<![CDATA[This study critically examines the production of knowledge about Islam in Soviet-era historiography of Central Asia, conducted under the ideological constraints of state atheism. Employing the methodologies of critical historiographical analysis, intellectual history, and discourse analysis, it reconstructs the internal logic, conceptual apparatus, and institutional mechanisms through which Soviet historians, ethnographers, and orientalists generated "permissible" knowledge. The research identifies a foundational and paradoxical dichotomy that structured the entire discourse: the distinction between Islam as a progressive "objective" historical force and as a reactionary "subjective" feudal ideology. It further analyzes the strategic evolution from "Red Orientalism" and total ideological confrontation (1920s–1930s) to the canonical dual model of national history construction (1940s–1960s), and finally to the ethnographic study of "everyday Islam" as a "survival" (1970s–1980s), which often functioned as applied surveillance. The results reveal that Soviet historiography systematically produced "sanctioned ignorance" through key conceptual lacunae (theology, Sufism, Jadidism, Fiqh), actively shaping a functional but reductive image of Islam. This discursive practice served the pragmatic functions of legitimizing secular nation-building, exercising epistemological control, and enabling social monitoring. The study concludes that Soviet Islamic studies constituted a specific practice of power, the epistemological legacy of which continues to influence academic and public discourses in post-Soviet Central Asia.]]>
