SUMMARY:

This article examines the debate between Muslim delegates at the First All-Russia Muslim Congress in May 1917 over the form that Muslim autonomy would take in the new Russian state. Could Muslims be citizens of a “Muslim nation” within a unitary Russian state? Or would Muslims be better served by creating their own ethnic republics within a federated Russia? Contention over the form of Muslim self-rule proved the greatest obstacle to Russian Muslims’ goal of a unified political and cultural movement in the early months of the revolution. “Unitarists” and “Federalists” both used the language of citizenship and nationality, but over the course of the eleven-day congress, it became clear that delegates deployed this language in support of radically different projects. Muslims argued over which type of state best promoted freedom and development, and whether Islam could form the basis for a national movement. At stake was whether a new type of citizenship could accommodate national demands within a multiethnic state.