and international relations. He has authored several books and is noted for an objective style based on archival documents and factual evidence. Between 1988 and 1991, he took an active part in the Azerbaijani national liberation movement.
He was a member of the Azerbaijani Popular Front and was involved in its organisation at Baku State University. In 1993, he served as an adviser to the president of Azerbaijan. From 2000 to 2010, he was elected twice as a member of parliament.
In 2013, he became chairman of the National Council of Democratic Forces and ran in the presidential election that year as a unified opposition candidate. Jamil Hasanli is publishing a series of articles titled “Religion in Soviet Azerbaijan: between Allah and the KGB” on his Facebook page. A meeting under the slogan “For Peace” attended by Soviet religious leaders, including representatives of Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism and other faiths In the 1920s and 1930s, atheist propaganda expanded widely across the Soviet Union, including in Azerbaijan.
As elsewhere in the USSR, the persecution of religion and clergy in Azerbaijan began well before 1937, the year associated with Stalin’s mass repressions. Authorities arrested a number of prominent Islamic scholars, sent them into exile and subjected them to severe repression, including execution. Alongside the persecution of clergy, religious institutions were destroyed or repurposed.
Churches and synagogues were also affected, including those in central Baku where religious services had been held. However, after the outbreak of the Second World War, the Soviet leadership adopted a more accommodating stance towards religion, including Islam. The authorities needed this shift for several reasons.
They relied on appeals from religious leaders to support mobilisation into the army. They also sought help in raising funds for the war effort. At the same time, they aimed to address Muslims worldwide with calls for jihad against Nazism (see the 1944 appeal by Sheikh-ul-Islam Akhund Agha Alizade to Muslims around the world).
Kremlin’s soft power plan for Azerbaijan: “Hundreds of millions of dollars wasted” The Insider reports that secret Kremlin papers have raised serious alarm over the absence of organisations in Azerbaijan that defend Russia’s interests How tolerant was the attitude towards religion during the war years? In the early years of the war, intelligence reports from various regions indicated that newly mobilised conscripts were being blessed with the Quran before being sent to the front. Other reports noted that “bulletproof” prayers were written down for recruits and sewn into the lining of their clothing.
Despite this, and given the needs of the army, the People’s Commissariat for State Security did not interfere with such practices. As part of this more accommodating approach, the authorities established several official religious bodies. On 10 June 1943, they created the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.
In March 1944, they set up the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the North Caucasus, based in Buynaksk in the Dagestan ASSR. On 14 April of the same year, they established the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Transcaucasia, with its centre in Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan SSR. Sheikh-ul-Islam Akhund Molla Agha Alizade On the eve of Sovietisation, this body was headed by the last Sheikh-ul-Islam, Akhund Molla Agha Alizade.
He was an educated and enlightened religious figure who received higher theological education at the University of Theology in Baghdad and at the Higher Religious University in Najaf. He placed such emphasis on education that, after his death in 1954, his grandson Masud Alizade later became First Secretary of the Azerbaijani Komsomol. Notably, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Transcaucasia was located in Baku on Kamo Street (named after Simon Ter-Petrosyan), and this did not provoke objections.
When it is said that the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Transcaucasia was created in 1944, it in fact refers to its restoration. The body had operated between 1872 and 1917 with its centre in Tiflis, and between 1918 and 1920 in Baku. After Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan in April 1920 and declared the state atheist, the authorities no longer saw a need for such an institution.
The restoration of these structures in 1943–1944 also reflected Moscow’s intention to expand its influence in the Muslim East after the war. The aim was to show Muslim populations along the USSR’s southern borders that the Soviet Union was not an atheist state. As part of this effort, Sheikh-ul-Islam Alizade travelled to Iran from
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