Molokans are representatives of a special branch of Christianity that arose in the Russian state in the 18th century. In Armenia, Molokan settlements appeared around the 1840s, when Molokans from the Tambov province moved there.

Molokans in Russia for a long time persecuted as dissenters and apostates from Orthodox faith. They do not venerate saints, do not worship the cross and icons, do not sign of the cross, deny hierarchical church institutions. They also treat Christian holidays in a peculiar way, for example, Easter is celebrated, but Christmas is not. In their own way, they also interpret the fast in which they freely drink milk (according to one of the versions, this is why they were called Molokans). But pork and alcohol are banned at any time.

Photo: Sergey Maksimishin for GEO magazine

Several Molokan villages exist in Armenia to this day: Lermontovo, Fioletovo and others. The Molokan community lives extremely isolated: they have little contact with the outside world, and marry only with “their own”. Thanks to this, for a century and a half, the Armenian Molokans did not mix with the local population and completely preserved the ethnic Slavic type (light-eyed and fair-haired) and the Russian language, however, very peculiar.

Molokans are known to be very hardworking people. They are strictly forbidden to drink alcohol, from drinks preference is given to compote and tea, which they drink according to the old Russian tradition: from a samovar, wiping sweat with special towels.

Divorce is highly condemned among Molokans. A divorced person is considered an "adulterer" and no family will want to intermarry with him. Molokan settlements are known not only for prosperity, but also for order: misdemeanors, which we call criminal offenses, are extremely rare here.

The manner of dressing has changed little since the 19th century: men wear loose shirts under their belts and long beards, women - headscarves and long skirts.

main man in the Molokan community - a presbyter, without whose approval it is impossible to solve at least some significant business. Instead of churches, there are prayer houses where they gather on Saturdays and Sundays, read prayers and sing hymns. Individual believers are able to fall into ecstasy, in this state they begin to jump and speak in unknown languages. These are called "jumpers".

Entertainment is not honored here, it is believed that they lead to promiscuity, most Molokans do not even keep a TV. Reading "secular" books is also not encouraged, they prefer spiritual ones, mainly the Old and New Testaments, as well as the works of Maxim Rudometkin, the spiritual leader of the Molokans, written by him in the 19th century, during the years of imprisonment in monasteries.

Birthdays or name days are also not celebrated. But christenings of children and weddings are magnificently celebrated. Molokan wedding ceremony long and includes several stages.

Get an education from above high school also not accepted. Yes, and at school, according to teachers, children do not try too hard, but rather take a break from hard rural work.

Armenian Molokans do not maintain ties with Russia, and the Russian state does not show any interest in them. However, there is a group of Molokans who refuse even state pensions, not to mention humanitarian aid: they believe that money not earned by honest labor cannot be taken.

Molokans live for the most part by subsistence farming, although some goods are also made for sale. For example, cabbage, which they grow and pickle in a special way. This product can be found in Armenian markets, it is known as “molokani kahamb”.

Sometimes members of the community leave their native villages and go to work, including in the southern regions of Russia. It is considered good luck to get a team of Molokan workers: hardworking, diligent, non-drinkers. Some, tempted modern world without strict religious restrictions, leave forever. Nevertheless, the community persists and remains an invaluable source of knowledge about Russian culture and language of the century before last.

October 31 marks the end of the 500th anniversary year of the Reformation. Russian state was not affected by the storms of the Reformation, but since the 16th century on its territory, thanks also to migrants from Western Europe, Protestant currents began to form, the most persistent and consistent among which was the current of the Molokans.

The Molokans defined themselves as "spiritual Christians", rejected the Orthodox cult, the worship of icons and the cross, denied the church hierarchy and did not make the sign of the cross. main idea- communication with God, reading and interpreting the Bible without intermediaries in the person of the Church and priests. The spread of Molokanism at the beginning of the 19th century began to disturb the authorities, and its representatives were massively resettled in the Taurida province. And after a while, by decree of Nicholas I - to the Caucasus, in modern Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Of the thirty Molokan settlements that existed in Soviet Armenia, two are now left - the villages of Fioletovo (former Nikitino) and Lermontovo (former Voskresenka), of which only the first is purely Molokan, Armenians and Kurds also live in Lermontovo. The Molokans have adapted to the harsh mountain climate and due to the colossal labor on the earth, they achieved maximum soil fertility. With the same perseverance, they retained their identity and spiritual values, instilled by their ancestors - the first Molokans - settlers. This was largely due to a separate way of life and religion.

Violetovo is located in the north of Armenia, between the snow-covered ridges of Lambak and Halab. It is difficult to meet someone in the daylight in the village. Everyone is busy with the household: some in the house, some in the ridges and highland fields. The first thing that catches your eye when entering Fioletovo is arable land and the silhouettes of peasants against the backdrop of a mountain range. From time to time cars pass by: SUVs, tractors, a truck turns the corner with us, which smells of milk. Girls in multi-colored headscarves, standing in the back, cheerfully wave in response and break into a wide smile.

“Molokans are underestimated,” taxi driver Ara Saroyan says on the way, “since he brought Russian tourists, on the way to Lermontov they started talking about Molokans. They said different things, mostly dirty, they didn’t like that they marry only “their own”. Argued with them, I know them better. They apologized on the way back. “It’s not necessary in front of me,” I say, “whatever one may say, one nation.”

Main dish on the wedding table

From a small one-story house comes the rumble of voices and the sound of rolling pins. Along the narrow room, six tables are arranged in two rows, behind them are women in white aprons and kerchiefs, and while talking, they roll the dough, from time to time throwing it from hand to hand, and then to a nearby colleague.

About what it is prayer house books are hinted that lie on a separate table covered with an embroidered tablecloth: the Old Testament, the New Testament, “Spirit and Life” by M.G. Rudometkina (the spiritual leader of the Molokans, a native of Fioletovo), prayer books and song books. hanging in the corners embroidered towels with the monogram DH (spiritual Christians). There are no crosses, no icons, no candles.

Today, the room has been temporarily transformed into a kitchen - on Sunday a wedding will be held in the village, and, according to tradition, two days before that, women roll noodles - broth with noodles is the main dish on wedding table. When asked why noodles, Svetlana, a tall, gray-haired woman who works at a table closer to the door (I can’t go any further because of crowding), answers briefly - “remained from Russia.” Previously, it was customary to cook noodles in cast iron, now in ordinary pots.

“We will definitely serve meat, but not pork, from fruits - watermelon, cherries, apricots. If we celebrate in the winter, then we cook borscht, ”they try to shout over the sound of the woman’s own rolling pins. Young Molokans stand the farthest from me, but, having heard general issues smile and rush to join the conversation. The tea ceremony, they say, is the second major part of the wedding meal, replacing the toast culture. Samovars are heated with coal and spiritual songs are sung over a cup of tea, the Bible is read and parting words are given to the young. I ask if the harmonica will play, the women shake their heads emphatically. “There are no dances at weddings,” comes from the other side of the room.

Weddings in Fioletovo begin, as a rule, at 11 am. When talking about marriage, Molokans, first of all, mean church marriage. Civil plays a secondary role and is often concluded after. The wedding ceremony consists of two parts, the first takes place in the bride's house, after which she is led to the groom's house to church songs (thus announcing joyful event), where the second part already takes place. The rites are conducted by the presbyter - the chairman of the community, elected from among the believers. He also holds spiritual meetings every weekend in the prayer house, baptisms (the Molokans call them “kstins”), services on Easter (they celebrate 7 days), Harvest and Harvest Day, and others.

“He doesn’t put on anything,” “he doesn’t hang anything on himself,” “a simple man,”—the women in the prayer house animatedly explain how a presbyter differs from a priest.

“The priest lives at the expense of the parish,” the nearby Svetlana continues in a quiet voice, waiting for a pause, “and the presbyter works like everyone else, in free time conducts rituals, he does not live off them. That's the difference."

“Spirit and Life” of Modern Molokans

“Our ancestors are from Tambov. Molokans of Lermontov - from the Tambov and Saratov provinces. Initially, spiritual Christians were exiled to the Melitopol district, to the Molochnaya River. I think that’s why they called us Molokans, but in general we are written as Russians (in passports),” says Tatyana, and on the second attempt she tries to count in what generation she lives in Fioletovo. "In the ninth or tenth," she concludes, bending thumb left hand.

We met Tatyana by chance near her gate. A 55-year-old woman in a white headscarf with a ruddy, round face and lively, laughing eyes shakes her head in embarrassment when I ask her to photograph her. He says he does not like publicity, I do not insist.

“We don’t get baptized, we don’t carry a cross. We go to the prayer house, but we do not light candles, we put on everything white for meetings and ceremonies - scarves, aprons. They call us Old Believers, probably, they are. As the old ones believed, so do we, and our children follow in our footsteps,” she says.

For almost 180 years of life in Armenia, spiritual Christians have practically not been subjected to cultural influence local population. The moral rules and foundations of the faith of the Molokans now differ little from those that were followed in the 17th century. This is manifested in behavior, manners, clothing. Men wear shirts and keep long beards (only married ones, but there are those who wish among the young), women after marriage put on scarves and long skirts. According to the interpretation of the Bible, in which the Molokans invest symbolic meaning, it is considered sinful to consume pork, alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Idleness is also condemned, however, it is difficult to blame the Molokans for this, in Armenia they are known for their diligence and conscientiousness.

Photo: Ruben Mangasaryan, Sputnik Armenia

It was possible to preserve the originality, the Slavic type of appearance and the Russian language, in particular, thanks to a separate way of life and the absence of mixed marriages. Molokans marry only their own. Interethnic marriages, and by them they mean, among other things, marriages with Russians, are condemned here. Divorces are rarely recognized. Molokans who violate customs are usually called adulterers - in fact, this means expulsion from the community and refusal to perform rituals.

I ask if the youth is talking, if they are violating the foundations. Tatyana with a smile, not without pleasure, stretches - "didn't loosen up."

He adds that there are no strict prohibitions, for example, they can allow a glass on the weekend, “but they don’t get drunk.” “And on weekdays, there is no need. If you drink, you go to collect hay under this heat, and you will fall there,” the woman says.

Girls change the length of the dress depending on fashion trends, “one year the fashion is long, the other - short (knee-deep)”. Despite the fact that the Molokans do not wear trousers, the young from time to time put them on in the forest.

Mixed marriages also occur, mostly by Molokans who have emigrated to Russia. However, public censure bypasses them - few people come back. It is interesting that they still prefer not to sell houses in Fioletovo, no, no, and they will come to relax with their children.

So Nikolay today for the first time in five years returned with his family to Fioletovo. IN Krasnodar Territory, where he lives for about 30 years, there is one of the largest Molokan communities in Russia - the “Community of Spiritual Christian Molokans”. Every weekend, spiritual meetings are held at the local prayer house, which, according to the man, different time visited by about 300 people. Such meetings allow not only to observe rituals, but also to discuss the pressing problems of community members and, for example, to coordinate efforts to help fellow believers.

“They told us that the Molokan would have to undergo an operation, but he did not have enough money. Then we take off little by little, and it turns out that we have collected the amount. We stick together, I think the Armenians taught us this unity, they are our brotherly people,” says Nikolai, a short fair-faced man with small blue eyes and a medium length beard. He deftly switches from Russian to Armenian and says that he tries not to forget the latter.

“If the neighbors see a mass funeral, they say: either according to the Armenian, or according to the Molokan,” the man notes, and after a while he adds, “but I big difference I don’t see between us and the Russians, after all, we are Russians, Molokans – it’s more like a nickname.”

To Russia for work

Active migration of Molokans from Armenia occurred in the 90s: as a result of the Spitak earthquake in 1988 (the epicenter was the Lori region, which includes Molokan settlements), the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Karabakh war (1992-1994). Back in 1989, according to the census, about 52 thousand Molokans lived in Armenia, now their number is 5 thousand. As they say locals, the majority then emigrated to Russia (in particular, to the southern regions - Krasnodar, Stavropol, Rostov), ​​Australia and America (numerous communities in California).

Nikolai and Tatyana's sisters were also from the first wave of migration, the latter left after the Spitak earthquake and settled in Voronezh. Tatyana herself was often there, she drove to sell branded Molokan sauerkraut. He says he was not tempted to stay.

“It is easy to live with Armenians, we find mutual language. But it’s more difficult with Russians, you go to Russia, but they don’t seem to notice you, you’re not a person. Arrogant. And when you come back, you are already home,” the woman says.

In Soviet times and some period after the collapse of the USSR, Molokans actively supplied agricultural products and sauerkraut to other republics. Over time, customs conditions were tightened, and it became pointless to export them abroad. As for the domestic sales market, according to the Molokans, it is limited to the city of Vanadzor, where they have to adjust to the local low price policy - "give potatoes for 30-40 drams, which means for next to nothing."

A difficult situation has now developed in other sectors. After the massive closure of factories in Hrazdan (one of the industrial and energy centers of Armenia), factories in Vanadzor, the vast majority of young people resort to labor migration. All the same directions are relevant - Krasnodar, Saratov, Rostov and Sochi.

Regardless nationality, apply to Molokans general rules acquisition of Russian citizenship. Some of them, who settled in Russia, changed their Armenian citizenship to Russian, some retained dual citizenship, but most of- so the Russian one was not received.

Tatyana says that young guys often turn to the Russian embassy in Gyumri on this issue, but they always get a refusal. “If it turned out before the age of 18, then it’s good, after 18 it’s very difficult. Red tape - we need to get out of here, register there, but why do we need it, ”they say in the village.

Due to the reduction in the role of subsistence farming, internal labor migration is also actively developing, Molokans go to work in large cities - Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor.

In Armenia, there are several areas in which the work of the Molokans is especially valuable. First of all, this is a household, for neatness and conscientiousness, Molokan women are known as the best house cleaners. In Yerevan, apartment cleaning services are being opened, where only Russians are recruited.

Quite often their work is estimated above the rates established in the market.

Men in the city work as locksmiths, welders, roofers, drivers, machinists. Last year in Karabakh, in the village of Vazgenashen, a quarry was opened, and many young guys from Fioletovo got a job there as drivers for Kamaz trucks and dump trucks. They say in the village that Molokans are willingly hired for workaholism - “they will set a limit of five flights, and they will own initiative ten will do for the same pay.

"Someone seems to be less work, and someone is enough. I have enough, and I went to Russia, but always returned,” says Peter, a tall, slender young man with a clean-shaven face. He works as a driver at a quarry, today he has a day off, which he spends with his children. In the arms of a chubby blond boy. Nearby, on the veranda, two girls were attached, it seems, the weather (the Molokans, as a rule, have large families, for religious reasons they do not accept abortions).

I start talking about the foundations in Fioletovo, Peter notes that society has modernized a bit: they keep a beard at will, they can drink, although quite rarely, but the basic foundations have remained unshakable. “We do not believe in intermediaries, we do not worship icons . Be sure to visit the prayer house every Sunday. On this day strictly no one works, after the ceremony we go to visit each other. We marry only our own, we do not mix. So we are the real Russians,” the man says.

Automatically I look at the “real Russian girls”, whose large gray eyes look curiously at my father. After a while, they remember their game and begin to whisper, forgetting about our existence.

"And do you have kindergarten? I ask as I watch them.

"No, only one school"

"Russian?"

"Russian!"

The choice is to stay

“There used to be good teachers, now only Armenians teach, they come from Vanadzor,” Svetlana says after waiting for the rolling pins to subside a bit.

In her youth, she worked as a librarian and studied in absentia at the Odessa vocational school. Now there is no such position in Fioletovo, just as there is no library. The woman says that no one needs the latter anymore. However, at the same time it refutes the conventional wisdom about the general illiteracy of the Molokans. It is believed that children are not interested in getting an education above secondary school, since from an early age they are taught to work physically (on earth), and not intellectually.

But here, in the prayer house, in parallel with the active kneading of the dough, women with blushed faces from movement explain the opposite - “the guys are simply not visible, they leave to get higher education and do not return.” So the son of Svetlana first graduated from the bachelor's and master's programs in Yerevan state university, then graduate school in Moscow. He says if he finds a job in Armenia, he will stay, if not, he will return to Russia. Svetlana herself is not going to leave Fioletovo.

“We were born here, we got used to it, we live and live, those who had a desire have already left. Do ours spoil abroad? Who needs to be spoiled and are spoiled here, it is not the place that spoils the person, but the person the place, ”the woman says in a quiet, even voice.

At the exit from the prayer house, the taxi driver Ara Saroyan meets. “Well, what is your impression? He told, good people", - he says in a patter, smartly heading towards the car - "I remember the car stalled on the road from Dilijan, the only one who helped at two in the morning was a Molokan Misha, he remembered the name," Ara says good-naturedly.

“Look, like from an epic,” I interrupt, and with a camera I go to the old man who stopped the cart on the opposite side of the road. He is small in stature, with white hair and a long gray beard, in a loose shirt tied with a belt. With a concentrated, but at the same time animated expression on his face and cheerful bright eyes under shaggy eyebrows, he transfers stone materials from the cart to the ground.

At the sight of the camera, he turns away in embarrassment. I close the lens.

“And I saw you at the house of my sister Tatyana. Forgive me, we don’t like this business,” he says, pointing to the camera.

“I understand… Have you been to Tambov?” I ask after a pause.

“No, I was with my sisters in Voronezh”

“Probably called to stay”

“Zvaaali,” the old man draws out with a smile.

“But I feel good here, calmly,” the gray-haired Molokan says in a barely audible voice.

Now it seems to me that this was not the case. There cannot be such places, such people. In the 21st century, such a complete immersion somewhere in early XIX centuries. Here the camera is not only forbidden (and it is often forbidden), but it is not even appropriate. "It's awkward somehow," Sergey Maksimishin told me, "I'm not a paparazzi." Still - always with permission - he filmed. Probably, there are places even further into the depths of life - somewhere in Australia, in South America, but these are three hours away from Yerevan, in the mountains between Dilijan and Vanadzor, in the villages of Fioletovo and Lermontovo. And most importantly - in this Australia, after all, strangers. And these are theirs. My.

Mine are nowhere else. Russian Molokans in Armenia are the past of my family. I took with me a photograph of my great-grandfather Alexei Petrovich Semenov and his wife Maria Ivanovna, who lived in Armenia. He showed the Molokans, and they warmed up, even the gloomy violet presbyter Nikolai Ivanovich Sukovitsyn. Not warm enough, however, to take pictures. But he admitted to the meeting, saying: "Brothers and sisters, we have a guest, Peter, his mother from ours."

My mother really grew up in a Molokan family. Our ancestor, the Tambov landowner Ivinsky, was carried away by the ideas of the Molokans, dismissed the serfs, renounced property and went to the sect of Semyon Uklein, changing his surname to Semyonov in his honor. In the years 1830-1840, the Tambov Molokans moved to Armenia, just then occupied by Russia. There my great-grandfather lived in Yelenovka - now it is the city of Sevan near the lake of the same name. From there, his son, my grandfather Mikhail, went to Turkmenistan, where my mother was born and raised - but that's another story.

On reverse side Great-grandfather's photograph has the inscription: "In memory of relatives in Askhabad, August 8, 1894, Yelenovka. Taken on October 3, 1889." A lush-bearded great-grandfather with a valiant mustache - in a long Siberian frock coat, great-grandmother in a scarf and a white apron. Orderly.

The Molokans, who arose in Russia in the second half of the 18th century, were something like Orthodox Protestantism. Their self-designation is Spiritual Christians. The word "Molokans", which outsiders elevate to the fact that this sect consumes milk in fasting, is from the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter: "Like newborn babies, love pure verbal milk." They themselves - without intermediaries - churchmen - read and interpret the Scriptures. The community is headed by an elected presbyter. There are no priests, no church, no icons, no cross - as not divine, but human creations. The cross, moreover, is an instrument of the enemies of Christ. That is why the Molokans do not baptize themselves, and christenings are called "kstins". Baptism with water is denied - a reference to the words of John the Baptist: "I baptize you in water for repentance, but He who comes after me ... will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

The Molokans have several interpretations, subspecies, and now the movement is dominated by radical jumpers, who have greatly pressed the so-called permanent, more moderate ones. Jumpers - because "entering the spirit" (into prayerful ecstasy), they jump up, raising their hands, and pronounce something in an unknown language. I saw this at meetings in Fioletovo - more on that later.

Prosperity among the Molokans has always been considered a virtue, they are incredibly hardworking and conscientious, law-abiding and peaceful (in Fioletovo they remember only one murder: seven years ago, in a fight - there was never a deliberate one). Finally, they don't drink. Where else are there compactly living communities of Russian people who have not been drinking for three hundred years? My mother, who went through the front as a surgeon, managed to maintain an aversion to alcohol, which is why I suffered a lot in my youth.

Presbyter jumpers Nikolai Ivanovich - a smooth straight parting, deep-set attentive eyes - believes, however, that the current ones have become loose. "How are the youth? - Yes, not very much. They indulge. - Drink? - Yes, it happens. - And they walk? - No, even a drunk goes to his wife. - How do they get married? Parents agree? - No, parents only give consent, and so for love." Out of love, maybe out of love, but without the community, without the will of the presbyter, nothing serious is done here.

Without hierarchy, no organization is possible. The Molokans rejected the priests, the temple, the ecclesiastical structure - however, in return, a different, but also a structure was created. Even tougher, since in ordinary Orthodoxy power is distributed between different levels, here the very vertical that the Russian leadership dreams of is being built. Everything - family, work, community affairs - is done only with the approval of the presbyter. The village head of Fioletova, that is, the official head of the administration, Alexei Ilyich Novikov, in whose house we lived, calmly says: "I have about ten percent of the power, the rest is with Nikolai Ivanovich."

An instrument of pressure, a method of punishment - a refusal to perform a ceremony: marriage or kstin. In fact  - exclusion from the meeting. Alexey Ilyich once dared to divorce his wife. Divorces are not recognized here. As Novikov told us: "They make me a prostitute." He moved to the permanent, goes to meetings in Dilijan. His 33-year-old son Pasha is not married, we asked why, and in response we heard a story as if from some old books. Pasha had a five-year affair with local girl, but she was not given for the son of a "prostitute", she married another. And no one in the village will give out for Pasha.

In general, Molokan morals became recent decades harsher. It's clear: modern life with its accessible temptations, it threatens to blur, destroy the old way of life, and in order to survive, you need to isolate yourself even more. Here is a cultural conflict: the higher the level of civilization, the greater the likelihood of extinction; preservation of the unique human species associated with the tightening of one's own and the rejection of everything alien.

Once there was a club in Fioletovo, now the concrete cube with broken glass is empty. In the old days, young people went there to the movies and even to dances. Here he got married - that's all, it's over with nonsense. Now there is nowhere to go, and the rules are stricter. TVs are not kept. Only Novikov's "prostitute" provocatively sticks out over the roof satellite dish. His wife, Sarah Abramovna, a Mordovian Molokan woman (Old Testament names are in use), watches in the evenings, she likes something, not all of them: “I don’t like this one, Tolstaya from the School of Scandal, so important.”

You will almost never meet worldly reading. But on the table in every house of jumpers - certainly three open books. This does not mean that they are read daily, but they are in full readiness: the Old Testament, the New Testament and "Spirit and Life" - "Inspired Sayings of Maxim Gavrilovich Rudometkin, King of Spirits and Leader of the Zion People of Spiritual Christians Molokan Jumpers. Written by him in grave suffering of the monastic imprisonments in Solovetsky and Suzdal in the period 1858-1877.

Three books are interpreted symbolically: the Old Testament is the foundation of faith, the New Testament is the walls, Rudometkin is the roof. At the prayer meeting it is directly stated that Maxim Gavrilovich – component Trinity: "Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of our anointed and suffering."

Rudometkin's manuscripts, which he secretly handed over from imprisonment in the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, were taken by the Tolmachev family to Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century, baked into bread. In the port of Poti, during the inspection, they said that they were taking native bread to the States, customs officers were moved. These are the books they read. True, when we were visiting 71-year-old Pavel Ionovich Dyakonov, he suddenly opened the bottom drawers of the chest of drawers and showed us books - left over from children, now adults, living in other parts of the world. Normal colorful set: Dumas, Turgenev, Irasek, Ivanhoe, Tales of the Titans by Golosovker, The Catcher in the Rye, Montezuma's Daughter.

Today's children read only in class at school, never at home,” said Russian language and literature teacher Alla Rudometkina. She lives in Vanadzor, like most teachers, they are brought and taken away by minibus. In Fioletovo, with its population of 1,500 people - ten years. In the 9th and 10th grades - six people each, in the 8th - 28, but they will continue to study, the teachers explain, no more than ten. Now two have gathered in universities: one in Tambov, the other in Moscow. Nobody from Fioletov ever received higher education, although there are quotas for admission without exams. Now here is one young man studying in Tula, already in his second year - we'll see.

Teachers say that children come to school to relax: at home they do a lot of housework. When sowing or harvesting, they do not appear at all. Accordingly, the attitude to learning.

The expression on the children's faces is really carefree. Fair-haired and clear-eyed - here in Armenian mountains they seem to be aliens. So it historically is - they came, did not mix, did not disappear. Years will pass - these girls and boys will darken from the wind, sun and worries, like their mothers and fathers, but now Maximishin pushes me every minute, exclaiming: "Look at those faces!"

While he is arranging a photo session in the corridor, the director Valery Bogdanovich Mirzabekyan shows me the school. I ask for a little. He takes me out into the yard, we go to a solid concrete house. The director opens the door with a key and admires the effect produced: this has not been seen outside of Yerevan - not a soldier’s point that is familiar everywhere in the province, but toilet bowls, snow-white tiles, nickel-plated taps. The toilet was built by the Americans, and since there is no sewage system in Fioletovo, they also built an autonomous vacuum device. And since the people are unusual, especially the children, who immediately began to disassemble the brilliant details, the turnkey house is opened for VIPs.

The restroom was arranged by American charity organisations. Gas - that is, heat - they also brought to the school, before the students went to classes with logs under their arms. The Armenians donated a computer and allocated $100 prizes to several students. The Americans also created a medical center in the administration building. They are planting forest where it was cut down in the 1990s. And what about Russia?

Whoever you ask - and you don’t even need to ask, they themselves say vying with each other - this is the main insult: nothing from Russia. The Russian ambassador said, having visited the Molokan villages: "Russia  is not Milch cow". Everyone in Fioletovo remembers and quotes these words. And when they asked for help with the organization of preparatory classes, the consul replied: "Your children - you pay."

It is not entirely clear against the background of the declared concern for compatriots abroad. And what compatriots! Violetovo, entirely Russian (one and a half thousand - only eleven Armenians: they keep the only store that sells alcohol), and partly neighboring Lermontovo with a mixed population are genuine ethnographic reserves. Only not artificial, not museum, but alive. Any civilized country would send scientists here after scientists. The phenomenon of three hundred years of non-drinking alone is worth a close study.

And the language! Tanya, the daughter of Alexei Ilyich, is chatting with a friend who has looked in: “Have you clearly not seen it? - You have seen it. He is like that. - Why? (“You need to call” on a mobile phone - there is no ordinary telephone connection here.) “Help”, “knit”, “flow”, “puff up”, “in your thoughts”, “went to the meeting”. But suddenly - "my son-in-law is luxurious." Record and record.

It seems that only Irina Vladimirovna Dolzhenko from the Academic Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in Yerevan, the best expert on the Molokans, is doing this. She graciously agreed to go with us, which helped invaluably: the Molokans have known and respected her for a long time. Perhaps there is not so much time to be interested in the local way of life: how long the Molokans will hold out in their uniqueness is unknown. They are slowly leaving for Yerevan, where their diligence and honesty are valued. I saw an ad on the wall there: "Malakan brigade: repairs, cleaning of apartments, etc." At school, for sure, it didn’t matter. Young people go to work: most of all to Krasnodar and Stavropol Territory- there are so many Molokans that it is possible to live compactly among their own. They go to Tyumen, to Surgut, and to Eastern Siberia- usually six months. Here Tanya's husband went somewhere to the Amur. All this, as a rule, is temporary: those who leave for good will trample down the traces of their ancestors. But you can't go against the times - there are those who trample on.

And most importantly, the once prosperous Fioletovo Molokans are getting poorer before their eyes.

Reduced side income. Before they kept sheep, now there is nowhere to sell wool. Cows are kept for milk and meat, for themselves: according to the Old Testament, Molokans do not eat pork. Cattle are driven to graze in the mountains: round-trip 15-20 km per day. So cows are shod in Fioletovo! Horseshoes are cut out of steel sheet. I saw something similar in Iceland: steel shoes for cows - for the same reason for the mountainous terrain.

Previously, almost every house had Azerbaijani summer residents: here are high mountains, it is cool in summer. "Azerbaijanis loved to live here, they paid 80 rubles a month for a room," says Alexei Ilyich. After the Karabakh war, there is no question of this.

At the same time, more than 60 people in Fioletovo do not take pensions - because this is not earned money. They don't accept humanitarian aid either. In the neighborhood of Novikov's house, Vasily Fedorovich Shubin is plowing with a plow harnessed to a horse with his daughter Tatyana - he is just one of these. I say: "You've been paying taxes all your life, so you honestly earned a pension." He, without stopping plowing, replies: "I entrusted this to four daughters, I fed them, let them feed me now."

However, you can live without additional. everything is more difficult without the main thing - without cabbage. In any market in Armenia, they know what it is - molokani kopusta. Once known throughout the Soviet Union. Cabbage was supplied even to Primorye. Everyone had their own market area: Novikov, for example, always drove to Astrakhan. Now customs and border fees make trade meaningless. Previously, a family could make 25,000 rubles a year from cabbage.

Two experienced workers are able to chop (here they say - "cut") a ton a day. 700–800 kg of cabbage, 40 kg of carrots, and salt are placed in an oak or larch barrel. Large volume is very important. They press down with a 50-kilogram oppression. Two or three weeks later, it's ready.

For food, they are laid out in three-liter jars - "cylinders". Previously, they tried to add apples - but the taste is still not the same, only carrots are added. Extraordinarily delicious! The secret of Molokan cabbage is that it is sweet here.

Andrei Vasilyevich Korolev, young, with a long red beard, now and then meaningfully looking up, says: "The closer to Ararat, the better. Cognac, for example, here is cabbage."

Korolyov clearly settled down to me, switches to "you", which is unusual for Molokans, looks into the open collar of his shirt: "Well done for not wearing a cross, well done, they told me that you have a mother from ours." He hastily enlightens: "Have you ever heard of Leo Tolstoy? Well, Leo Tolstoy was the Tsar's viceroy, and he transferred Maxim Gavrilovich from Solovki to Suzdal. He wrote books, Tolstoy, you look, read."

In Fioletovo, even now, 5-6 thousand tons of cabbage are harvested annually. Only now 70 percent is lost. Sow, harvest, cut, stack, throw away. They offered to supply cabbage to parts Russian army in Armenia: which, it would seem, is more reasonable - but they were refused. As the ambassador said there: "Russia is not a cash cow."

Sad historical fate. The Molokans were persecuted from the very beginning in the 18th century, then in 1805 the liberal Alexander I signed a decree on the freedom of their religion, but already under Nicholas I the persecution began again. Resettlement to the Caucasus became a way out for everyone: the authorities replaced expensive military garrisons with settlements of hard-working sober Russian people, the church got rid of the sect that confuses the minds and souls, the Molokans found a home and freedom of faith.

Elenovka (Sevan), Nikitino (Fioletovo), Voskresenka (Lermontovo) appeared in Armenia. But the then governor of the Caucasus, Prince Vorontsov, was the last representative of the central government who patronized the Molokans. In 1857, the founder of the jumping movement, Maxim Gavrilovich Rudometkin, was arrested, who died in captivity in Suzdal. Now Molokans are not persecuted in Russia, but they obviously do not like them, and Russia does not need Armenian Molokans. So they live on their own.

They die on their own. A cemetery on a hill with a breathtaking view of both ridges between which Fioletovo lies - Lambaksky and Halabsky, with snowy peaks at a three-kilometer height. There are no crosses on the graves either - on the risers there are trapezoidal iron, less often wooden, boxes with doors, like postal boxes: you open it - there is an inscription: "Here rests ..."

Where my great-grandfather and grandfather are buried is unknown. In the 1930s, the level of Sevan began to be lowered, hydroelectric power stations were built, and the Russian village of Yelenovka was unrecognizably transformed into the Armenian city of Sevan - one cannot find where Aleksey Petrovich Semenov is buried. Moreover, his son Mikhail Alekseevich: grandfather was arrested in Ashgabat in the same 1930s, and it is not known in what places they were shot. However, among the Molokans it is not customary to visit the graves, it is not customary to take care of them  – died and died.

They also have their own calendar: they celebrate Easter, but Christmas is not celebrated. Old Testament Tabernacles and Judgment Day are celebrated. And so the holidays - every Saturday and Sunday: prayer meetings.

With the permission of presbyter Nikolai Ivanovich, I go to the prayer house - one-story, with three windows along the facade. In the passage there are benches and hooks for hats and outerwear. In the hall there is a table for the presbyter, assistant and patrons: this is the name of the closest circle of the presbyter (at the end of the meeting: "Patrons, stay"). Rows of shops, women separately. On the walls - embroidered towels with a triangle and the monogram DH: "spiritual Christians". All dressed festively, elegantly. Men: ironed trousers, a jacket, often a vest, a shirt with a thin waistband is a must. Women: white kerchief, sometimes with a branch pattern, long skirt with a tulle apron, most often with a lace frill.

Texts are read from the Gospel, then from Rudometkin. They sing not only psalms, but also songs - to familiar tunes that have been rushing from loudspeakers all over the country for years, only the words are different. Something half-forgotten dawns behind the refrain "Higher, higher raise the banner!" For a cheerful "Leave, Peter, fish, / Come with Me to pray to God." Behind the mysterious "Skrozydon, skrozydon, / We'll go through the speed, we'll go through the speed. / We will exhaust all the sufferers / And soon we will all go to Zion" (we will exhaust - what is it about? Or in the sense of "bring out"?). And here is from my childhood: "If you are ready to pray for sinners, / Know that your fate is happier than others - / For the old, the sick, who have forgotten about God ... / Get on your knees, you pray for them." Lord, this is "Rulate-rula", a Finnish song transcribed into Russian by Vladimir Voinovich, which was driven from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka in the 1960s: "A place is given to everything in life, / Evil coexists with good. / If the bride leaves for another , / It is not known who was lucky." Molokans, like other sectarians, always used ready-made melodies - first folk, then popular: convenient.

After the psalms, the presbyter speaks of sins, and the women, covered with handkerchiefs, weep aloud. Loud sobs, dry eyes.

During the singing, two men and one woman straighten up and at first lightly, then more strongly, bounce in place, smoothly moving their arms raised above their heads - like at rock concerts. That's it, "walking in the spirit." There are usually no more than five to ten percent of such "actors" in the assembly. Even rarer are "prophets" - these can switch to glossolalia, to angelic languages, they are able to foresee the future. There is only one unconditional Molokan prophet in Armenia now - the blind Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov in Sevan. In Fioletovo there is a prophet, but not for everyone - Vladimir Alekseevich Zadorkin, from the Maximists. I was also in their meeting. "Maximists" - on behalf of Maxim Rudometkin, but the name is apt: they are maximalists too, even more radical than jumpers.

The meeting ends in three hours. On the table under a towel - so that it was not visible who how much - they put money for community needs. Someone from the throne announces: "Mikhail Alexandrovich Tolmachev invites you to work." I mean today's kstins. Birthdays are not celebrated here. There is no name day: there are no saints. So what remains is marriage, commemoration ("commemoration") and kstiny.

We walk along Central Street (there are only two of them, the second - Pogrebnaya - leads towards the cemetery) to the house of the Tolmachevs - the very ones whose ancestors saved Rudometkin's manuscripts. Along the fence there are already 28 samovars and 15 cast-iron homemade noodles, which the day before Tolmachev's women rolled together with their neighbors.

In the large room, the family kneels before the presbyter, he stretches out his hand, names the child, and after the psalms and songs, everyone goes out into the street: the solemn part of the kstin has taken place, the meal is served in the house. On the way, I look into other rooms and see the same thing as in other Molokan houses: high beds with three or four pillows one on top of the other under a tulle bedspread. Multilayer bed: mattress, mattress with sheep wool, downy feather bed, blanket, carpet on top. You can’t live without such beds, but they sleep on others, these are for splendor.

About two hundred people are seated on benches at long tables. First, samovars, sweets, and cheese are brought in. Then the noodles are served in enameled bowls. We eat four or five out of one with wooden spoons. The change of dishes is monitored by the owner who does not sit down, who says in an undertone somewhere back: "We haven't finished it yet." But here: "They leveled up" - and they carry boiled meat, which is customary to eat with their hands. Towels were handed out to everyone - to wipe sweat after tea and hands after meat. At the end - compote.

We talk with the neighbors at the table. Arranging kstins and commemorations, they explain, is relatively cheap, almost all of their own. It's expensive to get married. There are seven feasts: magarych, matchmaking, visiting the bride, a chest, a chicken, a shirt, a wedding. If you maintain the level, it will cost a thousand and a half dollars, this is not counting the cost of a dowry. And there are no alcohol costs.

No, it still seems that there can be no such places, such people. In the 21st century, such a complete immersion somewhere in the beginning is unthinkable. 19th century. But there is. We saw.

And in general I am from there, surprisingly to myself. On some wonderful time machine I visited the peers of my great-grandfather.

The next day we leave Fioletovo, overtaking a truck in which the guys and girls go on a picnic on the occasion of Sunday. They wave affably, call with them, somewhere in the direction of Rotten Beam and Sour Water (in combination with the very name of the village of Fioletovo - a landscape; where, by the way, did the Baku commissar, Voronezh peasant Ivan Fioletov, have such a surname?). We would have moved into a truck, they have fun, and their faces are good, there are few such pure Russian faces left. Sorry - no time. There is a box of food and two samovars in the truck. In any other place, everything would be clear: in one samovar - vodka, in another - port wine. There is really tea here: it is not clear how they live.

Fioletovo and Lermontovo are Armenian villages in which communities of Molokans formed in the 19th century, declared sectarian and banned in Russian Empire. At the conference “Problems of Identity in the Context of World Experience”, Diana Karliner, the author of the Zapovednik, spoke with anthropologists of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Roman Starchenko and Pavel Serin, who conducted research this year in Molokan villages that have preserved the traditional way of life.

- What is your interest in the Molokans in Armenia connected with?

Paul: Initially, we wanted to study the behavior of the Russian-speaking inhabitants of Armenia, but it would be impossible to seek out informants scattered throughout the country due to its specifics: Armenia is a mono-ethnic republic, 98% of the population are Armenians. There are only a little over 12,000 Russians there, and about half of them are Molokans, who live compactly.

Novel: For the expedition, we chose the villages of Lermontovo and Fioletovo, where the Molokans, who moved in the 19th century, retained their traditional way of life. In Lermontovo - 85% of the Russian population, in Fioletovo - only one Armenian family, all other residents are Molokans of various assemblies. Moreover, our institute already carried out research in these villages 25 years ago and issued a number of publications about the Russian sectarians of Transcaucasia.

- Is it ethical to call Molokans sectarians?

Paul: They call themselves that - old Russian sects, spiritual Christianity. They do not recognize crosses and icons, they have a strict ban on the use of alcohol and tobacco. In their organization, in their perception of the Bible, they are similar to Protestants.

- What would you say about their identity? Molokans consider themselves Russian?

Novel: More often, the inhabitants of these villages do not share the concept of "Russian" and "Molokan". For many of them, "Molokan" means "Russian". These concepts exist in such a spike. At the same time, they separate themselves quite strictly from Russians living in Russia. At the same time, this does not prevent them from considering these villages as a corner of Russia in Armenia.

Many Molokans have visited Russia and are proud of themselves for maintaining traditions while living away from Russia. At the same time, Molokans are clearly aware that Armenia is a God-given, sacred land for them, which accepted them when they were not needed on the territory of the Russian Empire. At the same time, the perception of Russia as a homeland among the Molokans is preserved.

Paul: Imagine that from the first half of XIX centuries, seven generations have changed there - these are all people who were born and raised in Armenia. The Molokans are not newcomers there at all. They clearly realize that Armenia is their country.

Entrance to Fioletovo

Photo: Pavel Serin

“The Armenian language is not imposed on the Molokans”

How is the situation with the Armenian language? Do they speak it?

Paul: Most of the Molokans in these villages do not know the Armenian language, and in Soviet years did not know. Now the Armenian language is taught in schools, exams are taken in Armenian. At the local school, in Fioletovo, all education is in Russian. Until 2011, there were two Russian teachers there, now all the teachers there are Armenians, none of them live in these villages. Armenia has Russian-language classes, schools with in-depth study Russian, but such a completely Russian-speaking school is only in the Molokan village. At the same time, the leadership of the school strictly draws boundaries: the school is not Russian, education in it is not according to Russian standards, and it is subordinate to the Ministry of Education of Armenia. But the teachers themselves do not impose the Armenian language on the Molokans. Those who do not live in these villages, but in Yerevan and others major cities, they speak Armenian. Some learn Armenian at school or in the army. Many of the respondents, for example, said that when they apply to government agencies, they are immediately provided with an interpreter, and, in general, the Molokans do not feel a great need to learn the Armenian language.

- What is the reason for this linguistic behavior? Why is this happening?

Paul: One should not think that Great Russian chauvinism is manifested in this. The literature indicates that earlier the Molokans spoke the Azerbaijani language, which from the 19th century until the formation of the Republic of Armenia was actually the language of interethnic communication throughout the region. This is also explained by the fact that Azerbaijan language easier to learn than Armenian. It is also important to say that the Russian language is not infringed upon in Armenia - on the contrary, now there is an upsurge in its study. Communicating with Armenians in Russian, Molokans receive some benefits.

Language is not only the knowledge of words, it is etiquette, certain rules of conduct that must be accepted. When Molokans speak Russian, they admit that they remain in their own field and play by the rules of interethnic cooperation.

As an employee of the administration in Fioletovo said, since there are few Molokans in Armenia, the Armenian brothers “make a discount” and switch to Russian themselves. Molokans are well aware of Armenian customs, Armenians also know Molokans, while borders remain between them.

- Have you noticed in the speech of the Molokans words borrowed from Armenian? Or some feature of speech?

Paul: We did not conduct a dialectological study, I cannot say for sure. But some Molokans in Fioletovo have a slight Azeri rather than Armenian intonation. I have not heard this among the Armenians, but I have heard it among the Molokans - they speak with the pronunciation of "Azerbaijanis".

“Why do Molokans have such famous sauerkraut?”

How did the Molokans behave in a situation of conflict between Azerbaijanis and Armenians?

Novel: The Molokans did not take one or the other position. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the Molokans of Armenia and Azerbaijan were in economic relations.

Paul: Moreover, the Molokans of Transcaucasia found themselves between two fires. The Stavropol Molokans, who once moved from Azerbaijan, recall that in the 1920s, when the Azerbaijanis squeezed out the Armenians, they hid in the Molokan villages, and when the Armenians became stronger, they began to do the same with the Azerbaijanis. During the new conflict, there were cases when Molokans acted as mediators between Azerbaijanis and Armenians so that one of the parties could safely leave.

- Do Molokans not have a ban on serving in the army?

Paul: In the 19th century, when universal military service was introduced, Molokans believed that they could be guards, that is, not to kill, but to serve in auxiliary units. In the Soviet years, as you understand, it was impossible not to serve, and it was also an experience for acquiring a profession, obtaining passports. For Molokans, with the concept of military service, everything is quite usual. Previously, there was an unspoken agreement that Molokans were not sent to the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, especially to Karabakh. The son of one of our informants was sent to Karabakh, and he went to deal with it. His argument was understandable: “What if the son from the Armenian army is taken prisoner in Karabakh? He is Russian, do you understand what the international conflict will be like then? Up to the point that Russia supports one side and sends troops to Karabakh.” So the guy was saved.

Novel: Many even aspire to join the army, in which young people are socialized, and there they learn Armenian. As a rule, Molokans prove to be good workers. It is believed that a Molokan is able-bodied and will do quality work.

- Why do you think such an opinion about the Molokans was formed?

Pavel: In the Caucasus, they believe that believers will do it honestly, they will not deceive, as agreed, it will be so. Why do Molokans have such a famous sauerkraut? Because they make it with high quality, without impurities, do not weigh it down.

Molokans are proud of such an attitude to work, but I would not say that they somehow stick it out. But the Armenians often said that the Molokans, for example, are good builders. “The Molokans built my house” sounds like a sign of quality. It's a paradox: in Russia, it is believed that Armenians are good builders, but there it is the other way around.

- Who do Molokans work? Do you know Molokans who hold an influential position in Armenia?

Novel: Molokans are peasants, workers. They do not aspire to high positions. The intelligentsia left in different waves of migration. Many families are engaged in animal husbandry, live on the sale of milk. Of course, some complain that milk is cheaper than soda, but nevertheless it is now more profitable than selling sauerkraut.

Paul: You can hear the phrase from the Molokans: "We transported this cabbage throughout the Union." And it's true, in the Soviet years their business prospered. The same Molokans from Fioletovo could accumulate significant capital and live much better compared to the Armenians of nearby villages. But now everything has changed, because the Union collapsed, economic ties were cut off, plus there was also a conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In general, it became unprofitable to sell vegetable products, and many switched to cattle breeding. In addition, cabbage is a seasonal product, and milk is real money every day.

Lermontovo

Photo: Roman Starchenko

Novel: We spent a day on a roam with the head of the local administration. Alexei Ilyich Novikov is such a man Soviet type from films about an honest and strong chairman. He combines work in administration with animal husbandry. Molokan cows graze in alpine meadows. In the spring, when the snow melts, they drive the cows to the mountains, and some family members stay there for half a year.

“Selling land to Armenians is “losing land””

- And how do communities perceive the move to big cities, for example, because of work? Is it a tragedy?

Novel: No, this is not a tragedy, many have already left. They do not move on their own, they usually go where there are communities. Molokans live in the Krasnodar Territory, in the Stavropol Territory, in Rostov region. Some of them went to America and Australia. Molokans have a clear rule: one day a week must be devoted to attending a meeting (religious service. - Note. ed.), give the day to God. One presbyter told us: "If the family does not support the community, then the community does not support it." If a person does not go to meetings, then the meeting may not see him off on his last journey or refuse to conduct a marriage ceremony for him. These rules are not written anywhere, but Molokans for the most part follow them.

- What happens to those houses in the villages where the Molokans once lived and then moved?

Novel: Nobody lives in them. However, these houses are not sold to Armenians. The head of the administration, Alexei Ilyich Novikov, told us that they were ready to sell houses only to Russians.

- Why?

Paul: Residents of Fioletovo and Lermontovo are related to varying degrees. So that the family leaves and there are no relatives left in the family who can look after the house - this simply does not happen. The same practice exists in the Russian villages of Russia, when the elderly are taken to the city, and the land, the garden is given to the neighbors in exchange for the fact that they will look after the house. Since many of them are relatives in the villages, they do not want to “sell houses to strangers”. They say they would sell to the Russians, but the Russians don't buy there, because these villages are not in the sunny part of Armenia, not in the Ararat valley - there is a difficult climate, not a resort at all. Besides, people live agriculture, and sell land to Armenians - this is called "losing land."

Violetovo
- They do not conflict with each other?

Paul: No, there are no conflicts. Now there is no such problem, but earlier Molokans could live together with subbotniks, although this is a completely different direction. The Subbotniks do not have a ban on wine, they allow divorce with difficulty, while the Molokans completely deny it. Nevertheless, there were mixed marriages - the wife passed into the assembly of her husband. Now Molokans can move from congregation to congregation relatively calmly, it depends on the situation in the family and in the congregation itself. Maximists, however, may not agree to the marriage of a daughter with a man from another congregation. But this is also not defined, there is such love - she wanted and left. Of course, if this is the daughter of a chorister or presbyter, that is, a respected person with a certain morality, with social capital, this is a blow for him, contacts between families may be interrupted. But it is always decided personally. It is important to emphasize that Molokans are ordinary living people. None of them are "backward" or "canned". Yes, they have their own habits, their own views, a certain way of life, but they ordinary people in which a lot depends on the relationship.
For Molokans, photography is a sin, and no one wants to be like in a zoo. They live there, the economy is there, the children grow up, and tourists unceremoniously invade personal space. Of course it offends them.

Paul: There are formal prohibitions, and they are not always limited to these two villages. It is rare to find a TV in Molokan homes, because it is a devilish incarnation, while everyone has Cell phones with internet. But recently, at the "Artdocfest" they showed the film "Molokanka" - a very beautiful, well-made film, honest. One of the heroes is the head of the All-Russian Union of Molokans, a presbyter. How did I find out about the film? From the group of Molokans "VKontakte"! And his granddaughters came to the hall. Again, he didn’t have a TV, but he had a phone, and his children are developing a site about Molokans, they want people to know about them. And there they allowed themselves to be filmed, I think, because there is a large community in the Stavropol Territory, they felt at ease.

In Armenia, the Molokans have another problem, which is connected with the state of the republic. There is no one to sell milk, cabbage - there is quite a large labor migration from Armenia, many Armenians left. We were told about Molokans who work at the airport and see queues of Armenians striving to take off - and so they have such a joke: “Armenians, what have we done to you? Why are you flying away?! Stay!” They themselves have grown into these mountains, they have a lot to do with these mountains, they cling to that land.

The famous Russian writer Narine ABGARYAN commented on her Facebook page
and gave a link to an article from the GEO magazine about Molokans living in Armenia
“Molokans. I live for a century, I wonder for a century how it can be that in Russia they don’t know about them. But they don't know.

The most wonderful, most worthy people. Royal Russia lost a lot, having evicted them at one time to the outskirts of the empire. Part of my past, part of my soul, part of my Armenia. Molokans,” wrote N. Abgaryan. And we “followed” the link...
The author of the article, Peter Vail, did not come to Armenia by chance - his mother was from the Armenian Molokans. Bribed the inscription under one of the pictures taken talented photographer Sergey Maksimishin: “The fair-haired and blue-eyed children from the community of Russian Molokans seem like aliens in the Armenian mountains. So it is: the Molokans came here in the 1840s. They never mixed with the local population.”
... In what year Vail visited the Molokan villages of Armenia is unknown, so perhaps some of the people he mentions in the article, including representatives of the “hierarchy”, left their homes or even this mortal world, in the history of which Molokans will always remain a kind of “white spot”, unknown and completely unsolved.

“Where else are there compactly living communities
Russian people who have not been drinking for three hundred years?”

Now it seems to me that this was not the case. There cannot be such places, such people. In the 21st century, such a complete immersion somewhere in the beginning of the 19th century is unthinkable. Here the camera is not only forbidden (and it is often forbidden), but it is not even appropriate. “It’s awkward somehow,” Sergei Maksimishin told me, “I’m not a paparazzi.” Still - always with permission - he filmed. Probably there are places even further into the depths of life - somewhere in Australia, in South America, but these are three hours away from Yerevan, in the mountains between Dilijan and Vanadzor, in the villages of Fioletovo and Lermontovo. And most importantly - in this Australia, after all, strangers. And these are theirs. My.
Mine are nowhere else. Russian Molokans in Armenia are the past of my family. I took with me a photograph of my great-grandfather Alexei Petrovich Semenov and his wife Maria Ivanovna, who lived in Armenia. He showed the Molokans, and they warmed up, even the gloomy violet presbyter Nikolai Ivanovich Sukovitsyn. Not warm enough, however, to take pictures. But he admitted to the meeting, saying: "Brothers and sisters, we have a guest, Peter, his mother from ours."
My mother really grew up in a Molokan family. Our ancestor, the Tambov landowner Ivinsky, was carried away by the ideas of the Molokans, dismissed the serfs, renounced property and went to the sect of Semyon Uklein, changing his surname to Semyonov in his honor. In the years 1830-1840, the Tambov Molokans moved to Armenia, just then occupied by Russia. There my great-grandfather lived in Yelenovka - now it is the city of Sevan near the lake of the same name. From there, his son, my grandfather Mikhail, went to Turkmenistan, where my mother was born and raised - but that's another story.
On the reverse side of the great-grandfather's photo there is an inscription: “In memory of relatives in Askhabad, August 8, 1894, Yelenovka. Taken October 3, 1889.” A magnificently bearded great-grandfather with a valiant mustache - in a long Siberian frock coat, great-grandmother in a scarf and a white apron. Orderly.
The Molokans, who arose in Russia in the second half of the 18th century, were something like Orthodox Protestantism. Their self-designation is Spiritual Christians. The word "Molokans", which outsiders elevate to the fact that this sect consumes milk in fasting, is from the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter: "Like newborn babies, love pure verbal milk." They themselves - without intermediaries-churchmen - read and interpret the Scriptures. The community is headed by an elected presbyter. There are no priests, no church, no icons, no cross - as not divine, but human creations. The cross, moreover, is an instrument of the enemies of Christ. That is why the Molokans do not baptize themselves, and christenings are called “kstins”. Baptism with water is denied - a reference to the words of John the Baptist: "I baptize you in water for repentance, but the One who comes after me ... will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
The Molokans have several interpretations, subspecies, and now the movement is dominated by radical jumpers, who have greatly pressed the so-called permanent, more moderate ones. Jumpers - because "entering the spirit" (into prayerful ecstasy), they jump up, raising their hands, and pronounce something in an unknown language. I saw this at meetings in Fioletovo - more on that later.
Prosperity among the Molokans has always been considered a virtue, they are incredibly hardworking and conscientious, law-abiding and peaceful (in Fioletovo they remember only one murder, and even then in a fight - it was never intentional). Finally, they don't drink. Where else are there compactly living communities of Russian people who have not been drinking for three hundred years? My mother, who went through the front as a surgeon, managed to maintain an aversion to alcohol, which is why I suffered a lot in my youth.
Nikolai Ivanovich, presbyter of jumpers - a smooth straight parting, deep-set attentive eyes - believes, however, that the current ones have become loose. “How are the youth? - But not very. They indulge. - Are they drinking? - Yes, sometimes. - Do they walk? - No, even a drunk goes to his wife. - How do they get married? Parents agree? - No, parents only give consent, and so out of love. Out of love, maybe out of love, but without the community, without the will of the presbyter, nothing serious is done here.
Without hierarchy, no organization is possible. The Molokans rejected the priests, the temple, the ecclesiastical structure - however, another structure was created instead, but also one. Even tougher, since in ordinary Orthodoxy power is distributed between different levels, here the very vertical that the Russian leadership dreams of is being built. Everything - family, work, community affairs - is done only with the approval of the presbyter. The village head of Fioletovo, that is, the official head of the administration, Alexei Ilyich Novikov, in whose house we lived, calmly says: “I have about ten percent of the power, the rest is with Nikolai Ivanovich.”
An instrument of pressure, a method of punishment - a refusal to perform a ceremony: marriage or kstin. In fact, exclusion from the meeting. Alexey Ilyich once dared to divorce his wife. Divorces are not recognized here. As Novikov told us: "They make me a prostitute." He moved to the permanent, goes to meetings in Dilijan. His 33-year-old son Pasha is not married, we asked why, and in response we heard a story as if from some old books. Pasha had a five-year affair with a local girl, but she was not married to the son of an “adulter”, she married another. And no one in the village will give out for Pasha.
In general, Molokan morals have become more severe over the past decades. This is understandable: modern life, with its accessible temptations, threatens to blur, destroy the old way of life, and in order to survive, you need to isolate yourself even more. Here is a cultural conflict: the higher the level of civilization, the greater the likelihood of extinction; the preservation of the unique human species is connected with the toughening of one's own and the rejection of everything alien.
Once there was a club in Fioletovo, now the concrete cube with broken glass is empty. In the old days, young people went there to the movies and even to dances. Here he got married - that's all, it's over with nonsense. Now there is nowhere to go, and the rules are stricter. TVs are not kept. Only at Novikov's "prostitute" a satellite dish defiantly sticks out above the roof. You will almost never meet worldly reading. But on the table in every jumpers' house there are certainly three open books. This does not mean that they are read daily, but they are in full readiness: the Old Testament, the New Testament and “Spirit and Life” - “Inspired Sayings of Maxim Gavrilovich Rudometkin, King of Spirits and Leader of the Zion People of Spiritual Christians Molokan Jumpers. Written by him in the grievous suffering of the monastic confinement in Solovetsky and Suzdal in the period 1858-1877.
Three books are interpreted symbolically: the Old Testament is the foundation of faith, the New Testament is the walls, Rudometkin is the roof. At the prayer meeting, it is directly stated that Maxim Gavrilovich is an integral part of the Trinity: "Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of our anointed and suffering."
Rudometkin's manuscripts, which he secretly handed over from imprisonment in the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, were taken by the Tolmachev family to Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century, baked into bread. In the port of Poti, during the inspection, they said that they were taking native bread to the States, customs officers were moved. These are the books they read. True, when we were visiting 71-year-old Pavel Ionovich Dyakonov, he suddenly opened the bottom drawers of the chest of drawers and showed us books left over from children, now adults, living in other parts of the world. Normal motley set: Dumas, Turgenev, Irasek, "Ivanhoe", "Tales of the Titans" by Golosovker, "The Catcher in the Rye", "The Daughter of Montezuma".
Today's children read only in class at school, never at home, said Alla Vasilievna Rudometkina, a teacher of Russian language and literature. She lives in Vanadzor, like most teachers - they are brought and taken away by minibus. In Fioletovo, with its population of 1,500 people, a ten-year period. In the 9th and 10th grades - six people each, in the 8th - 28, but they will continue to study, the teachers explain, no more than ten.
Teachers say that children come to school to relax: at home they do a lot of housework. When sowing or harvesting, they do not appear at all. Accordingly, the attitude to learning.

They came, did not mix, did not disappear

The expression on the children's faces is really carefree. Fair-haired and bright-eyed - here, in the Armenian mountains, they seem to be aliens. So it historically is - they came, did not mix, did not disappear. Years will pass - these girls and boys will darken from the wind, sun and worries, like their mothers and fathers, but now Maksimishin pushes me every minute, exclaiming: “Look at those faces!”
While he is arranging a photo session in the corridor, the director Valery Bogdanovich Mirzabekyan shows me the school. I ask for a little. He takes me out into the yard, we go to a solid concrete house. The director opens the door with a key and admires the effect produced: this has not been seen outside of Yerevan - not a soldier’s point that is familiar everywhere in the province, but toilet bowls, snow-white tiles, nickel-plated taps. The toilet was built by the Americans, and since there is no sewage system in Fioletovo, they also built an autonomous vacuum device. And since the people are unusual, especially the children, who immediately began to disassemble the brilliant details, the turnkey house is opened for VIPs.
The restroom was arranged by American charitable organizations. Gas - that is, heat - they also brought to the school, before the students went to classes with logs under their arms. The Armenians donated a computer and allocated $100 prizes to several students. The Americans also created a medical center in the administration building. They are planting forest where it was cut down in the 1990s. And what about Russia?
Whoever you ask - and you don’t need to ask, they themselves say vying with each other - this is the main insult: nothing from Russia. Many years ago Russian ambassador(name not indicated. - Ed.) said, visiting the Molokan villages: "Russia is not a cash cow." Everyone in Violetovo remembers and quotes these words. And when asked to help with the organization of preparatory classes, the consul replied: "Your children - you pay."
It is not entirely clear against the background of the declared concern for compatriots abroad. And what compatriots! Fioletovo is entirely Russian (one and a half thousand - only eleven Armenians: they keep the only store that sells alcohol), and partly neighboring Lermontovo with a mixed population are genuine ethnographic reserves. Only not artificial, not museum, but alive. Any civilized country would send scientists here after scientists. The phenomenon of three hundred years of non-drinking alone is worth a close study.
And the language! Tanya, the daughter of Alexei Ilyich, is chatting with a friend who has looked in: “You have clearly not seen - You have seen. Pyachalny such. - For what? - I don't know. Noisy pit, it's nothing. - Well, you call me, you will know the FAQ. (“You need to call” on a mobile phone - there is no ordinary telephone connection here.) “Help”, “knit”, “flow”, “puff up”, “in your thoughts”, “went to the meeting”. But suddenly - "my son-in-law is luxurious." Record and record.
It seems that only Irina Vladimirovna Dolzhenko from the Academic Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in Yerevan, the best expert on the Molokans, is doing this. She graciously agreed to go with us, which helped invaluably: the Molokans have known and respected her for a long time. Perhaps there is not so much time to be interested in the local way of life: how long the Molokans will hold out in their uniqueness is unknown. They are slowly leaving for Yerevan, where their diligence and honesty are valued. I saw an ad on the wall there: “Malakan brigade: repairs, cleaning of apartments, etc.”. At school, for sure, it didn’t matter. Young people go to work: most of all to the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories - there are so many Molokans that it is possible to live compactly among their own. They also go to Tyumen, Surgut, and Eastern Siberia. All this, as a rule, is temporary: those who leave for good will “tread down the traces of their ancestors”. But you can't go against the times - there are those who trample on.
And most importantly, the once prosperous Fioletovo Molokans are getting poorer before their eyes.

Ending in the next issue.