Ivanovka

Ivanovka was settled in the nineteenth century by Molokans, a Russian dissenting Christian group exiled to the Caucasus, and it is one of the few places where that community remains substantial. The village kept its collective farm long after they were dissolved everywhere else - the last one in the country - which is why the fields, dairy and machinery yards look the way they do. Wooden houses with painted shutters, kitchen gardens and a Molokan prayer house give the village an appearance quite unlike anything around it.

History

Russian peasants, mostly Molokans from central Russia, founded the village in 1834, resettled in the Caucasus under Tsar Nicholas I after the Treaty of Turkmenchay, and more Spiritual Christians from central Russia, the Volga and Novorossiya followed; in 1840 it was named after Ivan Pershiy, who had chosen the site. Three artels merged into one collective farm in 1936, its chairman Nikolay Nikitin was made a Hero of Socialist Labour in 1971, and in 1995 the farm, then the only remaining collective farm in Azerbaijan, was named after him (Wikipedia, İvanovka).

Highlights

• The village houses - Russian wooden architecture with painted shutters and fenced gardens.
• The collective farm - fields, dairy and workshops of the country's last kolkhoz.
• The prayer house - the Molokan meeting house, plain and without icons.
• The food - Molokan home cooking, sold and served in village houses.

When to go

May to October is the season, with the harvest in late summer and autumn the most active. The village is high enough to be cool in summer. Winter is quiet and cold with snow on the surrounding hills.

Things to know

This is a working village, not a heritage site, and there is nothing laid on for visitors beyond a couple of guesthouses. The Molokan population has fallen sharply through emigration and the community is much smaller than it was. Photographing people and the prayer house should be asked about first.

Nearby

Lahij is over the ridge to the east, and Ismayilli is twenty minutes away.

Key facts