FIOLETOVO

Text slightly edited for clarity and comments added in red.

As soon as the first snow falls in Armenia, the road leading to the village of Fioletovo is almost unbearable. Few cars reach this hidden by mountains site when a winter, which might be tolerable in Yerevan, feels like Siberia in Fioletovo.

The village is all covered by snow and only the roofs of houses can be seen from the top. If there were no smoking chimneys, some would have believed that nobody lives here.

The feeling is different when entering the township. Dogs barking and kids playing is what can be heard all day long.

First people to have met on the main and single street of the village were four men, three of whom were dressed in soldiers-like clothes. Asked about their attires, the men explain they got them in Russia where they have all worked.

Photos taken by Ruben Mangasaryan on earlier visits to Fioletovo.

With red chicks, ruddy hair and smiley faces, the men seemed to be curious who we are. Once we said we are journalists, they started to complain. Their grumbles concerned everything: life without gas, villager's illnesses, or bad harvest of cabbage. But most of all, the men were complaining about unemployment.

Victor Zadorkin, 33, who is a driver, says that no jobs are left in the region. "Everybody forgot us", he sums up. His friend, Sasha Zadorkin, a former miner, complains about the same: "we are all still capable of working hard but have no jobs. We are not used to the new rules of the market economy."

It was Saturday afternoon. Getting ready for the Sunday holiday women were cleaning the houses and baking bread. Men were doing the outside housework.

It was not an easy task, however, to find a woman cooking bread on Saturday afternoon. Almost all of them have done it early in the morning. We were stopping by every house and asking if anyone was baking that day. Spiritual Christian Molokan housewives were all very nice, yet they were all suggesting trying their neighbors.

Luckily, there was Anna Zadorkin, of the Spiritual Christian Dukh-i-zhiznik faith, who was still having her bread in the stove. With red chicks and a wide smile, Anna warmly invited us in her house. Her serene look and her joyful voice were emanating a healthy vivacity.

In this village there are 3 congregations of different Dukh-i-zhiznik faiths, and 1 congregation of Molokane.Vladica attended a Dukh-i-zhiznik service.

"Oh, please forgive our disorder", she apologized. "We haven't finished cleaning up the house yet." Because the stove was heating only one room in the house, all the goings-on in Anna's family were taking place around the fire. Several dishes with food were being heated while pieces of wood were laying dispersed on the floor.

Suddenly, two blondish and blue-eyed kids jumped out of nowhere and stared at us. "These are my grandsons", Anna presented Alexei and Pavel. When the youngest, Alexei, 3, saw the photographer's camera, he aimed at it and did not move his look until we left.

Unlike other Dukh-i-zhizniki Molokans, who categorically refuse to be photographed, Anna was happy to share her experience with us. She even seemed to enjoy slowing down the motions when she was picking up the bread from the oven so that the photographer could get a "caught in the act" picture. She also hosted Dukh-i-zhiznik guests from Australia who financially support her, so she is inoculated against gossip about meeting and being photographed by outsiders.  

She told us how her five children, all grown up, left the village for Russia to make a living, and how she and the mother of her son-in-law are raising today the three kids of one of her daughters. 

Suddenly, she got sad: "According to our laws, we can not let our children to leave but the poverty has forced us to do so."

It's now common for Spiritual Christian couples in Armenia with children to leave the kids with relatives and try to work in Russia.

Then Anna cheered up again and, as it would have made her feel better, justified it was the will of God. "When we pray for the health of our brothers and sisters, we also pray for our children to stay close to our community."

Anna bakes bread since she was 18. Having learned it from her mother, she recalls that there was not much work for her to do since she was the 12th child in the family. "I only started to cook for real when I got married, at 20."

Even though her life is not easier than others' the woman does not let the grief of hardship to dominate her. She joyfully finds some work to do in the house and her appearance barely shows traces of age. "In every faith there is a salvation", she always says.

A day before baking, Anna prepares the dough. She uses flour, yeast, salt and water — products, she thinks, can save from any misfortune. Prior to cooking, the woman says a prayer: "God, give ability to my hands."

Vladica interprets "misfortune" as "bad luck", a development of events that ends up with trouble. Pure products (those, which were are raised by the people) bring good luck with them, while results of chemical production, mixture, etc. are not pure and could bring misfortune, or bad luck, with them. In this case, flour, salt and water are obviously pure products. Yeast also can be considered as such, especially because one cannot cook bread without yeast.

"If I don't pray, my bread doesn't come up good", she explains.

On Saturday, Anna mixes the dough again at 7 o'clock in the morning, divides it in pieces and lets it grow. The slices of dough are put in metal griddles. When they get bigger, Anna puts them in the oven. The bread is ready in about one and a half hours.

She seems pleased while taking the pieces out of stove. "The bread has to get rest before served", she says. "Otherwise it will be too crispy when eaten."

When the bread turns cold completely, Anna places it in cellophane bags and deposits it in a "sunduk" [storage box] so that it stays fresh until it is consumed.

Bread is saint for some Dukh-i-zhizniki Molokans. Every seventh Sunday, after a three-day fast, the Dukh-i-zhizniki Molokans from Fioletovo are practicing a bread-sacrificing ritual [the holiday Sedmina, see below]. Anna says it is important the bread to be cooked by a "clean" woman, that is a widow or an old lady who did not have intimate relations for a long time.

All Spiritual Christian Molokane and most congregations of Dukh-i-zhziniki in Yerevan and other countries do not observe this holiday, except for a new congregation in Australia that immigrated from Fioletovo.

The bread is brought to the house of gatherings and is served after the meeting. The believers are saying prayers before eating it yearn for the dead and plead for the health of people closed to them.

Sunday gatherings are essential in Spiritual Christian the Molokan living. Distinguished as a holiday and as a way to make a contact with God, these meetings require special preparation. Cleaning — perceived almost as a ritual — is an approach to get ready. Women say that each house has to be immaculate before the day of talking to God. So has to be each person.

When talking about preparation, Anna suddenly remembers that she forgot to warm up the bathroom. She immediately calls her elder grandson and asks him to get it ready. "I will not go to bed tonight unless I clean myself and my family", she guarantees.

Spiritual Christians Molokans believe that washing is helping them to get rid of all the dirty thoughts and actions. The couples can be intimate during all week's nights besides the one between Saturday and Sunday. After taking baths they can not even think about getting close as they have to be clean before entering the contact with God.

There are few, if not even at all, remnants of traditional Russian baths in Fioletovo. People assimilated new ways of living and are now using baths heated by "kotel" [water heater]. There is even one villager who built a sauna [bania "po chernomu"].

On the day of gathering itself, the community feels all dressed in feast. With women wearing white aprons and head kerchiefs, the village looks whiter than the snow. In the morning, everybody rushes for the service. After 10 o'clock there is nobody on the street. All Spiritual Christians Molokans are inside the four buildings where the religious meetings take place. There are 3 congregations of different Dukh-i-zhiznik faiths, and 1 congregation of Molokane.

We arrived at the place of Pavel and Dina Zadorkin — a couple which hosts one of the 4 congregations. Dina says her family has chosen to use its first floor for meetings because it is affordable. Sometimes, villagers help her with paints for the walls or other articles to keep the place clean.

The presbyter of this Maksimist congregation, a zealot form of Dukh-i-zhizniki, is Ivan Pavlovich Rudometkin.

There are three rooms: a hall, a kitchen and the assembly room itself. When we enter the house the service is already in progress. There are about fifty people inside. All of them are seated on benches. There is nothing but white towels on the corners of the assembly room.

Almost all the men are wearing the typical Russian peasant kosovorotka shirt, tight in the middle by a cord belt, and wear long beards. Women are all wearing head kerchiefs.* The white kerchiefs with a "chepets"** under, and a white "fartukh"*** are a sign that the women are married. Young girls do not have to wear "fartukhs" and the color of their head kerchiefs may be other than white.

*     triangle shaped : kosinka : косинка (Ukrainan)
**   crocheted lace bonnet : chepchik : чепчик (Russian)
*** apron : fartukh : фартук (Russian)

Only the Passover (paskha) Easter*service requires everybody to dress exclusively in white. Otherwise, Spiritual Christians Molokans wear quite colorful clothes. Women are never dressed in pants. Long and strict robes are their usual outfits. All of them have long hair. Women say they have to naturally preserve what God gave them. Therefore, they never cut their hair.

* Dukh-i-zhizniki celebrate Old Testament Passover. Molokane celebrate Christian Easter.

The congregation is arranged by rankings. Seated on long wood benches covered with rugs, the seniors are forming a line in front of everybody else. The presbyter sits on left and sees all the people attending the worship. The rows turned to seniors are then positioned by the seaters' age. First the elders come and then the younger ones. The same principle works for the female members. Only that they sit in the opposite side of the room.

In the first half of the gathering Spiritual Christians Molokans sing verses from the Psalms and read religious thoughts in succession. Different men are asked to read passages from the Bible, which along with the book of prayers and the one of songs lay on the altar table.

Dukh-i-zhiznik congregations have their own sacred texts in addition to the Russian Bible — Kniga solnnste, dukh i zhin', plus a prayer book and songbook all published in Los Angeles, California. Molokane only use the Russian Bible and mostly sing different hymns. All begin prayers with "Our Father.."  

In the second part of the meeting, the congregation prays both on its feet and knees, and again intones songs.

Dukh-i-zhizniki typically jump during the second part and may deliver prophesies. These holy rituals are rarely shown to non-believers, outsiders.

The youth usually does not have high responsibilities in the service. However, young girls are required to help in the kitchen, and young men are asked to sing themselves once in a while. They do not have a special class to learn the Molokan songs. People at the meeting said they just catch them up during the meetings or in their families.

The Sunday we attended the ceremony was called "sedmina". This day rounds up a three-day fast preceded by seven weeks. Several women, that are the hosts Dina and her daughter Tanya helped by their "nevestka" (Dina's daughter-in-law) Marina, prepare food for the whole congregation and when the service is up, tables are settled in the assembly room so that the community can have lunch. People are first served with fresh bread, cheese and tea from "samovars". Before proceeding, one of the elders says a prayer. 

Sedmina is a religious holiday occurring every 7 Sundays. It was started in Armenia in the1940s, and is adhered to by some of the Dukh-i-zhizniki and Maksimisti in Armenia, but apparently not in Yerevan. Many of the approximately 15 families of Dukh-i-zhizniki who recently migrated to California from Armenia feel that they should continue Sedmina, but since this holiday is unknown to the Dukh-i-zhizniki in America, the suggestion has been rejected. By 2002 about 50 Dukh-i-zhiznik families in Armenia, including intermarriages, migrated abroad, half each to America and Australia. Those in Australia segregated into their own congregation and observe Sedmina. The American congregation have ignored requests to obey this professed holiday.

Spiritual Christians Molokans drink tea from glasses and do not use forks or knives for the cheese. They eat it with hands. Once the plates are emptied they are again fulfilled with cheese.

There is a severe silence at the beginning. (Perhaps due to the outsider guest.) Only the spoons are heard in glasses when people mix sugar (or as they call it "sand") [Russian: pesok] with the tea. Later though people somehow get merry and start to talk to each other. The presbyter's helper,* Viktor Ivanovich, makes a sign to young girls to sing a song.

* Spiritual Christians in Russia call the assistant presviter the zamestitel' (deputy, replacement). In America and Australia, Dukh-i-zhizniki call this position pomoshnik (helper).

Everybody stands up. The multiple voices of Dukh-i-zhizniki  Molokans and their absorption into singing might make anyone breathless. Not everybody is involved in singing during the first verses. But the atmosphere intensifies somehow and everyone in the room participates in the intonation of songs, not necessarily by words. Some are just singing the melody.

When the song is finished the second course is served, that is the borsch. Dina and Tanya hand out carved Russian wood spoons and bring the borsch in huge basins (metal bowls) so that four-five people eat all together (communal : obsche) from one dish at once.

For sanitation, most all but a few zealous Dukh-i-zhiznik congregations in America and Australia use individual dishes for serving, and most retained the traditional wood spoons. In Russia, Dukh-i-zhiznik and Prygun congregations have divided over the use of dishes. For the most zealous, communal eating is a religious rite. Most Molokane around the world use dishes.

Now the congregation is totally cheered up. They start to sing more songs and all of them are happy. "You said I am too young" is a song that makes everybody enters the daze of faith.

"Nevestka" Marina is staying in front of me. She is looking at me but does not see me. Her sharp blue eyes seem to be in contact with somebody else. Her face does not reveal an expression but she is not in the room anymore. While singing she wipes a tear. Then, her shoulders start to move. Her motions do not follow the rhythms of the song. Her body is more like shivering than dancing. Gradually, she intensifies her voice. Her motions become more abrupt now that she raised her hands.

Similar gestures can be seen at different other members of congregation. Viktor Ivanovich even started to jump. And this state continues until the song is finished. Marina said later that not everybody is capable to feel what she felt when singing. "You must have a strong belief. This is the highest moment."

When the gathering is done, people say again a prayer and leave the assembly room. The host women helped by several men clean the place. The people do not leave for home immediately. They slow down for some conversations to hear the latest news.

It is common for young girls to take a walk on the main street of the village after the gathering. If lucky, they might get a ride on the sledge pulled by a horse. The sleds are not similar to what can be expected from a traditional Russian community. They are built from metal tubes and wood boards. However, sleds are ones of the few entertainments Spiritual Christians Molokans have.

Viorica is Moldovan and a journalism student in her early 20's who came to Armenia to study better journalism practices at the Caucasus Media Institute, where Mark Grigorian is the deputy director. She wrote this article herself in English. She is also taking a course of Caucasian studies.

During Tsarist times the town of Fioletovo was called Nikitino, and during the mid-1800s was the home town of the Maksim G. Rudomyotkin, a leader-presviter of his tribe of Pryguny, whose followers today are called Maksimisty. About 1905, the secret writings of Rudomyotkin while in monastery-jail rehabilitation were smuggled to USA and published as a book in 1915. The book was debated, enhanced, edited, published and republished several times until the final version in 1928 became the sacred text Kniga solnste, dukh i zhizn'.  Only congregations of Dukh-i-zhizniki use this book.