This article analyses Russian elements in the texts of Said Buriatskii (1982-2010), who in the late 2000s was one of the main ideologists and symbols of the internationalist Islamist resistance in the North Caucasus. Trying to explain the importance and validity of jihad, Buriatskii referred to the concepts of the famous Soviet historian and anthropologist Lev Gumilev and brought Islamic radicalism closer to a Russian-speaking audience by using Gumilev's terminology. Indeed, he found some appreciation among Russian radical journalists, and even among oppositionists from a background close to the Russian Orthodox Church. This article therefore argues that, in spite of his Islamic rhetoric, Buriatskii can also be understood as aspiring to achieve the status of a Russian public intellectual, particularly as a representative of a broader movement that emphasizes values such as sincerity and passion.
The article deals with the formation of female Muslim organizations and their activities in the Republic of Tatarstan after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The study corroborates the idea that at practical and ideological levels these organizations nurture both the traditional and modern values. This observation is true for organizations associated with mosques, as well as independent civil ones. The combination of diff erent values may be explained by two reasons. First, by external infl uence of the secularized context of modern society; second, by secular experience of the Muslim activists. For some Muslim organizations, it is also important to appeal to regional history, including the pre-1917 female Islamic associations that came into being as an outcome of emancipation in the religious community.The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.
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