The Sectarians in America: The JumpersLeben: a journal of Reformation Life, Volume 5, Issue 4, Oct-Dec 2009Review by Andrei Conovaloff, February 11, 2010.
The Sectarians in America: The JumpersClick on images to read scanned pages 9, 10, 18, and 19, from Leben, Vol. 5.4, Oct-Dec 2009.
[This article appears to have been quicly written by one person and quickly edited by another, with neither doing much fact checking. Some topics are over reported, like the neighborhood location which could be better explained with a map. Other parts are scant, like the description of the prayer service; or omitted, like diet, pacifism, . The most obvious blunder is showing www.molokanS.org 3 times on photo credits, instead of www.molokanE.org. References for 3 editorial comments are lacking. Whether Doukhbors are actually in "Gand Junction" without a state (Colorado?), was not checked. It should be "Grand Forks, B.C." Since this series is about "Sectarians in America", the sects of Molokans, Doukhboors and Sabbatarians would be much better covered in separate articles, or in one article about Russian "Spiritual Christians" in America. The distinction between Jumper and Molokan sects is not clear and the terms used as synonyms. The history of Jumpers is scant. More source material and notes should have been cited, as in Scott's: "The Pilgrims of Russian-town Seventy Years Later." More comments follow in the article below and at the end.] American Christianity has influenced, and been influenced by, a stunning panoply of non-conformist groups, separatist enclaves and, in some cases, self-styled prophets and messiahs. In our series "The Sectarians," we will trace the origins, the beliefs and the impact which some of these groups have had on the Church today. We begin the series with a fascinating report we've recently discovered written in 1918 about a group known as the "Jumpers," or "Molokans," (the former name referring specifically to an 1830's offshoot of the Molokans). Impelled by the utterances of a prophet-child, they left their native Russia by the thousands and headed for the "City of the Angels" — Los Angeles, California. [Adapted] from The Russians in Los Angeles by Lillian Sokoloff, A.B., 1918 [The reader should study Sokoloff's 18-page paper. Her data shows that 94% were Jumpers in Los Angeles, not Molokans by religion. The Leben editors omitted this fact which will mislead readers. Though Sokoloff notes these early Russian immigrants were a mixture of historically related sects, she missed the Armenian Jumpers, and failed to discern among Jumpers, Molokans, and New Isreal which were lumped together.]  The first group of [Jumpers]
Molokans, who came here in 1905
[some date this as 1904, Ed.], settled around Bethlehem Institute on
Vignes Street. When others came, a few bought homes along Clarence and
Utah Streets [The
Flats]. Then the
settlement grew in the district situated between
Boyle Avenue on the east and the Los Angeles River on the west, and
between Aliso Street on the north and Seventh Street on the south.
Recently there has been a new settlement made along what is known as
Salt Lake Terrace several blocks east of the larger colony. On that
street are located many of the somewhat better homes. In a hollow south
of Stephenson Avenue and east of Mott Street, there is a group of about
sixty houses occupied by Russians only [Karakala].[In the photo right showing relatives who scouted North America for immigration sites, Vasili (William) Halopoff was the first and only Molokan know to have enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces (army) in World War One. He was reported missing in action December 10, 1917. Though claiming to be pacifists, more Jumpers and Molokans enlisted in WWII than registered as Conscientious Objectors (but about half served as non-combatants), and Jumpers who avoided the military furing WWII by performing Alternate Service in CO camps, failed pay the nearly half (46%) of their camp fees, defaulting on $17,000 in debt in 1944. No serious effort has been made to reimburse the Society of Friends (Quakers) and Mennonites who opeared the camps.] Sectarian Emigration from Russia.  To understand the Russians in Los Angeles, it is
necessary
to consider briefly their historical backgrounds. During the reign of
Alexis Michaelovitch, second ruler of the Romanoff family — 1645-1676 —
Nicon [Nikon], at that time patriarch of the
Russian Greek-Catholic
Church, investigated and decided to change the liturgy. While the
ruling house accepted these changes and formally adopted this type of
worship as the stat religion, there were many dissenters who would not
submit to the dictates of the government in matters of religion. The
dissenters were continually presecuted or banished, and were greatly
disstisatisfied with the bureaucratic institutions, with the hypocrisy
of the priesthood, and with the forms of their worship, the numbers who
sought other types of relition that would satisfy their deep religioous
feelings constantly grew. Prominent among the religious sects that developed, were the Dukhobors [Doukhobors], the Molokans, and the Subotniks [Subbotniks]. The last-mentioned are Russians who have embraced the Jewish faith. This result was not through influence exerted on the part of Jews, however, because the Jews do not have any form of mission work for the purpose of conversion to judaism, nor were there any Jews living in that part of Russia where these religious sects developed. The Subbotniks embraced judaism as a result of reading the Old Testament.  The essence of the Doukhobor religion is a belief in
the divinity of Christ [this is contrary to modern sources, Ed.], and
the brotherhood of man. The Dukhobors do not believe in any earthly
representative of God; they have no church leaders, and no icons or
images. They do not have church ceremonies nor do they believe in
saints as do the Greek Catholics. They are opposed to war and therefore
to military service. Their religion forbids their indulging in the use
of intoxicating liquors, and in smoking. [A photo of Molokans in San Francisco should not be in an article about Jumpers in Los Angeles.] The name "Molokan, derived from the word "moloko" which means milk, was first applied to them in 1765 by a religious sect in the Government of Tambov. This name was applied because of the fact that the Molokans drink milk every day in the week, while the Greek Catholics abstain from it on Wednesdays and Fridays, which are fast days for them. The Molokans had no definite form of religion for many years. During the last Years of the seventeenth century, two highly educated men, Skovoroda and Tveritinoff, had come under the influence of the teachings of Luther, calvin, and other European reformers. These men then preached reform among the dissenters of the Russian Greek-Catholic Church. They thus paved the waY for other reformers. For about one hundred years, the Molokans were unmolested by the governmental authorities.  It
was
not
long,
however,
before
the
Russian
government
again
began
to
oppress
the
sectarians in various ways. The heavy taxation of their
land proved to be a greater burden than they could possibly bear. They
were again compelled to serve in the army. Some of the more educated
among them foresaw disastrous times because of inevitable wars in which
Russia was to engage. They therefore began to consider the advisabilty
of emigration from their country. It is well known that of the
emigrants from Russia up to the end of the last century, the greatest
number were Jews and a smaller per cent were Poles, but scarcely any
Russians proper. In the last two years of the nineteenth century, many
of the Dukhobors left the Caucasus region and went to Western Canada
where several thousands now live. [There remains a large community in
the Grand Junction [Grand
Forks,
British Columbia] area, Ed.] [The Shubin congregation (photo right) is the most extreme Maksimist of all Jumper congregations in America. The photo was taken in the "Flats", on Clarence Street, south of First Street.] The beginning of the Russo-Japanese War inaugurated a new era of persecutions for the sectarians in southeastern Russia. They were compelled to go to war. Though many were capable of occupying high military positions, they were prevented from so doing and were put to the most menial work. They also suffered all kinds of insults at the instigation of government officials. They were not permitted to go anywhere without passports — and passports were not granted them. It is therefore not surprising that these people became disgusted with conditions such as they experienced, and longed to leave the country. Occupations  Of all the Russians in this city, about 75
per cent of the working men were employed in lumber yards up to the
outbreak of the war. Then the majority entered the ship-building
industry. About 10 per cent own and drive their own teams, and work by
the day in hauling produce and other commodities. About 2 per cent are
engaged in running little grocery stores and butcher shops, which are
patronized by their own people. The remainder — about 13 per cent — are
employed in various ways, e. g., in the metal trades, automobile shops,
planing mills, fruit canneries. The last-mentioned occupations are
followed by the younger men of the community, who have had some
schooling but who left school as soon as the law permitted them to do
so.It is the usual thing among the Russians for the married women to work. The young women are employed chiefly in laundries. Girls who have attended school and have learned the English language, work in the biscuit factories which are in the neighborhood. A small number of girls work in a candy factory on Utah Street. The older women work in fruit canneries or do housework by the day. Though many of the girls who have been to school for several years, could do other work and perhaps earn more money, the parents are anxious to have them work near home and among their own people. Clerking or office work might cause the girls to become "Americanized" quickly and to this the older people object. The religion of the Molokans sprang from that of the Dukhobors. Both these sects are opposed to war. They believe in no earthly representatives of God. The Molokans have no ministers or church dignitaries of any kind. They have no rules or traditions as to who shall be their religious advisers. Their pastors are not ordained, do not receive compensation, and are not dependent upon the approval of the community. Their authority prevails only at prayer meetings, marriage ceremonies, and funeral services. It may be said that the Molokan religion has little definite form. It is systemless. Many of its phases are exceedingly crude. It is incoherent and inconsistent. Like the orthodox Jews, the Molokans abstain from eating pork and are supposed to slaughter their beef in a certain manner. There are at present seven churches in the Russian settlement. These are simply very large rooms in which church services are conducted. During holidays, some private homes are also used for religious services. The Priguni [Pryguny = Jumpers in Russian] conduct their prayers in a unique manner. All pray aloud for some time, until one feels that the "spirit" has entered into him, when in a trance-like manner he comes to the center of the place of worship. The praying goes on in a sing-song loud tone of voice until one by one, every person feels the "spirit" within him.... Abridged from: Studies in Sociology, SOCIOLOGICAL MONOGRAPH NO. 11. Vol. III MARCH 1918 No. 3. EDITED BY EMORY S. BOGARDUS, Department of Sociology. University of Southern California, Originally published by the University of Southern California Press. Los Angeles, California. For the complete text, please visit: http://www.archive.org/stream/russiansinlosang0lso ko/russiansinlosang01soko_dj vu.txt [The complete origiinal 1918 document is online in 6 formats on the Text Archive, and on Google Books in Sociology and social research, Volumes 1-5.]  While there are still numerous groups in
the U.S. and in Canada that are direct descendants of the Molokan and
Doukhabor [Doukhobor]
sects, their influence may well have been enormous on what is today
generally referred to as Pentecostalism. The Molokans, especially of the "Jumper" variety, had a
long history of laying claim to modern-day manifestations of the
apostolic gifts, including healings, tongues, etc. When they
moved to Los Angeles, California, most settled near the lumber yard
that employed many of the men, a lumbar yard situated in close
proximity to Azusa Street. A year after the Molokans [Jumpers] arrived, the
"Azusa Street Revival", considered by many to be the birthplace of
American Pentecostalism, burst forth into the American church scene.
The "revival" continued with three services a day for nearyly three
years. It is an established fact that many of the Russian Molokans [Jumpers] became a part of the Azusa Street Revival, but it remains a mystery as to whether they were converts or, after a fashion, the founders.
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