Vokrug Sveta (Around the World)
Click here to see show webpage for: Armenia, Molokans
Translation of show text:
The sect of Molokans was founded in the 2nd half of the 18th century in Tambov province. The nickname of "Molokans" stuck to the sect probably because they consume milk. Molokans call themselves "true spiritual Christians". In the 19th century Molokans wanted to avoid persecution, they began to move to the edges of the empire, including the Transcaucasus. They live there now keepign their traditions and the faith of their ancestors.
Click to see segment webpage for: Armenia, Molokans
Also posted at www.Worlds.ru
Summary of segment text: (Complete translation later. These images are from the original broadcast posted, which since has been modified and the website now only shows one scene of Ivan Zadorkin, below.)
We met Molokans in the Erevan market, where they sell their famous and very popular sauerkraut. We heard that they prefer to keep to themselves and don't allow photographs. For them photos, videos, TV, newspapers, are all of the devil. It turned out that it was true but not as bad as we expected. We were surprised to be invited into many homes and allowed to photograph and videotape for television. Molokans who have TVs hide them from the elders, because the presbyters would not enter homes with TVs.
The first Russian villages in the Transcaucasus began in the beginning of the 19th century, mostly from different sects. But the most well-known are the Molokans. The Orthodox called them "molokane" because they drank milk during fasts.
In
1842 Molokans founded the village of Nikitino. Before in Armenia there
were about twenty Russian-Molokan villages. Today there are only two.
One
of them is Fioletova, formerly Nikitino. [The
other
is Lermontovo. Also, notice that the sign is mispelled in Russian. The
Armenian
name is on top.] This is what a British traveler wrote who visited Armenia in the 19th century: "Their limbs are poorly connected in their joints. These Russians are a major contrast with the Armenians. Their faces are not symetrical, with small eyes, and void of vivid facial expression. The women wear head scarfs and clean dresses." Molokans indeed are very clean. You can see it in their houses and streets.
There
are only two streets in the village — Sentralnaia (central)
and Pogrebal'naia (for burials) which leads to the cemetery. [A "row-village" similiar to the layout of the Molokan
Guadalupe
village in Mexico.] The first houses were built communally, and
animals
and land were all communal. Today they are hard working, sober, honest
and
help each other. Molokans don't divorce and want their kids to marry
Molokans.
Bearded Molokans are faithful, but the shaved go to Russia to make
money
and have a free lifestyle. They are very poor with not enough land to
grow
food for their big families. Their main diet is potatoes and cabbage.
Religous
fasts last a week in which nothing is eaten and everybody starves
including
the animals. They don't put their hands on the table. People who drink
alcohol
or cuss are buried without prayer. [There are 3
or
4 congregations in Fioletovo, but the journalists mostly lump everyone
into
one group.]Before the revolution there were 12 Molokan apostles — community leaders — one was Maksim Gavorilich Rudometkin who founded the Jumpers. [The Jumpers probably existed before Maksim and originated in the Milky Waters area, now in the south Ukraine.] Molokans [Jumpers] worship Rudometkin as a saint. He died in Suzdal monestery. [Here the journalists confuse Jumpers with original "Constant" Molokans.] "Parginal—Assurinal—Iusgoris" means "Hello" in the zion language invented by Rudometkin, which will be the future langage of the Christians.
Prophet Ivan Vasilich Zadorkin [left] and
wife with grand-kids. Their daughter
Galina Ivanovna Iurtaieva, also a prophetess, lives in a small one-room
appartment
in Erevan with 5 kids [right]. Galina works as a nanny for an
Armenian
family that wants their kids to learn Russian. [Afer
perestroika, the official language reverted to Armenian.] The
elder Zadorkin had a a prophesy that two mountains will protect Fioletovo from the apocolypse. [This may explain why Fioletovo is is the last village in Armenia inhabited almost entirely by Molokans and Jumpers/Maksimists. Nearby Lermontovo is about half Russian.]
The elder Aleksei Nikolaevich Novikov [right] lives with
his wife Nadezhda
Vasilevna. They sometimes visit their kids who moved to Stavropol' to
work
and send aide back home.In 2005 the Molokans are preparing to celebreate the 200th anniversary of the Tsar's manifest for religious freedom.