Though Muranaka astutely titled this booklet "Spirit Jumpers," she was misinformed, like all journalists and scholars before her, by the false label "Molokan"
extensively used in all of her English citations, and by misinformed informants. Corrections are added here in red some 25 years after publication of the booklet, in 2016. Similar errors occur in the references below and her thesis: Muranaka, Therese Adams. "TheIn 1995, Muranaka's work inspired
George Mohoff, who grew and married up in the Guadalupe Valley, and moved to Los Angeles, to publish the most extensive resident-written book about the Spiritual Christians from Russia in Mexico: The Russian Colony of Guadalupe Molokans in Mexico, with many similar errors and omissions.In ancient times, it is shown in the Old and New Testaments the movements of people from one land to another like Abraham, Izaac, Jacob, Moses and others and of their worthy trials and tribulations before God
[Shubin 1963:2].Tanya Shubin
[right]watched out the window as the train coursed on and on through the tropical jungle and oppressive heat. For a young girl from the mountainous lands of Armenia, the tropics of Panama with its strange birds and mammals were intriguing and unusual and hinted of the strange lands she and her family of
Spiritual Christianpeasants
from Russiawould see as they made their way to freedom. Carrying only a small satchel of the plain clothing she wore as a
Prygunor Spirit
ual ChristianJumper,
she pondered the events which had led to this flight of her family and the other
Spiritual Christiansto the New World and wondered where the Spirit would lead them next.
Before large numbers of Spiritual Christians began to arrived in Los Angeles, international news reported 200,000 were on their way; equal to the population of the County, and twice the city population at the time. About 1% of that number actually arrived, but nobody would know that for 5-10 years. This news alerted officials to divert them as quickly as possible away from the city.
Attorney and investor Donald Barker, and others, were heavily invested in Baja California, which they expected to be annexed to the U.S. Barker was probably contacted by educated Russians, Demens and de Blumenthals organized to
advise and divert the immigrants. As the first waves were arriving in January 1905, some were escorted to Mexico by summer, particularly those led by P.M. Shubin, who also inspected with others much of the US and Mexico as a prospective colonizing client of several railroads. Several families stayed in Guadalupe Valley probably to test the area for living, then others came. Some immigrated via Panama, then Mexico, and were not allowed into the U.S..For other Spiritual Christian faiths who rejected living with those congregations bound for Mexico, Demens arranged for hundreds
to move to Hawaii in 1906. 110 went but returned within 6 months. Though Shubin scouted Hawaii, he never returned but scouted Texas and other locations.In Los Angeles,
Barker appears to have acted as a broker-agent who got a loan from a Los Angeles bank to buy public land from Mexico ($2/acre), to buy supplies requested by colonists (add 85% to the loan), to build one of the 3 flour mills in Ensenada, and arranged for each colonist to pay for his land and share of communal supplies with wheat delivered to the mill. Each colonist appears to have paid earnest money at $50 per share to secure a membership in the commune. The rest of the loan was payable in wheat, or cash, as the member was able. All accounting was done at the Barker mill in Ensenada, which was one of 3 flour mills in the city. The loan was paid in the 1930s.These people were known as Pryguny (Pry-gun-ny) Molokans (mah-la-kanz) and on the advice of A.P. Demens the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (Young 1932:12, Dunn 1970:307, Tolstoy 1933:351-354), they had come family by family to the New World from the vicinity of Kars, now in modern-day Turkey (Figure 2). As with many immigrant groups, they came to the Americas with a purpose. They were members of a Christian religious group who believed in peace, the Bible, and a simple way of life. In their efforts to evade the Imperial Russian government's intrusions into their private ways (M. Rogoff 1983, Conybeare 1962:293- 294), families fled through the Ukraine to Bremen or Hamburg and from there to Ellis Island, Galveston, or across the Isthmus of Panama by train (since the canal was not opened until 1914). Other Spiritual Christians Some Molokans came to the United States by way of Harbin in China; some came after a hiatus in Argentina, Chile, and other Latin American countries (Lisizin 1984:11).
No elaborate meeting hall church existed in the village but a simple building without icons or statues served as a place of meetings and worship. A new meeting hall church was built as late as 1955 to 1957 (Story 1960-60 127) Services at this sobranie or meeting [assembly/ meeting hall] consisted of spiritual verses and songs through which the presence of the Holy Spirit was felt. Because of the fervor of the meetings, the people were known as the "Spirit Jumpers." Pacifism, sobriety and social conscience were stressed. "It is against our religion for one man to consider himself better in any way than his fellows. We are all equal before God. The only superiority one man holds over another is in his years of experience and spiritual wisdom" (an elder quoted in Young 1928:546).
In keeping with Prygun Molokan views, clothing was simple to make. The men wore the Russian-style shirt with a rope belt [kosovorotka], long baggy pants, and boots. The women wore long skirts and over-blouses. On special occasions, a hand-made lace shawl known as kosinka ["triangle", photo right] was worn over the head and tied behind the neck (Figure 6), cut like a lace bashlik. Under the kosinka, a married woman wore her hair bound at the neck in a snood [chepchik] tied with ribbons. No jewelry or ornament without function was allowed.
As dictated by the religion, all harvests were held together and the food was stockpiled and distributed by elected elders. Everything was produced on the individual homestead with the exception of coffee, sugar, salt, and rice, which were purchased in Ensenada or San Diego (M. Rogoff 1983). Daily food was plainly prepared and featured a Russian meat soup [vegetable] or borshch, lapsha or noodles, and loaves of wheat bread from outdoor ovens. The Pryguny Molokans practiced bee-keeping and kept flocks of geese (Figure 7). In general, dietary patterns followed kosher rules from Leviticus 23, with prohibitions on alcohol, shellfish, animals without cloven hooves [Deuteronomy 14:8], and pigs ("The pig does not look to the sky"*). In later years, goats or sheep were considered food for guests, along with the garden's regular fare of pickled cabbage, cucumbers, olives, onions, pumpkins, and melons (Post and Lutz 1976:144, Story 1960:31).
* Original quote from: The Works of the Emperor Julian, Volume 1, by Julian (Emperor of Rome), translated by W. C. Wright, 1913, page 495. Written in 300s. Julian the Apostate was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363, not Jewish and mostly vegetarian.Pryguny, the name for these settlers, comes from the characteristic jumping of a few anointed members, who often raise both hands during meetings, indicating contact with the Holy Spirit, which typically starts abruptly, sometimes with a shout and stomp, then continuing with body swaying, foot stomping, and hopping, skipping and/or leaping, sometimes from their standing position moving toward others for conformation of the Spirit and around the room. Their jumping is somewhat similar to Pentecostalism. Each Prygun congregation has at least one prophet(ess) and anyone may feel the Holy Spirit and jump at any time, which distinguished their form of Spiritual Christianity in Russia. After settlement in Mexico, these Pryguny did not participate in the "Azusa Street Revival" like some of the varieties of Spiritual Christians who remained in Los Angeles. When the new holy book, Kniga solntse dukh i zhin' (Book of the Sun, Spirit and Life) was finalized in 1928, it was not placed on their altar table in Mexico, as it was in Los Angeles, therefore the congregation in Mexico did not convert to a Dukh-i-zhiniki faith. When most Pryguny in Mexico moved to the U.S., if they wished to fellowship with the Americanized Spiritual Christians, they had to join Dukh-i-zhiznik congregations and accept the new book and rituals. No Mexico Prygun families moved to northern California and joined Molokane. Because much of their services are similar in Russian with Dukh-i-zhizniki, many fluent in Russian could participate in the U.S. Dukh-i-zhiznik congregations while privately not entirely embracing these new religions, else they could attend if they followed the rituals without speaking.
Molokan, the name for these settlers, is similar to the Russian word for "milk" (moloko). Although scholars of Russian sectarianism such as Klibanov (1982:107-109) leave no doubt as to the Milky River (Molochnye Vody) origins of the Doukhobors, from whom the Molokans evolved, most doubt any real connection between Molochnye Vody and the Molokan name (Dunn and Dunn 1978:352). A more likely explanation is that the name "Molokan" comes from the practice of drinking milk during the Russian Orthodox fast seasons such as Lent, during which the Orthodox were restricted from milk and milk products (Lane 1978:100, Shubin 1963:10, Struve 1967:228). In the early years of the sect's persecution in Russia, milk and milk products were also the only foods which Molokan conscientious objectors, imprisoned for their beliefs, could trust had not been contaminated as defined by kosher law (J. J. Samarin 1988). The explanation most commonly given in Guadalupe today is that the name comes from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 3 Verse 2 about Christians drinking "spiritual milk."
To understand who the Pryguny Molokans are and why they fled Imperial Russia, one must look to the origins of Orthodox Christianity. In A.D. 1054, Latin Catholicism and Greek Catholicism (later known as Orthodoxy) officially split under the leadership of Michael Cerularius. In 1654 Russian Orthodoxy (the Third Rome) was divided again by the backlash of protests over changes in ritual made by the Patriarch Nikon. The protesters were known as the "Old Believers" [staroobryadsty : Old Ritualists] and from the Orthodox point of view were dangerous schismatics or raskolniki. "Orthodox peasants were wont to say that among the Rascolniks 'every moujik (peasant man) formed a sect, and every baba (peasant woman) a persuasion'" (Stepniak 1888:266).
Splintering, rejoining and splintering again, raskolniki such as the Old Believers were divided in two categories: popovtsy (those with priests) and bespopovtsy (those without priests) (Fadner 1967:755). Molokans are a priestless sect which first appeared in the historical record about 1765 after a split with the Doukhobors, a group now famous in Western Canada (Kolarz 1961:349, Stepniak 1888:266, Struve 1967:228). Part of the "Spiritual Christian" movement, their founder was a Russian tailor named Simion Uklein whose doctrine (written in a book called "The Ritual") included the following: no priests, no formal church organization, no status differences, and an opposition to material progress (Young 1932:83-84). Bratsvo or "brotherhood" and obshchestvo or economic "community" were central ideas. Unlike the Doukhobors, however, who were almost solely peasants, the Molokan drew early converts from townspeople (meshchanye), merchants and industrialists (Lane 1978:100). Pacifism, reason and self-perfection through work were highly valued (Lane 1978:102). The Molokans have been characterized overall as a Utopian type of sect which seeks, from a distance removed from the surrounding society, to reconstruct the world in a better way (cf. Wilson 1970:47). Sociologically speaking, Molokans fit the definition of a sect in that their behavior as a group contrasts with that of the outside world, they consider themselves as divinely inspired or chosen, they set themselves apart by their clothing and speech, and they have a codified body of laws considered sacred (Young 1932:56-57). [Young only documented Pryguny as they transformed to Dukh-i-zhizniki.]
Under Uklein's leadership, the sect spread from Tambov to Voronezh, to the Cossacks on the Don River, to Saratov, and from there to the Caucasus with Isaiah Ivanov Krylov and across the Volga River with Peter Dementev. Further expansion was noted in Vladimir, and to the area of Ryazan under a follower named Moses the Dalmatian (Conybeare 1962:291).
Doctrinal divisions existed among the many Spiritual Christian faiths soon arose in the Molokan sect (Young 1932:71), giving rise to the Subbotniki or "Sabbatarians" (who followed Jewish Talmudic law more closely), the "Evangelical Christians" of the Don River (who eventually allowed themselves to be drafted), the "Communists" (who made various efforts at total equality through a sharing of personal property), the original Molokane called Postoyanye original or "Steadfast" by Pryguny (because they who did not "jump" in ecstasy at religious meetings), and the Pryguny or "Spirit Jumpers" (some of whom are called Maksimisty followers of after Maxim Rudometkin) (Lane 1978:102). Many who came to the U.S. were followers of Klubnikin, along with Zionists, New Israelites, Baptists, God's People, etc.
The practice of jumping and prophesy varies extensively among congregations. At least
one person may stomp his/her foot, standing in place with hands raised, for a short time at the height of singing, sometimes uttering a prophesy. In very charismatic congregations, now only among Dukh-i-zhizniki, everyone, including children, must jump to exhaustion with prophesy.Religious persecution started each time the displaced Spiritual Christian Molokan settlement grew prosperous or (with the exception of the Evangelical Christians) the Imperial Russian government demanded conscripts, which the Spiritual Christians Molokans refused (M. Rogoff 1983). At these times, severe laws against the Spiritual Christians Molokans were enacted (Conybeare 1962:293-294). Responding to these new problems and to the urgings of the famous Russian writer and pacifist Leo Tolstoy for the Dukhobortsy who burned guns in 1895, were arrested and exiled, the Society of Friends, London, organized a mass migration of 7,411 mostly followers of P.V. Verigin (1/3 of all Dukhobortsy) to central Canada. Five year later, other Spiritual Christians Molokans began a disorganized flight from Russia, family by family, between 1904 and 1906 (Dunn 1970:307, Tolstoy 1933). About 1% of all Spiritual Christians left Russia for North America from 1899 to 1930, and some returned.
Fleeing in all directions, perhaps 3,500 people from many Spiritual Christian groups migrated to the United States (Samarin 1982:753), departing by way of Hamburg or Bremen and entering at Ellis Island or Galveston, or via the Isthmus of Panama. Most of the non-dukhoborsty Molokans accepted the advice of P.A. Demens who directed them to Los Angeles, found their way to California beginning in January 1905 1904, following leaders Phillip M. Shubin (Frontispiece) and Ivan G. Samarin, who had come ahead in 1900 to scout for land after visiting the Doukhobors of Canada and working their way down to San Francisco and Los Angeles (Shubin 1963:26) to meet P.A. Demens. Spiritual Christian Molokan families settled in the aforementioned suburbs of Los Angeles (Moore 1973:21-22), but the heart of their settlement was in the Vignes and First Streets section [Bethlehem], where a meeting hall at the Stimson-Lafayette Industrial School church and cooperative grocery store were located. Spiritual Christian surnames Molokan businesses were identifiable by names ending in -in, -off or -eff suffixes.
In the 1920s, when Spiritual Christians moved east across the Los Angeles River and congregations had room to divide, and perhaps a thousand returned to the city after fleeing during the bride-selling scandal (1911-1915), each congregation tried to have their own store, 15 counted, which was labeled by the name of the proprietor Shubin's Market, Klubnikin's, Metchikoff's, etc. Also the congregations were named by the dominant village of the members, or the surname of the presbyter (presviter); for example, Romanovsky sobranie (village) was also called Klubnikin sobranie (presbyter), among other nicknames which changed over time and division.
Modern-day events have been difficult for the Pryguny Molokans of the Guadalupe Valley. On a hill overlooking the colony the cemetery tells the story. At the top of the hill rows of the older headstones written in the Cyrillic alphabet can still be seen. One can still read the stone of Ivan A. Bibayoff (Figure 8, right). The stones of many of Phillip M. Shubin's descendants must be there, too, no longer marked.* In the middle of the cemetery, closer to the valley floor, are headstones written in Cyrillic with Spanish transcriptions, e.g., Sergei Filatoff's with "Sergio Filatoff" written in Spanish. At the base of the hill are headstones written only in Spanish and decorated more elaborately with plastic flowers, crosses, and religious figurines. These stones are standing evidence of death, intermarriage, and near-abandonment of the Russian village in more recent years.
* P.M. Shubin (1850- 1932) resided in Los Angeles, not Mexico. Few, if any, of his relatives were buried there. Only one Ignatsz Schubin is listed, who moved to Arizona in 1916.The first major emigration from Guadalupe took place in 1912*, when an unknown number of settlers departed (Schmieder 1928:421). Dissatisfaction with the land or fear of the uprisings in Northern Mexico during the Mexican Revolution (cf. the pacificos in Reed 1983:57) may have been the causes. Certainly popular folklore cites more than one raid by the Villistas of Pancho Villa looking for food, clothing, and horses (M. Rogoff 1983, J. A. Samarin 1988).
* Probably in January 1916, when all 110 members of the Tiukma congregation left for the Chino Valley of Arizona, led by V.G. Pivovaroff and A.N. Abramoff presbyter. (Dzheromskiy Colony Arizona 1916, by Andrei Conovaloff and Mike Rudometkin, updated : 17 June 2016.)
In 1926-1928 some leaders in Mexico, including Pivovaroff, were trying to make arrangements to migrate to Canada, but they needed financing and enlisted interest from a few Pryguny in Los Angeles. In 1928 delegates from both settlements areas were escorted to Canada, with plans to migrate, and shown property in Alberta where they were offered a block of about 60 square miles east of Calgary near other immigrants also from Russia Spiritual Christian Dukhoborsty and Anabaptists (Mennonites). Resistance from businessmen established in Los Angeles appears to have cancelled the offer. (Prygun pokhod to Canada, 1928)
The second major exodus from the valley took place after the creation of the ejido El Porvenir in Guadalupe Valley in 1937. Article 27 of the Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico of February 15, 1917, says, "The ownership of lands and waters ... is vested originally in the nation which ... has the right to transmit title thereto to private persons ... the nation shall have at all times the right to impose upon private property such restriction as the interest may require ... in order to conserve and equitably distribute the public wealth" (Deway 1966:52). Elaborated in the Agricultural Code of Mexico, these laws gave President Lazaro Cardenas the right to reapportion tracts of land above a certain size to the general population, a procedure known as the ejido system (Meyer and Sherman 1979:378). ["Can I buy "ejido" land?", by David W. Connell, Connell & Associates, 1998: "...since the constitutional reforms of 1992 ejido land now can be converted into private property and sold to third parties, including foreigners."]
On September 19, 1937, the Mexican government requested a dotación or "donation" and on November 28, 1937, reapportioned 2920 hectares adjoining the colonia to 58 Mexican ejidatarios. The ejido, known as El Porvenir ("things to come"), did not incorporate Prygun Russian lands, but caused great consternation amongst Pryguny Russians just the same. Colonists such as Mary Rogoff (1983) claim that President Cardenas himself came to the valley and, impressed with the industrious farms, decided not to take Prygun Russian lands to enlarge the ejido. Many colonists were not convinced and consolidated their holdings in the United States. In 1938, 10 families resettled on 200 acres in Ramona, San Diego County, California.
The final change for the colony came with the completion of a new road in 1958 (Deway 1966:82, Story 1960:162, Kvammen 1976) and with the coming of squatters who claimed portions of the valley as their own. The year 1958, in particular, was an election year and activists of the General Union of Mexican Workers and Peasants (UGOCM) were organizing takeovers of private properties to speed land reform (Deway 1966:80). Associated with this movement, 3000 workers appeared in the Guadalupe Valley during the night of July 10,1958 (San Diego Union July 12, 1958 to July 11, 1959). Known as paracaidistas or "parachutists" for their sudden appearance "from the skies," they formed the poblado Francisco Zarco (cf. Meyer and Sherman 1979:385-386) at the fork of the calle principal and Mexico Highway 3 (the Tecate-Ensenada highway). Backed by the Ley de Tierras Ociosas ("Law of Idle Lands") of June 23, 1920, the squatters were attracted by fallow Prygun Russian fields. Acts of civil disobedience followed as more and more squatters came. Destroying plantings, raiding stock, and robbing orchards were some of the techniques used to drive both Prygun Russian and Mexican owners from their lands. Russian dolls with beards were burnt in effigy and threats to torch crops and harm families were made (Deway 1966:84, M. Rogoff 1983). In August of 1959,107 hectares of Prygun Russian land were given officially to the poblado. Anxiety about holdings which were not constantly supervised forced the sale of more and more Russian-held parcels (Deway 1966:98-99) and brought about the effective demise of the functioning colony.
More than 1000 acres on the east side of Ensenada was taken by the government from Vasili Kondratovich Popoff, to expand the city. He argued that part of his land be given back as a private Spiritual Christian cemetery, which was granted.
Mohoff said that he believed most Prygun families, like his, abandoned Mexico for California for economic disparity reasons. He said that during WWII one of his friends, who left the Valley to find work in Los Angeles County, returned within the year driving a car. The local boys did not believe their friend actually earned enough to buy a car. "If I worked my whole life in Mexico, I would never earn enough to buy a car!" exclaimed Mohoff. "When we were convinced he was telling us the truth, we all wanted to go to Los Angeles!"
Japanese, Chinese, and Jewish settlers, among other ethnic groups, bought property from the original squatters as time went on, completely changing the ethnic character of the village. Today only one family of rusos puros or "pure Russians" exists in the colonia and six or seven Pryguny Russians are married to Mexican spouses. A small family of Cossacks from Ensenada once lived in the valley. Because they speak Russian with the Pryguny Russians, they are well informed and have left an excellent memoir of the valley's history (Lisizin 1984).
All that is left is a colony in ruins. Residents claim that in ten years no Prygun Russian will be heard in a valley which was known for the sound of Prygun Russian voices singing a cappella as visitors turned in from the main road (Rangel 1983, Long 1983). Today's visitor sees nothing of the area where Tanya Shubin, the young girl who crossed the Isthmus of Panama, lived with her husband Moses Desatoff. Her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren live in Alta California, Oregon, and Alaska (Dolbee 1983). No one in the village remembers how still she sat as she crossed the U.S. border on her way to a new home in Los Angeles, or how quietly she held the little girl who had died on the trip because she wanted to bury her close by. Many sufferings, many joys associated with the Pryguny Russians of Guadalupe have been forgotten. As one walks through Guadalupe today, parts of the village are in ruins, weedy and overgrown. The casual visitor looks down the long road and sees only Salsola kali or tumbleweeds, also known as the "Russian thistle."
[
Shubin1963].
I remember catching my breath at Dukh-i-zhiznik Molokan John A. Samarin's memories of his boyhood in Guadalupe, shared with me in the company of his son John J. Samarin.
I remember making Judie Dolbee stand still for 20 minutes in the worst part of San Diego so I could take her picture for a series of Dukh-i-zhiznik Molokan portraits.
I remember the half hour spent in phone conversation with Dr. Leiand A. Fetzer, Professor of Germanic and Slavic Studies at San Diego State University, and my feeble attempts to spell "Bibaiv [sic]," "Bibaev," "Bibayeff," now "Bibayoff."
I remember taking a "shortcut" on our way to Guadalupe with Helen Long balanced in the back seat of a '67 Volkswagen so that we could see her ancestral home.
I remember Irma Retana's careful translations of Spanish documents while her family ate dinner without her.
I remember the hospitality extended to strangers by the Hector Fuentes family of Guadalupe.
I remember the patience of my husband Jason Muranaka and my son Jay-Michael, which knew no bounds.
Therese Adams Muranaka
San Diego, California
July, 1988
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