Muslims of the Soviet Empire: A Guide

Though their book is similar in coverage to Shirin Akiner's Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union: A Historical and Statistical Handbook (reviewed in Orbis, Fall 1987), Bennigsen and Wimbush cover fewer ethnic groups and devote less space to them. They devote more attention than Akiner to demographic trends and to the role of Islam, making the two volumes complementary and both very useful to the student of Soviet Islam. Indeed, the appearance of these two works helps codify the subject of Soviet Muslims, and the growing availability of such good information on these people suggests this still obscure topic is beginning to attract the attention it deserves. The future of the USSR will be profoundly influenced by the political awakening of the Muslims, and the West needs to be prepared.