Sébastien Peyrouse, a researcher at the Institut Français d'Etudes sur l'Asie Centrale, has entered somewhat uncharted territory in embarking on an analysis of Christianity in Central Asia (i.e. in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan and Tadzhikistan) from the Soviet period to the post-perestroika world of today. He is hampered in relation to the Soviet period by the dearth of both published and unpublished sources for this period and thus fails to gather sufficient evidence for his sociological method of analysis. However, he is on stronger ground once he reaches the Gorbachev period and passes the crucial year 1988 when CPSU policy on religion changed radically: discussion of religion became open and much material was published. His text therefore becomes more interesting for the perestroika period, and particularly for the years following independence for the Central Asian republics in 1991 with his text based on research in situ between 1998 and 2000. In Peyrouse's view, religious faith and organisation continued during the Soviet period with no dramatic ‘revival’ or historical break at the time of perestroika. Many of the political leaders are the same as before perestroika as are the methods used by them to control religious groups such as registration, extra-legal methods and simple force. He distinguishes between the more repressive regimes in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and the relatively liberal policies of Kazakhstan. He compares Islam in the Central Asian republics to other Moslem countries: the former are in a category of their own, in his view, being somewhere between a secular Moslem country like Turkey and countries where Islam is the dominating political factor. Unlike the latter, the Central Asian republics see Islam mainly as a means of defining their national identity and, unlike Turkey, although officially secular, in fact discriminate between one denomination and another, registering some but outlawing others, giving preference to Islam and to the Russian Orthodox Church. Since perestroika, the arrival of many western missionary groups has changed the religious landscape markedly: Russian Orthodoxy was established during the tsarist period with the expansion of the Russian empire while certain areas of Central Asia were the destination for deported groups during the Soviet period, such as Poles and Germans many of whom were either Catholic, Lutheran or Mennonite; now to these denominations have been added many more Protestant groups which are actively trying to make converts. In Peyrouse's view, Central Asian Christianity has never existed as an indigenous phenomenon and, with the departure of Poles, Germans and Russians, will now be further marginalised. He ends with the question – can an indigenous Christianity develop? – and suggests that acceptance of Christianity will be a measure of Central Asian political maturity, indicating respect for diversity and liberty. Except in relation to so-called ‘traditional religions’ (which can vary from republic to republic, for example Islam, Russian Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism, Baptists) there is little sign as yet of such enlightened tolerance in Central Asia.