Published: 21 July, 2007, 10:07
Edited: 21 July, 2007, 10:07
This Russian community living in the centre of Azerbaijan is bolstered by the country’s government not only for preserving their cultural identity but also for boosting the country’s agriculture.
A few minutes before the opening of a small grocery store in the center of Baku, people are already lining up in the hope of getting the freshest products at a reasonable price. The goods come from a village of Russian settlers called Ivanovka, 200 KM north-west of the Azeri capital.
The Molokans, the name adopted by a religious Russian group, were exiled from their homeland in the second half of the 18 th century for their religious convictions. This Biblically-centered movement rejected the Trinity, the icons, water baptism and what was even more important for Russian Empire at that time – they refused to assist in any form of military service.
People still gather here every Sunday to pray, as they have done for the past two centuries. The Molokans do not have churches. Every Sunday they gather for prays in a simple building called the assembly hall, as they have done for nearly two centuries. The men and women hold separate services.
The Molokans are not confused about the difference in religious beliefs, saying they have much more in common.
“Our belief and the Azeri belief is one and the same thing. We call our holy book the Bible, they call it Koran. Bible says don’t steal or don’t do evil – and so does the Koran. It’s just the languages that differ,” believes Molokan Presbyte Vasily Prokofyev.
The soil in Ivanovka is very rich. During the Soviet times a local collective farm was capable of making millions. By the beginning of the troubled 90s, 4,500 farmers were tilling the land. Now there are only 3,000, but this is slowly changing for the better. As head of the collective farm Mikhail Panferov says, after the hard times passed, many Molokans came back to stay and work.
The collective farm is unique for Azerbaijan. After the agricultural reform in 1996 all the land in the country was privatised. However, Baku decided to donate this land to the Molokan community.
“This exception was made to preserve the community. To help stay at their current location according to their requests,” explains Nizami Alikperov, head of local administration.
The former president Geydar Aliev was personally involved in helping to preserve the historical traditions of the community. When incumbent president Ilkham Aliev took the office after his father passed away in 2003, he promised the Molokans he would continue backing them.
The president has given every sign of keeping to his word. A new modern school in Ivanovka will open its doors to students in September this year. Having taken just a few months to build, it will also boast a pool and a stadium to be constructed in about a year.
So people in Ivanovka believe there will be more appositive developments the community continues to thrive.