James W. Scott and Dr. Gary Browning, Germanic and Slavic Languages

The discovery of Russian sectarians popularly known as Mormons has generated great interest among missionaries and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in recent years, and several informative articles have appeared on the subject.1 This article summarizes my findings from three weeks of archival and village research on the Russian Mormons in May 2001, and sheds new light on hitherto unresolved historical questions regarding the origin of the title Mormon in Russia, the geography of the movement, and its eventual fate.2

Two important antecedent movements combined to create the Russian Mormon movement. The first, Khlystism, began in the mid-1600s as a mystical peasant-based sect focusing on living revelation and liberal views regarding marriage and family. The second, Molokanism, grew out of the Khlysts and spread as a Bible-based religion with a more traditional way of life, abandoning some mystical Khlyst elements (such as spiritual marriage) but preserving the tradition of visionary prophets and apostles.

Khlystism and Molokanism eventually influenced one another to such an extent that a new religious idea arose, a hybrid movement that capitalized on the energy of the Khlysts and the rationality of the Molokans. This dynamic mixture of the two sects appeared in two prominent movements, both of which were known as Mormonism.

The first group to be called Mormons developed in the Novouzensk region, situated between present-day Kazakhstan and the Volga River city of Saratov. In 1855, a charismatic Molokan named Ivan Grigorev Kanygin began gathering followers to a new faith. Grigorev was raised among Molokans practicing a form of communism taken from the New Testament. He incorporated his early ideas of communal property with the less restrictive lifestyle of the Khlysts, forming several communes throughout the Novouzensk region before his death in 1872. Grigorev’s followers called themselves Communists or Methodists, the latter designation deriving from Grigorev’s exposure to Methodist teachings near Odessa, Ukraine. The Methodists were criticized by their enemies as being libertines and notorious drunkards, in addition to rumors that their communism extended to a community of wives. An Orthodox priest by the name of Khrisanf Rozhdestvenskiy saw in the Novouzensk Methodists many similarities to the American Mormons, known across the world for their communal idea of Zion and their rejection of traditional marriage roles. Rozhdestvenskiy is first known to have applied the name of Mormonism to Grigorev’s Methodists in 1869. Although for many years the clergy mentioned the “Mormons” in their official reports, the name never came into widespread usage among either the Methodists or their Orthodox neighbors.

The second instance of Russian sectarians being called Mormons occurred in the area immediately southeast of the Volga city of Samara. The Samara Mormons developed entirely separate from the Novouzensk Methodists. However, based on the precedent established by Rozhdestvenskiy in 1869, by the 1870s “Mormonism” had become a convenient title for labeling all sects that incorporated a mixture of Khlystism and Molokanism. The first Samara Mormon groups appeared in the 1870s, and by the mid-1890s had become a powerful religious and social influence in many villages. Unlike Grigorev’s Methodists, this northern sect’s members were popularly known as Mormons, and may have referred to themselves as such. They practiced polygamy, were organized into tight social units based on communal cooperation, and led clean, sober lives free of alcohol or tobacco. The unified Mormon communities became wealthy through various joint enterprises, and the sect attracted many followers by reason of both its teachings and its material prosperity. Faithful Mormons were under oath never to reveal the tenets of their religion to unbelievers, but were quick to capitalize on opportunities to win converts. Each Mormon community was governed by “apostles” and “prophets,” with most groups recognizing a central “Christ” figure as the highest religious authority of the sect. Because the Mormons incorporated both the charismatic worship services of the Khlysts and the rationalistic approach to religion fostered by the Molokans, the sect had great success among other sectarians and their Orthodox neighbors. However, two factors eventually led to the demise of most Mormon communities.

First, the decentralized Mormon religious structure tended toward division and fragmentation. Although remaining remarkably unified throughout the first two decades of the twentieth century, Mormonism lost some adherents due to this fragmentation. The second factor contributing to the almost complete demise of Samara Mormonism was the Bolshevik Revolution. The Bolshevik policy of collectivization in the 1920’s and 30’s tore apart the ages-old fabric of Russian village life, dislocating established families and destroying the infant capitalistic trends of many successful rural communities. Famine, deportation, and organized assassinations depopulated most Mormon centers. Hundreds of descendants of Mormons still lived in the villages I visited in May 2001, but most had disappeared, and very few practiced their faith.

Not all Mormons succumbed to the policies of the early Soviet leaders, however. At least one large group of Mormons maintained a cohesive community by gathering to a new town called Mekhzavod, just north of Samara. Mekhzavod (Mechanical Factory) was built beginning in 1937 on the site of a former village called Krutyy Khutor. The factory produced war materials and served as a point of settlement for relocated workers. After World War II, the town quickly expanded from a handful of families to the present-day population of 30,000. Most Mormons settled in Nineteenth Kilometer, an area of well-built brick and wood homes south of Mekhzavod proper. According to local sources, the Mormon population currently consists of about 300 people. They are known variously as Mormons, Khlysts, or Old Believers. The Mekhzavod Mormons continue to practice their beliefs, meet together for religious services, and are noted for their exceptional unity and abstention from alcohol, tobacco, and swearing. They engage in joint business ventures and are generally envied for their material prosperity. Unfortunately, little can be ascertained regarding their beliefs due to their persistent refusal to share information, based on a religious code of silence.

The Mekhzavod Mormons, along with a handful of families living in another area of Samara, are the only known practicing Samara Mormons remaining in the region. Archival information obtained during my research trip reveals approximately forty villages in which Mormons once lived, while only a few have been visited; other undiscovered Mormon populations might therefore exist. Further probing may reveal Mormon groups more willing to share information about their culture and religion. Samara Mormonism presents a challenging yet rewarding field for the researcher, as well as an interesting case of the cross-cultural adoption of religious phraseology.

Notes

1. See Tania Rands Lyon, “The Discovery of Native ‘Mormon’ Communities in Russia,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 33, no. 1, Spring 2000, 1-24; and Eric A. Eliason and Gary Browning, “Russia’s Other ‘Mormons:’ Their Origins and Relationship to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” BYU Studies 40, no. 1, 2001, 6-34.
2. For a more detailed review of Russian Mormonism, an interactive report (including the full text of my research findings) is available online at www.insighttranslation.com/mormons.