Acculturation Policies Targeting Siberia’s Muslim Communities in the Second Half of the 19th and in the Early 20th Centuries

Abstract

The article examines the situation of Muslim communities in Siberia in the context of the acculturation policy pursued by the Russian Empire. Based on the analysis of archival sources, the article argues that the reforms carried out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were aimed at including the Muslim population of the country into the socio-cultural space of the empire. Russian attempts to gradually introduce Russian culture and way of life into a foreign environment were supposed to support the interaction between the Muslim population of Siberia and Russian immigrants. The education system was one of the instruments of the acculturation policy towards the Muslim peoples of Siberia. Attempts to introduce Russian culture were also made through influencing the economic life of Muslim communities. The ongoing reforms caused a lot of discontent on the part of the Muslim population. Also failing were the policies of the Russian Orthodox Church to make Muslims change their identity; its measures to support the newly baptized did not contribute to a mass conversion to Orthodoxy.