Mirsait (Mir-Said) Sultan-Galiyev was born in a Tatar village Kyrmyskaly, Ufimskaya guberniya, in the family of a teacher. Having finished village school, Mirsait went to Kazan, where he studied at Pedagogical secondary school, then worked as a teacher, a librarian, was published in periodicals, actively participated in students’ revolutionary movement ‘Islakh’.

After the defeat of the revolution of 1905 Sultan-Galiyev moved to Baku. He also worked there as a teacher and a librarian, was published in periodicals. His revolutionary activity in Baku was highly estimated by Nariman Narimanov.

In May 1917 Sultan-Galiyev participated in the All-Russian Muslim Conference in Moscow and All-Russia Muslim Council elected by it. The same year, in July he returned to Kazan, become good friends with Mullanur Vakhitov, together they participate in creation of the Muslim Socialistic Committee (MSC), political program of which coincided with Bolshevik’s program. In November 1917 he entered Bolshevists Party.

After establishing Peoples Commissariat on National Affairs (Narcomnats) in 1917, under the leadership of I.V. Stalin, Sultan-Galiyev was invited to be the head of Muslim section. It was a turning point in his political career.

On January 19, 1918 Central Commissariat on the affairs of Inner Russia and Siberia Muslims (Muskom); Vakhitov was appointed its chairman, Sultan-Galiyev worked in Commissariat as a representative of Russian Communists Party. In June 1918 Central Muslim Military Collegium was established. Sultan-Galiyev became its first chairman. Muskom was the organ which worked on political propaganda among Muslims of Russia.

In May 1918 Central Committee of RCP called preparatory meeting to Constituent Conference dedicated to the establishment of Tatar-Bashkir Soviet Republic (TBSR)On March 23, 1919 as a result of an agreement between Soviet Government and Nationalistic Bashkir Government (Baskrevkom), headed by Akhmed Zaki-Validov, Bashkir Soviet Republic was established; on May 27, 1920 All-Russian Central Executive Committee and Soviet Commissars Council issued the Decree on establishment of Tatar Republic.

The attempt to take into consideration specificity of social psychology of oppressed Oriental nations serviced a ground for accusing Sultan-Gariyev of nationalism, pan-Turkism and pun-Islamism. Revolutionary ideology belonging to the oppressed nations was of national-liberation type, and not only of pure class struggle. In order to find common language with such revolutionary democrats Sultan-Galiyev suggested giving a relative autonomy the Communists of the East, so that together with them adjust scientific socialism to the Eastern conditions.

The most interesting attempt to combine Marxism and Islam in nationalism in order to find an opportunity to overthrow international imperialism with the revolutionary movement of Eastern’t peoples belonged to Sultan-Galiyev. In his opinion, revolution in the east should differentiate from revolution in the west. On December 8, 1939 M. Sultan-Galiyev was sentenced to extreme penalty - to be shot.

In Wikipedia

Mirsäyet Soltanğäliev

irsäyet Xäydärğäli ulı Soltanğäliev (1892 - 1940?), usually known in English as Mirza Sultan-Galiev, was a Tatar Bolshevik who rose to prominence in the Russian Communist Party in the early 1920s. He was later executed for being an independent ‘Muslim’ leader as part of the purges of former bolsheviks in the Soviet Union.

Mirsäyet Soltanğäliev was the son of a teacher born in the poor village of Elimbetvo, Ufa Guberniya, Bashkiria. He trained to be a teacher himself. He was drawn to revolutionary ideas during the abortive 1905 revolution. Following this defeat he moved to Baku, where he came to the attention of Nariman Narimanov.

In May 1917 Soltanğäliev participated in the All-Russian Muslim Conference in Moscow and was elected to the All-Russia Muslim Council created by it. In July that year he went to Kazan, where he met Mullanur Waxitov, with whom he helped set up the Muslim Socialist Committee (MSC), with a program close to that of the Bolsheviks. In November 1917 he joined the Russian Communist Party. Following the establishment of Narkomnats in June 1917, Soltanğäliev was asked to become head of the Muslim section. In January 1918 the Central Commissariat of Muslim affairs in Inner Russia and Siberia (Muskom), was set up under the chairmanship of Waxitov, with Soltangaliev as representative of the Russian Communist Party. He was appointed the chair of the Central Muslim Military Collegium when it was established in June 1918. He wrote for Zhizn’ Natsional’nostei (Life of the Nationalities).

He was a great reader of the Russian Literature. He translated works by Tolstoy and Pushkin into the Tatar and Bashkir languages.

“Love for my nation which burdened my heart led me to socialism” he wrote in 1917.

Mirsaid wanted to give Marxism an Islamic face. He argued that Tsarist Russians had oppressed Muslim society apart from a few big landowners and bourgeois. Then, in 1923, he was accused of nationalist, pan-Islamic and pan-Turkic deviations and he was arrested and ejected from the party. Stalin was not sympathetic to his attempt to synthesise Islam, nationalism and communism for a revolution in the East in general and the Muslim in particular. Stalin therefore, executed Mirsäyet Soltanğäliev (probably in 1939 or 1940) for being an independent ‘Muslim’ leader.