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Heretics and Colonizers:Forging Russia's Empire in the South Caucasusby Nicholas Brenton Breyfogle, Ph.D. (history)Winner of the Outstanding Publication Award 2006, Ohio Academy of History
This new book is based on his 1998 Ph.D. thesis: Heretics and Colonizers: Religious dissent and Russian colonization of Transcausasia, 1830-1890 (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia), 387 pages. Abstract and Introduction. Download the original 1998 Ph.D. thesis in .PDF format. It's very large = 18,423 KB. You need Acrobat Reader. [Never having met a sectarian (Molokan, Doukhobor, Sabbatarian), Breyfogle spent 2 years in Russian archives investigating how they were moved into the Caucasus and gathering facts which further proves that these peasants significantly changed Russian history. In 1800 they were feared as the "most infectious heresy", but at the end of the century were praised as "ideal colonists" — patriots and model citizens for the 1900s. In the 1800s, these sects were often protected by Lev Tolstoy who recognized their value. Livanov and Bonch-Bruevich documented them with some analysis. In the 1900s, Soviet leaders called them role models, A.I. Klibanov began to analyze their historical contribution, and Stephan P. Dunn and Ethel Dunn translated many papers from Russian to inform western scholars of the unrecognized significance of these peasants in the Russian Empire. Independantly in the 1990s, Breyfogle dug into the archives and revealed new information illustrating the complex social impact of these sects and why 25% of Molokans and nearly all Doukhobors were "quarantined" in the Caucasus. NOTE: In Old Russia, "sect" refers to Russians who rejected their Orthodox faith, also called "heretics" and "dissenters". By law all Russians must obey the Orthodox Church, which meant that sectarians were criminals.] [Click on pictures below to ENLARGE.]  "In
Heretics and Colonizers,
Dr. Breyfogle explores the dynamic intersection of Russian
borderland colonization and popular religious culture. He reconstructs
the story of the religious sectarians (Dukhobors, Molokans, and Subbotniks) who
settled, either voluntarily or by force, in the newly conquered lands
of Transcaucasia in the nineteenth century. By ordering this migration
in 1830, Nicholas I attempted at once to cleanse Russian Orthodoxy of
heresies and to populate the newly annexed lands with ethnic Slavs who
would shoulder the burden of imperial construction.  "Breyfogle
focuses throughout on the lives of the peasant settlers, their
interactions with the peoples and environment of the South Caucasus,
and their evolving relations with Russian state power. Breyfogle draws
on a wide variety of archival sources, including a large collection of
previously unexamined letters, memoirs, and other documents produced by
the sectarians that allow him unprecedented insight into the
experiences of colonization and religious life. Although the settlers
suffered greatly in their
early years in hostile surroundings, they in time proved to be not only
model Russian colonists but also among the most prosperous of the
Empire’s peasants. Banished to the empire’s periphery, the sectarians
ironically came to play indispensable roles in the tsarist imperial
agenda."The book culminates with the dramatic events of the Dukhobor pacifist rebellion, a movement that shocked the tsarist government and received international attention. In the early twentieth century, as the Russian state sought to replace the sectarians with Orthodox settlers, thousands of Molokans and Dukhobors immigrated to North America, where their descendants remain to this day." 30 Molokans are named in his thesis, some with extensive reports explaining how they changed our history. See table of Contents of new book. In the late 1990s Breyfogle spent at least 2 years researching Russian history archives, including Canada, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the Caucasus. Then he returned in the early 2000s. His expenses were covered by at least 4 grants — a 1997 "short-term grant" from the Kennan Institute, a $24,000 fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for university teachers awarded September 1999 (also in the NEH 2000 Annual Report), $3,075 IREX Travel Grant for research in Georgia and Azerbaijan, and a short-term grant from the NEH awarded April 2000. Book promotion and purchasing:
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Q & A (January 2005 answers to questions sent in August 2004): S novym godom! My apologies for the slow reply to all of your questions. When is your book coming out? Can you get discounted copies? Will it get published in paperback? The book should be out in the next couple of months. [June] Thanks to you and others who have purchased copies already. I'm sorry for the very high price [$50] — obviously not my choice at all. The publisher will wait to see how many hard-copies are sold before deciding on whether to publish a paperback. Thank you very much for spreading the news about the book. I'm of course delighted that Molokans and Dukhobors will read it and I look forward to hearing the community's thoughts and responses. E-mail Dr. Breyfogle. How much is different from the thesis? Did you add sections about the Crimean War, Russo-Turkish War, and Church building? The book includes some revised chapters from the dissertation as well as four completely new chapters which deal with things like economic life in Transcaucasia, the Dukhobors' pacifist movement, and Molokan and Dukhobor emigration. It also includes all sort of new information based on my archival research in Tbilisi that was not in the dissertation. Information from my article on the Crimean and Russo-Turkish Wars is included (although not all since it is already published in Kritika [on list below]) but the information from the Church-Building article is not. It will be published next year as a separate article in an edited volume of essays on Russian religious history (more on this later). The book also includes 5 maps (one of the South Caucasus, and one each of Molokan and Dukhobor villages in Tilfis, Erivan, Elisavetpol and Baku provinces). I was sorry not to be able to use the maps you have, but for a variety of reasons the maps I have here were the only option. There are also 19 images in the book. 6 of which are of Molokans. There are so many excellent Dukhobor photos easily available in the British Columbia Archives that we went with many of those. In comparison, Molokan photos are rarer? There are so many excellent Dukhobor photos easily available in the British Columbia Archives that we went with many of those. Molokan photos are not so much rarer — although there are fewer Molokan photos from pre-1900 than Dukhobors, at least that I've been able to see — but less accessible. As you know, Koozma Tarassof donated thousands of Dukhobor photos to the BC archives for preservation. Since they are now in a public place, they are easily accessible for researchers like me. I gather that there are photographs of Molokans and Molokan villages in Russia pre-emigration but they are hard to find since they are held by individual families and the Heritage Center [at the LA-UMCA]. Will you be coming to LA? Several presbyters would like to arrange a larger meeting with you. I have no plans at the moment to come to LA, but I'd certainly be happy to meet with the Molokan community there again. I was very impressed and energized by my first visit (can it already be 4 years ago??). [Updated June 7, July 12 — Dr. Breyfogle has accepted an invitation to speak on Saturday July 23 at noon at the new LA Cemetery chesovnia (chapel), 7201 E Slauson Ave (east of Garfield Ave), City of Commerce. He will talk about about how Molokans got religious freedom 200 years ago and why a fourth of all Molokans moved to the Caucasus, the subject of his PhD thesis and book (above); and his recent research about Molokan Church Building (below). Keep looking for an outline of his talk and a pictoral report about his lecture afterward.] Updated July 11 Correspondence continued June 17 (My copy of Heretics and Colonizers arrived a few days ago, I pointed out an error — the old website address was published.) Your Table of Contents seems brief, but great bibliography and index. Where's the detail map of Kars oblast? ... The table of contents is standard in format for this type of book. The bibliography is something I compiled, but shorter than I'd like. The Press only gave me a certain number of pages, so it is by no means complete and only represents about half of the books and articles I read during my research. The index was done by a professional indexer, so I had no part in it. Of course, the index is designed for a more general audience and obviously won't do all the things that you as a Molokan might want it to do. I'm unhappy not to have the Kars map, but again this was a decision of the publisher. Maps are expensive to publish and had they included a sixth map the book would have been even more expensive to buy. So, they decided in the interest of keeping the price below $50 (already very expensive, as you well know) to give me only 5 maps. No possibility of an error correction slip at this point. If the book is reprinted in paperback then I can make the change then. I'm really glad they included Jon's [Kalmakoff] comments. Again, this was something that the press did that I had no control over. Of course, your mention in the acknowledgements was my choice and I was glad to be able to thank you publicly for all your help over the years with the project. Looking forward to seeing you in LA, Nick More about Heretics and Colonizers later..... Most of Breyfogle's works are listed here by date:
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