Editorial, Review of Religions, October 1991

The long nightmare of Communist Russia is over. The haunting echo of seventy-four years of suppression and closed doors has faded away. Now there is no Communist Party, no K.G.B. and hopefully no more fear of persecution of any kind. Communism is now officially dead.

Has this happened by chance? Some countries think that the change has been brought about through their political influence. People of the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries consider it to be a triumph of their struggle for democracy. These views may be partially true but the real truth is that this change is the design of God. The change is laying the foundation of a great and powerful spiritual world order which involves the acceptance of Islam by Russia and other countries of Eastern Europe.

This is not just an empty wish or claim. The spread of Islam in Russia was foretold by the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Community, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^(as), the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, at the beginning of this century. On 30th January, 1903, he saw a Divine dream which he has described:

The same night I saw in a dream as if the scepter of the Czar of Russia was in my hand … (Tadhkira p.65)

On another occasion he declared:

I see my community in Russia like grains of sand in number. (Ibid p.38)

Could anyone then speculate that a time would come when circumstances would change to such an extent that the people of Russia would be attracted towards Islam? Until a few months ago the physical and ideological barriers seemed impossible. Ahmadiyyat or the True Islam has already commenced to take roots in the hearts of some Russians through the activities of the Ahmadiyya Community and Islamic literature has been published and distributed including the translation of the Holy Quran.

The second Successor of the Promised Messiah^(as), Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad^(ra), who held office from 1914 to 1965, also indicated that the spread of Islam in Russia would accelerate during present times under the leadership of the fourth Successor, Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad^(rh). The message of Ahmadiyyat was first taken to Russia in 1924 by Maulana Zahoor Hussain but he suffered many difficulties under the regime of the time and spent much of his time in prison as suspect of being a foreign agent.

Now is the time to press forward with the work of conveying the message of Islam to the people of Russia and other Eastern countries while the vacuum exists as we do not want to see a reaction put forward by David Williamson in a letter published in The Times, August 25, 1971:

We may one day soon hope to see the order of Lenin replaced by the order of St. Andrew, founded by Peter the Great followed by the revival of other old imperial orders St. Catherine, St. Annes, St. Vladimir and so on. We have seen how the Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Moscow have survived 70 years of more or less continuous persecutions to emerge again triumphant. We will again see a tsar elected as in 1613 bringing an end to Russia’s earlier time of troubles.

It is the belief of the Ahmadiyya Community that the time is not so far distant when the order of Communism will be replaced by the order of Islam. Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad^(rh), the [then] present Head of the Community said:

In the second century of Ahmadiyyat, it is China, Russia and South America where we will have the greatest need.(A Man of God, by Iain Adamson)

The true teachings of Islam will give the people of Russia real contentment and happiness – God willing.