Vokrug Sveta (Around the World)


Click here to see show webpage for: Armenia, Molokans

Translation of show text:

The sect of Molokans was founded in the 2nd half of the 18th century in Tambov province. The nickname of "Molokans" stuck to the sect probably because they consume milk. Molokans call themselves "true spiritual Christians". In the 19th century Molokans wanted to avoid persecution, they began to move to the edges of the empire, including Transcaucasia. They live there now keeping their traditions and the faith of their ancestors. [This newscast is mostly about Dukh-i-zhizniki, not Molokane. ]
Click to see segment webpage for: Armenia, Molokans
Also posted at www.Worlds.ru
Summary of segment text: (Complete translation later. These images are from the original broadcast posted, which since has been modified and the website now only shows one scene of  Ivan Zadorkin, below.)
 
We met Dukh-i-zhizniki Molokans in the Erevan market, where they sell their famous and very popular sauerkraut. We heard that they prefer to keep to themselves and don't allow photographs. For them photos, videos, TV, newspapers, are all of the devil. It turned out that it was true but not as bad as we expected. We were surprised to be invited into many homes and allowed to photograph and videotape for television. Dukh-i-zhizniki Molokans who have TVs hide them from the elders, because the presbyters would not enter homes with TVs.

The first Russian villages in Transcaucasia began in the beginning of the 19th century, mostly from different sects. But the most well-known are the Molokans. The Orthodox called them "molokane" because they drank milk during fasts, particularly Lent.

In 1842 mostly Pryguny and some Molokane Molokans founded the village of Nikitino. Before in Armenia there were about twenty primarily Russian-Spiritual Christian Molokan villages. Today there are only two. One of them is Fioletovo, formerly Nikitino. [The other is Lermontovo. Also, notice that the sign is misspelled phonetically in Russian, the first "o" is pronounced "a". The Armenian name is on top.]

This is what a British traveler wrote who visited Armenia in the 19th century: "Their limbs are poorly connected in their joints. These Russians are a major contrast with the Armenians. Their faces are not symmetrical, with small eyes, and void of vivid facial expression. The women wear head scarfs and clean dresses." Spiritual Christians Molokans indeed are very clean. You can see it in their houses and streets. 

There are only two streets in the village — Sentralnaia (central) and Pogrebal'naia (for burials) which leads to the cemetery. [It is an Eastern-European  row-village similar to the layout of the Prygun Guadalupe village in Mexico.] The first houses were built communally, and animals and land were all communal. Today they are hard working, sober, honest and help each other. Spiritual Christians Molokans don't divorce and want their kids to marry Spiritual Christians Molokans. Bearded Spiritual Christians Molokans are faithful, but the shaved go to Russia to make money and have a free lifestyle. They are very poor with not enough land to grow food for their big families. Their main diet is potatoes and cabbage. Religious fasts last a week in which nothing is eaten and everybody starves including the animals. They don't put their hands on the table. People who drink alcohol or cuss are buried without prayer. [Though there are 4 congregations in Fioletovo, journalists lump everyone into one group.]

Before the revolution there were 12 Spiritual Christians Molokans apostles — community leaders — one was Maksim Gavorilich Rudomyotkin who [led a congregation of Pryguny] founded the Jumpers. Molokans [Many of his followers] worship Rudomyotkin as a saint. He died in Suzdal monastery. "Parginal—Assurinal—Iusgoris" means "Hello" in the Zion language invented by Rudomyotkin, which will be the future language of his most faithful believers the Christians.

Prophet Ivan Vasilich Zadorkin [left] and wife with grand-kids. Their daughter Galina Ivanovna Iurtaieva, also a prophetess, lives in a small one-room apartment in Erevan with 5 kids [right]. Galina works as a nanny for an Armenian family that wants their kids to learn Russian. [After perestroika, the official language reverted to Armenian.] The elder Zadorkin had a a prophesy that two mountains will protect Fioletovo from the apocolypse. [This may explain why Fioletovo is is the last village in Armenia inhabited nearly entirely by 3 divided congregations of Dukh-i-zhizniki and one congregation of Molokane. Nearby Lermontovo is about half Russian.]

The elder Aleksei Nikolaevich Novikov [right] lives with his wife Nadezhda Vasilevna. They sometimes visit their kids who moved to Stavropol' to work and send aide back home.

In 2005 the Molokans are preparing to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Tsar's manifest for religious freedom, while most of the Dukh-i-zhizniki did not.
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