Spiritual Christian NEWS: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
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Molokan Shiplist Records on Microfilm
Jon Kalmakoff  reports: "Five years ago, when I was searching for the shiplists of the Doukhobors aboard the Southwark, I came across shiplists of hundreds and hundreds of Molokans who arrived at the Port of Quebec and journeyed south to the U.S.A. They were all on the same microfilm reel, and if memory serves me well, many arrived between July and September 1905. Therefore, I urge you to track down the National Archives of Canada, Microfilm Reel #T-0485. It should be a goldmine for Molokan genealogists." Also see updates to Jon's excellent Doukhobor Genealogy website, particularly the updates to the names section.

Piatigorsk Bombed Again, 7 Killed, 44 Injured
2000 Dec 7 — Stavropol'skii krai — About 1 pm in the main outdoor market (rynok), 2 automobiles with bombs blew up at the same time. One was parked next to the main entrance, and the other was parked next to the trolley (tramvai) stop. 44 were injured and 7 killed. Unknown terrorists are suspected, probably Chechnens. Because of this incident, all Piatigorsk outdoor markets (3-5 total) will be closed for 10 days during the end-of-year holidays — December 25 to January 5. Russian Christmas is January 7. There are 3 Molokan churches in Piatigorsk (Maksimist, Postoianye, and Dukhovnye) and 2 (Postoianye and Dukhovnye, both from Azerbaiddjan) in the adjacent town of Zheleznovodsk. There is no information yet regarding if any Molokans were hurt or killed. See story below (October 6) about 3 bombings, 1 in Piatigorsk.

The poor state of health care in Russia
2000, December — This special New York Times series includes:
• Russia's Doctors are Beggars at Work, Paupers at Home (Dec 16, 2000)
• Infectious Diseases Rising Again in Russia (Dec. 5, 2000)
• In Russia, the Ill and Infirm Include Health Care Itself (Dec. 4, 2000)
• An Ailing Russia Lives a Tough Life That's Getting Shorter (Dec. 3, 2000)
Over 10 articles in all.

Writer Seeks Molokans who know about Edward Roybal
2000 Dec 12 — Kenneth Burt is writing a book about Latino politics in Los Angeles and focusing on Edward Roybal's successful campaign for L.A. City Council in 1949. He is very interested in the multi-ethnic coalitions that were formed through churches and unions to campaign for Roybal. He is interested in interviewing a Molokan Russian who lived in the neighborhood in 1949 and would have been aware of, or involved in, local politics. If you, or anyone you know, is willing to speak with Mr. Burt, please contact him << kcburt@cwo.com >> directly.

Klyst. Sects, literature and revolutionaries
1998 — by Aleksander Etkind — 688 pages. About Klysti, Skoptsi, Doukhobors, Molokans, and other utopian Russian sects.

Land of the pilgrims Pride
2000 — by Tom Campbell —"...the Russian Molokans yielded to the latter rain outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord, and history records prophets extending back to an early date. Sometimes they are called 'Leapers and Jumpers', because their lively meetings. The Molokans are closely related to the Doukhobors."

Obituary of Kenneth Peacock
2000 November 20 — by Koozma Tarasoff — Here is a press release announcing the passing of Kenneth Peacock, a stalwart musician, musicologist, composer, folklorist and contributor to the multiculturalism of Canada. Born in Toronto in 1922. Died in Ottawa Nov. 22, 2000. "He published some of their singing in Twenty Ethnic Songs from Western Canada (1966) and then devoted a full book on singing in Songs of the Doukhobors (1970). As the first musicologist who transcribed the motifs of Doukhobor psalms into musical notes, he found that their traditional oral literature and music goes back to many centuries and continues to unite all Doukhobors today with beauty, culture, and spirit. One of the psalms he transcribed explains it best: "The singing of psalms beautifies our souls.""

Some Molokans leave Armenia, then return home
"... in Erevan's central market, I chatted with a ... Molokan ... I learned that ... His family, along with several others, moved to central Russia, but after a year all but one family returned. I was interested in why they returned. His answer struck [amazed] me, "Many people there [in Russia] used bad language, and drank a lot!" He said "used bad language", not cursing. Can you believe they prefer to return to their village [in Armenia], where they have no electricity or gas and be poor, than live among cursing and drinking kinsman [fellow Russians]!"

Article describes Molokans in Armenia with photos
Click for article2000 February — Hayatsk Yerevanits [A View from Yerevan]  No. 2(23). Pages 20-23 — "A Handful of Russia in the Armenian Highlands is Mark Grigorian's essay, with Rouben Mangasarian's pictures, on one of Armenia's ethnic minorities, the Molokans. It deals with the living conditions, customs, beliefs, education, and problems of this small but respected subculture in Armenia." Grigorian reports on the last 100% Molokan village in Armenia, Fioletovo (formerly Nikitino). Read the article in English. Much thanks to Mark Grigorian for e-mailing it to us. Copies in Armenian can be purchased at any of 3 bookstores in Glendale, California.[November 20: The author e-mailed 3 photos not printed in the original article. See Correspondence]

Russians leave Georgia-Armenia border
1998 — The Question of Javakheti (southern Gerogia), by Voitsekh Guretski — Caucasian Regional Studies, Vol. 3, Issue 1, 1998 — "In the past eight years since the last census, the region's ethnic composition has altered the number of ethnic Russians living in some of the villages in the Ninotsminda district close to the Armenian border declined (these were Old Believers, chiefly Dukhobors and Molokans whose ancestors settled in the Transcaucasus way back at the beginning of the 19th century; some of them decided to return back to Russia)". [Update Sept 20, 2007: See articles about Doukhobors leaving Georgia to Russia — many to Briansk and Tambov.]

"Molokani" first officially mentioned in 1765
1953 — The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol X: Reutsch - Son — by Philip Schaff — See the scanned pages and text. "The origin of the Molokani is obscure, nor are they officially mentioned until 1765. They claim that the Bible is their sole foundation, and though they explain it allegorically, they do not reject the historical elements in the Gospel. They refuse to eat pork, but in general their doctrines are vague, so that much diversity of opinion prevails among them. Their congregations meet in private houses, each body having a presbyter and two assistants conspicuous for uprightness of life. Their devotions consist of prayer, the singing of hymns and reading of the Bible, and conversations on religious themes. Their morality is high, and their readiness to assist one another has led to frequent experiments in communism. Theoretically they hold that earthly rulers are only for the worldly, so that many of them refuse to pay taxes, take oaths, or perform military service, but practically they are, as a rule, loyal and peaceful subjects." ....

10 Doukhobor Books and CD by Tarasoff and friends.

Click for more WillBillyBilly W. Chernoff, Country Western Music
He calls it "WillBilly" music. Raised a Doukhobor in Grand Forks, BC, Billy grew up an American cowboy — grooming and exercising race horses, rough-necking in the Alberta oil fields, riding bareback horses, clowning and working barrel in Oregon and Nevada. He is a studio musician/artist, who sings about cowboys, outlaws and banditos, yet remindful of his Spiritual Christian heritage often including religious songs. Hear cuts in RealAudio from his new album Fresno Rodeo. His logo is the USCC peace dove with his brand.

Click for Doukhobor Village and MuseumDoukhobor Village and Museums in Ooteshenia
Pictures, history, descriptions, hours and prices for Douhoubor tourist sites in Eastern British Columbia (around Castlegar), by Larry A. Ewashen. Dolina Ooteshenia (The Valley of Consolation) where the Kootenay River joins the Columbia River, The Douhobor Historic Village, The Douhobor Village Museum, and Who are the Doukhobors.

Brief History of The Church in Russia and the Rise of the Molokan Sect
1998 — By Bill M. Baghdanov, PhD. 88 pages —  The creation and evolution of the Molokans is explained within the context of the history of the Russian Empire. In the mid 1600s, attempts to standardize the church caused the schism (raskol). 10% rejected this reform to protect their old rituals, and old beliefs. When the priests of these Old Believers (Stari Very) died off, about half rejected any priest, becoming the Priestless (Bezpopovski). Baghdanov suggests that from this environment arose sectarians (sektanti), religious peasants who rejected the authority of the church. Molokans are several groups within the many (100+) sectarians identified by historians (Postoiannye, Pryguny, Subbotniki, Maksimisti, Oschshie, Khlysti, Skopsti, ...). Using 8 references, and his perspective as a Molokan, Bill lists "factors" to consider for the changes in Russia and what the sectarians, particularly the Molokans, were trying to do with their life on earth. The Appendix contains a list of the Rulers of Russia from 856 to 1917, and a helpful chart plotting sectarian leaders, an evolutionary tree of schismatics and sectarians. $17 soft cover, $37 hard cover, includes shipping, from Bill Baghdanov, 15215 NE 7th Street, Vancouver WA 98684-8124.

The Milky Way
A Molokan whose shorts were of silk
Sang dank chants, and sad songs of that ilk
During Lent. But he'd still
Grab a nip of the swill
His Ma brewed from cold borscht and fresh milk.

During Lent, when fresh milk was abhorred,
Otets Ivan, who liked not to be bored,
Ate stale cabbage and wurst
As his lungs fairly burst
With loud songs of Swiss cheese to the Lord.
[This limerick by the "Troubador", a graduate music student at Ohio State University, is what I first found when I searched the Internet in 1994 for the keyword Molokan. What was published about the Doukhobors was much worse. Since then many volunteer Molokans and Doukhobors have learned this new media and taken ownership of our image. There are several misrepresentations in this limerick. Only Constant Molokans celebrate Lent but not like the Catholics or Orthodox; Jumper/Maksimist Molokans do not and are offended by the implication. Borscht is soup, and no one should eat spoiled soup. They'd get sick from the bacteria, not drunk. Wurst is a German word, Russians would say sausage, sosiski. Molokans were well known for their ability to make Gueire cheese; I never read that they made  Swiss cheese.]

Raskolniks
Russian raskolnik, a schismatic, a dissenter; from raskol, schism, splitting; that in turn from raz, apart, and kolot', to split; plural, raskolniki). A generic term for dissidents from the Established Church in Russia. Molokans are "sectarians", not "raskolniks". (Thanks to a reader who says: "I was surfing the net and came across this page in the Catholic Encyclopedia which defines Molokans and Doukhobors [and other sectarian groups]. )

Click for MoreDoukhobor Genealogy Website, by Jon Kalmakoff
Updated for mobile devices in 2021 as "Doukhobor Heritage"
2000 September 24 — Jon announces: "The primary internet source connecting researchers of Doukhobor genealogy. This site is dedicated to the reclamation, discovery, collection, preservation and free sharing of information related to Doukhobor family history." Count 11 sections, 5 are under construction. The first of 15 items in Research Sources, Ship Passenger Lists, reports that all Doukhobors didn't immigrate with the 7,500 in 1898-99 funded by Tolsoy and the Quakers. Many small groups arrived as late as 1928. On the S.S. Southwark in 1905, 6 Molokans (one family) arrived in Quebec with 182 Doukhobors. Jon says he found many other Molokans listed on other ships, without Doukhobors, which arrived in the port of Quebec in the Fall of 1905. Stories and Articles shows 8 links to online information. Queries loads up Doukhobor Queries at RootsWeb.com, a searchable message board Jon started earlier this year for Doukhobor Geneology. Almost 300 messages are posted. We should join the chatter and make a parallel board for Molokans. There are many Molokan-Doukhobor marriages. Enter the keyword Molokan to find that 2 Molokans have already posted inquiries for Popoff, Popov, Seminoff, Poppin, Popin, Papin, Pappin; and Samoyloff, Zolnekoff. You can search by keyword, date, and thread. Links lists 82 Genealogy Links — 8 Doukhobor, 21 Canadian, 14 Russian, 26 General, and 13 Personal (including Konnoff/Mosieve, Tolmasoff/Patapoff, Zolnekoff, and Subbotnik). Jon says that in about 2 weeks in the Name section there will be subsections on (i) the origin and meaning of Doukhobor; (ii) a guide to Douhkobor names and naming patterns; (iii) a glossary of Russian personal names and diminutives; and (iv) a glossary of English / Anglicized versions of Russian names adopted by immigrants in North America. Send Jon a bolshoi spacibo!, and keep lurking for his extensive list of Doukhobor surnames, with origins, soon appearing on a computer near you. Names section updated November 15 with lots of stuff useful to Molokans.

American Molokans who donated to the Ellis Island Wall of HonorEllis Island Wall of Honor
18 Molokan families and individuals are listed on a new public display in New York — Belikoff, Bolotin, Buchnoff- Mendrin, Conovaloff-Miloserdoff, Kalpakoff, Loscutoff, Nazaroff, Novikoff, Popoff, Shubin, Soriakoff, Susoeff. These families donated $100 or $200 to the American Immigration Wall of Honor to help fund the Ellis Island restoration project.

Click for More3 Bombings in Stavropol Near 1000s of Molokans
2000 October 6 — The Moscow Times / Teletype — 3 small bombs exploded during rush hour in Stavropol, 1 in Piatigorsk, 2 in Nevinnomyssk. 2 killed, 20 injured. There are 3 Molokan churches in Piatigorsk and 1 church in Nevinnomyssk. In Piatigorsk hundreds missed injury and death when their train was scheduled to another loading platform at the last minute.

Boyle Heights: Neighborhood Sites and Insights
Click for More2000 — The Boyle Heights history project has a website sponsored by the Program in American Studies & Ethnicity at at USC (University of Southern California): "... Boyle Heights ... multiethnic history and legacy. ... 6.5 square miles of East Los Angeles, just east of Downtown and Little Tokyo, ... the first residential neighborhood outside of the old pueblo center. ... concentrations of Jewish, Japanese, Mexican, Molokan, and African Americans. ... a port-of-entry for immigrants from all over the world ... (ethnic churches, cemeteries, social clubs)." The Project has 7 Components: Partnership Developement, Research, Radio Documentary Programs, Community Outreach Forums, Photo Collection Day, Oral History Project, Roosevelt Senior High School Project. The website has many sections with photos explaining the goals, funding, patners, staff, news stories, and scaned 1940 census forms for each unit! Eventually you can look up any house/apartment in the BLOCKS link. See the rent ($15!), occupants, whether it had a frig, toilet, etc. IN THE NEWS has an article So that Beauty Might Prevail (Eastside Sun — May 4, 2000): "... Russian being spoken off of Lorena Street..." and the fact that "From the 1920s to the 1950s, Boyle Heights was the most diverse neighborhood in Los Angeles. It was home to large concentrations of Jews, Mexicans, Japanese, Russian, Molokans, African Americans, Armenians, Italian, and Chinese people-long before the term "ethnic Los Angeles" had ever been uttered. ... thirty-two nationalities and we all got along, ..."

Russian Molokan Website/Journals Overhauled and Expanded
Click for More2000 September — Tambov, Russia — Molokan, Journal of the Spiritual Christian — Sergei Petrov announces a total redesign of their first Russian Molokan website, in Russian of course. With help from Erevan refugee Viktor Tikhunov (Slobodka village, Chern' raion, Tula oblast'), he created a joint-site divided into 5 sections: the 2 original sections Spiritual Christian and Good Homebuilding Blessings (from Tambov) , and 3 new sections: The Milky Way, (from Tula) Words of Faith (from Stavropol) , and Sprout. It's still under construction. Serguei tells us: "We plan to place old Molokan journals, books, documents, and other [items on the web]." I'll try to mirror part of the site in English. Stay tuned. Tell your Molokan friends and relatives that the Internet is joining Molokans around the world. This leads to my next section:

Perestroika Finally Improves Russian Internet and Hopes for Free Economy
[I find 2 reports that suggest that the Internet may be the catalyst to bring real glastnost to our Russian people. Seguei and Viktor are among the first on the wave, just like you, dude [muzhik]!]
2000 September 25 — Reuters — New Management Style For Russian Telecoms by Karl Emerick Hanuska — Russian Internet prospects improve as international investors apply the best management and accounting practices. 11 small Internet service providers (ISPs) are merging into a super-regional operator, the first in a series of planned consolidations to form large efficent telecoms. The new business model is spreading and may impact the entire telecommunications sector.
2000 September 23 — Reuters — IBS: Net Is Cure For Corruption by Peter Henderson — Business leaders aiming to stamp out corruption will ... adopt e-commerce... use the Internet to become more transparent, reaping a reward from investors for their openness, ... Computerization and the Internet leave deal trails, ... uncovering bribes and foul play, .. to get out from under the control of independent company bureaucrats. ... It is crucial for Russia’s existence, ...

Who Spoke in Tongues First in LA, Molokans or Pentecosts?
Click for More1998 September 22 — Christian History: Weekly online magazine — Letters from Readers — from George J. Samarin, South Gate, California — "I am a ... Molokan.... The first ... arrived in Los Angeles, from Ellis Island, in 1904. ... We have experienced the visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit for centuries, and also have been known to speak in tongues and experience healings. Therefore, how was it possible for others to be "the first" to speak in tongues in Los Angeles in 1906?" Samarin appears to be protesting an article in the previous issue: American Penetecost: The Azusa Street Revival...

Armenian Genocide Victims May Collect Insurance
2000 September 22 — Los Angeles Times — by Miguel Bustillo — 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Turks from 1915 to 1923. Kars Molokans and Doukhobors were in the middle of this war. California Governor Davis signed legislation allowing victims of the Armenian genocide and their heirs to pursue unpaid insurance claims in California courts. 7,671 policies issued between 1895 and 1915 may be worth more than $3 billion. On the other hand the Muslim Turks blame the Christian Armenians for killing 2.5 million Muslim people.

British Fix Tractor for Molokan Refugees in Tula, Russia
Click for More1999 July — The British fund Know How donates farm equipment (value: about $5,750) to 80 Russian Molokan refugees in the new obschina of Berezovka, Tula. This news item from the British Embassy shows a photo of what appears to be the new Molokan prayer building under construction. With tractors these Molokans are able to earn the money to build their church! Berezovka may be the un-named Molokan village in Tula reported earlier, even though the previous village lists 30 people and 850 acres, compared to Berezovka's 618 acres and 80 people.

Dr. Waters may speak to Molokans at end of December in LA
Click for More2000 September 20 — Dr. Tony Waters who researched Molokans in the Flats for his Ph.D. thesis in sociology says that he'll be in Los Angeles during the Christmas break. If invited by the Los Angeles Molokan community, Waters would like to present a lecture about his research, like Dr. Breyfogle did. Waters studied Molokans in Los Angeles from 1910 to 1930. His specialy is immigrant youth gangs and crime. Waters discovered that crime is a "natural" part of the immigration process for rural families with lots of kids and dominate religious elders who migrate to large cities. We can help Dr. Waters better understand this process by sharing with him our undocumented early history in America. He also wants to visit the UMCA Heritage Room and find out more about the Your Boyle Heights project. Stay tuned for further announcements about this event. [Updated: 2000 December—Sorry to report that the UMCA was asked to host this lecture, and the Board of Directors flatly refused because they didn't want "any more dissertations". It seems that fear of knowledge is very active politically among many American Molokans. You may yet get to meet and hear Dr.Waters if he participates in the "Your Boyle Heights" project this year. Stay tuned.]

Boyle Heights History Project Includes Molokans
Click to ENLARGE2000 September 17 — All Molokans who lived in Boyle Heights (The Flats) are invited to a public planning forum for a neighborhood history project called Your Boyle Heights to be held on Sunday, September 17, from 2 pm to 5 pm at the International Institute of LA, 435 S Boyle Ave, Los Angeles, in Boyle Heights, just south of 4th Street between the Santa Ana (101) and Golden State (5) Freeways. (See the flyer which shows a photo of students at the Utah Street School about 1929 and the origianl HJollenbeck Park, with a map.) Park next door at the Puente Center.
      The project which explores the diverse ethnic history and changes of the Boyle Heights neighborhood is coordinated by Sojin Kim and Darcie Iki, curators of the Japanese American National Museum, 369 East First Street (at Alemeda), in Little Tokyo. The purpose of this forum is (1) to tell people about plans for the Boyle Heights history project, (2) to describe the exhibition being developed for display maybe next year, and (2) to provide people — past and present residents of the Boyle Heights neighborhood — an opportunity to offer their input and suggestions. The sponsors hope to have a broad range of participants in the forum. The forum will be led by Tomas Benitez, and feature a presentation by Dr. George Sanchez, who will speak about his research as well as the broader significance of the neighborhood. Click here to read more about Dr. Sanchez's work.
     Sojin Kim has visited the UMCA Heritage Room in Hacienda Heights where she purchased a few books and invited the Molokans to share in the Boyle Heights history project. She assured the UMCA representatives that the Boyle Heights history project is not trying to document or find out information about Molokan religious practices — but rather, to learn about the social experiences of all ethnic groups in Boyle Heights. If you've never been to the International Institute, take a relative who has. The Institute sits on the cliff overlooking the Flats. From the back fence you can see all of LA and the remaining Flats landmarks. Ask your parents/relatives about the clubs, dances, and games they attended there. For more information, phone: (213) 830-5635.

The Festival of Peace
2000 September 16 — The Festival of Peace — by Koozma Tarasoff — Ottawa, Ontario CANADA — Attached is my talk .. which very much reflects the message of the Doukhobor movement for a world without war. The event was sponsored by the Coalition To Oppose the Arms Race. ... In brief, is it not time for us to work towards what scientists call a paradigm shift in thinking from war to a new vision of peace; from hate to love, from destruction to building a saner society?

A Draft After The 2000 Elections?
1999 August — Shalom Newsletter — by Murray Polner — ..."key members of Congress" and military committees, for the first time in a generation, are discussing revival of the draft. Asserting that not enough young people are enlisting and with the nation's commitments abroad growing constantly, the chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on readiness was quoted as suggesting that, sooner or later, there may be "some form of selective conscription." If you are almost 18, or want to know more, click here for current CO information and links.

Mexico Molokan Museum on 2 New Tourist Sites
EnjoyEnsenada.com — Day 3: .... Guadalupe Valley: "Head north from downtown Ensenada, ... At the junction turn left into Francisco Zarco, a town established by Russian immigrants of the Molokan sect who settled in the Guadalupe Valley in the early 1900s. Spend some time at the Museo Comunitario del Valle de Guadalupe, situated inside an original Russian home dating from 1905. The museum displays an interesting exhibition of photographs, farming implements and the historic memorabilia of Russian pioneer families...".
MexicOnline.com — Ensenada Side Trips: The Road to Tecate — "On the way there is a little museum which traces the history of the Russian settlement of Valle de Guadalupe. Known as Colonia Ruso a small cemetery, church and some Russian-style homes still exist from the migration of Russian Molokan religious order which was granted land in 1905. At one point about 500 Russian immigrants lived here."

Black Sea Discovery May Be Evidence of Noah's Flood
2000 September 13 — Los Angeles Times — by Thomas H. Maugh — U.S. archeologists have found the remains of a 7,500-year-old building, probably a house, more than 300 feet below the surface of the Black Sea, the strongest evidence yet of a catastrophic flood similar to the one portrayed in the biblical account of Noah's ark. Scientists have shown that rising waters in the Earth's oceans caused the Mediterranean Sea to fill with water when a natural earth dam broke through the Bosporus Strait. For as long as two years, water rushed in with the flow of 200 Niagara Falls filling the Sea. Residents who fled the area reported the flood stories that seem to permeate cultures worldwide, and the Bible. Read more details and see an underwater photo at the Arizona Republic.

Russian Archeologists Discover 1000 Year Old Wax Bible Texts
2000 September 6— The Associated Press, MOSCOW — The Moscow Times NOVGOROD, Western Russia — Russian archeologists found a "book" of three wax tablets (called tsery) written in "Slavonic with a Russian accent" containing copies of Christian psalms which may be the oldest written artifacts ever found in Russia. The tablets, bearing Psalms 75, 76 and 67, were unearthed in July during an excavation at an ancient site near the center of Novgorod in western Russia, and have been dated to the years 1000 to 1025. What appears to be a sermon says: "I am the true Law and the Prophets, I am the Door and the Truth and the Path, I am the Unspoken Mystery. ... This is the true word, and not for the idol-worshipping, Without banishing from ourselves all people, without alienating those thirsting for knowledge ... this scripture is for the consolation of orphans and widows. ... All for the understanding of the essence." This discovery suggests that Christianity spread through Russia more quickly than has been thought.

Water War Divides San Joaquin Valley Farmers (many are Molokans)
2000 September 5 — by Mark Arax, Los Angeles Times — Fresno Agriculture: Chronically parched large growers on the west side are moving to tap the river traditionally used by small growers on the east side. "This whole fight is about a way of life," said Lucille Demetriff, who farms 65 acres of pomegranates, prunes and quince with her husband in the east side community of Porterville. "There are 600 growers in the Westlands Water District. Out here we have 15,000. If you care about the family farm, it's plain and simple. We're going to fight this thing to the end." [Lucille M. (Shuken) is Jimmie Demetriff's wife.]

Everything Kosher with Frosh Efseaff
2000 August 16, — Long Beach Press Telegram — UCLA football player Eyoseph Efseaff, recruited from Porterville, reports his Molokan roots and details his kosher dietary laws. Conscientious to avoid "unclean" food, Efseaff says he chose UCLA over other teams because there is plenty of "Jewish food" nearby (and probably plenty of kosher Molokan babes).

Ivan S. Prokhanoff: pioneer preacher, singer, writer, martyr
2000 — The Restoration Movement in Russia — in Evangelism UpDate — by Ronnie Morrison — Russia: "... a movement to restore New Testament Christianity began to sweep across Russia. At its height in the late 1920's the movement numbered as many as 4 million adherents. ... Ivan S. Prokhanoff, one of the pioneer preachers of this Russian Restoration Movement. ... born in 1869 in Vladikavkas, Russia. He was raised in the Sect of Molokans ... At the age of 17 ... immersed in the Terek River in Vladikavakas. ... re-study of scripture by leaders among the Molokans with the conclusion that their practice did not conform to Biblical teaching in all points. ... A conference was held in 1884 in St. Petersburg ... Prokhanoff, a Mechanical Engineer ... became the most dynamic leader of the ... movement. ... an eloquent preacher, a talented song writer, ... editor of the first Protestant Christian Journal in Russia. ... He wrote hundreds of hymns and published several hymn books as well as other Christian literature. .. violent persecution, ... twice imprisoned ... forced into exile in 1923 .. he died in Berlin, Germany in 1933. Read more in The Russians' Secret. (Chapters 14-20) [ Portuguese Christians refer to Ivan as the: "the Martin Luther of modern Russia". His younger brother, Vasili, lived in LA and published a translated journal in Russian and English to unite all the Spiritual Christians in the Americas. I have a copy which I will reproduce on the web someday. I find that Vasili (1878-1941), his wife Anastasia (1881-1964) and son Eugene (1907-1931), were buried in LA in the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery.]

Mission to convert Los Angeles [Jumpers] Molokans to Orthodoxy failed in 1930s
"About St. Andrew Russian Catholic Church"....by Gabriel Meyer, for the 60th anniversary celebration
In 1936, St. Andrew's Russian Catholic Church was founded in Boyle Heights by Father M. Nedtotchin, a secular priest from the Russian College in Rome. The new church was built to bring the [Jumpers] Molokans back to Orthodoxy/Catholicism. Within 2 years the mission to convert/save the [Jumpers] Molokans had failed. In 1939, the parish was taken over by the Jesuit Father John Ryder, who changed their mission to praying for the conversion of Russia from Communism, Russian language classes for young people, children's gatherings and crafts, decorating the church, and a fine Russian choir. A graduate of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg painted the new icons. The colorful concerts of the St. Andrew's Russian Choir –  traditional costumes, folk and religious songs, and Russian Gypsy music – lasted into the mid-1950s, until the new Golden State Freeway was built over it. St. Andrew’s, fine iconostasis and all, eventually moved to downtown El Segundo where it stands today, 538 Concord St (at Mariposa St). (from the St. Andrew’s 60th anniversary web site.) The major error in this report is "About 20,000 members of this persecuted group had emigrated to California from the Soviet Union by the early 1930s — a fact..." Probably less than 3,000 immigrated from 1905 to 1912. A few came later. The Jumper and Molokan population grew in America after the Russian Revolution, but probably not as much as this report claims. See more at
A Conservative Blog For Peace — Monday, January 17, 2005 — 11:18 AM — "Meanwhile in America... Essentially there the Russian Catholic Church was a 1930s project of the Jesuits to convert the Russian Orthodox that failed (Bernard’s church, however, was founded to convert members of the [Jumper and] Molokan sect[s] but that failed too), leaving three churches (only Lee’s is still Jesuit) as sturdy refuges for Catholic-minded non-Russians who love the rite and culture and don’t solicit the Orthodox."

Small Villages Dying Out as Soviet Collectives Vanish
2000 August 25  – Los Angeles Times – Russia: Market reforms have prompted an exodus to cities, fueling the rural settlements' demise. This accurately reports the fate of most of the Molokan villages I've seen. The Russian Molokan youth cannot make a living in the farming villages were sobranie is held. They have to move to the cities and travel back for socials and church doings. Most take the bus. (Download as MS word document.)

Russians Criticize Missionaries
2000 August 15 – Los Angeles Times – The Russian Orthodox church tells Rome not to send Catholic missionaries into Russia promising wealth to converts. Molokans are no longer the bad guys.

History Lecture by Breyfogle on Audio Tape
2000 August 12 – Molokan Cemetery Chapel, Los Angeles – About 30 Molokans stayed glued to their seats for 3.5 hours interrupting him with many questions while Dr. Breyfogle tried to summarize his research in the Russian archives. Breyfogle wasn't able to summarize his thesis which you should read, or wait for the book in 2 years. He did cover some new material which I'll post when I listen to the tapes. The event was audio taped. If you'd like a copy, send me a note. It'll cost between $5 to $10 to copy the 3 and mail them. If many want a copy, I'll get them duplicated at a service. Read the new Survey of Russian History by John Garrard of the University of Arizona. Read more about Breyfogle.

Funds Needed to Publish 51 Tolstoy/Molokan Letters
A Molokan's Search for Truth: The Correspondence of Leo Tolstoy with Fedor Zheltov, available in 2000, if funded. 51 surviving letters between Count Lev Tolstoy and Molokan martyr Fedor Aleksseevich Zheltov were discovered by scholars helping the Doukhobors research their history with Tolstoy. The letters dating from 1887 to 1909 discuss religion, beliefs and philosophy. Zheltov was killed in 1938 for his writings and beliefs — an unknown Molokan martyr.

15 New Molokan Books
Here's a list of 14 new books published since 1993 about Molokans. 4 are fiction, 2 in Russian, and 1 is published twice. Send in your reviews and comments.

1800s Molokan Sheep Business in the Milky Waters Region
2000 April — "On Civilizing the Nogais": Mennonite-Nogai Economic Relations, 1825-1860 — by John R.
Staples — in The Mennonite Quarterly Review —  Here's fresh research hinting how Mennonites helped the Molokans and Doukhobors do business in agriculture in New South Russian ("Milky Waters") in the 1800s. New South Russia contains the "Milky Waters" area and is now called Ukraine. Since many Mennonintes who settled there did not get land they had to start a business, but the sectarians got lots of land. A prominent Mennonite, Cornies, loaned sheep to his new neighbors the Tatar shepherds (Nogais), and sectarian Russians (Molokans and Doukhobors) in barter contracts. When the sectarians began to compete against Cornies for Tatar business, he filed formal complaints resulting in enforcement of written contracts registered with the district police. This sheep-loan business eventually disrupted the cultural and economic dynamics of the region causing most of the participants to move away. For more about sectarian-Mennonite relations see The Russians' Secret.

"Problems of National (Ethnic) Minorities in Georgia"
2000 Issue 1 — in Central Asia and the Caucasus, Journal of Social and Political Studies — by Kokoev and Svanidze — Evaluates Georgia's providing for the rights of national minorities. "We cannot forget that just about the majority of those who left Georgia in the first half of the 1990s were representatives of ethnic minorities. ... the Dukhobor in the Ninotsminda district and Molokan in Kakhetia are on the verge of extinction. Special government resolutions of March 1993 only curbed this emigration for a while. ... many schools lack the necessary number of specialists. ...the authorities should pay as much attention as possible to the languages of minorities."

Craig Koretoff at Cultural Day
2000 April — Dahlonega, Georgia — Here's Craig Koretoff's online photo album. There was a cultural fair at GTCC (Guilford Technical Community College, Jamestown, N.C ?). Of interest are 2 photos captioned: "Craig and I brought his Russian Molokan collection to show", and "Look at me in that kasinka!"

2 More Bombings Among Russian Molokans
2000 July 10-11 — 2 more public bombings in Rostov and Valdikavkaz (renamed  Ordzhonokidze during Communism) have been reported . Many Molokans live in both of these cities. Most of the 12 Molokan villages in Rostov Oblast have close relatives in Rostov. There's a large Molokan church in Vladikavkaz and the well known "Molokan bazarchik", the second largest market in town. In 1999 a major bomb exploded in the main Vladikavkaz market (and again this week), and in 1997 the main train station in Piatigorsk (midway between these 2 cities) was bombed. Chechens are the suspected terrorists.

Molokan.com registered in Montebello, California
The Internet domain name Molokan.com has been registered to Target Technologies, 483 W. Washington Blvd. suite#149, Montebello, CA 90640 — (Phone) 323-878-5456 (FAX) 323-878-5456. Montebello, a suburb East of Los Angeles, is home to hundreds of Molokans. A $70 registration fee was paid to reserve this name for two years. Undoubtedly so know one else could use it. If any one would like to volunteer more information about this possible commercialization of the Molokan religion, let's hear it.

New Doukhobor book, website and CDs
2000 July 4 — Koozma Tarasoff, the most active and published Doukhobor-historian has advanced into multi-media and the web. His first great book, now a collector's item worth $200, A Pictoral History of the Doukhobors, brought a lot of pride to the Canadian Doukhobors and erased rumor and misunderstanding. A decade later he published the large Plakun Trava: The Doukhobors, with maps and excellent color photos. Koozma reports that Plakun Trava has been enhanced for CD distribution. For $26 it's a bargain and interactive, you can find things faster. You can also order his next great big book Spirit Wrestler's: Doukhobor Pioneers in print and on CD (about $65 including tax and shipping) — 700 photos, maps, and sketches on the Doukhobors of the century, with biographies, history, poetry, anecdotes, and a Time Line. You'll find more at his animated website in-progress (Shockwave needed). I've known and admired Koozma for 25 years. I wish someone would do for the American Molokans what he has done for the Canadian Doukhobors. In the past 5 years, Koozma has also helped publish at least 5 other books detailing Doukhobor history in Russia. He helped gathered funds to hire the best Russian and Canadian historians to search the Russian archives for everything about the Doukhobors, and index and summarize it. Much of that work has been published in Russian and English. One of the projects was to find everything Lev Tolstoy wrote regarding Doukhobors (notes, letters, ..). It was in that research that the 51 letters between Tolsoy and the Molokan elder Zheltov were discovered. Find order forms for these 2 hot items and check out Koozma's website. (Also check out the Doukhobor Home Page, especially Links to Doukhobor Web Sites.)

Guests — A fictional horror novel about Molokans
1998 — by Bentley (Tolmasoff) Little — Synopsis: When Gregory Tomasov wins the lottery, he and his wife quit their jobs and move their 2 kids from, Downey, California back to his home-town in Arizona. Where "babynia" lives. His finds his community plagued by uninvited guests ("the unclean spirit", ni-chisti dukh) . These guests cannot be seen and cannot be heard. Neither can they be stopped. They murder the presbyter with a flying Bible in the Molokan church. Steven King is a fan of Little, and Little is. of course, a fan of King. Also the Heritage Club has a booth at the Arizona picnic. Bentley was awarded one of their very first scholarships. Purchase from Amazon.co.uk (England).

Molokan Deer in Australia
In the Molokan Heritage Collection, Volume II: Molokans in Turkey we reported the Molokan dairy cow and the Molokan horse, well-known in Kars, Turkey. But a Molokan deer? Check out this web site — Bowhunting Rusa Deer by Dennis Kamstra — "...the Rusa has only three points  to a side. ... There are two subspecies of Rusa- Molokan and Javan. The Javan is the bigger of the two ... the Molokan is ... found ... only in Australia. Molokan Rusa Deer are quite plentiful in SE Australia." If any of you Aussie lurkers can help with more information about the Molokan Rusa Deer, please send it in for the rest of us to know. Thanks. (Further research reveals: "Rusa" in southeast Asia means simply "deer"; "Molucca" means "spice"; and, "There are 6 subspecies of cervus timorensis [Rusa deer], those from Timor, Molucca, Java, Celebes, Lombok and Muna." Trophy fees are $2,000 for the C.t. moluccensis. Many animals are named for the 1,000 Moluccan Islands, also called the Spice Islands, of Indonesia. No worries, mate. Looks to me that some hunters jus' got us mixed up al'right. This explains a "Molokan bird" I saw on another web site — a misspelling of the Moluccan cockatoo.) 

Photo project aims to recapture Boyle Heights past
2000 April 28 — by Meg Sullivan —  HSC Weekly (University of Southern California, Department of Health Sciences) — USC history professor George Sanchez is helping organize the collection of photos for "Your Boyle Heights" — the history, diversity and development of Boyle Heights' African, Armenian, Greek, Japanese, Jewish, Mexican and 'White Russian' (Russian Molokan) immigrants — and "Re-examining Boyle Heights, Making Community: Multiethnic Interpretations of Neighborhood Life". Photos will be used in an exhibit about Boyle Heights shown at the Japanese American National Museum in late 2001 or early 2002. [Here's another reason why Molokans have to be involved in our image, not "hide" from the world. Dr. Sanchez continues the slang term used by many old timers in LA: "White Russians". We must teach them that we are not BeloRusski, but simply Russian. White Russian is a separate ethnic group with their own dialect. This nick-name may have come from the drink White Russian, or the fact that nearby Russian Jews may have been darker. I don't know. Do any of you readers have a guess?]

My Love Divine
This nine-part Molokan song is sung by three Doukhobor girls (Stasiya, Sarah, and Joycelin). Thanks to Pete's TV, Castlegar, British Columbia, you can download and hear it in wav format. All the words are translated.
          My Love Divine, how wonderful you are;
          To me, you are invaluable, an answer to my hopes.
          From God, you came to be, it was God who formed you
          But then you came to me, and set my heart aflame;
          ...

Tula Molokan Refugees Denied Farm Ownership
"I would also like to say a few words about how refugees are provided with a dwelling or a plot of land. The FMS is proud that its officials managed to evacuate members of the Dukhobor and Molokan religious sects from the zone of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. (I would venture the opinion, that it should have been done by qualified Emergency Ministry field officers, instead of chairborne staff of the FMS. But circumstances dictate their own solutions). The FMS resettled the Molokanes in the Tula region, where housing had been built for them, and the money was channeled into a local farming industry. And what happened was the Molokanes, with their century-long traditions of farming, now must work on the local farm, whose local workforce is mostly made up of drunks. The farm management say, «Either you work on our farm for next to nothing, as we are, or you are free to leave. We got allowances for your resettlement from the FMS, and if we have other refugees here, there will be more money coming our way.» So the money missed its target, and the houses are the property of the farm, not the refugees." —  From: Setting up a Chain of Legal Aid Stations for Refugees and Forced Migrants in Russia, Chapter 4: Refugees’ and Forced Migrants’ Main Problems. by S.A. Gannuchkina, Co-Chairperson, Civic Assistance Committee, head of the program. — [NOTE: I visited all the Molokan resettlement sites in Tula in 1993. Molokans were scattered among 4 collective farms (kolkhoz). Building materials were provided, but the Molokans had to build their own homes. Unfortunately, escalating inflation prevented most of the homes from being built due to lack of material. Though most of the Molokan refugees moved away, one village stuck it out and is quite large — Slobodka. In contrast, the Doukhobors refugees who resettled in Tula at the same time were more aggressive and insisted on owning their own kolkhoz, which is on land formerly belonging to the Tolstoy family, renamed "Collective Farm in the Name of Lev Tolstoy". The Tula Doukhobors are in complete ownership and financial control of their farm, but the Molokans who stayed live on collective farms with no ownership.]
 
Try the New Molokan web site Search Engine 
2000 June 28 — To help you find information on this vast site, a search engine is added. This will help you find what you need faster, and locate pages that have been moved as I reorganize things. Also there are many pages in-progress that are not linked which you can find with the keywords you enter. The only annoying feature is that several pages were indexed in duplicate. For example if your search finds something on the Genealogy index page, it will be repeated 5 times. The same for this NEWS page. I sent a note to tech support hoping this can be fixed. Other than that, PicoSearch is slick.
PicoSearch

70 Molokan families converted to Judaism in Saratov, Russia, before 1925.
When 2 to 3 thousand Molokans were migrating to America from the midst of the Turkish-Russian border war, 70+ Molokan families from the Volga believed that Judaism was the real/right, religion and their promised land was near Jerusalem. Most fled illegally to Israel (then Palestine). After WWII a few hoped to go to America. This 1946 interview with Mrs. Clara Adamovna, whose Molokan family all became Jews, reveals a forgotten part of our history. It was recorded in a refugee camp in France. At the end of WWII General Eisenhower invited American reporters to Europe to document the destruction and investigate the holocaust. Dr. David Boder, an American professor, born in Latvia, trained in Germany, who spoke Russian and Yiddish, went with the new wire-recorder invented at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He recorded 170 oral histories like this one. A copy is at UCLA where Dr. Border last worked in 1961. The Gavlin Library at IIT recently decided to post these rare manuscripts on the web telling how IIT technology and the efforts of a professor preserved this information. The Library of Congress has the audio files which will soon be posted on the web.

APPEAL from Youth Council SCM, Russia
2000 March 17-19 — The Youth Council of the Molokan Center of Russia sends an APPEAL to reinforce the Molokan faith to all churches and senior presbyters, to all active Molokans, and to those who left the Molokan Church. We call upon all to participate in strengthening our churches. All Molokan youth are invited to the 4th Conference on July 15-23 (ages 10 to 15) in Kochubeevskoe (near Stavropol'), and on July 29 to August 5 (ages 15+) in Inozemtsevo village (next to Piatigorsk), both in Stavropol'skii krai. Also see the NEWS about the 3rd Russian Molokan Youth Conference August 7-15, 1999 in Iutsa, Stavropol' (south of Piatigorsk); and the International Molokan Meeting in Tambov, Russia, August 1-4, 1997, which focused on the future of Russian Molokan youth.

"Today in History, September 14"  — Rare Molokan Archive Online!Updated from below
The Library of Congress  — American Memory: America's Story in Words Sounds and Pictures (or: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library) — This material has been on the web and updated since 1997 as: California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties. Collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell. The WPA Northern California Folk Music Project (1938-40) was the result of her efforts. It was co-sponsored by the Music Department of the University of California, Berkeley and the Library of Congress. Hilltop Russians in San Francisco was also a WPA Project. Under the ethnic group Russian Molokan you find the most complete link list and an introduction. New introductions were published in American Memory, with categories cross-linked and organized by day-of-the-year. A quote from "The Molokans in America",  by Ethel Dunn and Stephen P. Dunn introduces the section.  See pictures and hear Molokan singing and speaking from 62 years ago!5 photos which can be enlarged and printed. 19 hymns/psalms — 8 by the congregation, and 12 by Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Susoeff and Mr. and Mrs. Popoff (Mathew 11:28 is recorded by both groups).  6 speakers, elders: A. P. Sarakoff, William S. Fetesoff, J. P. Susoeff, William T. Schetinin, J. D. Sanoff, and William S. Loscutoff. Hear a total of 1.7 hours of recordings — 76% song and 24% speaking, average is 4 minutes each (range 2 min. 17 sec. to 5 min. 50 sec.). Also, Mrs Cowell recorded a Comment (1 min. 12 sec.) about how she met the Molokans and their history. Most are from Selim, now Turkey, and migrated from Rostov to Armenia. Several elders speak Armenian. A young Mr. Agapoff helped arrange this project. You will need browser plug-ins to hear the sound which is offered in three formats, RealAudio, MPEG 2, Layer 3 (.mp3) and .wav (WaveForm). Much of it is scratchy, typical of pre-WWII recordings. This is a real treasure!

Molokans in Tula, Russia
1999 July — LONDON, England — The Independent — New Life In A Land Of Milk But Very Little Money   — By Phil Reeves — I just found and copied this posting from the Greek listserv ORTHODOXIA. It's a newspaper article, a short interview about the Molokan Tatyana Alexandrova, an engineer and refugee from Azerbaidjan now living in Tula who discusses their achievements, a new tractor engine, and plans for their village. Unfortunately the reporter doesn't name the region or village.
    The man who posted this, Felix Corley, is also a reporter in London, but he works for The Keston Institute and News Service, "the leading source for reliable news on religious liberty in Russia". Crowley e-mails that he recently visited Molokans in Azerbaidjan and will soon send us an article he submitted for publication about Molokans who remain in Ivanovka village.

Molokan Forum
1999 June — A Molokan gal from Fresno whose e-mail handle is RaphaelArchAngel (she won't use her real name) started The Molokan Forum for us Molokans to communicate online with each other. Check it out and post your thoughts. Please, there's no obligation.

"The Horse-Stealers" by Anton Chekhov
"There were ... thirty altogether, and all of them Molokans...'We'll show you fine horses,' they said.  ...  the Molokans stood round and hit me with sticks on my knees and my elbows. It hurt fearfully. They beat me and they went away ... "   To find out if the Molokans were the "good guys" or the "bad guys", you can read the rest of this rare short story by Chekhov   (1860-1904) who was born in Taganrog, near Rostov-na-Donu, to freed serfs. He lived near the Molokans and may have met some. American's are most familiar with his plays Uncle Vanya (1896) and The Three Sisters (1901). This medical doctor turned writer composed over 200 works before he died at age 44 from tuberculosis. Also at: http://www.blackmask.com/olbooks/horsestealers.htm 

The First Russian Molokan Website/Journal Archive
2000 April (updated from 1999 October) — From Tambov in central Russia, Sergei Petrov (don't confuse Tambov Sergei Petrov with Moscow Sergei Petrov, who co-authored Russians' Secret, below) has re-launched the first Molokan website in the FSU — http://www3.cybercities.com/s/spiritual/ . Here's his announcement: "Glad to tell you that I have opened new Web site where Molokans can read and free download journals "Slovo very" (Word of believe) and "Dobry domostroitel blagodati". Language unfortunately only Russian. Now I loaded 1-7,13 issue. Test it, please, and let me know, how it work." The site is titled: Spiritual Christian Molokan, Tambov, Russia, and further says "E-mail(psp@tamben.elektra.ru), Sorry, Presently this site is only in Russian (Win-1251). The site is under construction." It links to: Zhurnal Slovo Veri No 1-8 (The Journal of Words of Believers, Issues 1-8) and Drobryi domostroitil' blogodati No 9-14 (Good homebuilding blessings, issues 9-14) [These are a series of  journals from 1994 to August 1999 printed mostly in Moscow, one in Kochubeevskoe not posted, and several recently from Voronezh.], and Links (to Molokan NEWS, and the Canadian Doukhobor Society—CDS site). I find the CyberCities site fairly fast. The Russian articles appears in many font styles, and should be adjusted for reading as some appear in very small fonts sizes. These issues were printed and distributed in Russia. This is the first international posting of major Russian Molokan material on the Internet. Enjoy the blessing.  I find that I can copy the text into MS-Word, reformat, and print. Note the "index" link after each chapter title doesn't work yet. Postal mail can be sent to: 392012, Russia, Tambov, st. Pioneerskaia, d. 28, Petrov Sergei Petrovich. [Russian addresses are listed the reverse of ours.]

Molokans punished under Stalin's Soviet Communist terror
Three Molokans who were arrested appear on this recently posted Russian memorial list: Bautin Abram, Bautin Danil, Bautin Moisei. They seem to be arrested for being of the sect Molokan. One page in English explains that this website is an  incomplete (under construction) Memorial to those arrested, shot and imprisoned for labor, from 1929 to 1958 for the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Khakas Republic (an area nearly 1 million square miles in north Siberia). These 3 (4 in all) were arrested together on February 16, 1934.

Molokans in Mexico Today
2000 March — Ogoniok — by Irina Pradva —  "Poslednie iz Molokan" [the Last of the Molokans] — The pictorial article begins by saying that Jews can be found all over the world, and now Russians can be found in a small town in Mexico. Gabriel Aleksaich Kashirski is shown and interviewed. 8 photos show the church, his wife Marta, 2 girls, a dog, and grave marker. Click on each photo to enlarge. Ogoniok is comparable to Life magazine.

Molokans in Transcaucasia, Urals, and Siberia Russian (use Windows cyrillic if needed)
1987 expedition of  A.I. Iamskov, Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Science — Valuable demographic data and history of Russian Molokans is presented just before and after peristroika. Iamskov's team presents commentary and population counts of Molokans by state, region, and village. Tabled data is shown for Armenia (1987), Georgia (1988-90), Azerbaidjan (1989), Voronezh (1990), Permsk (1993), and Buriatia (1991).

Hilltop Russians in San Francisco: A Record of the Portrero Hill Colony
1941 — 30 color pastel water paintings by Pauline Vinson with introduction by William Saroyan
I first saw this rare book 20 years ago after a meeting of the Potrero Hill Historical Society.  The owner, a local historian, paid $100 for it then. I've been looking for a copy ever since. During the 2000 new year holidays, Pacific Books auctioned a copy on-line. I got it for a bargain—$44. Other copies in the past sold for up to $350. I scanned the entire book and color-enhanced the faded water paintings. It shows Molokan life in San Francisco just before the war—dedushki, babushki, banya, a church wedding, the front of both the Prygun and Postianniye buildings, and, most significant to me, how Molokans prayed then—huddled in a tight circle, not like soldiers standing in rows as American Molokans do today. Enjoy.

5 Photos, 6 Speeches and 9 Songs of San Francisco Molokans in the 1930s
1938-40 — Similar to Hilltop Russians, The WPA California Folk Music Project was funded to provide work after the depression. It was a joint effort of the Work Projects Administration (WPA), the Library of Congress, and the Music Division of the University of California, Berkeley. Social scientists documented 16 ethnic groups in California, including the Russian Molokans. The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, created a database to provide this historical material on the Internet.
        "Russian Molokan congregation from Potrero Hill, San Francisco, performing unaccompanied sacred music and preaching in the Russian language. The Russian Molokans, also called Molokan Spiritual Jumpers, Spiritual Christians of the Sect of Jumper, or Milk Drinkers, were a Russian peasant group that dissented from the Russian Orthodox Church at least as far back as the seventeenth century. The Molokans came to California from the Transcaucausus in the early part of the twentieth century."

Molokans "resuscitated" in Voronezh oblast
2000 —Foreign Confessions and "New Religious Movements" in Voronezh oblast [translation summary from Russian] "Old Russian Sects — Voronezh district is the center for the old Russian sects of Doukhobors, Molokans, Klysty, Skoptsty, Subbotniki, etc. In the 1920s, in Voronezh, the Feodorovtsy were founded by Feodor Rybalkin. His followers considered him a "christ". Other small groups were also started, but today these old sects are no longer influential. We haven't heard about the Skpotsy and Klysty since 1940. The Subbotniki from Talovkii region (villages of Il'inka and Vysokii) immigrated to Israel. The Subbotniki are an example of Russians who accepted foreign beliefs and stopped being Russian.
       Now, the Molokans are growing in several villages in Gribanovskii and Povorinckii regions. Several 'religious advocates' are using the example of the Molokans to get grants from international funds to resuscitate old Russian sects, featuring them in published articles, and giving them time on TV."

The Russians' Secret: What Christians Today Would Survive Persecution?
1999 — by Peter Hoover and Serguei V. Petrov — 247 pages — A comparison and contrast of Russian sectarian history from the Raskol (mid-1600s) to the beginning of WWII, focusing on how they learned from each other in Russia, particularly in the "Milky Waters" region of "New Russia" in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and their persecutions. Covers Spiritual Christians (Molokans, Jumpers, Spirit Wrestlers, Kissers, People of God, Nameless, Deserted, Flagellates, Baptists, ..), German transplants (Mennonites, Stundists, Hutterites, Anabaptists, ..), Old Believers and more. Molokans will find many pages referencing the Description of Beliefs and Teaching the Molokans, Maksim G. Rudometkin in Spirit and Life, Kudinov in Spiritual Christian", S.E. Ilyin in My Transcaucasian Russia, Harry Shubin in History of the Russan Molokan Spiritual Christian Jumpers' Faith, Anne Tolmasoff-Strubhar, Lev Tolstoy, and Ivan Prohkanov. $10.25 from Benchmark Press, 1593 Pinola Road, Shippensburg, PA 17257 — phone: 717-530-8595 —  fax: 717-532-4974 — email: benchmarkpress@juno.com — no credit cards.

15 Villages Named Molokan found in Russia
2000 January — I found 15 villages named: Molokan, Molokanka, Molokanov, Molokanovka, Molokanovo, Molokanovo Shchel', Molokanovskiy and Togus-Molokan on the Global Gazateer-Russia Page, by Carl Rosenberg. Then I found most of them again on another map search engine—Multimap.com.

Molokan History in Utah Published
1999 — Beehive History #25: — Article:  From Dust to Dust: A Russian Sojourn, by Sarah Yates — "In 1914, a group of Russian immigrants, followers of the Molokan faith, attempted to start a communal colony in the dry Park Valley in Box Elder County. Despite their determination and great efforts to overcome both the climate and personal tragedies, they could not succeed, and after a few years they abandoned their dream."   $2.50+Tax+S&H  from the Utah State Historical Society, Book & Gift Shop.

James Samarin — The Broom Maker's Son (Music CD and Tape)
1999 — This well known American Molokan singer who has been studying singing most of his life, just burned his first CD. Most in LA remember him as "Red Beard", but now his beard is white. Here's shots of the front and back (18 songs!, many in Russian), and the inside text—a short biography—and a link to shots of  the tape (14 opera songs).

The Zolnekoff Family website
1999 — by Allan Zolnekoff — AllanZ.com — This is the latest addition to Molokan Genealogy. My cousin Allan crafted a sharp site with a short history and photos of his Molokan Molokan adopted parents, his birth parents, and his work with the Whittier City Council.

No Extension of Russian Registration Deadline
1999 December 16 — by Lauren B. Homer, The Law and Liberty Trust — "The 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations provides that after December 31, 1999, "religious organizations which have not completed re-registration may be liquidated by court order upon the appeal of the of the body which conducts state registration of religious organizations." (Art. 27.4). The most conservative estimate that I have seen states that 50 percent of all religious organizations registered prior to 1997, some 9,000, have not yet been re-registered." See this report and the complete history of the law.  — Also see the discussion of the new law as broadcast on the PBS "News Hour" :
LIMITING RELIGION IN RUSSIA — September 29, 1997 — NEWSHOUR TRANSCRIPT
Hare Krishnas and other religious groups are protesting a new law that cracks down on religious freedom in Russia. Vice President Gore denounced the measure, but acknowledged that his comments made little impact on Russian lawmakers. Two experts discuss how the new law will affect the religious life of all Russians.

Detailed Map of Kars (large 127k)
1999 December — Joyce Bivin, an American Armenian Molokan, just returned from Kars, Turkey, and sent in this map. It is the first very detailed map of Kars I have seen, showing all villages. I enlarged the Kars city area (333k) — click on it to enlarge.Though it is in Turkish, a few recognizable names persist — Kars, Salim, Chakmak, and the 3 villages were Molokans were concentrated up to 1960— Atchilar, Yalinchalir, and Alchili. See if you can find them.  After a decade of searching, Joyce finally found her family's village, Karalala. Read her e-mail about this project—1, 2, 3, 4. It was filled in but the old timers remembered it. Molokans in LA named a  neighborhood in Boyle Heights "Karakala" because it reminded them of the hills back home in Russia. It is bound by Whittier Blvd. to 9th Street (now the Pomona Freeway), and Lorena St. to Soto St.

The Molokan Community of Southern California
1999 November 18—by Serifima Nikitina—RAS—Russian Academy of Science (Moscow)—at The American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies session 1-27 on Religious Dissent in Russia and in Exile, chaired by Dean Stoddard Worth of UCLA, at the National Convention of the AAASS in St Louis, Missouri, on 18-21 November. Serifima is a Russian anthropologist who has filmed and documented Molokans throughout Russia and America with help from colleages Dr. Richard Morris (Woodburn, Oregon) and Dr. Margarita Mazo (Ohio State University). This is may be her first American conference presentation. Also in this session by other RAS scholars are:  "The Oregon Old Believer Community", and "A Comparison of Old Believer Cultures in Russia and Abroad". Sure to be discussed is the comparison of Molokans in America and Russia.
         In the 1980s, Dr. Morris in Oregon told me about an outstanding anthropologist I should meet if I ever get to Russia. In 1992, I first met Nikitina on the train from Moscow to the 2nd International Molokan Conference in Ukraine. She brought a video crew with her. We videoed many events side-by-side. We met again when she visited the US in 1995?, and on my last trip to Moscow in 1997. She is welcomed as a member of the Moscow Molokan church. Their video work was shown at the Nordic Anthropological Film Association (NAFA) International Conference and festival held in Helsinki, Finland, Saturday May 1997, 11 AM—"Molokan Spiritual Singing" (1995-Russia, 25 min., VHS-PAL, Nikitina, Filimonov).

Russian Molokans in Far East Recognized
1999 October 30 — Radiotserkov [Church Radio], Blagoveshchensk — by Tatiana Semonenko — Priamur (Far East) Russian Molokans are invited to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of Christ. A conference titled "Christianity in the History of Russia and Priamur" is being planned for next year in the city of Blagoveshchensk by the local Russian Orthodox Church. The church now recognizes the Molokans as a "another christian branch". [Thanks to Sergey Petrov <psp@tamben.elektra.ru>of Tambov who found this announcement on the web and e-mailed the URL]

Church building in NovoMarievskaia, Stavropol'
1999 October 19 — Kerman CA minister John A. Kochergen sends a letter to all American Molokans asking for donations to a new church being build just north of the city of Stavropol'. The letter includes 5 color photos of phases of construction.

51 Letters between Tolstoy and Molokans—Russian edition $15 - English/Russian $25 soon
1999—August-September—51 hand-written letters between Count Leo Tolsoy and Molokan elder Fedor Aleksseevich Zheltov (photo, 51K) of Bogorodskoe (just south of Nizhnii Novgorod) were recently discovered by scholars helping the Doukhobors research information for this year's celebrations of the 100th anniversary of their migration from Russia. 37 of these letters are from Zheltov to Tolstoy, and 14 from Tolstoy to Zheltov. (See sample handwritten letter sent 19 August 1895 from Tolstoy to Zheltov (298K, very large), and the envelope and transcription in Russian (368K, very large). Transcribing and typing the Russian handwritten script has taken months. The Russian version was published August, 1999. 300 copies are being donated, 2 for each Russian Molokan church. The project is a cooperative effort between the  State L.N.Tolstoy Museum,Moscow, and the Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa (see below). The museum transcribed the hand writting into a typed manuscript which Canadian Slavic scholar John Woodsworth translated. The Highgate Road Social Science Research Station (HRSSRS) is publishing the English translation version which will include more information about the history of the Molokans at that time. 500 English translations are planned to be published based on advanced prepaid orders. Order the Russian with English translation ($25), or Russian only edition ($15) from: The Station, 32 Highgate Road, Berkeley CA 94707. Phones: 510-525-3248, or 800-378-9129. Fax: 510-525-3313. E-mail: edunn@well.com. Also, order the Russian-only version from: Professor Andrew Donskov, Co-ordinator, Slavic Research Group, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario Canada KIN 6N5; e-mail: SLAVICRE@uottawa.ca , Phone: (613) 562-5800.ext. 3749 or ext. 1007, Fax: (613) 562-5160 or 5138. (See the Russian version front cover (153K, large) and back cover (156K, large).

Molokan Genealogy
1999 August — Thanks to many who requested this site and have helped by learning and publishing their information: Dr. Rojas, Bill Aldacusion, Ron Konnof, Jon Kalpakoff, Pam Tolmasoff, Sue Craven, Joyce Bivin, Allan Zolnekoff, ...

Molokans in 1870s Russia
1905 — Russia, Chapter 17— Among the Heretics —  by Donald Mackenzie Wallace — Over period of thirty-five years, Wallace traveled Europe and Russia. In the 1870s he documented his long religous conversations with Molokans he met along the Volga, near Samara. I published this excellent historic chapter in my 1980 Molokan Directory, and just found Wallace's entire book on-line. He describes a false prophet Elija (Belozvorof), the Jumpers, Khlisti, and evaluates what he sees from his perspective. Also you can get the entire book zipped or in text format at the Project Gutenberg website. And the entire book is nicely formated for web e-book reading at Russica, Book Rags, and Larry Electric Also be sure to read chapter 10, which discusses whether the Molokans are "very bad people" or "good and honest".

UMCA Picnic — new park and date
1999 August 21 — Pete Schabarum Park, Hacienda Heights, about 1 mile east of UMCA. Again the UMCA has moved it's picnic location, and this year the picnic is a week earlier than the traditional end-of-August weekend. Notable changes are escalating food prices and parking fees, no Molokan-Russian terms in the flyer (shashlik is absent!), and no shade at all. The bucket of shashlik is now a $40 "bucket of bar-b-que".   $5 Chicken sandwiches are new, probably for those who balk at $40. Parking is a premium, as is shade: "Bring your own shade!!" But, they continue the rather recently added evening "swim party", now at the Industry Hills resort. I should label this the "sunburn picnic", and those who can should tell these young ones about the last really great picnics at Brookside Park, in Pasadena's Arroyo Seco, southeast of the Rose Bowl. Those were the days. I hope our Russian Molokans don't create such uncomfortable picnics now that they are just starting their August tradition of Youth Congressses (see below). I still adivise that LA Molokans should use reserved sections of central Legg Lake, and have 2 picnics—one adult, the other youth.

Quaker journal reports Russian Molokans in 1800s
1999 August 20—UPDATE—I have photocopies of these very interesting first hand reports by Quaker missionaries of Molokans in Ukraine in 1819 will scan and post them soon.
1999 July 31—e-mail from Quaker Elder William Rushby, Virginia—"...Stephen Grellet and William Allen, Friends' ministers in the early 19th century, encountered the Molokans and Doukhobors on a religious visit to Russia. Grellet wrote very favorably...indeed touchingly.. about his contacts with the Molokans."

No water in part of Iutsa, Stavropol' which hosted the Youth Congress
1999 August 20—UPDATED—The water shortage continues but seems to only affect part of Iutsa. It did not have much affect on the youth congress.
1999 July 23—Telephone report—Due to low rainfall in southern Stavropol', part of the "celo" (village) of Iutsa, about 7 miles south of Piatigorsk, Stavropol', has been without running water for a month. About 1/3 of Iutsa's 20,000 residents are Molokans who support 3 churches—a Postoiannyie, Dukhovnie, and Maksimisti. Water must be carried up from the creek which fortunately runs through the village. The few who have cars help bring limited water to the elderly. Iutsa is 150 miles west of Chechnia. The nearby resort city of Kislovodsk, which has a Postoiannyie Molokan church, shares the same water shed as Iutsa and may face a water shortage.

3rd Russian Molokan Youth Conference
1999 August 7-15—Iutsa, Stavropol'—300 guests met at the new Iutsa Molokan Church for the 3rd Russian Molokan youth congress. Guests from all over Russia who never visited the Mineral Waters region where hosted and intertained by Iutsa Molokans. Much sightseeing occured, including visits to the Kislovodsk mineral water palaces and a bus ride to the Domvai ski resorts. The Kochubeevskoe youth choir, dressed in colorful donated American Molokan outfits, sang folk and religious songs.
        Last year's meeting was in Central Russia—Chernsk region of Tula oblast. These youth meetings originated in Tambov in 1997 when American Molokans shared the history of how the UMCA was developed to solve the problems American Molokans faced in their new world and some youth discussed their own future. Also, at every opportunity I had during my 1997 trip to Russia, I spoke to the elders about the future of Russian Molokans resting on their youth accepting this heritage amidst their economic and social turmoil, and how the UMCA (a new idea, rejected by most of the elders in 1926) was created to deal with preserving Molokanism in America—youth socials, picnics, sports events—though not "sobrannia", are important to glueing our Molokan society together.

Crime and Immigrant Youth
UPDATED August 31—I scanned the cover and 2 graphs. Look for my review later.
1999 May 22—Review by Author at Amazon.com—1999 Spring—Bookmarks,Chico Statements—Anthony (Tony) Edward Water's 1995 thesis (University of Califonia, Davis: The cross-generational socialization of immigrant youth, HV9104 W38 1995) was published ($21.95 paperback, Sage 1998). Waters examines why youthful crime develops among some immigrant groups and not others. Investigates Laotians, Koreans, Mexicans and Molokan Russians in California. It includes 1920's data from Pauline Young about Molokan youth gangs in the LA Flats. "Numerous case examples show how misunderstandings between immigrant parents and their children often provide conditions for a predictable outbreak of crime." "..the Los Angeles police were aggressively pursuing gangs of Russian youth who had developed a reputation for fighting and stealing." A few Flats Molokans were nortorious criminals. Several were imprisoned.

Musician John Orloff commits suicide
1999 June 18-24—LAWEEKLY, Music—"Johhny Anus, 1960-1999"—Johnny Orloff, 38, guitarist, died from from an intentional heroin overdose in his LA apartment on Wednesday, June 9, after finding his band partner dead. His surviving brother Mike Orloff played bass for their band "Anus the Menace" which had produced several recordings.

ANSWER to the new rules proposed to certify "Official" Russian Molokan Churches
1999 March 9 to11—E-mail from Tambov by Sergui P. Petrov. Petrov criticizes the decisions he learned about in February from the report of the 5th Congress of Presbyters, held in August 1998, attended by 63 Molokan elders (location not mentioned). The 90 page report declared that only those Molokans who accept the "Anfimov dogma" and the leadership of T.I. Schetinkin (Kochubeevskoe, Stavropol'skii krai) shall be recognized as official Molokan churches. Petrov says he can send us the report without pictures, or we can get a copy from the San Francisco Molokan presbyter, Kapsoff, or from Schitinkin in Russia. (If anyone has more information about the 5th Congress report, Anfimov's dogma, please send it in for posting.) Petrov also sent in 2 MS-Word documents in Russian: an Appeal, and a Questionnaire (both offline for unknown reason).

Heritics and Colonizers:
Religious dissent and Russian colonization of Transcausasia, 1830-1890 (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia)
1999 January—by Breyfogle, Nicholas Brenton, University of Pennsylvania, PHD Thesis, 387 pages, 1998.
"This dissertation examines the settlement of Russian religious dissenters (Dukhobors, Molokans, and Subbotniks) in Transcaucasia from 1830 to 1890. During this period, tsarist officials promoted the relocation of sectarians (sektanty) to Transcaucasia—to the exclusion of other Slavs—in an effort to isolate their 'heretical infection' from Orthodox Russians." See new links to the first 24 pages, and purchasing information.

Liberal writer sets Witnesses trial context, condemns intolerance
1999 January 10-17—Moscow News—LESSONS FROM SECTARIAN STUDIES by Alexander Nezhny. From age to age the hunt for heretics goes on in our society. (Section about Molokans who moved from Kars to Rostov) "Molokans' farms began to wither. Twenty-two of the factories that they had built in a short time, which produced tens of thousands of pounds of excellent butter and Russian Swiss cheese, herds of pedigreed and productive cattle, and well-maintained pastures—all were destroyed. The disillusioned Molokans wrote to the government: "If you cannot recognize our communes as useful for socialist construction and give them full freedom in matters of faith and common worship, then permit us to return to our former place of residence." ...)

Native Russian sect reviving
1998 September 2 —NOVOSIBIRSK—Radiotserkov—MOLOKANS FROM SAN FRANCISCO ARRIVE IN SIBERIA, by Yury Kolesnikov. A search for fellow believers in Siberia is being conducted.

Baptists discuss their Molokan roots
1998 February 27—(News article in Russian only. Must download in MSWord.)

Prosecutor obsessed with bringing down Witnesses
1998 October 8—Obshchaia gazeta—JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ON TRIAL by Alexandra Samarina.  Procuracy wants to ban one of the "totalitarian sects" "...Molokans and Jehovists, who were actively propagandizing their views at the time, became 'especially harmful'...."

Doukhobors
Also see: Doukhobor Links

The Doukhobor Centenary in Canada: a multi-disciplinary perspective on their unity and diversity
1999 October 22-24—University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada—A 3-day conference on the Doukhobors organized by the Slavic Research Group and the Institute of Canadian Studies at the University of Ottawa. Open to the public. 30 experts discuss Doukhobor history, religion, language, literature, social views, and an evening reception and a banquet. Keynote speakers: Svetlana Inikova, Russian Academy of Sciences; and Eli Popoff, USCC.

Maps:  Western Russia (showing Georgia and Bryansk), Briansk (detailed, showing Briansk city and Mirny)

Briansk Administrative websitewith links to online news, maps, ... Tolsoy museum, ...

A Comparison of the Mennonite and Doukhbor Emigrations from Russia to Canada, 1870-1920
1998 — Masters thesis — by Swatzky, Robert John — Dalhousie University, Canada — This thesis examines two emigrations from Russia to Canada by members of the Mennonite and Doukhobor religious sects in the late nineteenth century. The first took place between 1874 and 1880, when roughly 17,000 Mennonites left their homes in southern Ukraine to establish new settlements in the western frontiers of North America. Included in this number was a contingent of about  7,000 who formed colonies in the southern regions of Manitoba, Canada, instead of settling with the majority of their fellow emigrants in the U.S. Midwest. The Doukhobor emigration involved approximately 7,400 sectarians from Transcaucasia who migrated  to the Western Canadian territories of Assiniboia and Saskatchewan in the years 1898-99. This thesis recognizes an underlying cause for the two migrations which is rooted in the internal struggles of the two sects.

Doukhobor Demographics by Adherents.com, a growing collection of over 29,000 adherent statistics and religious geography citations — references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics for over 2,300 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, movements, ultimate concerns, etc.

Doukhobor children deserve compensation, says B.C. Ombudsman
1999 April 12—CFRA-News Talk Radio—By Dirk Meissner—VICTORIA—"A seven-year-old girl remembers spending much of her childhood in an emotionally barren institution where she never received so much as a hug. The memories of British Columbia's Doukhobor children reveal a dark episode in the province's recent history. Now the provincial ombudsman wants the government to apologize."

Doukhobors owed an apology, compensation
1999 April 10—Castlegar Sun—By Karen Kerkhoff—"Doukhobor children snatched from their homes and thrown into the New Denver sanatorium in the 1950s should be offered compensation and receive an apology from the provincial government, says the Ombudsman of B.C. ...One of those children was Fred Konkin, who was apprehended from his Krestova home when he was only seven years old."

Compensation wanted for Doukhobor children
1999 April 10—Seattle Post-Intelligencer—BRITISH COLUMBIA—"In 1953, the province took custody of 104 children and placed them in a former tuberculosis sanatorium at New Denver. Many of the children were kept there until 1959. The children's parents were members of the Sons of Freedom sect of the Doukhobor faith. The children were apprehended because their parents had either refused to send them to public schools or were in prison. British Columbia's ombudsman has called on the provincial government to acknowledge that confining the children was wrong." Read the entire report: Righting the Wrong.

Funereal furniture serves double purpose
1999 March 26—The Canadian Press—By DENE MOORE—VANCOUVER—"Casket carver Mark Zeabin, 23, makes a line of furniture that will last a lifetime and then some. ... Zeabin, who lives in Krestova, B.C., near Nelson, first came up with the idea for casket furniture more out of necessity than demand... At a Doukhobor funeral there's about 200 or 300 people," he said. The handmade casket was very well received. " See: HMP Enterprises at  http://www.casketfurniture.com.

Doukhobors Take Kingston
1999 March—Maine Antique Digest—by Larry Thompson—"These bidders were undoubtedly drawn by Lloyd Ryder's collection of Doukhobor furniture and textiles, most of which sold well. Attention was fixed through the first two hours of the auction on what eventually became the top lot, the prayer table. It ultimately hammered down for $17,600 (including buyer's premium)."

Another explanation of Dukhobors' move—economics and discrimination
1999 March 1—Radiotserkov—by Svetlana Stepanenko—This article reports that 400 Doukhobors left Georgia due to economics and discrimination. They abandoned their businesses and commune—a bakery or small factory for producing butter, cheese, sausage, soft drinks, as well as dozens of head of cattle and fowl, vehicles and agricultural machinery. The commune consisted of herds, textile factory, and a flour mill. The Dukhobors wrote a letter to Boris Yeltsin, who welcomed them cordially and gave then housing in the village of Mirny, Krasnaia Gora region in southwest Briansk province. Mirny is an inadequate village, only three-quarters built, in a moderately irradiated area originally intended to resettle people from areas of higher radioactive contamination  following the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

More Doukhobors Move from Georgia to Russia
1999 April 1—ISKRA—A feature report by Koozma J. Tarasoff, Ottawa, Ontario—In 1999 when Canada's 40,000 Doukhobors are celebrating their 100 years in Canada, their brethren who stayed behind in Russia are going through a difficult period of relocation, resettlement, and readjustment to new conditions. The latest move took place January 29th when several dozen families left their ancestral homes in Bogdanovka of the Republic of Georgia, and relocated to the Bryansk area southwest of Moscow and some 150 kilometers west of Cherns, Russia.

Georgia helps Dukhobors
1999 February 10—Radiotserkov—Government Funds Housing for Russian Sect, by Nikolai Solomonov. Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze allotted from the presidental fund 100,000 laras for purchashing homes from Dukhobors who have expressed the desire to move to Russia. ... the homes in the village of Gorelovka, Ninotsmind district, ...

Dukhobor Exodus from Georgia
1999 February 4—Watchlist (RFE/RL)—Vol 1, No 4— On Jan. 30 some 60 more members of the Russian Dukhobor sect left Georgia, where their ancestors settled 150 years ago to escape persecution by the Orthodox church, the Moscow daily "Segodnya" reported. In recent years, more than 4,000 Dukhobors, most of them farmers, quit Georgia for Russia and  Canada. According to a UN report, the sect, which has been compared to the Quakers, has virtually disappeared from Georgia.

Dukhobor Sect Members Emigrate to Russia and Canada (in English only)
1999 January 28 —MOSCOW—Agence France Presse—More than 4,000 members of the Protestant Dukhobor sect have left Georgia to settle in Russia and Canada in recent years, the Russian daily Segodnya said Wednesday.

Dukhobors move from Georgia
1999 January 27—Segodnia—Georgia Too Restrictive, by Mikhail Vignansky. Dukhobors quit the transcaucasian republic. On Saturday another 56 members of the religious society of Dukhobors will leave Georgia for good, ...

Naked City
1999 January—Fortean Times 119—by Ian Morfitt—EXACTLY 100 YEARS AGO, in Januarry 1899, a pacifist religious group fleeing persecution in Russia, emigrated to Canada....in their rejection of any kind of authority they proved a thorn in the side fo the local government.." This reviews the history of Doukhobors in Canada including much about the Sons of Freedom in photos and commentary.

Weaving Doukhobor History
1998 March—Discovery—Royal British Columbia Museum News and Events —Vol. 25, No.6—by Lorne Hammond—Feature Story with photos.... "This story begins with a man's suit, made of homespun and handwoven flax in the Doukhobor style. A beautiful symbol of women's labour, we purchased it for the Museum collection thanks to funds from the Friends of the Royal BC Museum. The suit was said to have come from Grand Forks, so I decided to stop in on my way to the Kootenays. And so the unexpected appearance of a suit began my education about the Doukhobors of British Columbia."

Children, Parents and Peace
1998 Spring/Summer—Friends of Peace Pilgrim—Number 29—Online Edition—Regarding chemical and biological warfare, "I will quo

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