Azerbaijan · Ismayilli · Ivanovka
Molokans
Russian Spiritual Christians who found a new home on Azerbaijani soil two centuries ago. Their faith without icons or priests, their labour and their songs still live in the village of Ivanovka.
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Azerbaijan · Ismayilli · Ivanovka
Russian Spiritual Christians who found a new home on Azerbaijani soil two centuries ago. Their faith without icons or priests, their labour and their songs still live in the village of Ivanovka.
Who the Molokans are
The Molokans are Russian "Spiritual Christians" who, back in the Russian Empire, rejected the official church, icons and clergy. For this they were persecuted and exiled — including to the Caucasus.
Here, among the mountains of Ismayilli, they built villages, ploughed the land and kept their way of life. Today their main hearth in Azerbaijan is the village of Ivanovka.
Five faces of the community
"A Molokan lives by prayer, labour and the word — and needs no icons to remember God."
On the Spiritual Christians
The last collective farm
Ivanovka is the only place in Azerbaijan where a working collective farm has survived from Soviet times. People here still work together and treasure the land as a common possession.
About IvanovkaToday
There are ever fewer Molokans in Azerbaijan, but Ivanovka remains a living island of their culture — and part of the country's multi-ethnic heritage.
