Life in a new land: Russian Molokans in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "California: Post-1850s Consumption and Use Patterns in Negotiated Spaces" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In the early 1900s, Molokans, a Russian-speaking religious community, immigrated to the United States to avoid religious persecution and conscription into the Tsars army. Smaller groups of Molokans settled throughout California and Baja California but the largest concentration was in East Los Angeles.

Housed in the “Russian Flats” of Boyle Heights, the community established churches and a cemetery. A distinctive cultural element in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city at the time, the Molokan community has been almost entirely forgotten. Research on the Molokan Cemetery in East Los Angeles and associated documentary sources identifies useful pathways for further scholarship and restoration and preservation of the site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• California: Post-1850s Consumption and Use Patterns in Negotiated Spaces

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 983