During the investigation and trial of his father, who left their family, Trofim Morozov, chairman of the Gerasimovsky village council, testified against him in support of his mother's testimony. A few months later, Pavel and his 8-year-old brother Fyodor, who went to the forest for berries, were found dead with stab wounds.
Their own grandfather Sergei (Trofim Morozov's father) and 19-year-old cousin Danila were accused of the murder, as well as grandmother Ksenia (as an accomplice) and Pavel's godfather, Arseniy Kulukanov, who was his uncle (as a village "fist" - as an initiator and organizer of the murder). After the trial, Arseny Kulukanov and Danila Morozov were shot, octogenarian Sergei and Ksenia Morozov died in prison. Another uncle of Pavlik, Arseniy Silin, was also accused of complicity in the murder, but during the trial he was acquitted.
According to the official version, the young pioneer Pavlik Morozov bravely exposed the crimes of the kulaks against the Soviet regime and was killed by them out of revenge.
Biography
Official portrait of Pavlik Morozov. Made on the basis of a photograph with classmates - the only one in his life.
Family
Born in the family of Trofim Morozov, a red partisan, then chairman of the village council, and Tatyana Semyonovna Morozova, nee Baidakova. The father, like all the inhabitants of the village, was an ethnic Belarusian (a family of Stolypin immigrants, in Gerasimovka with). Subsequently, the father left the family (wife with four sons) and started a second family with Antonina Amosova; as a result of his departure, all the worries about the peasant economy fell on the eldest son Pavel. According to the recollections of Pavel's teacher, his father regularly drank and beat his wife and children both before and after leaving the family. Grandfather Pavlik also hated his daughter-in-law because she did not want to live with him on the same farm, but insisted on a division. According to Alexei, Pavel's brother, the father "loved only himself and vodka", he did not spare his wife and sons, not like foreign migrants, from whom "he tore three skins for forms with seals." Pavel's grandfather and grandmother also treated the family abandoned by their father to the mercy of fate: “Grandfather and grandmother were also strangers to us for a long time. Never offered anything, never greeted. Grandfather did not let his grandson, Danilka, go to school, we only heard: “You can manage without a letter, you will be the master, and Tatiana's puppies you have laborers."
According to the memories collected and presented in his book by Yuri Druzhnikov, Pavel was a physically weak, sickly, nervous and unbalanced boy. According to Solomein's entry, Pavlik "loved to hooligan, fight, quarrel, sing bad songs, smoke." Druzhnikov, referring to the words of Zoya Kabina, writes that Pavel studied poorly and rarely attended school, liked to play cards for money and sing thieves' songs. He liked to tease, poison someone: “No matter how much you persuade, he will take revenge, he will do it his own way. Out of spite, he often fought, simply out of a tendency to quarrel. In view of the family's poverty, he wore bast shoes and a tattered father's coat; was the dirtiest in the class, rarely washed. He was tongue-tied: he spoke with interruptions, gekaya, it is not always clear, in a half-Russian-half-Belarusian language, like: “But you can’t get past anymore.” Druzhnikov points out that in 1931 Pavel entered the first grade for the third time and was transferred to the second grade in the middle of the year, as he finally learned to read and write. However, it should be noted that often Pavel was not up to studying - as the eldest in the family, he had to work hard to feed the large family left by his father and try to escape from poverty.
Pavel's teacher recalled the general appalling poverty in the village of Gerasimovka:
The school I was in charge of worked in two shifts. At that time we had no idea about the radio, electricity, we sat by the torch in the evenings, we took care of the kerosene. There was no ink either, they wrote with beetroot juice. Poverty in general was appalling. When we, teachers, began to go from house to house, enrolling children in school, it turned out that many of them did not have any clothes. The children sat naked on the beds, covered themselves with some rags. The kids climbed into the oven and warmed themselves in the ashes.
We organized a reading room, but there were almost no books, and local newspapers came very rarely. To some, Pavlik now seems like a kind of boy stuffed with slogans in a clean pioneer form form and did not see it in the eyes, did not participate in pioneer parades and did not wear portraits of Molotov, like Amlinsky, and did not shout “toast” to the leaders.
Forced in such difficult conditions to provide for his family instead of his father, Paul nevertheless invariably showed a desire to learn. According to his teacher L.P. Isakova:
He was very eager to learn, took books from me, only he had no time to read, he often missed his lessons because of work in the field and housework. Then he tried to catch up, managed to do well, and even taught his mother to read and write ...
Doom
Pavel and Fyodor went to the forest, intending to spend the night there, on September 2 (in the absence of their mother, who had gone to Tavda to sell the calf). On September 6, their bodies were found. The protocol, drawn up by the district policeman Yakov Titov, reports:
Morozov Pavel was lying from the road at a distance of 10 meters, with his head to the east. There is a red bag over his head. Paul was given a fatal blow to the stomach. The second blow was delivered to the chest near the heart, under which there were scattered cranberries. Near Pavel there was one basket, the other was thrown aside. His shirt was torn in two places, and there was a purple blood stain on his back. Hair color - light brown, white face, blue eyes, open, mouth closed. There are two birches at the feet (...) The corpse of Fyodor Morozov was fifteen meters from Pavel in a swamp and a small aspen forest. Fedor was stabbed in the left temple with a stick, his right cheek was stained with blood. A mortal blow was inflicted with a knife in the belly above the navel, where the intestines came out, and the arm was also cut with a knife to the bone.
Trial
The case of the murder of pioneer Pavel Morozov
Demonstration trial of the chairman of the village council with. Gerasimovka, Tavdinsky district, Morozov Trofim gathered hundreds of people.
Read the indictment. The interrogation of witnesses began. Suddenly, the condensed silence of the measured course of the trial was pierced by a sonorous childish voice:
- Uncle, let me tell you!
There was a commotion in the hall. The spectators jumped up from their seats, the back rows poured into those sitting, there was a stampede at the doors. The chairman of the court with difficulty restored order ...
- It was I who filed a lawsuit against my father. As a pioneer, I refuse my father. He created a clear counter-revolution. My father is not the defender of October. He helped kulukanov Arsentiy in every possible way. It was he who helped the fists escape. It was he who hid the kulak property so that the collective farmers would not get it ...
- I ask that my father be brought to severe responsibility so that others will not be given the habit of defending the kulaks.
The 12-year-old pioneer witness Pavel Morozov finished his testimony. No. It was not a witness statement. It was a merciless indictment by the young defender of socialism against those who stood on the side of the frenzied enemies of the proletarian revolution.
Trofim Morozov, exposed by his pioneer son, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for liaising with local kulaks, fabricating false documents for them, and hiding kulak property.
Pioneer Pavel Morozov, after the trial, came to the family of his grandfather Sergei Morozov. Unfriendly met in the family of a fearless whistleblower. A blank wall of hidden enmity surrounded the boy. The native was a pioneer detachment. Pasha ran there as if he were his own family, there he shared joys and sorrows. There they taught him a passionate intolerance for the kulaks and their sing-alongs.
And when Pasha's grandfather, Sergei Morozov, hid kulak property, Pasha ran to the village council and exposed his grandfather.
In the winter, Pasha brought the kulak Silin Arseniy to fresh water, who did not fulfill a firm task, sold a cartload of potatoes to the kulaks. In the fall, the dispossessed Kulukanov stole 16 pounds of rye from the village Soviet field and again hid them from his father-in-law, Sergei Morozov. Pavel again exposed his grandfather and kulukanov.
At meetings during sowing, at the time of grain procurements, everywhere the pioneer activist Pasha Morozov exposed the intricate machinations of the kulaks and kulakists ...
And gradually, thoughtfully, preparations began for a terrible and bloody reprisal against the pioneer activist. First, Danila Morozov, Pavel's cousin, was dragged into the criminal conspiracy, and then his grandfather, Sergei. For a fee of 30 rubles, Danila Morozov, with the help of his grandfather, undertook to kill his hated relative. Kulukanov's fist skillfully fueled Danila's and grandfather's hostility towards Pavel. Pavel was increasingly met with brutal beatings and unequivocal threats.
“If you don’t leave the detachment, then I’ll slaughter you, the damned pioneer,” Danila wheezed, beating Pavel until he lost consciousness ...
On August 26, Pavel submitted a statement of threats to the district police officer. Either due to political short-sightedness, or for other reasons, the district policeman did not have time to intervene in the case. On September 3, on a clear autumn day, Pavel, together with his 9-year-old brother Fedya, ran into the forest for berries ...
In the evening, calmly in front of everyone, Danila Morozov and grandfather Sergei finished their harrowing and sat down and headed home.
Dear imperceptibly turned into the forest. We met Fedya and Pasha quite close ...
The reprisal was short. The knife stopped the rebellious heart of the young pioneer. Then, just as quickly, they finished with an unnecessary witness - nine-year-old Fedya. Danila and grandfather calmly returned home and sat down to dinner. Grandmother Ksenya also calmly and busily began to soak her bloody clothes. A knife was hidden behind the holy images in a dark corner...
One of these days, the case of the murder of pioneer activist Pavel Morozov and his nine-year-old brother will be heard on the spot in a show trial.
Active instigators of the murder are sitting on the dock - kulukanov, Silin, killers Sergei and Danila Morozov, their accomplice Ksenya Morozova ...
Pavel Morozov is not alone. People like him are legions. They unmask the grain-huggers, the plunderers of public property, they, if necessary, bring their fist-fisted fathers to the dock...
Morozov's role in his father's case is not entirely clear. Together with his mother, he testified at the preliminary investigation, stating that his father beat his mother and brought into the house things received as payment for the issuance of false documents (in fact, he could not see this, because his father had not lived with his family for a long time). In the murder case, it is noted that “On November 25, 1931, Pavel Morozov filed a statement with the investigating authorities that his father, Trofim Sergeevich Morozov, being the chairman of the village council and being connected with local kulaks, was engaged in forging documents and selling them to special settlers.” The denunciation was connected with the investigation into the case of a false certificate issued by the Gerasimovsky village council to a special settler; he allowed Trofim to be involved in the case. Trofim Morozov was arrested and tried in February next year.
Pavel, following his mother, spoke in court, but in the end was stopped by the judge due to his infancy. In the case of the murder of Morozov, it is said: “At the trial, son Pavel outlined all the details about his father, his tricks.” The speech allegedly delivered by Pavlik is known in 12 versions, mainly dating back to the book of the journalist Pyotr Solomein. In the record from the archive of Solomein himself, this accusatory speech is transmitted as follows:
| Uncles, my father created a clear counter-revolution, I, as a pioneer, am obliged to say this, my father is not a defender of the interests of October, but is trying in every possible way to help the kulak escape, he stood up for him with a mountain, and not as a son, but as a pioneer, I ask that my father be held accountable , because in the future I will not give the habit to others to hide the kulak and clearly violate the party line, and I will also add that my father will now appropriate the kulak property, took the bed of the kulak Arseny Kulukanov (the husband of T. Morozov’s sister and Pavel’s godfather) and wanted to take from him a haystack, but Kulukanov's fist did not give him hay, but said, let him take it better x ... |
The underlying reason, it is believed, was domestic: Tatyana Morozova wanted to take revenge on her husband who had left her and hoped, by scaring her, to return to her family.
The official version of the prosecution
The version of the prosecution and the court was as follows. On September 3, the “fist” Arseniy Kulukanov, having learned about the boys leaving for berries, conspired with Danila Morozov, who came to his house, to kill Pavel, giving him 30 rubles and asking him to invite Sergey Morozov, “with whom Kulukanov had previously colluded”, to kill him. Returning from Kulukanov and having finished the harrowing (i.e., harrowing, loosening the soil), Danila went home and relayed the conversation to grandfather Sergei. The latter, seeing that Danila was taking a knife, left the house without a word and went with Danila, telling him: "Let's go kill, look, don't be afraid." Finding the children, Danila, without saying a word, took out a knife and hit Pavel; Fedya rushed to run, but was detained by Sergei and also stabbed to death by Danila. " Convinced that Fedya was dead, Danila returned to Pavel and stabbed him several more times.».
The murder of Morozov was presented as a manifestation of kulak terror (against a member of the pioneer organization) and served as a pretext for widespread repressions on an all-Union scale; in Gerasimovka itself, it finally made it possible to organize a collective farm (before that, all attempts were frustrated by the peasants). In Tavda, in the club named after Stalin, a show trial of the alleged murderers took place. At the trial, Danila Morozov confirmed all the accusations, Sergei Morozov was contradictory, either confessing or denying his guilt. According to other sources, he did not confess to the murder at all. All other defendants pleaded not guilty. The main evidence was a household knife found at Sergey Morozov's, and Danila's bloodied clothes, soaked but not washed by Xenia (before that, Danila had slaughtered a calf for Tatyana Morozova). Of the accused, Arseniy Silin was acquitted, the rest were sentenced to death; Kulukanov and Danila were shot, octogenarian Sergei and Ksenia Morozov died in prison.
Yuri Druzhnikov's version
| 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. |
The decision of the Supreme Court of Russia
However, the attempt to present the murderers of the Morozov brothers as victims of political repression and subject to immediate rehabilitation ended in failure. The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia, having carefully considered the case, having studied all the documents, having weighed all the pros and cons, taking into account all the attendant circumstances, came to the following conclusion:
The verdict of the Ural Regional Court dated November 28, 1932 and the ruling of the judicial cassation board of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR dated February 28, 1933 in relation to Kulukanov Arseny Ignatievich and Morozova Xenia Ilyinichna should be changed: re-qualify their actions from Art. 58-8 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR at Art. Art. 17 and 58-8 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, leaving the previous measure of punishment. To recognize Sergey Sergeevich Morozov and Daniil Ivanovich Morozov as justifiably convicted in the present case for committing a counter-revolutionary crime and not subject to rehabilitation.
This conclusion, together with the materials of the additional verification of case No. 374, was sent to the Supreme Court of Russia, which in 1999 made a final decision and refused rehabilitation to the murderers of Pavlik Morozov and his brother Fyodor.
Reaction to Druzhnikov's book
| What kind of trial did they put on my brother? It's embarrassing and scary. My brother was called an informer in the magazine. Lie it! Pavel always fought openly. Why is he insulted? Has our family suffered a little grief? Who is being bullied? Two of my brothers were killed. The third, Roman, came from the front disabled, died young. I was slandered during the war as an enemy of the people. He spent ten years in the camp. And then they rehabilitated. And now slander on Pavlik. How to endure all this? They doomed me to torture worse than in the camps. It is good that my mother did not live to see these days ... I am writing, but tears are choking. So it seems that Pashka is again defenseless on the road. ... The editor of "Ogonyok" Korotich at the radio station "Freedom" said that my brother is a son of a bitch, which means my mother ... Yuri Izrailevich Alperovich-Druzhnikov worked his way into our family, drank tea with my mother, sympathized with us, and then published in London a vile book - a bunch of such disgusting lies and slander that, after reading it, I got a second heart attack. Z. A. Kabina also fell ill, she kept trying to sue the author in an international court, but where is she - Alperovich lives in Texas and laughs - try to get him, the teacher's pension is not enough. The chapters from the book “The Ascension of Pavlik Morozov” by this scribbler were circulated by many newspapers and magazines, no one takes my protests into account, no one needs the truth about my brother ... It seems that I have only one thing left - to douse myself with gasoline, and that's it! |
Yuri Druzhnikov stated that Kelly used his work not only in valid references, but also by repeating the book's composition, selection of details, descriptions. In addition, Dr. Kelly, according to Druzhnikov, came to the exact opposite conclusion about the role of the OGPU-NKVD in the murder of Pavlik.
According to Dr. Kelly, Mr. Druzhnikov considered the Soviet official materials unreliable, but used them when it was advantageous to support his account. According to Catriona Kelly, instead of a scientific presentation of criticism of her book, Druzhnikov published a "denunciation" with the assumption of Kelly's connection with the "organs". Dr. Kelly did not find much difference between the conclusions of the books and attributed some of Mr. Druzhnikov's criticisms to his lack of knowledge of the English language and English culture.
Disagreements
Veronika Kononenko claims, with reference to Morozov's teacher Zoya Kabina, "that it was she who created the first pioneer detachment in the village, which was headed by Pavel Morozov." According to the testimony of a professor at the University of California, Yuri Druzhnikov, however, the cabin told him: “There was no talk of pioneers. I couldn’t tell Solomein about joining the pioneers.” He also cites a phrase from Solomein’s archive: “And if we stick to the historical truth, then Pavlik Morozov not only never wore, but also never saw a pioneer tie,” which contradicts the memoirs of Pavel’s first teacher Larisa Isakova: “I didn’t have a pioneer detachment in Gerasimovka then I managed to organize it, Zoya Kabina created it after me, but I also told the guys about how children are fighting for a better life in other cities and villages. Once I brought a red tie from Tavda, tied it to Pavel, and he joyfully ran home. And at home, his father tore off his tie and beat him terribly. It is also possible that Pavel did not see a pioneer tie, but a pioneer form: “To some now Pavlik seems like a kind of boy stuffed with slogans in a clean pioneer form. And he, because of our poverty, this form and did not see in the eye ... ".
Druzhnikov claims that after the events described, Morozov earned general hatred in the village; they began to call him "Pashka-kumanist" (communist). According to official biographies, Pavel Morozov actively helped to identify bread-crowders, those who hide weapons, plot crimes against the Soviet regime, etc. . Druzhnikov considers these descriptions to be too exaggerated both in terms of the number and duration of Pavel's cooperation with the authorities; according to fellow villagers, Pavel was not a serious scammer, since “to inform is, you know, a serious job, but he was like that, a nit, a petty dirty trick.” In the murder case, only two such denunciations were documented: “In the winter of 1932, Pavel Morozov informed the village council that Silin Arseniy<его дядя>, having not completed a solid task, he sold a cartload of potatoes to special settlers. Another denunciation was against the peasant Mizyukhin, in whose place Pavel's grandfather Sergei allegedly hid a "walker" (a cart; a search was made at Mezyukhin, but nothing was found).
In fact, the main informant in the village was Pavel's cousin Ivan Potupchik (later an honorary pioneer; convicted of raping a minor).
Similar processes
During the days of the campaign associated with the murder of Pavlik, another well-known case was opened about the murder of Kolya Myagotin, a pioneer in the village of Kolesnikovo, Kurgan Region, on October 25 with fists. In this case, 12 people were convicted, 3 of them were shot. In 1996, the convicts were rehabilitated, as it turned out that Kolya, who had never been a pioneer, was shot dead at night by a watchman while stealing sunflower seeds. Yuri Druzhnikov counted in 1932 (after the murder of Pavel and Fedya) - 3, in 1933 - 6, in 1934 - 6 and in 1935 - 9 cases of murders of children, qualified by the authorities as the murder of pioneers for denunciations; in total, during the Stalin era, he noted 56 such cases.
Among the "pioneer-heroes" of this kind, there were also simply fictitious figures, like Grisha Hakobyan from Ganja, allegedly killed by "kulak sons" in October 1930 (invented on the instructions of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Azerbaijan).
glorification
Pavlik Morozov denounces his father. Rice. from the newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda"
Morozov's name was given to Gerasimov and other collective farms, schools, and pioneer squads. Monuments were erected to Pavlik Morozov in Moscow (, in the children's park named after him on Krasnaya Presnya; demolished in), the village of Gerasimovka () and in Sverdlovsk (). Poems and songs were written about Pavlik Morozov, an opera of the same name was written. In 1935, film director Sergei Eisenstein began working on the script for Alexander Rzheshevsky's Bezhin Meadow about Pavlik Morozov. The job could not be completed. Maxim Gorky called Pavlik "one of the little miracles of our era."
Pavlik Morozov in the public mind
Estimates of the personality of Pavlik Morozov and especially the propaganda campaign around his name have always been ambiguous. Along with glorification, there was a widespread negative attitude towards him, although in Soviet times it could not be expressed publicly.
In the adult environment, the attitude towards Pavlik Morozov was determined by the fact that he turned into a symbol of such a phenomenon that permeated Soviet society as denunciation. So, Galina Vishnevskaya wrote:
| And a worthy role model appears - the twelve-year-old traitor Pavlik Morozov, “heroically fallen in the class struggle”, awarded monuments, portraits for his betrayal, glorified in songs and poems, on which the next generations will be brought up. Pavlik Morozov, whom even today millions of Soviet children praise for denouncing his own father and grandfather. Just as in Nazi Germany they taught German children to inform on their parents, so here in Russia they began to consciously educate a generation of informers, already starting from school. |
With the beginning of perestroika, this attitude found public expression and became dominant. Pavlik Morozov began to act as a symbol of betrayal, along with Judas. In this spirit, for example, pastor Stanislav Vershinin mentions him in a sermon on the theme of Judas sin: “Nevertheless, few people want to see Judas Iscariot in themselves - it’s better to admit the nature of a murderer, Cain, in their “I” than such a vile traitor ! Is it so? Have you never betrayed yourself or your neighbor? Is there Pavlik Morozov among us?» . In the song of the same name by the rock group "Crematorium" Pavlik Morozov is presented as an indestructible evil, passing from one era to another:
Not everything is for sale, but everything Buy or rent. On occasion, a janitor can become a prince, And the killer becomes the judge. All new verses are torn from the old ones, The new priests blame everything on the dead. And all because Pavlik Morozov is alive Pavlik Morozov is alive Pavlik Morozov is alive Pavlik Morozov is more alive than all the living ...Nowadays, the perception of Pavlik Morozov as a victim of political "games" of adults is becoming dominant. It must be emphasized that the overwhelming majority of those who argue are extremely politically biased and biased persons, uninterested in establishing an objective picture of what happened.
Who is Pavlik Morozov? In the post-war years, a lot of controversy erupted around his legendary personality. Some saw a hero in his face, others claimed that he was an informer and did not accomplish any feat. The information that is established reliably is not enough to restore all the details of the event. Therefore, many of the nuances were added by the journalists themselves. Official confirmation is only the fact of his death from a knife, date of birth and death. All other events are subject to discussion.
Official version
In the Soviet Union, Pavel belonged to a host of so-called pioneer heroes. Pavlik Morozov was born in the Urals in 1918. He studied well at school and was a ringleader among his peers testify to the fact that he was an excellent student and was a leader among his peers. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia contains information that Pavel Morozov organized the first pioneer detachment in his village. The boy grew up in a large family. At an early age, he lost his father, who left for another woman, leaving the children in the care of his mother. Despite the fact that many worries after the departure of his father fell on the shoulders of Paul, he showed a great desire to study. This was later told by his teacher L.P. Isakova.
At his young age, he firmly believed in communist ideas. In 1930, according to the official version, he denounced his father, who, being the chairman of the village council, forged certificates to the kulaks that they were allegedly dispossessed.
As a result, Father Pavel was sentenced to 10 years. For his heroic deed, the boy paid with his life: he and his younger brother were slaughtered in the forest when the boys were picking berries. All members of the Morozov family were later accused of the massacre. His own paternal grandfather Sergey and 19-year-old cousin Danila, as well as grandmother Ksenia (as an accomplice) and Pavel's godfather - Arseniy Kulukanov, who was his uncle (as a village kulak - as the initiator and organizer of the murder) were found guilty of the murder of Yuyli . After the trial, Arseny Kulukanov and Danila Morozov were shot, octogenarian Sergei and Ksenia Morozov died in prison. Another uncle of Pavlik, Arseniy Silin, was also accused of complicity in the murder, but during the trial he was acquitted.
Interestingly, Pavlik's father, convicted of forgery, returned from the camps three years later. He participated in the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal and, after working for three years, returned home with an order for hard work, and then settled in Tyumen.
The act of Pavel Morozov was regarded by the Soviet authorities as a feat for the benefit of the people. He believed in a bright future and made a significant contribution to the building of communism, for which he paid with his life. They made a real hero out of Pavlik, while hiding some dubious facts from his life. Over time, this whole story turned into a legend, which became an example for many compatriots.
In the Urals, the construction of a museum of the most famous pioneer of all times and peoples, Pavlik Morozov, begins. Funds for the creation of the museum and the collection of materials were allocated by the Soros Foundation - the first batch of the "Morozov" grant, the total amount of which is $7,000, has already arrived in the village of Gerasimovka, Tavdinsky district. The creation of the museum will take about a year. Tavda schoolchildren, who are interested in history, and students of the history department of the Ural State University have already started collecting material. They will find out the whole truth about Pavlik Morozov with the assistance of the Yekaterinburg branch of the Memorial society. It is possible that thanks to the young frost experts, Russia, and the whole world, will learn a lot about the hero of the Soviet era, whose merits have recently been called into question - a year ago, the secrecy term in the case of the death of the legendary pioneer expired.
Pavlik Morozov died 71 years ago. During his short life, he became famous for several "exploits" (previously it was customary to write this word without quotes) - the young Pavel convicted his father Trofim Morozov, chairman of the village council, of selling clean forms with seals to the dispossessed. With the light hand of his son, Trofim was sent to Siberia for 10 years. Then a young associate of the Soviet government reported about bread hidden from a neighbor, accused his aunt’s husband of stealing state grain and stated that part of this grain was with his grandfather, 80-year-old Sergey Sergeevich Morozov, who at one time hid his property from confiscation and some stranger.
For his frankness, Pavlik paid with his life - he and his brother were killed while walking through the forest. The entire Morozov family was accused of reprisals against children - an uncle, an elderly grandfather, grandmother, cousin, and at the same time the father, who was arriving at that time in Siberia. All these people were soon shot, leaving only the mother of the dead boys alive.
The woman who received an apartment in Crimea as compensation for the death of her hero son lived a very long life - Tatyana Morozova died in 1983. Almost until her death, she traveled around the country, telling the young inhabitants of the USSR about the life and death of Pavlik. Apparently, in recent years, she herself no longer remembered what really happened to her family in the distant 30s.
After the collapse of the Union, the figure of Pavlik began to be perceived in a completely different way - at first they began to talk about the boy simply as an informer who sold his family, and then the very fact of his existence was called into question. Indeed, was there Pavlik? The boy's homeland contains very contradictory data on the dates of his birth and death, 12 different versions of his accusatory speech are stored in the archives, and there is no unambiguous description of the appearance of the "pioneer-hero" at all. The fact that the boy, as they say, was, at one time was confirmed by his teacher Lyudmila Isakova. She also claimed that Pavel did not care much about politics, he was much more worried about troubles in the family - the cruelty of an alcoholic father who cheated on his mother, the bullying of a despot grandfather. Tired of this nightmare, Morozov betrayed his loved ones.
In 1997, the administration of the Tavdinsky District applied to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to review the decision of the Ural Regional Court, which had sentenced Pavlik's relatives to death. The Prosecutor General's Office came to the conclusion that the Morozovs are not subject to rehabilitation on political grounds, since the case is purely criminal in nature. The Supreme Court agreed with this opinion.
Perhaps soon we will find out what really happened in Gerasimovka more than 70 years ago. In any case, the museum will be interesting because in their exposition the authors of the project will present "a whole era of collectivization, the role played by it in the fate of hundreds and thousands of people", an era whose iconic figure was Pavlik Morozov.
November 14, he could have turned 90 years old, but he forever remained 13 years old. Pavlik Morozov, over the past 76 years after his death, managed to be elevated to the rank of a pioneer hero and overthrown to a banal juvenile informer.
Pioneer Hero
To fully understand what happened in the early 30s of the last century in the remote Ural village of Gerasimovka, even the archives of the criminal case opened in 2002 did not help. It is only known for certain that Pavlik Morozov really existed. But there was a time when, in the wake of exposing communist myths, the most desperate heads even questioned this fact.
Recall: according to the official version, on which more than one generation grew up, Pavlik Morozov denounced his father at the GPU that he was hiding bread. Father was given 10 years. Some time later, thirteen-year-old Pavlik and his nine-year-old brother Fedya were found dead in the forest. Relatives of the boys were accused of the murder: grandfather, grandmother and cousin. They were shot, and Pavlik Morozov was made a pioneer hero.
During perestroika, historians and journalists rushed to investigate this case again. Some eyewitnesses to this story were still alive 20 years ago, and their testimonies, backed up by old interviews with Pavlik's mother, Tatyana Morozova, divided researchers into two camps. Some are sure that the child was slandered, while others found the bloody hand of the Chekists in a long history ...
Father Reveler
So, on September 3, 1932, the bodies of Pavlik and his younger nine-year-old brother Fedya were found in the forest near the village. “Paul was dealt a fatal blow to the belly. The second blow was struck in the chest near the heart, - the district police officer wrote in the protocol of the inspection of the scene. “Fyodor was stabbed to death with a knife in the belly above the navel, where the intestines came out, and his hand was cut with a knife to the bone ...”
In 1997, the administration of the Tavdinsky district, in which the village of Gerasimovka is located, turned to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to review the decision of the court that sentenced Pavlik's killers to death. The Prosecutor General's Office decided that the Morozovs were not subject to rehabilitation on political grounds, since the case was a criminal one. Similar conclusions were made later by the Supreme Court.
As it became known, in the case of Father Pavlik, Trofim Morozov, there was no question of any bread. The chairman of the Gerasimovsky village council was tried for selling blank forms with seals to the dispossessed. For such trade, Trofim was imprisoned along with five other chairmen of the village councils of the district. Pavlik's younger brother Alexei recalled in the late 80s: “They really sent us to us. They brought settlers in the fall of the thirtieth year. Do you think their father felt sorry for them? Not at all. He is our mother, he did not spare his sons, let alone strangers. He loved only himself and vodka. And they tore three skins from the settlers for forms with seals.
It turns out that the moral character of Trofim could play an important role in this story. Pavlik's first teacher, Larisa Isakova, who arrived in Gerasimovka as a 17-year-old girl, could not stand the perestroika revelatory wave and wrote an open letter: how to write and count. As soon as Trofim sat down at his post, he completely abandoned his household, his wife and Pavlik were alone overstrained. He came home drunk, where did he get money only for vodka? Apparently, he was already receiving offerings.”
offended mother
Professor of the University of California Yuri Druzhnikov, who died this year, called for attention to the only surviving character in the Morozov family saga - the boys' mother Tatyana. She was not repressed, and, according to him, as compensation for everything that happened, the party even provided the woman with an apartment in the Crimea. Druzhnikov claims that Morozova told him that it was her idea to denounce her husband. It was revenge for the fact that he left for another woman. She, according to the researcher, persuaded her son Pavlik to “punish dad.” In his research, Druzhnikov went as far as to say that the killers of the boys were NKVD officers. They committed such a terrible crime in order to untie their hands in the fight against the fists, and at the same time present the hero-martyr to the younger generation. Documentary evidence of this has not been found. And Tatyana Morozova really moved to live in Alupka. The woman died in 1983, but the neighbors remember the pioneer hero's mother and brother.
She was a normal woman and a good mother. I remember her son Alexei very well, we worked together, ”said Tatiana’s neighbor Alexandra Yegorovna to the Sobesednik. - He often told us that there was no politics in the Pavlik case. Their grandfather went crazy, so he killed the brothers. And the mother was very worried about that tragedy. When Aleksey also called his son Pavlik, she cried a lot ... She was simple, in the summer she rented out housing to vacationers, at one time she traded fruit in the market.
Grandfather-murderer
By the way, there is not a word about the denunciation of Pavlik Morozov in the materials of the court. And when Trofim Morozov was tried, this fact was not mentioned. It is only known that Pavlik acted as a witness at the trial.
During interrogation, his grandfather Sergey, who was arrested on suspicion of killing Pavlik, admitted that the idea of the murder belonged to him, since “Pavel brought out of patience, did not let pass, reproached me for being the keeper of the confiscated kulak things.” But at the same time he stated, however, that “he himself did not kill the brothers. Only kept Fedor. The grandson of Danila stabbed the guys.” 19-year-old Danila confirmed this: “We killed Fedya only so that we would not be extradited. He cried, asked not to kill, but we did not regret it ... ”The grandmother of the killed boys, Aksinya, was accused of inciting. Allegedly, she knew about the plan of the killers, approved of it and repeatedly said to her grandson Danila: “Kill this snotty communist!”
No one can figure out how strong the ideological component is in this story. Too many myths have wound around the tragedy. Fellow villagers, who were children at that time, recalled that the Morozov family was very pious, and Pavlik and Fedya were killed when they returned from the local priest.
And his teacher Larisa Isakova wrote in an open letter: “Now Pavlik seems like a kind of boy stuffed with slogans in a clean pioneer uniform. And because of our poverty, he never saw this uniform, he did not participate in pioneer parades. He did not know about any Stalin then ...
I did not have time to organize a pioneer detachment in Gerasimovka then, it was created after me, but I told the guys about how children are fighting for a better life in other cities and villages. Once I brought a red tie from Tavda, tied it to Pavel, and he joyfully ran home. And at home, his father tore off his tie and beat him terribly.
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 true 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 deliberately 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.
