Most issues of this document are shown to have been published in 1955. This is the first publication from the Center for International Studies at MIT in October 29, 1954. It was part of the Communist Bloc Program, China Project, E/54-10. It is a typewritten, 12 page document and is copy number 39. It is in mint condition.

The first part is Trends and Prospects, then Religion, Language, Ethnic Identity, Customs, The Intelligentsia, and The Conclusion.

Remember this pamphlet is only dealing with Moslems under Soviet rule. It was written in 1954. This is most evident in the section under Religion which goes on to state that " All the available evidence points to a considerable decline of Islam in Central Asia....in Soviet Central Asia...decline further accelerated...deportations of nearly all religious leaders, destruction of village and urban mosques...suppression of religious literature...."

The conclusions reached when all aforementioned categories are taken into account are: "a settled population, a well-defined culture,and an indigenous class capable of providing leadership, will be far more troublesome to their rulers than the disunited, half-nomadic, Islam-dominated Moslem tribes and ethnic groups of the past have ever been...."

This is a very interesting piece written at a time, now 65 years ago, when the western world was more focused on Communism than Islam.

Thank you for looking.