Sufism in Post-Soviet Russia: Searching for Enchantment and a Paradigm Shift

Sufism in post-Soviet Russia is a complex phenomenon that resists common methodological assumptions current in the sociology of religion and cultural studies, especially the oft-cited notions of disenchantment or re-enchantment and cognitive paradigm shift. This article demonstrates that discontinuities and shifts in cultural and intellectual spheres do matter, but so do continuities and remembrances of the past. In other words, “nothing is ever lost”. The author examines several instances of the reimagining of Sufism in the Caucasus and the Volga-Ural region of Russia, including recent interpretations of its history and principles by a popular Sufi teacher and two high-ranking members of the Russian-Muslim officialdom. Provisionally classified as “traditionalist”, “interiorized-privatized”, and “perennialist”, these interpretations reflect not only the varying social positions and intellectual convictions of the interpreters but also their conscious efforts to adapt Sufism to their respective environments and audiences. In conclusion the author evaluates the epistemological utility of the aforementioned sociological concepts in explaining these [re-]interpretations of Sufism with special emphasis on the role of imagination and creative remembrance of the past.