The Hajj and Socialist Revolution 169Remzi and Fahmi reported that pilgrims were allowed to take only the equiva-
lent of 300 rubles out of the USSR, not nearly enough to cover the costs of the
hajj, estimated at 1,000 rubles for the round-trip voyage. Anything above that
was heavily taxed. But many wealthy Muslims, planning extended stays abroad
in and around Mecca, took as much as 50,000 rubles’ worth of gold with them.
The Soviet government forbade the export of gold and silver abroad, except in
very small quantities—and yet in Arabia, nothing was accepted but silver and
gold. To attract hajj pilgrims, the British government did not limit the amount
of silver and gold pilgrims could take through India to Mecca. This had also
been the case in tsarist Russia, and for that reason every year from Turkestan,
Afghanistan, and India as many as 30,000 Muslims went to Mecca through
Russia, and the tsarist government earned millions of rubles from these hajj
pilgrims. Remzi and Fahmi urged the Soviet government to abolish the fee it
charged hajj pilgrims for exporting valuables—after all, they were taking gold
and silver out of China and not the USSR, and should therefore be given free
passage.
Remzi and Fahmi also raised the issue of Soviet transit conditions, which
were hard on hajj pilgrims. For example, when they got sick and were forced to
stay in one place, they had to present themselves to the Foreign Department of
the Secret Police (Inotdel). This required time and money, and was an inconve-
nience they did not face in British India. There were also questions about the
cost of travel, as Sovtorgflot had not advertised its prices. Pilgrims often decided
whether to go through the USSR or India based on a comparison of costs. All of
these obstacles had to be removed for Sovtorgflot to “bring to fruition” its hajj
transport plan, Remzi and Fahmi argued. They also urged Sovtorgflot to adver-
tise, and offered their help. They proposed that it send them fifty or sixty copies
of an announcement, printed in Turkish, about the comforts of traveling to
Mecca through Russia to disseminate throughout Sinkiang.^41
With the 1927 hajj season fast approaching, problems began to crop up inside
and outside the USSR over the hajj transport plan. There was confusion about
which Soviet institutions would pay for the preparations, which included the
construction of new facilities for pilgrims across Soviet lands. In April, the
Commissariat of Health in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (Kazakhstan)
wrote to the Sovtorgflot office to complain about the costs it was incurring. It
resented being asked to build “observation points” in Bakhty and Dzharkent,
along pilgrims’ land routes inside new Kazakh borders. No agreement had been
signed between the commissariat and Sovtorgflot, and yet it was being asked to
pay for this construction. Still worse, it had been given only two months’ notice,