Pavlik Morozov

Pavel Trofimovich Morozov ( _ru. Па́вел Трофи́мович Моро́зов; November 14, 1918 – September 3, 1932), better known by diminutive Pavlik, was a Soviet youth glorified by the Soviet Union propaganda as a martyr. His story, dated to 1932, is that of a 13-year old boy who denounced his father to the authorities and was in turn killed by his family. It was a Soviet morality tale: opposing the state was selfish and reactionary, and state was a higher virtue than family love. His story was a subject of compulsory children readings, songs, plays, a symphonic poem, a full-length opera and six biographies. The cult had a huge impact on moral norms of generations of children. Orlando Figes "The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia", 2007, ISBN 0-08050-7461-9, pages 122-126. ] There is very little original evidence related to the story, much of it a hearsay provided by second-hand witnesses. According to modern research, the story (denunciation, trial) is most likely a fictional tale, although Pavlik was a real child who was murdered. Morozov's story was the basis of "Bezhin Meadow", an unreleased film from 1937 that was directed by Sergei Eisenstein.

The propaganda story

The most popular account of the story is as follows: born to poor peasants in Gerasimovka, a small village 350 kilometers north-east of Sverdlovsk, Morozov was a dedicated communist who led the Young Pioneers at his school, and a supporter of Stalin's collectivization of farms. In 1932, at age 13, Morozov reported his father to the political police (GPU). Supposedly, Morozov's father, the Chairman of the Village Soviet, had been "forging documents and selling them to the bandits and enemies of the Soviet State" (as the sentence read). The elder Morozov, Trofim, was sentenced to ten years in a labor camp, and later executed. However, Pavlik's family did not take kindly to his activities: on September 3 of that year, his uncle, grandfather, grandmother and a cousin murdered him, along with his younger brother. All of them except the uncle were rounded up by the GPU and convicted to "the highest measure of social defense" - execution by a firing squad.

Thousands of telegrams from all over the Soviet Union urged the judge to show no mercy for Pavlik's killers. The Soviet government declared Pavlik Morozov a glorious martyr who had been murdered by reactionaries. Statues of him were built, and numerous schools and youth groups were named in his honour. An opera and numerous songs were written about him. Gerasimovka's school, which Morozov attended, became a shrine and children from all over the Soviet Union went on school excursions to visit it.

During the investigation of Trofim Morozov's case his wife Tatyana Morozova, Pavel's mother, stated that Trofim Morozov used to beat her and bring home valuables received as payment for selling forged documents. Pavel, who was only 13 at that time, just confirmed evidence given by his mother.

Later research

It has been suggested since the collapse of the Soviet Union that Pavlik Morozov may not have been as perfect as it was supposed. Catriona Kelly in her 2005 book "Comrade Pavlik: The Rise and Fall of a Soviet Boy Hero" makes it clear that the official version of the account is almost wholly bogus, the evidence sketchy and based mostly on second-hand reports by alleged witnesses, and that Pavlik did not snitch on his parents and was murdered after a mundane squabble. Kelly also shows how the official version's emphasis shifted to suit the changing times and propaganda lines: in some accounts, Pavlik's father's crime was not forging the documents, but hoarding grain; in others, he was denounced not to the secret police, but to the school-teacher. In some accounts, the method of Pavlik's death was decapitation by saw. The one surviving photograph of him shows a malnourished child, who bears almost no resemblance to the statues and pictures in children's books. It has also been said that he was nearly illiterate and was coerced to inform on his father by his mother, after Pavlik's father deserted the family.

Yuri Druzhnikov performed an investigation, met with surviving eyewitnesses, and wrote a documentary book about Pavlik in the mid-1980s. It was printed by samizdat and translated into several languages. (Юрий Дружников, "Доносчик 001, или Вознесение Павлика Морозова") In his book, Druzhnikov disputes every aspect of the Soviet propaganda version of Pavlik's life. For example, different sources in Soviet literature listed different ages for Pavlik, when he was killed; in the Soviet textbooks, there were differing photographs of Pavlik all showing different boys; the fact that Pavlik was not a pioneer when he was killed. According to the Soviet source, Pavlik's grandfather was responsible for his murder; according to Druzhnikov, grandfather was heartbroken about the death of Pavlik, organized the search when the boys went missing, and maintained his innocence during the trial. While not saying it outright, Druzhnikov hints that Pavlik was killed by an GPU officer, with whom Druzhnikov met while doing his research.

Druzhnikov did not have access to the archives on the case, so his theory is mostly conjecture. Kelly, who did have access to the archives, makes clear in her book that Druzhnikov's theory that Pavlik was killed by the GPU is as unlikely as the official story. Druzhnikov accuses Kelly of extensive plagiarism from its book, and also in "dependences on those who has admitted she in archives", i.e. from employees FSB - successors of GPU. [ [http://magazines.russ.ru/voplit/2006/3/dru12.html Æóðíàëüíûé çàë | Âîïðîñû ëèòåðàòóðû, 2006 N3 | Þ. ÄÐÓÆÍÈÊÎÂ - Êàòðèîíà Êåëëè, Ïàâëèê Ìîðîçîâ è Ëóáÿíêà. ] at magazines.russ.ru]

According to most resent research, Gerasimovka was described in the Soviet press as "kulak nest" because all villagers refused to join the kolkhoz, a state-controlled collective farm during the collectivization. Pavlik informed on neighbors when they did something wrong, including his own father who left the family for another woman. Pavlik was not a Pioneer, although he wanted to be one. There is no evidence that the family was involved in the murder of the boys, which was probably a work of other teenagers with whom Pavlik had a squabble over a gun.

References

* [http://economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4032697 Death in Taiga: Soviet Childhood] , The Economist, 2nd Jun 2005, last accessed on 18 Jun 2005
*Yuri Druzhnikov, "Informer 001: The Myth of Pavlik Morozov", Transaction Publishers, 1996 ( [http://lib.ru/PROZA/DRUZHNIKOV/morozow.txt online, in Russian] ).
*Catriona Kelly, "Comrade Pavlik: The Rise and Fall of a Soviet Boy Hero", Granta Books, 2005

External links

* [http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/363/10951_morozov.html Soviet Hero Pavlik Morozov Still Mysterious]
* [http://hnn.us/readcomment.php?id=27304 Squalid truth of Stalin's little martyr]