Two Century Long History of Molokans in Georgia

Documentary film by Salome Samkharadze (with English subtitles)
The recent documentary tells about Molakans - those, who represents a religious movement as well as ethnographic subgroup of Russian people. In Georgia, they appeared after Georgia became incorporated by the Russian Empire, while Russia considered necessary to get rid of, at least from its centrally located gubernias, of those people that were not considered trustworthy. Therefore, they would support the process of their resettlement to Georgia. In particular, after the end of the wars with Napoleon, i.e. after 1812. That is how Georgia, and the Caucasus region in general, turned into what at that time was called ‘warm Siberia’. Thus one was the ‘cold Siberia, where the criminals were being exiled, to katorga (labour camps), and the second was the ‘warm Siberia’ - Georgia and the Caucasus, where those were sent whom the government would not see as trustworthy and would prefer to keep them in the periphery, close to the state borders. That is how the representatives of various religious movements appeared in Georgia - these were Doukhobors, Molokans, Skoptsy (castrates), Subbotniks (Sabbatarians), and many others. That is how, in the nineteenth century, we got the huge number of diverse religious dissidents of the Russian Empire that found their new homeland in Georgia and the Caucasus.
By the decree of 1830 by the Russian emperor Nikolay I the religious denominations that had split from the Russian Orthodox Church were identified as heretics, and their resettlement to the Caucasus has officially begun. These were the exiles from the Tambov, Saratov and other gubernias in Central Russia, who got settled, besides Tbilisi, in Javakheti, Lower Kartli, and Kakheti.

[@CursedDoll_]

I am a descendant of the Molokans that immigrated to San Francisco in the early 1900s. I’m related to the Cherimisins and Klistoffs.

[@CaucasianHouse]

Thanks for your nice comment, the lady tells the story of their arrival in Georgia, that time, it was a party of the Russian empire, she also mentioned the Cherimisins. I hope the film was interesting for you and your family.

[@user-em5ql7vs7o]

И в Грузии и в Азербайджане и в Армении оставшиеся молокане говорят, что нет, они нас не обижали и не обижают ( титульная нация). Возникает вопрос Так почему тогда все разъехались. Как известно от хорошего никто бежит.............??

[@user-rm1ih5ue7p]

Языкк... Религия... КРАССИВЫ.... ТЫ лучше Спой... На ГОЛОСА... МУЖСКИЕ...как.. Т ТОГДА..... КрыльЦэ.. россии. И.... Я ПЕЧАЛЬ.. Твою.. ПОЙму.