SPECIFICITY AND FEATURES OF STATE PERSECUTION OF RELIGION, RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND MASS POLITICAL REPRESSION OF BELIEVERS AS A COMPETING POLITICAL FORCE AND A COMPONENT PART DURING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROGRAM "SMALL OCTOBER IN KAZAKHSTAN": GOALS, IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISMS

Abstract

This article examines the specifics of state persecution of religion, the clergy, and various groups of believers during the "Little October" Revolution in Kazakhstan, using Islam as the primary religion of the indigenous Kazakh people of the Republic as an example. The article explores the intensification of political repression and the Bolshevik -Communist government's turn toward an offensive against Islam and the Muslim clergy as part of the "Little October" policy in Kazakhstan. An analysis of the sour ces leads to the conclusion that the proclaimed "fight against the Muslim clergy" was, above all, an ideological struggle against an ideological system alien to the Bolsheviks and wielding considerable influence over the Kazakh population. State persecutio n of Islam and Muslim clergy intensified through the following mechanisms: legal discrimination, restrictions and subsequent bans on religious education, economic pressure, the mass closure of mosques, criminal prosecution, and systemic anti -religious prop aganda. The article also examines the reactions of Muslim clergy to the implementation of the "Little October" policy in Kazakhstan, in particular forced displacement and uprisings.