Afterlives of Soviet Secularism: Belief and Skepticism amid the Islamic Revival in Kyrgyzstan

This talk argues that Soviet anti-religious policies in Central Asia brought about unanticipated results. Rather than facilitate mass conversion to atheism, they fostered a new form of religiosity—one that rests on the idea that private belief in God is more authentic than, and independent from, the ritualistic aspects of a religious tradition. While it is known that this understanding of belief was central to Western European secularization, I bring to light its Soviet iteration and trajectory. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan, I demonstrate how this notion of belief shaped the subjectivities of local Muslims both during Soviet times, when the state sought to eliminate Islam, and today, when multiple revivalist Islamic movements aspire to reconfigure the country’s religious landscape. This exploration reveals previously unexplored affinities between Soviet and liberal forms of secularism, advancing an understanding of secularism as a global phenomenon that shapes contemporary experiences of religious devotion, ambivalence, and doubt.