Діяльність осередків руху “Брати-мусульмани” серед студентства в УРСР: за матеріалами Галузевого державного архіву СБУ

Abstract

The article is the first in both Ukrainian and global historiography focused on the study of the “Muslim Brotherhood” activities conducted by foreign students at higher education institutions in the Ukrainian SSR during the second half of the 20^th century. The authors pay particular attention to the role of students as key propagators of the movement’s ideology, which spread far beyond the Middle East. The research is based primarily on recently declassified documents from the Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine (HDA SBU), which enable a detailed reconstruction of the mechanisms used by the KGB to monitor foreign students. Analysis of these archival materials has revealed that the Soviet secret services regarded the “Muslim Brotherhood” activities as an ideological threat directed against communist values and the foreign policy of the USSR. The measures taken by the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR to counter the “Muslim Brotherhood” are examined in detail. From 1979 onwards, the head officers of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR regularly submitted analytical reports to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, documenting the activities of the movement’s supporters, in particular their criticism of Soviet aggression in Afghanistan and their disagreement with communist ideology. Archival documents (in particular, intelligence reports No. 349 of 1979 and No. 320 of 1980) show that the security services exercised total control over student fraternities and associations, suspecting them of collaborating with the “reactionary” regimes of Arab states. It has been established that the security services attempted to neutralize the movement’s influence by involving “progressive” (i.e., loyal to the Soviet regime) Muslim students and academic staff in cooperation, in order to ideologically persuade or isolate the most active members of the “Muslim Brotherhood”. Archival data have been critically assessed, and it is suggested that certain information (for example, reports of the movement’s “world congress” in 1979) could have been a fabrication by the intelligence services to demonstrate their own effectiveness and the relevance of the struggle against the “enemy”. Overall, the article emphasizes the importance of primary KGB archival sources for understanding how the Soviet repressive system attempted to control religious and political processes within the academic milieu during the Cold War.