Introduction his chapter examines perceptions and self-perceptions of Soviet Muslim soldiers in the Red Army from the beginning of the German invasion in June 1941 to the end of the war in May 1945. My hypothesis is that in the second part of the war, Soviet soldiers that belonged to various Central Asian ethnic groups and had previously considered themselves mainly along ethnic lines, wound up perceiving themselves as a more coherent religious group, although without amassing speciic religious knowledge. he chapter presents a short survey of the recruitment of Muslims in the Russian Army during the First World War and Soviet policies in Central Asia in the interwar period. his is followed by the analysis of the evolution of Soviet attitudes towards the conscription of Central Asian recruits in the Red Army during the Second World War. A special section is devoted to exploring the impact of German propaganda on the young Central Asians serving in the front- line Soviet units. hroughout the paper, the focus is kept on understanding the perceptions and self-perceptions of young Central Asian soldiers. he article draws on secondary literature and oicial Soviet records. Regrettably, the central archive of the Russian Ministry of Defence, the major repository of materials, including the collection of the Main Political Directorate (Glavnoe politicheskoe upravlenie) of the Red Army and political administrations at a lower level, remains closed to foreign researchers. 5 Between ‘Non-Russian Nationalities’ and Muslim Identity: Perceptions and Self-Perceptions of Soviet Central Asian Soldiers in the Red Army, 1941–1945 Kiril Feferman 32808.indb 121 26/09/2016 13:27