Contenu du sommaire

Simon Markish, Osip Rabinovich. Osip Rabinovich is a mid-nineteenth century writer, almost completely forgotten in our time. Nevertheless he was the father of the Russian-Jewish literature that endowed the Russian Empire with names such as Iushkevich, Aizman, Babel'. The present article brings out the sources of Rabinovich's work and stresses its connection with the Russian and Jewish literary traditions (Hebrew, Yiddish, German-Jewish); it establishes its place in the mid-nineteenth century Russian literature and in Jewish cultures of various expressions of modern and contemporary period.

Pierre Voillery, An aspect of the Franco-Russian rivalry in the nineteenth century: the Bulgarians. French penetration and Catholic missions. At the time when the Eastern question is revived in the nineteenth century because of the emerging problem of nationalities, the Great Powers have to solve the matter of control organization in connection with the Balkan populations. The Bulgarians are among the last Balkan nations to have started moving. They are also characterized by the fact that they have always been considered as Russia's supporters. From 1840 to 1861, Catholic organizations, acting more or less as French political agents, penetrate into Bulgarian territory promoting the possible alternative to the pro-Russian trends. As a matter of fact, the question of a possible connection with Rome by means of Uniatism is politically formulated. It is based on the refusal of Russian preponderance and on the development of a political project favouring the Western countries. The present study endeavours to point out that the supporters of such a choice were precisely the most important personalities of the Bulgarian Renaissance. Also that a number of Bulgarians will oppose Russia with the assistance of France so as to find an original, specifically Bulgarian solution. This evolution will come to an end only with the failure of the Uniate Bulgarian movement and the vigorous Russian intervention with the Bulgarians as well as with the Constantinople Patriarchate requested to moderate the opposition to the establishment of a Bulgarian autocephalous Church.

Alexandre Bennigsen, Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay, " Parallel Islam" in the Soviet Union. Sufi brotherhoods in the Checheno- Ingush Republic. Since the introduction of the Sufi orders in Northern Caucasus at the end of the eighteenth century, Daghestan and the Chechen country have been the bastions of the most conservative Islam. Nowadays they have preserved this same character. In the present article based on the most recent Soviet sources, an attempt is made to analyze the evolution of Sufism under the Soviet regime and its curious adaptation to the new conditions of a collectivized society.

Rasma Karklins, Islam: how strong is it in the Soviet Union? Inquiry based on oral interviews with Soviet Germans repatriated from Central Asia in 1979. The article is based on interviews with former Soviet citizens of German ethnicity who lived in the Muslim areas of the USSR until their emigration in 1979. Respondents were asked whether the local Muslims still observe their religion and traditions. Replies were overwhelmingly affirmative, which is the more remarkable since the respondents mostly lived in areas that have never been the most Islamic ones and which frequently have an ethnically mixed population. Comments and concrete illustrations of the contemporary observance of Islam in the Soviet Union are summarized and illustrated in three main sections: I. Reli gious observance, II. Islamic familial rites, and III. Social customs associated to Islam. A summary analysis in the fourth section of the article provides a ranking of the various aspects of Islam as it is observed by the Soviet Muslims today. According to this, the retention of social customs ranks lowest, religious observance takes a middle place with fasting and praying engaged in selectively, but in a manner impressive to the outside observer, and familial rites with a communal significance rank at the top. It is concluded that the continued strength of Islam in the USSR sets concrete barriers to ethnic integration in the familial and communal sphere, and, by implication, to full national integration.

Bernard Marchadier, About the book of Vladimir Riabushinskii: "The Old Faith and the Russian religious feeling." The author begins by situating the Riabushinskii family in the social background to which it belonged: that of Muscovite merchants of the nineteenth century, in which attachment to traditional values and to the priority of the spiritual domain was not deemed inconsistent with the good management of worldly interests nor even with the desire of economic expansion. The author then proceeds to outline in succession the principal themes examined by the book. When Vladimir Riabushinskii considers them from the historical or philosophical point of view (for instance discussions of the rites) the author abides by this attitude. However, as for the most part, the book studies Russian history and religious sensibility, it is under this particular Russian angle that these problems are being set forth. The well-known questions, such as the quarrel between Joseph of Volokolamsk and Nil of Sora, the Slavophile philosophy, Tolstoi's populism and the works of writers such as Leont'ev, Solov'ev and Rozanov, acquire a new meaning when dealt with by the Old-Believer Riabushinskii. Stress is laid on the contribution of Old-Believers to the Russian literature and thought. Some opinions of Vladimir Riabushinskii are being discussed. Thus, it is not proved that "flight into the forest" always enabled to keep the faith pure from heresy; in many cases the forest has been a medium for the development of all the trends of dvoeverie (dual faith).