Muslims are in overwhelming majority in six out of the 15 Republics of the Soviet Union. After the ethnic Russians, Muslims are the second biggest population in the Soviet Union. Its 55 million Muslims compose one fifth of the entire 280 million population of the USSR. Soviet Union today is the fifth largest Muslim country in the world after India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The Muslim population is bigger than Egypt and Turnkey.
In the recent referendum held all over the Soviet Union while six Christian republics – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Armenia and Moldevia opted for total independence from the Soviet Union the six Muslim republics of Azerbhaijan, Khazakhastan, almost the size of India. Kirgizia, Tajikistan, Turkemenia including the second biggest republic Uzbekistan had overwhelmingly voted in favour of the Soviet Union.
