Historian Jeff Eden’s book, God Save the USSR: Soviet Muslims and the Second World War, has been named one of Foreign Affairs’ Best Books of 2022.
God Save the USSR explores Muslim life and political policy in a four-year period of Stalin-era Soviet Union. Following a brutal, decades-long persecution, Stalin surprisingly embraced religious communities of the Soviet Union in service of the anti-Hitler war effort and creating alliances.
Eden is Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern and historian of Russia and Central Asia. His thematic fields of interest include Religious History; Colonial, Imperial, & Diasporic History; Urban History; and War and Empire in History.
According to Oxford University Press, the book is the first in English about the Soviet Muslim experience in World War II. Also notable is the diversity in its sources with respect to language – including Russian, Uzbek, Bashkir, Tatar, and Persian – as well as type – including speeches, eyewitness accounts, memoirs, correspondences, agents’ reports, petitions, interviews, and literature.
“This is a brilliant and original book. Jeff Eden uses a rich trove of previously unknown sources to explore the experiences of Soviet Muslims during World War II. He tells the story of the wartime ‘revolution in religious life’ mainly from the perspective of Muslims in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Russia, who range from young Red Army soldiers praying in foxholes to elites raising money for the war effort. God Save the USSR deserves to be read by anyone interested in Soviet history, Soviet Muslims, and the Second World War.”
— Adrienne Edgar, University of California, Santa Barbara
Read more about Eden’s book.