The Hajj and Socialist Revolution 167heat, repaired the roof, and built a disinfection room to process the anticipated
masses of pilgrims.^33 It is unclear why Sovtorgflot did not use the khadzhikhane
that Saidazimbaev had created for hajj pilgrims in 1908, in the outlying Perse-
syp neighborhood. Perhaps the building had been repurposed in the interven-
ing years. It is also true that the Primorskii Boulevard location was more
convenient for pilgrims, just a five-minute walk down the famed Potemkin
Staircase to board ships in the port below. This location made it easier for Soviet
authorities to isolate pilgrims from the general population of the city.^34
Outside the USSR’s borders, Sovtorgflot hired foreign agents to advertise its
new hajj service and recruit pilgrims to its ships. Over the fall of 1926 and win-
ter of 1927, Sovtorgflot officials worked closely with Soviet consuls and Soviet
Trade Agency representatives abroad to identify and hire potential agents: ide-
ally wealthy Muslim merchants with a good reputation “among the religious
masses,” and connections to local hajj networks. In doing this, they followed a
pattern established in the late nineteenth century by the European colonial
powers, all of which built their hajj infrastructures by co-opting and building
upon existing Muslim hajj networks, and hiring brokers and agents active in
local hajj industries.^35
Retracing prerevolutionary patterns of hajj traffic, Sovtorgflot officials
focused on China, Persia, and Afghanistan, and Constantinople and Jeddah
recruitment efforts. To find and hire Muslim agents, they relied on the support
of Soviet diplomats and Trade Agency representatives, and the ground-level
connections they had forged in these regions. In Persia, for example, the Soviet
ambassador in Teheran put Sovtorgflot in touch with a certain Khalesi Zade, an
experienced local hajj broker who knew all the Muslim agents involved in the
local hajj industry. Khalesi Zade could help the fleet recruit brokers across Per-
sia, and facilitate their “acquisition” (akvizatsiia) of pilgrims on a wide scale.^36
In Sinkiang, Sovtorgflot worked through the Soviets’ network of four consul-
ates, which had been opened by the tsarist regime in the 1880s as part of
Russo-British rivalries in Central Asia: in Kashgar, Urumchi, Kuldja, and Chu-
guchak. Chinese-ruled Sinkiang bordered on Soviet Central Asia and was now
central to Soviet-British rivalries.^37 In January 1927, Sovtorgflot sent one of its
directors, Comrade Suslin, to Kashgar to work with the Soviet consul to recruit
agents. Suslin invited a group of wealthy local Muslim merchants to the Soviet
consulate to ask them to work for the fleet. He offered them generous pay to
participate in the “movement” of pilgrims through Soviet lands. He promised
them the support of the Soviet consulate and asked them to “agitate” among
local Muslims to get them to make the hajj through the USSR, instead of India.^38