by Paul R. Spitzzeri
For this Women’s History Month, we are highlighting, from the Museum’s artifact collection, a March 1918 publication, “The Russians in Los Angeles,” issued by the Southern California Sociological Society of the University of Southern California (a prior post here featured a 1920 publication on the Japanese in rural Los Angeles County) and written by Lillian Sokoloff, a recent graduate of the institution.
The piece was offered as “Sociological Monograph No. 11” in the “Studies of Sociology Series” edited by Emory S. Bogardus (1882-1973), who joined the faculty in 1911 at U.S.C. after earning his doctorate at the University of Chicago and became head of the sociology department, while becoming a leader in the field over subsequent decades.
One of the students in the new department established by Bogardus was Sokoloff (1885-1967), who was born with the name Luba to Samuel Sokolovsky and Manya Malinoff in Poltava, then part of the Russian Empire and now in northeastern Ukraine and being terribly impacted by the war raging there for the last four years.
In mid-December 1895, the Jewish family, known by Sokoloff thereafter, migrated to the United States and settled in the general Broadway Triangle area of Brooklyn. Samuel was a grocer and from her early teen years, Lillian, who had a brother Benjamin, worked in sales. It is not known why the Sokoloffs came to Los Angeles by 1910, but there was a growing Russian Jewish presence in the Angel City during the first years of the 20th century.
The family settled on North Bunker Hill Avenue, an area discussed in our most recent post on some Bunker Hill history, and then in the adjoining Victor Heights area near today’s Chinatown and Elysian Park, with Samuel opening his own dye works establishment. Lillian enrolled at the state Normal School for teacher education, located where the Central Public Library was opened a century ago this year and which was the precursor to the University of California, Los Angeles.
In June 1911, Sokoloff graduated and, in the yearbook where students were listed as characters in a play, she, known as “Sokey,” was “seen in limelight” with the phrase “chasing up stories,” while her cue was “you must write something” and her next act was stated to be “a genius.” In September, she was assigned, apparently as something of a substitute teacher, to the Utah Street School, now part of the Aliso Village community in Boyle Heights.
The area and school was largely comprised of recent Russian immigrants and it is obvious why Sokoloff was assigned to the campus, given her origins, knowledge of the Russian language and so forth. By 1914, it looks as if she was transferred to the nearby Second Street School and the Los Angeles Tribune of 18 November reported that,
Russian girls in native costume served tea before the Parent-Teacher association [for that school]. . . yesterday afternoon, when a talk on Russian life in California was given by Miss Sokoloff. The latter is a native Russian and a student in the University of California.
Sokoloff, of course, was attending U.S.C. at that time and she earned her bachelor’s degree in June 1916, even though the publication remarked that “the author of this monograph was graduated from the University of Southern California in 1915.” The Los Angeles Times of 9 June 1916 lists her among 456 graduates and in the grouping from the College of Liberal Arts.
In its edition nine days later, the paper reported that her parents threw her a graduation party on the 11th at their home, with 100 guests in attendance, including many U.S.C. grads. The piece added that Sokoloff was then on the faculty of Sentous Intermediate School, situated on Pico Boulevard and now where a parking lot for the Los Angeles Convention Center is located.
Sokoloff continued her teaching career for many years and was twice married, but little could be found of her aside from many references to her monograph, of which the publication noted that “this study was made as a phase of the work in the Sociology seminar” at U.S.C. In the introduction, Sokoloff recorded that “there are approximately 3750 Russian in Los Angeles,” while “of this number abot 100 are Pravloslavni, or ‘followers of the true faith,'” meaning officially with the Russian Orthodox Church, but “actually many are now free-thinkers.”
As for the vast majority, they were sectarians who were “given the chief place in this monograph,” though Sokoloff added that “no Russian Jews are included,” as her focus was on the Russian division of the Slavic race.” She continued that “of the sectarians, 3300 are Molokans (milk drinkers), 50 are Dukhobors (evil spirit fighters), and 250 are Subotniks (Judaized Russians.) The first-named comprised 200 Postoyani (steady) and 3,100 Priguni (jumpers).
Sokoloff remarked that “the first group of Molokans, who came here in 1905, settled around Bethlehem Institute on Vignes Street,” which was established about a decade prior in what is no an industrial section just south of U.S. 101.” She continued that “when others came, a few bought homes along Clarence and Utah streets,” this in the Flats section adjacent to the Los Angeles River in Boyle Heights, co-founded by William H. Workman in 1875, and included the school where she recently taught.
As the Russian community grew, the account went on, it largely constituted “the district situated between Boyle Avenue on the east, and the Los Angeles River on the west, and between Aliso Street on the north [basically where the 101 and Interstate 10 meet now] and Seventh Street on the south.” Sokoloff added that “recently there has been a new settlement made along what is known as Salt Lake Terrace several blocks east of the larger colony” and that “on that street are located many of the somewhat better homes.”
That thoroughfare, named for the depot of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, on the east bank of the river, was basically in the path of the 101 in the area near 1st and 3rd streets, so it is unclear what is meant by “several blocks east of the larger colony.” In any case, Sokoloff added that “in a hollow south of Stephenson Avenue and east of Mott Street, there is a group of about sixty houses occupied by Russians only.” The former street is now Whittier Boulevard, so that section would be near the Boyle Heights Sports Center and Park and close to the interchange of the 101, Interstate 5 and the 60 Freeway.
The next section is “Sectarian Emigration from Russia” and the writer observed that “to understand the Russians in Los Angeles, it is necessary to consider briefly their historical backgrounds.” Sokoloff noted the rise of dissenters in “Great Russia” to mid-17th century changes in the Orthodox Church, particularly in regions south of Moscow and east of Ukraine.
She continued that “prominent among the religious sects that developed, were the Dukhobors, the Molokans, and the Subotniks,” the latter those who became Jews. This, she added, was not due to any direct contact with Jew, who were not living in that part of Russia at the time, but because they embraced Judaism as a result of reading the Old Testament.”
The first-named group, Sokoloff commented, maintained “a belief in the divinity of Christ, and the brotherhood of man,” but did not “believe in any earthly representative of God; they have no church leaders, and no icons or image,” while also foregoing services and were strictly war objectors as well as abstaining from the use of alcohol and tobacco.
As to the Molokans, the writer stated that their religious practices came from the Dukhobors and “they call themselves Spiritual Christians, or New Israelites, with the common moniker, derived from “moloko,” or milk, “was first applied to them in 1765 by a religious sect in the Government of Tambov because adherents drank milk daily, while the Orthodox avoided it on the fast days of Wednesday and Friday.
It was added that “the Molokans had no definite form of religion for many years,” but Protestant theologian like Calvin and Luther had a significant influence. When the empire sought to have more Russians in the Caucasus areas of the south, up to 40,000 of these dissenters settled there and Sokoloff wrote that, for about a century, they were generally left undisturbed, but conditions changed by the last quarter of the 19th century.
What followed, she continued, was more onerous taxation and forced military service, from which they were previously exempt. “Some of the more educated among them foresaw disastrous times because of inevitable wars in which Russia was to engage” so “they therefore began to consider the advisability of emigrating,” though most who left were Jews and some Poles, “but scarcely any Russians proper.” In the last couple of years of the century, however, “many of the Dukhobors left the Caucasus region and went to Western Canada where several thousands now live.”
In 1904, war broke out between Japan and Russia and Sokoloff observed that “the beginning [of the conflict] inaugurated a new era of persecutions for the sectarians in southeastern Russia” including more forced enlistments in the army, which involved poor treatment by other Russians. Given this, she went on, “it is therefore not surprising that these people became disgusted with conditions such as the experienced, and longed to leave the country.”
The Dukhobors in western Canada contacted their compatriots in the home country and many of the latter left to join them. Sokoloff observed that,
Among these were several Molokans who at first visited to the Dukhobors, but not finding Canada inviting, they traveled along the Pacific Coast shopping at many placed until they reached Los Angeles. They were favorably impressed by this city, and beginning with 1905, they began to come and continued to do so until outbreak of the European War [World War One, in summer 1914].
A very small number of the Russians left their families behind when they came here. Those who did so, usually sent for them in a short while. There are approximately the same number of each sex here.
The earliest located reference to the Molokans is from the 9 February 1905 edition of the Times, which informed readers that “another company of Russian peasants of the sect of ‘Molokans,’ or Russian Quakers, arrived yesterday” and that “they were received with a warm welcome by the colony located east of the Los Angeles River, in ‘the flats’ of the Ninth Ward.”
The paper continued that more were coming from the eastern states and that, with those 100 migrants, the total number in the Molokan community would reach about 400. Sources close to the newcomers stated that “this is only the beginning of an immigration which will give Southern California a large settlement of industrious, frugal and desirable citizens.”
After adding that these arrivals were farmers and that they were searching for land on which to practice agriculture, with a 30,000-acre tract, the location of which was not mentioned, was under consideration thanks to an unnamed Los Angeles firm, the article remarked that “the newcomers are not paupers nor beggars,” though they had to flee without much of their worldly goods or money. Moreover, accounts of their being extorted by officials in Europe on their way were followed by the remark that,
However, they are industrious and save their earnings, and it is expected by those familiar with the life of the Molokans that here the colonists will soon accumulate property and eventually become a prosperous community.
Also of note was communication with Peter A. Demens of the Southern California Mill Owners’ Association, though it was not mentioned by the Times that he was born Pyotr Dementyev, who among other activities was a co-founder of and was said to have named St. Petersburg, Florida after his hometown and was a key figure in the Alta Loma area of Rancho Cucamonga, heading the local citrus association and founding its packing house, while his 1890 residence still stands.
The Times remarked that,
Four years ago Capt. Demens received letters from the Molokans in the Caucasus, stating that they were so dissatisfied with conditions in Russia that they wished his help in investigating locations in America which might prove suitable for their colonization. He set on foot inquiries which showed him that the Molokans were excellent farmers, sober, reliable, industrious: much above the average Russian peasant, and mostly well-to-do.
It was added that, in 1902, a half-dozen visitors came to Los Angeles as part of something of an inspection tour and then returned to Russia “satisfied that California was the land for which they had been seeking.” Word of what these investigators found “were circulated throughout the settlements of the Molokans in Russia, and the movement to emigrate took form.”
Notably the paper recorded that, “the first small party arrived in Los Angeles last May” and more groups came when they were able to leave southern Russia, deemed “difficult to accomplish as the Russian passport laws are rigid.” In fact, some would-be immigrants were caught and imprisoned while others were deported, while Demens was credited for expending $5,000 to transport some to Los Angeles, while the piece concluded that the average expense per family for migration was about $1,000.
It is also worth noting a 1908 article by Mary A. Clarke in the magazine of the Pacific Electric Railway that was one of the first, in-depth pieces about the Molokan (Spiritual Christian) community in the Angel City, though Sokoloff made no mention of either Demens or Clark in her monograph.
We’ll return next with part two as Sokoloff turned to “An Investigation of Fifty Families” relating to her specific studies of Molokan families while at USC, so be sure to join us then!
While reading this post, I was reminded of another historic site established by Russian immigrants in Southern California, in Glendora. It is said that a Russian community took shape there in the early 1950s, when a group of religious families, exiled to America seeking a new home.
Although those settlers and their descendants have long gone following the decline of the citrus industry, St. Andrew’s Orthodox Church – the former spiritual heart of the community still stands quietly and steadfastly at its original site.