The Muslim Population of Ufa. Analysis and Visualization of the Data of the "Religious Census" of the NKVD in 1923

Iunusova Aislu Bilalovna ORCID: 0000-0002-7210-5771 Doctor of History Chief Researcher, Research Sector, Bashkir State University 450076, Russia, Republic of Bashkortostan, Ufa, Zaki Validi str., 32 aislu557@gmail.com

The subject of the study and the method. The subject of the study is the materials deposited in the National Archive of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the NKVD BASSR Fund (F. R-1252) of the census of religious organizations conducted in 1923 ^[1] In 1923-1924 on the basis of the resolutions of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee "On the liquidation of church property" dated January 2, 1922, "On the seizure of church valuables for sale to help the starving" of February 16, 1922, the Decree of the Central Executive Committee of July 12, 1922, the resolutions of the Central Executive Committee and the SNK of August 3, 1922 and the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR, the NKVD of the RSFSR of July 19, 1923, mass registration of religious communities was carried out, accompanied by taking into account the material values of churches, mosques, monasteries, all church property and places of worship ^[2]. Statistical data were also collected on all religious parishes, for the registration of which lists of believers were compiled.

The materials of the census of religious organizations are perhaps the only source that has complete lists of parishioners of six Ufa mosques with detailed data. The lists include all adults over the age of 18. In total, 1,294 people aged 18 to 90 years were counted in them, which accounted for 1.5% of the population of Ufa.

Russian Russian lists of the parishes of the First and Fourth mosques are written using the Cyrillic alphabet, the lists of the other four parishes are written in Turkic and in Russian using Arabic graphics (Fig. 1). Records were kept according to a single form in which there are identical columns: surname, first name (not always patronymic) of the parishioner, address, gender, age, type of occupation before the outbreak of the First World War (before 1914) and since 1914 or at the time of recording, marital status, home ownership. In the last column, the parishioner's signature was put, there are signatures in Russian, but the majority of believers signed in Arabic letters, some put a tamga instead of a signature, often a mullah signed for believers.

Fig. 1. Fragment of the list of parishioners of the Second Mosque of Ufa^[3].

Using the methods of historical informatics^[4], a computer organization of the source was carried out, the census materials were formed into an electronic data array "Muslims of Ufa according to the NKVD census of 1923" in an Excel table (Fig. 2). The database structure corresponds to the form, consists of personal data (full name, age), social characteristics (social status before 1914 and after, employment, type of activity before 1914 and after, home ownership, literacy) and spatial data (street, house number). Although the form was common to all parishes, but in some lists the names of the counts diverge or some of them are missing, for example, the column "occupation since 1914" is not in all lists, the column "estate" in some lists appears as "social status", the column "marital status" is present only in two lists. The data fields were unified, while the remaining empty individual cells can be filled in if the corresponding data is found in other sources.

As already noted, four parish lists out of six were recorded using Arabic graphics. The data of the parishioners of the Third Mosque were recorded in Tatar, the social data of the parishioners of the Second, Fifth and Sixth Mosques are indicated in Russian words written in Arabic graphics. To include information in the database, transliteration and translation of records into Russian were carried out, while maintaining a separate field with a record in Turki. In total, 972 Arabographic records were reworked.

The materials of the "religious census" of the Muslim parishes of Ufa are especially valuable in the study of the social topography of the city. When studying the social aspects of urban space on the basis of population census materials, computer science methods are actively used, databases and geoinformation systems (GIS) are created ^[5],[6]. Studies of the Muslim urban population using GIS methods on the example of Siberian cities suggest that by the beginning of the XX century there was a formed Muslim community in some cities of Siberia ^[7]. The NKVD Census of 1923 manages to record the results of this natural process of formation of Muslim urban communities as homogeneous social units of the urban structure of the population.

The topographic data contained in the lists of parishioners of the "religious census" of the NKVD of 1923 – the names of Ufa streets and house numbers – allow for spatial analysis, mapping and visualization of data. To work with the data, a simple and publicly available method of Web mapping was chosen, which makes it possible to quickly visualize spatial information. Mapping was carried out using the Google Maps and Google Earth services. The addresses indicated in the lists were marked on a historical map (Ufa City Plan for 1911) with street names and house numbers printed on it. Since 1923, Ufa streets have changed their name more than once, the topography of Ufa has changed, the streets have been suppressed by new built-up spaces and simply disappeared. Linking the historical map of 1911 to Google Maps was carried out by selecting calibration points and overlaying, a total of 40 calibration points were selected – buildings that have survived to this day and street intersection points.

Since there are entries in the lists corresponding to both street names relevant to the time of the census and pre-revolutionary ones, transliteration and refinement of street names, synchronization of old and modern street names with the addition of the corresponding field to the database were carried out for subsequent mapping. The array of processed and synchronized unique spatial data includes 156 street names from 1923.

Mapping made it possible to visualize the localization and concentration of the Muslim population on the map of Ufa. The settlement of Muslims was considered taking into account the attributive data indicated in the lists of parishioners of six mosques. Geographical data binding and queries on attribute fields provide an opportunity to analyze data on their distribution in space, the settlement of parishioners of each particular mosque, the definition on the map of the city of localization and concentration of various social groups, including by type of employment, gender, age, property status, literacy.

It is important to note that as a result of the creation of an electronic data array, the primary information of the materials of the "religious census" has been completely preserved. At the same time, it has been transformed into a view accessible to a modern researcher, supplemented with synchronized topographic data.

Fig. 2. A fragment of the list of parishioners of Ufa mosques in an Excel table.The electronic array created by us "Muslims of Ufa according to the NKVD census of 1923" allows:

a) analyze data on the types of employment of Muslims, class, property status, possession of writing, create tables, graphs and diagrams reflecting the structure of the Muslim population of Ufa; b) visualize the localization of Muslims on the map of Ufa, taking into account all attribute data as of the time of mass registration of religious communities.

The content of the study. Ufa in the 1920s was the capital of the Bashkir ASSR, it was an industrial city with a multinational population, the number of which in 1923 was 85.3 thousand people ^[8]. There were 17 Orthodox churches, a synagogue, and a Catholic church. Ufa was also a major Muslim center of Russia, the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly was established here in 1788, after the revolution it continued its activities as the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the RSFSR. In addition, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Bashkir ASSR was located in Ufa.

At the beginning of the XX century there were 7 Muslim parishes in Ufa, 6 of them had mosques. The parishes of the First Cathedral, Second and Third Mosques numbered 800-900 people each ^[9]. The first Cathedral Mosque was located in the historical part of Ufa (50 Tukaev Street), the second mosque was in the Nizhny Novgorod Sloboda (Preobrazhenskaya Street), the third Mosque was in the eastern part of the Ufa peninsula (34 Vozdvizhenskaya Street), the fourth Mosque was in the business center (11 Beketovskaya Street), the Fifth Mosque was on the territory of the Muslim cemeteries (Altayskaya str., 19), the Sixth Mosque – on the Camp Hill (Prolomnaya str., 23/1) (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. The location of mosques on the "Ufa City Plan" of 1911.

In the registration lists in 1923, 1294 people were registered in six Ufa mosques, of which 787 were men (61%) and 507 women (39%).

The uneven distribution of parishioners among mosques is noticeable (Fig. 4). The Second Mosque's parish, numbering 445 people, was the most numerous. The Third Mosque has the shortest list, which has only 68 people, of whom only 5 are women. This list is clearly incomplete (blogger Rustam Sataev publishes a list of 184 parishioners in 1926 on his page "History of the Third Cathedral Mosque of Ufa" ^[10]), but it is quite representative of solving our problems.

Fig. 4. Numerical composition of Ufa mosques in 1923The age composition of the parishioners.

The average age of Ufa Muslims is 40.8 years, while the average age of men is 42.1 years, women 37.2 years. The youngest parishioners at the age of 18 were 22 people in the lists, the oldest at the age of 90 were 3 people. (Table 1, Fig. 5). The most numerous groups are Muslims aged 31-40 years (372 people), 19-30 years (311 people), 41-50 years (273 people). There are only 1,163 people or 90% of Muslims of working age from 18 to 60 years old. 119 people or 9.2% of those over 60 years of age. 15 people (1%) have no age specified. (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Age groups of parishioners of Ufa mosques.

Table 1.
The average age and age groups of parishioners of Ufa mosques in 1923Age groups

Occupation and social status of parishioners of Ufa mosques. The most important indicator of the social appearance of the parishioners of Ufa mosques is the data indicated in the columns "Social and official status since 1914" and "Belonging to one or another class before the revolution" (in some lists "Belonging to one or another class before 1914". In the lists of parishioners, the entries in these two columns often coincide and, as a rule, these are such entries as a worker, a sabanchi, a peasant, a worker. In the list of the Sixth Mosque in the column "Estate before 1914", parishioners are recorded as poor, average, below average (the style is preserved). Among the parishioners of the First Cathedral Mosque there are records of a nobleman, these are members of famous families of Ufa noblemen Yenikeyev, Chanyshev, Teregulov (Fig. 6). In the list of the Fourth Mosque, two parishioners indicated the citizen class. Before 1914, 214 people identified their position as a worker, 380 as a peasant, 16 as a nobleman, 33 as a philistine, 284 as a housewife, 32 people served in the army, 1 as a prison warden. The rest of the parishioners indicated their pre-revolutionary status as not working, old, or their current occupation as a loader, drayman (cabman), stoker, tailor.There are records of Bashkirs, Mescheryak, Tatar, Teptyar in the lists, but it is unlikely to determine the ethnic composition of the parishioners.

Entries indicating ethnicity are found in the column "Belonging to a particular class before the revolution" along with entries indicating social status or type of employment. In total, 298 Bashkir records, 43 Tatar, 40 meshcheryak, 2 teptyar records, one Cossack record are found in the lists. Fig. 6. Fragment of the list of parishioners of the First Cathedral Mosque of Ufa ^[11].

The employment of parishioners. The lists in the columns "Social and official status since 1914" recorded more than 60 names of "occupations" at the time of the census, among which there are such as azanche, mufti, prisoner, sabanchi (peasant), farmer, tarbi, miner, drayman (cabman), cabman, tailor, carpenter, shaposhnik, doctor, shoemaker, pimokat, stoker, barber. Parishioners of the Third Mosque recorded the type of occupation in the Tatar language, most often there is a record of satuche (seller), while it is indicated what exactly the parishioner sells – flour (un satuche), rolls (bun satuche), fish (balyk satuche), eggs (kukay satuche), small goods (vak satuche), etc. Among the parishioners there were also people who sold junk on the push (talchukshche). Persons employed on the railway were recorded simply as railway, at the same time there were clarifying records of a railway conductor, a railway worker. Persons without classes were recorded as not working, without work, no classes, old does not work, old woman, old man (Tab. 2).

In order to establish the ratio of working and non-working, to identify the number of people employed in various types of activities, a procedure was carried out to normalize data and group similar types of occupations. As a result, the list was shortened and simplified data was obtained. 798 parishioners (62%) are persons engaged in urban industrial and handicraft industries, trade, auxiliary work and other activities. Of these, 410 people are registered as workers, including railway workers, 99 – as workers without specifying the type of occupation, 100 are sabanchi and grain farmers, that is, peasants. The workers also need to include cabmen, movers, artisans, shoemakers, tailors, watchmen. From among the clergy, mullahs, azanches, mufti are recorded (Tab. 2).

Table 2.
Names of occupations of parishioners of Ufa mosques according to the NKVD census of 1923Names of parishioners' classes

The unemployed include housewives, the unemployed, those who are registered as a dependent, an old woman, an old man, an orphan. Students are also unemployed. In total, 498 parishioners or 38% are unemployed. (Fig. 7).Fig. 7. Employment of all parishioners.

Women. The overwhelming majority of women – 426 out of 507 (84.7%) – are registered as housewives. Working women are recorded as a worker, sabanchi. Among the women there were also satuche (2), teacher (4), student (8), employee (4) (Fig. 8). A well-known Muslim educator, a member of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims kazy Mukhlisa Bubinskaya was also recorded as an employee. In total, working women made up 12% of the parishioners of Ufa mosques, unemployed – 88% (Fig. 9.).

Fig. 8. Types of occupation of women parishioners.

Fig. 9. Employment of women parishioners of Ufa mosques.

Home ownership. In the "Property status" column, the entries were reduced to answering the question about the presence or absence of their own living quarters. The answers were different, the absence of the house was recorded by the records of the poor, no home, yuk (no), no. The record fatir (apartment) meant that a person is quartered, rents a corner or a room, which also records the absence of their housing. The presence of one's own house was recorded by the records house, is, hut, agach iy (wooden house), agach yort (wooden house), tash yort (stone house), yort bar (house is). There were 637 homeowners among the parishioners, 644 did not have their own house. The distribution of homeowners by parish shows a generally insignificant difference in the number of owners and the poor in the parishes of the Second, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Mosques. In the parish of the First Mosque, the majority – 72% – were poor, in the parish of the Third, on the contrary, the overwhelming majority of parishioners – 95.6% – owned their own houses, including stone ones (Table 3, Fig. 10).

Table 3.
Home ownership of parishioners of Ufa mosques.Home ownership

Fig. 10. Distribution of households by parishes of six mosques.

Literacy (writing skills). It is not possible to accurately judge the presence of education among parishioners, since there is no corresponding column in the lists. However, the "signature" column allows us to speak about the possession of the writing of the person who signed his signature. Russian Russian speakers wrote down their last name in Russian letters, in some cases quite confidently. Some of the parishioners wrote down their name in Arabic graphics. In 17 cases, a generic tamga was inscribed instead of a signature, in one case a personal seal was affixed. If the parishioner did not know how to sign, in the "signature" column  the mullah indicated "illiterate".

Illiterate people made up 38% of parishioners of all six mosques, 39% owned the Russian script, 22% Arabic, 1% put down Tamgu (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11. Literacy (written language) of parishioners of six mosques in Ufa.

Literacy among men was 73%, including 50% of Russian and 20% of male parishioners spoke Arabic. Illiterate accounted for 27% of the male parishioners (Fig.12).

Fig. 12. Literacy (written language) of male parishioners of Ufa mosques.

Literacy among women was 33%, including 19% of Russian and 14% of Arabic. 62% of parishioners had the entry "illiterate". Together with those who put down a tamga instead of a signature (3% of women), 65% of female parishioners were illiterate (Fig. 13).

Fig. 13. Literacy (written language) of women parishioners of six mosques in Ufa.

The distribution of literate and illiterate among the six mosques is uneven both numerically and in shares (Table 4, Fig. 14). The highest percentage of illiterates was among the parishioners of the Second (78%) Fourth (53%) mosques. Parishioners of the Fifth (68%), First (57%) and Sixth (50%) mosques were the most proficient in Russian writing. The signatures on the Arabic chart prevailed (80%) among the parishioners of the Third Mosque.

Table 4.
Distribution of literate and illiterate parishioners.Mosque

Fig. 14. Distribution of literate and illiterate parishioners among six mosques in Ufa.

The diagrams below show the ratio of Russian and Arabic literate and illiterate parishioners of all six mosques (Fig. 15).

Fig. 15. Literacy (written language) of the parishioners of Ufa mosques.

The settlement of parishioners of mosques in Ufa shows the concentration of various social groups by type of employment, gender, age, property status, literacy.

The first Cathedral Mosque was located on Tukayev Street, in the historically established spiritual Muslim center, on the territory of the residence of the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly, which was succeeded by the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims. The mosque was considered a mufti. Her parish consisted of residents of Tukaev Street and nearby Spasskaya, Posadskaya, Troitskaya, Ilyinskaya streets, some lived in the area of Verkhnetorgovaya Square on Beketovskaya, Tsentralnaya, B.Kazanskaya Streets, that is, in the Ufa business shopping center (Fig. 16). Among the parishioners of the First Cathedral Mosque there are students, teachers, employees, several people pointed out their noble origin. Among the parishioners are eight members of the family of Mufti Rizaitdin Fakhritdinova, the only female member of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims Mukhlisa Bubinskaya (recorded as an employee), other representatives of the clergy. Workers made up 28% of parishioners, homeowners – 30%, more than half of parishioners – 57% – spoke Russian, 27% – Arabic, illiterate made up 19% (Tables 2, 3, 4).

Fig. 16. Settlement of parishioners of the First Cathedral Mosque.

The second mosque was located on Preobrazhenskaya Street (now Levanevsky Street). Her parish consisted of residents who lived in the Nizhny Novgorod suburb, as well as on the streets adjacent to the railway station and the railway running along the foot of the Ufa Peninsula (Fig. 17). 65% of the parishioners of the Second Mosque were women housewives. Workers made up 15%, they were employed mainly at sawmills (the lists indicate "Bashles", "Bashtara", "Bashtarales"), a brick factory and on the railway. Among the parishioners, cabmen, watchmen, shoemakers, merchants, and the unemployed are also recorded. Homeowners made up 49%, 78% of parishioners did not have a letter, 15% had a Russian letter, 7% Arabic (Tables 2, 3, 4).

Fig. 17. The resettlement of the Second congregation of the mosque.

The third mosque was located in Vozdvizhenskaya street on the Eastern slope of Ufa. The parishioners of the mosque he lived on the streets Vavilov, Mountain, Guryev, Dashkovskaya, Big Kazanskaya, Large Barracks, Large and Small Kuznetsk, Dray, Nikolskaya, Uspenskaya St. Near the mosque were hay (Mykolaiv) area, which was brought carts with hay, was near the so-called Push – clothing market with chip and other shops here sold junk. The main occupation of the Third congregation of the mosque was trade, and employs 55% of the members(all "sauce" and "calcurse"), they accounted for 35% of all employment in the manufacturing Ufa Muslims. Working among the parishioners of the Third mosque was only 7 (10%). 70% of the parishioners indicated their social position as "middle peasants", and all the congregation, except for 2 people, had owned the house, including stone. In the list of recorded only 3 women. 85% of members of the third ward owned the Arabic script. (Tab. 2, 3, 4).

The fourth mosque was built in the business center of Ufa, in the street Beketovskaya near Verkhnetorgovuyu square. Its members were Muslims, both Central and remote areas of the city, street Alexander, Beketovskaya Bogorodskoye, Gogol, Dardanella, factory, Irkutsk, Barrack tower, Bell tower, stables, stables, Cart, Penza, caves, Shelter, the Th, Siberian, Suvorov, Telegraph, Ufa, center, Church. The workers themselves recorded 16% of the parishioners, half the congregation had their own homes, was educated in the same half of the members of the parish (Tab. 2, 3, 4).

The fifth mosque was on the territory of the Mohammedan cemetery on the high Bank of the river. Next to the cemetery there was a water tower that supplied the city with water. From the tower was forked off of the street Water, Low Water, Medium Water. The parishioners of five mosques were living on the streets, adjacent to the water tower and the cemetery on the mountain and coming down the slope toward the river and the railroad. Since the Mohammedan cemetery was visited by Muslims all practical Ufa, among the parishioners were residents of other parts of the city. The arrival of the Fifth mosque geographically covered the inhabitants of the streets Aksakovskaya, Alexander, Large, Vavilov, Pottery, Mining, Gur, Elias, Nizhny Novgorod, St. Nicholas, Pushkin, Traktovaya, Karkalinskaya, Cherkasy, Chernyshevskaya. Workers accounted for 63% of the parishioners, homeowners were 49%, 97% of people were literate, had Russian and Arabic script, the illiterate was only 9 out of 302 (Fig. 2, 3, 4).

Sixth mosque was located at Prolomnaya street 23/1, the so-called Camp hill where were located the precast military and barracks. The Sixth congregation of the mosque have lived on the streets Cooperage, station, Dvinskaya, Camp, Prolomnaya, River, Safonovskaya, Ural, Central. 60% of the parishioners lived in two long winding streets of the Camp and Prolomnaya that went down to the village, the railway and the station. Workers accounted for 38% of the parishioners, exactly half of the congregation had their own housing, 89% were literate, had Russian and Arabic script, was illiterate 17 out of 156 (Tab. 2, 3, 4).

The "Muslim" where recorded from 20 to 92 addresses the congregation, was Vodoprovodnaya street, Water supply M., Plumbing Cu., Beketovskaya Big, Vavilov, Pottery, Guryev, Dashkovskaya, Campy, M., Short, Camp, Transfiguration, Forest, Dray, Nikolskaya, Prolomnaya, Pushkin, Average M., Tukaeva, Ufa. (Tab. 5, Fig. 18).

The smallest number of Muslims – from 1 to 3 lived on the streets Dardanella, Cooperative settlement, Lenin, Lermontov, Nizhny Novgorod, lake, Suburban, Penza, Posadskaya, right Bank, River, Safonovskaya, class, Soviet, Sorting, Tatar, Trinity, Trenirovka, Usol, assumption, Ufa, Frolovskaya, Khudajjberdinskaya, Church, Karkalinskaya, Cherkasy.

Table 5.
Street with the largest number of Muslims.

Fig. 18. Streets with the largest number of Muslims.

The concentration of Muslims on the streets of Ufa is different. The grouping of the Muslim population was determined taking into account the length of the street and the number of Muslims living on it. The length of the streets was set using the resource https://geodzen.com / by synchronized street names. The greatest concentration of Muslims is recorded in the area of Vodopodnaya, Vodopodnaya M., Vodopodnaya Kr streets. With a total length of three adjacent streets of 425 m, 92 Muslims are registered here, the accuracy is 4.62 m / person. or 22 people/100 m. The greatest dispersion is noticeable in the central and remote streets in the direction of the east and south. For example, only 11 Muslims lived on Tsentralnaya Street (now Lenin Street) with a length of 4939 m, the number of people is 449 m/person. or 0.2 people/100 m. (Fig. 19).

Fig. 19. Concentration of Muslims living on 100 meters of the length of the street.

An important indicator of the social topography of the city was the settlement of Muslims belonging to the workers. Mapping of Muslims on the basis of "worker" shows their concentration in the northern part of the city in the area of the Mohammedan cemetery and on the slopes of the Ufa Peninsula, along the railway, around the railway station, Camp Mountain, in the Nizhny Novgorod Sloboda. (Fig. 20, 21). The largest number of Muslim workers - 61 people – lived on three Water Supply streets. Muslim workers were parishioners of the Second, Fifth and Sixth Mosques, whose parishes can be considered the most "working".

Fig. 20. The settlement of Muslims on the basis of "worker".

Fig. 21. The number of Muslim workers living on the streets of Ufa.

Mapping by the tradesman attribute shows that Muslims engaged in trade settled throughout Ufa, while their concentration is more noticeable along Nikolskaya Street (Gafuri) with streets adjacent to it. The most "commercial" was the parish of the Third Mosque, consisting of those who were connected with the Nikolaev (Hay) market and Push, providing themselves with small trade (Fig. 22).

Fig. 22. The settlement of Muslims on the basis of "merchant".

The settlement and concentration of Muslims employed in industrial and handicraft industries, trade shows that Muslim parishes in Ufa were formed under the influence of primary socio-economic factors of spatial localization of the population. The materials of the NKVD's "religious census" of 1923 reflect the continued influence of these factors in Ufa up to the 1920s.

A hundred years later. In 1930-1990 there was a redistribution of localized social spaces of cities. Under the influence of such factors as the growth of cities and the involvement of Muslims in urban production, state religious policy and Soviet legislation in the field of freedom of conscience, the collapse of the USSR, migration processes by the beginning of the XXI century, significant changes took place in the socio-territorial structure of the Muslim population of Russian cities. Currently, the Muslim communities of megacities are a complex mosaic of Tatars, Bashkirs, ethnic groups of the North Caucasus, migrant communities of Central Asian immigrants living in cities, and foreign citizens from eastern countries should be added to them ^[12].The social component of the community is increasingly connected with the ethnic one, and mosques in cities, especially in megacities, are informally becoming "Tatar", "Caucasian", "Kazakh", "Tajik". The structure and functions of the urban Muslim community have changed, from a socio-territorial confessional organization it has turned into an ethno-confessional association that does not have territorial borders and social homogeneity. Examining a Muslim parish as a self-governing organization, I. Z. Malakhov emphasized that "at present there is a certain difference between rural and urban Muslim parishes in the level of independence, economic situation, economic management, entrepreneurial initiative. But the main difference is that urban parishes do not have a clear territorial isolation and represent a community of Muslims who gravitate to a particular mosque for various reasons, while rural parishes are limited to residents of one or several nearby settlements" ^[13]. The absence of a territorial link to the mosque visited is confirmed by studies of Muslim parishes in Ufa ^[14],[15], Vladivostok ^[16],[17], Tyumen ^[18]. Location as a criterion for the formation of a parish has given way to jurisdiction – today city mosques and parishioners differ not by territorial affiliation, but by a higher structure, which include the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims (CDUM), the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation (DOOM of the Russian Federation), regional centralized and autonomous spiritual administrations of Muslims ^[19]. Some city mosques have become known as centers of the spread of ultraconservative ideologies, over the past 10 years the so-called "Wahhabi" and "Salafi" mosques in Kazan, Makhachkala, St. Petersburg have been closed, among the imams of which were preachers who swore allegiance to ISIS. The personality of the imam is another important factor in attracting Muslims to a particular mosque. So, to the question "What influenced your choice of mosque?" 50% of the surveyed visitors of Ufa mosques (Ikhlas Mosque, Maryam Sultanova Madrasah mosque, Ramadan Mosque, August 2017) and members of the Dagestan community of Tyumen (November 2021) chose the answer "Imam and other mosque servants are trustworthy" and only 12% – "Close to the place of residence".

Conclusion. The materials of the "religious census" of the NKVD of 1923 from the National Archive of the Republic of Bashkortsotan have a high informational potential for conducting historical, socio-anthropological, religious studies. The maximum use of parish list data, their conversion into an Excel spreadsheet and Web mapping using the publicly available Google Maps and Google Earth services make it possible to analyze and visualize data on the composition of the parishioners of Ufa mosques, reconstruct the social appearance of urban Muslims in the period before the mass closure of religious buildings and religious communities in the subsequent the era of militant atheism.

The data for 1923 and mapping recorded the social homogeneity of the Muslim parishes of Ufa that had historically developed by the beginning of the XX century. A hundred years ago, an urban parish was the same organizational unit of the Muslim population as a rural one, uniting Muslims of a certain territory, social status, work activity, lifestyle, language of communication.

Generalized data of the "religious census" of the NKVD of 1923 Ufa shows that Muslims inhabited the northwestern and western parts of Ufa, the elevated territory in the area of the Mohammedan cemetery, the slopes and foothills of the Ufa Peninsula, the Nizhny Novgorod Sloboda. The parishioners of Ufa mosques were dominated by men of working age, employed in railways, woodworking enterprises, small handicraft industries, and trade; the vast majority of women were housewives. The parishes of the Second, Fifth and Sixth Mosques were the most "working", the parish of the Third Mosque was the most "commercial". Russian Russian was spoken by 39% of adult Muslims, among men, Russian writing was 50%; Arabic writing was spoken by 22% of parishioners, while among the parishioners of the Third Mosque, who were mostly homeowners and engaged in trade, Arabic writing was 83.8%; illiterate accounted for 38% of all parishioners of Ufa mosques; the largest percentage of illiterate – 78% – among the parishioners of the Second Mosque, where more than half of the parish were women; in general, illiteracy among female parishioners was 62%. Half of Ufa Muslims owned their own housing.

The informational potential of the materials of the "religious census" of the NKVD in 1923 is far from being exhausted. Based on this source, together with other materials, it is possible in the future to dwell in more detail on the prosopographic aspects of the study, combining statistical and prosopographic methods ^[20],[21] to consider the dynamics of changes in the development of parishes, biographies of clergy and parishioners, to conduct a comparative study of religious organizations of various denominations.