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ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND SHIFT AMONG THE RUSSIAN OLD BELIEVERS OF ERIE. PENNSYLVANIA

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment o f the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State University

Jeffrey David Holdeman. M.A.

The Ohio State University 2002

Dissertation Committee: Approved by

Dr. Brian D. Joseph, Adviser

Dr. George Kalbouss Adviser

Dr. Anelya Rugaleva Department o f Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3059263

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Jeffrey David Holdeman 2002

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT

From the last quarter o f the nineteenth century until 1914, several hundred

Russian Old Believers emigrated from the Suvalki province o f Russian Poland and

ultimately settled in Erie. Pennsylvania. During the course o f the last one hundred

years, the Erie Old Believer community has faced the problems and difficulties

associated with maintaining their ethnic language (Russian) and their church language

(Russian Church Slavonic) in the United States. Differences in the community led to a

split in the congregation which resulted in two separate churches. One congregation

in the community has resisted the use o f English in their church: the other church

decided to switch to English in an act o f self-preservation. The present research

investigates the community's origins and history, its variant o f Russian, and the status

of Russian, Church Slavonic, and English, focusing on history, domains of use,

attitudes toward the languages, proficiency, etc., and examines the process o f language

maintenance and shift in the community. This research is significant in that I) very

little research o f any kind has been done on the Erie Old Believer community: 2) no

linguistic research has been conducted in the community: 3) the community is in a late

stage of language shift—a linguistic situation which is often passed over for study: 4)

it represents the last research involving the first and second generations o f the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. community, as these members are quickly passing away; and 5) it contributes to

present knowledge about the field of language shift and maintenance, as well as about

the first major wave of Russian-speaking immigrants to the United States—both of

which are areas needing further research.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To my parents

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Looking back on the six years spent on this project and the help and generosity

shown to me by countless people, I find that expressing my gratitude to all involved is

almost as complex as describing the sociolinguistic process that I am studying.

I would like to thank the Sister Mary Lawrence Franklin Archival Center at

Mercyhurst College and archivist and librarian Earleen R. Glaser, the Gannon

University Nash Library Archive and archivist Anita Smith, and the Erie Co.

Historical Society and Museums and archivists Annita Andrick and Stephanie Gaub

for helping me find my way through the maze of available holdings throughout the

city. I would also be remiss if I did not mention the institutional support of Aromas

Coffeehouse (Erie) and Stauf s Coffee Roasters (Columbus) and their employees for

providing a clean, well-lit place befitting of Hemingway in which to spend long days

and late nights reading and working.

I am indebted to Steve Rogers o f the Ohio State Main Library Map Room for

finding obscure maps with even more obscure villages on them; Keith Johnson o f the

Ohio State Department of Linguistics for sharing his knowledge and expertise in

matters phonetic and mechanical: Kathryn Plank for computer technical musings and

database inspiration: Natalie Anderson for suffering through excruciatingly tedious

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. data entry; my many dear friends, classmates, and colleagues at Ohio State fo r making

life during graduate school not just bearable but enjoyable; Richard Morris and Roy

Robson for sharing their Old Believer scholarship and expertise with a wide-eyed

neophyte; Fr. Larry Evanoff and Fr. Steven Simon fo r many hours o f interesting

discussion and for the support and blessings that they gave to this project; Joe and

Anita Robson for more than I can list; Catherine Federoff for sharing her memories,

language, voluminous knowledge o f Erie Old Believer genealogy, and shoe leather

expended in distributing and collecting surveys; and the hundreds o f people o f Old

Believer descent who talked to me. opened their homes to me, fed me. and shared their

memories which might have otherwise gone unrecorded and thus lost to future

generations.

I received funding for my research from many sources: the Ohio State

department o f Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures and its chair

Daniel Collins, providing me with flexible work assignments that allowed me to work

from the Field: Faculty and T A Development under the direction of Alan Kalish.

providing me with employment and a stimulating work environment when I had

overstayed my funding welcome in the Slavic Department: Brian Joseph, making

funds available for data entry costs: the Ohio State Graduate school which awarded me

a Graduate Student Alumni Research Award to cover some housing and travel

expenses: and my parents, making untold financial sacrifices to cover the rest.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I wish to thank my advisor, Brian Joseph, for his time, patience, kindness,

encyclopedic knowledge, patience, calming effect, insight, and most o f all patience.

And calming effect.

Finally, I wish to thank my parents for instilling in me curiosity and a love o f

learning, and for their emotional and Financial support, without which I could not have

embarked on or completed this research. I see their contribution in every page and

every waking moment.

vii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VITA

May 31, 1970 ...... Born - Lansing, Michigan. USA

1992 ...... B.A. Russian Language, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

1993 ...... B.A. Russian Area Studies. University of

Tennessee, Knoxville

1993-2002 ...... Graduate Teaching, Research, and Administrative Associate. The Ohio Sate University

PUBLICATIONS

1. Jeffrey D. Holdeman, ed. 2001. Teaching at The Ohio State University: A Handbook. Columbus. OH: Faculty and TA Development.

2. Jeffrey D. Holdeman. 2000. Czech Preposition Vocalization: Towards an Articulatory Approach. In Brown Slavic Contributions. Volume XIII: Modern Czech Studies , pp. 53-65. Alexander Levitsky and Masako Ueda, eds. Providence. RI: The Department of Slavic Languages, Brown University.

viii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3. Jeffrey D. Holdeman. 1999. The Czech Teaching Resources and Materials Project. In Brown Slavic Contributions, Volume XI: Modern Czech Studies . pp. 158-165. Alexander Levitsky and Masako Ueda, eds. Providence, RI: The Department of

Slavic Languages, Brown University.

FIELD OF STUDY

M ajor Field: Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. T A B L E OF CONTENTS

Page

Abstract ...... ii

Dedication ...... iv

Acknowledgments ...... v

V ita...... viii

List of Figures ...... xv

Preface ...... xvi

Chapters:

I. Language Maintenance and Shift and Old Believer Studies: Necessary Background ...... I

1.1. Language Maintenance and Shift and the Erie Old Believers ...... 1 1.1.1. Research Plan and M ethodology ...... 2 1.1.1.1. Data Collection Methodologies ...... 3 1.1.1.2. Subjects o f Analysis ...... 4 1.2. The Study of Language Maintenance and Shift ...... 4 1.2.1. Origins o f the F ield ...... 5 1.2.2. Language Shift Term inology ...... 5 1.2.3. Related Fields ...... 7 1.2.4. Language Shift ...... 7 1.2.5. Speakers and Proficiency ...... 8 1.2.6. Terminology for the Elements and Process o f S h ift ...... 10 1.2.7. Change within a Language During Shift ...... 14 1.2.8. Signs o f Language Shift and Death ...... 14 1.2.9. Data ...... 16 1.2.10. The Role o f the L in g u ist ...... 16

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1.3. Factors Influencing Language Maintenance and Shift ...... 17 1.3.1. Linguistic Factors ...... 17 1.3.2. Physical Factors ...... 18 1.3.3. Social Factors ...... 18 1.3.4. Hybrid Factors ...... 18 1.3.5. An Abridged Inventory o f Factors ...... 19 1.3.5.1. Linguistic Factor L is t...... 19 1.3.5.2. Physical Factor L is t ...... 19 1.3.5.3. Social Factor L is t...... 20 1.3.5.4. Hybrid Factor L is t ...... 21 1.4. North American Old Believer Studies ...... 23 1.4.1. Published Scholarly Materials ...... 24 1.4.2. Initial Questions about the Erie Old Believer Com m unity ...... 27 1.5. Conventions Used in This Dissertation ...... 29 1.5.1. Orthography and Transliteration ...... 29 1.5.2. Examples and Glosses ...... 30 1.5.3. Phonetic Transcription...... 30 1.5.4. Terminological Conventions ...... 30

2. H istory ...... 32

2.1. Overview o f the History of the Russian Old Believers in Pennsylvania ...... 32 2.2. History o f the Erie Old Believers in Europe ...... 34 2.2.1. From Russia to Suvalki ...... 34 2.2.2. The Push-Pull of Migration ...... 42 2.2.2.1. Seclusion ...... 44 2.2.2.2. Conflict with the Authorities ...... 44 2.2.2.3. Discord among the Suwatki-Sejny Old Believers and Migration to Prussia...... 45 2.2.2.4. Old Believer Networks ...... 50 2.3. Emigration from Europe to the United States ...... 51 2.4. Migration o f the Erie Old Believers within the United States ...... 54 2.4.1. Southwestern Pennsylvania ...... 54 2.4.2. New York City ...... 58 2.4.3. Settlement of the Old Believers in E rie ...... 59 2.5. Towards an Erie Church ...... 62 2.5.1. Migration from Southwestern Pennsylvania to Erie ...... 63 2.5.2. The Growth of Erie ...... 64 2.5.3. Russian Businesses in Erie ...... 67 2.5.4. Entertainment in Erie ...... 69 2.5.5. The Church of the Nativity under Fr. Nicon Pancerev ...... 73 2.5.6. Other Russians in Russian Tow n ...... 77 2.5.7. Americanization ...... 79

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.5.8. Schools ...... 80 2.5.9. Russian-language M edia ...... 83 2.5.10. Church School ...... 85 2.5.11. Sunday School fo r A d u lts ...... 88 2.6. Hamtramck (Detroit), M ichigan ...... 88 2.7. M illville . New Jersey ...... 91 2.8. Contact between Communities ...... 94 2.9. Further History o f E rie...... 95 2.9.1. New Russian Immigration to E rie ...... 95 2.9.2. Time of Change ...... 98 2.9.3. World War II. Affluence, and the O ut-M igration ...... 101 2.9.4. Fr. Albert Y o k o ff ...... 103 2.9.5. CYS and the Rapprochement ...... 104 2.9.6. Fr. Vladimir Smolakov ...... 106 2.9.7. Fr. Larry Evanoff ...... 107 2.9.8. Fr. Steven (Pimen) Simon ...... 108 2.9.9. Loss o f Secular Culture in the Erie Old Believer Community 109 2.9.10. The Issue of English ...... 111 2.9.11. Restoration o f the Priesthood, and the Schism ...... 112 2.10. Old Believer Communities in the Eastern U.S. Today ...... 114 2.10.1. Marianna, Pennsylvania Today ...... 115 2.10.2. M illville. New Jersey T oday ...... 115 2.10.3. Hamtramck (Detroit). Michigan Today ...... 116 2.10.4. Erie, Pennsylvania Today ...... 117 2.10.4.1. The Church o f the Nativity (Erie) Today ...... 117 2.10.4.2. The Church o f the Holy Trinity (Erie) Today ...... 119

3. Data C ollection ...... 121

3.1. Published Materials ...... 122 3.1.1. Scholarly Literature ...... 122 3.1.2. Popular M edia ...... 122 3.2. Records and Archives ...... 123 3.2.1. Establishing Old Belief Heritage ...... 123 3.2.2. Public Records ...... 125 3.2.2.1. The United States Census ...... 125 3.2.2.2. Naturalization Records ...... 127 3.2.2.3. City Directories ...... 128 3.2.3. Semi-public and Private Documents ...... 129 3.2.4. Combining Sources ...... 130 3.3. Personal Interviews ...... 131 3.3.1. Initial Contact and Family History Interviews ...... 132 3.3.2. Description of Language Interview ...... 133

xii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3.3.3. Continuing Contact ...... 136 3.3.4. Results ...... 137 3.4. Language Use and Attitude Survey ...... 137 3.4.1. Goals ...... 137 3.4.2. General Description ...... 137 3.4.3. Distribution of the Survey ...... 138 3.4.4. Collection of Completed Surveys ...... 139 3.4.5. Structure of the S urvey ...... 139 3.4.6. Data E ntry ...... 141 3.4.7. Response Rate ...... 141 3.4.8. Analysis of the Data ...... 143

4. Dialect Description ...... 144

4.1. Introduction ...... 144 4.1.1. The Notion of Standard Language ...... 144 4.1.2. The Linguistic History of the Erie Old Believers ...... 145 4.1.3. Some Terminological Conventions ...... 148 4.1.4. Defense of a Contrastive Description ...... 149 4.1.5. The Status o f Russian in Present-day E rie ...... 149 4.2. The Composition of Suvalki Russian ...... 151 4.2.1. The Pskov Substratum ...... 152 4.2.1.1. Phonological Features ...... 152 4.2.1.2. Lexical Features ...... 156 4.2.1.3. The Effect of the Pskov Substratum ...... 158 4.2.2. The Influence of Polish ...... 158 4.2.2.1. Language Education and Literacy ...... 159 4.2.2.2 Awareness of Polish ...... 160 4.2.2.3. Polish and Polish-like Features in the Russian o f the Erie Old Believers ...... 162 4.2.2A Polish-Suvalki Words that Are Identical or Similar ...... 168 4.2.2.5. Do A ll Speakers o f Erie Suvalki Russian Demonstrate These Features? ...... 170 4.2.2.6. Comparison with Research Done on Old Believers in Poland (Particularly Suvalki) in the 20th Century 172 4.2.3. The Influence of American English ...... 174 4.2.3.1. Lexical Influences of American English ...... 175 4.2.3.2. Phonological Influences o f American English ...... 176 4.2.3.3. Summary of Lexical and Phonological Influence o f English ...... 179 4.2.3.4. Russian-English Code-switching ...... 180 4.2.4. The Influence of Standard Russian ...... 181

xiii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4.3. Analysis of Features ...... 184 4.3.1. Classification System o f These Language Features ...... 184 4.3.2. How a Speaker o f Standard Russian (Non-linguist) Usually Perceives Each o f these Features ...... 186 4.3.3. A Comparison o f Standard Russian. Suvalki Russian, and Polish 187 4.3.4. The Linguistic Quadrangle of the Erie Old Believers ...... 187 4.4. Ultimate Effect Created by the Differences between Erie Suvalki Russian and Standard Russian ...... 188

5. Conclusions ...... 191

5.1. Why Suvalki Russian Could Have Been Maintained ...... 191 5.2. Language Maintenance and Shift as a System ...... 192 5.3. A Metaphor for Language Maintenance ...... 193 5.4. Most Important Factors Influencing Language Shift in Erie ...... 194 5.4.1. Poverty and Chosen Occupations ...... 195 5.4.2. English as Lingua Franca ...... 1% 5.4.3. Freedom ...... 196 5.4.4. Non-standard Language and Illiteracy ...... 197 5.4.5. Exogam y ...... 198 5.4.6. The Americanization Movement ...... 199 5.4.7. The Cessation o f Suvalki Im m igration ...... 199 5.5. The Last Straw (or C ube) ...... 200 5.6. Language Preservation and Documentation ...... 201 5.7. Language Revival ...... 202

Appendices ...... 205 Appendix A: Cyrillic-Latin Transliteration ...... 206 Appendix B: Language Interview Word List ...... 207 Appendix C: Language Use and Attitude Survey ...... 218

Bibliography ...... 247

xiv

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1.1 Re-organization o f types o f language death ...... 12

2.1 Main cities, towns, and villages in Suvalki historically or currently inhabited by Old Believers ...... 36

2.2 Map of Old Believer settlements in Suwalki. Sejny, and Augustow regions ...... 38

2.3 Map of Old Believer settlements in Masurian region (formerly East Prussia)...... 39

2.4 Map of mentioned historical Old Believer settlements in central Europe ...... 41

2.5 Map o f Old Believer cities o f residence in southwestern Pennsylvania ...... 55

2.6 Map of "Russian Town" in Erie. Pennsylvania ...... 65

2.7 Map o f Russian Old Believer communities in the eastern United States ...... 95

4.1 Comparison o f two Erie Suvalki Russian speakers ...... 165

4.2 Perception and attribution o f Erie dialect features by speakers o f Standard Russian ...... 186

4.3 Comparison o f Standard Russian. Erie Suvalki Russian, and Polish pronunciation o f Russian numbers 1 -1 0 ...... 187

4.4 Linguistic quadrangle of the Erie Old Believers ...... 188

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE

I first heard about the Erie Old Believers from Dr. Margarita Mazo in 1993

when I came to Ohio State and joined a Slavic fo lk choir which Dr. Mazo led. Upon

hearing that I was a linguist, she rather abruptly insisted that I study the Old Believer

community in Erie, Pennsylvania. I was quite surprised to hear that there were

Russian Old Believers in Pennsylvania: I had only heard o f Old Believers in Oregon

and Alaska, and never thought that there were Old Believers in the eastern United

States. I was even more surprised to hear that they were living in downtown Erie,

since I had the impression from Russian history books and articles about the West

Coast Old Believers that they avoided contact with the "world." Although interesting,

the topic did not fit into my academic plans, and I declined. She continued to

insist—very gently—once a year each year after that.

In January 1995, Dr. Mazo made a trip to visit the Old Believers in order to

study their Russian secular music tradition. She met with several members o f the

Church of the Nativity, recording examples of their singing and attending a Sunday

church service. She was dismayed to find that very little had been preserved of their

secular music.

Her visit was a "reconnaissance" mission o f sorts in preparation for the 1995

Festival of American Folklife sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution to be held in

xvi

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Washington EXT that summer. Her portion of the festival was entitled, "Russian Roots,

American Branches: Music in Two Worlds." She served as co-curator with Richard

Kennedy and co-presenter with Roy Robson. She invited me to serve as the U.S.

coordinator for the Russian participants (perhaps another attempt to change my mind),

but I had made plans to go to Europe that could not be changed.

Less than a year later, in the spring o f 1996,1 took a class from Dr. Mazo on

Russian folk music traditions. For the term paper, she suggested (much less gently

this time) that I analyze the transcripts from the festival and write about the role o f

ethnic identity in the Erie Old Believers' presentations of their music. I went to her

office to pitch an idea for a paper on the role o f male singers in modern-day Russian

village music ... and left with an armful of festival transcripts. She had finally won.

I finally had an interest in the Erie group, but still did not have an angle which

inspired me and which was adequately linguistic. It was not until the spring o f 1997 in

an introduction to sociolinguistics with Dr. Norma Mendoza-Denton that I found my

angle— language maintenance and language shift. For my term paper. I conducted an

extensive survey o f the literature on the subject, and concluded with a proposal for a

study o f the Erie community.

I made my first trip to Erie in October of 1998 for an international Old

Believer conference. There, I met many o f the leading Old Believer scholars in the

world, and got a chance to see the old Russian neighborhood and the two Old Believer

churches which are separated by two city blocks and an ideological rift.

xvii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In February 1999 I rented an attic apartment in Erie and began my archival

research. I visited local universities, the public library, and the historical society. I

found only two article (Hood 1978 and Dolan 1991) and about 75 newspaper articles,

most o f which repeatedly used the same information. For the next four months I

commuted back and forth between Erie and Columbus, four hours each way, leaving

Erie on Fridays at midday and returning late Monday nights. In Erie, I tried to gather

as much historical information as possible and learn from outsiders (and a handful of

insiders) about the Russian community in order to determine the feasibility o f my

study.

My findings were not what I had expected. I discovered that very few people

still spoke Russian, none as a regular part o f life. Even the number o f semi-speakers

was quite small. Rather than give up. I decided to alter my study to reflect reality by

examining the situation as it existed and trying to document the reasons for the shift

from Russian to English, which was now in its last stages. It became more o f a

salvage operation than the reaping o f a bountiful harvest. That fact does not diminish

the importance o f this research nor did it diminish the pleasure that I derived in

conducting it. In fact, it increases its importance in light o f the urgent need to

document what remains and the situation in general today.

I returned to Erie in September 1999 and stayed until the end o f June 2000, a

little over nine months, this time returning to Columbus only every three or four

weeks. It was at this time that I completed the bulk o f my personal interviews, did

extensive research in the public records held by the Erie County Public Library and

xviii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the Erie County Court House, visited the Marianna Old Believer community fo r the

first time, and completed a week o f research in the National Archives in Washington.

D.C.

From the fall o f 2000 until the present, I have worked out o f Columbus,

making short trips to Erie, staying in touch by phone and by mail, and analyzing the

enormous amount o f data that I have collected over the past three and a half years.

The present work is only a small part o f that information and analysis.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND SHIFT AND OLD BELIEVER STUDIES: NECESSARY BACKGROUND

1.1. Language Maintenance and Shift and the Erie Old Believers

Virtually nothing has been published in the academic literature about the

community of Russian Old Believers in Erie. Pennsylvania, despite its being one of

the oldest Russian communities o f the Atlantic migration and one o f the oldest,

largest, and healthiest Old Believer communities in the United States. This

complication for the research process is compounded by the fact that the Erie Old

Believers themselves know almost nothing of their origins from the time of the schism

in the 17th century until their arrival in the United States at the turn o f the twentieth

century, and few in their community have committed to paper any of their history in

the United States. In addition, nothing has been written about the language or

linguistic situation o f this important community. The present work presents extensive

archival and field research conducted over a three-year period which documents their

history, a description o f their language, and the on-going processes o f language

maintenance and shift in the community.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Erie Old Believer community is presently in the last stages o f language

shift from the language o f their parents (a dialect o f Russian) to American English.

Also at stake is the fate o f their church language. Russian Church Slavonic. In some

respects, the Erie Old Believers were good candidates for maintaining their native

language(s): their initial population was relatively large, there was cohesion and

homogeneity among the members of the community, longevity runs in many families,

there was a very high population density o f Russian speakers in the old neighborhood,

they were able to found a church within a decade o f the majority o f arrivals, most

came from the same small area o f the Russian Empire and shared a common history o f

three hundred years, they had close and large fam ily units, they were agriculturalists in

Europe, their religion prescribed endogamy, and they were historically isolationists.

Nevertheless, today Russian is used extremely rarely in everyday life, and at best has

the status o f a historical artifact for most and the lack o f knowledge o f it is a source o f

shame for many.

1.1.1. Research Plan and Methodology

The study of language maintenance and shift is a relatively new field of

inquiry, and the mechanism o f language maintenance and shift has been under

investigated. Due to the complexity o f the web o f factors and the lack o f extensive

longitudinal studies, the field today is still without a comprehensive theory. The

present research is intended to construct a holistic picture o f the language situation o f

the Erie Old Believers and thus provide the field w ith another case study for

comparison.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1.1.1.1. Data Collection Methodologies

The methodology used in this research follows general urban fieldwork

strategies. Initial research involved the study o f archival sources to collect as much

background information as possible. The second stage o f the research involved

participant observation and informal interviews to verify and expand the historical

description, and to get an idea of the current linguistic situation. More formal

interviews were used to assess language proficiency and dialect features. The third

stage involved the administering of a formal survey designed to investigate family

linguistic histories, current domains of language use. and prevailing language

attitudes. The last stage o f research consisted o f follow-up interviews to elucidate

survey findings and test hypotheses.

As a theoretical framework for the project, a holistic approach was taken to

catalog and analyze all of the historical and current social, linguistic, political,

economic, and religious factors which influence language maintenance and shift in the

Erie community. A proper examination of this kind should include factors such as

population size, language attitudes, domains of use. family and personal proficiency,

linguistic diversity, historical and contemporary social milieu, existence of social and

political structures which aid in language preservation, the role o f leaders in the

community, and numerous others. This approach yields a much more comprehensive

model o f the influencing factors and mechanism o f language maintenance and shift,

and lends itself to comparison with other research o f its kind.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1.1.1.2. Subjects of Analysis

Chapter 2 is dedicated to describing the early history of the Erie Old Believers.

This is important not only because it has largely gone undocumented, but also because

it analyzes the conditions which affected their language maintenance. The lack of

academic writing on the subject necessitated the extensive study o f primary sources,

including numerous personal interviews and the analysis of public and private records

(e.g.. passenger ship arrivals in the National Archives, immigration and naturalization

records, census records, city records, church records, and personal letters).

The investigation continues with a detailed linguistic analysis of the Erie

community, beginning with a dialect study which describes the main features o f the

phonological and lexical systems. Interspersed throughout Chapter 2 is a domain

analysis describing where, when, why. by whom, and with whom the immigrant

language is still spoken, as well as a historical look at the same situation.

Complementary to all o f this are the results o f a survey o f language use and language

attitudes toward the immigrant language and the language of their new country. A ll of

these studies involve both written surveys and extensive personal interviews.

1.2. The Study of Language Maintenance and Shift

The process in which one language is replaced by another language within a

speech community— known most widely and accurately as language shift —has been

going on since the beginning o f recorded history and undoubtedly long before that. It

has been estimated that in the last five centuries about half o f the known languages

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. have died out (Sasse 1992: 7). Yet as a field of study, the examination o f language

maintenance and shift is in fact rather young.

1.2.1. Origins of the Field

Morris Swadesh (1948) made the first appeal for the study o f language death in

his "Sociological notes on language obsolescence." Joshua Fishman (1964) updated

this appeal with his article "Language maintenance and language shift as fields of

inquiry." And yet. monograph-length works, such as Gal (1979), Dorian (1981),

Tsitsipis (1981), and Kulick (1992). appeared very slowly. Only recently has more

attention been turned to such issues, especially under the heading o f "endangered

languages." These however often focus on the disappearance o f individual languages

(and their documentation or preservation) rather than on the intricacies o f the

mechanisms o f the process o f shift. Due to the complexity o f the field and the lack of

comprehensive longitudinal studies, the field o f language shift is still without a

comprehensive theory.

1.2.2. Language Shift Terminology

Soon after embarking on an introduction into this field, the student o f language

shift finds him- or herself in a morass o f synonymous terms an a web of inter-related

fields.

Language shift itself is referred to by many other names— language death,'

language extinctionlanguage demiseJ (for the biological metaphors); language

' see. for example. Dorian 1981. This and the following footnotes are meant to serve only as examples of scholars who use these terms: they are not necessarily the originators o f these terms.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. obsolescence ,4 language replacement,3 language displacement ,6 mother tongue

displacementlanguage loss? and even anthropomorphic terms like language suicide '

and linguistic genocide10 (also referred to as linguicide). Related terms can be equally

graphic, such as language murder ,11 sudden death,12 and radical death.'3 The term

shift is often applied both to the end result (see above synonyms) and to the process

(also known as language attrition .'4 language degeneration.'3 language de

acquisition, language decay10, and language decline1 ). The term language death also

has a wide range o f synonyms and meanings. Most literally it refers to language shift

which results in the world's last speakers o f a language "abandoning" their language,

but it is also frequently used for the abandonment o f any language by a speech

community, regardless o f whether there are other speakers o f the language in the

world, and sometimes for loss through the death o f the last living speakers.

: see. for example. Pentikainen 1991 ' see. for example. Schmidt 1990 4 see. for example. Swadesh 19-18 ' see. for example. Milich 1995 * see, for example. Brenzinger 1997 see. for example. Fishman 1972 s see. for example. Dorian 1982 ' see. for example. Denison 1977 see. for example. Skutnabb-Kangas 2000 11 see. for example. Aitchison 2001 ’* see. for example. Sasse 1992 13 see. for example. Campbell & Muntzel 1989 14 see. for example. Maher 1991 15 see. for example, Craig 1997 see. for example, Sasse 1990 1 see. for example. Harris 1994

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1.2.3. Related Fields

The field of language shift is inextricable from a network of related Fields of

inquiry targeting minority languages, immigrant languages, social networks, language

change, domain analysis, diglossia, bilingualism, ethnicity studies, political and social

history, language contact, and language spread, to name but a few. Language

shift—when studied correctly —is a truly interdisciplinary field.

In situations o f language shift (especially very gradual shift), the language

being shifted from w ill often undergo changes in its phonology, lexicon, syntax, etc.,

as is seen in sections 1.2.7 and 1.2.8. These changes have frequently been compared

to other linguistic processes and phenomena, such as creolization and pidginization.

decreolization. aphasia, first and second language acquisition, language attrition, and

long-term linguistic change. More study of the linguistic changes in situations of

language shift is necessary before conclusive statements can be made about the

similarities.

1.2.4. Language Shift

Language shift in its truest "shift" denotation requires a situation of

multilingualism and language contact. It is important to note however that just

because two languages are in contact with each other does not mean that there w ill be

language shift; there are many cases o f stable bilingualism in the world.

Multilingualism is merely a logical pre-requisite (necessary though not sufficient) for

shift. This contact must be defined rather loosely though in order to accommodate a

situation such as the revival of Modem Hebrew, since it would be difficult to call

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Hebrew a dominant or aggressor language (as the shift scenario is often described) co

existing with Yiddish. The two most typical situations for language shift are the

indigenous minority language and the transplanted immigrant language (Dorian 1982:

44). Examples of the indigenous minority language would be Dyirbal in Australia

(e.g., Schmidt 1985). Nahuatl in Mexico (e.g.. H ill & H ill 1977). or Hungarian in

Austria (e.g.. Gal 1979). Examples o f transplanted immigrant languages would be

Norwegian in the U.S. (e.g.. Haugen 1989) or Italian in the Netherlands (e.g., Jaspaert

& Kroon 1991).

The classic models have language shift occurring over many generations, such

as the shift in some Pennsylvania German communities (e.g.. Huffines 1980). In

immigrant communities, the shift often occurs over three. Holmes (1992: 56-57)—to

provide a "textbook" example —states that

shift may take three or four generations, but sometimes can be completed in just two. Typically, migrants are virtually monolingual in their mother tongue, their children are bilingual, and their grandchildren are often monolingual in the language o f the "host" country.

Denison (1977: 21) says the same thing in a mathematical way:

Over several generations (at least three), language substitution may be schematically represented as taking place as follow s (where B is the ousting and A the ousted language, and where / indicates the dominant and //th e lesser degree of competence in a bilingual generation): A > AUBll > BI/AII > B.

1.2.5. Speakers and Proficiency

Often researchers (e.g.. Dorian 1981. Silva-Corvalan 1986) talk about a

proficiency continuum in a language shift setting. This refers to the range o f linguistic

proficiency o f the speakers in the community. A t one end o f the continuum are the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. native fluent speakers. Farther along are semi-speakers , a term coined by Nancy

Dorian in her research o f East Sutherland Gaelic. Semi-speakers are speakers "with

very partial command of the productive skills required to speak it. but almost perfect

command of the receptive skills required to understand it (1983: 32)." Sasse (1992:

15) calls this the "speaker generation which results from the interruption o f language

transmission.” Sasse (ibid.: 23) defines another type of speaker—the rusty

speaker—us " a person whose opportunities have been limited for a long time and who

has to invest a great deal o f energy in retrieving words and putting sentences

together." Farther along the continuum are the rememberers— "speakers who may

have been, at an early stage in life, native fluent speakers, or who may simply have

learned only some elements of the language a long time ago. and who. in either case,

have lost much o f their earlier linguistic ability (Craig 1997: 259)." A t the other end

o f the range is the non-speaker— someone with no perceptive or productive ability in

the language. Often the range o f speakers between the two ends are referred to as

imperfect speakers. Another term—the terminal speaker— is used in a number of

ways. Some use it to refer to imperfect speakers in the last generation in a shift

situation: some use it to designate a speaker in the last generation o f a language before

language death. It seems that the problem here lies in the fact that in both situations o f

language death and language shift it is possible to have both fluent speakers and semi

speakers. The last speaker o f a Native American language could either be a fluent

speaker or a semi-speaker.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1.2.6. Terminology for the Elements and Process of Shift

For describing the elements in language shift situations there are also several

important terms. The next four terms come from Sasse (1992). The language which is

being shifted away from or given up is sometimes called the abandoned language.

Often this language is a minority language, defined by Dressier and Wodak-Leodolter

(1977: 6) as "a language which is underprivileged in relation to another, dominant

language o f the same community (elsewhere it means a language which is used only

by a small part o f the population o f a polity)." The language that the community shifts

to or continues to use (since it is a multilingual situation) is called the target language.

also called the dominant language. The language o f primary importance is called the

primary language, while the language o f secondary importance is the secondary

language. The major drawback to these terms is that they imply more of a

monolingual shift (from one primary language to one primary language) than a

bilingual to monolingual shift (a situation of. say. stable bilingualism shifting to

monolingualism). This seems to expose the origins o f the terms as coming from

Weinreich's research on creoles. Another term from Nancy Dorian's research is the

notion o f language tip— "the case of sudden shift from a minority language to a

dominant language after centuries of apparent strong survival (Craig 1997: 259)."

As mentioned above in section 1.2.2. language shift and language death are

often used as synonyms, although many scholars refer to language death as language

shift in a community o f last surviving speakers. The term language extinction also

seems appropriate here. Language death would therefore seem to be a type o f

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. language shift. Campbell and Muntzel (1989) find four types o f language death (as

summarized in Sasse 1992: 22):

1) sudden death— the case where a language abruptly disappears because all of

its speakers suddenly die or are killed (e.g. Tasmanian)

2) radical death — rapid language loss usually due to severe political

repression, often with genocide, to the extent that speakers stop speaking

the language as a form o f self-defense18

3) gradual death— language loss due to gradual shift to the dominant language

in language contact situations

4) bottom-to-top death— the so-called Latinate pattern— where, according to

Hill (1993), "the language is lost first in contexts of family intimacy and

hangs on only in elevated ritual contexts"19

Sasse then goes on to argue whether bottom-to-top is actually a distinct type.

The matter can be cleared up with the classification for situations of

language death (extinction) shown in Figure 1.1; widely-used terms are italicized:

Craig (1997: 258) cites the examples o f Lenca and Cacaopera. Craig (1997: 259) cites the example o f Yaqui.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. death ♦ "natural" ( gradual, intergenerational) ♦ "normal, traditional" death ^ w/shift bottom to top

unnatural" (rapid, intragcnerational) radical death w/o sudden shift

Figure 1.1: Re-organization o f types o f language death

The separation o f natural/unnatural makes the distinction between "traditional" shift

(gradual shift: sometimes called a collective and usually not explicit choice of

language abandonment which takes place over several generations20) and "non-

traditional" immediate shift due to harsh political and/or military force, therefore not

exhibiting any of the normal linguistic changes found in regular shift.21 One could

expect a creole-type situation22 facing speakers in a radical shift. It also solves the

classification o f sudden death—the language goes extinct and since there are no

speakers left to speak, there is no shift. Therefore, according to this classification,

sudden death is not a case o f language shift, and we can no longer say that all types o f

language death are instances o f language shift.

Two other terms connected with language death need to be explained here.

Dressier and Wodak-Leodolter (1977: 5) define language murder as the "physical

liquidation (genocide) o f all speakers o f a language or brutally forced assimilation."

31 hence the designation "gradual, intergenerational" :i hence the designation "rapid, intragencrational" ~ See. for example. Thomason and Kaufman 1988 for an in-depth description of the process o f creolization.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This appears to be a blanket term to cover both sudden death and radical death. Hock

and Joseph (1996: 447) define language murder more gently, as "tak|ing| place if

individuals or whole speech communities are forced to abandon their native language

in favor of a language favored by a politically more powerful group." This definition

however is rather ambiguous, as it could be used to describe both violent radical death

and the more subtle shift experienced by immigrant languages in some countries.

Hock and Joseph also define language suicide as "a matter o f individual decision . . .

very common among immigrants to areas with a linguistically relatively homogeneous

population and without any significant tradition of bi- or multilingualism .... To this

end the |immigrant| parents decide not to use their native language any more but only

(the target language |." This term is designed to focus on the fact that it is the speakers

who are responsible for not actively (i.e., consciously) trying to preserve their

language. The terminological problem led Denison to write his 1977 article

"Language death or language suicide?" Both terms (language murder and language

suicide) though seem to be too dramatic to be of worth.

In the late stages o f language death, speakers might realize their impending

loss and decide to save their language through revitalization or renewal. If the

language is already dead and people want to revive it. such as Modem Israeli Hebrew,

it is also referred to as revitalization. Hock and Joseph (1996: 450) seize the

opportunity to extend the biological/anthropomorphic metaphors and propose the term

language resurrection. It must be made clear that a case of language resurrection is

not a case o f natural revitalization and the argument could be made whether indeed the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. resurrected language should be considered the same language as the one which died.

In the case of a community which speaks a dialect or non-standard variant of a

standardized language, revitalization can result in the loss o f the variant if the

revitalization is based on the standard form (e.g., French in Louisiana at the expense of

Cajun French or Standard Russian in Erie at the expense o f the Suvalki Old Believer

dialect).

1.2.7. Change within a Language During Shift

One growing area within the study o f language shift is the study o f changes to

the abandoned language during the process of shift. These changes can be

phonological.23 lexical, morphological, syntactic, and stylistic. As mentioned in 1.2.3.

these studies often make comparisons to other processes o f linguistic dynamism on

these same levels. For a short overview, see Craig 1997: 261-264). For specific

works, see a number of articles in Dressier and Wodak-Leodolter (1977).

1.2.8. Signs of Language Shift and Death

Although there is still no comprehensive theory o f language shift and

prediction of it is difficult, many scholars include observations in their works on

possible signs o f death and the mechanism of language shift. Some commonly cited

examples o f signs o f language death are:

• reduction and adaptation of linguistic structures • reduction in complexity and diversity o f structural features

3 See especially the well-known and wideK cited 1972 article by Wolfgang Dressier "On the phonology o f language death” or Leanne Hinton's 1980 article "When sounds go wild."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • "rule loss"

• functional restrictions (domain changes) • stylistic shrinkage

• reduction o f registers • imbalance in borrowing • "us" versus "them" mentality among speakers • perception o f inferiority o f language by speakers • shift o f language o f religion to majority language

• shift to majority language in the home domain • bilingual parents passing on only one language to children

Perhaps the most argued o f these signs are the structural changes to the language.

While some scholars are quick to diagnose death at the first sign o f linguistic change,

others note that it is still not possible to distinguish the changes due to language shift

from changes due to language contact and from changes due to normal, natural

linguistic change.

Another point o f contention among scholars is the actual point o f death. To

again invoke a biological metaphor, it can be likened to debating whether a person is

dead when the heart stops beating, or when all brain activity ceases. Sasse (1992:18)

marks the final point o f language death at "the cessation o f regular communication in

the language." Vachek (cited in Denison 1977:14) contends that a language is dead as

soon as it stops developing, i.e.. "as soon as its performance can be generated on the

strength o f its codified rules alone." Dorian, cutting to the chase, states that a

language is dead when it no longer has any more speakers.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. As stated in the Preface, the Erie Old Believer community is in the last stages

o f language shift to English. This study examines not only the evidence fo r this

statement but also the internal and external causes which led to this situation.

1.2.9. Data

In order to study languages undergoing language shift, one needs data, which

can be collected in a variety of ways. Anthropologists, linguistic anthropologists, and

sociolinguists often use the participant-observer method. Although this type of

research is very time-intensive, it can provide an in-depth understanding o f the

dynamics o f a speech community. Sociologists on the other hand usually prefer

censuses and other survey questionnaires. Sociolinguists also frequently use

questionnaires as a supplement to their field research as a way of gathering bulk

information very quickly. Hundreds of surveys can be distributed and collected in the

same time it takes to conduct a few personal interviews or observe the behaviors o f

people in the community. Socioiinguists also sometimes turn to census-type data as

supplementary information for their studies. Thorough researchers w ill always exploit

all o f the available sources o f information.

1.2.10. The Role of the Linguist

Finally, there is the question o f the role of the linguist in language shift and

language maintenance. Some people believe that the linguist should intervene and try

to prevent the death o f a language by trying to rally interest and appreciation o f the

language, conjuring up the image o f people in wetsuits trying to save a beached whale.

Others believe in the survival o f the fittest theory that a language w ill survive if it is

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. equipped and meant to survive. Others believe that the linguist should collect as much

information about a language as possible and make that information available for

those who want to use it. Good arguments can be made for all three stances.24

1.3. Factors Influencing Language Maintenance and Shift

Upon an in-depth study o f the literature, the student o f language maintenance

and shift notices that there are numerous factors which cause language shift and which

help language maintenance succeed. The problem is that few works give more than a

short list of these factors, often followed by "etcetera's" and "and so on's." Sasse

(1992: 19) proposes a model for the Arvanitika/Gaelic type o f language shift, but it

merely depicts the processes in language shift and pays little attention to the factors

which initiate, drive, and end these processes. An inventory o f the conceivable factors

which play roles in language shift would be helpful. Although an exhaustive list

might prove too long to be practical, a somewhat abridged list would be useful.

There are many ways in which factors can be grouped: internal vs. external,

individual vs. communal, linguistic vs. metalinguistic vs. extralinguistic. Below, the

factors are categorized as linguistic, physical, social, and hybrid.

1.3.1. Linguistic Factors

Purely linguistic factors are those connected only with the language in question

and are very few in number. The factors are related to the phonetics, morphology.

:4 An example of such a heated debate can be found in the pagesof Language in the 1990s. A series of pieces on endangered languages organized b\ Ken Hale inLanguage 68: 1—42 (March 1992| sparked a discussion note by Peter Ladefoged(Language 68: 809-811 (December I992|). which in turn yielded a response by Nancy Dorian(Language 69: 575-579 | April 1993().

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. lexicon, orthography, syntax, dialect status, codification, and standardization. They

also include the objective level o f proficiency o f individual speakers. These factors

are more prevalent as components of hybrid factors (see 1.3.4).

1.3.2. Physical Factors

Purely physical factors are largely extralinguistic in nature. They involve

demography (population size, population density, ethnic and linguistic diversity),

geography (topography or speech region, isolation, proximity to other speech

communities), and physical history that has affected their demography and geography

(migration, invasion, natural disasters). They stem from the physical setting o f the

speech community in the past, present, and during transitions.

1.3.3. Social Factors

The social factors involve social aspects o f the speech community itself and its

cultural setting: economic (socio-economic level of speakers), political (institutional

or governmental support), familial (family size, kinship networks), religious

(endogamy), social (social networks, group cohesion), and identity (ethnic, religious).

1.3.4. Hybrid Factors

Hybrid factors are the intersection o f two or more factors from the three

aforementioned classes. These can include sociolinguistic factors (linguistic identity,

external linguistic prejudice, domains o f use. pressures o f linguistic assimilation),

language attitudes (prestige, value, euphony), linguistic beliefs and perceptions

difficulty of acquisition, perceived proficiency of other speakers), and language

politics (status as an official language, possible support fo r bilingual education).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1.3.5. An Abridged Inventory of Factors

The following factors were gathered from scholarly literature on language

maintenance and shift and are among the most often cited examples. As stated above,

this inventory is not exhaustive. Some o f these factors deserve extensive explanation

which is unfortunately not possible due to constraints of space, but they are discussed

in many o f the sources cited above. Several factors can be cross-listed, but are listed

only once here. Many o f these come from Romaine 1989.

1.3.5.1. Linguistic Factors

• functional capabilities of a language in its new or dominant environment

• the role o f the individual speaker

• language repertoire o f other people present in conversations

1.3.5.2. Physical Factors

• population/group size

• concentration of community (enclaves, neighborhoods)

• isolation o f the community

• nature of community: urban/industrial/commercial center vs.

isolated/agricultural/pre-industrial community

• dispersion

• migration/resettlement

• in-migration and out-migration

• contact with homeland (phone calls, letters, newspapers. T V broadcasts)

• trips to homeland (permanent or visits)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • new immigrants from home culture

• new immigrants from other cultures/languages

• conquest by a more powerful society, such as an imperial society

• intrusion by a dominant culture

I.3.5.3. Social Factors

• exogamy/endogamy

• level of cohesion among families

• sense of community among speech community

• extent of social networks

• shared history/ethnic origins

• history of linguistic, ethnic, racial, religious oppression

• level of secularization of society and secularizing forces

• institutional support for the minority language (schools, church)

• presence o f strong community leaders (as political advocates, as decision-makers)

• explicit group decisions concerning language use

• wealth o f individuals in speech community

• wealth of community as a whole

• "us" versus "them" mentality among speech community

• feelings o f homesickness or nostalgia for home country and culture

• traditional values o f respect fo r elders

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I.3.5.4. Hybrid Factors

• prestige status o f dominant and minority/subordinate languages

• negative stereotypes and prejudice toward the language

• positive and negative language attitudes among speakers

• language loyalty/positive language orientation

• community support for language maintenance

• multilingualism or monolingualism of the major culture

• support from bilingual peers (o f same and o f other languages)

• existence o f heritage language programs

• existence o f bilingual language programs

• clear motivation for children to acquire active competence in each language

• pressure to conform to the majority society

• economic pressures to adopt the majority language (threatened loss of job by

employer, discrimination by co-workers due to language use)

• belief that the minority language interferes with the acquisition o f the majority

language

• belief that bilingualism is confusing for children

• positive and negative connotations of the language (connotations of youth.

modernity, technical skill, education and ignorance, sophistication, social and

economic status) among speakers

• inferiority complex among speakers about language, ethnicity, etc.

• perception o f language as language o f economic advancement

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • status as acceptable or mandated language o f workplace

• language used by primary care-giver in childhood

• symbolic values of the language (political, social, cultural, economic)

• social importance of language for special functions (speech-making, rituals)

• status o f minority language as part or symbol o f social identity

• prestige status of minority language internationally

• pride in ethnicity and language among speakers

• governmental pressures to abandon minority languages

• attempts by educators to eradicate minority languages

• language planning and policy activity

• political support for active language maintenance

• support by law and administration (right to use language in court, government, etc.)

• status of minority language as a language o f official transactions

• gradual gain o f importance o f one language over another

• existence o f an accepted lingua franca

• speech behaviors o f individuals and the speech community

• proficiency continuum (influence o f proportions o f native fluent speakers, imperfect

speakers, and non-speakers)

• style usage among speakers

• domains o f usage o f each language: home. work, stores, local public life, written

uses, national secular institutions (school, government administration, political

parties, courts, military, police, media, church, school)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • utility o f minority language

• recognized legitimacy o f m inority language

• solidarity encoding factors

• language use in "glamour contexts" in the wider society (for formal speeches on

ceremonial occasions, by news readers on television and radio, and by those whom

young people admire, such as movie stars, musicians, disk jockeys)

• affective value ascribed to m inority language

• perception by speakers o f language's esthetics (beauty, strangeness)

• attitude toward language as sub-standard, weak, corrupted

• perception by speakers o f language's uniqueness/distinctness

• parents' attitude that language is necessary or worthwhile

• insecurity about knowledge of language/lack of linguistic confidence

• association o f language with negative identity (peasant-ness, crime, religion)

• effect of interlocutors on language choice

1.4. North American Old Believer Studies

1.4.1. Published Scholarly Materials

The last three decades o f the 20th century saw relatively extensive research

(historical, linguistic, sociological, and ethnographic) on the Old Believers of Oregon

and Alaska. This is due in part to the publicity which these groups received when they

arrived in the United States in the 1960s. The group of ’Turkish" Old Believers that

came through M illville . New Jersey, and then moved to Oregon was sponsored by the

Tolstoy Foundation o f New York, and thus even received front-page coverage from

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the New York Times (22 April 1963. see Bibliography for others). The Old Believer

community in Nikolaevsk, Alaska, was the subject of a feature story in National

Geographic (Rearden 1972: 401-425). Interest in these groups began among

American scholars such as Ralph Sabey (1969), Roberta Hall (1970), Michael

Smithson (1976), Richard Morris (1981), Michael Biggins (1985), Michael Colfer

(1985), and Alexander Dolitsky et al. (1991 ).25 Both regions have also attracted

considerable recent interest from Russian scholars, predominantly linguists like

Leonid Kasatkin and Rozalija Kasatkina (1997). Serafima Nikitina (1997), and Julija

Samojlova (2000). and from Lithuanian scholar Valerijus Cekmonas (2000a). Their

research and the publication o f their findings continue today.

Current interest (and interest over the past three decades) rests largely in the

fact that the Old Believer communities in Oregon and Alaska are still "visibly

Russian" in an era when diversity and an interest in other cultures in the United States

is in fashion. Rather than embracing the concept of the melting pot (where individual

features are lost in the boil or are at least stirred in with others to create something

unique), the present is a period in which at least some segment o f academia is

documenting cultures as individual wholes. The appeal o f this activity grows when

research is viewed as documenting the "disappearance o f a dying culture.”

This trend in scholarship came too late for the eastern Old Believer

communities: the Old Believer community had already lost most o f its external

Russian-ness (see 2.9.9). By the 1940s. there were already two U.S.-born generations.

~ A ll seven works are doctoral dissertations.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the second by all accounts was completely "Americanized" (and the first at least in

large part). Russian was no longer being transmitted to the new generations to any

significant degree. One woman in the Erie community tells of a scholar from Harvard

coming in the 1950s. When he saw how little Russian language and culture had been

preserved, he promptly left.26 This reflects an attitude among some scholars who

prefer to study "unspoiled" cultures. Such studies even today make claims that

isolated groups speak and act as their ancestors did centuries ago. Popular works on

North American Old Believers abound with such statements.27 This attitude was

(unfortunately) further energized when a group of geologists "found" a group of Old

Believers in Siberia in 1978.28 The resulting 1982 book by Vasilij Peskov. Taeztiyj

tupik: dokumental'naja povest', was widely read in Russia, and was translated into

numerous languages, including English.29 Since the eastern U.S. Old Believer

communities are all located in urban settings and their members quickly integrated (at

least in outward appearance) into American culture, thus losing much o f their

"exoticness," they have largely slipped under the academic radar.

From an academic point-of-view, almost no published information exists on

the Erie community. Only one sizable work has been written on its history, an

Attempts to identify this scholar have so far been unsuccessful. 17 This is evident in titles such as Sokoloff 1914 ("Old Believers: Medieval Russia in the Pittsburgh district") or Rearden 1972 ("Nikolaevsk: A bit of Old Russia takes root in Alaska"). The discovers of "lost" cultures and people is a favorite topic among the world's reading public. Other examples are the "discovers ” of the Tasaday tribe in the Philippines in 1972 (see MacLeish 1972 or Nance 1975) or of Japanese soldiers from World W ar II who were found on remote islands in the south Pacific who had not heard that the war had ended 25 sears before (see Sewsweek 1972 or Time 1974). Its English translation by Marian Schwartz was published in 1994 as Lost in the taiga: One Russian family's fifty-year struggle fo r survival and religious freedom in the Siberian wilderness.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. unpublished Allegheny College senior thesis in 1985 by Roy Robson, a member o f the

community and now a Russian historian at the University o f the Sciences in

Philadelphia. The work, entitled The other Russians: Old Believer community

development in Erie, Pennsylvania, describes customs, parish development, the

devastating split which occurred over theological issues in the 1980s. and similarities

and differences with Old Believer communities in Oregon and Alaska.30 Robson also

published a catalog which accompanied an exhibit during an international conference

on Old Believer studies held in Erie in 1998. Tw o articles have appeared in The

Journal o f Erie Studies, one on the early history o f the community (Hood 1978), the

other on the Sava Legenzoff (Sam Lee) family (Dolan 1991). The majority o f the

remaining publications have been in the form o f short newspaper articles at Christmas

and Easter, several on events such as the two church fires, the subsequent rebuildings,

the building o f the community center, and on rare occasions a substantial article on

some aspect o f their lives and religion (e.g.. their origins, the split in the Erie church).

Other brief articles have been published in Old Believer studies journals (Robson

1992, 1994) and one in a Russian-American journal (Alexandrov 1997). Added to

these are brief mentions and short articles in scattered sources. Little if any detailed

information has been available on the European history of the Erie group, and nothing

has appeared in any form on their language or the linguistic situation o f the

community. The community has no historian, and only a few people are regarded as

having extensive knowledge of their history—anything above anecdotal

■" The thesis, however, is not held by U M I and the copy at Allegheny College is non-circulating.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. reminiscences—and none has committed anything to paper beyond short newspaper

articles.31 There is even less information about the other three Old Believer

communities in the eastern United States. A few scholars have mentioned them

(Piepkom 1977, Grek-Pabisowa 1999b), but the information is often at best

incomplete and sometimes inaccurate. In some instances, incorrect information has

been cited in later works, often without attribution o f the source, and this

misinformation becomes "received knowledge" for later publications. Newspapers are

especially guilty o f this, but so are scholars who lack the means or do not take the time

to verify their information.

1.4.2. Initial Questions about the Erie Old Believer Community

When I began my research there were several crucial questions for which I

could not find answers in the abovementioned sources, or even from the Old Believers

with whom I had contact. Other questions had sketchy or unverified answers. Among

these questions were the following:

* What is the state o f Russian in the Erie Old Believer community? Is Russian

actively used ? If so. by whom and when? If not. why was it lost?

* How large is the Old Believer community in Erie (both in active membership

and peripheral association) ? Are there people who left the faith? Are there

converts? How many Old Believers originally immigrated to western

Pennsylvania?

31 sec. for example, Morosky 2002a and 2002b

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. * Do the Erie Old Believers speak standard Russian or a dialect? If a dialect,

do they all speak the same dialect? With which languages did they have

contact in Europe and in the United States? What was the effect o f this

contact on their language?

* Where did the Old Believers originate in Russia proper and when did they

first leave Russian soil? What was the path o f their migration before

coming to the United States and how long did they live in each place?

Where did the Erie Old Believers live immediately before coming to the

United States?

* Did the original Old Believer immigrants know each other in Europe? Were

they all from the same branch o f the Old Belief?

* Have there been recent Old Believer arrivals?

* Are there other Old Believer communities in the United States in addition to

Erie and the Oregon and Alaska communities? Where did they originate in

Russia proper? How and why did they form in the United States ? With

which communities does the Erie community interact and to what extent?

Do the communities have a common history?

* How much religious and secular culture have the Erie Old Believers

maintained?

* How integrated are the Erie Old Believers into mainstream society ?

* What is the future o f Russian in the Erie Old Believer community ?

The follow ing chapters attempt to answer these questions.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1.5. Conventions Used in This Dissertation

1.5.1. Orthography and Transliteration

The issue of orthography in this study is very problematic. The use of Cyrillic

and o f the transliteration o f Russian text—especially managing a balance between

scholarly transliteration and accepted popular transliterations (HexoB. Cexov, or

Chekhov?)—are perennial problems for Slavists. The Erie Suvalki Russian situation

is further complicated by the fact that it is largely unwritten. A third layer of

difficulties arises when other historically important languages, such as Polish and

Lithuanian, are thrown into the fray (e.g.. English Vilnius . Polish Wilno . 19th-century

Russian Vil'na and Vil'no. 21st-century Russian Vil'njus. Lithuanian Vilnius). I have

therefore set up the following hierarchy, in order of implementation:

1) popular English forms o f major cities, events, and names (Vilnius. Kaunas,

Suvalki. Moscow: Third Partition o f Poland: Peter the Great)

2) current local spellings of cities over historical names (Ukmerge over

V il'kom ir)

3a) transliteration o f suffix -i^bi: -tsy (popular) over -cy (scholarly) for

designations such as Fedoseevtsy. Pomortsy. Filippovtsy. except in

Bibliography

3b) bespopovrsy (current standard orthography) over bezpopovtsy ( I9th-c.

orthography and the form common, even prevalent, in academic literature

on Old Believers)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4) the scholarly transliteration system in all other instances (c fo r h, s for ut, c

for i<, etc.—see Appendix A for the complete system)

1.5.2. Examples and Glosses

I also adhere to the follow ing conventions concerning examples and glosses:

1) Cyrillic text will be italicized: Xristos voskres

2) Latin transliteration of Cyrillic will be italicized: nastavnik

3) glosses w ill be given in single quotation marks: molenna 'prayer house'

4) the few common written forms o f Erie Suvalki Russian that do exist w ill be

written as they are written in the community (with commentary as needed)

jeda. baba. Paska. hahol: other examples of Erie Suvalki Russian will be

given in Latin transliteration

1.5.3. Phonetic Transcription

All phonetic transcription w ill be done in the International Phonetic Alphabet

(IPA): baba |'babo|.

1.5.4. Terminological Conventions

The last layer of complications comes from matters of history. The Erie Old

Believers refer to their last European home as "Suvalki." This region has changed

hands many times during the past 500 years. When the Russian Empire partitioned it

in 1795. is was called "Suvalki." In 1867. Suvalkskaja gubernija 'Suvalki province'

was created: the city Suvalki was its capital. Now back in Polish hands, it is Suwalki .

and the region is known as Suwalszczyzna. I have therefore set up the follow ing

hierarchy, in order of implementation:

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1) Suwalki when referring to the Polish city in the present; Suvalki elsewhere

2) Suvalki province when referring to the historical administrative unit of the

Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, over all other forms (e.g., Suvalki

gubernia . Suvalkskaja gubernija), unless in a direct quote

Linguistic terminology w ill be discussed in 4.1.3.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 2

THE ERIE OLD BELIEVER COMMUNITY AND ITS HISTORY

2.1. Overview of the History of the Russian Old Believers in Pennsylvania

The Old Believers (or Old Ritualists)32 are known in Russian history as the

"schismatic" group which broke o ff from the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-

nth century after the Russian Patriarch Nikon made changes in the practice of

Russian Orthodoxy. As a result of their rejection o f these changes, the Old Believers

were persecuted through exile, torture, and death by the Russian State and the Russian

Church. Throughout the ensuing centuries, many fled to the far reaches of the Russian

Empire and abroad, motivated by religious, economic, safety, and social concerns.

One group from the Pskov-Novgorod region was attracted by the seclusion, safety,

and economic opportunity offered in the sparsely settled land of present-day

northeastern Poland, known as the Suvalki region and named for its largest city. The

Old Believers settled there throughout the 18th century, founding villages or moving

into or near existing towns. For a time, they enjoyed favorable political and economic

conditions, as well as contact with other Old Believer communities in the lands of

what are today Lithuania Latvia. Belarus, and Ukraine.

5: In Russian, siarovery (literally 'Old Believers') orstaroobrjadcy (literally 'Old Ritualists’).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The middle and end o f the 19th century brought political, economic, and social

change to the Suvalki region. Many Old Believers were either persecuted or

assimilated, or they fled to safer regions in central and eastern Europe. One

destination, however, has been almost completely overlooked by European scholars:

the United States. As early as the mid-1880s, Old Believers begin to explore the

possibilities of settlement in the New World. The direction and destination of this

migration was mysteriously singular: western Pennsylvania. Ostensibly drawn by

mining jobs in southwestern Pennsylvania, the flow of Old Believer immigrants

almost completely ignored the other destinations chosen by eastern European

immigrants, such as New York. Cleveland. Chicago, and the anthracite coal mines of

eastern Pennsylvania. Other Old Believers went to northeastern Pennsylvania to work

on the docks in Erie, deemed safer and cleaner work. The result was the maintained

cohesion o f the Suvalki Old Believers. W ithin the first two decades o f the 20th

century, two Old Believer churches had been founded in Pennsylvania: one in

Marianna in the southwestern comer and the other in Erie in the northwestern corner.

Soon after—with the outbreak o f W orld War 1—the Suvalki immigration came to an

abrupt halt. Marianna and Erie were and remain the only two Pennsylvania Old

Believer communities with churches. The Marianna community is now aging and

thinning, while the Erie community is thriving, though having almost completed its

Americanization. Both are seeing the disappearance o f their last speakers o f Russian.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.2. History of the Erie Old Believers in Europe

2.2.1. From Russia to Suvalki

The Erie Old Believers identify themselves as Pomortsy , a priestless

(bespopovtsv) branch o f the Old Belief belonging to the Pomorskoe soglasie.3j When

asked about the geographic origins o f their ancestors, most o f the Erie O ld Believers

answer "Suvalki." This could indicate either the city or the region in northeast Poland,

although when asked they usually did not know. Only a small number w ill specify

with "Suvalki gubemija"34 or w ill elaborate with a village name3'’ in the region.

Whether they know this answer first-hand from their ancestors or from hearsay within

the community is not always clear. When pressed about the length o f settlement in

Suvalki or about the geographic origin of the Suvalki Old Believers in Russia proper,

they are unable to answer. The answer to this question of origin can give information

as to the geographic and linguistic origins of the group, as well as to their migration

patterns, and can be identified with the help of a few scholarly works on early Old

Believer migrations beginning with the schism in the mid-17th century.

Through detailed investigation of church cemetery records (Old Orthodox

Church of the Nativity. Erie. Pennsylvania), naturalization records (Erie Co. and

Washington Co. [Pennsylvania! courthouse records), immigration records (passenger

” For more information on the schism in the Russian Orthodox church and the early history o f the Old Believers, consult such works as Zen'kovskij 1970. Robson 1995. Bulgakov 1994. Piepkom 1977. or even a large encyclopedia. a Suvalkskaja xubernija 'Suvalki province' denotes one of the pre-Revolutionary administrative units of the Russian Empire including territory now encompassing parts of Poland and Lithuania (see 1.5.4). 15 Sometimes the name is given in its Russian form, sometimes in its Polish form, sometimes in a folk- etymologized English form, and sometimes just a fragment of one of these.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. arrival lists in the National Archives in Washington, DC), and personal interviews, it

was possible to compile a list of the villages in the Suwatki-Sejny region of northeast

Poland from which the majority of the Erie Old Believers departed for the United

States. These include— among others— the cities and villages (in their modem Polish

forms) of Suwaiki. Pogorzelec. Sejny. Gleboki Row, Buda Ruska, Gtuszyn. Wysoka

Gora, Bialogory, Sokolowo, Wiersnie. and Boksze.

Eugeniusz Iwaniec. in his book Z dziejow staroobrz%dowcow na ziemiach

polskich (1977), details the waves o f arrival, settlement, and relocation o f Russian Old

Believers in Poland. In his discussion of the founding of Old Believer communities in

Poland by the first wave o f Old Believers, he gives the list o f cities and villages in

Figure 2.1.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SUWALKI REGION SEJNY REGION Aleksandrowo Aleksandrowo Gteboki Row (1787) Biala Gora (1789) a.k.a. Klinoriez a.k.a. Bialogory Huta Bialorzeczka (before 1791) Iwanowka Buda Ruska (before 1784) Jeleniewo formerly Budzisko Moskale Kirytczyzna Czerwony Folwark Konstantynow Gtuszyn Krzywolka formerly Gtuszyn Moskale Lasanka Holny Wolmera Krasnopol Lipniak Marynowo (before 1795) Lejmelowizna Pogorzelec (before 1792) Lopuchowo (1789) a.k.a. Pogorzelec Bialy Mala Przerosl Posejanka(by 1826) Maryna Romanowce Morgi Rosochaty Rog Nlkolsk Plociczno Tartak Sztabinki (by 1833) Pomorzanka Wysoka Gora (1789) Rasztabol (1789) a.k.a. Wielka Gora Sokolowo Zlobin Suwatki Szejpliszki Szurpily Szury (1788) Wodzilki (1788) Zaleszczewo (1789)

Figure 2.1. Main cities, towns, and villages in Suvalki historically or currently inhabited by Old Believers

These lists have been compiled from Iwaniec (1977: 80-81. 102) and Grek-Pabisowa

(1988: 1999c). Underlining represents locations which have been confirmed as former

residences o f Erie Old Believers. Dates in parentheses represent the years in which

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. they were founded. O f the villages with dates, all but Marynowo were founded

specifically as Old Believer settlements. Some o f the others, such as Suwalki and

Sejny, existed previous to the arrival o f the O ld Believers. Cities which began to be

inhabited by Old Believers after World War I are not included. Half of these have

been identified as birth places and former residences o f the first generation o f Erie

(and Marianna) Old Believers, as indicated by underlining.

The second wave settled in an area to the south o f Suwalki-Sejny in the region

around Augustow in the cities and villages of Augustow. Blizna, Bor. Gabowe Grady,

Karcewo. Pijawne Ruskie. and Szczebra in the second half o f the eighteenth century

and again in 1865 (Iwaniec 1977: 99-100, 279). Only a very few Erie Old Believer

records and family histories mention villages from this region.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 0 Siyplfcuki

0W udd«U ^(•l^buki Run 0 S/Nrpity * ^Kkmiirepc 0 Jfknicwo 0 Bokwr $Srary 0 Rumaiw«cc ^italcMcuwu ^Lipniak llotay 0 Vl'jwka (iora S tfa b ia k i Wutmcra lira«Hipu( 0 I Krzvwnlka • Ltipuchuwo _s«jnv rk u n d ro w u w •\|„rvn...o' 0 Sokufcmn > lllltal Rl vLaunlui /lt>totn A. . 0%1ar>Rii Suwatki ~ lw * n « m b a ^Akkundrunu 0Cttmun» Otdtozvn 0 Knitt«anl>i>6»ka F o iw a rk +Buda Ruaka ^Bialugoo ^ f Puncjanka • PuKurufac •Cibv "RtwKhafy Rug 0 Pluckimi Turfak 0 W k ra o k

0 Piawnc Rimkk

0 HlUna

Augustow

Bor POLAND

Figure 2.2: Map of Old Believer settlements in Suwalki, Sejny. and Augustow regions

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The third settlement of Old Believers on the territory of modern-day Poland

took place in the 1830s. A conservative breakaway group from the Suwalki-Sejny

area gained the right to settle on Prussian lands to the west and established 11 villages.

These include Gatkowo, Kadzidtowo. Krutyri. Osiniak, Swignajno. Ukta. Wojnowo,

and Zamek in the Mnjgowo district, and Onufryjewo. Piaski. and Ruciane-Nida in the

Pisz district (Iwaniec 1977: 146: 1981: 17).

Suwaiki-Sejnv- Augustow region

Warsaw

Figure 2.3: Map of Old Believer settlements in Masurian region (formerly East Prussia)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A monastery was later founded in Wojnowo in 1847. Very few Erie Old Believers

came from this region, which was already in decline by the 1860s due to increasing

restrictions by Prussian authorities. The monastery was replaced by a Fedoseev Old

Believer convent which was Financially devastated by World War II and its aftermath

and only exists in vestigial form today. So far, only a few o f these villages have been

identified in Erie Old Believer records.3*3 A few Old Believers in Erie indicate that

their ancestors came from Prussia or "near the German border" which links them to

this region.37

A small number of Erie records mentions villages and regions which fall

outside o f Suvalki province. A few mention places in Lithuania (e.g., Kaunas

[Kovno|. Vilnius [V il'no|. and Ukmerge [V il kom irl). and places in Belarus and

Ukraine (Volyn' province/Volhynia) are at best anecdotal.x Though such instances

outnumber those regarding Prussian Masuria and the Augustow settlements, they are

eclipsed by the high percentage from the Suwatki-Sejny region. Therefore, based on

the fact that most o f the Erie Old Believers came from the Suwatki-Sejny region, their

ancestors by and large belong to the first wave o f Old Believer settlement in Poland.

There is evidence that Erie's first nastavnik. Fr. Nikon Pancerev. visited the monastery to acquire church books and that some men in Erie found wives in that area (Fr. Larry Evanoff. personal interview. 14 January 2002). 3 These could also have been the villages in the western reaches o f the Suwalki-Sejny region. * Sava Legenzoff. for example, was bom in Sejny in 1873 but moved to Novograd-Volynskiy. Ukraine, where he met his future wife Anna, who was bom there in 1872 (Dolan 1991: 37): Lavrenty Evanoff was bom in Vilnius, while his wife Agrepina was bom in Kaunas and her mother was bom in Vidzy. now in Belarus (Harry Evanoff. 1990). In the Station Road cemetery, Vassa and Mikhail Mitronov are identified as being from the Kaunas uezd (district). Fevronia Dement’evna Patasky (wife of Platon ((church death record, d. 1933/1934) was from Belyantsv. Lithuania.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TALLINN

* o « |p im r i

PrufMMr M u ir homeland u f Erie OM Believer*

Klaipeda Panevejt*

MOSCOW

VILNIUS

SatalkJ aod \IaM iria Old Reliefer rrglnm

WARSAW

Figure 2.4: Map of mentioned historical Old Believer settlements in central Europe

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. According to Iwaniec, this first wave mentioned above arrived in the Suvalki

region as early as the eighteenth centuries, primarily from Courland39 and Polish

Livonia,40 but also from Ukraine (1977: 278). Most of those from Courland and

Polish Livonia belonged to the Fedoseev branch o f the Old Belief, which was

organized in the Novgorod-Pskov area. The leader o f the Fedoseevtsy, Feodosij

Vasil'ev, lived in the Nevel' district41 from 1699 until 1708. Grek-Pabisowa (1999c:

61-62) identifies their homeland as the Pskov-Novgorod lands ( 17th-l8th centuries),

with migration to the Vitebsk and Velikije Luki region. Nevel'. Lepel'. and Polotsk,

then to the Suwalki-Sejny region. Although the exact migrations o f the Old Believers

within central Europe and the Baltics is a very complicated matter, most scholars

agree that the Suvalki Old Believers came from the Pskov region. As is seen in

Chapter 4, the Erie Old Believers still retain dialect features from their Pskovian

homeland.

2.2.2. The Push-Pull of Migration

Old Believer migration can be seen as a push-pull system: there is always an

accumulation of forces which causes the Old Believers to leave a region (usually some

nexus o f persecution, bad economic conditions, and religious disharmony) and a force

attracting them to another (usually a promise of freedom, land, better economic

prospects, and a location far from the centers o f power o f the Russian Empire).

According to most sources. Old Believers left western Russia because o f increasing

Courland: present-day western Latvia: also known as Kurland and Kurlandija. 4,1 Livonia: present-day southern Estonia and northeastern Latvia. 41 Located in what is today the southern part o f the Pskov oblast' in Russia.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. persecution from Russian authorities and because they were offered refuge (and

religious tolerance) in the Rzeczpospolita42 by landowners who wanted the region to

be settled (e.g., Iwaniec 1977: 278). The Suvalki region, w ith its abundance o f lakes,

forests, and fertile land offered many occupational possibilities for the Old Believers.

They had a modicum o f seclusion and independence, and a means o f livelihood.

Iwaniec (1981: 9) states that the first Old Believers in Poland proved themselves to be

hard-working, honest laborers and land tenants, working as apiarists, fishermen,

joiners, bricklayers, and agriculturalists. Erie family histories relate that many o f the

Old Believers farmed or were involved in forestry.43 Some o f the ancestors o f the Erie

Old Believers lived in the city o f Suvalki itself (founded in the second half o f the 17th

century). Details o f when they first settled in the city and o f their lives have gone

unrecorded but are ostensibly retrievable in city records.

In time, several communities built prayer houses, known as molenny (singular:

molenna).** Erie family histories tell of traveling long distances in Suvalki to the

4: Rzeczpospolita: Polish term (sometimes borrowed by English-speaking historians) for the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1772). 43 According to passenger arrival records identified so far. 5 5 1 o f the men above age 15 were listed specifically as "farm laborers." another 40rt were labeled merely as "laborers" (which could include farm laborers), and only 5 ck were listed as having other occupations. 44 This word seems to come from the Russian word molel'nja 'prayer house'. It also occurs in Suwalki as molennaja. Since the Old Believers in question belong to the priestless branch of the Old Belief, it is technically inappropriate to refer to their place of worship as a church, since church usually denotes a place consecrated by a priest. However, since the O ld Believers' prayer building looks very much like the standard Western notion of a church, since the term "prayer house" is awkward and probably conjures up no image in the imagination o f the average reader, and since English-speaking Old Believers in the eastern United States today refer to this place as a "church." the term will be used interchangeably with "prayer house" with no intended difference in meaning.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. nearest molenna for holy days; for everyday religious activities, people gathered in

local homes in a room designated for prayer.43

2.2.2.1. Seclusion

From soon after the schism (and even at present in some communities) the Old

Believers considered the world of the non-Old Believers as corrupt and belonging to

the "Antichrist" (see Crummey 1970, Scheffel 1991). Contact with non-Old Believers

was to be avoided, and there were very strict rules about contact with non-Old

Believers if it became necessary through travel, trade, work, or daily life. W ith this in

mind, one would expect that the Old Believers in the Suwatki-Sejny region46 avoided

or limited contact with outsiders, i.e.. their Polish and Lithuanian neighbors. Upon

arrival in the region, some Old Believers founded new villages (see list above in

2.2.1); others either initially settled in pre-existing cities and villages, such as Suwalki

and Sejny. or moved to them in the course o f time.

2.2.2.2. Conflict with the Authorities

The earliest period in their new home saw little conflict between the Polish

land owners and their new Russian tenants (Grek-Pabisowa 1999a: 38). But with

time, from the late 1810s these relations underwent change. The economic situation in

the area worsened. There was a lack o f demand for work, which led to the

impoverishment o f the Old Believers, for whom seasonal work was a crucial source of

45 This practice in Suvalki is mentioned in Iwaniec (1977: 280). Both holiday travel to the nearest prayer house and meetings in homes were also the practice in Pennsylvania in the first decades after immigration. The Suwalki-Sejny region was first part o f the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, then was part of the Russian Empire (1795-1917). It did not become "Suvalki province" (Suvalkskaja gubernija) until 1867 (see Brokgauz i Efron 1901: 31.891-892).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. income (ibid.: 39). The social and political climate also changed. More and more

demands were placed on the Old Believers which brought them in ever closer and

more frequent contact with non-Old Believers. Issues of conflict included the

participation in birth and death registrations, service in the m ilitary o f the host

authorities, praying for the Russian tsar, compulsory schooling for girls, and active

attempts by Russian authorities to convert the Old Believers to mainstream Orthodoxy

through edinoverie .47

2.2.2.3. Discord among the Suwalki-Sejny Old Believers and Migration to Prussia

Already in 1807. there was discord among the Old Believers in the region.

Jefim Borisov o f the Old Believer parish in Gleboki Row accused the leadership o f the

Pogorzelec Old Believer parish of being too accommodating with the government

authorities and branded them schismatics4,s (Iwaniec 1981: 87. 12). In 1817. the

authorities began to require the registration o f births, marriages and deaths, as well as

the enlistment of Old Believers in military service.49 The outspoken Borisov

vehemently opposed this, while Maksimov of the Pogorzelec parish subordinated to

the authorities (ibid.: 13). In 1820. both parishes were ordered to be registered. For

his insubordination. Borisov was imprisoned and the molenna in Gl^boki Row was

4~ Edinoverie was an institutional union, a sort of hybrid, between the O ld B elief and "New Rite” Orthodoxy, devised by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian authorities as a way of bringing Old Believers back into the fold. See Crummev 1970 or Robson 1995 for more. "Schismatics" ( raskol'niki) is the term that the Russian Church and Russian government used to classify the Old Believers, and is the term that the Old Believers usually used whenever a faction of their own faith disagreed with rituals and traditions o f the Old Belief as it was currently being practiced. J‘; The Old Believers opposed such registration since it involved the writing o f names in governmental books, which were perceived as the books o f the Antichrist. Military service, which entailed the same, also meant forced contact with non-Old Believers and forced adherence to military' rules (such as the shaving o f beards), not to mention the loss of the recruits as farm workers. For more information see Zen'kovskij 1970 or Crummey 1970.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. closed (ibid.: 13). In 1824, a new recruitment was ordered, driving a group of the

dissenting Old Believers to contact Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia for permission to

settle in Masuria, which they were granted in December 1825 (ibid.: 16). Meanwhile,

in 1825. Maksimov was made a c iv il servant, being nominated registrar o f the now

united parishes o f Gleboki Row and Pogorzelec (Iwaniec 1977: 277-282; Iwaniec

1981: 14). The first Prussian passport was issued to an Old Believer in 1827. and in

1830 he bought over a square mile o f land and founded the village o f Onufryjewo

(Iwaniec 1981: 16). Sidor Borisov, brother of the then recently deceased Jefim

Borisov, followed suit by leading followers to Prussia and 11 Old Believer villages

were founded in East Prussia (ibid.: 17).5°

The Prussian authorities were initially hospitable and accommodating, wanting

to repopulate the region after sizable losses (14%) during the Napoleonic Wars (ibid.:

16). Land tenure was granted to the Old Believers, as was exemption from taxes for

the first six years. They, however, were not exempted from m ilitary service.

Nevertheless, the Old Believer population rapidly grew (ibid.: 17). Meanwhile in the

Suwalki-Sejny region, as a reaction to the November (1830) Insurrection, the Tsarist

government cracked down on any perceived dissent. When the Old Believers refused

to convert to edinoverie, their molenny were threatened with closure, repairs to the

molenny were forbidden by law, and the Old Believers were put under surveillance

(ibid.: 14). In 1842. the situation for the Old Believers in Prussia turned bad. Birth

^'The term "Prussia” and "Masuria" are problematic in the literature. Polish scholars usually (but inconsistentK) use the term "Masuria" and "Masurian lakes" to designate the region in East Prussia where Old Believers settled. Masuria in its wider geopolitical sense also includes the Suwalki-Sejny region. The dialect o f northeastern Poland (encompassing both o f these areas) is called "Masurian."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and death registration were ordered and a police commissioner was assigned to the

Old Believers with the charge of restricting their liberties (Iwaniec 1981: 17; Iwaniec

1977: 279). In 1843 the first conscriptions o f Old Believers began, driving some to

flee or hide (Iwaniec 1981: 17). In the mid-1840s the Old Believers in Prussia began

to investigate the possibility of leaving, sending emissaries to the Ukraine, Austria,

and Turkey, where other Old Believers had settled (ibid.: 18). Military service,

economic reasons, and then mandatory schooling for girls led many Old Believers to

leave Prussia (Iwaniec 1981: 18; Iwaniec 1977: 279).M

From this time (1847-1867), the Old Believer village of Wojnowo in Prussia

became a religious center. W ith the financial help o f the Fedoseev Old Believer center

in Moscow, a monastery was established in Wojnowo. An Old Believer publishing

house was even organized in Pisz which printed polemic works and reprints (Iwaniec

1977: 279). But problems from the authorities continued. In 1849, the Old Believers

were even ordered to pay tithe to the local Protestant parish (Iwaniec 1981: 18). From

1864. all eligible Old Believers in Prussia were drafted, and problems w ith the

authorities intensified. From 1867. the Wojnowo monastery declined until, in 1884. it

closed. In its place, with help from the Old Believer center Preobrazenskoe kladbisce

in Moscow, a convent was founded. The convent came to fruition in 1909. only to fall

prey to the economic hardships which came with W orld War I (Iwaniec 1977: 279).

In the Suwalki-Sejny region, after the January Insurrection of 1865-1866 was

suppressed, the Russian government became more lenient. Repairs to the molenny

51 Iwaniec. however, does nol indicate the destination of the Old Believers who fled.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. were once again allowed and church bells were once again permitted to ring, although

in exchange for these "privileges," they were required to pray for the tsar, which they

had adamantly opposed up to that time.52 At this same time, there was a wave of

liberalization among the Old Believers of the Suwatki-Sejny region. Marriages were

performed in the molenny. Old Believers no longer avoided military service. And

schools for religious instruction were opened for the Old Believers (Iwaniec 1981: 15).

This was a momentous reversal for the Fedoseevtsy, who traditionally rejected the

institution of marriage, as well as forms of registration, military service, and praying

for the tsar.

Scholarship on the Old Believers o f Poland and the Baltics (Lithuania. Latvia,

and Estonia)33 shows that many Old Believers in this region— who were mainly

Fedoseevtsy— underwent a major transformation during the 19th century. Potasenko

(no date) delineates the period 1823-1906 in Lithuania as the "Fedoseev to Pomorsky

transition period." In 1832. the Varkovsky sobor (Varkovsky Council) of priestless

Old Believers debated and finally accepted the institution o f marriage among its

adherents (which was the major issue dividing the priestless Fedoseevtsy [rejecting

marriage | and Pomortsy [accepting marriage |). The next several decades would see

the gradual acceptance o f this decision throughout the region. In general, the second

half o f the 19th century saw a general relaxing in the stances concerning hitherto

H Peter the Great, with his drastic reforms, was identified by the Old Believers as the Antichrist embodied. From that time, the tsar was seen at least as an agent of persecution and a symbol o f the Evil which now reigned. A prayer for the Antichrist was thus, obviously, unimaginable for the Old Believers. For more information, see Zen'kovskij 1970 orCrummey 1970. 55 see. for example. Iwaniec 1977. 1981 (Poland): Potasenko (no date) (Lithuania): Ponomareva 2002 (Estonia)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. forbidden practices, both through internal decision (such as with marriage) and

external force (through subordination to decrees by the Russian and Prussian

governments). The first indications of this can be seen in 1807. when— as mentioned

above— the Pogorzelec parish was admonished by other Old Believers for cooperating

with the government authorities. By the turn o f the century, most Old Believer

communities in the region had aligned with the Pomorsky Concord (Pomorskoe

soglasie) (Iwaniec 1977: 279).

These events serve as distinct signs that the Old Believers in Suvalki (and

elsewhere in the Baltics) underwent enormous change. They became much less

"radical." Some o f the Old Believer immigrants to Erie had lived in the city o f

Suvalki (Suwalki). where they worked and attended school. This seems otherwise

impossible for adherents o f a faith that proscribed prolonged or unnecessary contact

with non-members. It also answers the mystery o f how they could come to the United

States and settle, live. work, and socialize with non-Old Believers.

Evidence is abundant that the majority o f the Old Believer immigrants to

Pennsylvania had undergone these changes. Many o f the original Erie immigrants and

their parents prayed for and loved the tsar.34 served in the m ilitary.53 drank tea.56 lived

in cities (thus not adamantly avoiding contact with non-Old Believers), recognized

54 Some tell of their parents having beloved portraits o f the Tsar, and many today show a nostalgia and reverence for the royal family. 55 Although many did not welcome their mandatory m ilitary service, some chose to extend it. In any event, they served rather than fleeing, as some Old Believers had done in the 1830s and 1840s. ^ Tea was often forbidden because it was a stimulant and because it had gained popularity under Peter the Great, as had potatoes which were also forbidden by some Old Believer groups, though not in Erie. From linguistic evidence, it would seem that potatoes were never forbidden among their ancestors. Their word for potato, bul'ha. would seem to come from their Pskov period.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. marriage (which was performed by the nastavnik in the church), socialized w ith and

even married non-Old Believers,37 and did not believe that the end o f the w orld was

imminent. Some families were reportedly much more strict about their adherence to

church dogma and social practices (keeping fasts, attending church regularly,

forbidding secular music at home, forbidding dogs in the house, etc.), but there seems

to have been a degree o f uniform ity in the dogma itself. And seemingly all allowed

(or at least tolerated) a high degree o f contact with non-Old Believers, both in the

United States and in Suvalki.

As w ill be seen in Chapter 5. there is linguistic evidence o f contact in the form

o f influence from the Polish language on the Suvalki Old Believers’ Russian lexicon,

phonology, and syntax, which would imply a considerable degree o f contact w ith their

Polish neighbors in Suvalki.

2.2.2A. Old Believer Networks

Communication, transportation, and social networks between Old Believer

settlements in Suvalki and neighboring regions seemed to have existed throughout

their stay. People from villages without a church went to neighboring churches for

holy days: for everyday worship, people prayed in their own houses or in the houses of

their neighbors, as would be the case o f the first Old Believer settlers in the United

States. Due to strict marriage laws involving degrees of familial separation.514 Old

■ Exogamy, however, was always punished, though sometimes not by excommunication. Even in Erie it was strictly punished until the middle o f the 20th century with penance for both the offenders and their parents, and still is today, although with much less severe penalties. * Traditional Old Believer marriage rules forbid marriages as close as second cousins, and godparent relations are included (see Hall 1970: 55).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Believers would have often had to look beyond the borders of their own villages for

eligible spouses.59 Christine Bashlaminoff of Wiersnie, for example, married Onisefor

Gorbatoff o f Pogorzelec, located about two kilometers away. Sava Legenzoff of

Sejny married Anna Grishkalova of Novograd-Volynskiy in the Ukraine after Sava's

family moved there. Toward the end o f the 19th century. Old Believer communities

were organizing and developing their formal ties. In 1901. the first provincial

congress o f Old Believer spiritual leaders was held in Vilnius (Iwaniec 1977: 278).

2.3. Emigration from Europe to the United States

The stage was now set foremigration: the Old Believers in Suvalki were still

experiencing problems with the Russian authorities. The economic situation was bad.

The Old Believers were undergoing an intense period o f change and liberalization.

Perhaps some changed w illing ly: perhaps some opposed what was happening. The

Old Believer faction that emigrated to Prussia in the 1830s is evidence o f the

discontentment with this change. They, however, did not find their solution in

Prussia, just more betrayed promises o f refuge from governmental authorities. The

failure of the Wojnowo monastery in 1884 was evidence of a losing battle. More

information about the economic and social conditions in the three regions o f Old

Believer settlement (i.e.. Suwalki-Sejny. Masuria, and Augustow) still needs to be

uncovered. Some histories o f central Europe give general information about the social

and economic conditions of this period, but most focus on political and military

** There is substantial evidence from Erie genealogy that these degrees of separation were frequently not observed, either because they were not held by this group o f Old Believers or because they were overlooked or disobeyed out of necessity due to lack o f eligible partners.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. history. There are indications o f social unrest; epidemics, famines, and diseases; and

land use and division issues during this period. It is not clear how all o f these affected

the Old Believers. The Old Believers occupied a different social position in Suvalki in

that they were ethnic Russians among ethnic Poles and Lithuanians in the borderlands

o f the Russian Empire. It is not clear if the Poles and the Lithuanians regarded the Old

Believers as ethnic Russians and thus considered them just as bad as the Russian

authorities, or whether the Old Believers' "dissident" status was understood,

acknowledged, or appreciated by their neighbors."11

The massive migration from eastern and southern Europe to the United States

which began around 1882-1883 is often called the "New Immigration" in contrast to

the earlier mass immigration to the United States in the first half o f the 19th century

from Ireland, Great Britain, and Germany. The development of steamship technology

(1850s) had cut the time o f a trans-Atlantic crossing from one to three months down to

a few weeks. The railroad system in Europe was already well-developed by the end o f

the 1870s (see. for example. Magocsi 1993: 90-91). News of opportunity in America

began to reach central, eastern, and southern Europe.

The Erie Old Believers left as a part of this wave, as early as the mid-1880s. It

is likely that one or two adventurous souls made the trip first, then returned w ith

encouraging news o f work and opportunity. Perhaps they were encouraged by stories

" This was a problem in 1990 when scholar David Scheffel (1990: 8) visited the Old Believer village of Gabowe Grady. Fr. Miron reported. "Under the communists. Poles and Russians were governed by the same laws. Now . we have become hated Rusaki | Russians | and some people expect us to leave Poland and return to Russia. But the trouble is that we wouldn't be accepted there either. In Russia, we would forever remain Poliaki |Poles|."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. from Suvalki Poles who made the trip in 1883 or 1884. Like other eastern Europeans,

the first Old Believer immigrants were mostly of young men. They were either

unmarried or were married but left their wives and children behind. Some scholars

interpret this as a sign that they were only going to the United States temporarily to

earn money and then to return to their families in Europe (see Taylor 1971). Some

Old Believers today report that their ancestors had not intended to stay; others say that

wives and children were brought over early on and settled into their new home. As a

rule, most Old Believer men worked several years, some making trips back and forth

to Europe before bringing their families over. The first U.S. birth in the Erie

community took place in 1894.

The Suvalki Old Believers departed Europe mainly from Hamburg and

Bremen. In the first years, it must have been necessary to travel by road from their

homes in Suvalki to the nearest train station, then continue on by rail to the German

ports. In 1899. the train station in the city o f Suwatki was built, connecting it with the

major rail lines o f Europe. The Old Believers had to apply fo r Russian passports, and

pass German health inspections (which became increasingly stricter with time) on the

German border. Later immigrants arrived in Hamburg and Bremen with pre-paid

steamship tickets, purchased by fam ily members or friends who had returned to

Suvalki. Ocean passage was made exclusively in third class or steerage. Based on

information gathered thus far, the longest trips took 17-20 days, the shortest (in the

191 Os) took just 7 -9 days.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Old Believer immigrants entered the United States primarily through three

ports: New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Based on arrival records found thus

far. New York (earliest Old Believer arrival documented in 1889) accounted for 59%

o f arrivals. Baltimore (from 1890) for 30.5%, and Philadelphia (from 1910) for 8.4%.

Immigration ended abruptly with the outbreak of World War I in Europe in 1914.

2.4. Migration of the Erie Old Believers within the United States

There are no projected accounts of how many Old Believers left the Suvalki

region for the United States from the late 1880s until World War I, but based on

passenger arrivals, censuses, and naturalization records, several hundred (perhaps

reaching a thousand or two) made or found their way to southwest Pennsylvania and

Erie and soon established churches.

2.4.1. Southwestern Pennsylvania

In southwestern Pennsylvania, the Old Believers found work predominantly in

the coal mines. Some people report that the Old Believers, refusing to shave o ff their

beards on religious grounds, were largely denied work in the mills and foundries,

where their beards would pose more o f a health risk (Southwestern Pennsylvania

1985: 50). They settled (listed north to south) in Butler County (Butler); Washington

County (McDonald, Canonsburg, Van Voorhis, Bentleyville, Ellsworth, Cokeburg,

Beallsville. Daisytown, Marianna. Vestaburg); Westmoreland County (Irwin, Rillton,

West Newton); and Allegheny County (Russellton. McKees Rocks. Springdale. Essen.

Pittsburgh).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 90*15’ W 90*05* W 79*55’ W 79*45’ W

• B a ile r

Butler Ct>.

Allegheny Co.

M cKm Rock •

• Irwin

• Rillton

(MonontpihvU C ity { •\* o i Newtnn

Van Vuurttf* •

4i m i ln

Figure 2.5: Map o f Old Believer cities o f residence in southwestern Pennsylvania

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Contact was facilitated by a train which connected the mining towns of Marianna.

Cokeburg, Ellsworth. Bentleyville. and Van Voorhis, with Marianna as the remote end

of the line and Monongahela as the destination for shopping. The trip took two hours

one way and stopped at every small town in between (Carroll 1992: 81). This

provided one way for the Old Believers in these towns to visit relatives, socialize,

attend church, and find spouses.

The St. Nicholas Old Believer Church was founded in Marianna in 1910. It is

built of the yellow brick of the Pittsburgh-Buffalo coal mining company, reportedly

donated after 154 men (a few o f whom allegedly Old Believers) were killed in the

mine explosion on November 28. 1908—one of the worst in American history

(Connors |no date|: 31-32). People report walking many miles to the Marianna

church to attend important holy days, much as they did in Suvalki. In later years they

would pool their money to pay for a taxi ride, and in time some owned their own cars

(George Simon, personal interview. 27 October 1999). The Marianna church served

as the meeting place and religious center for many o f the Old Believers in

southwestern Pennsylvania; no other prayer houses arose in the region.01

An article by a non-Old Believer Russian Alexis Sokoloff which appeared in

The [Pittsburgh] Survey in November 19I4°: provides a rare and unique glimpse

M Sokoloff mentions in his 1914 article that at the time o f writing (ca. 1906) there was an Old Believer prayer house in Essen (150). but proof of this has not yet been found. It is important to note that there is evidence that this article was written a significant time earlier. Based on information in the article, it is seems to have been written around 1906. as mentioned above. The date is important since it is perhaps the first sizable work written on this first wave o f Old Believer immigration to North America. It is also important to fix the date because 1910-1914 represents the greatest period o f this immigration.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (though not entirely accurate on some accounts) into the early history of the Old

Believers in this region. In Cokeburg, he estimates that "out of 400-500 miners

(almost all foreigners), 300 were my countrymen | Russians |. about half o f them Old

Believers" (148). He also states that "|o|ut o f the estimated 10,000 Russians in the

state of Pennsylvania, in my opinion close to 3.000 are Old Believers. O f these over

1.000 live in Allegheny County and the vicinity" (149). It is not clear how he derives

these numbers (he mentions visits to Essen, Cokeburg. and Russelton), but the

estimates seem to be rather high, especially for 1906.

It is important to realize that the formation and growth of the Old Believer

immigrant population in southwestern Pennsylvania was not coincidental. Passenger

arrival records show that most o f these immigrants were coming to join close family

members (fathers, brothers, husbands, uncles) in these mining towns, unlike members

of other immigrant groups who often listed their contacts in America as "friend" (or

the unverifiable but common "cousin" or "brother-in-law" —safe explanations for a

different surname), and many Old Believers came with tickets purchased by these

close relatives.113 This is a clear indication of how close family connections were in

Europe: an explanation of how strong, defined Old Believer communities arose in

America: and evidence that the members o f these communities were related, friendly

with each other, and largely religiously and economically homogeneous.

^ Literature on eastern European immigration often mentions that many immigrants would make acquaintances during passage to America and decide their destination accordingly (see. for example. Taylor 1971).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.4.2. New York City

Another cluster of Old Believers formed in New York City, mainly in

Brooklyn, though no church ever arose. Erie church death records (which begin in

1918) note the deaths o f several people connected to Brooklyn; the first such entry

was from 1926. It is possible that some people simply stayed in New York C ity upon

arrival.64 Others left the mines and Erie in search of work (temporary work when the

mines were on strike or when the docks were closed for the season, or better, safer

work than they already had). Often, young girls went to find work as house servants.63

These Old Believers met in homes to pray, and in later years would go to M illville .

New Jersey after the founding o f the Old Believer church there (in 1937) for major

holidays. Dolan (1991) reports that Sava Legenzoff (Sam Lee) o f Erie "on several

occasions . . . was invited to Brooklyn to hold services and hear confessions in Lenten

season for its Old Believer faithful. He'd sell a calf |from his farm| fo r bus fare and

travel with Katharine |his second daughter, b. 19031 whom he'd instructed in liturgical

practices (59)" (comments mine/JH|. The current state of any Old Believer

community in New York City is unclear, but there is no known organization. M illville

is about 135 miles from Brooklyn, or a three-hour drive today, which does not make

New York City was by far the most common port of entry , accounting for 85% o f arrivals ( based on available information). ^ Helen Spakoff o f Saint Clair Shores. M l. reports that her family lived in Queens from ca. 1927 until ca. 1952. after leaving the mines. Her father worked for the New York City subway. She described their house as being "like Ellis Island." w ith her mother getting people jobs w hen they first arrived (especially young girls as house servants). (Helen Burlakoff-Spakoff. telephone interview. 24 March 2002)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. for a convenient trip on a regular basis, though some are known to do it. A few

families today make the trip at Christmas and Easter, and for other important holidays.

2.4.3. Settlement of the Old Believers in Erie

A t the same time as the development o f the Old Believer coal mining

communities (and perhaps even earlier), Suvalki Old Believers were finding their way

to Erie in the northwestern comer of the state. According to naturalization and census

records Joseph O rlo ff (b. 1858) arrived in Erie in 1888.66 A certain Joseph Potaski (b.

1863) appears in the 1900 Erie census, declaring that he arrived in the United States in

I885.67 In the 1900 Erie census, about 40 speakers o f Russian and their children

appear in the First Ward overlooking the bayfront and the docks where they found

work as laborers. By the 1910 census this number is 135. and by the 1920 census the

number is 642.'* A ll three o f these numbers, however, seem low. An analysis o f the

1930 census would shed light on this matter.

Old Believers in Erie found work as laborers on the bayfront docks for the

Anchor Line, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Hammermili (Hood 1978: 25). Work on

the docks was definitely safer than work in the mines, and word soon spread to the

’*’ The 1920 census, unlike the 1900 and 1910 censuses, lists him as having arrived in 1885. It is possible that he first arrived in 1885 and then made a trip back to Suvalki. returning in 1888. There is sometimes variation in what information is requested and what information is given: the first arrival or the most recent arrival. "7To be fair, it is not clear if he was an Old Believer. Some of the earliest Old Believers died before the establishment o f the first Old Believer cemetery (the church death records start in 1918). Some of these people were buried in Erie Cemetery and their grave markers no longer exist. It would seem likely that he was an Old Believer: Potaski is a rare Russian surname, yet there are others in the Hannon Road cemetery w ith the name Potaski. as well as the homophonous Patasky (and perhaps related Pataskin). In the Marianna Old Believer cemetery there are six people w ith the surname Pataski. '* A large number of these can be identified as Old Believers through various means (see 3.2.1).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. south that there was work to be had in Erie. However, in the early days, work in Erie

was seasonal. Some Old Believers in Erie worked the winter months in the coal mines

when the bay was frozen and the docks were therefore closed: some stayed in Erie and

did not work, or fished, or worked cutting ice on the bay fo r local ice companies

(Mark Karuba. personal interview, 21 October 1999; Hood 1978: 25-26). There is

also record o f Erie Old Believers (and those from the coal mines) traveling to Suvalki

in the winter, taking back money and word o f employment. Many men quickly saved

enough money to travel back to Europe and accompany their families to the United

States. From the very beginning, wives and children were brought over soon after first

arrival.09 The orchestration o f new arrivals was the same as that in the mines: people

were coming to join their relatives, often with a ticket purchased for them by the

relative.

Back in Suvalki in the early 1910s, it was becoming more and more evident

that war was brewing, and tensions with the Russian authorities had long been

strained. Wasil Simon, for instance, had just finished his military service and had

three options: re-enlist in the military, return to farming his land in Suvalki. or leave

fo r the United States. He quickly chose the latter (Colleen Marks, personal interview.

9 November 1999). Arrivals dramatically increased in 1910 until immigration was cut

o ff in August 1914 with the outbreak of World War I.70 During this same period. Old

"'T h is is based on arrival, census, and naturalization records. Continuing research is uncovering details in this process. ’'T h is is based on an analysis of arrival, census, and naturalization records, all of which provide date of arrival.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Believers in Suvalki were also leaving for Lithuania (Nemcenko et al. 1963: 68). Old

Believer authorities in Vilnius evacuated all Old Believers from the Suwalki-Sejny

area to the depth o f Russia, mostly in the vicinity o f Saratov (Iwaniec 1981: 22). The

front ran directly through the Suvalki region and must have been destructive to

anything and anyone left behind. A fter the war some never returned: those who did

started rebuilding their villages (ibid.: 15, 22). Grek-Pabisowa ( 1999a: 36) estimates

the number of Old Believers in the Suwalki-Sejny region before World War I to be

around 7000. Iwaniec (1977: 279) estimates the post-war number to be 3705. General

eastern European emigration to the United States soon resumed, but only a very small

number of Old Believers came to western Pennsylvania after World War I. Little is

known o f the fate o f those who stayed behind in Europe. A significant number o f

direct relatives o f the Erie Old Believers must have returned to Suvalki, because it was

they who were relocated to western Lithuania during W orld War II just two decades

later and who would continue correspondences with their family in Erie in the postwar

period.71

Interestingly, several Old Believers from Erie and from the coal mines served

in the U.S. military during World War I. Commemorative cemetery markers indicate

that at least 18 Old Believer men in Erie and 4 in Marianna served in the war.72 Their

birth years range from 1885 to 1902— with the average birth year being 1893— which

would indicate that most of them had been bom in Europe.

1 Future research is planned to clarify this period in their history . ~ Information on O ld Believers buried in other cemeteries, such as Spring H ill and West Newton Cemeteries, before the Old Believer cemetery' in Marianna was created (ca. 1918) has not yet been researched.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.5. Towards an Erie Church

The Old Believers in Erie first began their religious life soon after arrival by

gathering in homes for services, much as they did in Suvalki in the absence o f a local

molenna. Several men were learned in Slavonic and the church books, and were thus

able to conduct services. The Lawrence fam ily was reported to have had an extensive

collection of icons and a section of their house devoted to worship space. Hood

(1978) cites from oral history interviews that the owner o f such designated homes

would provide a room, candles, oil. and other necessities for services, typically for a

period o f two years (17). According to Frank Peganoff, Steve Peganoff was the first

such pastor. He served for two years until his fam ily grew so big that the room was

needed fo r the children. The Larenoff/Petroff house was then purchased and gutted in

order to use it as the new place o f worship. From then, different men served as the

leader (Peganoff |no date|). Around 1913. the community began to collect money in

Erie and even in the coal mining communities'3 in order to buy land and build a church

(17).

After much soliciting of funds, the materials and money were collected and

construction began at 251 E. Front St. Even non-Old Believer Russians helped with

the building (Don Kuzmin, personal interview, 8 November 1999). According to

Frank Peganoff. after the church was completed. Nicon Pancerev was chosen to lead

These communities already had their own church in Marianna, founded in 1910.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the group (Peganoff |no date|).74 People brought their icons to the church, and

services began immediately, taking place on Saturdays, Sundays, and holy days. The

official dedication of the church was held up because of trouble obtaining the right

kind of bells. The Church of the Nativity was finally dedicated on the vigil of the

Feast o f the Dormition on August 27, 1919 (Erie Times-News, 23 August 1987).

2.5.1. Migration from Southwestern Pennsylvania to Erie

The presence o f a church in Erie served as a definite draw for those living in

the mining towns who were looking fo r better employment in a new place. The Erie

Old Believer community was compact, clustered almost exclusively in a three-block

radius on the bayfront. with the church at its heart (see 2.5.2). whereas the Old

Believer community in the mining towns was scattered over a wide area,5 with the

church in Marianna located in the farthest southern reaches. Conditions in the mining

towns were bad. The work was physically demanding, dangerous, unhealthy, and very

different from the farming and forestry jobs that the Old Believers had held in Europe.

The bituminous coal mining industry grew quickly at the turn of the 20th century,

reached its peak during World War I. then quickly declined because o f decreased

demand. Waves o f strikes and general labor unrest in Marianna and elsewhere in

mine- and milltowns made work undependable (Carroll 1992: 78). The details of each

4 There seems to be some disagreement among sources about this fact. Robson (1985: 72) states that Pancerev was not elected as the first full-tim e naslavnik until 1923. based on the appearance of Pancerev's name in church records. This is corroborated in the death records, where Fr. Makidonski’s name primarily appears from 1918: only in 1925 does Fr. Pancerev’s name appear, and from that point predominates until his death. An Erie Times-Sews article says that Pancerev started in 1920 (Erie Times-Sews, 23 April 1978). Other sources commonly assume that he was the naslavnik from the founding of the church in 1919. which could be a false assumption. s The distance from Marianna to Butler is about 95 miles.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. mining town's history are different, but the overall trend was the same. Immigration

from Europe ended, and the jo b market was saturated. Old Believer immigration from

Suvalki stopped with the outbreak o f World War I in Europe and never resumed,

which meant that there was no new influx o f co-religionists or native speakers o f their

Suvalki Russian dialect. During the Great Depression o f the 1930s, many miners left

the Marianna area to seek work elsewhere (Carroll 1992: 87). By 1937, the Erie

congregation was larger than that o f Marianna (Swisher 1937: 2). Post-World War II

prosperity in the United States brought a new affluence to the Old Believers who had

stayed in the mining towns. The American-born generations, w ith English as their

native language, received a full education (which increasingly included college

degrees) and looked beyond the mines for employment, which meant leaving

southwestern Pennsylvania for larger cities. Another wave of emigration from

Marianna due to more mine layoffs occurred in the 1950s (Carroll 1992: 87). This

was the last (perhaps superfluous) blow to the vitality o f the Old Believer community

in the region. The first. European-born generation, which had arrived ca. 1888-1914,

was now retired or had already passed on. Their children and grandchildren had

largely left for the Erie Old Believer community, which was growing in size and

opportunity, or. frequently and much to their dismay, had left for other cities to study,

work, and marry. Among the latter group, many left the faith.

2.5.2. The Growth of Erie

The Russian community in Erie settled in the First Ward at the top of the bluff

overlooking the railroad tracks, the docks, and Presque Isle Bay.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. N I (dock area on bayfront)

P & E RAILROAD

s ac

Church of # Neighborhood Nutivit\ E . Front 0 House

CYS %

E. 2nd

Holy Trinity 0

E . 3 rd

Figure 2.6: Map of "Russian Town” in Erie. Pennsylvania

6 5

Reproduced with permission of the m m t n r , h * upynght owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The 1900 census shows 40 individuals in the First Ward who list Russian as their

native language (or if bom in the United States the language o f their parents). The

1910 census shows 135. The 1920 census shows 642. Not all o f these were Old

Believers. There were also Russian Orthodox (New Rite) Christians and Russian

Jews. To some extent it is possible to identify the affiliation o f a good number of

these people, and with continued genealogical work it w ill one day be possible to

identify most. Enough can be identified now to give a good picture of the settlement

pattern and areas o f concentration o f the Old Believer community. It is also very clear

from fam ily histories that there were many more individuals and families in Erie than

the censuses show. Robson (1985: 184) states that in 1900 there were 20-30 Old

Believer families in the First Ward, but only two were listed in the census, which he

attributes to the Old Believer census-dodging tradition from Europe. There was

probably a combination o f census avoidance and oversight due to imperfect census-

taking methods. In any event, it is safe to say that the census numbers were

erroneously low in the first several decades o f the 20th century . b

The new immigration to Erie from Eastern Europe—from the late 1880s, with

its peak from 1900-1914 (U.S. Department of Commerce 1976:

105-106)—intermingled with and then replaced the earlier inhabitants o f the First

Ward: the German, the English, and the Irish. The censuses and the city directories

from this time document this process. In the course o f a few decades, the area was re

h Interestingly, the 1890 census does not list any Russians or Russian speakers in the First Ward, although there were undoubtedly several. They could have been missed (as boarders) or could have intentionally avoided being counted.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. populated by Poles, Russians. Italians, and Slovaks. The previous ethnic residents,

having come to Erie from the 1850s to 1880s (U.S. Department of Commerce 1976:

105-106) became more affluent and moved to other areas o f the city. The new ethnic

groups intermingled socially (though they usually had their own ethnic churches).

Bars, ethnic clubs, dances, and grocery stores owned by members o f various

ethnicities were frequented by all. They drank, danced, bowled, played cards, and

talked together. Since they were primarily laborers77 and English was not their native

language, they usually got the same jobs at the docks, foundries, machine shops,

freight houses, and the railroad, with English serving as their lingua franca. Only a

few families went into farming: when they first arrived, none had the capital to buy

and equip a farm, which is why so many who had served as farm laborers in Europe

went into mining and dock work in the United States. It was not until the 1910s and

1920s that a very few men were able to raise enough money to buy farms. The Lees

(Legenzoffs). the Evanoffs, the Falderoffs. the Pavlovs, and the Efimoffs all had farms

outside o f Erie, and some also kept a house in the city. Those on farms had less

intimate, day-to-day contact with non-Old Believers, but they were frequently visited

by the Old Believers from the city. There was also an early tendency for children to

leave school to work on the farm.

2.5.3. Russian Businesses in Erie

Several enterprising Old Believers were able to open their own businesses.

Andrew Federoff (339 E. Second St.), Joseph Popoff then Anisim Legenzoff (132

77 The great majority were listed as "laborers” on passenger arrival documents.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Parade St.). Evan Ekim off (321 E. Second St.), James Martin (317 E. Third St.), Harry

Panceroff (321 E. Second St.), and Ivan Popoff (350 E. Second St.) all had grocery

stores at some point, according to Erie city directories. Ivan Popoffs was the most

successful o f these, staying in business for well over a decade. Larry Liscow (309

German St.) was a popular barber.78 The Old Believers had also brought the

institution o f the banya 'steam bath' (Suvalki Russian banja, bajnja) with them to

America.79 There were four steam baths in the Erie neighborhood, including the

Persianoffs' and the Martins'—the latter built by Henry Martin (between Third and

German Streets) being the place to go on Friday nights and Saturdays.80 Old Believer

wives often took in boarders to supplement the fam ily income.81 Bootlegging alcohol

was another source of revenue for struggling families, especially during the years of

Prohibition (1920-1933) and the Depression (1930s). One widow was credited with

saving her family by making and selling alcohol, and Larry Liscow mentioned above

added to his profits by selling bootleg liquor during Prohibition from the back o f his

barber shop.

^ The irony of an Old Believer barber has hopefully not escaped the reader. "" In Suvalki. they were small buildings made o f hewn timbers with a fireplace that heats stones, onto which water is poured to produce steam. They were used for bathing, washing, the disinfecting of clothing, childbirth, and as a meeting place (Iwaniec 1977: 281). *" In Erie, they began as a similar shed behind people's houses or a room in the basement of a house rather than a typical American commercial sauna. The Persianoffs' steam bath at Second and Holland, which existed from about the late 1930s until the early 1940s. was primarily for family and friends. The Martin steam bath began as a building behind the Martin house in the late 1930s for family and friends. When it proved to be very popular. Henry Martin (b. 1904). a plumber by trade w ho suffered from arthritic fingers, built a commercial steam bath on German St. around 1943. It operated six days and evenings a week and existed until the late 1960s or early 1970s. The other two steam baths— one on W . Third St. (a Finnish sauna), the other on upper Parade St.— did not belong to the Old Believers (Larry Morosky. personal interv iew. 20 November 1999). sl This is very clear in the 1910 and 1920 census microdata. It is also interesting to note that Old Believ ers by and large boarded with and prov ided boarding for other Old Believ ers.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.5.4. Entertainment in Erie

In 1922, the Neighborhood House was opened at 103 German Street (on the

southeast comer o f German and Front Streets in the center o f the Russian community)

by the Women's Presbyterial Society for Home Missions o f Erie (Hood 1978: 32;

Robson 1985: 85). It served as a recreational meeting place for the Russians, Poles,

Italians, and Irish, both children and adults, regardless of religion. The Neighborhood

House organized softball, basketball, gymnastics, wrestling, boxing, scouting, ping

pong, music, and handcrafts (M ark Karuba. personal interview. 21 October 1999). It

had a gymnasium, a music room, a woodworking room, and a reading room (Fred

O rloff. personal interview. 22 November 1999). Organizers also offered Sunday

School and Bible classes, but did not proselytize their religion. For the Russians who

had very little, especially later during the Depression in the 1930s. it was a second

home. It provided a way for the children of the Old Believers to excel, most visibly in

sports. Several Old Believers reached the national spotlight in athletics: Joe Zuravleff

played football at Northwestern. Phil Zuravleff played basketball for Princeton.

Ephraim "Snooky Brill" Biletnikoff was an accomplished boxer (a National AAU

boxing champion), his son Fred Biletnikoff was a nationally famous football player

(All-Pro wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders. Super Bowl XI Most Valuable Player

11977|, NFL Hall o f Famer (inducted 1988|. wide receiver coach for the Oakland

Raiders), and "City Jane" Simon was a sparring partner for Max Schmelling (Barr

1985). Several o f those who excelled in athletics won scholarships which enabled

them to attend college.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Some o f the Old Believer adults volunteered at the Neighborhood House

teaching crafts, such as woodworking taught by Joe O rloff (Fred Orloff, personal

interview, 22 November 1999). The Neighborhood House also offered English

language classes (Robson 1985), and a place for people to use this English. In

general, it provided an environment that would shape the second generation, which

was marked by unbounded success. It is little surprise that when the Women's

Presbyterial Society decided to close the Neighborhood House in 1954, the Old

Believer Church of the Nativity bought it (Erie Times-News, 23 April 1978; DeMarco

1988) and it became the church's recreation center. It was tom dow n in 1978, and a

new Church o f the Nativity community center was built in its place.

Some entertainment in Russian Town was homespun, especially before the

Neighborhood House. Behind the Neighborhood House was an empty lot known as

the "Kapusta Yard." Its name derives from the Russian word pusto 'empty or vacant';

people then made a play on words with the homophonous kapusta 'cabbage', one of

their dietary staples, and the name stuck. Due to its proximity to the Neighborhood

House, it served as an outdoor recreation area. Children played softball, and the city

had provided swings (Larry Morosky. personal interview. 20 November 1999). In the

1930s, up to 20, 30, sometimes 40 men would gather after payday and roll dice. When

the police came, the men would run and the children would gather up the money (Fred

Orloff. personal interview. 22 November 1999). Lake Erie provided opportunities for

fishing, which was both pleasurable and a source o f food. Sundays were spent visiting

friends and relatives in the neighborhood, or picnicking on farms outside of Erie.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. After W orld War I and especially from the 1930s. people began to own cars, which

made possible short trips to relatives in towns to the south and in neighboring New

York state.

The church offered a society called the Brotherhood o f St. Eaoaun Bohoslov

(Hammermill Bond 1937). Members had to belong to the faith and be members o f the

church. They paid 50 cents a month, which entitled them to a burial plot in the church

cemetery (Fred Orloff, personal interview, 22 November 1999).

Old Believer men socialized after work at a number o f neighborhood bars,

where they would stop for "a shot and a beer" (or more) before returning home (ibid.).

Even when the Russians had their own Russian-owned bar (the Pixie G rill on the

southeast comer o f German and E. Second Streets, owned by Harry Patasky. Jr.). they

patronized other establishments as well and other immigrants visited theirs in return.

The other nationalities had their own clubs. The Italians had the Cesar Batiste Club,

which was popular among all of the nationalities for its dancing.

In 1919 the Russian Socialist Club at 125 German St. appeared in the Erie city

directory. Its appearance lagged behind that o f the English. Finnish. Polish. Italian.

German, and Lettish socialist clubs listed from 1915. The extent of Old Believers'

participation in the socialist and labor movements in Erie is not clear, but Sokoloff

(1914: 150) states.

Lack of organization is generally a weak point with Old Believers: indeed the worst thing I know about them is that they are not strong union men and are accused o f having broken up the longshoremen's union in Erie. I do not know whether or not this charge be true, but I do know that the derisive "ba, ba's"

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. hurled at them must have been no small factor in any estrangement o f the Old Believers from the rest o f the workingmen.

Hood (1978: 25), citing an interview with Frank Peganoff in 1977, mentions that

"Stephan Peganoff... was refused work along the docks after leading an unsuccessful strike. Later, the president o f the union. Samuel LeonofF, an Old Believer, died when his house exploded under mysterious circumstances. Although no one was found guilty o f foul play, some members o f the community speculated that the accident was an anti-union action."

In order to match the purely social clubs of its ethnic neighbors, in 1927

members of the Old Believer population formed the CYS ("Community of the Young

Starobridcy"82 |Community of the Young Old Believers |) at 264 E. Second St. Dolan

(1991) suggests that this was done to provide a place for Russians to socialize in order

to counter the trend among the young o f meeting and marrying non-Russians (54). It

opened in 1928 over the Economical Grocery Store ("Sam's") and boasted dancing.

dinners, holiday parties, receptions, bowling, softball, and more (Dolan 1991: 54). It

served ice cream and soda: it was said that as men's tastes matured, they would

"graduate" to the Pixie G rill fo r something stronger (Fred O rloff, personal interview.

22 November 1999). Full membership in the CYS was open to those who were Old

Believers by birth, and social membership was open to all ethnicities. Its prime

location in the heart o f the neighborhood made the club accessible and popular. Its

location would also lead it into direct conflict with the church.

^ The American spellingat' staroobrjcidcy varies widely among Erie newspapers, cily directories, and even Erie O ld Believers themselves.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.5.5. The Church of the Nativity under Fr. Nicon Pancerev

Some o f Fr. Nicon Pancerev's parishioners in the Church o f the Nativity had

been in the United States for two decades when the church was founded. Those

twenty years had seen their mass trans-Atlantic migration, a dramatic change in

lifestyle brought on by new employment and intimately close contact with an

astounding array of non-Old Believers, the re-constitution of their Old Believer

communities, the first "world war" (which was fought in large part on land that was

their recently abandoned home and still home to many relatives), and gradual gains in

material wealth—all set in a hitherto unknown country which was experiencing

cultural, economic, industrial, social, and political growth of world magnitude.

Fr. Nicon had witnessed these twenty years alongside his parishioners. Little

has been recorded about his life, but some information can be found in steamship

manifests, census records, and naturalization documents. Born in Suvalki in 1880. he

came as a single man to the United States in 1899, to his sister on Front Street in Erie.

He had a wife named Martha who was also from "Russian Poland." In the 1920

census, he was listed as being able to read and write, and speak English (though

accidentally renamed "Samuel"). He left his job as a machine operator for General

Electric to become the church's first "full-tim e" nastavnik (Hammermill Bond 1937).

Some accounts have the date o f his appointment as nastavnik in 1919 (apparently a

mistaken assumption based on the fact that the church was founded that year), another

in 1920 (Erie Times-News. 23 June 1978). yet another in 1923 (Robson 1985: 72). He

would have been only 40 years old. which is quite young, though old enough by

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. accepted customs.83 In 1925, Fr. Nicon became a U.S. citizen. By all reported

accounts he was a very stern nastavnik. Penances were high for the sins o f

Americanization (shaving o f beards for men. dyeing and cutting o f hair for women,

not keeping fasts, not attending church regularly, dancing at weddings). These could

even be grounds for denial o f fu ll burial rites. Early death records attest to this:

"shaven, worldly." "child whose father was living unlawfully with a woman of another

faith." Such people were buried in a separate part o f the cemetery, called the pogany

('the impure ones') section. This practice gradually subsided over the decades. It was

also common practice during the early years o f the Marianna Old Believer cemetery,

and can be seen in the Old Believer cemetery in Suwatki today. Those who married

outside the faith were often expelled from the church: the parents o f said people often

got severe penances and had to formally beg the forgiveness o f fellow parishioners.

* Tradition usually holds that a candidate for nastavnik be a man at least 33 years old. o f strong moral character, literate, and knowledgeable in the conducting of church serv ices. Candidates are usually from w ithin the community and are usually married, since a single nastavnik cannot marry . The nastavnik is chosen by a vote among the congregation and is given the rank in a special ceremony presided over by the elders of the community. Since a nastavnik is not a priest, this ceremony cannot be called an ordination. These criteria and customs are common to many communities and were described to me as such by an Old Believer from Pogorzelec and Suwalki in the summer o f 2000. Steven Simon (b. 1947) was made nastavnik of the Erie Church o f the Nativitv in 1976 at the age of 29. to be accused later during a time of conflict of not being old enough to be a nastavnik (Robson 1985). The age criterion, however, did not seem to be an issue with Fr. Yokoff who also became a nastavnik at the same age (see 2 .11.5). It is generally difficult to And a suitable candidate who is also willing to take on this enormous responsibility. It usually means leav ing a more lucrative job (or having these duties in addition to another job), learning and conducting the long and complicated services, maintaining one's moral character and setting an example in all aspects o f church life, giving up the ability to div orce (or if one is not married, the right to marry), providing leadership in the community, and holding this job (traditionally) until death.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sometimes at the front door o f the church or in front o f the congregation.** Several

people chose to leave the church over such matters.

Most o f the Old Believer immigrants had come from farms and had lived in

small villages. The city of Suvalki (Suwaiki) was the local administrative center and

largest city in the region. In 1901, it had 27,165 inhabitants (Andreevskij 1901:

31.891): village populations were usually under 100. Erie in 1905 was a bustling and

growing industrial city of 60,000 (Wellejus 1980: 50) with a large, new population of

immigrants, for whom the pressures to be American were mounting. Erie's Russian

Town (as the area o f the First Ward was called, at least by the Russians) was located

just two blocks east of downtown. Old Believer children attended school with and Old

Believer men worked with their non-Old Believer neighbors. Old Believer women

had large families to care for (some with eight or more children), and often took in

newly arrived Old Believer men as boarders. Young people often left high school

early to work (the boys to the docks and factories, the girls to shops and factories) in

order to help their large families survive financially. The work day was long and the

labor was hard. The need (and pressure) to socialize and relax was great. The CYS

Club was a lively and close venue.

Evening services in the brick church were frequent, long, and hot. Windows

which were opened to provide fresh air also brought in the sound o f music and

merrymaking from the club. Fr. Nicon asked the club—which had been founded by

church members—to remain closed during church services. When the club refused,

** Robson (1985: 77 -7 8 ) also documents this practice.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the nastavnik began to expel its members from the church.85 In this way (and by

personal choice) many members and sometimes whole families left the Church o f the

Nativity congregation.

Sava Legenzoff (also known as "Sam Lee")— who had helped Fr. Trifon

McDonsky (Makidonski) in religious matters in the scattered Old Believer

communities in the southwestern part o f the state for many years—moved to Erie in

1918 (a year before the Erie church was completed), then brought his fam ily from

Russelton to their new Erie home at 112 Parade St. in 1919. In 1924. they bought a

farm outside of Erie (Dolan 1991: 51-53). With tensions mounting. Sava withdrew

from the embattled Church o f the N ativity congregation in 1934 and began to tend to

the spiritual needs o f the families that had left the church. W ith the expulsion o f these

families from the church came the loss o f their right to be buried in the church

cemetery on Hannon Road. In 1938. Sava Legenzoff filed papers to legally

incorporate his congregation as the Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of Eoaun

Zlatoust (Ioann Zlatoust 'John Chrysostom').86 registering his residence on Lake

Pleasant Road as its home, and made arrangements for a cemetery in Belle Valley on

Rt. 8. Twenty-five male members o f the church were listed on the deed (Dolan 1991:

59-60).87 This became the second Old Believer church and cemetery in Erie, though a

building dedicated solely to church services was never erected. This first "schism" in

Since the church did not have communion, this act cannot correctly be referred to as excommunication, as it sometimes is in common parlance.

* "Greek Catholic" is an older term for "t Eastern) Orthodox." Thus. "Orthodox Greek Catholic" is redundant, or at least shows the intermediate stage o f this shift in terminology. ^ The life of Sava Legenzoff can be read in full in Dolan's 1991 article. "Sava (Sam Lee) and Anna Legenzoff: Pioneer Russian settlers."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Erie's Old Believer community was quite serious. Families which were related by

blood and marriage and which had shared a common history fo r well over a century ( if

not two) were now divided, not by dogma as had been the case in Europe as the

religion adjusted and adapted to changing needs, times, and pressures, but by how the

religion was being prioritized in the lives o f its adherents. It remained a problem for

over a decade, for some even longer, for others permanently.

2.5.6. Other Russians in Russian Town

About the same time as the arrival of Old Believers. New Rite88 Orthodox

Russians (and to a much lesser extent Russian Jews) arrived in Erie. Some came from

Suvalki province, where in 1899 there were 31.026 Russians—6,982 o f whom were

Old Believers (Andreevskij 1901: 31.892). Others came from mainland Russia. Little

if anything has been written about this group. The May 1937 issue of the Hammermill

Bond briefly addresses the issue thus:

. .. Erie's Russian citizens are divided into three groups: the older brethren who attend the Front street church; others who follow the new Orthodox Greek Catholic church; others who have selected churches o f various denominations, both Protestant and Catholic, for worship. [.. .| Most picturesque o f the Russian groups are the members o f the little brick church the Orthodox Greek Catholic church of the Nativity |on Front Street|—who wear beards in the image o f Christ and who attend services with their wives and children in native costume. I ... | Russian members o f the czar approved Orthodox Greek Catholic church—the beardless group—are also observing Easter | . . . |. This group has no church building but a priest w ill be here from Buffalo on Easter eve to preside at services in one o f the homes. Aside from the fact that they have discarded their beards the difference between the new church and the

** They of course did not call themselves New Rile but rather simply Orthodox or Greek Catholic. The distinction "Old Believer" or "Old Rite" then requires the counterpart "New Rite" to signify adherents of the mainstream, official Russian Church. Old Believers will often call these Russians "Nikonians" in reference to Patriarch Nikon's reforms whose adoption led to the schism in the 17th century .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. older brethren is largely one of church ritual. Each observes many of the same customs and practices. The old and new church members have no quarrel about their differences in belief. Many inter-marry and all live happily in their first ward colony up over the bluff from the Hammermill dock where many are employed each summer. . . .

In 1928. the non-Old Believer Russians founded the Russian Hall at 256 E.

Third St. Circa 1940 a Wasel Stepinovski formed a Russian Educational Club at this

same location, and in 1946 the Russian-American Club was formed there.89 Little

documented information exists about these or to what extent Old Believers frequented

them. Some members o f the older generation o f Old Believers mention the Russian

Hall and the Russian-American Club, but simply say that "they were a different kind

o f Russian, not Old Believers" (e.g., Phillip Popoff. personal interview. 23 November

2000).

Around 1935, in the Erie city directory appears a listing for the Russian Baptist

Church at 262 E. Fourth St., with Theophan Melnitsky as the contact. In 1940. there is

no listing. In the 1944/45 directory appears the Russian Evangelical Baptist Church at

a different location (307 E. Fourth St.) with a different pastor (Rev. John E. Sylvester).

This church still exists at this location with Anatoliy Vasilyev listed as the pastor. The

Erie Old Believers of today do not remember having contact with their Baptist

neighbors and do not have contact with them today.

It is possible that the Russian Hail gave way to the Russian Educational Club which in turn gave way to the Russian-American Club.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.5.7. Americanization

Yet another huge influence working against the retention o f culture and

language was the Americanization movement of the early 20th century. Unlike today,

when diversity and heritage are sources o f pride and are supported and promoted by

most communities in the United States, the era o f the Eastern European wave o f

immigration was not as welcoming. The Eastern European immigration was the

largest immigration ever experienced by the United States. The immigrants

themselves were also much different, with different religions, different languages, less

wealth and less education. Many came from the areas directly involved in W orld War

I. For the Old Believers, World War I took place in their former home and in the

home o f their relatives who did not come to America. Several members o f the Old

Believer community served in the war: some by choice, others by draft (see 2.4.3). By

the time o f the war (and even by the 1910 census), some had already become

American citizens.

After the war. Communism, then a fashion among some employed in labor,

came to be viewed as a threat. The Palmer Raids of 1919-1921 made national

headlines. The Old Believers, despite their dissident status vis-a-vis Russia, were

looked upon with a suspicious eye. Some Erie Old Believers report that their fathers

received Russian-language newspapers but hid them from public view. Another Red

Scare occurred in the 1950s. and the Cold War might have made some Erie residents

suspicious of their neighbors of Russian heritage. Interestingly, few people reported

that being Russian caused difficulty for them socially.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.5.8. Schools

In Suvalki, schooling was available but not necessarily mandatory.90 In the

United States it was mandatory. For grades K -6. the Old Believer children in Erie's

First Ward attended Lafayette School (formerly School No. 1) at E. Third and French

Streets. After Lafayette was torn down in 1936. they attended Jones School on the

southwest comer of E. Seventh St. and Holland (Hood 1978: 33; Catherine Federoff,

personal interview. 20 April 2002). Some students then went on to study at East High

for grades 7-12 or to Tech (grades 9-12) for technical training. Many

students—especially up until World War II. which helped bring an end to the

Depression—chose or were forced to drop out of grade school in order to help support

their families. Traditionally. Old Believers in the outer reaches o f the Russian Empire

did not believe in extensive education, especially in public education.9' For the Old

Believer peasant in Europe, sufficient education often was limited to being able to

read the Slavonic o f church books, and even this could be the exception rather than the

norm. Children in Erie often sold newspapers, worked in shops, or had their parents

sign release forms so that they could work in factories (Hood 1978: 33).

English was the lingua franca o f schooling in Erie. In the early years, Russian

was used in most Old Believer homes. Many members of the first U.S.-born

*' Robson (1985: 3-4—35 ) describes an interview with Anna Federoff who was bom in Suvalki in the village o f Pogorzelec in 1890. She relates that she had the opportunity to go to school but believed it was too difficult and thus asked her parents if she could stay home. '' This is (or was) true of the Old Believers in Oregon and Alaska, who often were taken out o f school after the eighth grade. This was a measure of social control, serving to remove children from a "mixed" environment as they were entering puberty so as to avoid the temptation o f dating and marry ing non- Old Believers. As Erie Old Believer children stayed in public schools progressively longer times, this contact indeed became a serious threat to endogamy.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. generation today report that they spoke only Russian until they went to school. There

was punishment for children who broke this rule, often in the form of a threatening

wooden spoon. The language o f play for Old Believer children in the streets and yards

of the First Ward could be Russian or English, according to a variety of factors. But

school was the universal English-only environment. Some people report that their

parents were visited by teachers and told that they must use English at home with their

children, lest the children never learn English. Fathers worked long hours, so most

children's Russian language contact was with their mothers. Parents usually used

Russian with their first children. As a rule, siblings used English among themselves.

Thus, as the fam ily grew and the oldest children went to school and began learning

English, and as their supervisory roles for their younger siblings increased. English

entered the house, and the Russian-speaking parents were soon outnumbered by

English speakers. Most second U.S.-bom generation informants report that the first

two or three children born learned to speak Russian fluently, the next children learned

partially, and sometimes the youngest children never learned at all. achieving only a

command o f stock words and phrases. Some parents tried to maintain monolingual

Russian households, at least in the early years. It soon became the norm that parents

spoke to their children in Russian and the children answered in English. Some parents

allowed bilingualism, while others eventually even made the switch to English. To

provide a clearer picture of this chronology is virtually impossible now. as only the

youngest children of the Europe-born generation are still alive. As a rule, these

children were born into families that had largely already made the switch to English.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Some report that Russian was the dominant language in their home at least during

their early childhood. But when asked at what age they spoke Russian the best, most

answer age 6-8 (about the time they entered school). In light o f the fact that solid

(adult) proficiency is achieved much later, it is clear that few achieved full proficiency

in their lifetimes.

Russian as a language o f instruction in public schools was never a possibility.

The Old Believers were poor, so there was not money (or organization) to establish

Russian-language parochial schools. The community would not have the wealth (or

organization) to found such schools until several decades later—after it was no longer

an issue. Perhaps if immigration had resumed after World War I. thus providing a

new and continuing infusion o f Russian speakers, the story might have been different.

After World War II. the economy improved greatly, work had become more

stable (year-round as opposed to seasonal), men had amassed experience to get better-

paying jobs. women who had entered the work force sometimes stayed in their jobs,

and family sizes shrank— all reducing or eliminating the need fo r children to leave

school in order to help support their families. Whether in school or on the job, the

language o f choice was English. For some. Russian was the first language that they

heard (or used) at home, but for all U.S.-born children English would become their

dominant language very quickly. The death o f a Russian-speaking father often

marked the end o f the enforced use o f Russian in the house ( if it was enforced at all).

Grandparents were also often strict about the use of Russian. Mothers, as a rule, were

much more permissive about the use of English.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.5.9. Russian-language Media

Old Believer immigrants arrived with few possessions. The most important

items for many were icons and church books which they would need to conduct

services. Many of these immigrants were illiterate or had reading abilities limited to

the reading o f the church books. The exceptions were those who grew up in cities like

Suvalki (Suwatki) or Vilnius who received a full education and who undoubtedly read

the Russian newspapers and books available there.92 The Old Believer immigrants

were a part o f the first large Russian immigration to the United States, so there was

little Russian-language infrastructure such as newspapers, magazines, books, and radio

already in existence. The Pittsburgh area might have had a little more to offer, since it

had a larger Russian population than Erie. A rise in Russian publications occurred in

U.S. cities with the arrival o f "White" (Tsarist) Russians after the Russian Revolution

in 1917 who had considerably more money and a higher average education level, but

they gained footing a generation too late for the Old Believers. As mentioned above

(see 2.5.7). a few people report that their fathers received Russian-language

newspapers which were immediately read upon receipt and then hidden from public

view. The nature and origin o f these newspapers is unknown.

Radios were often banned from stricter households. No one who had a radio

later reports being aware o f any Russian-language broadcasts. Phonographs were

c The American-born children o f these immigrants often report that their fathers were referred to as "city boys" by the people who were raised in villages— a light form o f scorn that meant that they were socially and educationally different.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. likewise banned. Television arrived much too late to have any impact, and there was

definitely no Russian-language programming once televisions became commonplace.

The only significant sources o f the written Russian word were personal letters

sent by relatives in Europe. Some people report a lim ited number of people who were

able to read letters and a smaller number who were able to write back. Some sources

exaggerate this situation by saying that only a handful o f people were literate enough

to do this (see. for example. Hood 1978 or Dolan 1991), which was certainly not the

case, judging from the educational levels achieved in Europe by some o f the

immigrants and the number o f people in passenger manifests who were reported to be

literate.1” These letters continued after World War I and even after World War II.

when most Erie Old Believers' relatives were displaced to cities such as Klaipeda and

Silute in Lithuania. By that point, only the oldest generation was able to read the

letters and write back. As this generation died, the letters often went unanswered.^

Among the Old Believers in Erie today, books in Russian are possessed as

curiosities rather than as objects for reading. Such books are usually souvenir picture

books brought back from trips to the Soviet Union in the late 20th century. Families

An interesting informal way to judge literacy is to look at the signatures of applicants for naturalizations, which date from 1903 until the late 1940s. It is immediately clear by the beautiful scrolling signatures of some that they received substantial early education. The lack of education of others can be seen in the jagged tracing by their hand over their name which had been written by someone else, or by the "X . . . his mark" on the signatory 's line. u One such unanswered letter from Lithuania reads. "Dear grandmother, why have you forgotten us? Write me at least a few words about how you are getting along and how your health is. because we want to hear from you. . . . I often see your sisters . . . and they always ask how you are doing and how your health is. but we don't know any thing. A t least when our late grandfather was alive he at least kept us up-to-date, but now we live like orphans and no one wants to write to us." The current owners o f the letter, members of the first U.S.-born generation, are completely unable to read the letters that they have. Some families report having thrown out entire boxes o f letters from Europe because they were unable to read the Russian.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in the Church of the Holy Trinity often give their nastavnik Russian-language books

from the turn o f the 20th century that belonged to their parents, because they are

unable to read them and thus have no use fo r them. In the 1960s and 1970s Russian

phonograph records became popular: many Old Believers in Erie owned them and

learned traditional and contemporary Russian songs, which supplemented and

sometimes replaced the songs that their parents knew. Many people today own

Russian/English dictionaries, which however are based on standard Russian and are

the source o f many non-Suvalki Russian words in Erie Old Believer Russian (see

4.2.4). Some people have purchased Russian language tapes. Among those who have

cable or satellite television, no one reports watching Russian programming (or even

knows that it might be available). Among those who have Internet access, very few

have even tried to access Russian-language web sites (and then only out o f curiosity),

which under other circumstances could provide news, entertainment, cultural

information, and Russian-language broadcasts.

2.5.10. Church School

The only viable option for organized Russian language instruction would have

been through the church. Home schooling in Russian was an imperfect solution since

fathers worked, mothers cared for large families and sometimes boarders (and

occasionally worked outside the home), children attended school or worked, and much

of the remaining time was spent in prayer at home or church. When formal teaching

was conducted at home, either by a parent or by a tutor, it was to teach Slavonic, not

Russian. Russian was regarded as something which was learned automatically from

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. birth, not as a special subject o f study. But with English entering the home, a

demanding work and school schedule, and entertainment taking place outside the

home, the opportunities for children to hear and take part in conversations in a full

array o f social settings were insufficient.95 With an almost complete lack of Russian

language materials (such as books and media, as discussed above), there was no

chance for other means o f learning.

The lack o f proficiency in Russian greatly reduced the ease with which

children learned Slavonic. Suvalki Russian and Russian Church Slavonic (usually just

called "Slavonic" in the community) are similar in broad terms, but have marked

differences in lexicon, morphology, semantics, grammar, and domains o f usage. In

Suvalki and in the earliest years in the United States, education in Slavonic (when it

existed) usually consisted o f teaching a young speaker o f Russian how to read the

church books and musical notation. Understanding the meaning o f the text was often

not obligatory or verified, perhaps because it was either deemed unnecessary or

because it was believed to come naturally. Older men were often hired to teach

children how to read Slavonic. George Simon (b. ca. 1925 near Marianna) tells how

his father Wasil Simon (himself literate and quite educated) hired an elderly man to

come and teach Slavonic to the children. If the children performed poorly, rather than

fly into a rage as one might expect, the old man would break into tears and lament

Most people today report that when their parents had Russian-speaking visitors the children would go o ff and play, and speak English with each other.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. aloud what would happen to them if they never learned Slavonic (George Simon,

personal interview, 27 October 1999). George's generation would witness the result

firsthand.

Fr. Nicon Pancerev, bom in Suvalki ca. 1880, used only Slavonic and Russian

in church, and expected the same from his congregation. A pictures o f his church

school class taken ca. 1920 shows children in very traditional church dress: the boys

are wearing white shirts with black robes while the girls with heads fully covered with

long white scarves are wearing long black robes;116 all held lestovki. the Old Believer

'prayer ladder', akin to a rosary. They look much like their Old Believer

contemporaries in Suvalki. Boys and girls attended church school every day after

school from 4 -6 p.m. and on Saturdays 9 a.m. to noon. They studied Slavonic,

beginning with the alphabet and working their way to reading the service books. After

several years they "graduated" to the k r y lo s 'choir'. Russian, however, was not

taught as a subject.

Fr. Nicon's successor in 1946. Albert Yokoff. was bom in Pennsylvania in

1917 and was much more aware o f the language problem experienced by his own

generation and the generation o f his children. There was now a significant percentage

of the congregation that had never seen Suvalki and had a limited knowledge of

Russian and an even worse knowledge o f Slavonic. Still, the power lay in the hands

^ It is interesting to note that there were 4 boys and 12 girls, a one-to-three ratio. This sheds some light on the situation in Old Believer communities in the eastern U.S. today. 'r A metathesized form of the wordkliros. This form is the standard form in Suvalki Old Believer dialects o f the 20th century .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. o f the patriarchs o f the families, the builders o f the Church o f the Nativity. A change

in the language o f the church services was still impossible.

The third nastavnik Fr. Vladimir Smolakov. who was brought to Erie from

M illville , NJ. in 1952. was bom in Riga, Latvia, but like Fr. Y okoff was sensitive to

the language issue. He had seen the same problems in the even younger congregation

in M illville . He hand-copied his own English translations o f prayers and made them

available to people.

2.5.11. Sunday School for Adults

In later years, a Sunday school for adults was organized. The purpose was to

provide religious education: the history of Orthodoxy and the Old Belief,

interpretations of Scripture, comparison of the Old Belief to other religions, and how

the Old Belief can inform modem life. It also served as a forum to discuss their

religion. The Church Slavonic and Russian languages, however, were not studied as

subjects.

2.6. Hamtramck (Detroit), Michigan

In the Erie community, there are a few stories about the very earliest Old

Believers traveling to the state of Michigan for work. Hood (1978: 14) cites from an

interview with Frank Peganoff that

Osip O rlo ff and Stephan Peganoff. . . had arrived in New York C ity together about 1892. The immigration official, after questioning them regarding a desire to work, sent them to Michigan to cut w oo d .. . . Peganoff and O rloff subsequently received word of work at a lake port called Erie.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Hood, however, does not explain to what city or region the two men were sent, how

long they stayed in Michigan, or why they returned to Erie.

The city o f Erie was an important cog in the development o f industry on the

Great Lakes. Coal was mined in southwestern Pennsylvania and then taken by train to

the state's only Great Lakes port: Erie. From there, it was transported by ship (or

train) to the growing industrial cities of Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago. When the

mines went on strike or the labor market was saturated. Old Believers sometimes

ventured to these cities to look for work. An Old Believer community began to form

in the Hamtramck section of Detroit. Michigan, around Nagel. Dequindre. and St.

Aubin streets. By 1935 there were about 50 Old Believers who had been holding

services in private homes. That year they began building a church at 2315 Carpenter

Street, on the Detroit side o f the boundary with Hamtramck. Money was collected

from their community, as well as from Old Believers in Erie and in the mines around

the Marianna church. It was the middle o f the Depression and money was scarce.

They were able to Finish only part o f the structure, so they began holding services in

the basement, where they met from 1935 until 1949. In 1942, with World War II

raging, there was an influx of Old Believers from the mines. This brought in new

money to the congregation, and they were able to complete the church in 1949. It was

blessed the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church. Services were run by the

congregation members, in particular Anna Zuravleff-Golubov, who was bom in Erie

in 1914 and had married a young Old Believer from Detroit. They moved

immediately after their marriage at Erie's Church of the Nativity in 1935 to Detroit,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. where Konstantin had a job at Chrysler. Anna had been taught in her childhood by Fr.

Nicon Pancerev how church services were conducted, which she did in the absence o f

a priest in Detroit. It was only in 1952 that the community got its first nastavnik. Fr.

Wallace Novitsky. He came from Suvalki to the United States as a little boy with his

family, which probably settled in the mining towns around Marianna. Fr. Novitsky

was only partially educated in conducting services, so Anna continued to help. He

served until his death in 1979. A t its height, the community might have reached about

150 families (maybe as high as to 200). with a couple hundred individuals attending

on major holidays and 50-60 for regular services. Despite the relatively large size o f

the community. Old Believer-owned stores and clubs did not arise as they did in Erie.

There were New Rite Orthodox Russians in the area, but the Old Believers had limited

contact w ith them. The late start o f the Detroit community (in comparison with

Marianna and Erie) and the lack o f a nastavnik meant that religious and language

education was never strong. The next generation only developed a passive knowledge

o f Russian and very little understanding of Slavonic, and the one following that

understood virtually nothing. In 1983. an Old Believer nastavnik. Fr. Teodor

Fiodorow (bom ca. 1924). was brought to Detroit from Suvalki.1* His style of singing

and conducting services was somewhat different from the congregation's ways, but he

adapted to theirs. He spoke Russian and Polish, but very little English, which posed

problems for the monolingual English generations. Services continued to be held in

Scheffel. writing about the drain of nastavniks that was threatening Suvalki in 1990. mentions that a nastavnik had left Suvalki for the United States (1990: 7). This undoubtedly refers to Fr. Fiodorow. Kowalski (1985: 12) mentions Fr. Fiodorow by name.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Slavonic.99 A ll other rites, including baptisms, weddings, funerals, and confessions,

were also held in Slavonic.100 Due to his lack o f English, Fr. Fiodorow was largely

unable to minister to and connect with his younger. English-speaking parishioners, and

many left the church. Time also saw the economic decline o f the neighborhood, and

many parishioners began to cite fears o f danger as a main reason for not attending

services.101

2.7. Millville, New Jersey

The M illville Old Believer community probably began to take shape as early

as the late 1920s and early 1930s, most likely fed by the Old Believer community o f

Brooklyn.102 According to Shea 1999. a cluster of five families, reportedly from

Latvia, formed the nucleus o f the community, and those families drew to them

relatives from Europe and relatives who were already in the United States. By the

mid-1930s, the decision was reached to build a prayer house. Land for the church and

a cemetery was donated by John Samano. and the families began to raise the money,

despite the lean years o f the Great Depression. The St. Nicholas Old Orthodox

Church was founded on October 20. 1936, and the church at 2325 Newcombtown

Only in the pre-Lenten and Lenten seasons was English used when Anna Golubov followed the nastavnik’s Slavonic readings of John Chry sostom with her own English translation, which was eagerly awaited by the congregation. 110 It is interesting to note that Fr. Fiodorow adopted the practice of group confessions, which are not conducted in other American Old Believer communities. Perhaps this was necessitated by the language issue. "" Information on the Detroit church was furnished in phone interv iews with Helen Burlockoff-Spakoff on 24 March 2002 and Anne Zuravleff-Golubov on 9 June 2002. 1,c According to Weslev McCloskey. Sr.. the M illville Old Believer community began to form in 1927. led by the Michalowsky. Samano. Shedrow. Davidow. McCloskey . and Zarankin families (The Millville Daily. 6 December 1976). Shea (1999) indicates that these families came from Latvia, though no details are given.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Road was dedicated on September 5, 1937. making it the fourth Old Believer prayer

house in North America. The community's oldest member, Alexander Michalowsky,

was selected as the church's first nastavnik because o f his seniority and knowledge o f

the order of services (The Millville Daily, 5 September 1972). In the 1940s, after the

end of World War II. there was a wave o f immigration from Riga, Latvia.103 These

new arrivals were much different from the first inhabitants. The new wave came from

Riga,ICM which was (and still is) an Old Believer center and which had reaped the

financial benefits of a close connection to the Pimonov family, a wealthy Old Believer

fam ily in Russia proper and abroad: the old wave had by and large been poor peasants.

The Rigan Old Believers had a much stronger history of education, especially being

inhabitants of a major city, and they would have benefited from early 20th-century (if

not earlier) education movements: the earlier wave had limited Russian education:

some had a good education, the majority had little. The new wave came with a fresh

knowledge of Russian, which however was much closer to standard Russian: the first

wave had not lived in Russia proper fo r almost two hundred years and had a very

strong regional dialect which had been influenced by their points of settlement after

departing the Pskov region.

One article inThe Millville Daily states that Furman McCloskey of M illville was instrumental in attracting them to Millville. This immigration helped the community to grow numerically{The Millville Daily. 6 December 1976). ““ There are reports that there were also arrivals from Germany, possibly Old Believers from Prussian Masuria who migrated to Germany proper after the war.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. M illville experienced another wave of Old Believer immigration in 1962.

According to Piepkom (1977: 113) about 175105 Old Believers from Kazak Koyii, near

Ak§ehir. Turkey, came to New Jersey under the sponsorship o f the Tolstoy Foundation

in New York. They were priestless Old Believers (as the M illville Old Believers

were), but they at one point were probably beglopopovtsy priestly Old Believers.106

The M illville Old Believers pitched in to help the new arrivals. It seems, however,

that the new immigrants were displeased by the fact that their hosts were not

maintaining the same traditions that they observed, among others that the M illville

men shaved their beards. Newspaper articles from the period state that the new

arrivals refused to attend church services with men who shaved and were therefore

looking for a building in which they could hold their own services (see The Millville

Daily, 9 July 1963: 27 August 1963). The M illville Old Believers, in turn, also felt the

differences, such as the colorful clothing that the Turkish Old Believers wore to

church services.10 The interaction between the two groups was therefore limited.

Two years later, in 1964. the Turkish Old Believers families left M illville for

Woodbum and Gervais in Oregon. Only one woman stayed behind, after marrying a

M illville Old Believer. The impact that the Turkish Old Believers had on the original

M illville community was evidently minimal.

1,15 A Sew York Times article from 1963 gives this number as 250. Fora description of this branch, see Piepkom 1977 or Bulgakov 1994. 107 This in contrast to the black and white clothing which the M illville O ld Believers wore to church.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.8. Contact between Communities

In Suvalki at the beginning of the 20th century began the tradition of Old

Believer conferences. In January 1906 a synod o f priestless Old Believers was held in

Vilnius. Representatives from almost all o f the parishes in the Suvalki province

attended. Vilnius was designated the center o f these groups, due in large part to its

financial ties to the wealthy Pimonov family. Many parishes came reluctantly,

motivated by the possibility of benefiting financially from the association (Iwaniec

1981: 15; Iwaniec 1977: 277-282).'*

This tradition was continued in the United States. Annual conferences o f the

four communities were held on Labor Day from 1953 until 1974 (Robson 1985: 93).

The dates correspond conspicuously with the years when Fr. V ladim ir Smolakov was

the nastavnik o f the Church o f the Nativity (1952-1973). Fr. Smolakov was brought

from M illville by the Erie community, so he formed a natural bridge between the two

communities. The location o f the conferences was alternated between the four cities.

Some people remember the conferences fondly as the social event o f the year; others

remember them for bickering over religious issues. In any event, it physically brought

the groups together; many people found spouses among the members of the other

communities, and almost every family has or had members marry into one or more of

the communities.

"" More conferences were held in Europe: in 1909 and 1912. Pomorts\ conferences were held in Moscow; in 1925. the First Congress o f Polish bespopovtsy Old Believers was convened in Vilnius (Iwaniec 1977. 277-282: 1981:*15).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Michigan

Pennsylvania New Jersey

• - Old Believer city Pittsburgh) O • other city mentioned 'MARIANNA 50 rmlcx

100 ktltKTtCtCPk Maryland • M ILLVILLE West Virginia (Baltimore)

Figure 2.7: Map o f Russian Old Believer communities in the eastern United States

Those o f the older generation in Erie are usually very aware o f people's origins

("They're from the mines." "Her sister moved to Detroit." "She speaks better Russian

because her fam ily is from Riga, from M illville ."). W ith the passage o f time and

generations, these differences are felt less and less.

2.9. Further History of Erie

2.9.1. New Russian Immigration to Erie

The city o f Erie received another wave o f Russian immigration in the late

1940s and 1950s. They were New Rite Orthodox "W hite" (i.e.. Tsarist) Russians who

fled Russia for other countries after 1917 to escape persecution from the Communist

system. Most were from educated families and maintained their language and culture

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to a very high degree while in exile in Europe. After W orld War II, they were

unwelcome in their host countries, so they sought asylum in the United States.

Among the Old Believers, they have the nickname "DPs" ("displaced persons").109

The New Rite community began to gather in a two-room store on 8th and Ash Streets.

They collected money to build a church, which was a slow and d ifficu lt process since

they were all immigrants. They eventually raised enough to buy the land. They dug

and poured the foundation themselves, and when they had put on the roof and put up

the walls, they immediately started holding services there—even though the floor was

not done —so that they would not have to pay rent for the store. They worked on the

church in the evenings in order to finish it. Around 1956. the Russian Orthodox

Church o f Our Lady's Nativity (721 E. Fifth St.) was dedicated.110 In addition to the

majority o f Russians, there were Orthodox Belarusians. Yugoslavs, Ukrainians, Poles,

and Serbs. The church was affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. At

its height, there were about 150 members. In the several decades o f their active

One example is Vladim ir Archipow. His mother was born in Stavropol' Kavkazskii and studied in Petersburg. His father was from the Don region and studied in Kiev. During the Russian Civil W ar in 1917. his father fought for the White Army. After the White Arms was defeated, they fled to Turkey. V ladim ir was bom in in Sevastopol' Kavkazkii in the Crimea. His fam ily then went to Belgrade when he w as just a few weeks old. In Belgrade, he met his future w ife Marina. Marina was bom in Belgrade w hile her family was in exile: her mother was from Petersburg and her father was from Tula. Her maternal grandfather was a general in the White Army. V ladim ir and Marina attended a Russian gimnazium in Belgrade, where they studied Serbian and Serbian subjects. When the Germans invaded in W orld W ar II. they went to Salzburg. Austria. After the war. the authorities in Salzburg (where they were in a displaced persons camp) w anted to send them back to Russia. Vladim ir had to explain that they could not go back because they would face persecution. They had the choice o f going to Australia or the United States. In 1949. they left their DP camp in Salzburg and arrived in New York City the day before Christmas. The next day. they were sent by train to Anderson. IN. w here they were sponsored by a farming family in the Church of the Brethren. V ladim ir was made to find work immediately. Once his two-year "contract” was up. he looked for a community with an Orthodox church (since there was no Orthodox church in Anderson) and heard about Erie. In 1952 they made the move. ""T h e church is known in the Old Believer community as "Fifth Street."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. existence, they were plagued by unrest among different factions within the

congregation. Many of the children of the original members left Erie to find work in

other cities, leaving their parents behind. For several years now, they have not had a

regular priest and thus only have services a few times during the year, which are

conducted by Fr. Pimen Simon, the Old Believer priest at the Church o f the N ativity'11

or by their former priest, Fr. German Ciuba, who occasionally visits."2 This

congregation is now elderly and sparse in numbers, but these members have

maintained the Russian language and culture. A few attend services at the Church of

the Nativity, although they are limited in their participation to some extent, not being

baptized into the Old Belief. In matters o f Russian language, many o f the Old

Believers at the Church o f the Nativity yield to the knowledge o f these Russians.

Vladim ir Archipow from the Fifth Street church, mentioned above, is very active in

translating church documents into Russian for the Church o f the N ativity."3 Like the

members o f the M illville community, the "DPs" are also described as speaking

"proper" Russian. When asked who the Russian language authorities are in the

community, many list the "DPs" from the Church of Our Lady's Nativity. In one

interview, an Old Believer pointed out. "Oh. they talk beautiful Russian, but they're

not like us |not Old Believers|."

The most recent wave o f Russian-speaking immigrants to Erie belongs to the

post-Soviet wave of the 1990s (which is continuing today). There is now a sizable

111 The two churches are loosely affiliated through ROCOR. See 2.9.11 for more. Fr. German, by the way. is one of the main translators of the Old Believers' church books. 11 ’ See Chapter 4 for a similar discussion.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. community—about a thousand—which comes largely from the former Central Asian

Soviet Republics, according to the owner o f the Russian grocery store "Europa

Delicatessen" (962 Brown Ave.) who is himself from Baku, Azerbaijan. A few

members o f the Old Believer community know o f the store, but only two or three have

actually been there (and none shops there regularly), despite the fact that it sells some

o f their favorite Russian foods (black bread, kvas,114 rvorog,"’’ baranki l16), Russian

music and videos. Russian souvenirs, and Russian newspapers that are unavailable

elsewhere in Erie. The owner has heard o f the Old Believer community but has had

no contact with them outside of the few who had visited the store and identified

themselves as Russians.

2.9.2. Time of Change

Fr. Nicon Pancerev was the nastavnik at the Church o f the Nativity for some

25 years. The split over the CYS (see 2.5.5) was just one indication o f the austere

determination of the nastavnik of the Church of the Nativity and the mounting secular

problems that he was facing, in that time (and in the more than fifty years that the Old

Believers had been in Erie), the community had undergone extensive external and

internal change. One major force o f change was the appearance and growth o f the

first U.S.-born generation. There were already tens o f births in the 1890s and perhaps

as many as a hundred in the time between 1900 and 1910. This rate probably doubled

114 A slightly fermented drink made from water, yeast, sugar, and rye bread. The Erie Old Believers who know it sometimes refer to it as homemade root beer. 115 A dairy product similar to ricotta cheese. W hen baking, the Erie Old Believers substitute it with cottage cheese. ' Small rings o f baked dough, eaten as a snack.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in the next decade. A family with five to ten children was not uncommon. Around

age six or seven, these children began attending school, where English was the

language o f instruction and the language o f the playground. For some children whose

families used only Russian at home, it was the first "fu ll immersion" in English.

The 1910s saw the end o f Old Believer immigration from Suvalki with the

outbreak o f W orld War I, and it would never resume to any significant degree. The

Old Believers entrenched themselves in Erie's First Ward and the neighborhood

became "very Russian." Soon, at least every other house contained one or more

Russian fam ilies."7

The General Electric plant was built on the east side o f town (ca. 1910) and

provided year-round work, which meant not only that the men there would not have to

return to the mines in the winter but that men from the mines began to look for work

in Erie. A majority o f the Erie Old Believer men were employed by either

Hammermill Paper Co. or by General Electric. With experience and a growing

command of English, a few of the original immigrants (and their sons) got better,

skilled jobs in these companies."8

The devastation and disruption in Suvalki caused by World War I also meant

that many who may have been planning one day to return to Europe decided to stay in

11 Houses were usually divided into separate living spaces for several households (cf. 1910 and 1920 Erie censuses). 1|s This, however, was a slow process. In the April 1939 issue o f The Hammermill Bond, it is noted that "a few members o f the congregation arc employed in finishing, plater and other mill departments but most employ ees who are members of the church are Hammermill dock workers."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the United States. The number o f men who became American citizens rose. Until

September 1922, this also meant that their wives became citizens.

The 1920s in Erie saw the arrival o f more Old Believer families from the

mines. The founding o f the Erie Old Believer church and industrial growth were

significant magnets which drew people to Erie. By 1920, most o f the Old Believer

immigrants had been in the United States for at least 5-10 years. The 1920 census

shows almost 650 speakers o f Russian and their children in Erie's First Ward: a

majority of these were Old Believers and more were probably not enumerated. More

Old Believers owned their homes, and they continued to become naturalized citizens.

Some were even able to open their own businesses.

The 1930s were shadowed by the Great Depression. Families struggled to get

by. Many children were forced to leave school and work to help make ends meet. But

the church had been in existence for a decade and families were strong. According to

the international Institute119 in Erie, in 1936 there were 1,175 Russians in the city o f

over 116,967 (Swisher 1976: 36). It is also in this decade that the Detroit and

M illville communities reach critical mass and found their own churches, with the

financial help o f the Erie and Marianna congregations. The 1930s close with the

outbreak o f World War II in Europe.

" 'T h e International Institute was an organization that helped immigrants in the city: it was very popular among Old Believers who applied for citizenship, so it can be considered a credible source. The name of one employee. Vera Dotsenko. appears on many applications and is still recalled w ith fondness.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.9.3. World War II, Affluence, and the Out-Migration

The first half o f the 1940s was marked by the world war. W ell over 50 men

from Erie fought in the war.120 fighting in Europe and the Pacific. Most all o f these

men were bom in the United States, the sons (and sometimes grandsons) o f the

original immigrants. In the army, they were required to shave (although many already

did, as witnessed in pre-war pictures—even true o f some of their fathers), to live in

extremely close quarters with non-Old Believers, and to eat with disregard to fasts (out

o f necessity). Some became smokers (tobacco use was strictly prohibited in the Erie

community, and largely still is today) and developed other "worldly" ( mirskie) ways.

They were unable to attend Old Rite services and celebrate holidays. They had their

eyes opened to the rest o f the world, and they had their youth taken from them. Some

who witnessed the return o f these men described them as wanting to make up fo r the

years o f living that they had missed. Some returned to Erie, only to leave again for

college. The postwar prosperity was enjoyed both by those who had stayed behind

and by those who had fought. Young men found good jobs and started families. They

bought their own houses. The First Ward, which was already full, was no longer big

enough to hold them. Heads o f families, even those o f the immigrant generation,

looked for houses farther and farther away from the church and the First Ward.

General prosperity, better salaries, shorter work days, smaller families, new cars,

higher levels of education, temporal distance from Old World memories and culture.

i:" The Hannon Road cemetery has commemorative plaques at 34 graves, and the C Y S cemetery has them at 15. Several veterans are still alive, and a significant number o f men left the church at some point, thus not eligible for burial in these two Old Believer cemeteries.

101

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. gradual loss of the first generation,121 and an expanded worldview all worked with this

physical distance between these families to devastate the closeness o f the community.

During the time o f the war, in 1943, the Church o f Eoaun Zlatoust's nastavnik

Sava Legenzoff died, leaving behind his small congregation. And in 1946, soon after

the men returned from World War II. Fr. Nicon Pancerev died. A recent informational

video on the Church o f the Nativity states that "some said he died o f a broken heart"

due to the intense change experienced by his Old Believer community. The new

nastavnik o f the Church o f the Nativity inherited a vast array o f problems and did not

offer enough solutions. Perhaps at the core o f the matter lay the fact that the younger

generation was rapidly changing and the older generation refused to bend. In a time of

exile and constant fear of persecution, the threat o f penance or banishment was

perhaps sufficient to "keep them down on the farm." But in a country (and state) that

boasted religious tolerance that was far from the persecuting Russian government and

Church and that was on the verge o f great prosperity and social m obility, the

consequences were perhaps not as menacing.

Many of the young felt alienated from the church. They did not understand

Slavonic (yet were required to attend many hours o f services a week), received little if

any education in religious thought beyond rote reading aloud (Robson 1985: 94). had

Based on research in the Old Believer cemeteries, at least 150 o f the original immigrants had died in Erie bv 1950.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. little if any emotional attachment to a distant country where they had never lived, and

were constantly comparing their lives to those of their non-Old Believer

contemporaries.

2.9.4. Fr. Albert Yokoff

With the death o f Fr. Nicon Pancerev in 1946, the Church o f the Nativity

found its new nastavnik in Fr. Albert Yokoff. Y okoff was born in Pennsylvania in

1917, making him the first U.S.-born Old Believer nastavnik. He was the son o f

immigrants John Y okoff (Evtixij Ignat'evic Jakovlev), who immigrated in 1902, and

Mary Yokoff (Mavra Luk'janovna). who immigrated in 1905. Many o f those who

were unhappy with the selection o f Y o ko ff stopped coming to church. After several

months or several years, when Fr. Y o ko ff had proved himself an acceptable leader,

these people slowly drifted back into the fold. Some people who had personal

conflicts with or who had received heavy penances from Fr. Nicon also returned to the

church.122

There were still tensions between the church and CYS. Fr. Y okoff held

services for the dead in the church, but refused to hold graveside prayers at the CYS

cemetery, which was still off-lim its for burials sanctioned by the church (Robson

1985: 87-88). In the postwar era. the community experienced a growth period in the

form of a wave of new births (ibid.: 87). In an interesting move, as documented in

parish records, the church was opened to non-Old Believers as long as they followed

One example was a woman who had receiv ed a very heavy penance for dyeing her hair.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. regulations (ibid.: 90, 188).123 Fr. Yokoff continued church school for the children and

continued to conduct services in Slavonic. But much of the Yokoff period is still

unclear. In 1952 the congregation learned that Fr. Y o ko ff was having an extramarital

affair and demanded his resignation. When he did. he took the church records that he

kept (including baptismal records), as well as candle-makers and incense burners

(ibid.: 88). He later divorced his wife, remarried, and remained in the community. He

would later regain visibility during the split in the church in the 1980s. Albert Yokoff

passed away in 2000. and out o f respect, many people still refuse to discuss his time as

nastavnik.

With the departure o f Fr. Yokoff in 1952 and with no suitable replacement

within the community (ibid.: 89), the Church o f the Nativity turned its eyes to

M illville for a new nastavnik. After a visit by the candidate and debate among the

congregation, Fr. V ladim ir Smolakov o f M illville was chosen. He was a recent

immigrant from the Old Believer community in Riga. Latvia. Upon his first visit, he

refused the offer, stating that he could not conduct services because the congregation's

method o f singing diverged from his. The congregation persisted, and he accepted

later that year (ibid.: 89).

2.9.5. CYS and the Rapprochement

Once again, as is common during the initial period of a new nastavnik. some

people stopped coming to church, and then slowly trickled back. This time, however.

~ These regulations ostensibly referred to dress and conduct inside the church.

104

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. with them came some of the families that had left because of their opposition to Fr.

Nicon and the CYS affair (see 2.5.5). some after twenty years. Some, however, did

not; some w ill never.

The CYS had remained popular, and grew enough to warrant a building of its

own at 145 E. Second in the late 1940s. Non-Old Believers and non-Russians

belonged as social members. Several important CYS members had been buried in the

CYS cemetery since its first two burials in 1939. When family patriarch Sava

Legenzoff was buried there, a precedent was set which was followed by the five major

branches o f his clan (Lee. Sokoloff. Evans. Biletnikoff. and Wassell). Even after

peace had been made with the Church o f the Nativity, members o f these families

continued (and continue) to be buried there. In the 1980s. the CYS moved again, this

time far from the First Ward, at 1602 E. 38th St. The membership is now largely

mixed, although some members o f the Church o f the Nativity still belong. The mixing

of the membership (like the mixing of the Old Believer community as a whole through

exogamy) created problems for the cemetery. Pressure began growing on the CYS

cemetery committee to allow non-Orthodox burials (non-Orthodox spouses of people

buried there). If that were allowed, according to tradition, it would cease to be an

Orthodox cemetery. The committee, still sensitive to its Old Believer roots, informed

the Church o f the Nativity o f the problem and their concern, and a few years ago,

ownership o f and care for the cemetery passed into the hands o f the church.

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Fr. Vladim ir Smolakov served as nastavnik o f the Church o f the Nativity for

21 years (1952-1973). He was a strong leader and introduced many innovations.

Robson (1985) documents this period in detail. Fr. Smolakov translated general

prayers into English and began publishing a yearly church calendar (in the tradition o f

the Riga community) as well as a weekly newsletter. He taught Church Slavonic and

Sunday School which fille d the basement o f the church.124 He started an annual

conference o f the leadership and members o f the four congregation. He began an

informal seminary, which would train the future Fr. Pimen Simon. The Neighborhood

House was purchased fo r use by the church. And banishments ceased to appear in

parish meeting minutes (Robson 1985: 91-93).

But at the same time, families continued their out-migration from the First

Ward and family size continued to shrink. As they moved out. non-Russian families

moved in. Young people became even more estranged as they saw that even their

parents did not understand the Slavonic services. Arguably, secular life surpassed

church life in importance for some. Intermarriage became more popular and not as

harshly penalized. In mixed marriages, it was much more likely that children were not

baptized into the Old Rite. The immigrant generation had passed on or was in

advanced years. The second generation (the first U.S.-bom generation) was firm ly in

middle age. Members o f the third generation rarely spoke or even understood any

Russian. Only those whose grandparents lived into their 80s and 90s—their parents

l*4 One picture from the 1960s shows almost 120 children (Robson 1998: 13).

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. thus provided with interlocutors and language authorities— had any semblance o f a

command o f Suvalki Russian. Fr. Smolakov. he him self not from Suvalki, often made

fun o f the way the Suvalkans spoke Russian. Some o f those who went to college took

Russian language courses, only to discover that their teachers reacted the same way.

Some picked up a modicum o f standard Russian (which created a mix o f standard and

non-standard language); others just became confused or exceedingly shy about

speaking. Few in the congregation had a deep understanding o f their religion. Some

secretly read the King James Bible to get a better understanding of what they were

reading in Slavonic in church.

2.9.7. Fr. Larry Evanoff

In 1971. Fr. Smolakov submitted his intention to retire. Many in the

community were puzzled by this, since nastavniks usually served until their deaths. In

1973, Larry Evanoff was chosen to be the new nastavnik. and Fr. Smolakov returned

to M illville. Fr. Larry was bom in Pittsburgh in 1914 to Lavrenty (b. 1879 in Vilnius)

and Agrepina (b. 1889 in Kaunas) Evanoff (originally Ivanov), who had arrived in

1913 and 1914 respectively. Larry was their fourth child and the first to be born in the

United States; they would give birth to seven more children in Erie. Lavrenty was

literate and taught his son Larry (his oldest living son and namesake) to read, write,

and speak Russian, as well as to read and sing Slavonic. Lavrenty and Agrepina raised

their large fam ily on a farm outside o f Erie, so the older children at least were more

exposed to a Russian-language environment than many o f their counterparts in the

city.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Fr. Larry was faced with a situation insurmountable by traditional solutions.

The community was now over 80 years old (and the church almost 55). The old-

timers continued to come to the Slavonic services, and cajoled their children

(sometimes successfully) to do the same. But many o f the second, third, and fourth

generations did not. Rigorous fasting that covered half o f the days in a year, strict

moral conduct, frequent services and holy days, and long services in a language they

at best only partially understood proved more than some chose to endure. The church

buildings were in disrepair and morale was at an all-time low. Personal and parish

problems led Fr. Larry to retire in 1976 (Robson 1985: 97).

2.9.8. Fr. Steven (Pimen) Simon

In 1976, Steven Simon became the next nastavnik. He was bom in 1947 to

U.S.-bom parents Steve and Irene Simon, making him the first third-generation125

nastavnik. His mother's parents spoke Russian to each other but English with their

children, so she did not develop a speaking knowledge o f Russian, which meant that

English was the language o f his childhood home. He was active in the church from an

early age as an epistle reader during services and a student in Fr. Smolakov's informal

summer seminary. He received his bachelor's degree in Russian studies and went on

to study law at the University o f Pittsburgh. Upon completing his degree in 1972, he

returned to Erie and the Church o f the Nativity, and began to practice law in a local

firm . When he was offered the position in 1976, he deliberated for some time before

accepting. He finally left his practice and was blessed as the new nastavnik.

125 i.e.. second U.S.-born generation.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.9.9. Loss of Secular Culture in the Erie Old Believer Community

The Erie Old Believers today have preserved very few outward expressions of

their Russian-ness in everyday life. Most outsiders (and Old Believers themselves)

remark that one would not know that they are Old Believers unless seeing them

walking to church in their "church clothes." The men wear a Russian-style peasant

long-sleeved shirt (which they call rubaska or rubaxa ) and bound by a woven belt

rather than being tucked into the pants. The long pants and shoes are store-bought.

Some men wear store-bought American-style shirts and an American -style belt.

There are still a handful o f women who make the Russian-style shirts and sell or give

as gifts: shirts are also handed down to younger generations. The men who wear the

Russian-style clothing usually have several different shirts. In the Church o f the

Nativity at Easter, the ratio of Russian-style clothing to American-style clothing in

men is about 1:1. Women wear a dark jumper called a modnik over a long-sleeved

blouse (usually of a lighter color) and cover their heads with a scarf known as a plat.

Some women wear American-style store-bought jumpers. Women are not allowed to

wear make-up to church. "Church clothes" are not worn as everyday clothes, except

perhaps when dressing to display their Russian heritage, such as at the public dinners

that the Church of the Nativity holds as a fund-raiser. In general, this preservation of

Russian elements in the domain o f the church (vs. in secular life) is seen in other

aspects o f life.

Food is generally American style (which includes internationally influenced

foods like spaghetti and Iasagna or Chinese take-out). Some Russian dishes and their

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. recipes are passed down to younger generations, but they are not eaten as dietary

staples. Many regard them as being "too much work." such as the baked goods which

a group of Church of the Nativity women from the first U.S.-born generation gather to

make in order to raise money for the church. Only at holidays are Russian dishes

regularly made.

Music is also American. A few older women own Russian record albums and

are able to sing some o f the songs, but these songs are Russian standards from the late

19th and early 20th centuries and are not part o f their native musical traditions per se.

Only the faintest vestiges o f native musical traditions remain in a certain quality in the

voice in their style o f singing. Some immigrant parents banned secular music from

their houses: their children and grandchildren have not followed suit. The only

musical tradition which has been preserved is the monophonic chant used in church

singing and the reading o f the kriuki 'neumes'. a system o f musical notation.

Naming practices to some extent have been maintained, but again only in the

realm of the church. When baptized, children (and converts) are given a baptismal

name from the church calendar (in addition to their name and middle name given at

birth). Sometimes this baptismal name is used as a nickname. The practice of

greeting people with their baptismal names and three kisses on Easter Sunday is still

preserved.

Death practices and rituals have been greatly influenced by the 20th century.

In the early 20th century, the body o f the newly deceased was washed and then lay in

state in the home until the funeral. Vigils were also held, with the reading church

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. books by the body. As families moved farther away from the church and as American

funeral parlors rose in popularity, these practices ended. The Church o f the Nativity

added a funeral parlor, and this practice moved into the church. Cremation is still not

allowed, and the permissibility o f embalming is an issue o f debate. The body is

wrapped in a savan 'shroud' and a prayer is placed in the hand o f the deceased.

Russian folk remedies and superstitions have largely been forgotten or have

blended in with American and other immigrants' traditions. When solicited, only one

superstitious belief seemed to be remembered: "Don’t go near the water on Trinity

Sunday." Legend has it that an Erie Old Believer man did not heed this warning and

drowned on Trinity Sunday, thus reinforcing the memory of this belief.

No Russian styles o f dance have been preserved. A few people mention old

timers being able to do the kazachok. The first nastavnik did not allow dancing at

weddings and punished it with heavy penances. No one today has expressed a

knowledge of dancing styles.

2.9.10. The Issue of English

The issue o f English soon came to a head. It had been brewing since the time

of Frs. Yokoff and Smolakov but tradition, internal pressure, and complications

involved in translation kept Slavonic in place (Robson 1985: 111-112). Two. even

three generations now did not have adequate comprehension o f the Slavonic services.

Many o f the younger generations had stopped coming regularly, showing up only at

Christmas and Easter. A shift to English as the language o f the church services was a

very promising solution to bring the young back into the fold. As documented by

111

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Robson (1985: 116-117) citing parish meeting minutes, a special parish meeting on

the use o f English in services was called on December 17, 1978, at which Fr. Steven

Simon demonstrated chants which had been translated into English. Those in

attendance voted 109:33 to begin using English in church services. A year later, on

December 2, 1979, there was a decision to use English on all possible occasions.

Vespers would alternate weekly between Slavonic and English, and families could

choose the language o f ceremonies such as baptisms, marriages, and funerals. It was

soon felt that the use of both Slavonic and English was causing a rift in the

congregation, and on August 8, 1982, there was a 55:14 vote to eliminate Slavonic

entirely, as translations were finished.

2.9.11. Restoration of the Priesthood, and the Schism

Two years before Steven Simon became nastavnik. a momentous event

occurred. On November 25. 1974. as a result of campaigning by exiled writer

Alexander Solzhenitsyn and archpriest Fr. Dmitri Alexandrov126 the Synod o f Bishops

o f the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad declared that the Old Rite was not incorrect

or non-Orthodox.ir The four Old Believer communities, however, took a wait-and-

see policy, suspicious o f the dominant church due to three centuries o f persecution and

trickery (Robson 1985: 118-122). In the early 1980s, Fr. Simon visited and studied

both the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and the Synod o f Bishops Abroad. He

i:n Laler to become Bishop Daniel o f Erie, protector of the Old Rite. i r Tw o previous events had paved the way for this to occur. In 1905. the Russian Orthodox Church had officially ended persecution of the Old Believers, and in 1971. the Russian Patriarch had lifted the anathemas on the Old Believers.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. decided that the Synod was a better match to the needs and practices o f the Old

Believers, and the Synod agreed to accept the Church o f the Nativity and give it fu ll

autonomy. On August 25, 1982, Fr. Simon gathered a panel to discuss the possibility

o f reconciliation with the Russian Orthodox Church and o f recovering the priesthood

(ibid.: 122-123). The group met weekly to listen to lectures prepared by Fr. Simon on

the history o f the Orthodox Church and the Old Belief and to discuss the issues. The

group eventually became divided. Approximately 34 were in strong favor of restoring

the priesthood, while approximately 6 were strongly opposed.128 The opposition was

led by Albert Yokoff. the former nastavnik. and this group stopped praying with

members o f the majority before and after meetings (ibid.: 124).129 It coalesced into a

group called the Association o f Old Believers. On January 9. 1983, a vote on the

restoration o f the priesthood was held, and 75% o f the congregation voted for

restoration. The majority laid claim to the church. The opposition felt that they were

entitled to the church, since it was adhering to the old ways. In the old country, after

all. when a part of the congregation wanted change, it left and formed its own church.

But the majority had the American legal tradition on its side, which says that a

majority rules. The opposition tried to regain the church but eventually dropped legal

action (ibid.: 132-133). It began meeting in a building at Second and German under

the name the Holy Trinity Church o f Russian Old Believers, with Fr. Larry Evanoff as

its nastavnik (Erie Daily Times, 7 January 1984). In the spring o f 1984 it began

121 Robson labels these numbers as "approximately” without explanation. l*' For an in-depth analysis o f the issues, see Robson 1985: 124-130.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. building a church just a few blocks away from the Church o f the Nativity at 227

Holland St. on the northeast comer o f Third and Holland, and dedicated it on October

14, 1984.

Most agree that the switch to English caused discord but would not have led to

a split in the church. However, the split brought up conservative feelings among the

Holy Trinity congregation and it returned to conducting services in Slavonic.

Like the CYS controversy, the restoration controversy split the community,

and with it split families. Whereas the CYS split occurred over the clash between

religious and secular life, the restoration issue was rooted in the very nature and

history o f the religion. Those who were in favor o f restoration were branded heretics.

Brothers and sisters, uncles and nephews became enemies. In 1985. a section was

created at the far end o f the cemetery on Hannon Road by the Holy Trinity

congregation, which no longer wanted to be buried near their one-time co-religionists.

Almost 20 years have passed since the schism, yet emotions still run high and many

families remain divided. On Easter morning around 3 a.m. when the congregations

have completed their processions around the church and they are standing outside

completing the Resurrection services, one church's bells begin to ring to announce that

Christ has risen, and heads in the other congregation turn to listen.

2.10. Old Believer Communities in the Eastern U.S. Today

A ll o f the Old Believer communities in the eastern United States have

undergone language shift from Russian to English. Only the oldest members o f each

community still maintain some proficiency in Russian and Slavonic. Despite the

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. aging o f the congregations and the awareness that the younger generations have

stopped coming to church because they do not understand Slavonic, only one

congregation has changed the language o f church services to English, and only it has

seen the return o f its children and grandchildren. In no community is there a

movement to revive or active interest in reviving Russian.

2.10.1. Marianna, Pennsylvania Today

Now, in 2002, the Marianna church is barely functioning. Following the last

nastavnik in 1979. the daughters of former nastavnik Sidor (Charles) Phillips took

over the responsibility o f leading the services. The parishioners are in their 70s and

80s and many live in other towns. Services are held very infrequently, depending

mostly on the health o f the leaders and congregation, which "numbers in the tens on a

good day." Their numbers increase on the most important holidays (Easter and

Christmas), due only to the temporary visits by their children and grandchildren.

Important services which must be performed by a nastavnik (baptisms, marriages, and

funerals, with the first two rare at best and the latter greatly predominating) are

conducted by Fr. Larry Evanoff of the Old Believer Church of the Holy Trinity, who

makes the two-hour drive from Erie. The welfare o f the congregation was further hurt

by the recent death o f one o f the Phillips daughters.

2.10.2. Millville, New Jersey Today

Like the Marianna community, the M illv ille community is aging. M illville,

however, has a nastavnik. Fr. Afanas Makarow. son of the last nastavnik in Marianna.

The general trend in all four communities is that the first U.S.-bom generation

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. becomes more prosperous (on the foundation laid by their parents), and the second

generation receives a full education which often includes college and thus looks to

larger cities for employment, thus draining the community of its youth and their future

offspring. Only the Church of the Nativity in Erie has been able to fight this trend to

some extent.

The descendants o f the Suvalki Old Believers in Erie today often say that the

people in M illville speak (or spoke) "beautiful" or "real" Russian,130 and point out that

they come from Riga, not Suvalki.131 Since the Rigans in M illv ille came to the United

States several decades later, there are still some original immigrants, unlike in Erie and

Marianna. When the older generation of Erie Old Believers are asked questions about

the specifics o f Russian which they cannot answer, they often recommend asking

someone from M illville.

2.10.3. Hamtramck (Detroit), Michigan Today

The community today is aging and shrinking today. Attendance on Christmas

and Easter is still healthy (30-100). but regular Sunday matins are attended by 15-23

and Saturday vespers by 15 at most. With Fr. Fiodorow in failing health and assistant

Anna Golubov reaching age 88. the future leadership o f the congregation is unclear.13'

13,1 This can be interpreted as "Standard Russian." 131 This is only partially true, since the founding of the community predates the arrival of the Rigans. Ij: Information on the Detroit church was furnished in phone interviews with Helen Burlockoff-Spakoff on 24 March 2002 and Anne Zuravleff-Golubov on 9 June 2002.

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2.10.4.1. The Church of the Nativity (Erie) Today

The Church o f the Nativity is flourishing. Its success is widely attributed to its

switch to English (made possible by its monumental initiative to translate its pre-

Nikonian texts into English) which has enabled the congregation to fully understand

the long services and the religion itself. With the shift to English, many young people

returned to the church. In 1986 at Easter time, the Old Orthodox Prayerbook

(Drevnepravoslavnyj Molitvennik )—with parallel Slavonic and English texts—was

published by the Church o f the Nativity. It is now in its second edition.133

The Church of the Nativity's affiliation with the Synod of Bishops Abroad also

makes attendance o f other churches (while away from the Erie church) possible,

though the priests of the Church of the Nativity insist that their parishioners only

receive communion at their church.

W ith the restoration o f the full sacraments, the church became less foreign to

outsiders who were looking for a different or more disciplined religion. It experienced

a wave of converts which continues today. Those who now take communion on

Sundays say that they cannot describe their joy or imagine life without it. English

accounts fo r at least 80% o f the services, with Slavonic representing about 20%. A

photograph in the recent church directory shows over 60 children. During Easter and

Christmas services the church is Filled with several hundred parishioners. At Easter.

1-5 The translation committee consists of Fr. German Ciuba (see 2.9.1). Fr. Pimen Simon, and Seraphim Wing, a convert to the Old Belief.

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year and last year celebrated 25 years as the spiritual leader o f the Church o f the

Nativity.

It is important to note that there are some factions in some communities (in

North America and abroad) which are interested in regaining the priesthood (or at least

in studying how the majority of the Church of the Nativity came to its decision). The

Church o f the Nativity is currently translating into Russian the minutes o f the church

meetings from the time o f the debate over regaining the priesthood, which contain the

stances and arguments for and against. These translations w ill then be made available

to interested parties.134

Russian heritage in the Church o f the Nativity is largely diluted. While

perhaps desirable out o f tradition or nostalgia, it is not a priority for the church

leadership or fo r young people. The Church o f the N ativity— with its renewal (some

might say reinvention) and thriving youth population— is. however, faced with a

serious problem: there is very little to keep young people in Erie.

Most young people in the Old Believer community go to college, usually out

of town. At college, they often meet mates who are not Old Believers. In the best

scenario, when they get married their spouses convert, but it seems rare that they stay

in Erie to live. work, and raise a fam ily. Those who come back to Erie after college

often have d ifficulty finding suitable jobs to match their training. Some stay and take

1JJ It is worthy o f note that these translations into Russian are being done by one of the members o f the Fifth Street church (see 2 .9 .1) who attends services at the Church o f the Nativity.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. any job that they find; others leave in frustration after a few years. Erie city leadership

seems uninterested in attracting young people or enticing them to stay in the city.

W hile it is home to four colleges, it loses the students that it trains to more dynamic

cities like Philadelphia or Cleveland. It seems happier to advertise itself as a place to

retire rather than a place to raise a young family.

2.10.4.2. The Church of the Holy Trinity (Erie) Today

The Church of the Holy Trinity is small and aging. After the split, it was given

$75,000 by the Church o f the Nativity toward the building o f a church. Donors from

outside Erie (from other congregations, from out-of-state members, and from other

supporters) responded with generous contributions. Most o f the members have

reached or are nearing retirement age. There are few young people, except at

Christmas and Easter when families return to Erie. The services are still held

exclusively in Slavonic. Fr. Larry Evanoff is 88 years old, but he remains active and

driven. He often makes the two-hour journey by car to Marianna to perform funerals

fo r the congregation at St. Nicholas that has no nastavnik.

The regaining o f the priesthood—and to a lesser extent the switch to

English—has been an explosive issue with other traditionally bespopovtsy

communities. A ll o f the other Old Believer communities in the eastern United States

are bespopovtsy and regard the regaining o f the full sacraments as heresy and a sign o f

Antichrist at work. According to most bespopovtsy. once lost the fu ll sacraments can

never be regained. Many congregants in these communities see Fr. Pimen Simon as

evil and call him a "Nikonian" (or worse), and refuse to have formal contact with the

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religious ties with the Marianna and Detroit Old Believer congregations.

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DATA COLLECTION

3. Data Collection

In order to understand the complex interaction o f the factors which determine

language maintenance and shift, one must gather extensive information about the

speech community and the greater community in which it exists. As seen in section

1.3. even an abridged list o f these factors is very long.

Fora complete understanding o f a speech community and its language, the

sociolinguist studying language shift must often become a historian. In the absence of

scholarly literature (or even reliable local information) on a community, this historical

research is crucial, though extremely time-consuming, for an accurate and meaningful

analysis. Such is the case with researching the Erie Old Believer community and the

other Old Believer communities in the eastern United States. There are several

traditional and non-traditional sources for such information, as well as many ways to

combine these sources in order to yield useful information. The sources used in the

present research fall into the categories o f published materials (3.1). records and

archives (3.2). personal interviews (3.3). and language use and attitude survey (3.4).

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The amount of information in print about the Erie community is very small,

and even less exists about its sister communities in Marianna. M illville , and

Hamtramck.

3.1.1. Scholarly Literature

As discussed in 1.2.3.1, the amount of academic scholarship on the Erie Old

Believers is very limited.

3.1.2. Popular Media

The Erie media has had a mild fascination with the Old Believer community

since the building of its church in 1919. Until recently, the Old Believer community

had the distinction o f being the largest and most organized group o f Russians in Erie.

The New Rite Russians who arrived at the same time (the turn o f the 20th century) did

not coalesce into a community: they largely blended into the American population and

joined non-nationally-based Orthodox churches ( if they remained Orthodox at all).

For a time, the Russian New Rite Church o f Our Lady’s Nativity (see 2.9.1) received

mentions alongside the Old Believers at Christmas and Easter in the Erie Times-News,

Erie's major newspaper, but the church's presence was not strong and did not last long.

The new wave of Russian-speaking immigrants currently taking place (see 2.9.1) still

has not become an organized and visible community.

The Erie Old Believer community achieved brief national attention in 1935

when National Geographic printed two photographs of Old Believers (one of three

men. the other o f four children) with short captions (La Gorce 1935). The

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pictures reported, the children were told by the photographer. "Do you have any

Russian clothes? W ell, go put them on."135

Little information on the Erie Old Believers' history in Europe or their early

history in Erie is found in newspaper articles, and most articles today recycle

information from past articles (see 1.4.1). Only obituaries yield useful information for

fam ily histories and genealogical connections.

3.2. Records and Archives

3.2.1. Establishing Old Belief Heritage

In using public records and archive sources, the most significant and daunting

problem is establishing who is and who is not an Old Believer. Some Russians in the

neighborhood were New Rite Orthodox or Jewish. Some Old Believers had Polish-

sounding names (from their time in Polish-language environments in Europe, from

bilingual passports, or from employer whim: Morosky, Patasky, Liscow); others had

adopted or been given non-Russian names and surnames (M ike. Fred. Sam. Mary.

Catherine. Martha: McDonson, Peterson, Evans, Lee. Simon. Sullivan. Alex. Burke.

Davis. Lawrence, Marks. Morris. Smith).

Church records (birth/baptism records, confession records, marriage records,

death records, parish meeting minutes, and donation records) are the most reliable

means o f identifying Old Believers, especially in the early days before exogamy

135 The clothes that they wore were mostly "dress clothes" of their parents (Kay Tom lin-Darling, personal interview. 14 November 1999).

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person o f Old Believer heritage to the church. Some ultra-conservative families

limited their participation in the main congregation, since some o f its members were

not as strict about observances as they were.136 Some lived significant parts o f their

lives in cities or towns that did not have an Old Believer church to which to belong.

Some died before an Old Believer church or cemetery was founded. Others left the

church over religious or personal disagreements (see 2.5.5 and 2.9.5) and prayed at

home. Some left the Old Belief for other religions or no religion at all.

Full membership in the CYS Club was another early indicator of Old Belief

heritage (see 2.5.5). as was burial in an Old Believer cemetery. Even these methods

fail in later years as converts increased in numbers

Some people not listed in the sources mentioned above can be identified as Old

Believers through family relations or villages of origin. For others, an intersection of

name, native language, place o f origin, residence, and association is needed.

Once an individual or family has been identified as being of Old Believer

heritage, a vast array o f records becomes available as more in-depth sources o f

information.

IJft This is often an issue in conservative religions. There is a continuum o f practices and piety among members or congregations o f a religion, with the extremes accusing each other of not adhering to the guidelines of the religion. Among Old Believers, especially in European history, conservative factions regularly break away to form their owntolki 'persuasions, branches'. If they are big and powerful enough, they survive (cf. Pomortsy). If they are small or ultra-radical, they often cannot sustain themselves and either disappear or merge into another group or back into the original (e.g.. Fedoseevtsy. Netovtsy: see Bulgakov 1994).

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Public documents are another source of substantial historical information on

the community. Censuses, city directories, naturalization records, passenger arrival

records, and local newspapers provide a wealth of information, though a very complex

system of sifting and analysis is required in order to extract this information.

3.2.2.1. The United States Census

General census "macrodata" (the statistics which are compiled soon after the

enumeration) provide little useful information, since no distinction is made between

Old Believers and non-Old Believers, and since, especially in the early censuses, no

distinction is made between ethnic Russians and Russian Jews. Belarusians.

Lithuanians. Poles. Ukrainians, etc. who lived in the Russian Empire and later in the

Soviet Union. The country-level general information is useful only for seeing the

influx in immigration from Eastern Europe. The state-level information shows this

immigration's entry into Pennsylvania and general settlement patterns. City-level

census information gives an indication o f the number o f Russians and the percentage

o f Russian speakers and birth origin, but again this is o f little use since no indication

o f their origin is made.

On the other hand, census "microdata" (the actual entries for individuals, the

detailed enumeration filled out by a census-taker) are extremely useful. Their

drawback lies in the fact that they are only released 72 years after the census is taken.

Therefore, the 1900, 1910. and 1920 censuses were available for this study. (The

1930 census was released in A pril o f 2002. thus too late for inclusion.)

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The census microdata from 1900-1920 provide information such as address,

useful for calculating population density; household units, showing social cohesion,

contact with both Old Believers and non-Old Believers, and household size; relation to

the head o f the household, showing fam ily size, family structure, and extended fam ily

members; names, revealing linguistic data, genealogical data, and degree o f

assimilation; ages, indicative of family structure and age of independence; marital

status and number of years in marriage, revealing marriage trends, trends in the

presence or absence o f spouse and fam ily, and patterns in immigration; number o f

children bom and number surviving (1910 only), an indicator of family size and infant

mortality; schooling and literacy, showing education level, literacy, and educational

trends in the U.S.; country o f birth (although this can be misleading, since distinctions

were often not made or were made irregularly between ethnic Russia. Russian Poland,

and Russian Lithuania, all being called "Russia"); the "mother tongue" (i.e.. native

language) o f the individual and both parents;'3 occupation and type o f employment,

useful regarding employment trends, employment networks, financial stability and

potential; and employment status (whether a hired worker, owner o f a business, or

self-employed), indicating degree o f prosperity, mobility, assimilation, social and

economic status.

1,7 In conjunction with country o f birth, native language o f the individual and parents can be used to identify native Russians, and the Suvalki Old Believers can be found at the intersection of Russian speakers and immigrants from Russian Poland, although there were non-Old Believer ethnic Russians in Russian Poland. At the same time, the fact that the mother tongue o f any child bom in the U .S - regardless of linguistic ability was listed with "English” as its mother tongue, is very problematic.

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Naturalization records are an invaluable source o f information on the original

immigrants. Several stages o f paperwork are created by the naturalization process, the

most useful being the "Preliminary Form for Petition fo r Naturalization" and the

"Declaration of Intention."138 These forms provide very detailed information on

foreign origins (names o f place o f birth, last place o f residence abroad, and sometimes

relatives in those places). As seen in 2.2.1. this information can often be the missing

link to earlier history and points o f origin. These forms also identify other names used

by the individual. This is extremely important in light of the fact that most Old

Believers had several names (Russian baptismal name. Russian nickname derived

from baptismal name. Russian nickname used in fam ily. Polonized forms o f Russian

names. Anglicized form o f Russian name: English first name, derivatives o f English

first name, nicknames derived from English first names, nicknames independent of all

other names: name given by an employer or other official which had no connection to

Russian or English name: misspellings o f any of these). And this only for first names:

the same was true o f surnames. Naturalization forms give birth dates not only fo r the

individual, but also for the spouse and children. Year o f birth is one o f the most

crucial pieces of information about an individual, especially in a community in which

several people can have the same name.139

IjM The actual certificate of naturalization provides no real information beyond the achievement of citizenship and thus change in status. L'l‘ In the Hannon Road cemetery, there are 32 exact name matches between 2 people (e.g.. Catherine Daniloff. Frank Morris. Fred Petroff. Samuel Simon). 2 exact name matches between 3 people (John

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as previous applications fo r naturalization, passenger manifests, marriage records,

birth certificates o f children, deeds, censuses, and city directories.

Naturalization forms can be used to study social and kinship networks:

families, marriage alliances, arrival patterns, internal migration patterns, close

friendships, employment, and citizenship sponsorship. They can also give information

about other individuals (spouses, children, sponsors, relatives), such as date o f birth,

place o f birth, date o f marriage, maiden names, addresses, occupations, relation to

individual, length o f acquaintance, and citizenship status.

3.2.2.3. City Directories

Erie city directories from the first half of the 20th century have proven to be a

valuable source o f information on the Old Believer community and the city as a

whole. Although they are notorious fo r misspelling names (Pancroo for Pancerev.

Gilimuszn for Klimushen . Zeuf for Zuew)'*' and they only list owners of a house or

only heads of households (or sometimes only one or two heads o f household out of

four or five in a house), they provide another way o f verifying facts. They also can

help track movements o f people between censuses. A few features are more reliable,

such as business listings or social clubs and churches. Under the listings for

Evans. Michael Petroff land one Mike Petroff|). and several more double and multiple matches for variants like Catherine/Katherine/Kathryn/Katie or Anna/Anne/Ann. Some were sons and daughters, some were uncles and nephews, and some were unrelated coincidences. Some even shared the same birth or death dates. ,JH Often, misspellings were the results of a director} compiler's attempt at phonetic spelling. Some of these show that spellings o f names and surnames were in flux, but many are simply errors.

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of spouse. The directories also give a window into the changing ethnic make-up of the

neighborhood and city.

3.2.3. Semi-public and Private Documents

Ethnic social club records—like those o f the CYS Club—can show heritage

(full membership is extended only to those o f Old Believer heritage), social networks,

church affiliation (early members were sometimes expelled from the Church o f the

Nativity and joined Sava Legenzoffs church |see 2.7.6|), social activity, ethnic

interaction, and roles o f leadership.

Perhaps the most important records are church records (birth/baptism records,

confession records, marriage records, death records, parish meeting minutes, and

donation records). As discussed in 3.2.1. these records can be used to identify heritage

and affiliation o f individuals and families. They also provide valuable information in

the form of comments and marginalia: connections to other families or other cities

("from Brooklyn." "from Kaunas province"), personal conduct and behavior

("w orldly, shaved"), kinship ("son o f Mike and Anna"), original surnames ( Kovalev"

Cabaloff: Jakovlev" - Yokoff: Vorob'ev" - Petroff: Vasil'ev" - Wasiloff), samples of

writing in Russian (up until the 1940s). roles o f certain nastavniks. causes o f death

("accidentally shot himself." "died from old age”), and reasons for exceptional burial

("drowned," "not baptized." "illegally conceived"). They also provide interesting

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for Onisifor ), and about the domains of usage o f English, Russian, and Church

Slavonic.

Cemetery gravestones provide yet another layer of information. Not only do

they provide birth and death dates, they also give samples o f written Russian and

Church Slavonic, and can provide the material for many linguistic and sociolinguistic

analyses. Dialects can be studied, both as separate entities and as victims o f

standardization on the model o f a literary language. Orthographic systems and scripts

can also be studied (interesting for both Russian and Church Slavonic among the Old

Believers). Many types o f sociolinguistic analysis are possible, especially as related to

maintenance and shift: I) the use o f Russian and Church Slavonic as ethnic and

religious emblems of heritage and membership: 2) emblematic use of language: 3)

trends in language maintenance, bilingualism, and language shift: 4) language

proficiency and attrition: and 5) language and style mixing.

Personal correspondences with relatives in Europe shed light on literacy,

dialect variation, kinship, family history, and church history. They can even be used

to track migration o f related groups in Europe. Unfortunately, very few such letters

have survived (see 2.5.9).

3.2.4. Combining Sources

Alone, the abovementioned sources may seem to be o f little use. But when

combined and "triangulated.” they can yield a surprising amount of useful information

for reconstructing an early language environment, such as

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This information is often more reliable than spontaneous recollections and estimates

given by members o f the community. When possible, however, these conclusions

should be shared with members of the community for reactions and verification in

order to avoid gross inaccuracies and false statements.

3.3. Personal Interviews

During the period o f archival research, initial acquaintances were made with

members of the Old Believer community and their non-Old Believer neighbors. These

acquaintances recommended other contacts in the community: the oldest members in

the community (belonging to the first U.S.-bom generation) and members of the first

and largest Old Believer families in Erie. In this way. a network of contacts was

established, and the process was repeated as new contacts were needed. As the first

stage o f archival work neared its end. personal interviews began.

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Initial contact was made by telephone. Information was provided about the

nature and goals o f the research ("to study the history and language o f the Old

Believer community in Erie") and the person was asked if he/she was interested in

participating. By and large, people were very helpful and enthusiastic, though

understandably cautious at first. As word o f the research spread, such calls became

much easier. The interview either continued on the telephone or later in an arranged

face-to-face meeting. This first meeting consisted of questions about family history:

names o f parents, grandparents, children; birth place and year o f each; migration

history o f the family within the United States; region o f origin o f immigrant relatives

and years of immigration; blood and marital connections to other Old Believer

families in Erie and in other Old Believer communities; and past and present use o f

Russian in the family.

In order to assess basic proficiency in Russian, the subject was asked about

his/her knowledge o f Russian and was asked to say a few basic words and phrases. If

he/she expressed interest, a language interview was arranged for a later date. The

person was also asked to suggest other people who might be interested in participating

in the study. The initial interview served as an opportunity to become comfortable

with the interviewer, which in turn generally reduced the amount o f language anxiety

experienced during the language interview.

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Language interviews were conducted on visits subsequent to family history

interviews. As a rule, the longer the subject knew the interviewer, the less language

production anxiety was felt by the subject and the less time it took to recover from

memory blocks during the interview. Language interviews were audio taped with the

subject's permission. A Sony TCS-580V analog tape recorder with a Sony ECM-

MS907 Electret condenser microphone were used to record the interviews on Maxell

LX II cassette tapes. Attempts to use a headset microphone were rejected on every

occasion.

Interviews usually began with the elicitation o f "comfort words." such as the

words for foods, kinship terms, and church-related words that a semi-speaker would

know. If the subject hesitated or could not produce basic words even with prompting,

the interviewer used a slow, basic approach in the language interview. If the subject

excitedly began using words and showed a definite command o f more advanced

words, the interviewer used a more aggressive approach in the language interview.

From these first words, the subject was led into more structured word lists, although

words and subject areas were allowed to be covered as they came up in the flow of

conversation in order to avoid imposed formality. The lost benefits of consistency

were made up for by productivity which came from speaker comfort.

The items in the word lists (see Appendix B) were grouped by major categories

(food, clothing, kinship, etc.) and sometimes by subcategories (drinks, meats, dairy

products, utensils). The word lists which were used drew from well-known word lists

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on Vaux and Cooper (1999), Murdock et al. (1982), and other words that were specific

to the community's history and culture. Within each category, words were listed in a

relative order of frequency (mother before aunt before godmother). On occasion,

more difficu lt words were queried, both out o f necessity (as parts o f a semantic

category) and to act as indicators of how deeply the interviewer could probe. If a

subject began to experience anxiety or could not produce several words in a row, a

basic word was given or a digression in English was made to re-establish confidence.

If it became obvious that a subject could not produce the more difficult items in a

category, a new category was begun. If a subject could not produce even basic words

in a category, a new category was chosen. The proficiency o f the subject, therefore,

dictated the order o f words, the number of items queried in each categories, and the

number o f categories covered.

Almost all subjects experienced mild stress and fatigue during the language

interviews; most commented that it had been many years since they had spoken

Russian or used many o f these words. Digressions in English were provided at regular

intervals to give the subject time to rest. If a subject grew visibly tired, he or she was

asked if a break was necessary or if he or she would like to stop for the day.

Digressions in English seemed like a welcomed rest, and it gave subjects a chance to

elaborate or reminisce.

If subjects seemed relatively proficient and capable of holding a conversation,

spontaneous speech was attempted. Few speakers were able to immediately begin a

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. conversation in Russian. The approach developed was to activate their memories with

individual words which they were likely to know. Once a modicum of confidence that

they indeed still remembered such words was instilled, an attempt was made to

stimulate emotion-bound memories by asking questions such as, "What kinds of things

did your father always say?" "Can you imitate your brother speaking Russian ?" What

did adults say when children squirmed or misbehaved in church?" When it was

determined that an emotional connection had been made, the language o f the interview

was switched to Russian and the subjects were asked questions that they would be able

to answer, such as "W hat is your name?" "Do you have any brothers?" "What was

your father like? Describe him."

For certain enthusiastic speakers, role-playing situations were created, such as

a visit from a friend or a cooking session. Following oral proficiency testing

techniques, the interview would start with the simple and familiar. The level of

difficulty was gradually increased until they experienced linguistic breakdown, at

which time the d ifficulty was lowered to a comfortable level, then raised again until

breakdown occurred, and the process was repeated until a proficiency level was

determined. The interview then continued, this time for content rather than for

proficiency assessment.

Before the language interview began, the interviewer explained to the subject

that he could not provide or give hints for words that the subject could not remember

or did not know. During the interview, the interviewer recorded a list o f such words

as they were encountered. If time permitted, toward the end o f the language interview,

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the words from the list were read to the subject to determine if he/she now

remembered the Russian equivalent. I f the subject recalled the word, it was recorded;

if not. a variety o f words was offered to the subject (the Standard Russian word, the

Suvalki Russian word, a related word, and/or an unrelated decoy Russian word, in

random order) in order to jog the subject's memory. The use of the decoy word was an

invaluable tool for testing comprehension and for testing rare words for the lexical

study.

A t the end o f the language interviews, participants were asked for the names of

language authorities in the community and the names o f other members in the

community who might be able to speak at a similar level.

The language interviews served several purposes: 1) to establish the

proficiency of individual speakers. 2) to corroborate self-reporting of proficiency in

the language and use survey. 3) to establish the dialect or dialects spoken by members

of the community (to thus identify region of origin and linguistic homogeneity or

heterogeneity, as well as to compile a dialect description), and 4) to build a lexicon

and corpus for future analysis.

3.3.3. Continuing Contact

After the interviews, contact was maintained with most subjects for purposes

of fact verification, help with genealogies, and collecting other materials (personal

letters, newspaper clippings, fam ily photographs, etc.) related to the research.

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The results of the family history interviews are incorporated into Chapter 2.

The results o f the dialect analysis are the basis for Chapter 4.

3.4. Language Use and Attitude Survey

The third major means o f data collection was a language use and attitude

survey (Ohio State University Protocol #01B0l 19).

3.4.1. Goals

The goals o f the survey are to assess past, present, and future language use in

order to determine systematically the domains of use (i.e.. who, what, when, where,

why, to what extent) and attitudes concerning the utility, prestige, beauty, and worth o f

each o f the languages, individual profiles can then be compared to those o f others, o f

similar and different generations, birth orders, and families. The overall goal is to

assess the "health" of each language (to again evoke the biological metaphor) and the

likelihood o f maintenance o f each.

3.4.2. General Description

The language use and attitude survey is a 28-page questionnaire consisting of

over 650 questions. Because o f the length o f the survey, most questions were o f the

type "check or circle the most appropriate answer": only very rarely were open-ended

questions used. Respondents reported that it took one-and-a-half to two hours to

complete. The patterns o f possible answers were kept uniform with "positive"

responses ("yes"/"always"/"strongly agree'V'very important") on the left and

"negative" responses ("no"/"never"/"strongly disagree'V'not important") on the right.

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to avoid response bias, uniformity was chosen for this survey in light o f its extreme

length.

The survey was based on questionnaires designed for and used in the works of

Gal (1979), Dorian (1981), Silva-Corvalan (1994), and others. The difficult decision

to use an extended survey was based on the facts that I) this was the first and would

most likely be the only survey o f its kind or any kind to be administered in this era. 2)

a very close personal relationship had been established with many o f the members of

the community during the three years of fieldwork which would hopefully greatly

increase the response rate, and 3) this research effort had the support o f the church

leaders. Conducting such a long survey without one or more o f these would have

resulted in a very low response rate.

3.4.3. Distribution of the Survey

The distribution o f the survey took place over the course o f five months from

mid-July until mid-December. Some surveys were distributed later by special request

of participants. The participant pool was defined as "people of Suvalki Old Believer

heritage and their descendants” in order to include those who no longer adhered to the

Old Belief or who were no longer affiliated with a specific Old Believer congregation.

The survey was distributed in a number o f ways. When possible, the survey was

hand-delivered and explained in detail to the potential participants. Less desirable (but

often very effective) was distribution by a handful of members from the community

138

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. who avidly supported the project. The least desirable was mass distribution at

gatherings such as church functions and fam ily gatherings, where there was minimal

one-on-one contact with the possible subjects.

Surveys were distributed to multiple generations w ithin families, with the goal

being at least three generations if possible. Although this goal was unfortunately not

met in many cases, it was worthwhile, and successful attempts yielded very interesting

results.

The focus of distribution was on the two Old Believer churches in Erie, but

surveys were also distributed or sent to people in Erie who no longer attended an Old

Believer church, or relatives no longer residing in Erie or the state o f Pennsylvania.

The survey packets were composed of a cover letter which explained the

reasons for the survey and the research in general; a consent form which was to be

signed, dated, and returned with the survey; and a pre-addressed mailing envelope

which held one copy o f the survey. A copy o f the survey has been included in

Appendix C.

3.4.4. Collection of Completed Surveys

When possible, the completed surveys were collected by hand. In some

instances, the surveys were returned by people who helped in their distribution. The

remaining surveys were returned by mail.

3.4.5. Structure of the Survey

The survey consists o f seven numbered sections. Section I ("Personal

Information and History") collects personal information on the individual for

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. demographic purposes. It contains questions on residence, general and language

education, language history, religious affiliation, friends and neighbors, personal

interests, and travel experience. Section 11 ("Family Information and History") gathers

genealogical and language information on parents, grandparents, and spouse. Section

HI ("Personal Identity") examines religious and ethnic identity of the participant.

Section IV ("Community Identity") examines the participant's perception of his/her

church's and community's ethnic and religious identity. Section V ("Past and Present

Use") investigates patterns o f language use in the intersections o f I ) language

(Russian, Church Slavonic, English). 2) time (past, present, future), 3) speakers (self,

family, friends, neighbors), and 4) domains (home, school, work, church, community).

It also explores fam ilial ties to Europe and the availability o f Russian-language media.

Section VI ("Proficiency Perception") solicits perceptions of linguistic proficiency in

Russian. Church Slavonic, and English o f self and others. Section VII ("Language

Attitudes") investigates attitudes toward Russian. Church Slavonic, and English. The

section begins with individual subsections on speaker/language attitudes for I ) people

with some knowledge o f Russian. 2) those with some knowledge o f Church Slavonic,

and 3) those who know only English. The remainder o f the section explores general

language use and attitudes, future use o f Russian, receptiveness to organized

propagation o f Russian, language learning by children, differentiation o f Russian and

Church Slavonic, confidence in speaking Russian, perceptions o f Suvalki Russian, and

language pride.

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The data from completed surveys were entered into a database created in

FileMaker Pro 5.0. This allowed the data to be stored in electronic form and easily

analyzed. It also enabled the linking o f data collected elsewhere (European origins,

family migration history, life span of parents and siblings, etc.) held in similar

databases.

3.4.7. Response Rate

Approximately 250 surveys were distributed, and 50 were completed and

returned. The overwhelming majority o f respondents belong to the first U.S.-bom

generation—people who considered that they "have something to report." Normally

such a low response rate would invalidate the results. The low response rate o f this

survey—rather than being a cause fo r invalidation —was an indication o f the very late

stage o f language shift.

A friend and colleague specializing in language maintenance and shift

characterized the survey as "the survey that |a language maintenance and shift

researcher| would want to give if they thought anyone would fill it out." The survey is

optimistically ambitious. It probes in depth the past, present, and future: a variety o f

domains; speaking, listening, reading, and w riting: practices, attitudes, and

perceptions: and the individual, fam ily, and friends. A t the very least it provides a full

inventory o f questions that a sociolinguist might choose to ask when designing a

survey.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Due to its length, this survey would not be ideal for research on early- or

intermediate-stage language shift, unless the researcher had a very good rapport with

the individuals of the community (or offered compensation incentives for completion

o f such a long survey). In this study, which has been characterized above as "salvage

linguistics," it was used as a salvage tool to collect historical and contemporary data.

Length, however, was often not the main reason for failure to fill out the

survey. Most people reported that they stopped during the family history section

because they did not know much o f the information, intending to look up the

information, then never returned to it. In hindsight, the queried information could

have been limited to the names o f parents and the rest could have been obtained by a

separate, later form or by other genealogical means.

One o f the most serious failures was the lack o f response from the Church of

the Holy Trinity on Third Street. Although the nastavnik supported the effort and

agreed to distribute the survey packets, only a few completed surveys were returned.

Some consolation can be found in the fact that many of the families were nevertheless

represented, by family members in the Church o f the Nativity.

The overwhelming majority o f members o f the second, third, and later U.S.-

born generations in the Erie Old Believer community did not acquire Suvalki Russian.

Some learned basic words and phrases at a very early age (often from their

grandparents while they were still alive) and report being able to "speak" Russian up

until age seven or eight; some o f these still remember words, though they are often

unsure of pronunciation and meaning. The third generation acquired nothing beyond

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. miscellaneous words and sometimes short stock phrases. It is fo r this reason that the

second and third (and later) generations did not fill out or return their surveys. When

asked why, most responded, "I don't know and Russian at all, so I didn't see any point

in filling it out." Although all surveys were distributed with an oral and written

explanation/clarification that "never" and "does not apply" are valid and valuable

answers, few were convinced by this. A small number from these later generations

responded, but they were people who had extensive (Standard) Russian language

training in college, thus not considered speakers o f Suvalki Russian.

Thus, rather than being a statistical indicator, the survey becomes another

history collection tool and. in the best instances, an indicator o f usage patterns among

the oldest members of the community.

3.4.8. Analysis of the Data

Analysis of the survey data has been integrated into Chapters 2.4. and 5.

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A DESCRIPTION OF THE DIALECT OF THE ERIE RUSSIAN OLD BELIEVERS

4.1. Introduction

The follow ing description o f the Erie Old Believers' language is not meant to

be a comprehensive dialect description, since that would fall beyond the bounds of this

work. Rather, it is a brief, contrastive description meant to illustrate the differences

between their language and standard Russian. It is this difference which they perceive

(and which is pointed out by Russian-speaking visitors) that lies at the root of their

negative language attitude.

4.1.1. The Notion of Standard Language

In his book on French and Creole in Louisiana. Valdman (1997: 17-18)

discusses the problem o f the terminology used to denote the varieties o f languages

involved in his study, focusing mainly on the standard/non-standard dichotomy. What

exactly is Standard French '? Is it the French o f educated speakers in France

(Academic French)? Is it the French o f its capital (Parisian French) ? Is it the French

o f major cities (Metropolitan French)? Is it the sum o f the standard and nonstandard

varieties of Metropolitan French encompassing literary French, slang, jargons.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. regionalisms, and archaisms (Referential French)? Is it the sum of literary varieties of

French spoken around the world (International French)?

The standard/non-standard dichotomy plays a very important role in the

language situation in the Erie Old Believer community. Almost all o f its members

describe the Russian used by its heritage members as being sub -standard Russian or a

mixture o f Russian and Polish. Over the decades they have taken this to heart and

have grown ashamed o f their variant o f Russian.

4.1.2. The Linguistic History of the Erie Old Believers

Many of the historical Old Believer communities o f present-day Lithuania and

Belarus— like the Suvalkans— had their linguistic and cultural origins in the Pskov

region (see Iwaniec. Nemcenko et al.. Grek-Pabisowa. and others) and therefore

shared many linguistically "genetic" similarities, although each was influenced by the

various local languages (i.e.. Lithuanian. Belarusian. Polish. Ukrainian). At the turn of

the 20th century, there were other (non-Old Believer) Russians living in Erie, although

it is still difficult to conclude how many there were, what their proportion was relative

to the number of Old Believers, or from what regions in Europe they came without

further research. There were also Erie Old Believers who did not come from Suvalki

proper and who thus did not speak exactly the same dialect. When asked in language

interviews, people often respond that there were Erie Old Believers who spoke a

noticeably different dialect o f Russian, but no one living today can characterize these

differences in any detail (for instance, whether these dialects were influenced by

Lithuanian. Belarusian, or Ukrainian).

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Other informants, when asked, remarked that there were Old Believers who

arrived at the same time as their parents who spoke a "better type" o f Russian; this

seems to correspond at least partially with the educational level o f the speakers within

families. Specific details have been largely lost from the collective memory of

members of the Erie community, but some details are still retrievable through

genealogical and archival work in Europe.

There were other Russian speakers who arrived in later periods. In the 1930s

and 1940s. the Old Believer community in M illv ille , New Jersey, was founded, largely

by Old Believers from Riga. Latvia, who spoke a markedly different variety of

Russian. It is often identified by Erieites as being "proper Russian." If this is a correct

observation, it is perhaps due in part to the centuries o f close contact between the Riga

community and the Old Believer centers in Russia proper, namely Preobrazhenskoe

kladbishche in Moscow—contact historically not enjoyed (and still not enjoyed) by

the Old Believers of Suvalki. The East Coast Old Believer communities had

considerable contact, including the annual meetings o f the four communities and

social contact (talking, dating, marriage, and the resulting fam ily ties). The Erie

community thus came in linguistic contact w ith the Rigan Old Believers from

M illville who were much more recent arrivals from Europe.

The late 1940s and 1950s brought another wave of Russians to Erie, most often

called the "DPs" (from the political term "displaced persons") by the Erie Old

Believers. These New Rite Orthodox Russians—most from educated families fleeing

persecution by the Soviets—founded the Church of Our Lady's Nativity on E. Fifth

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Street (only a few blocks away from the Front Street church)—which survived for

several decades. Although it still exists, it has suffered from the departure o f its first

U.S.-bom generation to other cities in search of employment. It now has a small,

elderly congregation which has not had a priest for several years. Father Pimen o f the

Front Street church performs services occasionally fo r them on major holidays; some

o f its members attend services at the Front Street church, although they have not

converted to the Old Rite. This, however, brings them into linguistic contact with the

Russian-speaking Old Believers. When asked who the Russian language authorities

are in the community, many list the "DPs" from the Church o f Our Lady's Nativity. In

one interview, one Old Believer pointed out, "Oh. they talk beautiful Russian, but

they're not like us |not Old Believers|."

The late 20th century also brought increasing short-term contact with Old

Believers from Europe. Several trips have been made by "delegates" from the Old

Believer community in Riga. Often these accompanying visitors do not speak

English, thus forcing the small number of Russian-speaking Erie Old Believers to dust

o ff their Russian.

In relating stories involving the contacts w ith members o f the Church o f Our

Lady's Nativity ("Fifth Street") and with the Rigans, the Erie Old Believers are quick

to make several comments: 1) how much Russian the Erie Old Believers have lost, 2)

how beautifully the others speak. 3) how ashamed the Old Believers are for not being

able to speak Russian better. 4) how embarrassed they are to speak Russian in front o f

these people, and 5) how often they are teased fo r the variety o f Russian they speak.

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Before continuing, it is necessary to clarify a few terms that w ill be used; they

are not meant to be construed as definitions for wide use outside of this study, but

have been designed to fit the language situation in Erie.

• Standard Russian is the language spoken by educated speakers o f Russian.

including both the literary and colloquial Russian o f Russia proper.

• Pskov(ian) Russian is the regional dialect(s) o f the Pskov region, as described

in academic literature, such as the Pskovskij oblastnoj slovar'.

• Erie Suvalki Russian is used in this study as the language o f the Erie Old

Believers. It is the dialect originating among the Russian Old Believers

inhabiting "Suvalki" (Suvalki province: the region encompassing present-

day far northeastern Poland and southern Lithuania), dating from the early

18th century through the first decade o f the 20th century. It intentionally

does not include the language o f non-Old Believer ethnic Russians in this

geographical region or the language o f the Old Believers in Suwatki today.

Words in Erie Suvalki Russian are given here in Latin transliteration since

written Cyrillic forms for the most part do not exist. Again, this term refers

only to the Erie Old Believers.

• Polish, an intentionally vague term, is the language o f Poland proper

regardless o f regional variation; it is set in contrast with the three variants

o f Russian mentioned above.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This sets up the necessary opposition o f non-standard ("Erie Suvalki Russian")

versus standard ("Standard Russian"). The purpose o f establishing this is to identify

those traits of the Russian language of the Erie Old Believers which diverge from

Standard Russian, for it is in these differences that lie at the root o f the prevailing

negative attitude held by the Erie Old Believers toward their variety o f Russian. It is

the sum o f these elements that makes a (negative) impression on those who do not

speak their dialect. Most often the effect o f these differences on speakers o f Standard

Russian is the perception that the Erie Old Believers are speaking a mixture o f Russian

and Polish. The inventory o f these elements constitute the remainder of this chapter,

and the effects o f these are discussed in the chapter's conclusion.

4.1.4. Defense of a Contrastive Description

Valdman (1997: 5-6) warns against presenting only a contrastive description

o f a language variety (in which it is simply compared to the standard variety), since

any speech variety constitutes a self-contained linguistic system. Although I agree

with this attitude and have already completed an analysis o f this system, it is not the

goal o f this study to provide a detailed dialect description. In this work, the features

which diverge from Standard Russian are described, since it is exactly those features

which affect language attitudes in the Erie Russian speech community.

4.1.5. The Status of Russian in Present-day Erie

A t present, the Erie Old Believer community is in the final stages o f language

shift from Russian to English. There are only a handful of elderly semi-speakers, and

only one or two who could be judged as relatively proficient speakers of Suvalki

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Russian. Often, those who are identified as the language authorities in the community

are either later immigrants who were not Old Believers and not from Suvalki, or are

the descendants o f Suvalki Old Believers who have studied Standard Russian in

college. Neither group speaks Suvalki Russian and neither is linguistically (more

specifically: dialectologically) sophisticated—complications which are discussed later.

The speakers o f Suvalki Russian rarely if ever speak Russian in everyday life. As a

matter of fact, it was very common during interviews to be told by the interviewee that

he or she had not spoken Russian in a long time and, in fact, doubted that anyone else

could really speak Russian. Those who do speak it use it as coloring or out of

nostalgia with other older members o f the community: speaking consists of only a few

words or phrases, and sustained Russian speech lasts no longer than a few sentences

before returning to English because o f lack o f comprehension on the part o f the

listener or lack o f practice or linguistic repertoire on the part o f the speaker. Most

speakers are very shy about speaking, require copious amounts o f coaxing, are very

embarrassed by their lack o f fluency, and are ashamed that they cannot speak better.

They are also intimidated by anyone else whom they perceive to speak better than they

do or who fluently speaks a non-Suvalki dialect o f Russian.

During the period between the Old Believers' arrival in the United States

(1880s until 1914) and World War II. Russian came into conflict with English.

English was the default language o f the workplace both in the mines around Pittsburgh

and on the docks and elsewhere in Erie. For the adult immigrants, Russian was their

main language, with English serving as the language o f work and contact w ith their

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. non-Russian neighbors. Their children, however, grew up with Russian in the home.

Russian Church Slavonic in church services, and English everywhere else: in school,

on the playground, in their neighborhoods, and at work. Russian was used in letters to

relatives in Europe, whether written by themselves or by literate friends, and was still

in use at the handful o f Russian establishments (clubs, bars, stores, and bathhouses).

Following World War II, Russian went through a rapid decline in use as

marriages became more ethnically mixed, as English became the dominant language

and lingua franca o f most homes, as the immigrants who came to the United States as

adult speakers o f Russian died, and as people grew in affluence and moved out o f the

Russian neighborhood. W ith only a handful o f second generation speakers and

virtually no third generation (or later) speakers. Suvalki Russian in Erie today has a

very short future.

4.2. The Composition of Suvalki Russian

The Russian language o f the Erie Old Believers exhibits the influences o f three

language systems: Pskov Russian. Polish, and American English. These influences

are heard in the phonology, lexicon, morphology, and syntax. Through careful

dissection using comparative dialectology, one can separate the sources o f these

influences with a substantial degree o f success. While the presence o f these influences

provides much excitement and pleasure for the trained linguist, it is yet another source

o f linguistic anxiety for the speakers themselves.

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For a specialist in Russian dialects, the Pskovian features o f Suvalki Russian

are hard to miss, though sometimes slightly obscured by the later influences o f Polish

and English. While a complete inventory and analysis o f the Pskovian features are

beyond the aims of this study, the mention of a select few will suffice as convincing

evidence.141

4.2.1.1. Phonological Features

In order to ease comparison of the speech of Erie Old Believers with that of

contemporary Old Believers in Suvalki. the general order o f features in a 1984 work

by Grek-Pabisowa on the Pskov phonetic features in Polish loanwords in the speech o f

Old Believers in Poland w ill be followed here. In her article. Grek-Pabisowa begins

with the classification o f three types o f features: I) features common to (Pskovian)

Old Believer dialects, standard Russian, and Polish, 2) features common to (Pskovian)

Old Believer dialects and Polish, and 3) features characteristic only o f the Pskovian

Old Believer dialects. She focuses on the third group, and in this way avoids possible

incorrect attribution o f features. This convention is followed here.142

Jakan'e. An often-cited though not ubiquitous feature o f Pskovian Russian is

jakan'e. in which pretonic Id following a soft consonant is pronounced /a/. This

phenomenon is not nearly as prevalent in Erie Old Believer speech as it seems to be in

141 It is important to note that many of these features are found in other dialects and languages (e.g.. Arkhangelsk Russian. Belarusian). The occurrence o f the following group o f features indicates a Pskov substratum, although it does not rule out interference from other linguistic sources. 14- It should be kept in mind that the similarity of Erie Suvalki Russian to the Russian spoken by Old Believers in modem Poland plays no practical role in language maintenance and shift in Erie: this comparison is made purely in the interest of linguistic insight.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Old Believer speech in modem Poland (cf. Grek-Pabisowa and Maryniakowa 1974:

40-41). The most frequent and noticeable forms encountered are cago [tJa'vo| 'what

(gen. sg.)' and catyre |tja'tirii| 'four'. It should be noted that these forms are found

alongside cego (tjiv o , tje -j and cetyre ItfftirJi. tfe-, -rJe| in Erie. Patterns in these

usages are still unclear. Among a group o f ten native speakers o f Standard Russian

informally polled, the cago form is regarded as being the most "offensive" ( Rezet ihol

"It grates on one's ear!") to an educated speaker.

Prothetic and epenthetic v,j. The addition of a segment to prevent certain

initial vowels and hiatus is a common though irregular occurrence in the Slavic

languages (fo ra discussion see. for instance, Carlton 1991). This feature is much

more common in Erie Old Believer speech than it is in Standard Russian, and in the

case o f Erie is attributable to the Pskov dialect:

• Initially: #e- > je-. #i- > ji-: #u- > vu-. #o- > vo-

• Intervocalically: -au- > -avu-. -io- > -ivo-

Common are forms such as:

• Initially: jeroplan for (a)eropldn 'airplane', jeto for eto 'this (is)’: jim for im 'to

them': viilica for ulica 'street', vusel for usel '(he) left', vnxodok for nxodok

'outhouse', vuzo for uze 'already', and "usi for iisi 'ears’. In this group

could also be placed jon for on 'he', jand for ond 'she', and jany for oni

they'.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • Intervocalically: navucil for naucil '(he) learned)'; Radivon for Radion,

Larivon for Larion, Levon for Leon, Halaktivon for Galaktion 'the first

names Radion, Larion, Leon, and Galaktion'’, kivot for kidt 'icon case'.143

Shift u > v.144 The shift of u to v (and then to /u n d e r devoicing) is also attested

in Erie speech in forms such as vdaril |vd3‘rJil| for udaril '(he) hit', v nas |'vnas| for u

nas 'at our house', and v Popova [fpa'povo| for u Popova 'at Popoff s (store)'.

Labialization ofo-, u-. Grek-Pabisowa identifies three manifestations of this

"labialization." The first two are attested in Erie. 1) Initial #o- > #wo-, #wo-: initial

#u- > #*u-. This is seen in forms such as "ulitsa. na "iilitse for lilica, na uliee. It

could be argued that this a form of prothesis rather than labialization and should

therefore be listed above, since points on the continuum w— u— *u— wu are often

difficult to discern. 2) Labialization of o advances to u. Whether this is labialization

or better described as a combination o f rounding and raising is also arguable. In any

event, it is a feature also present in the speech o f a few Erie speakers, though its

appearance is rare: prustiidllsja [prustu'dzilco] for prostudllsja 'he got sick' and licet

[ utset| for deer 'vinegar'.

'■*' The examplekivot could be questioned. It comes from the Greek tciporroc. although Standard Russian is kidt (cf. Evgen’eva 1983: 2.49). Dal' (1994 119 0 3 -19 0 91: 2.266) gives both kivot" and kiot". Sreznevskij (1989: 2.1207, 1210) gives kivot" as the Jewish ark of the covenant and kiot" as a frame with glass for an icon. 144 Grek-Pabisowa's third feature (shift je > o. je > a) has been excluded here, since it can be considered a West-East Slavic dialect distinction (cf. Polish jesieri. Russian oseri 'autumn'). It might be useful to note, however, that this feature is seen in Suvalki Russian in words such as Jevdokeja Ijevda'k'eja. ]i\-\IAvdokeja (avda'kJej 3. av-| 'the first name Yevdokeya' and jevon yj [jivonijl/avo/ny |a'von»j| 'his'. We even see back formations such as Jeliksdndr from Aleksandr.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Epenthesis of a liquid after labials (b > bl, p > pi, v > vl).145 Grek-Pabisowa's

examples of this phenomenon are actually typical Proto-Slavic reflexes at morpheme

boundaries in East Slavic (though they are not preserved in West Slavic) and not

specific to Pskov dialects. However, in Erie speech there are attested (though rare)

occurrences o f this feature in environments where it does not occur in Standard

Russian. Two such tokens are ml'ed (for Stand. Rus. med 'honey') and korovlja (for

Stand. Rus. kordv'ja 'cow fattrib. |').

Simplification of certain clusters.l4t> Simplification of certain consonant

clusters is heard in Erie Russian, most often in a small set of frequently occurring

words. The dissimilation kt > xt (stop-stop to fricative-stop) appears in xto (Stand.

Rus. kto 'who'), nixto (Stand. Rus. nikto 'no one'), and doxtor (Stand. Rus. doktor

'doctor'). Pronunciation of xto is very widespread. The simplification cn > sn (also

the "loss" o f the stop feature) is most readily heard in some speakers' pronunciation o f

podrusnik (podrucnik 'the square cloth placed on the ground during a full prostration

to keep the hand that makes the sign o f the cross from touching the floor', from pod

145 Grek-Pabisowa’s sixth feature, weakening of j after a palatal(ized) consonant before a vowel (as long as it is not a suffix), is not attested in Erie speech, due perhaps entirely to the fact that the phonetic environment is rare, found only in foreign words and at the morpheme boundary o f a consonant-final prefix and a /-initial root where the final consonant o f the prefix has softened through assimilation, as can be the case in Standard Russian. The attested Erie form s"el '(he) ate up’— realized as [sjel] (rather than [V e il or the expected reflex of this [cel])— would seem to indicate the prefix has not assimilated to palatalization and thus does not meet the criteria o f the rule. Grek-Pabisowa's seventh feature, the shift di > #/. appears in only a small lexical set o f rather infrequent words— so infrequent, in fact, that there has been no opportunity to hear them in Erie speech during interviews. 14f’ Grek-Pabisowa uses the term dissimilation, which is not the case for all o f her examples. I have chosen the termsimplification to represent the "easing" o f articulation by various means.

155

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 'under' + ruka 'hand'14 ). It is even written "podrushnik” on a shelf label in the Front

Street church store. This spelling has the potential to affect the pronunciation o f the

word. I have been in the Front Street church store several times and been shown the

podrucniki and told, "And here they have podrucniks...\ih...podrusniks."lJg Though not

mentioned in this context by Grek-Pabisowa (though she mentions it elsewhere in her

research), there is another simplification o f a cluster involving a stop which could be

included here: d ’n'> n'n ', as in segodnja > segdnnja |ci'vonJ:o| 'today' and modnik >

monnik l'moni:ik| 'women's jumper, similar to a sarafan . worn to church'. This is most

properly classifies as assimilation to manner of articulation, but like the others

involves the loss o f the stop feature.

4.2.1.2. Lexical Features

There are a very significant number of Pskovian lexical items in the speech of

the Erie Old Believers. These are words found in Pskovian Russian but not in

Standard Russian, and have often been identified (and mocked) by speakers o f

Standard Russian as either being "peasant" words or as coming from Polish. The best

source for lexical information on the Pskov dialects is the Pskovskij oblastnoj slovar\

which has been coming out in installments since 1967. Since only about a sixth of the

dictionary has been published (vol. 12, 1996, covers part o f the C yrillic z-), it is not

i'*7 In one instance, a speaker consistently voiced the [J| to a 3[1. yielding the pronunciationpodruznik. When asked the etymology o f this word, the informant explained that it meant "little friend" (cf. Standard Russian pndruzka 'female friend') "because you always keep it with you when you pray." The informant also makes the syllable break to reflect this re-analysis: po-druzh- (likepo-druzh-ka), not pod-ruch- as is common in the speech of others.

Grek-Pabisowa's last feature, the shift x > a t . has not been attested during language interviews in Erie. Attested words such as xoraja 'sick' and xolera (literally 'cholera' but used as an insult) are pronounced as [x|.

156

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. yet possible to verify many of the lexical items collected in Erie as being Pskovian.

Words which have been verified in the existing volumes include:

baba I'baba. 'bat»|: 'grandmother'

bat'ka ['batcko|: 'dad; priest (vocative)'

borkan |bar'kan|: 'carrot'

bul'ba I'bulJbo. 'bul-'-|: 'potato'

bul'bisnik I'bulJbiiJnJik. 'bolJ-; -'bJiJ-; -x\i\k\.'bul'bishnik (a type o f dumpling

made o f potato)'

burak. burjak |bura'kJi. burjaTcJi: bo-; -'ki; bor3-|: 'beet'

glumnoj Iglum 'nojl; 'dumb'

deda |’dzed3|: 'grandfather'

djad'ka. djadka I'dzatcka. -ks; dzatkd|: 'uncle; unrelated man of one's father's

age'

doca ['dotj3|: 'daughter'

dosyt' |'dositc|: 'enough'

dracona Idra'tfons. dro-|: 'drachona (a type of omelet)'

jon ['jon |: 'he'

jeto |'jets |: 'this/that'

jevdnyj [je'vonij. ji-|: 'his'

157

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Several o f these words can be found in Belarusian ( bul'ba , burak,jon ) as well as in

Pskovian Russian, but many others are unique to Pskov.149 The impact o f possible

associations with Belarusian w ill be discussed in the next section.

4.2.1.3. The Effect of the Pskov Substratum

The effect o f the Pskov substratum on the speakers o f Erie Suvalki Russian

comes from their contact with speakers o f Standard Russian. As mentioned above,

these Standard Russian speakers view certain o f these elements as sounding "peasant"

or "provincial"; few of those informally polled were able to correctly identify the

origins of such items, but most responded negatively. This informal poll was used to

elicit reactions (judgments of style, education, and geographic origin), with the intent

o f approximating the types o f reactions to which the Erie Old Believers were subjected

(and report being subjected to) in their encounters in the United States with speakers

o f Standard Russian during the 20th century. The effect is overwhelmingly negative,

and it is compounded by similar reactions to Polish and Polish-like features in their

speech.

4.2.2. The Influence of Polish

The influence o f Polish and the confusion between Russian and Polish is

understandable. The ancestors o f the Erie Old Believers lived in Suvalki among

Polish neighbors for over 100 years. It seems that during that time the Old

Believers—who traditionally avoided contact with non-Old Believers (in order to

remain ritualistically pure in the world of Antichrist)—had increasing contact with

l'" For a discussion of Belarusian elements in Suvalki Russian, see Grek-Pabisowa 1976a. 1976b.

1S8

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. these neighbors. Several Erie Old Believers o f the first U.S.-bom generation report

that their parents and grandparents knew some Polish or even knew it very well.

While it is hard to determine the exact extent o f their parents' proficiency, it is clear

that Polish had its influence on their Russian.

4.2.2.I. Language Education and Literacy

Many of the immigrants were illiterate and received little if any structured

"prescriptive" education in the Russian or Polish languages. Literacy, when it existed,

was often limited to reading Slavonic. The first U.S.-born generation received its

education in American schools in English. Most reported speaking only Russian at

home until they reached school age. For all of them English became their dominant

language and often the language o f their homes. Some received education in Slavonic

at home from their fathers or from hired tutors, and in later times in church school.

This education was usually limited to passive reading o f the texts (many reported that

they did not know what they were reading) and to singing by the krjuki , or neumes.150

None received formal education in or about the Russian language, except for a very

limited few who had a year or two in college. Those people tend to show many lexical

and grammatical features (and lexically-based phonological features) o f Standard

Russian and a marked awareness that there is a difference between Suvalki Russian

and Standard Russian.

Neumes are a system o f marks used in the notation of music. The Russian term krjuki(written locally kriuki) means 'hooks' so called because of their appearance.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4.2.2.2 Awareness of Polish

If the immigrant generation consciously spoke a mixture o f Polish and Russian

in front of their children, that is, even if the parents themselves knew that they were

using two languages, their children most likely did not know that this was occurring.

The only glimpse we have into their practices is held in the language o f the oldest

living generation—the first U.S.-born generation.

When the first U.S.-bom generation speaks Russian, some speakers identify

words as Polish, but most o f these identifications have come not from their parents

instructing them in the differences o f the two languages, but from speakers o f

Standard Russian who arrived in much later waves o f immigration from other regions

or who were visiting from Russia proper. Unfortunately, most of these identifications

of words as being Polish are incorrect. The combination of the distinct sound changes

that are mentioned below and the existence of a considerable number of non-standard

Russian words (which originate from the underlying Pskov dialect)—colored even

more by the existence of certain marked grammatical constructions (such as a verb 'to

have': maju, maes\ maet ...)— led outside speakers o f Standard Russian to conclude

that what was being spoken was a mixture o f Polish and Russian. The reports that

speakers o f Standard Russian have made include these types o f comments:

"In college, they told my son that he speaks Russian and Polish all mixed up.”

"When I was working in New York City, me and some friends from Erie met

some belogvardejcy who laughed at us and said, 'You're not speaking

Russian, you speak more Polish than Russian!"'

160

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To a large extent this assessment is not accurate. Yet the Suvalki Russian speakers

have absorbed it. and it is very common to hear the follow ing types o f self-reporting,

taken from language interviews:

"We don’ talk good Russian, we talk slang. There's a lotta Polish in there."

"|O ur type of Russian is a| m ix o f Polish, Russian and Slav."

"A lot o f our words have Polish in them."

"Oven is pecka |'p>etpk3|...l don't know if it's Polish...maybe it's Polish."

(Cf. Standard Russian 'oven' is pec' I'pietpl, pecka I'pietpksl; Polish

piec |pJets|, piecyk |pietsik| is masculine.)

In every interview there were several such comments made; no interview was without

them. This is a testament to the fact that others have shared their linguistic

perceptions with the Erie Old Believers—perceptions that were usually mistaken.

Here is a reconstructed schematic of a typical exchange which result in such

beliefs:

NB:

Pskov Russian: bul'ha I'bulJbal

Standard Russian: kartofel' |kaftof>ilJ|

Standard Polish: bulwa |'bulva| ('tuber': 'potato' is ziemniak or kariofet)

A ) Erie Old Believer to speaker o f Standard Russian:

"...buiba..."

B) Speaker of Standard Russian to Erie Old Believer:

"Bul'bal What’s that?"

161

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A) Erie Old Believer to speaker o f Standard Russian:

"Potato."

B) Speaker o f Standard Russian to Erie O ld Believer:

"That's not Russian, that's Polish or Ukrainian or something."

A) Erie Old Believer to speaker o f Standard Russian:

"What's the word for potato then?"

B) Speaker o f Standard Russian to Erie Old Believer:

"Kartofei."

A) Erie Old Believer to self:

"Hm..."

C) Linguist to Erie Old Believer:

"What's the word for potato'}"

A) Erie Old Believer to linguist:

"Bul'ba. That's how we say it, but that's not Russian, that's Polish. We

should be saying kartofei'." factual quote|

There are. in their defense, some definite Polish and Polish-like elements in the

Russian o f the Erie Old Believers. These are now discussed.

4.2.2.3. Polish and Polish-like Features in the Russian of the Erie Old Believers

Since most o f the speakers are semi-speakers, it is hard to elicit spontaneous,

prolonged, complex speech. Some speakers are only able to handle short basic social

interactions, while others can only produce word lists. In light o f this, analysis is

162

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. limited to phonological and lexical features, especially since these would be the most

striking and prevalent in the basic conversations that take place.

The sounds corresponding to modern Russian palatalized oral dentalssztd/s>zi

tj dV are alveo-palatal fricatives and affricates[ctic dz|. These occur:

la) Before historical front vowels: *e *e *t(jat') *i *b (front jer) *$ (front

nasal).

lb) in consonant clusters where there is assimilation to softness. (Note that Modem

Standard Russian is losing some o f these assimilations.) These most frequently

include:

dm > |dzmj |, dv > |dzvJ |

si > |clJ|, sm > |cmJ|. sn > |cnJ|, sp > |cpJ|. sr > |crJ|, st > |ctc|, sv > |cvJ|

zd > |zdz|, zl > |zlJ|, zn > | znJ|. zr > |zrJ|. zw > | zvJ|

These can occur:

• initially:

dveri | dzvJerJi|

• medially:

pesnja I'piecnJol, kostel |k3'ctcol|, praz(d)nik |'praznJik|,

vybirajsja [vJibii'rajcol

163

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • word-finally:

kost' ('koctc|, est' [‘jectc|, sest' |Jectc|

This change affects a very large number of words, and is a feature immediately

identifiable by non-linguist speakers o f Russian.1M Where attested, these pattern just

like the reflexes in Polish:

• dw > dz\v |dzvJ|

• si > si |clj |, sm > sm |cmj |. sn > sn |cji |, sp > sp |cpi |, sr > sr |crJ |. st > sc (etc |,

sw > sw |cvJ|. ( c m ) ItcvJ |

As an illustration, we can compare the speech of two Erie Old Believers. The first is a

woman bom o f Old Believer parents from Lithuania. Her parents' dialect was also

Pskovian, but they did not live in a Polish-language environment. She does not

exhibit the alveo-palatal reflexes o f the palatalized oral dentals. The second is a man

whose parents were from villages in the heart o f Polish Suvalki. His speech does

reflect the alveo-palatals. His is the prevailing system in Erie.

1 One visiting Russian ethnomusicologist immediately noted it. but thought that it was the result of speakers lisping.

16 4

Figure 4.1. Comparison o f two Erie Suvalki Russian speakers.

It is important to note here that Pskov dialects exhibit very soft palatalized

dentals, usually denoted in scholarship from Russia by a double apostrophe (s” , z” . f \

d") or even with superscript hushers (s'v. z ") (cf. Avanesov & Orlova 1964: 86).

Russian scholars characterize these Pskov sounds as having a "raised degree o f

palatalization" (ibid.: 86) and are often called the "lisping" (Rus. sepeljavye)

consonants (Cekmonas 1997: Avanesov & Orlova 1964: 86). In Suvalki Russian,

there is variation in the degree o f this palatalization both among speakers and within

the speech o f individuals. It ranges from slightly more palatalization than in Standard

Russian to very prominent palatalization to the point o f being very close to ( if not

reaching) the status o f alveo-palatal fricatives and affricates (c z tc dz|, as found in

Polish.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Whether this Suvalkan sim ilarity to Polish is due to contact-induced change or

to independent development is still unclear. It is very important, however, to keep in

mind that in examining language attitudes, the point is not whether this feature is

actually a Polish feature, but rather that, since it so closely parallels Polish, it is

attributed to Polish in the perceptions o f the speakers o f Standard Russian who have

come in contact with the Erie Old Believers.

Polish Phonological Features Not Found in Suvalki Russian

There are other basic Polish phonological correspondences which were "up for

adoption" but which were not taken up by the ancestors o f the Erie Old Believers.

a) o > u (This is only heard in borrowings, such as cora and forms of mowic.)

b) I > I (There are no attested borrowings and few native Pskovian words that

contain this. The only attested token has been ostalsja |3stawco|.

c) absence of vowel reduction —varies in Polish loan words (tdta |tata|, but ciira

|tsura|).

d) fixed penultimate stress—when penultimate stress occurs where it does not in

Standard Russian, it is usually a Pskov feature ( molddyi, by la. ddla).

e) nasal vowels—there are no attested borrowings that contain nasal vowels

Polish Lexical Items in Suvalki Russian

I) Doublets—words for which both Polish and Russian words exist—are often

interchanged by the same speaker w ithin the same conversations. These words are

often adapted partially or fu lly to the Russian sound system:

166

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • 'daughter': doca fdotjal / cura I'tsural (cf. Pol. corn)

• 'perhaps': moza 11 1 1 0 3 3 1 / moze |'mo3 e| (cf. Pol. moze)

• 'hair(s)': volosy I'vobsil / vwosy |'vwosi| (cf. Pol. wiosy)

• 'a little': nemnogo , nevnogo |njemnog 3 , -vn-| / trosicki |'troj 3 tJkJi| (cf. Pol.

troszka, troszeczkg)

2) Borrowirigs—ostensibly words new to Suvalki Russian borrowed from Polish:

could be the older Russian form: when it is used, it is usually pronounced

with elements of American English pronunciation)

3) Polish words that have replaced very common Russian words:

• 'dad': tdta, id (papa is basically never heard, and otec is the formal form )

• 'mother': mdtka (the formal form: mat' is basically never heard: 'mom' is

mama)'52

4) Possible "unconscious" code-switching:

• Czy on dobryi xlop? |tji on dobrij xlopl (cf. Pol. Cry on jest dobry cMop?\

Rus. On dobryj celovekJxolopl)

• On mwuvit polski govorit. (on 'rrTuvJit polJskJi g 3 v3 rJit| (cf. Pol. On mowi po

polsku.', Rus. On govorit po-pdlski.)

152 The formmatka could also be due to a general tendency to replace feminine words ending in a soft sign with forms in -(k)a (e.g.. doc' > doca. pec' > pecka. morkov'> m orkovka).

167

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Orthographic Influence of Polish

Polish has had another, subtler influence on the Suvalki Old Believers: Polish

orthography has changed their last names. The original Old Believer immigrants had

passports written in both Russian and Polish, since Suvalki was a part o f the Russian

Empire. The Latin script o f the Polish spellings was much more accessible to

employers, administrators, and city officials, so the Polish spellings were often

adopted. The {w } and the { £ } —among others—have entered into the pronunciation

o f some Old Believer surnames as |w | and |z|. So,

• Rus. Litovkin - Litowkin: now Litowkin |l3'taewkin|

• Rus. Vasil'ev - Wasiljew: now Wassell. Wassel, Wassil, Wasyl |'wasol|

• Rus. Zuravl'ev - Zurawlew: now Zuravleff \ v.&- \

Note that {w } enters into pronunciation as |w | only when it conforms to common

English sound patterns, thus Wassell and Litowkin. but Z u ra vle ^n o t *Zurawlew).

Some names were even given the "Polish" -ski ending once in the United States for no

apparent reason.

4.2.2.4. Polish-Suvalki Words that Are Identical or Similar

Because o f the sound changes mentioned above, there are certain Erie Suvalki

Russian words o f Pskov origin that are very similar to Polish words, which leads to

people perceiving them as Polish words. Some Erie Suvalki Russian and Polish words

are exactly the same:

168

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Erie Suvalki Russian Polish Pronunt

gde 'where' gdzie |gdze|

t'ma darkness’ cma I'tcma |

spat' 'to sleep' spac |'spatc|

pit' 'to drink' pic I'piitcl

sestry 'sisters' siostry I'costri |

dosyt' 'enough' dosyc I'dosic |

Some Erie Suvalki Russian and Polish words are very similar:

Erie Suvalki Russian Polish ESR/P Pronunciation

Aon’ 'horse' kon |nJ|/|ji|

sneg 'snow' snieg |nJ|/|ji|

tetka 'aunt' ciotka |3|/(a|

Some Erie Suvalki Russian words that are not Polish (are, in fact. Pskovian) get

attributed to Polish:

Erie Suvalki Russian Polish ESR/P Pronunciation

maju/maes' 'I have, you...' mamlmasz I'maju. majij|/|'mam. maj|

ali 'but' ale [a lji |/('ale |

cibulja 'onion' cebula [tsi‘bute|/|tse'bula|

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4.2.2.S. Do All Speakers of Erie Suvalki Russian Demonstrate These Features?

The simplistic answer is no

When asked by the interviewer the question. "Are or were there some people who

spoke a better type o f Russian?," Erie Suvalki Russian speakers usually give the

response "yes." The most common responses pertain to later arrivals—Russian New

Rite Orthodox "DPs" (see 2.9.1) who arrived in the 1950s. Their church existed for

several decades, but then began to decline due to the younger generation (the children

o f the original immigrants) leaving Erie. Now, many o f the parishioners attend

services with the Old Believers. These people, however, are not Old Believers and did

not come from Suvalki; most o f them (or their parents) came from Russia proper and

were from educated families. Other positive responses to the question pertain to other

Old Believers from central Europe (Suvalki and immediately neighboring regions)

who immigrated about the same time. These included people from urban families who

sometimes received special education, some even being sent to St. Petersburg for

schooling. These also included a very small minority who came from areas

substantially far away from Suvalki province.153 Some families claim that their

ancestors did not come from Suvalki. but from farther away (present-day Ukraine.

Belarus, western Lithuania). Most all o f these reports can be shown to be inaccurate

using arrival and naturalization records: the honest mistake comes from basing this

claim on where their relatives live today. Most of the Old Believers in Suvalki

153 One immigrant was from near Zhitomir. Ukraine, and her grandson shows some Ukrainian lexical features not attested by anyone outside of his fam ily, e.g..varenniki: not attested by any other speaker.

170

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. province who did not come to the United States were scattered by the two world wars.

A large number, for instance, fled to western Lithuania (Silute, Klaipeda) in 1941

because o f World War II (Iwaniec 1977: 77, 81). A small but significant number of

immigrants came to the United States before World War I from Kaunas (Rus. Kovno;

Pol. Kowno) and Vilnius (Rus. Vil'na, Vil'no: now Vil'njus: Pol. Wilno) and smaller

towns like Ukmerge (Rus. Vil'komir, Pol. Wilkomierz). It is important to note that

these cities fall outside (but just barely) the boundaries of Suvalki province and are

located in linguistically Lithuanian or mixed Polish-Lithuanian environments. Some

o f today's speakers had one or both parents from outside Suvalki province, and based

on the data gathered so far, it seems that their speech sometimes reflects this fact. For

instance, a few o f those with ancestors from Vilnius and Kaunas lack some o f the

Polish features (e.g., their palatalized s, z. t. d do not show the alveo-palatalization |c z

tc dz|; there are not as many Polish lexical items), but their dialect is Pskovian, so by

and large the dialects are overall still very sim ilar.154

Among the Russian speakers interviewed, there were only a very few who did

not exhibit Polish influence (or very little, perhaps related to contact with Suvalkans in

the United States). Some exhibited switching within narratives between Polish-

influenced speech and speech not influenced by Polish. It is still too early to discuss

the details o f the possibility o f code-switching; few. though, seemed aware that they

154 One quite proficient speaker, whose parents were from Vilnius and Kaunas, claims that his language has been intluenced by the Old Believers from Poland. This is surprising, since his family lived on a farm, and thus they did not have as much day-to-day contact as the Old Believers in dow nlown Erie, though they frequently received visitors. He exhibits many of the so-called Polish features, if this is indeed what they are.

171

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. were doing this. Some people today claim that their parents were said to speak "fancy

Russian" or "good Russian." It is hard to establish on what grounds this evaluation

was based, but it may be possible to discover the reason through more historical

research.

The complicated answer is yes

The overwhelming majority o f Russian speakers in the Erie Old Believer

community exhibits some or most o f these features some or all o f the time. Most

living speakers had one or both parents from Polish-speaking regions o f Suvalki

province, and the Polish variant—which was predominant in the community —won

out. A few people interviewed actually attributed the way they spoke to the language

o f the majority o f their neighbors, saying that their parents did not speak that way. In

some instances, historical facts (such as the villages o f origin o f their parents and

grandparents) would seem to indicate otherwise, but this is their perception.

4.2.2.6. Comparison with Research Done on Old Believers in Poland (Particularly

Suvalki) in the 20th Century

The two leading scholars in the field of Old Believer language in Poland are

Iryda Grek-Pabisowa and Irena Maryniakowa. two linguists in the Institute of

Slavistics at the Academy o f Sciences in Warsaw. They have been producing research

on the topic o f Old Believers in Poland for some forty years. Among their many

publications is a dictionary o f the Old Believer dialect in the three Old Believer areas

in Poland (Suwalki-Sejny. Augustow, and the Prussian Wojnowo area), as well as

many articles on the phonology, morphology, and lexicon o f these dialects. They have

172

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. also published extensively on the process o f borrowing from Polish (and German in

the western area) in the 19th and 20th centuries. In general, our findings have been

very similar. Since the two communities are genetically related, the interesting details

lie in the divergences which have developed in the last 100 years in different (i.e.,

English and Polish) linguistic and cultural environments.

There is substantially less linguistic scholarship on the Old Believers of

Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine (the three neighboring countries which contributed a

small number of immigrants to the Erie community). Most notable among this

scholarship is the 1963 collection o f materials by Nemcenko et al. for a dictionary o f

the ancient Russian-speaking inhabitants of the Baltic region.1:0

Future comparative study will involve collaboration with Drs. Grek-Pabisowa

and Maryniakowa in Warsaw comparing data and trying to establish the similarities

and explore the differences o f these related Old Believer communities. In particular,

the effects of the Polish-speaking environment of the 19th and 20th centuries evident

in the contemporary Old Believer dialects of Suvalki and Pennsylvania w ill be

examined. Research w ill also need to be conducted in Lithuania, locating the relatives

o f the Suvalki Old Believers who fled to western Lithuania (prim arily Klaipeda and

Silute) due to W orld Wars I and II. It is hoped that linguistic research can be

conducted in these communities as yet another dimension (i.e.. a Lithuanian linguistic

context) o f this comparative research.

155 See Bibliography for works on the language of Old Believers in the Baltics by Nemcenko et al. 1963. Manaenkova 1985. Ciubrinskas 2000. Cekmonas 2000. Morozov a 2001. Lonngren 1994. and others.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4.2.3. The Influence of American English

The greatest influence exerted by American English has perhaps been its

replacement of Russian as the dominant language in all secular linguistic domains of

use. In religious domains of use. it has almost entirely replaced Slavonic in the liturgy

o f the Front Street church and has replaced Russian as the language o f sermons there

as well. The sole bastion of Slavonic has been the religious services (not technically

liturgy) in the Third Street church: many there report that they do not understand all of

the Slavonic used.

Surprisingly, the influence of American English on the dialect of the most

proficient speakers has been minimal. This is perhaps due to the fact that most

stopped speaking Russian upon the deaths o f their parents. When these language

authorities passed away, rather than continue to maintain their usually incomplete

command o f Russian (and expand it with borrowings from English), they opted to stop

using it altogether.

Some parents vehemently resisted the use o f English in their homes: others

continued to use Russian while their children used a mixture o f Russian and English

(or only English) in response. Mothers (especially older mothers) were less likely to

develop a command of English, in particular if they were homemakers, though there

were some significant exceptions even to this. Many women sought employment,

which resulted in a certain command o f English and hastened the language shift in the

household. Intermarriage with non-Old Believers (read: other ethnicities) basically

guaranteed a switch to English in the household.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4.2.3.1. Lexical Influences of American English

Therefore, households were either monolingual Russian (quite rare except in

the earliest decades o f the 2 0 th century), were mixed, or were functionally

monolingual in English. It is in the mixed households where the influence of English

was most often felt. In negotiating this bilingualism, speakers chose to use English

words for concepts that did not exist in their Suvalki Russian. Words like "(coal)

mine" and "(ore or pulp wood) dock" were borrowed as such. Fathers who worked in

English-language environments (basically all o f the immigrants) and came home to

Russian-only households were faced with the same problem. For most Erie Suvalki

Russian speakers, "peaches" are known only as picesy |pJitJJes|, not Standard Russian

persik or Polish brzoskwinia New technology created a need for borrowing, so

families soon purchased an ajsaboks(a) l.ajso'baks. -kso| ('icebox').13' A few lexical

items remain somewhat mysterious. Almost no informant could produce a Russian

word for "pants" or "shoes." Overwhelmingly, the answer was pency | pentsi| and

Susy ( Jusi|. Another puzzle is English "baby," which was usually rendered as bejba

(bejbol . 158

In a few words, namely those Russian words that have entered into mainstream

American English, the pronunciation has been replaced by the English pronunciation,

even in Russian speech:

l5n NB: Neither Grek-Pabisowa and Maryniakowa 1980 nor Nemcenko et al. 1963 attest a form for "peach." 157 This pronunciation is attributed by many to Italian. l* Such substitutions or borrowings are not unheard of. Greek has borrowed the word for ’baby’ from French, ’shoe’ from Turkish, and 'pants’ from Italian.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • Russian vodka |'votkd|, English vodka [ vadks| > vodka I'vadka], [vatka|,

|'vatka|

• Russian blin ('bl->in|, English blintz | blints | 159 > blintz ( blints|

• Russian kolbasd [kslba'sal, English kielbasa [k il‘bas 3 | (cf. Polish kielbasa

|kJel'basa|) > kielbasa |kil'baso|

• Russian borsc I'borftJ. English borscht |'bojJt| > borscht |'bojJt|

4.2.3.2. Phonological Influences of American English

The most significant phonological influence of American English on Erie

Suvalki Russian has been on the younger generations, namely the children and

grandchildren o f the first U.S.-bom generation. The most proficient Russian speakers

of the first U.S.-born generation show limited influence, at least in the lexical domains

in which they are comfortable; as a rule, the lower their proficiency in Russian, the

more influence from English they show, ostensibly due to a greater need to

supplement their personal Russian lexicon.

The younger generations—which contain no significantly proficient speakers

of Erie Suvalki Russian160—either know only a small number of Russian words and set

phrases from home or they have learned Slavonic (and minimal Russian) from church

school and singing on the kryios. the church choir . 161 It is reading and singing in

i?' Blintz comes into English from Belarusian blinec via Yiddish blintze lt" Note that those very few speakers of Russian who have gained proficiency through studying Russian in college— w ho number three at most— should rather be considered speakers of Standard Russian. If these speakers grew up with Russian at home, they often retain phonological traits of Erie Suvalki Russian. Some o f the more "glaring" syntactical features o f Erie Suvalki Russian are sometimes successfully eliminated by their teachers. lf" Neither group constitutes even partial speakers since their language is not productive.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Slavonic which represents the most frequent opportunity to hear these speakers. It

must be noted that the Slavonic texts are static and thus allow no lexical influence

from English. It must also be noted that often the readers do not fully comprehend the

Slavonic; some openly (others secretly) admit to understanding very little of what they

are reading. These readers have either learned to read in church school or have

(reportedly much less frequently) learned from a member of their family.

Those who are not speakers or who are partial speakers show the greatest

degree o f phonological influence from English 162 in their pronunciation o f Russian

words or in their reading of Slavonic.

Sound Changes Attributable to the Influence of American English

Lowering (or taxing) of [uj > [u] and [ij > [ij. Russian vowels /u. i/ are more

tense and raised (and shorter) than their American English counterparts and do not

exhibit an off-glide like their American English counterparts. One could expect that

these Russian vowels when rendered in American English would either lax (i.e.. |o. i|)

or would develop an off-glide (i.e.. |uw. iJ|). The former reflex is more common in

what is deemed good Russian pronunciation by members o f the community; the

lengthening and addition o f an off-glide is considered undesirable because it is "too

American sounding." So. blin 'crepe, a thin pancake' is often pronounced I'blJin|. The

lh: Lexical and syntactic influence does not merit discussion since their speech is not productive and thus provides no opportunity for such influence.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. surname Blinn is also pronounced in this manner, or fully Americanized to |'blin|.

Bul'ba in this manner is sometimes pronounced [boljb 3 |. Buraki is thus sometimes

heard to be |bora'kJt|.

Devoicing [y] > [h], In a limited set of words semantically or etymologically

related to the Church, |g| is pronounced |y| (i.e., Bogorodica 'Mother of God', Slava

Bogu! 'Glory to God!', bogatyj 'rich'; Gospodi 'O Lord'). In these words, the |y| is

often pronounced as |h| as in American English, thus Slava Bogu! |'bohu|. Gospodi

I'hospsdJi. -dz-. -i|, etc.

Change [xj > [k], [h], The velar fricative |x|, not found in English and often

considered as unpleasant-sounding to the American ear, is sometimes rendered as

velar stop |k| or as glottal fricative |h|. Xristos voskres(e)! 'Christ is Risen!' can be

heard on Easter morning as [hri'stos|. especially by the younger generations.

Change [dz] > / c/3/, [tc] > [if], [z] > [3]. [a] > [JJ. The alveo-palatal

fall in with their American English postalveolar counterparts |d 3 tf 3 J|, respectively.

"Kuzhma" [ku 3'ma|: kisel' 'a type o f dessert’: (kJi'sJelj| > |kji'ce|j| > "keshel" IkJi'Jel |.t65

l""5 NB: The pronunciation of Paskha 'Easter. Easter bread' as ( paskal should not be included in this change since it is attested in modem Suvalki Russian. See. for example. Grek-Pabisowa and Marvniakowa 1980 and Nemcenko et al. 1963. See 2.2.3.1 above. in5 The written formsJeda, Chocha. Kuzhma. and keshel are all attested.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Aspiration of Ip t kl. Russian stops /p t k/ are sometimes aspirated to (p *1 th kh|.

This is not considered by proficient speakers to be proper, but even they occasionally

lapse when tired or when switching back and forth.

Change [r] > [jJ. Trilled |r|, found to be difficult to produce by many English

monolinguals, is rendered with American English | j |. This is usually not desirable in

what is classed by Erie Old Believers as good Russian pronunciation, and is

discouraged.

These changes are listed in relative order o f acceptability, with the first being

almost unnoticed and the last being discouraged. The cumulative perceived effect can

range from sounding "not quite Suvalkan" to being identifiably American-sounding.

An example o f the cumulative effect can be heard in the often chanted Gospodi

pomiluj 'Lord have mercy'—pronounced I'yospodJi po'mJilu j| in classical Church

Slavonic or I'yospodJi pamJilu j| in its more common spoken form —which is

pronounced by the younger generations on the krylos today as I'hospodi po'miluj|.

These changes are more likely heard in the younger generations, and there is a great

deal o f variability from person to person.

4.2.3.3. Summary of Lexical and Phonological Influence of English

Influence from English on Erie Suvalki Russian has been kept to a minimum,

paradoxically, through the dominance o f English. Since Russian did not stay in active

use (concurrent with English), it was not "forced" to borrow English words to account

for new American realia. Nowadays, when most Erie Suvalki Russian speakers while

speaking Russian are faced with having to produce an unknown word, they switch into

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. English (and complete the sentence or conversation in English) rather than borrow an

English word. In the language interviews, Russianization of English words was

actually uncommon. This is in marked contrast to more recent Russian-speaking

immigrants (those non-Old Believers who have been arriving for the last two decades

from Russia proper and from former Soviet republics) who display a high degree of

mixing or borrowing. Speakers o f Erie Suvalki Russian often have to be coaxed back

into Russian once they have slipped out o f it. This separation o f the languages has

controlled the amount o f both lexical and phonological interference.

4.2.3.4. Russian-English Code-switching

In the speech o f many of the partial and proficient speakers, there is a variety

o f conscious and unconscious interplay between Russian and English, o f which some

or all could fit under the rubric of code-switching. When speaking Russian:

• some speakers make comments on English words or Russianized borrowings

from English but stay in Russian the whole time:

• some speakers use an English word when they cannot produce a Russian

word, but continue in Russian;

• some speakers switch to English, then switch back to Russian as soon as their

ability allows them;

• some speakers switch to English and must be encouraged to switch back to

Russian.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. When speaking English:

• some speakers switch to Russian only to say a few words or phrases, then

return to English:

• some speakers are triggered by Russian words, concepts, or memories and

they switch to Russian.

More analysis is needed to determine the intricacies o f such behaviors.

4.2.4. The Influence of Standard Russian

It is important to keep in mind that, for most practical purposes, as a group the

Erie Old Believers and their ancestors were out o f contact with Standard Russian

throughout their existence after the schism (i.e., more than three hundred years). If

they indeed fled the authorities after the schism, they would have avoided contact with

them and their language. In fact, this time period even pre-dates the establishment o f

standard Modem Russian, considered by Isacenko to have taken place between

1750-1825 (Schenker & Stankiewicz 1980: 119). During their time in the Pskov

region (see 2 .2 ). a majority were most likely peasants, with the possibility of some

being merchants like the popovtsy Old Believers of Vet'ka . 166 In Suvalki this peasant

status was definitely true for almost all o f the ancestors o f the Erie Old Believers.

It seems that Suvalki occupied—and still occupies today—a special position in

(or rather outside of) the sphere o f Old Believer organization and activity in central

Europe. While Vilnius was the capital of the Old Believer church in central Europe, it

seems that the Suvalki Old Believer parishes and villages remained largely unaffected.

lw’ Sec works such as Iwaniec 1977.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. When Riga surpassed Vilnius in Old Believer activity, that influence diminished even

more. In Poland today there are only a few hundred Old Believers. There are active

molennas only in Wodzitki, Suwaiki, Wojnowo. and Gabowe Grady; Wodzilki lacks

its own nastavnik . whom it borrows from Suwaiki for important holy days. The

congregations of these are largely elderly and their future is in question.

During the Suvalki period (mid-1700s to 1914), the descendants o f the Erie

Old Believers were exposed mostly to their own dialect and to the Polish or

Lithuanian o f their neighbors, and perhaps to the Russian dialects of other non-Old

Believer Russians who also settled in the area. After the partitions o f Poland in the

1790s. when the Russian Empire gained control o f the region. Russian became the

administrative language. It is not clear, however, how much influence this language

actually had on the existence and language o f the Old Believers in Suvalki.

The Erie Old Believers came into meaningful contact with Standard Russian

only during their time in the United States. Linguistic contact in the mines in

southwestern Pennsylvania and on the docks in Erie was most likely with other

Russian dialects of their non-Old Believer Russian co-workers and neighbors. From

all accounts. Russian in the non-Old Believer communities fell out o f use at the same

rate as in the Old Believer communities.

In the last few decades, another source o f interference from Standard Russian

has arisen in Erie. Many o f those who can speak Russian and read C yrillic have

purchased Standard Russian dictionaries and language learning materials from local

bookstores. On many occasions informants, when not able to produce a word, said

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that they would look it up in their dictionaries, and indeed a few would call later and

read from the dictionary a word that— it seemed to them—they had heard before.

During language interviews they would sometimes give a word, then "correct

themselves," giving either a word that they had been told was the correct word (see

example of bul'ba above) or would confuse the two and give the Suvalki Russian word

as the proper Standard word (e.g., saying limon— the Standard Russian word— then

identifying Suvalki (or Polish) citrm(a) as the correct Standard Russian word).

Those few who studied Russian in college16' exhibited the same linguistic

behaviors to an even greater degree. Many had replaced (or at least on occasion and

with pronounced intent and sometimes linguistic commentary) the Suvalki Russian

verb maju, mdes' "to have" with the Standard Russian preposition u + genitive case

construction; Suvalki Moe imja (’M y name is...’) with Standard Russian Menjd zovut

(They call me...'); Suvalki borkdn 'carrot' with Standard morkov’: etc. Some o f the

more linguistically sensitive speakers identify such differences and separate them from

their native speech ("The new Russians say morkovka. but we always said borkdn."). I

tested some o f the more proficient speakers by giving them Standard Russian words

which I knew were not found in Suvalki Russian in order to get their reactions. On

some occasions they would not recognize the word at all. on some they would admit

that they had heard the word before, and on others that this was the word "they should

">7O f 45 respondents. 7 had studied Russian in college: 3 had studied for I year in the 1940s. 2 had studied for 2 years in the 1970s. 1 had studied for 4 years in the 1990s. and 1 was currently enrolled in a first-year course. They had studied at Gannon University (Erie. PA). Edinboro University (Edinboro. PA. south o f Erie). Allegheny College (M eadville. PA. south of Erie), and Columbia University (New York. N Y ).

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. be saying" but that it was not what their parents said. This elicitation device was used

only after primary data had been collected so as to minimize the interference

(corruption) o f data and was used sparingly so as not to imply that such words were

more desirable or that such words were somehow better.

The phonological influence from Standard Russian is less noticeable; it is

heard most often at the lexical level in the form o f "substitute" words which they have

learned from speakers o f Standard Russian. Occasionally, a speaker states that the

"real" word fo r 'beet' is svekla, not burdk , and pronounces it |'svfokl 3 |, not I'cvJoklol as

would be expected. However, he/she often then uses the word later w ith the expected

Suvalki pronunciation. So. it would seem that while some speakers are aware of these

differences, they have not assimilated them into their phonological systems. This is

corroborated even among those who have studied Standard Russian in college. While

they self-report at a higher rate that they speak "educated" or "literary" Russian (even

after only one year o f college), in unmonitored speech they show no differences, and

in monitored speech only exhibit a limited, somewhat symbolic (or emblematic) set of

Standard Russian traits.

4.3. Analysis of Features

4.3.1. Classification System of These Language Features

These features can be classified to give us an understanding o f how they are perceived

and the effect this perception has on hearers and speakers;

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The feature is:

1) the same in Standard Russian, Pskov Russian, Suvalki Russian, and Polish

2) different from Russian and clearly Polish (though perhaps Russianized)

popular|

3) different from Standard Russian, but not clearly Polish to the non-linguist speaker

o f Russian

3a) Pskov feature sim ilar to Polish

e.g., 'potato': bal'ba |'bulJbo| / bulwa ( bulva |

'onion': cibulja |tsi'bulb| / cebula |tse'bula|

3b) Pskov feature different from Polish

e.g.. 'carrot': borkdn Ibofkanl / marchewka Imafxefka|

3c) Suvalki feature that is Polish but within the possibility o f being non-standard

Russian

e.g., 'too (much, expensive. etc.|': za |za| / za [za|

3d) Suvalki feature that is exactly or almost the same as Polish

e.g.. *s' z't'd' > [c z tc dz|

'where': gde/gdzie |gdze|

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3e) Suvalki variant of a Pskov feature that is exactly or almost the same as Polish

e.g., 'enough': dosyt' |'dositc| / dosyc |'dositc|

'snow': sneg [cnJek| / snieg |cjiek|

'church (not a prayerhouse)': koscel |ko'ctcol| (cf. Pol. koscidf |'koctcuw|)

4.3.2. How a Speaker of Standard Russian (Non-linguist) Usually Perceives Each

of these Features (Working According to a Russian-Polish Dichotomy)

Class Actual origin Perceived How frequent

3b) Russian, but non-standard Polish very frequent

3d) Russian, but perhaps under Polish influence Polish very frequent

2 ) Polish Polish somewhat frequent

3a) Russian, but non-standard Polish somewhat frequent

3c) Polish Polish uncommon

1) Russian Russian rare

Figure 4.2. Perception and attribution o f Erie dialect features by speakers o f Standard Russian.

Keeping in mind the relative frequency o f these and the resulting perception, it

is easy to see how Suvalki Russian, which is fu ll o f Russian features—though non-

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. standard Russian features—can be perceived as being heavily influenced by Polish, or

even as being heard as more Polish than Russian.

4.3.3. A Comparison of Standard Russian, Suvalki Russian, and Polish

The perception mentioned above can be illustrated with a series o f words, such

as the numbers 1-10, which seem to start Russian and finish Polish:

Standard Russian Erie Suvalki Russian Polish

odin |a'dJin| [a'dzin | jeden I'jeden | dva |dva| |dva| dwa |’dva| tri |trji| |trj l l trzy 1‘tfil cetyre |tjji'tirji| |tpe'tir

Figure 4.3. Comparison o f Standard Russian. Erie Suvalki Russian, and Polish pronunciation o f Russian numbers 1-10.

4.3.4. The Linguistic Quadrangle of the Erie Old Believers

The linguistic situation develops into what could be called a "linguistic

quadrangle"—the complication that arises 1) when there are so many codes or

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. substrata within the language, 2 ) when there are outsiders passing uninformed

judgment on the language, and 3) when the language is in a period o f decline in use

and proficiency among its speakers.

Erie Suvalki Russian Polish

Pskov Russian Standard Russian

Figure 4.4. Linguistic quadrangle of the Erie Old Believers.

4.4. Ultimate Effect Created by the Differences between Erie Suvalki Russian and

Standard Russian

The ultimate effect created by the difference between Erie Suvalki Russian and

Standard Russian is that speakers o f Standard Russian perceive the Suvalki Russian of

the Erie Old Believers as being .substandard Russian and a mix o f Russian and Polish.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. They often convey this perception in words and actions. The Erie Old Believers

absorb these comments and even begin perpetuating these beliefs themselves. It is

important to remember that without the comments of outsiders, the Erie Old Believers

would probably not have come to such conclusions o f inferiority , 168 and they might not

even have paid much attention to the differences. The result is rampant low linguistic

self-esteem in the form o f shame and embarrassment based on the belief that their

variant o f Russian is inferior to Standard Russian and that it possibly is not even

Russian. Some people have even quietly come to the "shameful" conclusion that they

are actually ethnically Polish. Their reasoning follows in this manner: "Since our

ancestors came from an area now in Poland and since people say we have so much

Polish in our language, maybe we are really Polish. I have had several people whisper

this to me as a sort of confession of true ethnicity.l(W

The result o f this low self-esteem is a reluctance to speak and the opinion that,

as speakers o f an inferior form o f Russian, they should turn to speakers o f Standard

Russian as their language authorities and models. In a language attitude questionnaire,

most responded that if they were to leam Russian, they would want to learn it from a

professor in college. Most describe their language as "pig Russian " 1 0 or "peasant

Russian"' 1 or "slang,” while the ubiquitous modifier fo r the Standard Russian o f

Russian-speaking visitors is "beautiful." All of this is impetus for even rarer usage.

see Harlow 1998 for such a discussion This usually takes the form o f the comment. "You know, we aren't reallv Russian. W e come from Poland.” • 170 npjg Russian" is a corruption of "pig Latin." 1,1 They also refer to it as "hilly-billy Russian." w ith the intended commentary being that it is substandard and uneducated.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Although the shift from Russian to English has been propelled by many other more

influential factors, this source o f linguistic insecurity has played a large role in the

final stages o f language loss.

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ANALYSIS

5.1. Why Suvalki Russian Could Have Been Maintained

Suvalki Old Believer Russian in Erie, Pennsylvania, is in the last stages o f

language shift to English. With the passing o f the last handful o f speakers and semi

speakers. its Erie lineage w ill cease to exist.

As mentioned in 1.1, there are many overt reasons why the Erie Old Believers

might have maintained Suvalki Russian. Their initial population in Pennsylvania was

relatively large, perhaps numbering several thousand. There was homogeneity and

cohesion among the members o f the community: they came from the same

geographical region and spoke the same or nearly the same dialect, they were

members o f the same branch o f the Old Belief, and they were by and large o f the same

socio-economic level. Longevity runs in many families: many lived and still live into

their eighties and nineties, giving younger generations an opportunity to know their

grandparents and great-grandparents. There was a very high population density of

Russian speakers in the old neighborhood in Erie: houses were inhabited by multiple

Old Believer households, entire blocks were significantly or predominantly Russian,

and they owned and ran some o f the local establishments. They immediately began

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. gathering in homes to worship and were able to found a church w ithin a decade o f the

majority of arrivals: the church became a symbol of their faith, a visible landmark of

their presence in the city, and a feature which drew other Old Believers to Erie. Most

came from the same small area o f northwestern Russia before migrating to Suvalki

and thus shared a common history of three hundred years: during that time they shared

a common lifestyle, common enemies, common pressures, and common internal

religious dilemmas. They had close and large fam ily units: some families boasted ten.

twelve, even fifteen members. They were agriculturalists in Europe, which kept them

in tight, interdependent clans and which gave them a skill and livelihood that could be

put to use in the United States. Their religion prescribed endogamy and had a system

o f penalties and social pressures to enforce it. ail o f which maintained cohesion and

made for strong social and familial bonds. And they came from an isolationist

tradition, rejecting the outside world and outsiders as corrupt, and maintaining

physical and ritual separation from them.

Yet when they arrived and settled in the United States, they did not seek

physical and social separation from non-Old Believers. On the contrary, from the time

of their arrival they worked, lived, and socialized among their non-Old Believer

neighbors.

5.2. Language Maintenance and Shift as a System

The compilation of an inventory of factors which influence language

maintenance and shift (see 1.3) is only the beginning of a study. The linguistic, social,

and physical past and present (see 1.3.1—1.3.3) o f the speech community in question

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considerations. With a full understanding of these (or as full as is possible), an

analysis o f the more complex intersections o f these factors, the "hybrid factors" (see

1.3.4), can be initiated. This analysis is complicated because these factors are less

tangible than the non-hybrids, where the language being maintained meets its new

environment, be it due to an invasion by speakers o f another language, slowly

changing social and economic conditions, or relocation to a new geographic (or even

social) environment. Chapter 2 presents a detailed inventory o f the major and minor

factors specific to the history of the Old Believers and attempts to show how many of

these interrelate.

5.3. A Metaphor for Language Maintenance

When talking to non-linguists about my work. I have tried to find befitting

metaphors to describe language maintenance and shift. One o f the most successful is a

comparison to a game from my childhood made by Milton-Bradley called "Don't

Break the Ice." In the game, a plastic frame supports 33 plastic ice cubes. On the

large middle cube stands a little man made o f red plastic. Using a small plastic

hammer, players take turns knocking out one ice cube at a time. A player loses when

he or she dislodges an ice cube which causes all o f the other cubes and the little red

man to fall. Language maintenance and shift seem to operate much like this. There

are many, many conditions or factors (ice cubes) which "support" the maintenance o f

a language (the little plastic man). In a linguistic environment—be it an immigrant

language amidst a different local language (like the Old Believer Russian dialect

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. amidst the English language in Erie) or a native or historical minority language amidst

a majority language (like Arvanftika in Greece or Hungarian in Austria) or one of two

languages in stable bilingualism (see 1.2.4)—these supporting conditions (e.g.,

education in one's native language, population size and density, native language use in

the workplace, official political status, linguistic pride) may be taken away or

voluntarily given up slowly one by one or quickly many at once. There seems to be a

point at which the plastic man's weight is too great and the support o f the surrounding

ice cubes is not sufficient. A harsh blow from the hammer can bring all o f the ice

cubes crashing down: a gentle tap on a remaining cube may release it, but before the

next player goes, the man slowly begins to sink and then plunges to the table top.

Linguists have described the former as "rapid" or "sudden language death." as when

the members o f a speech community are killed o ff or are threatened with harm for

using a certain language. The latter is called "gradual language loss." which takes

place over longer periods o f time from one generation to several centuries (see Figure

1.1). If ail o f the cubes are in place and no player takes a turn, there is "stable

bilingualism." In Erie, a few key cubes were knocked out early and the rest came soon

after: shift occurred primarily within the first U.S.-bom generation and was largely

completed by the second.

5.4. Most Important Factors Influencing Language Shift in Erie

Although the process and speed o f language shift are influenced by a myriad of

factors, it is possible to identify several factors which played and continue to play

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English in the Erie Old Believer community.

5.4.1. Poverty and Chosen Occupations

The Old Believer immigrants arrived with very little money. It seems that

many came to make money quickly and planned to return to Suvalki (see 2.3). Mining

and dock work provided that possibility. By working as miners and stevedores, they

lived in very close contact with non-Old Believers in boarding houses, ethnically

mixed neighborhoods, and work crews. Whatever remained of their historical

isolationism (see 2.2.2.1) was to a great extent lost in their early years in the United

States. Perhaps this was seen as a temporary sacrifice. In any event, it is worth noting

that few went into farming—the livelihood of many of them in Suvalki—even after

working long enough to raise the capital to buy land and equipment. Perhaps if they

had gone into farming en masse they could have minimized their contact with English-

speaking society, something which the Pennsylvania Germans have done in

Pennsylvania and in Midwestern states. The initial poverty o f the Old Believers also

meant that they did not have the means to establish Russian-language schools or other

organized efforts to preserve their language in an English-speaking world. This too

may not have been considered a necessity if their stay was only to be temporary. The

work that the men chose to do also impacted on the use and survival of Russian. The

seasonal, family-based model o f farming known in Suvalki would have meant much

more time spent together, both at work and at rest. In Erie, long hours o f exhausting

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house for most o f the day and made them tired when they were home.

5.4.2. English as Lingua Franca

English was not just the language of the dominant society, it was the de facto

lingua franca among the many ethnic groups (Poles. Italians, Slovaks, Hungarians.

Lithuanians, etc.) in Erie and in the mines. There were significant numbers of non-

Old Believer speakers o f Russian and Polish, but they were far outnumbered by

speakers of other languages. The Americanization movement and anti-foreign

sentiment o f the late 19th and early 2 0 th centuries could have provided extra impetus

for the use o f English.

English was the language o f work, commerce, socializing, and. most

importantly, education. The use of English in school (see 2.5.8). which accounted for

half o f a child's waking hours, was enough to lead English to replace Suvalki Russian

as the dominant language in all o f the first U.S.-bom Old Believer children. Their

playtime with Old Believer and non-Old Believer children was conducted in English.

Even if they were forced to leave school to earn money for their families, the language

of work for children was English.

5.4.3. Freedom

Paradoxically, the freedom in the United States that allowed the Old Believers

to practice their religion without persecution, as well as to speak Russian and to

organize Russian-language schools if they so chose, was also a factor in their loss o f

their native language. They were no longer viewed as dissidents by the government.

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they had been forced to do that for over half a century in Suvalki. They had lost a

common enemy, the Russian governmental and religious authorities. Persecution and

the perception o f a common enemy can create strong group cohesion and solidarity. A

good measure o f social control can be wielded when the consequence o f disobedience

is expulsion from the group into the cruel, spiritually corrupt world of the persecutors.

When the outside world is not harsh or oppressive and on the contrary offers the

possibility of economic and social mobility, this social control can be easily lost. The

promise o f such offerings by the host culture (and language) can also lead to a drop in

prestige o f that which is native and a rise in prestige in that which is new and o f the

majority.

5.4.4. Non-standard Language and Illiteracy

The status o f Suvalki Old Believer Russian as a non-standard dialect plays an

important role in perceptions of value, prestige, and legitimacy. Their Pskovian

dialect with its elements of Polish influence had no prescribed norms and therefore no

official written form. Many o f its immigrant speakers were illiterate or were literate in

Church Slavonic but not in their spoken language. When children learned to write,

they learned to write English. Most o f those who can write today have only mastered

the printing o f Slavonic letters o f the names o f deceased relatives to be included in

church prayers. Those proficient in script usually learned it in college from teachers

o f Standard Russian. Their language was a source o f derision by speakers o f Standard

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dictionaries, textbooks, and newspapers, and many are apologetic o f it today . 172

5.4.5. Exogamy

The Old Belief prescribes endogamy (see 2.2.2.4). Because o f the "rules o f

separation" (see 2.2.2.4), endogamy was probably logistically d ifficu lt in Erie due to a

relatively limited marriage pool. The same shared history that made them religiously

cohesive and compatible also meant that they had been marrying each other in

Suvalki. Many o f the men who immigrated were brothers and cousins, and clans were

often related by marriage.

Exogamy played a very crucial social role in the shift from Suvalki Russian

(and Church Slavonic) in the Erie Old Believer community. From a linguistic point of

view, observing Old Believer endogamy rules meant marrying someone from another

fam ily o f Suvalki Russian speakers or of a closely related dialect. Adherence to

endogamy was strict in the Suvalki-born immigrant generations. However, schooling

and socializing with non-Old Believers (see 2.5.8 and 2.5.4. respectively) led to

frequent intermarriage in the younger generations. It loosened in the first U.S.-born

generation, especially among younger siblings in large families, though not without

consequences (see 2.5.5.). By the second U.S.-bom generation it was prevalent,

perhaps even the norm. Exogamy usually meant marrying non-Russian speakers.

When this occurred. English always became the language o f the new household and

the language o f communication with new Old Believer in-laws. Children raised in

lt: See Chapter 4 for a full discussion.

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phrases), and the children were often not baptized as Old Believers, further separating

them from the speech community.

5.4.6. The Americanization Movement

As discussed in 2.5.7. the Americanization movement was strong throughout

much o f the 20th century. The turn o f the century saw annual immigration (mostly

from eastern and southern Europe) as high as 1.2 m illion, double the peak o f the

previous wave. This new immigration began to be seen as a social problem (Taylor

1971: 48). Push for Americanization and naturalization was strong. In light o f

growing anti-foreign sentiment, it was safest to be as American as possible. This had

a profound effect on their ethnic identity, as well as on the prestige factor of ethnic

languages. Today, many Erie Old Believers describe themselves as American Old

Believers.

5.4.7. The Cessation of Suvalki Immigration

The Suvalki Old Believer immigration ended with the outbreak of World War I

in 1914; only rarely did Suvalkans come to the United States afterwards. Travel

restrictions under Soviet rule in Lithuania and Poland made it nearly impossible for

those in Europe to visit or emigrate. A few Erie Old Believers were able to make trips

to the Soviet Union, some were able to meet briefly with relatives, but contact was

mainly in the form o f letter-writing, which was often d ifficult and neglected (see

2.5.9). All of this meant that there was no new infusion of native Suvalki Russian

speakers into the Erie speech community. Language authorities were elderly

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later waves o f immigration (see 2.9.1). The language authorities o f the first U.S.-born

generation began to doubt their knowledge and began to defer to the latter who were

usually form ally educated in Russian.

5.5. The Last Straw (or Cube)

Returning to the game metaphor, it is clear that one ice cube after another was

being knocked away. Some say that the final blow to Suvalki Russian came with

World War II (see 2.9.3). Many Old Believer men served in Europe and the Pacific.

The men were away for several years— living with non-Old Believers, shaving, not

keeping fasts or going to church, and not keeping other Russian traditions. Many

respondents said that when these soldiers came back from the war. they came with a

more worldly. American outlook and an attitude o f needing to make up for lost years

of living. The years immediately following the war saw an explosion in affluence

among the Old Believers, and many moved out o f the neighborhood. It marked the

end o f the Russian neighborhood period, as many o f the houses vacated by the Old

Believers were then occupied by non-Russians.

World War II, however, did not cause the loss o f Suvalki Old Believer Russian

in Erie. A t most, it can serve as a convenient historical marker for the endpoint o f the

active transmission of Russian. The very influential and multiple factors listed in 5.4

had already been in full operation for over a generation by the outbreak o f W orld War

II. The first U.S.-bom generation held many speakers o f Suvalki Russian who ranged

in proficiency from partial speakers (who are now rememberers) to fluent speakers

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speakers and who constitute most o f the subjects o f the language interviews. This

generation, as the immigrant language transmission model goes (see 1.2.4), was

overwhelmingly unsuccessful in passing on their heritage language.

There can be an almost endless variety o f ways in which "Don't Break the Ice"

can play out, an almost endless variety o f combinations o f which and how cubes can

be removed successfully or unsuccessfully. For Erie, there was no last cube, no one

factor which caused the ultimate shift to English. There was a "critical mass" o f

factors, namely those detailed in 5.4. Perhaps shift would or would not have taken

place if one or several o f those factors were missing if they had taken up farming or if

they had schooled their children themselves. This is the heart o f the difficulty in

predicting whether shift w ill occur or active attempts at maintenance w ill be

successful. In this way. a comprehensive . elegant theory or a definitive predictive

model o f language maintenance and shift is not likely to be achievable. The facts of

each case are infinitely complex. This is not to say, however, that the study of

language shift is pointless or that there is no value in constructing general frameworks

o f the nature o f shift such as the one described here.

5.6. Language Preservation and Documentation

The research reported on here is part of an on-going research project covering

the areas o f dialect description and general history o f the community. Materials from

the language interviews are presently being compiled into a dictionary entitled A

lexicon of the Russian Old Believers o f Erie, Pennsylvania. The dialect chapter is

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Old Believers (both forthcoming).173 The other three Old Believer communities in the

eastern United States make fo r an important point o f comparison with Erie, and part o f

the ultimate overall project w ill be similar research in these other communities.174

5.7. Language Revival

Under present conditions, there is no possibility o f the revival o f Suvalki

Russian in Erie since there is no clear language authority fo r Suvalki Russian, no

leader o f a movement to preserve Suvalki Russian, no written grammar or lexicon, and

no sense that its revival is even desired. It is even hardly necessary to point out that

there is no organizational infrastructure (such as language schools or a curriculum) to

support attempts at preservation. Some members o f the oldest generation have a

nostalgia for the use and sound of Russian, but many o f them when asked by whom

they would want to be taught if they were to learn Russian said that they would want a

university professor (ostensibly teaching them "proper Russian." i.e.. Standard

Russian). Negative attitude within the community (and also among outsiders with

whom they have contact) toward the Suvalki Old Believer dialect is so strong and

prevalent that any revival o f a variant o f Russian would most likely involve Standard

Russian as the basis and not Suvalki Russian. This raises the question o f whether this

would constitute language revival in any legitimate sense or merely the substitution of

1 J I am also continuing my investigation of their American and European history. In particular. I am interested in making genealogical connections with Old Believers in present-day Lithuania and Poland in order to study linguistic and cultural similarities. 1 4 I have made several contacts in each community and hope to visit all three within the next two years.

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identity but not o f the language itself. Thus, Suvalki Old Believer Russian is at the

end o f its existence in Erie.

This has implications for other communities which use Suvalki Old Believer

Russian. There are still small communities (sometimes only small clusters of elderly

speakers) in Suvalki, Masuria, and Lithuania. They are now facing the same problems

that Erie. Marianna, M illville , and Detroit faced several decades ago. The younger

generations grow up speaking the local dominant language and leave their traditional

villages for jobs in the cities, returning only on major holy days or for family events.

Grandparents speak to their grandchildren in Russian, and the grandchildren respond

in the dominant language (when they understand at all). Some grandparents are slow

to admit that their children and grandchildren do not have fu ll or even partial

proficiency in Russian. The Erie Old Believers left Suvalki (and its Russian/Slavic

speaking environment) one to two generations before W orld War II. when many o f the

Old Believers who remained in Suvalki were forced to leave. W ith new and recent

forces of assimilation, industrialization, urbanization, mass communication, and

globalization at play, the Suvalki Old Believers in Poland, Lithuania, and the United

States find themselves under similar pressure to survive, preserve, and adapt. With

indications that Suvalki Russian is not being fu lly transmitted to the younger

generations in Poland and Lithuania and that these speech communities are shrinking

from out-migration and intermarriage with non-Old Believers, the ultimate chance for

survival o f Suvalki Russian in Europe is precarious at best. W ith its loss, the eastern

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language from its source. Most indications show that even such an infusion would be

unsuccessful. As is mentioned in 2.6, one such experiment in Detroit met with failure

due to the disconnect between the nastavnik brought from Suvalki and the younger.

English-speaking. American-born parishioners.

Little attention from linguists is paid to the Suvalki Old Believers now in

western Lithuania. Linguists studying Old Believer dialects in Lithuania have

preferred to focus their attention on the Old Believers who arrived in the century or so

after the schism rather than on those who arrived during the first half o f the 20th

century, viewing the former as "purer" subjects who do not have the layer o f Polish

history which complicates analysis. Polish scholars, likewise, have tended to focus on

long-time, sessile Old Believer communities in Poland, the exception being the work

done on the influence o f Prussian and German forces on the Suvalki transplants in

Masuria.

It is hoped that the dissemination o f the present research w ill fill the gap in

information available on the Old Believers in the eastern United States and w ill

stimulate interest in comparative studies o f Suvalki Old Believers in Suvalki and in

diaspora. There is much to learn about the course and fate of the language and culture

o f this unique group.

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CYRILLIC-LATIN TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM

Cyrillic Scholarly Cyrillic Scholarly a a P r 0 b c s B V T t r IT y u a d ct> f e e XX e e u c JK z H c 3 z IU s H i m sc II H j T» K k bl y JI I b f M m 3 e H n K> ju 0 o H ja n .P.______

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LANGUAGE INTERVIEW WORD LIST

FOODS bean drink, beverage cabbage tea tomato beer turnip vodka potato wine beet homemade wine/braga squash homemade root beer/kvas peas homemade alcohol onion coffee carrot m ilk mushroom water garlic dessert horseradish cake meat pie chicken Easter cake eggs Easter cheese (not native) fish crepe pork nut roll beef pastry with cottage cheese soup inside/skanets, skantsy beet soup spices, seasonings cabbage soup (black) pepper appetizers salt caviar fruit pickle apple salad cherry lemon ice peach sugar pear vinegar plum flour banana jam, jelly, pre vegetable bread

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. nineteen twenty COLORS / TEXTURES / thirty SHAPES forty red fifty blue sixty dark blue seventy yellow eighty white ninety black hundred green two hundred brown three hundred pink four hundred orange five hundred purple thousand light (o f a color) two thousand dark (of a color) five thousand gold two (of something) silver three (of something) gray four (of something) gray (of hair) five (of something) big six (of something) small seven (o f something) long eight (of something) short (of hair, road) nine (o f something) low ten (o f something) high the number one thick the number two hot (o f water) the number three hot (of air) the number four warm the number five cold the number six sharp (o f a knife) the number seven soft the number eight hard the number nine rough the number ten half QUESTION WORDS a quarter question one and a half who what ALPHABET when alphabet where (Slavonic letter names: az. why buki. v e d i,...) how

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OTHER THINGS ARO UND THE HOUSE thing soap something paper nothing key anything cigarettes no one tobacco anyone telephone radio C O M M ANDS record player Sit down! record Stand up! house Get up!/Wake up! room Go over there! outhouse Go away! bathroom Come here! bedroom Eat! kitchen Drink! cellar Give it to me! door Leave me alone! floor Help me! wall Listen! ceiling Be quiet! carpet Stand still! (in church) rug fireplace

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. MEASUREMENTS OF frequently/often TIME, SPACE, sometimes VOLUME. WEIGHT, rarely QUANTITY never Monday anew Tuesday again, once more Wednesday once/one time Thursday twice Friday five times Saturday a lot Sunday a little tomorrow little day after tomorrow enough today too much yesterday not enough day before yesterday a handful January a piece o f February a slice of March fu ll April empty May many June none July some/a few August all (of it) September long ago October recently November early December late time second RELATIONS minute grandmother hour grandfather (of each) day aunt week uncle month son:sons year daughter, daughters century child: children day mother night father evening brother: brothers morning sister: sisters afternoon godmother always godfather usually godchild

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Once upon a time elbow I speak a little Russian ankle I don't speak Russian well wrist I don't understand skull I don't know backbone lung(s) LANGUAGE liver in English kidney! s) in Russian heart in Polish stomach brain BODY PARTS, ORGANS hom(s) (HUMANS. ANIMALS) hoof head beak hand; hands wing foot; feet claw throat tail finger; fingers fin knee; knees neck ANIMALS / INSECTS / hair; one strand o f hair ETC. tongue cat eye:eyes dog nose horse cheek: cheeks pig ear: ears cow beard bull moustache calf hair braid hen. chicken back; spine rooster belly, stomach chicken mouth goose tooth; teeth sheep breast(s) lamb behind goat blood deer tear(s) rabbit bone s q u ir r e l shoulder( s) mouse palm rat chest w olf fingernail fo x lip: lips bear navel bird

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LANGUAGE USE AND ATTITUDE SURVEY

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Answer these questions based on your knowledge and memories. Please do not ask others to help you answer questions. If you do not know an answer, check the "Do not know" box. Parents may help their children fill out the form, but only to explain the questions if necessary. Completed surveys should be returned to the church.

I. PERSONAL INFORMATION AND HISTORY

Your fu ll nam e: ______

Your maiden name (if married or widowed)

Your sex: male female

Your date of birth (month, day. year): ____

Your place o f b irth : ______‘Cll\ ) 'vUto iwi'unin. il n«*i LSi

Your current address: ______

Years lived at current address: ______Years lived in present community:

Other members o f household and their ages in years: ______

Education Your general education |circle highest level achie\ed|:

No formal schooling Attending/incomplete high school High school diploma

Technical school bcvond high school Attending college College degree

Language Education Age at which you started learning the following languages at home or elsewhere (circle one per language!:

English: never at birth 3-6 years 6-11 y ears 12-19 years alter 19 years

Russian: never at birth 3-6 years 6-11 years 12-19 years after 19 years

Slavonic: never at birth 3-6 vears 6-11 v ears 12-19 v ears after 19 vears

Your formal Russian language education (as a foreign language in school and/or college):

Number of vears: ______W here: ______

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Language History Check one box per answer V o No I learned some Russian at home.

1 learned some Russian in church school.

1 learned some Slavonic at home.

I learned some Slavonic in church school.

1 was taught to read Slavonic.

I was taught to sing Slavonic.

1 have attended a Russian class in the past.

1 am attending a Russian class at present.

1 am attending a Slavonic class at present.

Religion Your religious background [check onc|:

Old Believer by heritage

Old Believer convert (year of conversion: ______I

child or grandchild of convert!s) to the Old Belief

o th e r (please specify ) ______

Your church affiliation (name of church: city. state): ______

Friends and Neighbors V o N o 11 NO. w h o ' I have Russian-speaking neighbors.

1 have friends in my community or elsewhere who speak only Russian. I have friends in my community who speak predominantly Russian.

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Y e * N o If so. w ho’ I am acquainted with professional people whose native language is Russian. I have lived in an area where Russian was the everyday language o f a m ajority o f the people.

Interests Agree Agree Uncertain Disagree Disagree sinmglv stronglv Education is one o f my major interests.

Occupational success is one o f my major interests.

Finding Russian friends is one of my major interests. Religion is one o f my major interests.

I am interested in traveling to places in central or eastern Europe where other O ld Believers live or used to live.

Travel Y e . [t so. w here ' I have visited Russia or central/eastern Europe.

I visited Russia or central/eastern Europe in the recent past. A member o f my household has visited Russia or central/eastern Europe in the recent past. Someone from Russia or central/eastern Europe has visited my household in the recent past.

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II. FAMILY INFORMATION AND HISTORY Please try to fill out as much inform ation as you can. Approxim ate dates are better than no dates. Place a question mark if you do not know and cannot find the information.

Nome tu ith maiden name il Y e a r .* F lau e < tl Arrival >car Languages spoken w id tm c d o r divorced) birth birth t c m . in L' S it (English. Russian, other) state, countrv) im m igran t M y mother

Her mother

Her father

My father

His mother

His father

My spouse

My spouse’s mother

My spouse’s father

How many children that your mother bore (including yourself) lived to reach 18 years of age?

O f those children, how many married into Old Believer families?

\grec A grcc L nccrtain Disagree Disagree stnw uh stnmelv 1 am/was close to my parents (i.e.. spend/spent time with). 1 am close to my cousins, uncles, and aunts (i.e.. spend/spent lime with). I am/was close to my grandparents (i.e.. spend spent time with).

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III. PERSONAL IDENTITY

Religious Identity How do you describe/refer to your religious identity'.’ [Check one|

Russian Old Believer

American Old Believer

American Russian Old Believer

Old Believer

not an Old Believer anymore

some other combination: __

Ethnic Identity Do you consider yourself Russian?

A Russian-American?

Do you feel more like [circle one|: a Russian an American both equally

Do you consider yourself of another heritage in addition to Russian and American? yes no

if yes. w h ich? ______

Do you belong to an organization primarily for Russians? If so. which?

\lw a \*» t.MUlh Ottcn Sometime* S e ve r n«'i applv I eat typically Russian foods.

1 wear authentic Russian-style clothes to church.

1 go to see Russian performances.

1 have Russian items at home (nesting dolls, artwork, lace, painted wooden spoons, etc.). When 1 am speaking English. I try to pronounce Russian words with a Russian accent (like Pascha.

podruchnik. lestovkaI. When I use people's baptismal names. I use the Russian pronunciation. When I submit the names of relatives to the nastavnik for prayers. I vvrite them in Cy rillic. When people ask about the origins o f my last name or family history. 1 explain that I am Russian.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 Agree Agree Ncuiral Disagree Disagree Uncertain Htronelv sirongiv I thin k I might be happier living in Russia or Eastern Eurooe. M ost o f my good friends are o f Russian ancestry.

IV. COMMUNITY IDENTITY

O ur church is...

a Russian Old Believer church

an American Old Believer church

a Russian-American Old Believer church

an Old Believer church

none o f these

Verv Strung Okas Weak kcr> 1 Jo not know D« *cn n* »t sin weak applv 1 feel that the sense of community in our church is... I feel that our Old Believer community is...

Xgrcc \grcc Neutral Divigrcc Strong!) 1 Jo not know D«cn not Niionuis J iv m c c applv 1 think that being Russian-American is different from being another kind of American. 1 think that being a Russian Old Believer is different from being another kind of Russian. I think that being a Russian Old Believer is different from being another kind of American. I think that it is important that O ld Believers living in our community preserve their customs and traditions. Some Russian immigrants or Russian- Americans place too much emphasis on bcinfi Russian.

V. PAST AND PRESENT USE

Past—Home, School, Church Was Russian the dominant language used in >our home? yes no

If yes. during what years? ______

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When you were a child did you speak Russian: (Note: If you are still a child, please skip this box.) Aluuv** LMuJh Oltcti S om cum o N c \c r Oitl jppl> to your parents?

to your grandparents?

to your older sisters and brothers?

to your younger sisters and brothers?

to your aunts and uncles?

to your cousins?

to household pels?

to some o f your friends?

to your classmates in school (the ones who spoke Russian)? to your classmates on the school play ground (the ones who spoke Russian)? when pay ing social visits?

to the nastav nik o f the church when socializing? to the nastavnik o f the church w hen confessing? when praying at home?

when praying at church?

Do you speak Russian now more or less than you did...

M it r e T h e v jm c L e w E>«cn n i’t jp o lv ten years ago?

twenty years ago?

thirty years ago?

forty years ago .’

fifty years ago?

sixty y ears ago?

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Past—Dating Place a check in the box that best answers the following question. (NOTE: If you have never been married, please skip this section.)

Before you were married, did you speak Russian: A |w u \s Usually Often SomcUmo Never D i* * not jp p U with your future spouse while you were courting? with your future in-laws?

with other boyfriends/girlfriends before you got married?

Present—Home, School. Church How often do you speak Russian now? throughout the day every day

a little every day

several times a week

once a w eek

once a month

only on certain occasions such as ______

never

What is the dominant language used in your home now?

Do you now speak Russian: \1 \V JV S Usually Oticn Sometimes Never nm apply to either parent, if still alive?

to any grandparents, if still alive?

to your older sisters and brothers?

to your y ounger sisters and brothers?

to your aunts and uncles?

to your cousins?

to your spouse?

to your in-laws, if still alive?

to your children?

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A lu a \s L'suailv Often Sometime* Sever Doe* ru>( jp p lv to your grandchildren?

to household pets?

to the people with whom you went to school?

to some o f your friends?

to the nastavnik of the church when socializing? to the nastavnik of the church when confessing? when pray ing at home'.’

when pray ing at church?

when paying social \ isits?

Alwav> L m u II v Often Sometime* Never I J o not engage in th» oetivitv at ail 1 listen to Russian music broadcasts (on TV. the radio, or the Internet). I listen to Russian news broadcasts (on T V . the radio, or the Internet). 1 watch Russian cable television broadcasts.

I listen to recorded Russian music (CDs. records, cassettes). 1 read the Bible and prayerbook in Slavonic.

1 read books written in Russian.

I use Russian in w riting letters.

I use Russian with my fellow workers.

1 use Russian with my boss o r superiors.

I think in Russian.

1 dream in Russian.

1 curse in Russian.

I count in Russian.

I sing Russian songs in Russian.

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Alwaxs L'h iu IIv O ticn Sometimes Nexcr 1 d»> not engage in thi> acUMtx at ail 1 make telephone calls in Russian.

I discuss local affairs in Russian.

I discuss national affairs in Russian.

I discuss religion in Russian.

I discuss sports in Russian.

1 discuss finances in Russian.

1 discuss health in Russian.

1 use Russian to keep other people from knowing what I'm saying. 1 speak Russian with family members.

Church—Past, Present and Future In what language were you baptized'.’ ______

In what language were you m arried?______

In what language are your church services conducted'.’ ______

Why do you attend sen ices in that language'.’ ______

In what language(s) you want your funeral serv ice to be? ______

What language!s) do you want on your gravestone? ______

Work Are there any people at your work or school who know how to speak Russian'.’ yes no

If yes. in w hat language do you talk with them? Russian English both

Give an example of when you have spoken Russian with them. What did the English-only speakers who were around say w hen that happened?

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The language o f instruction at my parents' schools was...

The language used at the school where I sent my children is/was...

Relatives in Europe Have you ever received letters from relatives in Europe (Poland. Russia. Lithuania, etc.)'.’ yes no If yes. from whom ? ______

Do you still get them ? yes no

In what language(s) do they w rite letters to you'?

English Russian Polish Lithuanian Latvian Belarusian other

Are you able to read the letters'? yes no

If you answered "no” , what do you do to read them ? ______

What language(s) do you use when you write back'? ______

What relatives are still in Europe that you know of'? ______

Friends and Others For each statement, mark as many as apply:

In this situation: I speak:

Russian Slavonic English V m t\ N .'l applicable With friends

With Old Believer neighbors

With non-OB neighbors who know Russian W ith my best friend

When I speak about something private with a friend With Old Believer co-workers

With a young Old Believer child

When telling jokes

When singing at home

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In this situation: I speak:

Russian Slavonic English A mix N«K applicable When shopping

When meeting someone new at church When arguing

Always Usually Otten Sometimes Never 1 Jo not engage m this activity at all I try to find others to speak Russian with.

1 practice speaking Russian with myself.

I speak Russian to my mother and to other females o f Russian descent. 1 speak Russian to my father and to other males o f Russian descent. 1 speak Russian to most Russian-American friends mv age. 1 primarily speak Russian to any Russian friends who know both Russian and English. I speak Russian when 1 get emotional or upset w ith a Russian-speaking friend or relative. 1 speak Russian to my parents when I want them to do me a favor. 1 speak Russian to my grandparents w hen 1 want them to do me a favor. 1 speak Russian to my children when 1 want them to do me a favor. 1 speak Russian only if the other person addresses me in Russian. I speak Russian w ith O ld Believers from other communities. I speak Russian when 1 become very friendly or fam iliar w ith another Russian speaker. There are people w ith w hom 1 try to speak a "better" kind of Russian. I read Russian publications (newspapers, magazines, church bulletins). 1 attend church serv ices in Russian/Slavonic.

I attend worship services in English.

I read the Bible in Slavonic.

1 write poems, songs, o r stories in Russian.

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A lu a \s L'suallv O ften Sometimes S c 'c r 1 Jo not engage tn this •urtiwtv d ia l! I rent videos in Russian.

• ■ “? 1 ; If I came across a Russian-looking individual for the first time, 1 would speak to him/her in Russian i f the "/XT’ -:-V ‘-'V-' ■_ person were: my age or younger

a child

older than me

a visiting Old Believer

a nastavnik

------— —— —— ------a visiting musician or dancer

I would like to watch Russian TV programs if they w ere made available. 1 would listen to Russian radio programs if thev were made available. I would read Russian newspapers if thev were made available. I would rent Russian v ideos if they were made available.

Open-Ended Questions Are there any people whom you always address in Russian? yes no

If so. w hom ? ______

A t what age does one start learning Russian in the Old Believer com m unity. if ever?

At what age does one start learning Slavonic in the Old Believer community , if ever?

With w hom do you speak Russian, if ever? ______

When was the last lime you spoke Russian for an extended period of lime?

In what situations not mentioned above do you speak Russian? ______

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Language History Place a check mark to indicate your answer. You can check multiple boxes per question (both "Russian/Slavonic” and "English", if applicable). If you do not know, put a question mark.

What is/was your language... Dxvn not appl>English

Of praye r now?

20 vears ago?

40 years ago? Between familv members: ii mmmm now

20 years ago?

40 years ago?

A t church: . . - 'ii' 1 now?

20 years ago?

40 years ago'.’

At church activities and celebrations: now?

40 years ago'.’

On church holidays: now?

20 years ago'.’

40 vears aeo?

What was/is/will be the language... Russian slavttnic English 0>c> not jppl> Between your parents?

Between your maternal grandparents?

Between your paternal grandparents?

O f your parents' wedding?

Of your child's baptism?

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Ruvtian Slavonic English D u o not applv Of your child's wedding?

Accessibility of Russian If you wanted to find (borrow or buy) the following, could you? Where? Do you own anv of them'? Y cn. Where ’ Do \ou N o ow n'* Books in Russian

Magazines in Russian

Newspapers in Russian

Music sung in Russian

Russian cable/satellite TV broadcast

Russian radio broadcasts

Russian movies

Russian language learning tapes or software A Russian dictionary

A book on Russian grammar

A book on Slav onic

Have you ever tried to find or read Russian Internet sites in Russian? yes no

If yes. what was the content? (for example, news, culture, personal homepages, etc.)

VI. PROFICIENCY PERCEPTION

Self-Evaluation of Language Proficiency Place a check to the left of any of the statements below that apply to you:

I understand the kind of Russian that my Russian ancestors spoke. Does not apply. Not at ail. Only a few words here and there. Enough to get the general idea o f what they're say ing. Quite w ell if I know in advance w hat the topic of their conversation is. Quite well if I have a chance to listen to it for a good few minutes and can get used to it. Pretty well. W ithout any trouble at all.

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I understand other kinds o f Russian, for example the Russian spoken in Moscow. Does not apply. Not at all. O nly a few words here and there. Enough to get the general idea of what they're saying. Quite well if I know in advance what the topic of their conversation is. Quite well if I have a chance to listen to it for a good few minutes and can get used to it. Pretty well. Without any trouble at all.

In which language do you express yourself (can you bring out your thoughts) best in? ______

Using the following scale, answer the following questions. Circle only one answer. 1 = Perfectly, as well as any native 2 = Very well, but not perfectly 3 = Moderately well 4 = Not very well 5 = Very poorly 6 = Not at all

Describe how well you speak English: 1 2 3 4 3 6

Describe how well you understand English: 1 -> 3 4 5 6

If you had to describe how well you speak Russian: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well you understand Russian: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well you read aloud and sing Slavonic: 1 2 3 4 3 6

Describe how well you understand Slavonic: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well others your age speak English: 1 2 3 4 3 6

Describe how well others your age understand English: 1 3 4 3 6

Describe how well others your age speak Russian: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well others your age understand Russian: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well others your age understand Slavonic: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well others your age read aloud and sing Slavonic: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well the generation younger than you speaks English: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well the generation younger than you understands English: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well the generation younger than you speaks Russian: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well the generation younger than you understands Russian: 1 2 3 4 3 6

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Describe how well the generation younger than you understands Slavonic: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Describe how well the generation younger than you sings and reads I 2 3 4 5 6 Slavonic:

Describe how well the young adult generation speaks English: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well the young adult generation understands English: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well the young adult generation speaks Russian: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well the young adult generation understands Russian: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Describe how well the young adult generation understands Slavonic: 1 2 4 5 6

Describe how well the young adult generation sings and reads Slavonic: 1 2 3 4 5 6

What percent of church serv ices conducted in Slavonic do vou understand completely'.’ r/c

Do you fed you spoke Russian better when you were younger'.’ yes no

At what age do you feel you spoke Russian best'.’ at age ______years old

If you had to. do you thin k you could speak only in Russian for an enure day'.’ yes no

Who, in your opinion, is/are the Russian "authority'authorities" in your community I in other words, the person or persons who know it and speak it the best) .’ Please provide first and last names.

Who else in your community speaks Russian well'.’

\£ICC \irrcc I tKeruin Dougrcc Divorce 'trtmk’1% yintfitfls In 50 years, people in our community w ill speak Russian In 50 years, people in our community will understand Slavonic.

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V II. LANGUAGE ATTITUDES

Russian Bilinguals' Section

Instructions: If you speak or know some Russian, answer the following questions. If not, skip to the next section ("Slavonic Bilinguals' Section"). When answering the questions below, put a check in a box to the left of the question to identify whether you feel the reason is Very important. Important or Not important. Put a star to the left o f the most important one or two. When you are done, skip to the section after the Monolinguals' Section

The main reasons that I'm glad I know/can speak Russian are: Vcr\ important Important Sot important Russian is the language of my ancestors.

It is broadening to have more than one language.

I can enjoy Russian music belter.

Russian is a very rich and expressive language.

No one can understand the Old Belief properly without Russian.

It makes me feel more a part of the community I live in.

It is useful to have a ''secret language" that not every one else understands. The Old Believers always spoke Russian and I'm keeping that tradition alive. It is the language of my friends and neighbors.

1 can understand the Russian programs that are broadcast on the radio o r telev ision. 1 can talk to people from other parts o f Russia in Russian.

Russian is a beautiful language to hear and speak.

1 can read books and magazines in Russian.

It is the language o f my close fam ily.

If your main reasons are not given above, please w rite them here:

END OF RUSSIAN BILINGUAL'S SECTION. PROCEED TO THE "SLAVONIC BILINGUALS' SECTION'.

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Slavonic Bilinguals' Section

Instructions: I f you know some Slavonic, answer the following questions. I f not, skip to the next section f'Monolinguals' Section"). When answering the questions below, pul a check in a box to the left of the question to identify whether you feel the reason is Very important. Important or Not important. Put a star to the left o f the most important one or two. When you are done, skip to the section after the "Vlonolinguals' Section".

The main reasons that I’m glad I know/can speak Slavonic are: Vcn important Important N*>t important My ancestors knew Slavonic.

No one can understand the Old Belief properly without Slavonic.

It makes me feel more a part o f the community 1 live in.

1 can read in Slavonic the Bible and prayerbook.

The Old Belief was always practiced in Slavonic and I'm keeping that tradition alive. Other people in my community know it.

Slavonic is a beautiful language to hear and sing.

If \o u r main reasons are not given above, please write them here:

END OF SLAVONIC BILINGUALS' SECTION. SKIP TO THE SECTION AFTER THE "ENGLISH MONOLINGUALS' SECTION

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Instructions: If you dfi not speak or know some Russian, answer the following questions. When answering the questions below, put a check in a box to the left of the question to identify whether you feel the reason is Very important. Important or Mot important. Put a star to the left of the most important one or two.

If I were ever to learn Russian, my main reasons would be: Vcn tmpuruni Impnrum Not impnrunt Some or all o f my ancestors were Russian.

It is broadening to have more than one language.

1 w ould be able to enjoy Russian music better.

Russian is a very rich and expressive language.

No one can understand the Old Belief properly without Russian or Slavonic. It would make me feel more a part of the community 1 live in.

1 would be able to read books in Russian or Slavonic, fo r example, the Bible or Russian poeirv. It is useful to have a "secret language" that not every one else understands. O ld Believers spoke Russian in the past, and I would be helping to keep that tradition alive. Some o f my friends and neighbors speak Russian.

1 would be able to understand Russian programs that are broadcast on the radio or television. I would be able to talk to people from Russia in their ow n language. Russian is a beautiful language to hear and speak.

If your main reasons are not given above, please w rite them here:

If you were to learn Russian, where would you want to leam it and from whom? (At a university from a professor? A t home from relatives? A t church from an older member o f the community ? In special classes in our city ? From Russian immigrants new to your city?)

Please place a check beside the O NE o f the follow ing statements w hich applies.

I would like to leam some Russian some day. I have no thought o f ever try ing to leam Russian.

END OF MONOLINGU ALS' SECTION

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A l u a \ \ LsuaJlv Ol ten S om etim e* Nc%cr O v n n m jp p H I prefer to speak Russian to local people older than mvself. 1 prefer to speak Russian to local people of about the same age as mvself. I prefer to speak Russian to local people vounger than myself if thev have Russian. 1 prefer to speak Russian only if the other person addresses me in Russian. I prefer to have church serv ices in English. 1 prefer to have church services in Slavonic.

A gree A gree Uncertain Disagree D isa g r e e x im n clv «*troni:l\ 1 like to hear Russian spoken.

We should work hard to save the Russian language.

Since all the Old Believers in our community know English, it is a waste o f time to know Russian. Russian is a difficult language to leam.

There are far more useful things to spend time on than Russian. Russian is a language worth learning.

Slavonic is a language worth learning.

Russian has no value in the modem world.

Slavonic has no value in the modem world.

1 would like to be able to understand services in Slavonic. Anyone who learns Russian w ill have plentv of chances to use it. There is no need to keep up Russian fo r the sake of tradition. There is no need to keep up Slavonic fo r the sake o f tradition. I would like to be able to read Russian books.

1 would like to be able to read the Bible in Slavonic.

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Reproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 22 Agree Agree Uncertain Disagree Disagree strongiv stnm gl\ Speaking Russian will not help you get a job.

Learning Russian or not should be left to a person's own choice. We owe it to our forefathers to keep Russian alive.

We owe it to our forefathers to keep Slavonic alive. 1 would like to be able to understand Russian songs, radio, television, and performances. School time should be used fo r more practical subjects than Russian. Russian has a unique beauty.

Slavonic has a unique beauty.

It is looking backward instead of forward to try to keep Russian alive. It is looking backward instead o f forward to try to keep Slavonic alive. More radio and television time should be given to Russian.

Agree Agree Uncertain Disagree Disagree stronglY sin’nelv English should be taught in all countries.

Old Believers should speak Russian and not English. English w ill take you farther in life than Russian.

English is a beautiful language.

English is better for study ing scientific subjects than Russian. You are considered to belong to a lower class if you speak Russian. People who do not want to leam Russian or Slavonic should not convert to the Old Belief. Russian w ill become less important in our community in the future. We need Russian in order to be able to welcome Russian-speaking Old Believer visitors to our community.

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Agree Agree Uncertain Disagree Disagree strungK stnmulv Russian is not flexible enough to meet contemporary needs. Russian should be preserved because it gives variety to social life in the community. Russian offers no practical advantages in life.

There should be greater use of Russian in the church and public life. The preservation o f Russian is an unrealistic idea.

Home bilingualism is an intellectual advantage.

Home bilingualism is a cultural advantage.

School-learned bilingualism should be encouraged, that is. foreign languages should be taught. Russian should be taught in all the primary schools in our community . Russian should be taught in all the secondary schools in our community . Russian should be an optional subject fo r all the schoolchildren in our community, regardless of their heritage. Russian should be taught only in districts w ith a strongly Russian-speaking population. I believe some or all young people in our community do not w ant to speak Russian.

Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Stronglv Uncertain stn>ni:i\ Jisaercc I think that it is necessary for someone to speak Russian to be a true O ld Believer. 1 think that it is necessary for someone to know Slavonic to be a true O ld Believer.

General Attitudes Does (or did) anyone ever speak to you in Russian, even if you do not understand Russian? yes no

How does/did that make you feel? ______

Do you ever avoid using Russian? yes no

If yes. when? ______

Are there some things that sound better in English or Slavonic? Are there some things that just sound better in Russian? If yes. give an example.

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Is ii considered im polite to use Russian around people who do not speak it'? yes no

Did your parents/grandparents consider it impolite? yes no

Agree Agree L nccrUtn Disagree Disagree >irongl\ sinm gk

Many Americans have a negative opinion of Russians. 1 feel as much at home around Russians as around Americans. When I have children. I want them to speak Russian fluently. When I have children. I want them to speak English fluenllv. I prefer to speak Russian.

I prefer to speak English.

I feel more comfortable speaking English.

I feel more comfortable speaking Russian.

You cannot be a real Old Believer without speaking Russian. Russians in the IJS should be allowed to speak only Russian.

Do you ever switch in the middle o f a conversation from English to Russian and vice versa? yes no

Do you use Russian words sometimes w hen you speak English? yes no

If so. why do you think you do that? How do you feel about doing that?

Future—Home, School, Church Place a check in the box that best answers the follow ing questions.

In the future, do you think that you w ill speak Russian: Ahv a\s LsuaJI} Oltcn Sometimes Ne'er Will n«u appk to either parent, if still alive?

to any grandparents, if still alive?

to your older sisters and brothers?

to your younger sisters and brothers?

to your aunts and uncles?

to your cousins?

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L \u a ll> Ot ten Sometime* Ne\cr W ill n ot j p p i\ to your spouse?

to your in-laws, if still alive?

to your children?

to your grandchildren?

to household pets?

to the people with whom you went to school?

to some of your friends?

to the nastavnik of the church when socializing? to the nastavnik of the church when confessing? when praying at home?

when praying at church?

when paying social visits?

Hypothetical Questions Instructions: Please answer the follow ing purely h\ pothetical questions with either Yes or No. These are purely hypothetical! Y o So W ould you agree to participate in a small-group discussion, w ith other persons o f Russian origin in your community, on the topic of improving your command of the Russian language and Russian culture? Would you agree to have as your roommate in college or a housemate/boarder a person of Russian origin who preferred to speak Russian? W ould you agree to spend a weekend w ith a person of Russian ancestry in your com m unity who wanted to discuss with you how to improve your command of Russian language and Russian culture? Would you agree to join a club for people of Russian origin in your community who are interested in improving their command of Russian language and Russian culture? W ould you agree to attend a lecture or conference on the topic of how persons o f Russian ancestry in your community can improve their command of Russian language and Russian culture? Would you agree to attend a meeting of a local chapter of a Russian-American organization for the strengthening of the use of the Russian language in vour community? Would you. if asked, agree to contribute money to help finance the activities of a Russian- American organization for the strengthening of the use of the Russian language in your community?

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Your Children's Future Languages What language(s) do you want your children to know?

only English

English and Russian

English and Slavonic

English. Russian, and Slavonic

Another foreign language like Spanish. German, or Polish?

Why was that your answer? ______

Russian versus Slavonic Is there a big difference between Russian and Slavonic? yes no

is there a big difference in their ______Vc% S o pronunciation?

vocabulary?

ongin?

style?

difficulty?

If you can understand one. can you basically understand the other? yes no

How do y ou explain to people the difference between Russian and Slavonic? ______

Confidence in Russian V c n \ [title Neutral Not ver> N u t at ali D* c v nut applN

I am shy about speaking Russian in general.

1 am shy about speaking Russian around native speakers. 1 am shy about speaking Russian in front of relatives, like my grandparents. 1 am shy about speaking Russian in front of others at church.

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If yes. what is/was their relation to you'? ______

If yes. what was their attitude toward it (proud, ashamed, shy. neutral, etc.)'? ______

Did any o f your older relatives have a Russian accent'? yes no

If yes, what was their attitude toward it (proud, ashamed, shy. neutral, etc.)'? ______

How did you feel about it when they spoke in front of your non-Russian friends (proud, ashamed, shy. neutral, etc.)'?

The Type o f Russian in Your Community Agree Ag fC C L'nccrtam Divjgrec D rv tg rc c [ J o not stro n g lv know The type of Russian people in our community speak is not like the Russian spoken in Moscow. The type of Russian people in our community speak is inferior to the Russian spoken in Moscow.

If you speak or know some ora lot of Russian, describe the type of Russian. Is it educated, literary Russian ?

Have y ou ever felt ashamed of the type of Russian that you speak ? Did or does it prevent you from speaking it to people ? Did your parents or grandparents feel the same? Elaborate if possible.

Language Pride Are there any disadvantages to being a speaker of Russian'? If yes. what are they'? Why or why not ?

A grce \grcc LnccrLun D isagree D isagree s in m e h Russian is fun to speak.

I enjoy singing in Slavonic more than in English.

I feel more emotionally comforted singing in Slavonic.

I feel ashamed that 1 do not know Russian better.

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1 would understand the Old Belief better if I knew Slavonic and Russian better. 1 wish more people could speak Russian well.

Has being a Russian speaker caused problems for you: V o Nt. S .* applicable during a w orld war'?

during the Cold War ?

with your children'?

with your in-laws'?

at work'?

with non-Old Believer or non-Russian friends?

in school'?

now'?

If you answered yes lo any. please explain.

THIS IS THE END OF THE SURVEY. THANK YOU IMMENSELY FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION. PATIENCE, AND TIME. I LOOK FORWARD TO SHARING THE RESULTS WITH YOU.

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