Baku, Azerbaijan, April 17
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
In 1834 members of the Molokan religious community set up home in Ismayilli region of Azerbaijan, according to well-known European TV channel Euronews's story about the life of the Molokans in Azerbaijan.
Ivanovka village is well known in Azerbaijan. The descendants still speak Russian and keep up Russian traditions. Catherine the Great exiled them from Russia. They only pray directly to
God, according to the story.
"In their traditional 'praying house' there are no icons, no candles, no decoration and no priests," Matvei Ermolov, Ivanovka, a village elder, says. "Euronews was granted rare permission to film their prayers. The elders sit at the top. If there's a question that needs do be resolved we, the men, stay after the ceremony and think about how to solve it."
Almost every house in Ivanovka has a traditional Russian stove. It is not used every day - just on special occasions.
Ivanovka is open to new arrivals. John Howarth is from the UK. He came here for a one-day visit and decided to stay and now he and his wife Tatiana run a guest house in the village.
"John buys duck and eggs from the neighbours," according to the story. "We often get people here coming on the Silk Way route, coming from the Europe or coming from the East. And they come through Ivanovka and they all stop at our house so we get all the nationalities here."
John's neighbours are Anastasia and Vasili Kozlotsev. Their home and way of life is a window
onto the past, when the first Molokans arrived in Ivanovka.