Armenian-Molokans: From Kars to Los Angeles
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| Latitude |
Longitude |
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Karakala: see Taslica Taslica |
"40°46'00""N" "40°46'00""N" |
"43°02'00""E" "43°02'00""E |
During the 1800s Molokans were resettled into the Caucasus (Azerbaidjan, Georgia, Armenia) to establish Russian colonies along the new borders of the Russian Empire. First they were resettled into Azerbaidjan, then Georgia, Armenia, and at the end of the 1800s, Kars oblast. Oblast is Russian for region/province, like a state. In the last Russo-Turkish War (1877-78), Russia took this territory and moved Russian colonists in, mainly sectarians — Molokans, Doukhobors, Subbotniki, and several German groups (Mennonites, Lutherans, Baptists, etc). In a 1921 treaty, the USSR returned the districts of Kars and Ardahan, acquired in 1878, to Turkey. Read more about the Russo-Turkish wars.
In the early 1900s (especially 1905-12), about 3000 Molokans, and Armenians who joined them, in the Caucasus, mainly in war-torn Kars, fled to America, many to avoid military service, others to find employment. In the river "Flats" area on the eastside of Los Angeles, they formed their own Armenian-Molokan Church near the other Molokan village churches. The church had several locations, mainly in homes, but the last location in the Flats was just south of 4th Street below the International Institute on land that is now in the south bound lane of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway.
In 1926, the sectarians (Molokans and Doukhobors) remaining in Kars and Ardahan oblasts were offered free land in the barren Sal'ski steppe in Rostov, Russia. All of the Doukhobors and about 90% of the Molokans moved. In the 1930s Turkey became very nationalistic and every non-Turk had to have a Turkish name. In the next decades all the Molokan villages were concentrated into 3 villages — Yalinçayir, Atçilar, and Çalkavur. In 1962, the Molokans in Turkey were offered homes on collective farms (kolkhoz) in northern Stavropol'skii krai, or in cities (Astrakhan, Stavropol', ...).
The
topography of Karakala is hilly. In fact,
Molokans who
migrated to Los Angeles and then moved into Boyle Heights, up
the hill from the "Flats", named a part of their
Molokan neighborhood "Kara-kala", sometime pronounced "Krik-kala".
It is bordered on the north by Whittier Boulevard, on the south by
Eighth
Street, on the east by Lorena Street and on the west by Soto Street.
Before
the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway was built, this neighborhood resembled the
hills
near Karakala in the old country in which the hills form a sharp
angle with the flat land, rather than a gradual alluvial slope. Part of
the distinct hill remains on the westside, behind Bishop Mora
High
School.
(Click on map to ENLARGE) For some oral history, see Molokans
in America, Chapter 1.The most famous Armenian-Molokan family from Karakala is the Shakarian family, notably son Demos. They had a large dairy farm in Downey CA, produced the book The Happiest People on Earth, and founded the religious organization FGBMFI — Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International. Demos split from the original Armenian-Molokan church which moved from East LA to La Habra Heights, not far from the current UMCA. Our History describes how his family was saved by Efim G. Klubnikin's prophesies and by Molokans who regularly visited Karakala village, the migration, and meeting Protestants in Los Angeles. Also, the fate of their Karakala village is reported: "Two years later, the great World War I broke out, and in the terrible onslaught, when Turkey overran Armenia, every soul in Kara Kala was wiped out."
Excerpts about the Armenian-Molokans and Karakala, from Molokans in America by John K Berokoff
Chapter 1
A large neighboring Armenian village, Karakalla, became converted to the Christian Jumpers, most of whom eventually came to America at the same time as the Russian Molokans.
Meanwhile Klubnikin took it upon himself to inform the villagers in the Erevan region. Traveling from one village to another, he confided his revelations to elders in that area who, in his opinion, were sympathetic to the cause but being told about others who were not favorably disposed and fearing betrayal as an agitator, he returned to Romanovka and concentrated his efforts in the region of Kars, not neglecting to inform the Armenian brethren in Karakalla that unless they left the country their people will endure far more in the coming period of tribulation than their Russian brethren. This warning was heeded by the majority of the Dukhonvy Armenians and when the time came they followed the latter to America. [Footnote: The prophesy[sic] concerning the Armenians literally came to pass in the first world war. When the Turkish army marched through the area in 1917, they committed unspeakable atrocities against the Armenian people in all the villages, including Karakalla. For that reason the memory of Efeem Gerasimitch Klubnikin is revered among the Armenian Molokans to this day.]
This debate continued in all Molokan villages throughout Trans-Caucasia and the Trans-Caspian regions for about three years or until the beginning of the winter of 1904.
... Very early in that winter a conference was assembled by the elders of the Kars region in the village of Novo-Mihailovka where representatives of ten communities were present, including a leading member of the Armenian community of Karakalla, Ardzuman Ivanitch Ohanessian, who was much respected in the Russian Molokan communities.
Chapter 2
Evergreen Cemetery ... The Armenian Molokans too, were participants in the undertaking and quite a number of their people were buried there.
Chapter 3
The elders decreed that a large tent was to be installed on some near-by vacant lot and that Paskha should be observed together by all congregations after a three-day fast to conform to the command of the Holy Spirit. ... including the Armenian brethren.
Chapter 7
[Page 135] At the end of February, 1945 the Advisory Council compiled and circulated an accounting of total sums collected from the entire brotherhood and the amount contributed by each contributing congregation. Following are the totals as shown by the accounting: Armenian Molokan Church, $127.00
My Trip to Turkey, 1999
Karakala means "Black Fortress"
By Joyce Keosababian-Bivin, an
American-Armenian-Molokan who has been exploring her family
history
for over 10 years. She has visited Armenia several times. The map of
Kars and photos are hers.
According to oral tradition, Karakala was an Armenia
Protestant village — some Molokan Armenians and some regular
Protestants.
My grandfather Zorab and his brother John Keosababian had a
sister
named Anna, who was also called Shogho, and in the old family letters,
sometimes referred to as Abla, meaning "eldest" sister. Anna
married a Molokan named Vasili Artyomovich. Their children were Alex,
Katya,
Uljasha, Vasily, Ivan and Manya. After Zorab and John went to
America, they exchanged letters with their father Yacov (Hagop), Anna,
Vasili and Alex, and later,
their daughter Manya continued corresponding with her uncles in America.
Manya married Nikolai Fydorovitch Polunin. They had nine children;
Vasili, Ona, Katya, Grisha, Yasha, Vanya, Ivan, Dunya and Tanya
(Tatsyana). They lived in the Molokan village of Malaya
Vorontsovka which apparently was in the vicinity of Karakala, Dubovka
and other
villages where
Molokans lived. My great-grandfather Hagop Keosababian lived in
Karakala,
and also in Vorontsovka, Dubovka and Cakmak [renamed:
Çalkavur].
The return address on some of Manya's letters had the family name
Dagala. During the Russian period, mail was not delivered to the
villages outside of Kars, so I always assumed Dagala was the name of
the
merchant or place where our family received their mail.
For over eight years, I had been trying to find the descendants of my
great Aunt Anna but to no avail. Telephone calls in America and
an Internet search all brought no results.
One day in desperation, I decided to write to the Dagala address and
ask if those living there remembered the Polunin family and possibly
knew where they went. I had the letter translated into Turkish and
finally last July, after waiting for a couple of months, mailed it. I
mailed it doubting that it would reach that address and even more
doubtful that I would receive an answer.
Meanwhile in August, I made a serious decision to go to Turkey with
Armen Aroyan's Historic Armenia Tour where Armenians, mainly from
America, visit the places where their parents and grandparents
lived before they came to America or perished during the massacres. I
have
for many years dreamed of visiting Kars and finding Karakala. After I
made the decision to go on this trip, to my great surprise, I received
a reply from the son of Tatsyana, the granddaughter of my great aunt
Anna who married a Molokan. He
informed me they were still living in the same
village (Voronstovka?), now called Incesu, and invited me to visit
them, and included
their phone number.
As we drove into the village of Incesu, there was a little old lady just standing on the side of the road of which we paid no attention. Suddenly, Jamal, our driver stopped the van. He had a "feeling" about this lady with her long dress, sweater and scarf tied under her chin and backed up to talk to her. It was indeed Tatsyana.
We arrived at the house and walked across the street as a gaggle of geese scurried away. The house was surrounded by a low brick wall covered with white plaster and as we followed Tatsyana through the gate, we saw in the distance two women in long dresses and head scarves pitching hay down to someone operating a threshing machine on the other side of the hay stack. Soon, we met Tatsyana's sons and two daughter-in-laws who were the women pitching hay to the threshing machine when we arrived and were now serving us red Turkish tea in demitasse size glasses. Someone commented that could have been me pitching hay if my grandparents had not fled to America.
Tatsya is 78 years old, and converted to Islam in order to marry a Turkish man. Now a widow she has five children. Tatsya and her three sons still live in the same village where her parents and grandparents lived. Some of her brothers and sisters live in Tibilisi, Moscow, Ankara and the U.S. Her sister Katya, lives in Stavropol. In 95 years nothing much seems to have changed in the village except for electricity and television. Hay wagons are now pulled by tractors. It was hard to comprehend that I was standing in the same village and perhaps the same house as my great grandparents and their family.
I learned that after Kars was turned over to Turkey by Russia, many Armenians and Russians Turkified their surnames. Manya's husband changed their family name from Polunin to Dagala. The last of the Molokans left in 1962-1964.
After our visit, we began our search for Karakala. A couple of years ago when I called my mother's 90-year-old cousin Myrtle to ask about Karakala, she said it didn't exist anymore. It had been filled in. I didn't believe her. I wanted to believe it still existed and that I would be able to visit it someday.To condense this part of our adventure, I will confirm that, yes indeed, cousin Myrtle was right. Karakala is filled in but we found evidence on the land and confirmation by nearby villagers of its former existence as a military outpost and village.
The modern town of Kars is clean and bustling with activity. There is a modern pedestrian walk with water fountains, shops and outdoor cafés. There was a sunflower seed vender on the sidewalk with his wagon, selling whole sunflower heads. Kars is 6000 feet high and air was clean and crisp — no smog, no pollution. Unfortunately, we had only one hour to walk around before traveling to Ani.
We checked out of our hotel and as we drove down one of the streets, we passed the old section which is where I really should have visited. Next time.
Photo
35. Taken
between Taslica
and Incesu
(Vorontsovka) in 1999. Supposedly Karakala was filled in and
buried,
but our driver saw evidence this area was inhabited at one time. Notice
the hills in the background.
Photo 36. Same site, but another view, as Photo 35.
CLICK on Pictures to ENLARGE
Photo
38. Photo of Karakala. Everyone in our American-Armenian-
Molokan community seems to have a copy of this photo. Notice the
hills in the background with the gorge in the middle. They don't show
well in photos 35 and 36, but in photo 37, the second site, they're
pretty clear. Even so, none of these places may be the real Karakala
site. [If you look at the hills and "U" shaped gorge in the background,
this shot seems similar to Photo 36.] Click on photos to ENLARGE.
Karakala villagers posing closest to the camera. Click photo to ENLARGE.
Photo
37. After we left the
first site, our driver cut through a neighboring
village and drove out to this second site which, in his opinion, more
likely
our Karakala. Actually, this could be an extension of the first site
only
now separated by a road. [These may be the hills that cause Molokans in
LA to call their neighborhood, Kara-kala.] [Notice the mountain in
the background are nearly identical to the mountains behind the village
photo taken in the late 1800s.]Why Armenians Moved to Karakala
By Joyce Keosababian-BivinThere are no records as to when the Armenians moved to Karakala, or when the Russians built their military outpost camp at Karakala, whether it was built on a new site or one previously inhabited. The closest information we have is from Siragan Kaloian, on page 10 in his 1950 book, The Immigration of Armenians of Shirag to America: "This village was comparatively of recent origin having been established after the Russo-Turkish war of 1878. It was, in a sense, a modern village, with beautiful buildings and wide streets."
Before moving to Karakala, the Armenians previously lived in Gezeachkhlar (exact spelling and location unknown). As Protestants, they were not readily tolerated by the villagers and were constantly harassed.
M. Mushagian remembers pastor Perumian telling stories of how the hooligans in this village harassed and persecuted the Protestants with verbal insults, throwing stones, vandalizing their crops and digging up newly buried people and displaying their bodies on the ground or tying them to a tree. "So after awhile they got tired of what they were going through, and would go to the government and tell them their story. So the government (Tzar Nicholas II) tells them if they want to, they could move to an empty Russian military outpost. And so the entire Protestant community moved to Karakala."
"Shortly after, a photographer from the city went to the village and told the people he would like to take a picture of their village. Some of the people dressed up and stood in front of the barracks where they lived. The picture is taken from afar so it is hard to recognize any one of them." (Someone speculated that those dressed in white were the Armenian Molokans, those in black were the non Molokan Armenians.)
First Armenian Pentecostal Church
The
Armenian-Molokan Church in America was
first located in the Los Angeles "Flats" near the other Molokan village
churches. Like all the immigrant Molokan villages, services were held
in homes at first until a dedicated prayer house was purchased. When the Santa Ana Freeway was planned, the Armenian-Molokan Church, Big Church, and many other buildings were demolished. Many families had to move. The second Armenian-Molokan Church relocated in East Los Angeles on Goodrich Blvd, about a block south of Olympic Blvd., on the corner of _?___ .
About 1970?, the congregation moved further east closer to their membership. They purchased rtheir third building from the Lutherans in La Habra Heights, on West Road, one door west of Hacienda Blvd, about a mile north of Whitter Blvd.. It's located between the UMCA in Hacienda Heights and the relocated Milkoy Church in Whittier. See map and photos below.
The congregation changed their legal name to be identified as Pentecostal, but they retained their Molokan form of service with holidays and food laws they learned from the Spritual Christian Molokan Jumpers.
 Third location of of the Amrenian- Molokan Church, renamed: First Armenian Pentecostal Church — Map from Yahoo! Maps |
 First Armenian Pentecostal Church from the air. — Aerial photo from Microsoft TerraServer-USA |
 Though the Armenian-Molokans also avoided icons and crosses, they purchased this new building from a Lutheran congregation and decided to leave the decoration "as is". The cross is not part of their service inside. — Photo from: USC Lewis Hall Exhibit March-May 2003: "Sacred Transformation: Armenian Churches in Los Angeles" |
First
Armenian Pentecostal Church
125 West Road (near Hacienda Blvd), La Habra Heights, CA 90631-8046
Presbyter: Stanley Perumean. — Home/message phone: 562-690-7580
125 West Road (near Hacienda Blvd), La Habra Heights, CA 90631-8046
Presbyter: Stanley Perumean. — Home/message phone: 562-690-7580