The USSR, much to the contrary opinion, was not anti-religious. It was only anti-religious in regards to the Russian population where the Church was closed down. In the rest of the Soviet Union, in particular in Soviet Central Asia, Soviet Azerbaijan, and the Caucasus areas, Islam was allowed. The only approved places where Islamic practices occurred was through Soviet established and run Mosques and Islamic Schools although the active propagation of religion was not encouraged.

The Soviet Union had established groups termed as the "Spiritual Directive(s)" which oversaw not only the training and education of Imams of various Muslim sects but also approved of official translations and the running of Mosques.

However, this form of control did not establish atheism as a method to free oneself of control. Various Sufi sects, such as the Naqshbandiyya, were more endemic to localized traditions and were run by women who kept the memory of Islam alive free from the control of the State so much so that when the Soviet Union fell in 1991 Islam emerged as a strong social cohesive unit that most of the political leadership had to acknowledge its presence.

When any form of government oppresses a religious, or restricts its growth, people will find a way, in this case through women propagating religion, to continue their traditions at least secretly until such a time when they can come in the open. Atheism was never properly a choice in keeping ones identity at least in the non-Russian areas of the Soviet Union.

Sources:

• Islam in the Soviet Union by Alexander Bennigsen, Chatal Lemercier-Quelquejay,
• Soviet Central Asia: The Failed Transformation by William Fierman,
• Russian Azerbaijan 1905-1920: The Shaping of National Identity in a Muslim Community by Tadeusz Swietochowski
• Soviet orientalism and the creation of Central Asian nations by Alfrid K. Bustanov