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Molokans in America

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Molokans in America Molokans in America by John K. Berokoff 3478 East 5th St. Los Angeles California, 1969 Copyright 1969, John K. Berokoff Posted on CD by permission of Andrew J. Berokoff Contents Foreword Introduction Chapter 1 -- The Migration Chapter2 -- The First Years Chapter 3 -- Attempts at Farming Chapter 4 -- The First World War Chapter 5 -- Post War Problems Chapter 6 -- Appearance of New Leaders Chapter 7 -- The Second World War Chapter 8 -- Aid to Brethren in Iran Chapter 9 -- Conclusion Addenda—Petitions and Letters Photographs Foreword There are numerous reasons why the life of the Molokan people in America deserves to be recorded in a book but the most important, perhaps, is the probability that the third and fourth generation American Molokans are unacquainted with the real reason for their forefathers’ emigration from Russia or how they managed to survive as a community for over sixty years in a large city abundantly supplied with various worldly temptations. It is also possible that they do not know why the United States of America was chosen as a place of settlement in preference, say, to Canada or to South America and how it came about that they chose Southern California instead of remaining on the Eastern seaboard as millions of other immigrants did. What was their life in Los Angeles like as they clung together in one close knit neighborhood while other nationalities scattered to become assimilated in the local population? Insisting, for religious reasons, on wearing full beards and their peasant clothes in the face of ridicule while other nationalities conformed to local customs; periodically dropping everything to attend the funeral of a relative, a friend or a church dignitary, quitting their jobs twice a year to observe their week long holidays plus three other one day religious observances, they yet managed to support their very large families without public charity or assistance from non-Molokan sources. To Molokans born and raised since the end of the second World War, this accomplishment may not seem very impressive because the continuous prosperity and full employment of the last 25 years would lead them to believe that it was always thus, but in fact, during the first ten years of their life in America the Molokans were subjected to periods of unemployment when the bread winner of the family considered himself very fortunate if he worked an average of four days a week at $2.00 per day as casual laborer in a lumber yard. How did they do it? This book attempts to answer some of these questions. It is a narrative based on personal observations, on notes, letters and documents in the writer’s possession as well as on information gathered from many persons who are old enough to have personally experienced the history of the Molokans in America. It is a story of a people who were and are unique among all the ethnic groups in the Los Angeles area. INTRODUCTION THE FLIGHT TO THE REFUGE Prophecies of Efim Gerasimovich Klubnikin concerning the coming of World Wars and their after effects, written in his youthful years in the village of Nikitina, Russia in 1855 or thereabouts. Pages 636 and 651, Book of Spirit and Life. “Kings will go to war with China. From the time of the war in China, peace will be taken from the earth. There will be powerful wars in the East. From the time of the war in the East the wrath of God will spread throughout the whole earth. There will be great groaning and crying of peoples, blood will flow everywhere. Great misfortunes and agitation among the peoples; tortures, torment and persecutions. People will fly in all directions; to mountains, caves, forests and to different countries. Separations of father and son, mother and daughter, husband and wife . “ * * * * * “Let us sing loudly a song about the flight to a place of refuge. The Lord has sent His angels with trumpets to all the people; to go, to go on a journey, to remove themselves from worldly worry. We shall stand firmly on our feet, the Lord will give us His help. He is our joy and our strength. A herald is flying from heaven, his command is to prepare us for a journey (Pohod). Angels are released to torment and to punish harshly everyone throughout the universe”. CHAPTER 1 THE MIGRATION The emigration of the Molokan people from Russia occurred at about the same time that the great migration of other peoples of Eastern and Southern Europe reached its peak. Previous to the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries most of the newcomers to the new world were from Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries and Germany. Most of these, with the exception of the Irish, sought to take advantage of the Homestead Law, enacted in the 1860’s to aid in the development of the newly-opened territories in the Middle West and established themselves as farmers in the various states and territories west of the Mississippi River. Comparatively few immigrants from the Eastern or Southern Europe had either the desire or the financial ability to do that. However, towards the latter part of the 19th century the United States were becoming more and more industrialized. There was great need for laborers in mines, steel mills, rail roads and the textile plants of New England and other industries of the Eastern states. This development opened up vast opportunities for the poor of Russia, Poland, the Southern Slav countries as well as Italy for a change in their hopeless poverty. In addition there was an opportunity for the Jews to flee from the oppression and periodic pogroms in Poland and the Tsarist Russia as also for the Poles to escape political disadvantages from the same government. The Slavs of the Balkan countries too, sought to make what was for them a quick fortune from the high wages in the mines and steel mills of the United States, a fortune that would enable them to return to their homes and their families and to live comfortably in their old age. The Italians, of course, were trying to escape the hardships of an over-crowded country and, on the whole, had no desire to return to the old country. Millions flocked to the new world, each for his own reason. Russians, too, came in significant numbers, some for political reasons, some for economical and some for a combination of both. The Molokans too, decided at about this time to migrate to the new world but not for the same reasons as the other people. They came neither to seek their fortunes nor to find relief from economic pressure or political disadvantages because at that time, and for about a half century before that, in fact since their banishment to Trans-Caucasia in the late 1830’s, they were better off economically than any comparable class of people in Russia, Eastern Europe or Italy. Being sober and industrious, it did not take them very long after their arrival in Armenia, Georgia and other parts of Trans-Caucasia to build villages where none existed before, to cultivate grain fields where none grew before, to establish flour mills along the many streams of the mountainous country and to plant orchards to supplement their food supply. And to supplement their incomes they became freighters during the winter months in a country devoid of railroads or of any other kind of roads, so that at the end of the century they were quite self- sufficient economically although, to be sure, there were some poor families in each village. In religious matters too, they were enjoying a fair measure of freedom. No one was compelled against his will to worship God in any manner but his own. Although the Orthodox Church would, from time to time, send their missionaries to Molokan villages to try to reconvert them into the state church, these would be repelled by self-taught Molokan debaters, but no compulsion was used and no one was punished for opposing the views of the missionaries. Although Maxim Gavrilovich was imprisoned at about this time, (1858) it was not for refusing to return to the fold of the Orthodox church but for daring to petition the Tsar’s Viceroy of Trans- Caucasia for relief of harassment by the local authorities who were trying at the instigation of the Postoyannaye to put down the new spiritual manifestation of jumping during religious services. As a matter of fact the churches in the villages and towns were flourishing as never before. Members were loyal to the faith and at peace with one another. There were no back-sliders but many converts from the Orthodox faith. A large neighboring Armenian village, Karakalla, became converted to the Christian Jumpers, most of whom eventually came to America at the same time as the Russian Molokans. There was much visiting from village to village. The arrival of a group of visitors from one village to another would be a cause for celebration. These visits, in effect, would be Molokan revival meetings. There would be prayer meetings in churches and in private homes at which time there would invariably be repetitions of prophecies of “Pohod” to the Refuge. Token flights to the refuge would be undertaken by marches of the whole Pryguny congregation from one end of the village to the other and back again to the prayer house. These were called “Spiritual Maneuvers”. They foreshadowed the eventual flight to the refuge in America. Matters concerning the affairs of the whole Brotherhood would likewise be discussed and settled at such gatherings.
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