From The Oakland Tribune, Tuesday, November 22, 1938, page 8D:
"Will Jews Follow Russians To Exile In Lower Calif.?
Hardships Suffered by Refugees Indicate Failure for Colonization Attempts
ENSENADA, Lower California, Mex., Nov. 22.—(U.P.) —Long-bearded, blue-eyed Russians, strangely out of place in this drowsy seaport town, may hold the answer today to one phase of the problem of finding a refuge for the persecuted Jews of middle Europe.
Reports that a combine of influential Jewish citizens in New York hoped to promote Jewish colonization in Lower California have served to bring the Russians out of obscurity.
Thirty-four years ago they migrated from southern Asia Minor to the Guadalupe Valley, in Lower California, to escape oppression and with the hope of establishing a land of their own where they might worship as they pleased. Molokan Russians, originally from the steppes of central Russia, they have found freedom to worship. They have paid for that freedom in the dwindling away of their young members and in the hardships of prolonged drought.
Because their religious principles were irritating to the Romanoff’s, the Molokans were driven to the province of Kars in Caucasia. Even there they were not safe from the Czar's agents or from racial hatred. In 1903 commissions of Molokan leaders journeyed to France, Canada and America.
From the glowing reports sent back of Lower California by Michael Agalsoff, the Molokans decided to leave Caucasia and settle in the Guadalupe Valley.
99-YEAR LEASE
There Agalsoff still lives. He recalls how the 30 valiant families arrived and founded new homes on a 1500-acre tract leased from the Mexican Government for $72,000 or 99 years.
For a while the colony prospered. The valley was one of the few semi-fertile areas in the long arm of land reaching down from California. But fears of drought wiped out the gains they had made. There has been a ceaseless battle with nature for a bare subsistence.
The colony now numbers less than 300 compared to some 450 in 1919. Many fell victim to the battle with nature; others became discouraged and left; the younger generation has felt life too confining and many have moved to the United States.
DOOMED TO FAILURE
Land experts have pointed out that there are only some half dozen valleys on the peninsula capable of supporting considerable numbers of people; that there are few streams for irrigation purposes, and there is no great intrinsic wealth such as mineral deposits in the area.
Reports that despite the tribulations of the Russian colony the Jews hoped to establish a haven for the persecuted members of their race in Lower California drew widespread interest.
Consensus of those familiar with the area was that any such project would be doomed to failure, or at least would be extremely difficult to carry out."
