Мордовский Вавилон

Первый канал — 24.07.2004

Mordovian Babylon

Russian TV Channel 1 — July 24, 2004
Жители мордовского села Кабаево — удивительный народ. На двух деревенских улицах уживаются представители пяти разных религиозных конфессий, яркие и запоминающиеся персонажи.
Residents of the Mordovian village Kabaevo* are interesting people. On two rural streets representatives of five different religious faiths live together, who are impressive and memorable people.
[* Also spelled Kabayevo, Mordoviya, Mordvinia, Mordovian Republic, Republic of Mordovia, Mordva Republic.]

See below:
История мордовского Вавилона — в репортаже Алексея Громова.
The history of Mordovian Babylon, reported by Alexei Gromov.
Хором в Кабаево поют только школьники на уроках музыки. Повзрослевшие жители села, празднуют что-либо, всем миром крайне редко. Причиной тому, различные религиозные убеждения односельчан — 600 жителей маленькой деревни давно разделились на православных, баптистов, пятидесятников, молокан и иудеев. Only school children sing in the choir during music lessons. The adult residents of the village rarely celebrate anything together. The reason for that is the various religious beliefs of the fellows villagers — the 600 residents of this small village for a long time were divided into Orthodox, Baptist, Pentecostal, Molokan, and Jew.
Случилось это еще в 20 годах прошлого века, когда несколько кабаевцев съездили на заработки в многонациональный город Баку. Вернулись домой они — каждый со своей верой, в которую вскоре обратили и близких. Так Кабаево превратилось в маленький Вавилон. This happened in the 1920s when several residents of Kabaevo went to work in the multinational city of Baku. Everyone returned home with their own faith and soon converted their relatives' faiths. So Kabaevo turned into a small Babylon.
Мария Куманева, староста: "Они же раньше все были православные. И молокане, и баптисты, но по каким-то убеждениям из веры ушли. Ведь церкви раньше в селе не было — надо же было людям куда-то идти Maria Kumaneva, the head of the village, said: "Earlier everyone was Orthodox. Molokans and Baptists* left the Orthodox faith for some reason. Before there was no Orthodox Church in the village, so people needed to attend somewhere. [* Most Baptists in Central Russia were originally Molokan. In fact the first Baptized Russian was the Molokan ]
Церковь в Кабаево отстроили около года назад. Ряды православных в селе сразу заметно пополнились. Впрочем, и до этого свои убеждения кабаевцы меняли не единожды.
A year ago an Orthodox Church was built in Kabaevo. Immediately the number of Orthodox in the village noticeably increased. However in the past, the beliefs of Kabaevo  residents changed many times.
Надежда Горюнова, учитель Кабаевской школы: "Пятидесятники зовут к себе, молокане к себе, так все и мечутся, и бросают веру. Говорят, что это большой грех, но так многие и делают: сначала они молокане, потом баптисты, потом пятидесятники". Nadezhda Goriunova, a Kabaevo school teacher said: "Pentecostals invite everybody, Molokans invite everybody, so they are all joining and leaving the faiths. People say that it is a big sin, but so many do it: first they are Molokans, then Baptists, then Pentecostals."
Чемпионом по смене вероисповедания в Кабаево заслуженно считается бывший дояр, а ныне пенсионер Дмитрий Зорькин. Рожденный в православии дед Митя, еще в младые годы перешел в иудаизм и стал называть себя евреем. К пенсии Дмитрий Васильевич стал пятидесятником. The deserved champion of changing faiths in Kabaevo was an dairyman, now retired, the elder Dmitry Zorkin. Grandfather Mitia was born Orthodoxy, in his youth he converted to Judaism and began to call himself a Jew. Upon retirement Dmitry Vasilevich became Pentecostal.
Теперь иудейская вера представлена в Кабаево одним только семейством Моисея Демяшкина называющего себя раввином. Но и тут, о чистоте иудаизма говорить не приходится — жена раввина Анна Даниловна всю жизнь исповедует православие, что не мешает им жить вместе почти 60 лет. Но троих сыновей, несмотря на семейные споры, Моисей Евсеевич, со свойственным ему упорством, обратил в иудаизм.
Now only one family in Kabaevo is of the Judaic faith, the family of Moisei Demiashkin, who is the Rabbi. But you cannot say that they are pure Jews. The wife of the Rabbi, Anna Danilovna, was Orthodox all her life, but that did not prevent them from living together for almost 60 years. Despite family disputes, Moisei Evseevich was persistent and converted their three sons to Judaism.
Сыновья Демяшкиных чистоту веры, тоже не сохранили — все женились на представительницах других религий. И теперь уже их дети путаются в своем вероисповедовании. Demiashkin's sons also did not maintain a pure faith. All married members of other religions. And already their children are confused with their own faiths.
И все же главное достоинство кабаевцев — не многообразие вер, а отсутствие конфликтов на религиозной почве. Жители села в один голос утверждают, что стычек между разноверцами у них не было никогда. Здесь, односельчане стараются исповедовать один принцип: "Не делай другому того, чего себе не желаешь". Остальное, личное дело каждого. And still the main advantage of Kabaevo residents is not the variety of beliefs, but the absence of religious conflicts. Village residents unanimously say that they never had skirmishes between members of the different faiths. Here fellow villagers try to profess one principle: "Do not do to another what you do not wish to be done to yourself." The rest is their private business.

Where is Kabaevo, Mordovia?

The Republic of Mordovia is 217 mi (350 km) southeast of Moscow on large plain crossed by the broad, shallow, often swampy valley of the Moksha River in the west and the Sura, a direct tributary of the Volga. Russia annexed the territory of the Mordovians in 1552 when Ivan IV ("The Terrible") conquered the Kazan' Khanate. The population in 1990 was 964,000: Russians 60%, Mordovians 33%, and Tatars 5%.

The Russian word for Mordovians is Mordvy, Мордвы. Mordovians are not ethnic Russians but part of a large group of Finno-Ugric people who live near the Volga River in central Russia. The Mordovians are divided into two independant main groupsof equal size, each with their own language — Erzya mostly spoken in the east and Moksha in the west. The Molokans of Kabaevo probably speak Erzya because they live on the eastern border.


Click on maps below to ENLARGE.
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Mordovia is 217 mi (350 km) southeast of Moscow.
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This map shows Kabaevo on the east border of Mordovia
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Kabaevo is just a few 100 feet from the border.

Mordovian-Molokans migrated to Armenia, then America and Australia

Most Mordovian-Jumpers in America joined Big Church, Los Angeles. Directly from Shorzha village migrated the families of Kostia Iakovich Kudriashov, Ilya Mikhailovich and Fenia Kudriashov, David Ivanovich Golitsyn, Tolmachev (wife Fenya Livonovna Kudriashov), Peter and Marina Telegin, Grigoriy Maksimovich Kasymov, Yemel'yan Kirillovich Kochergin, Ivan Iakovlevich and Fenia Kochergin, Moiseivich Kosyrev (father Moisei), Lediaev, and Terenty Prokhorov. To Australia migreated the families of Ivan Vasilievich and Tatiana Kasmynin, and  Lediaev (wife: Anna Vasilievna Kudriashov),
— "Родословие молокан....поселок Надеждино (Шоржа)"

"This is a brief family history of Pavel Martin Lediev and their forefathers. Starting with the great grandfathers, Dementi Harahcimich and Metri Dementimich. Polaheya Ehnativna wife to Pavel Martin and Nadia Celiverstivna wife of Metri  Dementinich. Both couples were of the sect* called Mordvy and lived in the rich region called Mordovia which exists today in Soviet Russia. The preaching of the truth by Uklein reached them also." — Valoff Diary 1904: Alex Joseph and Tanya Andrew Valoff: "Olden memories of our life, our birth, and life in mother Russia, and our movement to America", page 65.
[* Mordovians were not Orthodox, hence could be called a "sect". Actually they are ethnically of a different origin than the Slavic Russians.]
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