Molokans in America
by John K. Berokoff, Los Angeles California, 1969.

This book was first web-published here in 1998 after correcting the original for spelling and grammar, enhancing with clarifications; and adding links, definitions and maps. The major error is that this book in not about the Molokan religion but about Russian sectarians and ethnic Molokans, most of whom lived in Los Angeles and were of the Prygun faith, then transformed into the Dukh-i-zhiznik faith after 1930. Berokoff presents very little information about the Molokan faith congregations in San Francisco and north of Sacramento, California. Berokoff's major research error was not looking in the library at archived newspapers which contain 100s of relevant articles, all ignored. He only referred to one 1969 Los Angeles Times article (Chapter 1, page 17) about a meteor shower, which appeared just before publication. It may be that he did not know how to mine the library, or the facts were so embarrassing that he chose to censor his own book, as he may have done with Pauline Young's Pilgrims in Russiantown. Here in red font I attempt to correct his misinformation and insert missing facts along with comments. Though most readers greatly appreciated this book, some descendants of J.K. Berokoff hate him for exposing their religion to the world. One of his grandsons tried to illegally petition me off the Internet per instructions from the Dukh i zhizn'. — Updated January 14, 2012 by Andrei Conovaloff, protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1 — The Migration
Chapter 2 — The First Years
Chapter 3 — Attempts at Farming
Chapter 4 — The First World War
Chapter 5 — Post War Problems
Chapter 6 — Appearance of New Leaders
Chapter 7 — The Second World War
Chapter 8 — Aid to Brethren in Iran
Chapter 9 — Conclusion
Addenda — Petitions and Letters
Photos
Maps

Foreword   [Contents]

    There are numerous reasons why the life of the [ethnic] Molokan people in America deserves to be recorded in a book but the most important, perhaps, is the probability that the third and fourth generation [ethnic] American Molokans are unacquainted with the real reason for their forefathers' emigration from Russia or how they managed to survive as a community for over sixty years in a large city abundantly supplied with various worldly temptations 

    It is also possible that they do not know why the United States of America was chosen as a place of settlement in preference, say, to Canada or to South America and how it came about that they chose Southern California instead of remaining on the Eastern seaboard as millions of other immigrants did. 

    What was their life in Los Angeles like as they clung together in one close knit neighborhood while other nationalities scattered to become assimilated in the local population? Insisting, for religious reasons, on wearing full beards and their peasant clothes in the face of ridicule while other nationalities conformed to local customs; periodically dropping everything to attend the funeral of a relative, a friend or a church dignitary, quitting their jobs twice a year to observe their week long holidays plus three other one day religious observances, they yet managed to support their very large families without public charity or assistance from non-Molokan sources. 

    To [ethnic] Molokans born and raised since the end of the second World War, this accomplishment may not seem very impressive because the continuous prosperity and full employment of the last 25 years would lead them to believe that it was always thus, but in fact, during the first ten years of their life in America the Molokans were subjected to periods of unemployment when the bread winner of the family considered himself very fortunate if he worked an average of four days a week at $2.00 per day as casual laborer in a lumber yard. How did they do it? 

    This book attempts to answer some of these questions. It is a narrative based on personal observations, on notes, letters and documents in the writer's possession as well as on information gathered from many persons who are old enough to have personally experienced the history of the [ethnic] Molokans in America. It is a story of a people who were and are unique among all the ethnic groups in the Los Angeles area.

Introduction — The Flight to the Refuge     [Contents]

    Prophecies of [Prygun] Efeem Gerasovich Klubnikin concerning the coming of World Wars and their after effects, written in his youthful years in the village of Nikitina, Russia in 1855 or thereabouts. 

    Pages 636 and 651, Book of Spirit and Life. "Kings will go to war with China. From the time of the war in China, peace will be taken from the earth. There will be powerful wars in the East. From the time of the war in the East the wrath of God will spread throughout the whole earth. 

    There will be great groaning and crying of peoples, blood will flow everywhere. Great misfortunes and agitation among the peoples; tortures, torment and persecutions. People will fly in all directions; to mountains, caves, forests and to different countries. Separations of father and son, mother and daughter, husband and wife . . .

*      *     *      *

    "Let us sing loudly a song about the flight to a place of refuge. The Lord has sent His angels with trumpets to all the people; to go, to go on a journey, to remove themselves from worldly worry. 

    We shall stand firmly on our feet, the Lord will give us His help. He is our joy and our strength. 

    A herald is flying from heaven, his command is to prepare us for a journey (pokhod). Angels are released to torment and to punish harshly everyone throughout the universe".

Many factors prompted Russian sectarians to migrate among the wave of Eastern Europeans to North America at this time:

Many factors prompted Russian sectarians not to leave home.

The Klubnikin prophesies were probably ignited by the Kluenus comet in 1853

[Contents] [Chapter 1>]

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