Dukh-i-zhizniki
in America
An update of Molokans in America (Berokoff,
1969).
IN-PROGRESS Do not cite text without references
Enhanced and edited
by Andrei Conovaloff, since 2013. Send comments to
Administrator @ Molokane. org
Chapter
1 The Migration
[Contents]
[Chapter 2>]
Contents
- Immigration
Updated: 25 May 2017
- Professions Updated: 25 May 2017
- Religious freedom Updated: 25 May 2017
- Arrest of M.G. Rudomyotkin Updated: 25 May 2017
- Pokhod journey to
refuge Updated: 1 Sept 2021
- E.G. Klubnikin Updated: 25 May 2017
- 1886 Census, Kars Oblast
- 1895 Verigin Dukhobortsy Burn Guns
- First Immigrants in Los Angeles,
1904
- What if Canada? Updated:
8 Dec. 2021
1. Immigration
[PAGE 11] The emigration of more than 10 thousand the
Spiritual Christians
Molokan people from
Russia occurred at about the same time that the great migration of
other peoples of Eastern and Southern Europe reached its peak. At the turn of the century (about 1900) Previous
to the end of the 19th and
the beginning of the 20th centuries most of the
newcomers to the new world were from Western
Europe Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries and
Germany. Most of these, with the exception of the Irish who
immigrated earlier, sought to take
advantage of the Homestead
[Act of 1862] Law, enacted in the
1860's to aid in the development of the newly-opened
territories in the Middle West and established
themselves as farmers in the various states and territories west
of the Mississippi River.
However, towards the latter part of the 1800s
19th century the United States were becoming
more and more industrialized. There was great
need for laborers in mines, steel mills, rail roads and the
textile plants of New England and other industries of the
Eastern states.
This development opened up vast opportunities for Eastern and Southern European peasants
the poor of Russia, Poland, the Southern Slav countries as well
as Italy for a change in their hopeless poverty. In addition
there was an opportunity for the Jews to flee from the
oppression and periodic pogroms in Poland and the Tsarist Russia
as also for the Poles to escape political disadvantages from the
same government. The Slavs of the Balkan countries too, sought
to make what was for them a quick fortune from the high wages in
the mines and steel mills of the United States, a fortune that
would enable them to return to their homes and their families [PAGE 12] and to live
comfortably in their old age. The Italians, of course, were
trying to escape the hardships of an over-crowded country and,
on the whole, had no desire to return to the old country.
Millions flocked to the new world, each for his own reason.
Russians, too, came in significant numbers, some for political
reasons, some for economical and some for a combination of
both. See: Why
Did They Wait So Long in Russia? Why Did Most Stay Home?
In a 13 year period (1899-1912), more
than 10 thousand Spiritual
Christians migrated to North
America from the South
Caucasus led by about 1/3 of all Dukhobortsy. The Dukhobortsy migration
is extensively documented in many published first hand reports
(100s
online), more than all other Russian Spiritual Christian
faiths that migrated to North America combined. Although
standardized Canadian spelling is "Doukhobor" and the common
transliterated Russian spelling is "Dukhobor," the
original Russian word is dukhoborets (plural: dokhoborstsy),
and there are 40+ spelling variations
in English.
Most readers of Berokoff thought he was
reporting first hand the history of all the non-Dukhobortsy
Spiritual Christians who he mistakenly called "Molokan."
Actually he was just trying to report the history of his
particular Dukh-i-zhiznik faith of Klubnikinisty,
as he wanted it to be told.
What was the actual sequence of events
that brought these various nationalities of peasants from
Russia to the Americas more than 100 years ago?
The omission of the Dukhobor connection
by Berokoff is puzzling because E.G. Klubnikin, presbyter and
prophet of Berokoff's congregation, lived next to all Dukhobortsy
villages in Kars oblast, where he surely knew
about their 1895
arms burning protest, and witnessed their arrest and
exile transport to and from Kars. All Kars Dukhobortsy had
to travel through his village of Romanovo
[this map mistakenly shows Pryguny as "Molokans"],
past his house, to go to south to Kars city or north to Tiflis
oblast (Georgia). Klubnikin lived in the only non-Dukhobortsy
village located to witness most all the local Dukhobortsy
traffic. The Dukhobortsy protests and
persecutions aroused the international news, politics and aid
needed to move about one-third of all Dukhobortsy
(~21,000 population) from the South Caucasus to Canada within
five years. By 1899, about 7,400 Dukhobortsy of the more
zealous divisions were relocated to Saskatchewan, Canada, in
shipload numbers, and they continued to leave Russia in
smaller groups. By 1930, a total of about 8,800 Dukhobortsy
had immigrated to Canada.
Though a majority (2/3) of Dukhobortsy
stayed in Russia, many from all the other neighboring
Spiritual Christian faiths also wanted to go to Canada, if the
move would improve their lives and they could pay their own
passage. Scouts were sent by Molokane and Pryguny
to follow the Dukhobortsy to Canada.
The chart shows total immigration to the United States
from 1820 to 1990. The added colors (green, yellow) show
time ranges of Spiritual Christian immigration from Russia
to north America about 1900, when more than than twice as
many Dukhobortsy (green) arrived in Central Canada
in one year (1899) than all the non-Dukhobortsy
(yellow) in Los Angeles, California, in 8 years (1904 to
1912). By 1930, more than 8,000 Dukhobortsy migrated
to Canada from Russia, compared to less than 3,000 non-Dukhobortsy
to America.
Map source: web.missouri.edu/~brente/immigr.htm
[When U.S. immigration is charted by
regions of origin (below), the policy restrictions for Eastern
Europe can be visualized.]
The
chart shows that non-Dukhobortsy Spiritual
Christians arrived after the peak of legal Eastern
European immigration to the U.S., during the crackdown. By
1918 only 1 of 200 families of Spiritual Christian
families in Los Angeles had "applied" for citizenship.
This chart shows those already accepted as
residents.
Graph source:US
Department of Education Teaching American History Program
(TAHPDX) with Immigration
Act of 1924, Wikipedia
A few Spiritual Christians The Molokans
too, decided at about this time to migrate to the new
world but not for the same reasons as the other people. They
came neither to seek their fortunes nor to find relief from
economic pressure or political disadvantages because at that
time, and for about a half century before that, in fact since
their banishment to Trans-Caucasia in the late 1830's, they were
better off economically than any comparable [peasant] class of people in Russia,
Eastern Europe or Italy.
Most were not "banished" to the Caucasus,
rather the Tsar issued a decree (ukaz)
to give more land to any of his serfs who volunteered to move
to New Russia in the early 1800s, then more decrees about 1840
to resettle in the new territories in the Far East or
Caucasus. Thousands died while
being resettled to the Southern Caucasus. Spiritual Christians
in the Far East prospered the most by 1900.
For a more thorough history of
resettlement of Spiritual Christians from the Russian interior
to the new Caucasus borders, see Dr.
Breyfogle's Ph.D. thesis, book and articles which rely
mostly on government documentation. Doukhobor
Historical Maps, by Jonathan Kalmakoff, Doukhbor
Geenlogy Websitem, should be interpreted to show migrations of
many different Spiritual Christians along with those
identified in the literature as dukhoborsty.
2.
Professions
Being sober and industrious, it did not take them very long
after their arrival in the
Russian-conquered territory of what is now Armenia,
Georgia and other parts of Trans-Caucasia beginning
in the 1830s to build villages
where none existed before, to cultivate grain fields where none
grew before, to establish flour mills along the many streams of
the mountainous country and to plant orchards to supplement
their food supply. And to supplement their incomes they became
freighters (wagon builders and drivers, teamsters,
some used the Russian term drozhky)
during the winter months in a country devoid of railroads, until
1870, or of any other kind of roads, so that at
the end of the century they were quite self-sufficient
economically although, to be sure, there were some poor families
in each village. During the migration and
first years, thousands died of illness due to starvation and
exposure. In 12 years (1834-1846) Molokane in Baku
governate "buried more than 2,000 people, piling 12 coffins
into each grave. Whole families died together, ...." (Breyfogle,
page 91)
3.
Religious freedom
In religious matters too, they were enjoying a fair measure of
freedom for serving as periphery
colonizers for Russia. No one was compelled against his
will to worship God in any manner but his own. Although the
Orthodox Church and foreign churches would,
from time to time, send their missionaries to non-Orthodox
Molokan
villages to try to reconvert them into the state church or a foreign faith, these would be
repelled by self-taught Molokan debaters, but no compulsion was
used and no one was punished for opposing [PAGE 13] the views of the missionaries.
Some Molokane and entire
villages did convert or were altered by Protestant
missionaries Adventist, Baptist, Friends
(Quaker), Lutheran, Mennonite,
Pentecostal, Presbyterian,
Shtundist, etc, and
the new ecstatic Pryguny-Skakuny. Also Spiritual
Christians changed faiths among themselves and with Orthodox.
Many did not know what to name the faith of the rituals
practiced by their family.
4.
Arrest of M.G. Rudomyotkin
(New paragraph) Although the Prygun prophet Maxim Gavrilovitch Rudomyotkin* was imprisoned at about
this time, (1858) it was not for refusing to return to the fold
of the Orthodox church but for daring to petition the Tsar's
Viceroy of Trans-Caucasia for relief of harassment by the local
authorities who were trying at the instigation of the Molokane
Postoyannaye** to put down the new spiritual
manifestation of jumping during religious services.
* Berokoff is writing for Dukh-i-zhizniki
who would know this man's last name, but he is unfamiliar to
most Pryguny, Molokane, and readers
unfamiliar with this confusing history.
** Postoyannie, as used by Berokoff, is an insult
to the original Molokan faith for not changing, or
adapting an ecstatic zealous Prygun faith. (Use
correct labels, Taxonomy of 3 Spiritual Christian
groups). Since 1990, most Prygun congregations in
Russia support the Union of Spiritual Christian Molokans,
and some have joined it as dues paying members. Only Dukh-i-zhziniki around
the world, whose ancestors or predecessors may have been Maksimisty,
continue to insult Molokane. while claiming
their label. In the west (America, Australia), Dukh-i-zhziniki continued to scorn Molokane
for their predecessors' "daring to petition ... for
relief of harassment" from Maksimisty, while
harassing Pryguny with
verbal abuse and shunning for not venerating their Kniga
solntse dukhi i zhisn' and performing
Rudomyotkin's "New Ritual" (novoye obryad).
Most likely Rudomyotkin was arrested for
- being an outspoken leader of a most
undesirable "infectious"
heretic sect,
- trying to convert members of other
faiths to his faith and/ or
- illegally declaring himself a tsar (tsar dukhov : king of
the spirits), which was blasphemy of the Tsar of Russia.
All of these are blasphemy of the
State-Church and prosecuted as serious crimes, felonies.
Nearly all the visible sectarian leaders
were removed from their groups to exile, prison, and a very
few to monastery training. It may be that zealous Maksimisty were
evangelizing Molokane
who did not want to be harassed. If anyone has Rudomyotkin's
arrest documents, please scan and post them, or send them here
for posting so readers can see the facts.
As a matter of fact the churches in the villages and towns were
flourishing as never before. Members were loyal to the faith and
at peace with one another. There were no back-sliders but many illegal converts from the Orthodox
faith. People actively converting Orthodox
to a non-Orthodox faith could be arrested for a felony.
A large neighboring protestant
Armenian village, Karakala
Karakalla, [joined the Prygun
faith became converted to the
Christian Jumpers,
and many most
of whom eventually came to America
at the same time as the non-Dukhobortsy Spiritual Christians
Russian Molokans. Oral history reports that the Armenian
Protestants in Kars oblast were delighted to meet and join the
faith of neighboring Pryguny from Russia, with whom
they felt a spiritual fellowship.
5. Pokhod
journey to refuge
There was much visiting from village to village. The arrival of
a group of visitors from one village to another would be a cause
for celebration. These visits, in effect, would be Spiritual
Christian Molokan revival meetings. There would be
prayer meetings in churches
and in private homes at which time there
would invariably be with
repetitions by Pryguny of
prophecies of "Pokhod" (journey)
to the Refuge. Token flights to the refuge would be undertaken
by marches of a the
whole Pryguny congregation from one end of the
village to the other and back again to the prayer house. These
were called "Spiritual Maneuvers". They foreshadowed the
eventual flight to the refuge in America. Matters concerning the
affairs of the whole Brotherhood would likewise be discussed and
settled at such gatherings. These
"Spiritual Maneuvers" could have been reported as disturbances
of the peace for non-Prygun Spiritual Christians,
especially when Pryguny would aggressively insult
bystanders for not joining their march.*
* In 2012, I interviewed the elder
Bokovs near Seattle WA, whose family were Molokane converted
to Adventism by German missionaries in 1906 in Elizavetpol
governorate, now Azerbaijan. They reported that Pryguny
in their village were "very aggressive" coming
uninvited to their front door, not leaving when told to
leave, and harassing Molokane for not joining the Prygun
faith.
In Canada, Spiritual Christian svobodniki
also performed "Spiritual Maneuvers" between their
settlements and to towns, which were reported in the press,
especially the treks of 100s of people for more than 100
miles. (The 'Sons of Freedom'
a Flashback to 1956, by K.J. Tarasoff, 2009.)
When the first Pryguny and other
Spiritual Christians arrived in Los Angeles, they witnessed 6
weeks (Feb-Mar 1905) of mass
street marches by 2000 American Evangelic Christians to
save sinners, drunks, prostitutes, etc. in the neighborhood
around the Bethlehem Institutions and Chinatown. A large
inter-faith national Protestant convention was being held in
Los Angeles which may have helped launch the "Azusa
Street Revival" in 1906.
But despite the apparent calm and complacency there was a
noticeable undercurrent of a feeling by Klubnikinisty
that their settlement in Trans-Caucasia was not permanent. The Klubnikinist prophets were frequently moved by
the Holy Spirit to remind the people that they should always be
prepared to move to a Place of Refuge (Oubezhisha) (убежище ubezhishche
: sanctuary, haven, refuge).
[PAGE 14] The Prygun prophet
who was the first to utter these words was David Yesseitch who,
as early as the 1830's wrote in his Book of Zion that there
would be separation of the Dukhovny (Духовный
dukhovnyi
Spiritual (Jumpers)) Molokans
into two groups; Zion and Jerusalem, at which time Zion will be
led to a place of refuge and Jerusalem will remain and will be
subjected to a period of tribulation. Of Zion he spoke in these
words; "The Lord will gather all such in good time from all the
countries into a place or refuge where they will be nourished a
thousand two hundred and three score days in all serenity and
quiet." 1260 days = 3.5 years, which if
it began in January 1905, ended in 1908.
Though many American Dukh-i-zhizniki agree by
definition that all Spiritual Christians who migrated to the
U.S. were "Zion," the most zealous continued to insult and
shun Molokane, Pryguny, Subbotniki and Armenian
Pryguny. This
indicates that some of the most zealous Dukh-i-zhizniki may have inherited
oral histories, perhaps altered, to hate all outsiders of
"their" congregation(s) that perform the "New Ritual" of
Rudomyotkin and use his religious text placed next to their
Russian Bible.
This theme was repeated over and over in all the Dukhovny Pryguny and
related faiths churches throughout all the villages in
Trans-Caucasia. (Berokoff apparently
assumes all Spiritual Christians were united in Russia.)
Songs, which generally reflect the yearnings and desires of
people better than any other media, were composed and sung with
fervor, exhorting the people to be prepared for a Pokhod (поход : trek, journey) to the Refuge.
Our present song book is replete with old time songs containing
such exhortations. Among the many are the following numbers: No.
3, No. 140, No. 147, No. 149, but the most famous and most
popular in its day and very much beloved even now was No. 326; [Ne pora li
tebe Sion, Upravlyat' sebya v pokhod.] "NE
PORA LI TIEBE SION OPRAVLIAT SIEBIA V POHOD".
|
"Is it not time for thee
Zion to prepare thyself for Pokhod?
From this terrible menace that is coming so soon
From this northern land it is time for thee to escape,
To a far southern country, a wilderness of peoples,
. . .
There is the Refuge for members sealed to be there,
etc., etc."
|
|
Не
пора ли тебе Сион, Управлять себя в поход.
От ужасной сей грозы, Хотящей скоро прийти.
От Северной сей страны, Время тебе Сион выйти.
В дальнюю Южную страну, В людскую пустыню,
. . .
Там убежище членам, Запечатленным быть там..
|
These songs repeatedly reminded the people that there will be a
flight to the refuge but not from economic want nor from
religious persecution but from a terrible menace that is coming
soon, a menace that was to shake the whole world, the
Apocalypse or the Soviet Union run by Stalin
6. E.G. Klubnikin
No one knew the precise meaning of these prophesies. No one
knew the location of the Refuge nor the exact time of the Pokhod. There was one
youthful prophet however, to whom [PAGE 15] the Holy Spirit revealed the
approximate time of the Pokhod
but not the place, except in very general terms.
Some time around the year 1852 this youthful Prygun prophet,
Efeem Gerasimitch Klubnikin, who was born in 1842, was inspired
to draw prophetic sketches and plans and to write down
prophesies of the flight to the Refuge.
In these revelations he was told that at the proper time three
certain signs will appear by which he will recognize the time
for the Pokhod. He
wrote these revelations down in his boyish hand and telling no
one about them, awaited patiently and secretly for about forty
years for their appearance.
On page 638 of the Book of Spirit and Life, among his other
writings, there appears this prophesy:
Article 5: Concerning the dawn and the
journey
"A plan was drawn. On it were
drawn the numerals 99 and 44, a rising sun and a window. From that
time forth the judgments of God will begin their fulfillment year
after year. Angels of God will be released to torment and punish.
The nations will groan from their calamities. Soon there will be
three signs previous to the flight to the Refuge.
1: The people will gather for prayers in the middle of the night.
2: A light will flash across the heavens at night. It will be seen
throughout the whole land.*
3: At night time, from the cast towards the west, a song will be
sung, 'A cry is heard; Behold the bridegroom cometh'.**
Those who will believe this will make the journey to a far country
but the unbelievers will remain in their places."
* 1853
Klinkerfues comet, or was Klubnikin predicting a later
meteor, below?
** --SONG----
Efeem Gerasimitch was born in the village of Nikitina, in the governorate province of Erevan,
(now in the capital
country of Armenia) on Dec. 17,
1842 only two years after his parents, together with many other
Spiritual Christians Molokans, made
the arduous journey on foot from Central Russia on orders* of the government of Tsar
Nicholas the First. Efeem was the third child in a
large family of five brothers and five sisters. Nikitino was renamed Fioletovo in
1936.
* Most voluntarily migrated to get more
land and military exemption. Breyfogle.
Of his father he wrote; "My father, Gerasim Karpovitch, lived
in Russia in the province of Tambov
in the city of Morshansk.
[PAGE 16] My mother,
Anna, was also from the same province, from the Village of
Algasova". [Footnote: This was also the native village of M. G.
[Rudomyotkin] Rudametkin.]
When my father was 17 years old, he was severely punished for
his Molokan faith. He was given 180 strokes with birch rods and
on the next day again that many, after which he was turned over
on his back and given another 180 strokes so that he could
neither sit down nor lie down. When he again refused to return
to the Orthodox Church the priest ordered the police to bind his
head in wooden stocks and told them to tighten the screws more
and more until he fainted, after which he was made to stand in
the freezing cold for some time and then was sent home". In 1840
his family, together with other families refusing to recant
their Molokan
faith, were banished to Trans-Caucasia and eventually arrived in
Nikitina where Efim was born. [According
to oral history, the Spiritual Christian Prygun movement was
founded in 1933 in New Russia,
now south Ukraine; however, the label "Pryguny" first
appeared in print about 1856 according to Dr. Breyfogle.]
Here the [Prygun] Klubnikin family
lived until the end of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878. When
the peace following this war was concluded, Russia took over the
region around the city of Kars
from Turkey, and, desiring to settle the new frontier with
Russian People, induced many [Spiritual Christian] Molokan families
to move there in the years after 1880. Soon quite a number of [Spiritual Christian] Molokan villages
were established and thriving there, later becoming the center
of agitation to migrate to America [which
was proceeded by 1/3 of the most zealous Anabaptists (mostly
"Mennonites" from Ukraine) in the 1870s, then by 1/3 of the
most zealous Spiritual
Christian Dukhobortsy from 1898 to 1930 (from
the Caucasus)].
There is some DNA genetic evidence among
some Dukh-i-zhznik families who migrated to America
that their ancestors intermarried with Germans, probably
Anabaptists encountered either along the Central Volga or in
New Russia. We know that ancestors of Pryguny borrowed
zealous jumping, prophesy of the Apocalypse, flight to Zion,
and songs from neighboring Anabaptists in New Russia.
The 1886 Kars census (table below) shows
Pryguny were counted as less than 3% of the Russian
settlement population, and nearly all were in Selim
village where my father's family is from and many of the
founding families of the Molokan congregation in San
Francisco. Indigenous and Turk peoples are not shown in this
table.
7.
1886 Census, Kars
Oblast
GROUP
|
Molokane |
Dukhobortsy |
Russian
(Orthodox)
|
Pryguny
|
Subbotniki |
Estonians
(Orthodox)
|
TOTAL
|
| Count |
5,923 |
2,766
|
1,221 |
310 |
306 |
280 |
10,583 |
Percent
|
55.4% |
25.9% |
11.5%
|
2.9% |
2.9% |
2.6%
|
100% |
The 1886 census counted 106 houses in Romanovo
village, population 681, all Molokane. If Pryguny
not in Selim, including Klubnikins, arrived before the
1886 census, they had to falsely claim, or be mistakenly
counted as Molokane. If more Pryguny arrived
after the 1886 census, they intruded upon the many
established Molokan villagers who would have to share
land with the later settlers of different faiths, who sang
borrowed songs not from the Bible and were much more
spiritually zealous. Whereever tribes of Pryguny resettled
they would have held separate Sunday meetings from other
faiths, including different Prygun faiths.
Assuming the 1886 census is probably
correct in that few Pryguny were in Kars oblast
before 1886, the many Pryguny who relocated to Molokan
villages in Kars oblast from their previous homes in the
Caucasus and central Russia came after 1886 to qualify for
military exemption given to colonizers of new Russian
territory. Since Pryguny were the last to arrive and
had some zealous members, they were most likely the
first to seek another settlement area, therefore most likely
to emigrate. Keep in mind that less
than 1% of all Spiritual Christians moved from from Russia
to North America.
The Klubnikin family settled in the new village of Romanovka,
Kars governate (guberniya), Russia (now Yolboyu
village, Qers/Ghars province, Republic of Turkiye). It
was there that Efeem Gerasimitch (Efim
Gerasimovich) Klubnikin later saw the appearance of the
three signs that he was patiently awaiting for so long.
While he was thus waiting, another event occurred that greatly
perturbed some of the Spiritual
Christian Molokan people throughout
Trans-Caucasia. In 1889 the fifty-year period of exemption from
military service granted to all settlers from Russia them at
the time of their voluntary resettlement
and banishment for some
from Novorossiya (south Ukarine) and
central Russia in 1839, had expired. The Government immediately
informed the Spiritual Christians Molokans,
through the leading elders assembled [PAGE 17] for that purpose, that hereafter
their young men of the age of 21 years will be conscripted for a
five year period of military service like any other category of
the nation.
Although this decision certainly violated the consciences of
all the assembled elders, they did not offer any resistance at
that time but secretly meant to find ways to evade the order.
About this time Russia pacified the newly conquered territories
cast of the Caspian Sea (Turkestan*)
and, being anxious to settle the region around the new border
with Russian nationals, offered the [colonists] Molokan another
10 year period of military exemption to those who would settle
there. Hundreds of [Spiritual Christian] Molokan families
took advantage of the offer, moving to the newly opened
territory from Armenia, Georgia and from the [governate] region of Kars
and establishing a number of thriving [Spiritual
Christian] Molokan villages
there.
[* In the 1800s, "Turkestan" originally literally referred the
place of
the Turkic
peoples, the general large Middle Asia
area inhabited mainly by Muslims, which included what
became Russian Turkestan and the Kazakh Steppe. This entire area
may be the Tika (East) of which M.G. Rudomyotkin
wrote.]
Others however, sought a more permanent solution to the
question of military service. Conference after conference was
called to find a solution to the problem. In the meantime
certain events transpired that convinced Klubnikin that the
signs he was so patiently awaiting had now appeared. Some time
around the turn of the century, in the villages of Melikoy [(Prokhladnoye)]
and Romanovka, without previous
consultation of any kind, people spontaneously began to gather
in the middle of the night for prayer services.
At approximately the same time a tremendous flash of light had
appeared in the sky.*
Many people
witnessed the phenomenon, awed and mystified by the
manifestation, but being for the most part illiterate, they did
not note the date nor the hour of the occurrence so that now we
are without a written record of the event although many are
alive now who heard of it first hand from their parents.
[Footnote: The Los Angeles
Times of Sunday, Feb. 9, 1969 contained a dispatch from
Chihuahua, Mexico describing a similar phenomena that occurred
in Southwest United States and Northeast Mexico the previous
day. "A blinding blue-white fireball, believed to be a meteor
turned night into day across Mexico and S.W. United States. The
light was so brilliant we could see an ant walking on the
floor", it said. An American astronomer visiting an observatory
in Texas said; "It was extremely bright. We had high clouds in
the area but it burned right through. It was several times
brighter than a full moon".]
[This was the Allende
Meteorite shower. "Meteor-Like
Object
Turns Night Into Day: Blue-White Fireball Seen for 1,000
Miles, Vanishes Over North Mexico's Mountains," Los Angeles Times,
February 9, 1969, page A-10.]
[ * This table shows possible
sources for the "tremendous flash of light" ... "around the
turn of the century"]
|
Date |
Meteorite
name
|
Country |
Distance1
|
Size2
|
|
|
|
1,160 miles
|
|
April 18, 1880
|
Veramin |
Iran
|
590 miles
|
120
lbs.
|
November 19, 1881
|
Grossliebenthal |
Ukraine |
740 miles
|
18
lbs.
|
| February 3, 1882 |
Mocs
(shower)3 |
Romania
|
1,000
miles
|
660
lbs.
|
February 3, 1890
|
Collescipoli
|
Italy
|
1,550
miles
|
|
April 10, 1890
|
Misshof |
Latvia |
1,430 miles
|
13
lbs. |
April 7, 1891
|
Indarch |
Azerbaijan |
200 miles
|
60 lbs
|
September
28, 1891
|
Guκa |
Serbia |
1,160 miles
|
4
lbs.
|
September
22, 1893
|
Zabrodje |
Belarus |
1,220 miles |
7
lbs.
|
July 27, 1894
|
Savtschenskoje
|
Ukraine |
740 miles
|
6
lbs.
|
May 9, 1895
|
Nagy-Borovι |
Slovakia
|
1,290 miles |
13 lbs. |
April 13, 1896
|
Lesves |
Belgium |
2,000 miles |
3
lbs.
|
May 19, 1897
|
Meuselbach |
Germany |
1,690 miles |
2
lbs.
|
August 1, 1897
|
Zavid |
Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
1,250 miles |
209
lbs.
|
March 12, 1899
|
Bjurbφle |
Finland
|
1,550 miles |
728
lbs
|
1899
|
Magnesia |
Turkey |
850 miles |
11
lbs+
|
| July 8, 1900
|
Alexandrovsky
|
Ukraine
|
890 miles |
20
lbs.
|
July 25, 1900
|
Ofehιrtσ
|
Hungary
|
1,160 miles |
8
lbs.
|
August 23, 1900
|
Leonovka
|
Ukraine |
930 miles |
2
lbs. |
[1. Estimated distance measured from
Klubnikin's village of Romanovka
to meteor fall site, rounded to nearest 10 miles.
2. Size converted to pounds from metric (kg., gr.)
3. The
only meteor shower on this list, more than 3000 pieces
collected. In 1866 the Knyahinya
meteor fireball fell ... ]
[PAGE 18] The
third sign also appeared soon after these when in the village of Malo-Tiukma people began to sing a song
whose gist was; "Behold, the bridegroom."
8. 1895
Verigin Dukhobortsy Burn Guns
Berokoff omits the biggest news story of the decade and most
probably the main stimulus for migration fear. In the Summer
of 1895 in the Transcaucasus, Russia, about one-third of Dukhobortsy,
followers of P.V. Verigin who is in exile, quit the military and
burned guns in 3 simultaneous mass protests. Within 3 years ~400 neighboring Dukhobortsy
were jailed, ~4000 exiled, ~2000 died, and ~7400 emigrated.
Klubnikin lived in the only non-Dukhoborets Spiritual
Christian village, Romanovka, on the main highway and witnessed
the prisoners and migrants march past his house to Kars, and
from Kars to Tiflis. (Historic 1895
Burning of Guns: descriptions, selections and translations,
by K.J. Tarasoff, 2009.)
Being fully convinced by now, Klubnikin confided his
secret to some elders who were closest to him in spirit and urged
them to take measures to leave the country altogether as there was
going to be a period of great tribulation in Russia in the very
near future.
This gave the needed impetus to those who were seeking a
permanent solution to the question of compulsory military
service, efforts which in the winter [at beginning] of 1900 culminated in a
decision [by non-Dukhobortsy
Spiritual Christians] to petition the Tsar's government
for a release from the obligation of military service. Four
elders were selected to personally present the petition in St.
Petersburg. Philip M. Shubin and Ivan G. Samarin were selected
from the region of
Kars [governate] and Simon T. Shubin and
Ivan K. Holopoff were chosen to represent the region
of Erevan [governate].
Missing here is the fact that a petition
was submitted in 1901 to the Canadian Consul, Port of Batum
after the first huge wave of 7,411 Dukhobortsy left on
The petition as quoted in part from page 749 of the Book of
Spirit and Life is as follows "Your Imperial Majesty! In view of
our Christian upbringing, the existing compulsory military
obligation contradicts the faith that we profess. Our youth are
also instructed thusly, but endure it because of fear of
punishment for refusal to obey. Sooner or later they will refuse
to do so. Fearing to bear the suffering for refusal on the one
hand and not wanting to provoke the government to harsh measures
on the other, we ask Your Imperial Majesty to free us from
personal military service. If that is impossible, we ask to be
allowed to leave the country with our families."
[PAGE 19] The delegates after making the long
journey to the capital [St.
Petersburg], returned with a negative reply and in the
spring of the same year, 1900, the Pryguny chose Philip M. Shubin and Ivan G.
Samarin while the [Molokane] Postoyanaye
chose Feodor T. Butchneff to go to Canada to survey the
possibility of migration to that country, supporting them with
signatures representing 1000 people.
Meanwhile Klubnikin took it upon himself to inform the
villagers in the Erevan [governate]
region.
Traveling from one village to another, he confided his
revelations to elders in that area who, in his opinion, were
sympathetic to the cause but being told about others who were
not favorably disposed and fearing betrayal as an agitator, he
returned to Romanovka and concentrated his efforts in the
region of Kars [governate],
not neglecting to inform the Armenian brethren in Karakala
Karakalla that unless they left the country
their people will endure far more in the coming period of
tribulation than their Russian brethren. This warning was heeded
by the majority of the Dukhonvy
Prygun
Armenians and when the time came they followed the latter to
America.
[Footnote: The prophesy concerning the Armenians literally came
to pass in the first world war. When the Turkish army marched
through the area in 1917, they committed unspeakable atrocities
against the Armenian people in all the villages, including Karakala
Karakalla. For that reason the memory of [Efim] Efeem
Gerasimitch Klubnikin is revered among the Armenian Pentecostals Molokans to this
day.] See: Armenian
Genocide
The three delegates meanwhile arrived in Canada and inspected
the Doukhobor
settlements in central Canada [map by Jonathan Kalmakoff] Manitoba as well as
[and] land in other provinces in
the Dominion, at the same time conferring with
Canadian government officials in Ottawa who agreed to grant a
100 year exemption from military service to the non-Dukhobortsy
Spiritual Christians Molokans. After
that they visited several states in the Northwest part of the
United States as guests of railroad company officials who
had surplus land to sell on acceptable
terms.
[PAGE 20] During their
absence another, younger group of men were preparing to leave
for Canada on a similar mission but at their own expense. These
men Aleksei Ivanich Agaltsoff, his three nephews, Mikhai
N. Agaltsoff, Andrei N. Agaltsoff and Vasili I. Holopoff and
Aleksey I. Silvkoff who was not related to the others were
also supported by signatures representing 1000 persons. While
the first group was on their return journey, the younger group
were leaving for Canada in April of 1900. These were to become
the pioneer [non-Dukhobortsy
Spiritual Christian] Molokan settlers in America for they
spent about nine months in Canada and then, upon the advice of a
Russian traveler [Demens?]
whom they met in Winnipeg, moved to Los Angeles where they
secured work laying tracks for the newly-organized Pacific
Electric R.R. Co. at wages of $1.75 to $2.00 per day.
|
|
The four Molokan pioneers in Los
Angeles.
Left to right: Vasili I. Holopoff,* Aleksei
Ivanich Agaltsoff, Mikhail N. Agaltsoff, Andrei N.
Agaltsoff.
Photographed in Winnipeg [Canada] in 1900.
[Photo] Courtesy of John A. Agaltsoff.
Click to Enlarge |
[ * The first man, V.I. Holopoff, spent
five years serving in the Russian cavalry. He settled in Hartline,
central Washington, and worked in Vernon,
British Columbia, Canada. On May 25, 1915 he joined the
Canadian military. See his Attestation
Paper : Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force". On the
back
of the form he wrote in: "Religious Denominations: Other
Protestants 'Brotherhood'
." This may be short for "Brotherhood
of Spiritual Christians." Molokan
Soldier Enlisted in WWI Canadian Expeditionary Force,
Doukhobor Genealogy Message Board, post by Jon Kalmakoff, 5
Mar 2007, with many replies.]
The oldest of this group Aleksei I. Agaltsoff after a stay
of one year in Los Angeles, returned home. Of the remaining
four, Vasili Holopoff decided not to return to Russian while the
other three, after an absence of another year following the
return of their uncle, returned home with a glowing account of
their life in California, its glorious climate, abundance of
work for willing hands as compared to severe winters and poorer
living conditions in the old country.
It is very probable that the report of these young men had
considerable influence in the final decision to make the
migration because the report of the three older delegates was
not unanimous. Although Shubin and Samarin's [Prygun] report was highly
favorable, [F.T.] Butchneff's [Molokan] report threw a damper
on the whole movement. He reported in effect, that America was
not a place for religious people, the climate in Canada too
severe and the Doukhobors were struggling hard to survive. His
report had a decidedly negative effect on the [Molokane]
Postoyanaye
and henceforth they ceased their activities in support of the
migration.
[PAGE 21] Some of the Pryguny
were also swayed by Butchneff's report. However, this did
not stop Klubnikin who continued to warn the people of the
coming calamities in Russia, nor did it discourage Shubin and
Samarin who redoubled their efforts before the authorities for
permission to leave the country en Masse. More petitions were
written and presented to the Tsar in St. Petersburg as well as
to his Viceroy in Tiflis.
The authorities were decidedly antagonistic to these
activities. Nevertheless the resolve to move did not weaken. On
the contrary, growing bolder, the elders decided to present a
final petition containing these statements; "Your Imperial
Majesty! Your rejection of our pleas for freedom from military
service and permission to leave the country not only did not
weaken our resolve, on the contrary, it strengthened out spirit
to continue our efforts until the end ... Therefore we ask Your
Majesty that orders be given to permit us to move beyond the
confines of Russia. We ask Thee as the Tsar and Sovereign of the
people, ruler of the throne of the nation. It is in Thy power to
give freedom to those who labor and are heavily laden".
In response to this final plea Philip M. Shubin and Ivan G.
Samarin were arrested by the civil and police authorities and
confined in jail in the city of Kars as subversive
agitators.
When their followers in the near-by villages heard of this they
gathered in large groups in Kars [ ]
and remonstrated [objected]
before the authorities who, in turn, requested them to disperse
pending the disposition of the case by the higher authorities.
But the people, although quiet, were firm in their demands for
the release of their leaders.
This went on for a few days. Meanwhile, an attorney with a
Molokan background was retained to negotiate their release.
After spending fifty days in jail in Kars, through the combined
efforts of the people and the attorney, Shubin and Samarin were
released. After this incident there was no further interference
[PAGE 22] on the part of
the government and no preventive measures taken to stop the
emigration except that no men of military age were issued
passports to leave the country. But this did not deter the
emigration because men of that age bracket (21) had no
difficulty in crossing the border illegally by being smuggled
across the border into Germany by organized bands of smugglers
for a certain fee, indeed, a number of men already in the Army
deserted their regiments and were likewise smuggled across the
border.
Although the government ceased its interference, the Pryguny
themselves were not yet unanimous in the decision to move. There
was strong opposition on the part of very influential elders as
well as on the part of some very respected prophets who
proclaimed repeatedly that our final gathering place of refuge
was not in America but right there near the base of Mount Ararat
as foretold in the writings of Maxim Gavrilovitch [Rudomyotkin];
that although the [pakhod]
prophesies of Klubnikin will certainly come to pass, it was
their firm conviction that the Omnipotent God will protect
Tiflis people from harm in the face of all calamities.
The actions of these prominent prophets Ivan Mihailovitch
Butchneff of Malo-Tiukma and
Aleksey Semionitch Zadorkin, of Nikitina
to name the most prominent ones-influenced a considerable number
of sincerely devout people who were strong believers in
prophesies but who were torn between their loyalties to the
opposing views.
Others were opposed to the emigration because of their
attachment to their worldly accumulation; while yet others,
themselves influential elders, disliked to subordinate their
prestige to a younger leadership for it must be admitted that
Shubin, Samarin, Agaltsoff and Klubnikin and others prominent in
the movement were in their fifties, too young by [Spiritual Christian] Molokan standards to be leading such an
important movement.
[PAGE 23] This debate
continued in all [Spiritual Christian] Molokan villages throughout
Trans-Caucasia and the Trans-Caspian regions for about three
years or until the beginning of the winter of 1904. [Meanwhile about 30, led by V.G. Pivovaroff,
leave Kars about 1 May 1904 and arrived
in Los Angeles before the end of May.]
It was at this time that the testimony of the recently returned
brothers [Mikhail N. and Andrei N.]
Agaltsoff played such a decisive role. Very early in that winter
a conference was assembled by the elders of the Kars [governate] region in the
village of Novo-Mihailovka where representatives of ten
communities were present, including a leading member of the
Armenian community of [Karakala]
Karakalla, Ardzuman Ivanitch Ohanessian, who
was much respected in the Russian [Spiritual Christian] Molokan communities.
In accordance with [Spiritual Christian] Molokan customs, a three day fast was
declared followed by a prayer to God for guidance. After the
prayers and during the repast, the brothers Agaltsoff were
questioned closely by the elders and guests relative to their
life in America. Evidently their testimony was convincing for it
turned the tide in favor of the migration.
During this repast there was yet another prophesy, a prophesy
which was quickly interpreted by Prygun
Armenian Ardzuman Ivanitch Ohanessian
to mean that the migration must begin but it must begin in
secret, especially from the authorities. This interpretation
was, approved by the whole assembly. Thus the decision was taken
to begin in earnest.
9.
First Immigrants in Los Angeles
On May 1, 1904 the first group of approximately 30 persons, "The Brotherhood of Spiritual Christians"
led by Prygun V.G. Pivovaroff, left
Kars via Tiflis to Batoum where
they boarded a steamer bound for Odessa. At Odessa they
disembarked and took a train for Bremen, Germany where they
again boarded an immigrant ship to New York.
Arriving in New York the group was compelled to split up into
two groups because the larger portion lacked sufficient funds to
proceed to Los Angeles. The smaller group, composed of Vasiley
Gavrilovitch Pivovaroff Pondvaroff
his wife and four children, his brother-in-law, Ivan Ivanitch
Rudametkin; Mihail Rogoff, his wife and two children, proceeded
to Los Angeles where, [PAGE 24]
after a period of two months Vasiley Gavrilitch Pivovaroff managed to arrange credit
with the Southern Pacific Railroad Co. for the passage of the
group stranded in New York. The above mentioned 11 persons, led
by Pivovaroff, are actually the first of the Brotherhood of Spiritual Christians
Molokans to
arrive in Los Angeles for permanent residence. Pivovaroff performed the first
Prygun wedding in
Los Angeles on December 24, 1904. Prygun and
most Spiritual Christian marriages were arranged by parents for a price
and not legally registered until 1912. Following this
group came other small and large groups, the migration gaining
momentum until it reached its peak in 1907.
|
|
A group of Spiritual Christian
Molokan
emigrants in Bremen, Germany awaiting ship to America,
1905.
[Photo] Courtesy of John A.
Agalstoff
Click to enlarge |
Meanwhile, agents for various shipping concerns of Western Europe
were very active in all Eastern European countries, offering their
services and the services of their companies to prospective
immigrants to America. [Competition
increased illegal immigration, drove prices down and caused a federal
investigation in 1907.] The Hamburg-American
Lines of Hamburg,
Germany and the [Norddeutscher
Lloyd] North German Lloyd of Bremen, being the
largest in their field, were able to attract the most passengers.
They became the principal carriers of the [Spiritual
Christian] Molokan
emigrants although several groups [with
little or no money] were induced by other companies to
take the longer route by way of the Black Sea and the
Mediterranean Sea to Marseilles, France
and thence to Panama, crossing the Isthmus by train (it was ten
years before the completion of the Panama canal [in 1914]) and then north along the West
coast of North America by steamer to San Francisco. This route was
so long, involved so many hardships that no other groups willingly
chose it after 1905.
On the other hand, the route through Germany meant crossing the
Atlantic at its narrowest. Going overland by train through Russia,
Poland and Germany, they would embark either at Bremen or Hamburg.
After crossing the Atlantic they would either disembark at New
York or as many did, would stop in Philadelphia or Baltimore to
unload freight and passengers then would continue on the same ship
around the Gulf of Mexico to Galveston, Texas and then by train to
Los Angeles.
Arriving by train in Hamburg or Bremen, they would be quartered in
immigrant barracks belonging to the steamship companies where they
would await the departure of the next [PAGE 25] immigrant ship. These ships sailed to
America at intervals of two weeks.
While thus awaiting, they would have to undergo a series of health
inspections demanded by the United States Health authorities, in
fact the U.S. consular offices in these and other large European
ports maintained their own staffs of doctors for this purpose. In
particular, the prospective immigrant had to show evidence of
smallpox vaccination. If none were showing they would be
vaccinated on the spot. Their lungs would have to be free of any
suspicion of tuberculosis and their eyes would be closely examined
for signs of trachoma.
If the inspecting doctors were convinced that the immigrant was
free from these and other contagious diseases, he was allowed to
board the next scheduled ship hoping that nothing unfavorable
would develop at the examination in the port of entry.
It was at this point that many heart rending scenes of separation
took place because, not infrequently some member of the family
failed to pass the necessary health inspection and was compelled
to return to his birth place, either alone, or if a child,
accompanied by one or both of his parents while the rest of the
family continued the journey to America.
In the nature of things, it was either the very old or the very
young member of the family that would fail the examination.
Measles and small pox in the children and tuberculosis in the aged
was a frequent cause of rejection. Occasionally children would be
confined in a local hospital for further observation and after a
couple of weeks the symptoms would disappear and the family would
be allowed to proceed happily on their journey. But the aged were
usually without hope and would return home with much sorrow and
tears. Occasionally too, persons turned back at this point would
try again after an interval of some months and would somehow
succeed, [PAGE 26] but others would be too
spent or too discouraged to try again and the separation would
become permanent.
For these reasons one large group in the summer of 1907, having
several such rejects among them, decided to heed the advice of
some agents who advised them that they could easily enter the
United States by going to Argentina first and applying for
admission from there, the agents further convinced them that the
journey would not be much longer than via New York. With these
high hopes the whole group sailed on the next steamer for Buenos
Aires.
Arriving in that great city, they discovered to their dismay that
things were not as simple as the agents claimed; that there was
still a lot of red tape to unravel. Seeking an escape from their
predicament, they were advised by some Russian speaking people
that their best solution would be to travel by train to the city
of Mendoza
[, Argentina], at the foot of the
Andes mountains and from there on foot and by pack mule along
narrow trails across the Andes via the 12,640 ft. high mountain
pass to Santiago,
Chili and thence by steamer to California.
After several weeks in Buenos Aires the group, consisting of 70
people of all ages, proceeded by train to Mendoza. Since their
reserve of money was practically spent, they decided to find work
in that city as casual laborers in order to replenish their funds
for the balance of the journey, meanwhile arranging for guides and
mules for the difficult and hazardous trip across the mountains to
Chili.
Three months after arriving in Mendoza they set out on the seven
day journey across the continental divide over the Uspallata
Pass, spending the nights at wayside stations provided for
the purpose by bordering countries and, incidentally burying a new
born baby and losing a guide whose mule lost its footing on the
narrow trail and plunged headlong down the steep mountain side,
killing itself and the guide.
[PAGE 27] Completing this
harrowing journey, the group finally arrived in Santiago, Chili
where, to their great and pleasant surprise, they were met by two
young [Spiritual
Christians] Molokans who were stranded there for lack
of funds and who found work in the city as day laborers.
While in Santiago the group split in two, the majority remaining
there to rest up and to replenish their dwindling funds while
several younger men and women, being more impatient, boarded a
steamer in Valparaiso
and sailed to Panama
where they crossed the Isthmus
by train and proceeded north by another steamer for Vera Cruz, Mexico
and thence by train to El Paso,
Texas where they finally entered the United States three
months after leaving Santiago.
Those who remained eventually wired their relatives in Los Angeles
for assistance and, after burying a woman member of the group who
died there after childbirth, were able to proceed without further
incidents by steamer to Ensenada,
Baja California, entering the United States at San
Ysidro, Calif. some time in the winter of 1908. [Footnote:
This group included the Lydayeff, the Kornoff, Veloff, and
Meloserdoff families.]
Undoubtedly their hardships exceeded anything that other groups
had to endure, perhaps equaling the hardships of the Mormons when
these had to cross the Rocky Mountains in their trek to the Great
Salt Lake. But hard as it was, costly in life and money, it proved
to be infinitely better than the alternative choice of returning
to Russian from Bremen, perhaps to endure the wars, the revolution
and famine that Russia was subjected to after 1914.
As for the steam ships that catered to the
immigrants trade, these were nothing more or less than freighters
whose upper holds were converted for passenger carrying purposes
by installation of double-decked steel bunks arranged in [PAGE 28] sets of four two
bunks end to end, two side by side, with narrow aisles between
each set. Some ships, in addition to the accommodation for the
immigrants, (who were called steerage passengers) had
accommodations for higher paying passengers. These accommodations,
when viewed by the steerage passengers, seemed to be the ultimate
in luxury.
Before the ship sailed, the holds were crammed with steerage
passengers to full capacity. Each ethnic group, as indeed, each
family group, desperately sought accommodations near each other
for the duration of what to them was a new and, perhaps a
dangerous adventure.
The holds soon became a bedlam of noise as mothers tried to
comfort little babies crying from fright in the strange
surroundings deep in the semi-darkness of the hold. Older children
becoming lost, were yelling for their mothers. These youngsters
soon became acclimated to the new scene and were having a great
adventure. Older people would be yelling at each other over real
or imagined wrongs. After a day of sailing, however, as the ship
entered the English Channel, and later the Atlantic Ocean, the
seas became very rough and the passengers became sea-sick,
remaining in their bunks without the strength to make any noise
until the seas became less violent or the passengers became
acclimated to the motions of the ship.
In any case, the results of seasickness plus the smell of crowded
humanity created an indescribable stench. Whenever the weather
permitted, the passengers were all routed out of their bunks and
forced to ascend to the top decks, allowing the crews to clean up
the holds. At the same time the Ship's doctors would inspect the
passengers for signs of contagious diseases. it must be remembered
that the ship's owners were responsible for the health of every
passenger until the very moment when the health inspectors at the
United States port of entry admitted him. In the event any of them
failed to pass the inspection [PAGE 29]
at that point, the ship was contract bound to return the immigrant
to the port of embarkation at its own cost. It was, therefore,
advantageous for the ship to deliver its human cargo in as healthy
condition as possible.
In spite of all precautions, passengers became ill and some even
died during the voyage and were therefore buried at sea in the
same age-old manner as they are buried even today. It is a strange
mystery why ships could not be equipped with mortuaries so that a
misfortune such as this could be more bearable for the bereaved
relatives by making it possible for them to bury their loved ones
at the nearest port.
More than one [Spiritual Christian] Molokan was thus
buried at sea. The only consolation for the bereaved family was
that they were allowed to perform their own burial rites,
selecting some worthy member to perform the rite if no recognized
presbyter was present.
Not all was tragedy, however. There were many occasions of lighter
nature also. Babies were born on board these ships, the mother
receiving excellent care in the Ship's hospital ward. When the
weather permitted them to remain on the top deck there was much
singing of religious and folk songs. Other nationalities indulged
in their own forms of recreation, such as dancing, wrestling and
the like.
Finally the long anticipated day came when the ship entered the
harbor. As the ship approached the dock the passengers were told
to pin their identity cards to their lapels or hang them around
their necks.
All was bustle and excitement. The meager belongings usually
bedding and clothes were tied together, loaded on the backs of
adults and brought out to the top decks. Older children too, were
laden with light baggage, usually tea kettles without which no [Russian] Molokan family
ever traveled.
Immigrants fought for position in line, each family desperately
trying to stay together. As the gang plank was tied to the ship
they began slowly to descend, being herded by guards to [PAGE 30] the many lines where
teams of expert doctors and custom inspectors stood ready to
examine each immigrant individually, passing each family to
especially constructed wire cages and sorting them as to their
destination and condition of health and detaining those whose
appearance showed signs of sickness, also detaining those who
lacked the required $5.00 in cash for each immigrant as expense
money for traveling by train to their destination.
The unfortunate ones who were detained for reasons of illness were
housed in government accommodations such as Ellis Island in New York
harbor and similar places in other ports of entry. There they
would be comfortably housed and fed for the duration of their
stay. If they were denied admission the ship would take them back
to the port of embarkation on the next sailing date. Although
these accommodations were clean and comfortable they were places
of confinement nevertheless because no one was permitted to leave
them until the final disposition of their application.
Eventually, after weeding out the whole complement of passengers
consisting of between 2,000 and 3,000 persons, all but very few
were allowed to proceed to their future homes in the new world.
The rejected ones, alas, had to return to Europe to face an
uncertain future, separated from members of their family and
friends, completely broken in spirit and ruined financially.
The [Spiritual Christian] Molokan migration
continued until 1912. Only a few families arrived in that year.
None arrived in 1913. Perhaps more would have come in following
years but the outbreak of the war m Europe in the summer of 1914
closed the gates to the United States completely. Never again
would they open as widely as formerly. At the end of the war, in
1921, the United States Congress, to discourage the entrance of
immigrants from Eastern Europe, passed a law restricting their
numbers by a [PAGE 31]
quota system which favored the immigrants of Western Europe
against those from the East [, Immigration
Restriction Act of 1921].
But even this law would have permitted the entrance of a small
number of immigrants from Russia but the Soviet government in its
turn prevented the emigration of anyone from the confines of its
borders, therefore the year 1912 could be considered as the
termination of [Spiritual Christian] Molokan migration
and from that year until 1950 no personal contact was possible
between the [Spiritual Christians] Molokans in
America and their brethren in Russia with one
exception.
In 1922, after the Bolshevik Revolution and after the civil wars
in Russia, several [Molokan] families in
San Francisco formed a cooperative [Kalifornia
village, Tselinskii
District,
Rostov Oblast] and returned to the Soviet Union
intending to live there permanently. But after about five years
they became disillusioned with their life in the new paradise. [Most] They were able
to return to the United States only on the strength of the fact
that each family had one or more children among them who were born
in the United States, therefore, being citizens of. U.S. they and
their parents could legally claim the right to enter the United
States outside of the quota system. In 1927 [most]
they all returned bringing the first personal
stories of the wars, revolution and the terrible famine of
1921-1922.
10.
What if Canada?
What if all Spiritual Christians from Russia
migrated to Canada as originally planned to follow their
neighboring Dukhobortsy?
If Peter Demens did not intervene, the
leading scouts could have secured a land reserve in addition
to military service waiver they got in 1899.
Those who claimed to be Dukhobor or
"Molokan" upon entering Canada would get the same
privileges military exception and bloc land grants under the Dukhobortsy
got their land for no charge because immigrant labor was
desperately needed. About 1206
square miles about 1 square mile per family
was given for Dukhobor settlement in Canada in 4
blocs in central Canada .
They got 4 times as much land as they would have gotten
under the Dominion
Lands Act 160 acres per applicant for a $10
administration fee (6.25 cents/acre), cultivate at least 40
acres and build a house within three years.
Map by Jonathan Kalmakoff, Doukhobor
Heritage Website. See detailed
maps.
If the non-Dukhobor Spiritual Christians also got 1
square mile per family for settling in Canada, how much
land would they have gotten?
Let's estimate. At least 2,000
non-Dukhobor Spiritual
Christians immigrated to Noth America. If we estimate about 5
people per family (2000/5), we get about 400 families,
and about 400 square miles. So let's compare the Dukhobor
land area to that of the non-Dukhobor land, and
assume everyone stays together.
They would not have met the Dr. Rev Dana W. Bartlett, or Peter
Demens, or Paul Cherbak, or Pauline Young. There would not have
been large agricultural colonies in Baja California or Arizona.
There would not have been a need for a UMCA to address juvenile
delinquency. Every family would have first been farmers, no
rubbish collectors or recyclers. Ice hockey would replace
surfing and football. Everyone would know how to sing "O,
Canada". Some would go south in the winter as "snow birds".
After getting to know many of the svobodniki (Sons of
Freedom, Freedomites) in British Columbia, I often wondered: Would the svobodniki and Maksimisty
have join forces and marched together in 1902?
[<Contents] [Chapter 2>]
Spiritual
Christian History
Spiritual Christians Around
the World
