Kerman Russian Families: A Tradition Transplanted
By Woody Laughnam
Fresno
Bee Staff Writer(Attached is the photo that came with the article)
KERMAN - Driving along the narrow country roads through the vineyards one wonders about the names on the mail boxes - Nazaroff, Shuken, Kornoff, Volkoff, Kaseroff, Kalpakoff, Bechkoff and Spolsdoff.
Where from these people? How recently arrived?
Nick Nazaroff who lives in a quaint green farm house with a red roof on Lake Avenue North of
Belmont Avenue knows about the mail box people having been preacher to many of them over these long years.
This old man with white hair and white beard is also patriarch of the 16 Nazaroff families in the
Kerman district; four generations in all, almost 100 persons ranging in age from 8 to 80.
All told across the
Kerman countryside are 150 families of Russian ancestry. They have been here a long time, over 50 years.
Nick Nazaroff is quite an old man now, 80 years old. But his body is still strong from almost 60 years of long, hard days in the field under the hot sun. His mind is alert too, although his memory is not as sharp as it was yesteryear.
The other morning, as gentle rain was falling upon his vineyard,
Nick sat in the living room of his fine house with his wife, Vera, and recalled when the Russian families came to
Kerman 55 and more years ago.
He recollected the trying years of dry land, farming, trying to raise wheat, barley and alfalfa, and turning the soil with horse-drawn implements. He relived the heartaches of trial and error of learning to irrigate, and the labors and patience that it took to establish vineyards.
He recalled the arrival of new countrymen to the district; weddings, births, baptisms and death; and reflected somewhat sadly that the traditions of the old people are not always the ways of todays young.
“We came to
America because the Holy Spirit predicted our country would be turned by turmoil. ‘Go in the new land and be save,’ it said.”
Virgin Land
So the Molokan Church members pulled up their roots and came to the US, some just before the Great Russian revolution, some during it and others immediately following. They settled in various places before coming to
Kerman to buy virgin land at about the time of World War I.
“There were only about 15 families at first,” Nazaroff said.
Soon new families came and presently there was a Russian community. Some died those first hard years, some starved out and moved away. Always they tried to help each other.
The first years of tilling the soil behind sweaty horses, and fighting the heat and the drought, were very hard years, Nazaroff remembers. And so were the years following as they learned to use irrigation and then to plant vineyards and what to do to keep the tender vines alive.
The
Kerman Russians are deeply religious people. Their church is a break-away from Eastern Orthodox, clinging to beliefs and customs of the Old
Testament. They do not eat the meat of cloven-hoofed animals. They do not drink alcoholic beverages or coffee. They do not use tobacco. And they do not dance.
“In the first days we held church in each other’s home,” Nazaroff said. His brother, William, was one of the first preachers. He too has preached the last couple of decades.
In 1920, when the number of families in the district had increased, a tiny church was built at Trinity and
Belmont Avenues. Today there are three churches in the immediate area.
The name of the church, Molokan, is for the word milk.
"We are the milk drinkers," Nazaroff said. "In early times the
Greek church said it was sinful to drink milk on Friday. We believe it is all right to drink milk anytime."
The most common name for his church people, Nazaroff said, is "Holy Spirit Jumpers."
"When the spirit moves us we are jumpers," lie said, comparing his church to those called Tabernacle.
Social Life
Always in the old days around
Kerman, and still in these days to some extent, the social life of the Russian community revolves around the church — Sunday services, socials, prayer fests, psalm singing, weddings, baptisms and religious festivals.
The major festivals are
Easter and Tabernacle (September) when families gather at the church once each day, perhaps twice a day, for seven days to take their main meal, potluck style — borscht, homemade noodles, vegetables, beef, lamb, milk, tea, pie and cake.
Borscht is still a main dish in the kitchens of the older Russian folk.
Many of them still wear beards. And the language among the old is Russian and one hears it spoken on the telephone, and as they stand by their pickup trucks when they stop on the road to visit and on the street corners in
Kerman.
Sometimes a few younger people break from old ways when they go to town. Others have moved to the city. It is a sad time for the old Russians as they watch old ways and some old customs fading.
"It is the cars, the cities that make the changes," said the old man with the white beard. And he sat back in his old fashioned wood chair in his living room and thought about yesterday, today and tomorrow as the rain continued to fall softly on his vineyard.
"I have lived for a long time," he said slowly, "I have lived from the day of: the ox to the day of the airplane."
Source: Fresno
Bee Republican, Sunday, February 18, 1973, pages 1 & 2
=========================
From my file:
The
Nick Nazaroff in the article is
Nickolai Ivanitch Nazaroff (1893-1984). I gave you some family and census information.
Spouse 1: Gania Fedotevna Yastropich Bibayeff (1897-1948)
Known children: Nellie, John, Alex, Vera, Esther, Dorothy, Hazel, Eleanor, Nadya
Spouse 2: Vera John
Uraine (1903-2000); married on 03 Jul 1949 in
Fresno County, CA
=========================
1920 Federal Census - California
Fresno CountyDakota Township
ED 70 Page 6B
NAZAROFF,
Nick, head, age 27, born in Russia, immigrated in 1907, farmer on a ranch
Hazel, wife, age 22, born in Russia, immigrated in 1907
Nellie, dtr, age 6, born in CA
John, son, age 4-6/12 born in CA
Aleck, son, age 2, born in CA
Vera, dtr, age 1-1/2 born in CA
=========================
1930 Federal Census - California
Fresno County - Township 11
ED 10-102, page 2b
39 Lakeland
NAZAROFF,
Nick, head, age 39, born in Russia, first married age 21, immigrated in 1905, farmer
Hazel, wife, age 33, born in Russia, first married age 15, immigrated in 1905
John, son, age 15, born in CA
Alex, son, age 12, born in CA
Vera, dtr, age 11, born in CA
Esther, dtr, age 9, born in CA
Dorothy, dtr, age 7, born in CA
=========================
Obituary
From the Fresno
Bee, Sunday, August 5, 1984:
"Nick J. Nazaroff - Kerman - Services for
Nick J. Nazaroff, 91, will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at the Molokan Church. Burial will be at the Molokan Cemetery. Mr. Nazaroff died Friday. He was born in Russia and moved to
Kerman in 1917. He was a farmer. Surviving are his wife, Vera J.; two sons, John N. and Alex N., both of Fresno; a stepson, Alex
Shubin of Montebello; six daughters, Vera N. Wagner and Esther N. Podsakoff, both of Fresno, Dorothy N. Podsakoff and Hazel N. Federoff, both of Montebello, Elaine J. Homutoff of Lynwood and Nadya Nazaroff of San Clemente; two stepdaughters, Mary
Pavloff of Montebello and Onya Nazaroff of Kerman; a sister,
Fannie J. Bavin of Fresno; 34 grandchildren; 54 great grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild."
