15-09-2002

In September, 70 years have passed since the murder of pioneer hero Pavlik Morozov in the remote Siberian village of Gerasimovka. Alexander Shchuplov talks about this mysterious event with the author of the first independent investigation “Informer 001, or the Ascension of Pavlik Morozov” - writer and professor at the University of California Yuri Druzhnikov. Druzhnikov was recently nominated for the 2002 Booker Prize.

1. What is the essence of the feat of Pavlik Morozov? Please tell us the official version of the myth.

Now even the older generation forgets the hero's feat.

Omitting the prettiness of Soviet sources, let me remind you: the pioneer Pavlik Morozov reported to the OGPU that his father was against the Soviet regime. In this way he helped the building of communism. The party's enemies killed the boy. After a heroic death, he received an official position: “Hero Pioneer of the Soviet Union No. 1,” as he is recorded in the Book of Honor of the Komsomol Central Committee. All the children of the country, and then the entire socialist camp, began to study his biography in class in order to act like Pavlik in life. - In different cities of Russia to this day there are his bronze, granite, and more often concrete statues, which were cast on the conveyor. There are schools bearing his name, ships, libraries. The press called the boy a "martyr of the idea."

The place where he was killed was written as a shrine, and Pavlik as a saint.

In the atheistic Soviet press, this meant only fundamental spiritual values.

I will add: in the history of mankind, not a single child has been honored with such glory.

2. How long have you been involved in this topic? Are there documents on the murder case of Pavlik Morozov? Have you met witnesses, friends, relatives?

In the forties, I sang in the choir the song “Look up to Pavel Morozov!”, And in the seventies they stopped publishing me. He wrote for the table and for samizdat, printed abroad. In a well-known institution, they explained to me that I was a “former writer” and showed me the opened criminal case. They pushed me out of the country, but they didn’t let me go, they threatened me with a camp and a psychiatric hospital. They denounced all of us, I wanted to understand: what pushes you to knock on friends? Pavlik was a symbol of this activity.

As soon as I compared his biographies in the library, fraud immediately surfaced: photographs of different faces under the same name. The case was exciting. They explained to me in the archives that there were no documents on the Morozov case. Sometimes they silently pointed upwards. Having traveled to thirteen cities, I carefully recorded on film and photographed living witnesses. I found the mother of the hero Tatyana, brother Alexei, who served a piece of gold for espionage, relatives, classmates, teachers, investigators in the murder case, archives of the first journalists who wrote about him, finally, thanks to my secret assistants, part of the materials of the Secret Political Department of the OGPU with the stamp “ K” (kulaks).

I was the last one who managed to catch eyewitnesses. Most of them now report only to God.

I was especially lucky in 1982 - on the fiftieth anniversary of the death of my favorite hero. Colleagues went to the homeland of Pavlik Morozov in Gerasimovka to put on him, as the Americans say, “make-up a new layer of makeup. And although I was driving with the opposite goal: to wash the old layer, it never occurred to anyone. The book “Informer 001, or the Ascension of Pavlik Morozov” went to samizdat, first in London, then in other countries.

But I read it chapter by chapter on Radio Liberty, and it became known in my homeland.

3. How, according to your investigation, did the events really unfold?

-“The young communist”, who imprisoned his own father, became a national hero. Here is how Pionerskaya Pravda wrote about Morozov: “Pavlik does not spare anyone ... His father got caught - Pavlik betrayed him. Grandfather got caught - Pavlik betrayed him. Shatrakov covered his fist with a weapon - Pavlik exposed it. Silin speculated - Pavlik brought him to light water. Pavlik was raised and raised by a pioneer organization. A remarkable Bolshevik grew out of him.” Half a century later, it began to sound not very attractive, and the image began to change. During the collapse of the USSR, dissertations were written, proving that Pavlik did not inform at all, but was simply a hero.

In fact, the myth and the real teenager from the Sverdlovsk region do not fit together. Based on numerous testimonies, I prove that Pavlik Morozov denounced his father not at all for the sake of the party and socialism.

Just taught my mother

and to inform his son in order to take revenge on his father: he went to another woman. There were no kulaks in Gerasimovka, with whom Pavlik fought, but on instructions from above it was necessary to kindle a class struggle in the countryside. The district committee of the party and the OGPU acted through the teacher. She was the wife of a village informer and ordered the children to peep where the neighbors' grain was hidden. Peasants were robbed, schoolchildren were used as gunners. In addition to a couple of denunciations, Pavlik has no merit for his homeland. The collective farm, which Pavlik defended from enemies, did not exist.

Who needed the brutal murder of a teenager, and even with his brother and close to the village? A command came from above: shoot kulaks everywhere and organize collective farms at any cost. The OGPU prepared a response to the terror of the kulaks - the KGB terror. And since the peasants behaved peacefully, it was necessary to "organize" the terror of the kulaks. “In response to the murder,” the Chekists drove the peasants into the hut and kept them at gunpoint until they signed up as collective farmers. For the bloody murder of Pavlik and his brother, more than ten peasants were arrested - as the newspapers wrote, "anti-Soviet persons", a "kulak gang".

4. Is it true that the trial of the murderers of the pioneer Morozov looked like a performance?

“Fist Show Trial” was in fact the first show of its kind. Eyewitnesses did not forget him and told me the details. The Stalin Club on Stalin Street in the regional center of Tavda was hastily rebuilt. Telegrams were sent from above: “Send delegates to the process”, “Organize a red convoy with bread as a gift to the state”. They brought a brass band. Vodka was drunk without restriction. Chekists with rifles stood around the club, let them through the lists. A black curtain slowly crawled across the stage, revealing red slogans. On the back hung a portrait of Pavlik, painted by a local artist. On the left is the call: “We demand that the killers be sentenced to death!”. Right: "Let's build the Pioneer Pavlik Morozov aircraft!".

5. But was the crime of the accused somehow proven?

There was no consequence. The corpses were ordered to be buried before the arrival of the investigator without examination. Journalists also sat on the stage as accusers, speaking about the political importance of shooting kulaks. The lawyer accused the defendants of murder and left to applause. Different sources report different methods of murder, the prosecutor and the judge were confused about the facts. A knife with traces of blood found in the house was called the murder weapon, but Danila was slaughtering a calf that day - no one checked whose blood it was. The accused grandfather, grandmother, uncle and cousin of Pavlik Danila tried to say that they were beaten and tortured. The shooting of the innocent in November 1932 was the signal for a massacre of peasants throughout the country.

6. Who do you think actually killed the Morozov children?

In the documents of the Secret Political Department of the OGPU that I found, the killers are not Pavlik's relatives, but two Chekists. Their names are in the book, I also looked them up. Spiridon Kartashov, an assistant to the authorized Special Department of the OGPU, told me that he personally shot 38 people without trial during collectivization. Would have killed more, but was expelled from the authorities due to epileptic seizures. However, he received a well-deserved pension. Another - Ivan Potupchik - Kartashov's informant in the village of Gerasimovka, boasted to me how he later engaged in executions in the punitive division of the NKVD. In the prosecutor's office of Magnitogorsk, I found his case: he sat down for raping an underage girl, but they pulled him out, made him the head of the personnel department of the plant. Both of these people are now dead, but the complex chain of evidence has been carefully examined, they are criminals.

I want to emphasize: my investigation is literary. And the accusation, therefore, verbal. But there is still no other serious one, although it is necessary. Everything that has been written since the appearance of my book 20 years ago, so far only obscures the truth. “Case No. 374 on the murder of Pavlik Morozov” in the court archive is just the tip of the iceberg. You don't have to look there. The practical responsibility for this murder lies with the OGPU-KGB, in Lenin's words, "the armed part of the party," and the party itself is responsible for the moral corruption of millions of other underage pavliks.

7. What was Pavlik Morozov like in life?

He was never a pioneer. After his death, he was named a pioneer, first in the secret documents of the OGPU, and then in the newspapers. They came up with a legend that he was “invited to the district” and there he was accepted as a pioneer. Over the years, they added that the hero was "the first chairman of the pioneer detachment." In the same way, after his death, he was made Russian, because hero No. 1 should be the “big brother”, and Pavlik, his parents and the whole village are Belarusians. All the Morozovs, resettled in Siberia by the Stolypin reform, were in good health, their mother died at about ninety. They would have to live and feed the country with bread, but the immediate goal of the authorities was to destroy the “kulak” families, to take away bread for the army and cities. The boy Morozov himself is not to blame for anything. He, as established, was mentally retarded, by the age of thirteen he had barely learned the letters, he did not understand politics at all. He took care of cattle, went for berries, smoked cigarettes, played point for cuffs. If he had not been killed on September 4, 1932, he would now be 84.

8. How was the heroization of Pavlik Morozov?

Pavlik was born in Siberia, and created in bronze in Moscow. Denunciations poured into Moscow from all over the country. A year after Pavlik's death, Pionerskaya Pravda assured: "Millions of keen eyes will follow ...". And in December 1937, the Pravda newspaper in the front line called for denunciations from everyone: “Every honest citizen of our country considers it his duty to actively help the NKVD in their work.”

At first, Pavlik was used for the war with the fists. Two years later - as a positive hero of literature, a role model, as Gorky stated at the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934. Books about him were sent, Eisenstein began to shoot a film. Created hundreds of works in different genres - from poems to opera. His portraits are in art galleries, on postcards, postage stamps, matchboxes. No one has yet calculated the total amount of government spending on propaganda of betrayal, when people in the country were dying of hunger. They were going to erect a monument to him where Marshal Zhukov is now sitting on a horse, but at the end of his life, Stalin changed his mind, and they put it in the backyard of that time, on Krasnaya Presnya.

It seems that I am now the only “collector of Pavlikov Morozovs” in the world. They were created in all regions and republics. I have collected information about fifty young heroes who were killed for denunciations, but thousands survived. According to various American sources, there were between 6 and 18 million volunteer informants in the Soviet Union. The number of scammers was not counted, but they wrote a lot in the thirties, how they were rewarded with trips to Artek, bicycles and new shoes.

9. What are the lessons of the myth about Pavlik Morozov?

The monument to the hero-informer 001 in August 1991 was thrown off by Muscovites. Those who had been knocking confidently all the years and who had remained in this responsible job began to fidget. By the irony of history, two products were in short supply during the perestroika years: soap and shame. How to wash off? Soap can be brought in. Where can you get shame? It smelled of revelations, but they did not take place. In one newspaper, I read an ambiguous article about Pavlik Morozov and a very specific interview with a colonel from the organs, who spoke of the need to "strengthen the network of non-staff employees in each team." It was this institution, fearing exposure in the era of a showdown with the cult of personality of Stalin, that ordered the remains of the Morozov brothers to be dug out of the graves at night, the bones mixed in one box and poured with a two-meter layer of concrete to make exhumation impossible.

My investigation, published in different countries, could not be released in Russia until 1995. Instructions to keep Pavlik as a hero were given centrally. Apparently, the more open mouths, the more ears are required. The paradox is that the myth about Pavlik began to work against the FSB itself, which changed gender from male to female (Committee for Service), and, therefore, cares more about its face. Communist class morality, the symbol of which Pavlik, as you know, is different from normal. After all, lying to the class enemy, according to this morality, is justified and even useful "for our common cause." When the percentage of truth increases, the percentage of hypocrisy becomes more visible. Another aspect of Pavlik Morozov's case has also arisen - the international one. In the West, I saw for myself, they watched what was happening with curiosity. Inside, you can compose cantatas for an informer, you can powder the case, as if he did not inform. But as long as the leaders of the country have a different morality from the rest of humanity, they cannot be trusted. Neither in global issues, nor in small things.

Pavlik died, but his cause, as long as he has defenders, lives on.

Illustrations:

1. A fragment of a unique photograph found by Druzhnikov: Pavlik Morozov (indicated by an arrow) with classmates two years before his death. At the top left is his so-called killer Danila Morozov.

2. In the West, publishing this photo, the newspapers wrote that the author of the book “Informer 001” Druzhnikov toppled the monument to Pavlik Morozov, but this is an exaggeration.

Pavel Morozov who is he, a hero or a traitor?

The story of Pavel Morozov is well known to the older generation. This boy was included in the ranks of pioneer heroes who performed feats for the sake of their country and people and entered the legends of the Soviet era.

According to the official version, Pavlik Morozov, who sincerely believed in the idea of ​​socialism, told the OGPU about how his father helps kulaks and bandits. Morozov senior was arrested and convicted. But his son paid for his deed, and was killed by his father's relatives.

What is true in this story, and what is propaganda fiction, unfortunately, has not been figured out so far. Who, in reality, was Pavel Morozov, and what was done in reality?

Biography of Pavlik Morozov

Pavel Trofimovich Morozov was born on November 14, 1918 in the village of Gerasimovka, Tavdinsky district of the Ural region. His father, Trofim Morozov, became the chairman of the village council of his native village. It was a tough time.

Back in 1921, the peasants of Central Russia started a revolt, rebelling against the Bolshevik surplus appraisal, which took away the last grain from the people for the proletarians.

Those of the rebels who survived the battles went to the Urals or were convicted. Someone was shot, someone was amnestied after a few years. Under the amnesty two years later, five people, the Purtov brothers, who played their role in the tragedy of Pavel, also fell.

The boy's father, when Pavlik reached the age of ten, left his wife and children, leaving for another family. This event forced the young Morozov to become the head of the family, taking all the care of his relatives.

Knowing that the power of the Soviets was the only shield for the poor, with the advent of the 1930s, Pavel joined the pioneer organization. At the same time, his father, having taken a leading position in the village council, began to actively cooperate with the kulak elements and the Purtov gang. Here begins the story of the feat of Pavlik Morozov.

Feat (version of the times of the USSR)

The Purtovs, having organized a gang in the forests, hunted in the vicinity by robbery. Only 20 proven robberies are on their conscience. Also, according to the OGPU, the five brothers were preparing a local coup against the Soviets, relying on special settlers (kulaks). Trofim Morozov provided active assistance to them. The chairman provided them with blank documents, issuing fake certificates of poor condition.

In those years, such certificates were an analogue of a passport and gave the bandits a quiet life and legal residence. According to these documents, the bearer of the paper was considered a peasant of Gerasimovka and did not owe anything to the state. Pavel, who fully and sincerely supported the Bolsheviks, reported his father's deeds to the competent authorities. His father was arrested and sentenced to 10 years.

Pavlik paid for this report by losing his life, and his younger brother Fyodor was deprived of his life. While picking berries in the forest, they were slaughtered by their own relatives. At the end of the investigation, four people were convicted for the murder: Sergey Morozov - paternal grandfather, Ksenia Morozova - grandmother, Danila Morozov - cousin, Arseniy Kulukanov - Pavel's godfather and his uncle.

Kulukanov and Danila were shot, grandparents died in custody. The fifth suspect, Arseniy Silin, was acquitted.

After all these events, Pavlik Morozov took first place in the future numerous series of pioneer heroes. But over time, historians began to ask questions and question the facts that were considered indisputable. By the beginning of the 90s, people appeared who called the boy not a hero, but a traitor and informer. One version says that Morozov Jr. tried not for the sake of Bolshevik power, but following the persuasion of his mother. According to this version, she persuaded her son to slander, offended by the fact that her husband left her with her children. This option is not relevant, the father still helped his family a little, supporting them financially.

Another interesting fact is the documents of the OGPU. According to some of them, the denunciation was not necessary. The authorities had evidence of the participation of Trofim Morozov in the activities of the gang. And Pavlik was only a witness in his father's case. The boy was threatened with an article for complicity! His father, unsurprisingly then, was illiterate. And Pavel wrote out those very certificates with his own hand, on sheets of student notebooks. These leaflets are present in the archives, but he remained only a witness, assuring these facts before the OGPU officers.

Causes controversy and one more thing. Was the first pioneer hero in the ranks of the pioneers at all? It is definitely difficult to answer this question. In the thirties, there was still no document in use certifying belonging to the pioneers of the Soviet Union. Also, no evidence of Pavlik Morozov's belonging to the pioneer community was found in the archives. The pioneers of the village of Gerasimovka are known only from the words of the school teacher Zoya Kabina.

Trofim Morozov, Pavlik's father, was locked up for ten years. But, according to some reports, he was released after three years for successful work on the Belomor Canal, and even awarded. It's hard to believe it. Other versions are more plausible. One of them says that the former chairman was shot in 1938. But there is no confirmation of such an event. The most common opinion says that the elder Morozov served time and left for the Tyumen region. There he lived out his years, keeping a secret relationship with the famous son.

Such is the story of Pavlik Morozov, who became the first pioneer hero. Subsequently, the Soviet government was accused of false propaganda, denying or misrepresenting the events of those distant times. But everyone is free to draw conclusions and determine their attitude to those old cases.

Most of the people living in the countries of the former USSR will be able to answer the question of what Pavlik Morozov did. Indeed, its history is well known, and the name has long become a household name. True, unlike the communist version, history has now acquired a rather negative character. What did Pavlik Morozov do? A feat worthy of being known and remembered for many centuries to come? Or is it an ordinary denunciation that has nothing to do with heroism? In search of the truth, one will have to hear the supporters of both versions.

background

Pavlik Morozov was the oldest child in the family of Tatyana and Trofim Morozov. In addition to him, the parents grew up three more boys. As far as we know from the surviving memories, the family lived on the verge of poverty - the guys didn’t even really have clothes. A piece of bread was obtained with difficulty, but, despite this, the boys attended school and diligently learned to read and write.

Their father worked as the chairman of the Gerasimovsky village council and was far from the most popular person. As it became known later, the children "swelled from hunger" not because of the poor earnings of their father. It's just that the money did not reach the house, settling in the pockets of card cheats and vodka dealers.

And Trofim Morozov turned over considerable sums, and he had a completely thieves' biography. Pavlik Morozov knew what his father was doing: appropriation of confiscated things, various documentary speculations, as well as covering for those who had not yet been dispossessed. In a word, he actively interfered with the advancement of state policy. It can even be said that Pavlik's father himself became a full-fledged fist.

The starving children did not even know about it, because very soon daddy finally stopped appearing at home, moving to his mistress. From this point on, the continuation of the story diverges. For some, it acquires a connotation of heroism, while for others it is perceived as an ordinary judicial situation. But what did Pavlik Morozov do?

USSR version

Pioneer Pavlik Morozov was an ardent admirer of the teachings of Marx and Lenin and sought to ensure that his state and people came to a bright communist future. The very idea that his own father was doing everything to break the achievements of the October Revolution was disgusting to him. As a loving son and a person with high moral principles, the hero Pavlik Morozov hoped that his father would come to his senses and become right. But everything has a limit. And at some point, the boy's cup of patience overflowed.

As the only man in the family, after the departure of his father, he had to carry the entire household. He renounced his parent, and when the family ties finally weakened, he acted like a true communist. Pavlik Morozov wrote a denunciation against his father, where he fully described all his crimes and connections with the kulaks, after which he took the paper to the appropriate authorities. Trofim was arrested and sentenced to 10 years.

Rebuild version

Like any Soviet idol, the young Pavlik Morozov also had to "fall". The truth about his life immediately began to be investigated by historians who turned over dozens of archives to find out what the essence of the pioneer's act was.

Based on these data, they concluded: Pavlik Morozov did not hand over his father into the hands of the Soviet law enforcement system. He only gave testimony, which helped to once again make sure that Trofim is an enemy of the people and a corrupt official who has committed many crimes. In fact, the father of the pioneer was caught, as they say, "hot" - they found fake documents with his signatures. In addition, it should be noted that many members of the village council were arrested and convicted along with him.

Why Pavlik Morozov betrayed his father, if you can call it testifying about the crimes of his relative, you can understand. Probably, the young pioneer did not even think much about kinship - from childhood, dad was a real "scourge" for the family, who did not let his wife or children pass. For example, he stubbornly did not let the boys go to school, believing that they did not need a letter. This despite the fact that Pavlik had an incredible craving for knowledge.

In addition, Trofim Morozov at that time was no longer even a family man, living with his new passion and drinking endlessly. He didn't just not care about the children - he didn't even think about them. Therefore, the son's act is understandable - for him it was already a stranger who managed to bring a lot of evil to the Morozovs' house.

But the story is not over

In fact, there would be no hero if it were not for the events that occurred further, which led to the fact that Pavlik Morozov became a real great martyr of the Soviet era. A close friend of the family (Paul's godfather) Arseny Kulukanov decided on revenge. Since he had previously actively dealt with Trofim, and was a "fist", the arrest of a close comrade hit the future killer's financial situation very badly.

When he learned that Pavel and Fyodor had gone into the forest for berries, he persuaded his middle brother Danila, as well as the grandfather of the Morozovs, Sergey, to go after them. What exactly happened then is unknown. We know only one thing - our hero (Pavlik Morozov) and his younger brother were brutally murdered, or, to be more precise, stabbed to death.

The evidence against the "gang" that had gathered for the murder was the found household knife and Danila's bloodied clothes. DNA examinations did not yet exist, therefore the investigation decided that the blood on the shirt belonged to the brothers of the arrested person. All participants in the crime were found guilty and shot. Danila Morozov immediately recognized all the accusations as true, grandfather Sergei either denied or confirmed his guilt, and only Kulukanov preferred to go into deep defense during the trial.

Propaganda

The Soviet nomenklatura simply could not miss such an opportunity. And the point is not even in the very fact of testifying against the father - this happened all the time at that time, but in disgusting and low revenge for this. Now Pavlik Morozov is a pioneer hero.

The crime, which received publicity in the press, produced a huge response. The authorities cited him as proof of the cruelty and greed of the "kulaks": they say, look what they are ready for because of the loss of material gain. Massive repressions began. Dispossession broke out with renewed vigor, and now any wealthy citizen was in danger.

The fact that Pavlik Morozov betrayed his father was lowered - after all, he did it for the sake of a just cause. The boy who put his life in the foundation of building communism has become a real legend. He was set as an example to follow.

Pavlik Morozov, the feat of the young communist and fighter for the ideas of October, became the subject of a huge number of books, productions, songs and poems. His personality occupied a truly enormous place in the culture of the USSR. In fact, it is very simple to assess the scale of propaganda - now everyone knows the general plot of what happened to this boy. He was supposed to show the children how much more important collective values ​​are in comparison with personal and family interests.

Druzhnikov and his theory

In connection with such close attention of the authorities to the incident, the writer Yuri Druzhnikov put forward the idea of ​​falsifying the crime and purposely killing Pavlik by the authorities for his further "canonization". This version formed the basis of the study, which later resulted in the book "Informer 001".

It questioned the entire pioneer biography. Pavlik Morozov Druzhnikov was brutally murdered by the OGPU. This assertion is based on two facts. The first one is the record of interviewing a witness allegedly found by the writer in the case of the murder of the Morozov brothers. Everything would be fine, but the protocol was drawn up two days before the discovery of the corpses and the identification of the criminals.

The second position, which Druzhnikov cites, is the absolutely illogical behavior of the killer. According to all the "rules", such a cruel crime should have been tried as best as possible to hide, but the accused did everything literally the other way around. The killers did not bother to bury the corpses or at least somehow hide them, but left them in full view right next to the road. The crime weapon was carelessly thrown at home, and no one thought to get rid of the bloody clothes. Indeed, there are some contradictions in this, isn't it?

On the basis of these theses, the writer concludes that before us is an unreal story. Pavlik Morozov was killed by order, specifically in order to create a myth. Druzhnikov states that according to the materials of the case, which are available in the archives, it is clear that the judge and witnesses are confused and are talking incoherent nonsense. In addition, the accused repeatedly tried to say that they were tortured.

Soviet propaganda hushed up the attitude of fellow villagers to the denunciation of the boy. The writer claims that "Pashka the Communist" is the least offensive nickname of all that the guy received for his "feat".

Reply to Druzhnikov

Druzhnikov's version deeply offended Pavel's only surviving brother, who, after the publication of the book in the UK, declared that he could not tolerate such treatment of the memory of his relative.

He wrote an open letter to the newspapers, where he condemned the "trial" that was arranged for Pavlik. In it, he recalls that in addition to the legend, there is also a real person, a real family who suffered from these events. He cites the times of Stalin, also full of slander and hatred, as an example, and asks: "Are all these 'writers' different from the liars of that time in many ways?"

In addition, it is alleged that the arguments found by Druzhnikov do not coincide with the memories of the teacher. For example, she denies that Pavlik was not a pioneer. Indeed, in his book, the writer says that only after the tragic death of the boy was he assigned to a youth organization in order to create a cult. However, the teacher remembers exactly how a pioneer detachment was created in the village, and the joyful Pavlik received his red tie, which was then taken off and trampled by his father. She was even going to sue an international court to defend the already immortalized heroic story called Pavlik Morozov. History did not wait for this moment, as it turned out that, in fact, Druzhnikov and his theory were not taken seriously by anyone.

Among British historians, this book literally caused ridicule and criticism, as the writer contradicted himself. For example, he wrote clearly and clearly that there is no more unreliable source of information than Soviet documents, especially if they relate to the legal system. And the author himself used these records to his advantage.

Ultimately, no one argues - the facts of the crime in the USSR were clearly hushed up and hidden. The whole story was presented exclusively in tones favorable to the leadership. However, there is no evidence that everything that happened is a fiction and a deliberately planned operation. The case rather proves how cleverly any incident can be turned out by propaganda.

Supreme Court

and the related crime were not overlooked during the prosecution's investigation into the rehabilitation of victims of political cases. Attempts were made to find evidence of an ideological background in the murder of the boy. The commission conducted a deep and thorough investigation, after which it declared with responsibility: the murder of Pavel and Fedor is pure criminality. This meant, first of all, the recognition by the new government of a low and vile crime, and on the other hand, it overthrew Pavlik from his pedestal, declaring him dead not at all in the fight against the kulaks.

antihero

Now Pavlik Morozov acts more like an anti-hero. In the age of capitalism, when everyone should think about himself and his family, and not about the general team, the people, his "feat" can hardly be called such.

The betrayal of one's own father is viewed from a completely different position, as a low and vile act. Now in culture, the boy has become a symbol of an informer who was not worthy of being recorded as pioneer heroes. Pavlik Morozov has become a negative character for many. This is evidenced by the destroyed monuments to the hero.

Many see mercenary intent in his testimony - he sought to take revenge on his father for his childhood. Allegedly, Tatyana Morozova did the same, trying to intimidate her husband and force him to return home after the trial. Some writers and culturologists find the very meaning of Pavlik's feat terrible - an example for children that teaches them to inform and betray.

Conclusion

Probably, we will never fully find out who Pavlik Morozov really is. Its history is ambiguous and is still full of secrets and understatement. Of course, you can look at it from completely different angles, presenting information as you like.

But, as they say, there was a cult, but there was also a personality. It is worth trying to look at the whole tragedy from another angle, given the difficult time in which Pavlik Morozov and his family lived. It was an era of terrible change, a painful, cruel and destructive period. The USSR lost a lot of intelligent and smart people in connection with the purges. People lived in constant fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

In fact, at the center of events lies the simple tragedy of another family that lived at that time. Pavlik is neither a hero nor a traitor. He is just a young man who has become a victim of cruelty and revenge. And we can talk about mystification and propaganda as much as we like, but we should never forget about the existence of a real person.

In every totalitarian power there was a similar story. Even in Nazi Germany there was a hero boy who fell at a young age for the sake of an idea. And so it always is, because this image is one of the most advantageous for the propaganda machine. Isn't it time to just forget the whole story? To pay tribute to an innocently fallen child and no longer use it as evidence of anything, no matter whether the greed of the kulaks or the horrors of the USSR.

Pavel Timofeevich Morozov was born in 1918 in the village of Gerasimovka, Sverdlovsk Region. He organized the first in his native village and actively campaigned for the creation of a collective farm. The kulaks, which included Timofey Morozov, actively opposed the Soviet regime and plotted to disrupt the grain procurements. Pavlik accidentally found out about the impending sabotage. The young pioneer stopped at nothing and exposed the kulaks. The villagers, who learned that the son had handed over his own father to the authorities, brutally dealt with Pavlik and his younger brother. They were brutally killed in the forest.

Many books have been written about the feat of Pavlik Morozov, songs and poems were composed about him. The first song about Pavlik Morozov was written by the then unknown young writer Sergei Mikhalkov. This work made him overnight a very popular and sought-after author. In 1948, a street in Moscow was named after Pavlik Morozov and a monument was erected.

Pavlik Morozov was not the first

There are at least eight known cases of children being killed for denunciations. These events took place before the murder of Pavlik Morozov.

In the village of Sorochintsy, Pavel Teslya also denounced his father, for which he paid with his life five years earlier than Morozov.

Another seven similar cases occurred in various villages. Two years before the death of Pavlik Morozov, informer Grisha Hakobyan was stabbed to death in Azerbaijan.

Even before the death of Pavlik, the Pionerskaya Pravda newspaper told of cases when fellow villagers brutally killed young informers. The texts of children's denunciations were published here, with all the details.

Followers of Pavlik Morozov

The brutal reprisals against young scammers continued. In 1932, three children were killed for denunciations, in 1934 - six, and in 1935 - nine.

The story of Proni Kolybin, who denounced his mother, accusing her of stealing socialist property, is noteworthy. A beggar woman collected fallen spikelets on a collective farm field in order to somehow feed her family, including Pronya himself. The woman was imprisoned, and the boy was sent to rest in Artek.

Mitya Gordienko also noticed a couple on the collective farm field, who were collecting fallen spikelets. As a result, on the denunciation of the young pioneer, the man was shot, and the woman was sentenced to ten years in prison. Mitya Gordienko received a premium watch, "Lenin's grandchildren", new boots and a pioneer suit as a gift.

The Chukchi boy, whose name was Yatyrgin, learned that the reindeer herders were going to take their herds to Alaska. He informed the Bolsheviks about this, for which the enraged reindeer herders hit Yatyrgin on the head with an ax and threw him into a pit. Thinking the boy is already dead. However, he managed to survive and get to "his". When Yatyrgin was solemnly accepted as a pioneer, it was decided to give him a new name - Pavlik Morozov, with whom he lived to old age.

His name became a household name, he was used in politics and propaganda. Who was Pavlik Morozov really?
He twice became a victim of political propaganda: in the era of the USSR, he was presented as a hero who gave his life in the class struggle, and during perestroika, as an informer who betrayed his own father. Modern historians question both myths about Pavlik Morozov, who became one of the most controversial figures in Soviet history.

Portrait of Pavlik Morozov based on the only known photograph of him

The house where Pavlik Morozov lived, 1950

This story took place at the beginning of September 1932 in the village of Gerasimovka, Tobolsk province. Grandmother sent her grandchildren for cranberries, and a few days later the bodies of the brothers with traces of violent death were found in the forest. Fedor was 8 years old, Pavel - 14. According to the canonical version generally accepted in the USSR, Pavlik Morozov was the organizer of the first pioneer detachment in his village, and in the midst of the struggle against the kulaks, he denounced his father, who collaborated with the kulaks.

As a result, Trofim Morozov was sent to a 10-year exile, and according to other sources, he was shot in 1938.

In fact, Pavlik was not a pioneer - a pioneer organization appeared in their village only a month after his murder. The tie was later simply added to his portrait. He did not write any denunciations about his father. His ex-wife testified against Trofim at the trial.

Pavlik only confirmed his mother's testimony that Trofim Sergeevich Morozov, being the chairman of the village council, sold certificates to migrant kulaks about being registered with the village council and that they had no tax debts to the state. These certificates were in the hands of the Chekists, and Trofim Morozov would have been tried even without the testimony of his son. He and several other district chairmen were arrested and sent to prison.

N. Chebakov. Pavlik Morozov, 1952

Relations in the Morozov family were not easy. Pavlik's grandfather was a gendarme, and his grandmother was a horse thief. They met in prison, where he guarded her. Pavlik's father, Trofim Morozov, had a scandalous reputation: he was a reveler, cheated on his wife and, as a result, left her with four children. The chairman of the village council was really dishonest - that he earned on fictitious certificates and appropriated the property of the dispossessed, all his fellow villagers knew.

There was no political connotation in Pavlik's act - he simply supported his mother, who was unjustly offended by his father. And the grandmother and grandfather for this hated both him and his mother. In addition, when Trofim left his wife, according to the law, his allotment of land passed to his eldest son Pavel, since the family was left without a livelihood. Having killed the heir, relatives could count on the return of the land.

Relatives accused of killing Pavlik Morozov

An investigation began immediately after the murder. Bloody clothes and a knife were found in the grandfather's house, with which the children were stabbed. During interrogations, Pavel's grandfather and cousin confessed to the crime: allegedly the grandfather held Pavel while Danila stabbed him. The case had a huge impact. This murder was presented in the press as an act of kulak terror against a member of a pioneer organization. Pavlik Morozov was immediately hailed as a pioneer hero.

Pavlik Morozov - a pioneer hero in the era of the USSR

Only many years later, many details began to raise questions: why, for example, Pavel's grandfather, a former gendarme, did not get rid of the murder weapon and traces of the crime. The writer, historian and journalist Yuri Druzhnikov (aka Alperovich) put forward a version that Pavlik Morozov denounced his father on behalf of his mother - in order to take revenge on his father, and was killed by an OGPU agent in order to cause mass repressions and the expulsion of kulaks - this was the logical conclusion to the story about villainous fists who are ready to kill children for their own benefit.

Collectivization took place with great difficulty, the pioneer organization was poorly received in the country. In order to change people's attitudes, new heroes and new legends were needed. Therefore, Pavlik was just a puppet of the Chekists, who sought to arrange a show trial.

Yuri Druzhnikov and his sensational book about Pavlik Morozov

However, this version caused massive criticism and was crushed. In 1999, the Morozovs' relatives and representatives of the Memorial movement secured a review of this case in court, but the Prosecutor General's Office came to the conclusion that the murderers had been convicted justifiably and were not subject to rehabilitation on political grounds.

Monument to Pavlik Morozov in the Sverdlovsk region, 1968. Pavlik's mother Tatyana Morozova with her grandson Pavel, 1979

Pioneers visit the site of the death of Pavlik Morozov, 1968

Writer Vladimir Bushin is sure that it was a family drama without any political overtones. In his opinion, the boy only counted on the fact that his father would be frightened and returned to the family, and could not foresee the consequences of his actions. He only thought about helping his mother and brothers, since he was the eldest son.

The school where Pavlik Morozov studied, and now there is a museum named after him

Museum of Pavlik Morozov

No matter how the story of Pavlik Morozov is interpreted, his fate does not become less tragic. His death served the Soviet government as a symbol of the struggle against those who do not share its ideals, and in the perestroika era it was used to discredit this government.

Monuments to Pavlik Morozov

Monument to Pavlik Morozov in the city of Ostrov, Pskov region

For those who do not remember who Pavlik Morozov is, we offer the official version of those events .