by Eduardo Storch
A couple of years ago we went for a tour with some friends through the northwest of Uruguay.
One of the stops was in San Javier, a city on the coast of the Uruguay River, in the department of Río Negro, 370 kilometres from the capital, Montevideo, founded by Russian immigrants in July 1913,
I had read on the internet and in some newspaper reports about the history of the Russians in Río Negro. As far as I was able to inform myself, some 300 families, led by Vasili Lubkov, whom they called the prophet, arrived in Uruguay to found "The Kingdom of God on Earth".
It was a group called "New Israel", then considered a "sect" by the Orthodox religion from which they had split, and they were fleeing from tsarist persecution.
From what I could read they were families originally from the western Vorónezh region and they constituted the largest autonomous Russian agricultural colony in South America, which quickly became a great success. They brought the sunflower and with it the installation of the first sunflower oil factory in the country, which marked an important period of commercialization in the area.
In 1913 only Russians came, but in 1914 small groups of Ukrainians arrived in Montevideo and knowing of the presence of the Russian colony of San Javier, they joined it. Over time there were people from different nationalities, all Slavic, and the Russian, Ukrainian and Polish languages were mixed, also with Spanish.
After marriages with people from the area and the birth of the first Uruguayan children, they have assimilated a lot and gradually adopted local customs, although they maintain some of the customs of their ancestors.
Today there are about 2,000 residents, very few speak the language and only feel those origins as part of their family history.
Last week we returned to this place and we went to the only restaurant where they serve typical food.
Being there I commented that my maternal grandparents came from Lithuania and my paternal grandparents came from Poland, although currently the city where my father was born is in Ukraine, to which they replied that "before it was all the same"…
From what is currently happening, it would seem that political leaders keep trying to change the borders again and again…
Due to the war of Russia against Ukraine, many journalists have gone to find out what the people of San Javier thought about. From what I have read, some prefer not to comment and others only say they are against any armed conflict.
The restaurant is called “Na Zdorovie” and they offer piroshki (dumplings), Shashlik (Шашлык), Varéniki (Varéники), borsht beetroot soup and also Pirog (пирог) which is a cake, among other things. They also have a wine and honey liquor called Kvas.
The people are very friendly and the food was very tasty, but for me, obviously, my grandmother's was much better, as was my mother's. However, the food and the aromas, as often happen, allowed me to evoke my childhood
After lunch we walked a bit around the city, few people were on the streets as is usually the case in small inland cities, especially on a Saturday afternoon, and we went to a small museum where some items brought by the first immigrants have been preserved, as samovars, vintage furniture, ornaments, babushkas and amazing photos from the immigrants.
We had asked for the address of a neighbouring beekeeper who sold honey and made Kvas.
We went to his house, he received us very kindly, we bought some of his products and I also took the opportunity to take some photos. He is a very nice person with whom I spoke for a long time. He told me about some of the photos he had posted on the wall, particularly a photo of a pickup truck since my father had one just like it.
As I left he called me back and filled my hand with roasted and salted spinner seeds.
From San Javier, we went to Colonia Ofir, where we had also been the previous time.
This small agricultural and dairy colony dates from 1951 when some groups of families from Prussia, Russia and Poland settled a few kilometres from San Javier. They were a group of Russian immigrants from a region bordering China, belonging to an ultra-conservative variant of Orthodox Christianity, known as "Starovieri" that apparently dates back to the 16th century when the Russian Orthodox Church split in two and, given the changes in the rites that the new orthodoxy practised, were persecuted and had to flee Russia like the inhabitants of San Javier.
On our previous visit, we passed by the house of one of them, we asked him if he sold cheese and in the meantime, we took the opportunity to talk briefly. He told us that he has arrived there more tan 50 years ago and that before reaching Uruguay they had to go through China, (where they were persecuted again) and some of them emigrated to Argentina, others to Canada and the smaller group to Uruguay. Here they also settled in the department of Río Negro, close enough to the Russians of San Javier, and far enough to live according to their customs.
They are reserved, maintain their customs, and have rarely spoken to the press. They do not use the internet and do not allow cameras. However, before they told us that they did not want us to take photos I had already taken some.
This time, we went back to buy cheese and he reminded us of the previous time. When he saw me with the camera, he told me not to take photos, so I refrained from doing so. He also told us that he was not in good health. His wife was washing the porch of the ranch, and the youngest of his 6 children brought us the cheese.
Except for some children from a neighbouring house, dressed in the old style, we did not see more people among the few houses in the neighbourhood.
I will share some of the photographs of which Ofir's from the previous visit
