Molokans in America
Chapter 8 — Aid to Brethren in Iran [<Chapter 7] [Contents] [Chapter 9>]Although there were differences in the brotherhood regarding various policies and attitudes towards their own problems and towards the world in general, these were but healthy signs in the life of the brotherhood for they kept the membership alert for any infraction of basic Molokan doctrines. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said that he was not surprised that there were divisions among them because such divisions offered an opportunity to bring out the most skillful among them to the end that heresies may he prevented or corrected.
The fact of the matter is that, in spite of stresses and strains, that the Molokan edifice was subjected to during their adjustment to their life in America, the structure remained intact and functioned as a unit in most matters affecting the brotherhood especially during the two world wars and the great depression.
This was proven again when, late in February of 1946, word reached Los Angeles from a large group of Molokans in Iran (Persia) who were begging for assistance to immigrate to America. It was known previously that they were there but nothing was known of their living conditions or how many there were. It was also known that in early 1930's when the Communist government in the USSR was using all means to force the peasants into collective farms, many Molokans fled across the neighboring borders of Iran and Turkey seeking escape from persecution for refusal to join the collective.
In 1938 a tearful plea was received from a group of these refugees who were stranded in Syria after wandering back [Page 139] and forth between Turkey and Syria begging for a refuge of these governments. At that time a financial response was made to their plea but after the outbreak of the second world war nothing more was heard of this group until 1945 when a young Russian Baptist couple, with their children, arrived in Los Angeles from Iran and contacted a Molokan family whose address they brought from the latter's relatives in Iran.
This young couple told of many Molokans living in Iran including those who were at one time stranded in Syria but who eventually found refuge in Iran. Their story was convincing because they named families who had close relatives in Los Angeles.
Nothing was done about it at the time, however, because it was not known that they wanted to come to America, in fact it was assumed that they would not because, as it was previously mentioned here, there was still a hope in the hearts of many that our imminent refuge was to he either in Iran or Turkey.
But when this word reached Los Angeles in February, 1946, everyone was surprised to learn that a large group of our own flesh and blood was living in Iran for more than a decade and were now anxiously, in fast desperately trying to emigrate to the United States.
The message came via a long letter from one of their members who claimed that he was writing on behalf of the whole group living in Teheran, stating also that there were many other families living in farming villages in Northern Iran, near the south coast of the Caspian Sea, who are also desperately anxious to leave Iran. It was a well-written letter and touched the hearts of all listeners causing an immediate reaction in the community. A sum of $4100.00 was quickly collected for their relief and a meeting of elders was held to discuss the best means of assisting them.
[Page 140] On March 20, 1946 the elders invited the young Russian Baptist who arrived a year before to give his views on the letter and the best means of assisting them and on the responsibility of the writer of the letter. Upon his suggestion, a letter was dispatched air mail with a small sum of money and with a request that the money was to he distributed to the most needy families, preferably to widows and orphans and at the same time asking for further information on their immediate needs and the most advantageous means of assistance — whether in food, clothing or money.
On May 30th a reply arrived urgently pleading, not for food or clothing but for help in their efforts to immigrate to America, stating that life in Iran was becoming unbearable for several reasons:But the main reason for their anxiety was the fear that the USSR will return to occupy Iran permanently and force them to return to face the consequences of their flight from Soviet justice.
- Work was very scarce and whenever a job was available, the population was very fanatical and discriminated against them in favor of a Muslim.
- The economy of the country was corrupt so that nothing could he done without payment of a bribe, hence, if one had not the money to pay the bribe his pleas of any nature were disregarded.
- Life in the farming villages was likewise difficult in that the most fertile lands were in possession of rich landowners who preferred to rent it to the Muslims and the land allotted to the Molokans was very poor and in an unhealthy, mosquito infested, malarial region along the south coast of the Caspian Sea where many Molokans died after settling there in the first years in Iran.
This letter changed the picture for the American Molokans altogether. It would have been comparatively simple to collect a sizeable sum of money for the purchase of food and clothing and shipped to them as it was done in 1921 for the famine [Page 141] stricken in Russia, but, it was extremely difficult to initiate a mass removal of approximately 500 persons of all ages to the United States at a time when millions of refugees and displaced persons in the liberated portion of Europe were clamoring for admittance to America.
The admittance to the United States was limited by law to a certain quota per year for each European nation, a law that favored the nations of Western Europe against those of Eastern Europe. Since the great majority of displaced persons were from Eastern Europe, a special law was passed to permit entry into the United States of 250,000 of them but this law was not applicable to the Molokans in Iran, they had to apply under the quota limits of the old law. By this law the allowable quota for people of Russian origin was very small in ratio to its population. It was so small that the Molokan applicants in Iran were told that they would no doubt have to wait at least five years for their turn to enter the United States. Complicating this obstacle was the fact that some applicants were born in the region of Kars which, since the close of the first world war, became Turkish territory, therefore, those Molokans born there had to come in under the Turkish quota, which was practically nil. (See Addenda pp. IX, X, XI, XII and XIII)
There were no organizations in America working to aid refugees in Asia similar to the one sponsored by the combined religious bodies of the United States which was very active in the relief and emigration of displaced persons of the European war. Neither was the organization called "The Tolstoy Fund" which was organized by the daughter of the celebrated writer, Leo N. Tolstoy to aid refugees of Russian origin, available to people in Asia, therefore other means of bringing them to America had to he found.
[Page 142] It must he admitted that our people in Iran were persistent. In the end, the personnel of the American consulate in Teheran, almost in self-defense, suggested that their only salvation lay in finding individual sponsors in the United States who would sponsor their admittance under a special rule by which they could enter either as mechanics and artisans in special fields where help was scarce or as farmers specializing in raising scarce commodities.
Fortunately for them, the Molokans in America were at that time able to absorb such applicants, having among their members farmers raising cotton or grain which were then scarce commodities and also owners of various factories that could claim a need and scarcity of mechanics of all sorts.
Soon relatives and friends in America were busy preparing the necessary forms and mailing them to Iran for processing by the consulate in Teheran where, after the usual delays due to the regular red tape, visas were finally being granted for entrance to the Promised Land.
A slow but steady procession of Molokan families were soon arriving in Los Angeles and San Francisco, some by plane all the way, others who hoped to economize on their passage, flew to Italy where they boarded a steamship at the cheapest rates to New York and then by autobus to the Pacific Coast.
The very first family to arrive in Los Angeles, however, came by a roundabout way that took them overland through Iran cast to Karachi, Pakistan, where they boarded a coast-wise steamer to Bombay, India where they found passage on a freighter which brought them all the way to Los Angeles, making calls at many ports between India and America, a voyage of approximately three months. But that was the only family to take this difficult route.
As could he imagined, the arrival of the first few families were events of great dramatic interest and considerable emotion. Meeting with relatives one did not ever hope to see [Page 143] until a year or so ago and then suddenly sitting down to a traditional Molokan meal together with them 10,000 miles away from the backward Asiatic nation which was your inhospitable home for 15 years, amid surroundings that seemed like a dream to you, was a scene that only a skilled dramatist could portray.
The stories of their lives that these first arrivals told, differed only in some minor details from those told by later arrivals.
As they sat late into the first night of their arrival, relating the horrors of the wars, revolutions, civil wars and famines they survived; of the persecutions, exiles and executions of their loved ones and finally, of their flight across the high mountain range with their small children towards an unknown fate in neighboring Iran, their listeners, through their tears, could only thank their God for their own preservation from a similar fate.
As each new arrivals told their stories of terror, the impression grew in the minds of their American brethren that these people were exceptionally hardy to survive their adversities and, either courageous beyond belief or foolishly desperate to even attempt the flight across the high range of mountains along which lay the border between the USSR and Iran, knowing as they did that the border was constantly patrolled by soldiers of both nations, guarding against the very thing they were attempting to do.
In fleeing their homes, many were able to evade arrest only by the narrowest margin, only after being forewarned by people who had inside knowledge of the plans for their arrest and exile to concentration camps by the Soviet secret police. In every case they were in such a hurry that they could take nothing with them except the clothing in their backs and as much hard bread as they could carry with them.
[Page 144] Walking at night and hiding in the mountains to sleep and rest during the day, all who were hold enough to make the attempt succeeded in avoiding detection and capture.
Although all of them were eventually stopped by the Iranian border patrols, they were not betrayed to the Soviets but instead, the patrols delivered them to their superiors whom, in turn delivered them to their district chiefs. Most of the refugees were eventually brought to the city of Mashad, footsore and hungry, although they were occasionally fed by the more kind-hearted of their captors.
In Mashad the Iranian officials deliberated on whether to deport them back to the Soviet Union to avoid friction with their powerful neighbor or to transport them in small groups to the interior of Iran and settle them among a fanatical and, at times, inhospitable population.
Fortunately for them, however, divine deliverance came to them in the person of a Molokan family that had moved to Iran in less troublesome times several years earlier and who were already well established in the city of Mashad, who knew the Iranian language and were acquainted with their ways as well as with some of their officials.
This Molokan family — the Tihonoff family — were somehow appraised of the predicament of their refugee brethren. They immediately went before the local government officials and begged them not to ship the refugees to the interior but to allow them to settle as a group in some nearby farming area.
The Iranian people, like most people of the Muslim faith, were unsympathetic towards Christians whom they called unclean infidels because of the latter's propensity for the use of pork meat which is unclean to a true Muslim and also because the majority of Orthodox Christians venerate images of saints and display the cross on their houses of worship.
The Tihonoffs knew this antipathy of the Muslims well therefore they set about convincing the officials [Page 145] these refugees were different from most Christians and very similar to the Muslims in their objection to the use of pork or veneration of images or the cross.
Apparently these explanations satisfied the officials for they relented in their attitude and permitted them to remain together in the vicinity of Mashad where they secured work in construction of a sugar refinery being built by a European contractor.
After a time the Shah of Iran gave them permission to settle in villages of their own near the south coast of the Caspian Sea in the province of Mazandaran where the majority of them lived until the migration to America while some moved to the capital city of Teheran, working as day laborers or truck drivers.
Their trials were not over yet, however, for at the outbreak of the war between Germany and the USSR the Soviet armies occupied the northern part of Iran (where the Molokans were living) to protect their southern flank from unfriendly armies, bringing terror into the hearts of people who thought that they were free from fears of the midnight knock on the door and its terrible consequences. But here they were again facing that probability. With such a probability they were forced to live for another three years or, until these armies returned to the Soviet Union at the conclusion of the war.
But although the armies were gone, there was no guarantee that they would not be back for a permanent occupation, so that the minds of the refugees were never entirely free of the thoughts of that possibility, therefore, they began to search their collective minds for avenues of escape, fasting and praying for divine guidance [in]the meanwhile.
Possibilities were open to them for emigration to South America and Australia. Indeed, many non-Molokan refugees in Iran took advantage of these possibilities and emigrated to these countries, but God, through His servants the prophets, [Page 146] told the Molokans in Iran to expect help from their American brethren, therefore, they turned their eyes and thoughts away from those continents and concentrated their efforts on the United States. They succeeded so well that, five years after making their first contact with Los Angeles, every Molokan living in Iran with the exception of several persons who forfeited their right to be called by that name, were in America, praising God for their deliverance and expressing their heart felt gratitude to their relatives and their spiritual brethren for their assistance.
As indeed they should because the brotherhood in Los Angeles and the several farming communities of Arizona and the San Joaquin valley as well as the Postoyannaye in San Francisco, were never so unanimous or so generous as in the response to their call. It is more than likely that no Molokan family in America refrained from participation in their emigration, either by sponsoring a family, (which meant that the sponsor obligated himself for the welfare of the family he was sponsoring for a period of five years) by financial assistance in their transportation or by giving them employment upon their arrival.
As each family arrived they were taken to the various congregations to be greeted in the traditional Molokan manner with the holy kiss — prayed for and given a sizable monetary donation for the start of their new life in America, with every member contributing voluntarily according to his means. In addition, furniture, kitchen equipment and clothing, especially for children, was generously donated.
Practically in no time at all following their arrival, they were absorbed into the Molokan communities of America. The majority were of the Pryguny, therefore, these chose to live in Los Angeles, but a considerable number were of Postoyannaye and most of these chose to live in San Francisco with their co-religionists there and, it must he said, that they [Page 147] revitalized that church which was, prior to their arrival, threatened with slow death by anemia.
Fortunately for all of them, their arrival in the United States, coincided with the most prosperous period in that nation's history. Jobs were available at good wages to anyone willing to work. In fairness to them it must he said that they immediately proved themselves to he a hard working, enterprising and thrifty people. Within a few years they paid off the debts incurred in their emigration and were well on their way towards economic independence as home owners and owners of income properties, in many instances operating small businesses, of their own.
In spiritual matters too, they immediately became a part of the brotherhood, conforming in all things with the doctrines of the Molokan Faith.
About ten years later, however, a very small group of them, deviated from the doctrines of the brotherhood, attempting to introduce the observance of feast days that were abandoned by the Spiritual Christian Jumpers a hundred years ago as not authorized by the Scriptures, such as Christmas, Epiphany, Annunciation, Ascension, etc. [Many Molokans from Persia were Spiritual Molokans (Dukhovnie Molokani) who originally observed all of "God's" and "Christ's" holidays, and Constants (Postoyannie) who followed Christ's holidays. When they immigrated to Los Angles they encountered the dominant Priguny/Maksimisti with whom they tollerated and by whose rules they complied because they were guests and new to America. After getting settled, a few began to protest.]
In March 1959, the leader of this minute faction, after refusing to heed the pleas of all the presbyters of Los Angeles to abandon the innovation, decided to branch out on his own with about two dozen young couples as followers. A few years later this man left the United States for Australia where he now resides, to all intents and purposes becoming a non-Molokan. [A "non-Molokan" only from the perspective of an American Prigun/Maksimist, even though the American Constants obey the holidays which Maksim G. Rudomiokin condemned and his followers consider to be "not authorized by the Scriptures".]
[In the 1980s, the Assistant Presbyter of the Persian congregation in Los Angeles, Vasili Susoeff, called a meeting of all local Presbyters to again try to discuss several matters of differences in belief and ritual, but his effort was rebuffed as simply: "All he wants is for us to celebrate Christmas".
More significant is that thousands of American-born Molokans have left their ethnic Jumper congregations to join American churches (mostly evangelic, but also non-denominational and other protestant) because the services are in English, they married "out", and/or they can participate in the Christian traditions they felt were denied them by the Jumpers. By 2000, most ethnic American Molokans and Jumpers do not attend assembly.]
[<Chapter 7] [Contents] [Chapter 9>]
Back to Molokan, Prygun and Dukh-i-zhinik History
Back to Molokane, Pryguny and Dukh-i-zhiniki Around the World