Putin’s Turn to the East and Talk about Opposing Colonialism Sparking New Interest in Sultan-Galiyev

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 10 – One of the more interesting and unintended consequences of Vladimir Putin’s turn toward the East and recent talk about opposing colonialism is that it is sparking new interest in Mirsaid Sultan-Galiyev, the Muslim national communist who viewed the peoples of the east as the true revolutionary movement.

            For a brief time after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, Sultan-Galiyev was an ally of Lenin and his party; but his independence of mind and especially his suggestion that Moscow’s approach to federalism would ultimately destroy the Soviet Union led Stalin to arrest him several times and ultimately execute him in 1940.

            In the years since, Sultan-Galiyev has enjoyed a following in many parts of the third world; and since the collapse of the USSR, interest in him and his legacy has been a regular feature of intellectual discussions in his native Tatarstan. But now Putin’s words have opened what appears to be a floodgate.

            At least that is the judgment of Tatarstan’s Milliard.Tatar portal which has called attention to this development and helped to promote it by publishing numerous articles about the Muslim national communist. (For its judgment and a listing of its articles, see milliard.tatar/news/islamskii-antikolonializm-kak-sultan-galiev-mectal-o-mirovoi-revolyucii-na-vostoke-no-ne-ubedil-kommunistov-2237.)

            For additional background on recent interest in Sultan-Galiyev in Tatarstan and its potential political meaning, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/10/sultan-galiyev-was-smarter-than-stalin.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/08/sultan-galiyev-doesnt-have-monument-in.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/01/three-events-in-sultan-galiyevs-life.html.