НОВОСТИ — Воскресенье, 15.03.2009
NEWS — Sunday, March 15, 2009 (5 min. Russian news video, text)
Video also posted on YouTube.com from Vremia TV news.
Гузия: Последние из молокан.  (5 min. Russian news video)
Georgia: Last of the Molokans.

Немногочисленные колонии русских на Кавказе переживают трудные времена

The few colonies of Russians in the Caucasus are experiencing difficult times

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Ul'ianovka, Republic of Georgia
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Ul'ianovka, Kakheti region of Georgia
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Ul'ianovka, formerly Novo-Aleksandrovkoe

Поселения молокан в Грузии приходят в упадок, и их жители подумывают о возвращении в Россию из Кахетии, куда в середине XIX века они переехали по декрету императора Николая I. 150 лет спустя, не ощущая никаких перспектив, многие из них готовы покинуть Грузию.
Russian text (left) occasionally differs from the TV news video audio:
The Molokan villages in Georgia are deteriorating, and their residents are considering returning to Russia from the Kakheti region, where they moved in the mid-1800s by an order of Emperor Nicholas I. 150 years later, not feeling any prospects, many of them are ready to leave Georgia. [As many as 15 congregations of Molokane were in Georgia. Also see news about Doukhobors leaving Georgia.]
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  Ul'ianovka, Republic of Georgia
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  "Strength in Brotherhood!"

Репортаж Евгения Баранова.
[In video]. The Molokan village was visited by:
Evgenia [Eugene] Baranov reports.
Сегодня трудно найти на карте место, где можно прочитать на заборе надписи такого содержания: "Брат братом силен", "Миру мир". Это не остатки советской агитации, это заповеди, с которыми полтора века назад в этих местах появились первые русские переселенцы. (Molokan women singing...) It is difficult to find a place on the map where you can read such writing on a fence: "Strength in Brotherhood!" and "World Peace". This is not the remains of a Soviet campaign [propaganda], but the everyday sayings of the first Russian immigrants who moved here 150 years ago.
Секта молокан, христиан, не признающих церковь, не почитающих крест и не знавших причастия, была основана в конце XVIII века. Их крестьянские общины подвергались гонениям до тех пор, пока по указу Николая I они не были выселены на окраины тогдашней империи в Закавказье. The Molokan sect is Christian, but they do not recognize the [Russian Orthodox] church, the cross or communion [Orthodox Eucharist] They were founded in the late 1700s. Their peasant congregations were persecuted until a decree by [Tsar] Nicholas I, when they were moved to the Caucasus, at the boundary of the former Empire.
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  Less than 100 Molokans remain
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  Cemetery
На старинном молоканском кладбище под каменными надгробиями без крестов покоятся те, кто в 1859 году пешком добрался до Грузии из Саратовской губернии. Здесь они основали русское село и назвали его Новоалександровкой в честь царя-Освободителя Александра II. Однако молокане всегда лояльны любой власти, и в двадцатых годах прошлого века село было переименовано в Ульяновку.

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~1000 miles by foot
from Saratov to Georgia

In the old Molokan cemetery, resting under boulder grave markers without crosses are those who, in 1859, walked by foot [~1000 miles] from Saratov province to Georgia. Here they founded the Russian village of Novo-Aleksandrovka, named in honor of the Tsar and Liberator Alexander II. However Molokans are always loyal to any government, and in the 1920s the village was renamed Ul'ianovka. [Ul'ianov is Lenin's actual last name.]
Надежда Маркушина: "При коммунизме жили, и не заметили. Но вот свободы захотели, и дал Господь свободы". [In video.] Nadezhda Markushina: "My friends. We lived during communism but did not notice it. Right? Freedom was wanted, and here God gave us freedom. There's freedom on the table and freedom everywhere."
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  Nadezhda Vas. Markushina
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  Veteran's memorial
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 100 of 300 soldiers died in WWII
Надежде Васильевне Маркушиной — под 80. Она одна из двух старейшин нынешней сильно поредевшей молоканской общины. Лучший свидетель того, какой была эта история — монумент павшим, который возвышается напротив ее дома в центре села.
Nadezhda Vasilievna Markushina is almost 80 years old. She is an elder member of one of the two remaining depleted Molokan congregations. [More are in Tiblisi.] She is the best witness of their history, because she can see a monument which stands in front of her house in the center of the village.
Война выкорчевала из Ульяновки целые фамилии. Из 300 молоканских мужчин, ушедших на фронт, не вернулся каждый третий. Но даже такие потери некогда крепкое и богатое село смогло пережить. Роковыми для Ульяновки стали не сороковые, а девяностые года. The [second world] war took from each family in Ul'ianovka. Of the 300 Molokan men who went to the front, one in three did not return. But even after these huge losses the village was able to survive. But the difficult times for Ul'ianovka was not in the 1940s, it came in the 1990s. (Singing.)
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  First Molokan museum in world
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  2,500 Molokane were here
В сельском музее с названием, которого больше нигде не сыскать, на облупившихся стенах все еще развешаны фотографии отцов-основателей села. Вряд ли эти достойные мужи могли представить себе, что пройдет 100 лет, и в их Ульяновке молокан останется втрое меньше, чем в тот момент, когда они впервые увидели эту землю. (Women singing...) In the village museum with the same name [Museum of People's Friendship, Town of Ul'ianovka], on paint-chipped walls, can be found photos of the founding fathers of the village. It is unlikely that these worthy men could have ever imagined that in 100 years there would be fewer Molokane in their Ul'ianovka than when they arrived [first saw this land]. 
Что лозунг "Грузия — для грузин", брошенный первым президентом независимой Грузии Звиадом Гамсахурдия в уже далеком 1992 году, приведет к тому, что молокане побегут снова, только на этот раз в обратную сторону. The slogan "Georgia is for Georgians" shouted back in 1992 by Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first president of independent Georgia, caused the Molokane to flee again, only this time in the opposite direction.
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  "Georgia is for Georgians!"
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  "It was terrible when they left"
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  Heating the samovar
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  Shitukhin prays

[In video.] Nadezhda Markushina: "It was terrible. The people leaving were sitting in their cars crying, and we were here saying good-bye to them. It was night-time, but very moon-lit. You could even read a newspaper that night. The dogs were howling. It was really frightening, you know, to leave your homeland."
Надежда Маркушина: "В хорошие годы в Ульяновке жило до двух с половиной тысяч молокан. Сейчас — не больше сотни. В основном старики, которые тогда, когда уезжали их дети, были моложе и рассчитывали на свои силы". Nadezhda Markushina: "In the good years up to 2,500 Molokane lived in Ul'ianovka. Now, no more than a hundred remain, mainly elderly. When their children left, the parents stayed behind. They were younger and stronger then and thought they could take care of themselves."

[In video.] Presbyter Matvei Ivanovich Shitukhin prays: "God bless us to eat and drink in your glory. Forgive all of us, especially me. And we ask you and  pray to you God, and we bow in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All eat and drink. Sit down."
Живущие в традиции, общинным укладом, старики-молокане все эти годы как могли поддерживали друг друга. Например, пресвитер у молокан, не признающих священников, главный по духовной части. Матвей Иванович Шитухин сильно болеет, но нет-нет, а соберет совет своих старейшин у самовара. Living by tradition and with a social-structure is how these elder Molokane could support each other all these years. For example, by Molokan dogma they have a presbyter [presiding elder] as a spiritual teacher, not a priest or church hierarchy. Though Matvei Ivanovich Shitukhin is very sick, he occasionally gathers his council of elders around the samovar.
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  Drinking tea (chai)
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  Journalists interview presbyter
Сегодня на повестке дня — вопрос о том, что по селу среди грузин пошли слухи, что кто-то из молокан нажаловался в Москву, что русских здесь притесняют. Today's issue is what do about the rumor that someone from the Molokane complained to Moscow that they are persecuted by Georgians.
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  Presbyter Matvei Ivan. Shitukhin
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[In video.] Shitukhin went to the village authorities, who responded: "This and that. And because the Molokane complained, their village will be eliminated."
Do not worry because we don't think Molokane complained, we think it was someone else. Because without Georgian support, there would be no Molokans in U'ianovka by now." The Georgians said they wanted to change the name of Ul'ianoivka three times. But the Georgians said we are good neighbors so they did not change the name of the village.
Зловредный слух о молоканском исходе, так взволновавший ульяновскую общественность, при всей своей неправдоподобности, тем не менее, задел молокан за живое. Когда в 1992 году они принимали решение оставаться, никто из них и представить себе не мог, что доживет до того, что Грузия будет воевать с Россией; что посольство, где они получали российскую визу, будет закрыто, равно как и граница, через которую они ездили к своим. The malicious rumor about Molokans leaving Ul'ianovka stirred up a controversy. When the Molokane decided to stay in 1992, none of them could have imagined that Georgia would be at war with Russia, that the embassy where they could get a Russian visa would be closed, or the border closed through which they went to Russia.
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  "World Peace!"
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  "No, you sing!"
Здесь все понимают, что песня молоканской Ульяновки в скором времени будет спета, и вероятнее всего, спета будет именно ими. Here, everyone understands that the Molokan song of Ul'ianovka soon will be sung, and will be sung by these people. [Russian idiom: You are done, finished.]

[In video.]
— You start to sing.
— No, you start because you can sing the elongated notes [protiazhnie].
— No, you sing!
— Okay.
(Women singing ... )
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Eugene Baranov, Igor Kritskov
Sunday Vremia [TV news broadcast, March 15, 2009]
Ul'ianovka, Georgia
There are more Molokane in Tbilisi, but the Russian news team choose to report about Ul'ianovka, perhaps because it is is remote and only 6 miles (10 km) from the Azerbaidjan border, a short 15 mile (24 km) drive from the nearest border crossing. The Russian journalists would have been harassed by Georgians if they tried to find Molokane in Tbilisi, where several congregations remain.
This video also posted on YouTube.com from Vremia TV news.
Гузия: Последние из молокан.  (5 min. Russian news video)
Georgia: Last of the Molokans.
[Molokane in Russia are getting irritated that several recent news stories are   titled: "Last of the Molokane."]

See slide show of 5 images from video.

Духовные христиане в Грузии
Духовные христиане — вокгуг света
Spiritual Christians in Georgia
Spiritual Christians Around the World