The key figure in this story is Pavlik’s father Trofim Sergeevich Morozov. He was a hero civil war, commander of the red partisan detachment. And the chairman of the village council of this very village. And a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). That is, he was the Soviet government. At the same time, a gang of Purtov brothers operated in the Tavdinsky district, with which Morozov was associated. Being the chairman of the Gerasimov village council since 1930, he sold food and false documents to the bandits.
It would be a mistake to think that the Purtovs were ideological fighters against the Soviets, avenging their violated freedom. In 1919, Osip, Mikhail and Grigory Purtov were mobilized into Kolchak’s army, but they immediately surrendered to the Reds and were sent home. In 1921, Gregory was drafted into the Red Army, but he deserted from there three days later. Soon a fire broke out in Siberia peasant revolt and the Purtovs, who formed a gang, became famous for their bloody reprisals against supporters of the Soviet regime. On March 10, 1921, caught in their lair in the forest, the bandits surrendered without a fight to a detachment of seven Bolsheviks from the Elan party cell.
The voice of reason tells me that I should have slapped the bandits on the spot, and written in the report that, they say, they put up desperate resistance and were liquidated. But the Elan Bolsheviks turned out to be humanists and decided to do everything according to the law: first a trial, and then execution. The court turned out to be fantastically lenient towards the gang of murderers and robbers: taking into account the poor origin and crocodile tears of the repentant bandits, they were given only 10 years in the camps.
But they didn’t stay in the camps either. Two years later they were released as reformed and allegedly due to their father’s illness. Returning home, the brothers immediately returned to their robber trade. They were detained, but escaped from custody. With the beginning of collectivization, dispossessed people from the European part of the country began to be exiled to Siberia, and this contingent willingly joined the Purtov gang.
What is noteworthy is that until the beginning of the 30s, the families of bandits were not persecuted, and only in 1931, by decision of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court, the Purtovs’ father with his younger sons Peter and Pavel and their wives were evicted from their native village. Purtov’s youngest son Peter received five years in prison for harboring his elder brothers, but after six months he escaped and returned to his native place, where he lived on false documents. Pavel also escaped from exile and joined the gang.
The Purtov gang, which accounted for at least 20 corpses, was liquidated only in 1933. The last straw that overflowed the patience of the authorities was the very brutal murder of Pavlik and Fedya Morozov, which received wide resonance. The Purtovs had no direct connection to this, but the very fact of the existence of a gang in the area, which enjoyed the reputation of being elusive, looked provocative. An OGPU task force was sent to the area under the command of the experienced security officer Krylov, which completed its task.
So, such a long epic of the Purtov gang became possible thanks to, as they would now say, corruption, since the bandits established close ties with the heads of local village councils, including Trofim Morozov. As they say, money has no smell, so the chairman put the sale of certificates of poverty on a grand scale - dispossessed fellow villagers and exiled special settlers bought them (the presence of a certificate allowed them to leave their place of exile).
The security officers confiscated the certificates issued by Trofim Morozov from captured bandits and found them in bandit caches. So they took the “corrupt” chairman under his thumb; no denunciation from Pavlik was required for this. There was no point in locking Trofim Sergeevich away.
You may ask - what does Pavlik Morozov have to do with it? The fact is that his father was illiterate, and all the certificates he traded were written out by his son Pavlik in a neat child’s handwriting. That is, it turns out that the father “gave in” his son, and not vice versa. Pavlik only confirmed to the district OGPU representative his father’s recognition.
There was no trial at which, according to legend, the young pioneer made an accusatory speech. As Tyumen local historian and writer Alexander Petrushin writes, who dug up this story, “the fate of Trofim Morozov was decided by a meeting of the “troika” at the Plenipotentiary Representation of the OGPU in the Urals on February 20, 1932. It is stated: “He was engaged in the fabrication of false documents, which he supplied to members of the militant rebel group and persons hiding from the repression of Soviet power.” Resolution of the Troika: “Prison in a forced labor camp for a period of ten years.”
For the information of schoolchildren: a correctional labor camp is not a prison or a Kolyma zone. The convict was simply sent to work on one of the many construction sites of socialism, where he lived and worked without security. The whole difference with an ordinary worker was that he could not quit before the end of his term, and part of his earnings was confiscated in favor of the state. These are the “atrocities” that the Soviet government committed!
Trofim Sergeevich Morozov was lucky - he got to work on the construction of the White Sea Canal, where he proved himself with the best side, and not only was released three years later, but was even awarded an order. After his release, he lived and worked in Tyumen.
So why were Pavlik Morozov and his four-year-old brother killed? The fact is that Pavel’s father left his family (his wife and four children) and began to cohabit with a woman who lived next door, Antonina Amosova. And then he decided to divorce his old wife and marry a twenty-year-old girl. According to the law of that time, in this case, all land and other property went to the father in new family. And the old wife and children became homeless.
The wife, naturally, demanded the division of property before the divorce. And - again, according to the legislation of that time - for three male children (Pavlik with his little brother and brother Alexei) they had to cut off a noticeable piece of land from their father’s plot, who, although he was the chairman of the village council, could not so clearly go against the law, but when he was arrested, his father’s relatives realized that partition was about to happen.
That’s when the plan to ruin the kids came into being - after which the divorcee would be left without land. It was not possible to kill all three at once - but it is clear that Alexei would have been killed too. According to the recollections of Pavel’s teacher, his father regularly beat and beat his wife and children both before and after leaving the family. Pavlik’s grandfather also hated his daughter-in-law because she did not want to live in the same household with him, but insisted on a division. According to Alexei (Paul’s brother), the father “loved only himself and vodka,” and did not spare his wife and sons.
Suspicion immediately fell on the family of the father of those killed. Yes, actually, they weren’t really hiding. According to the testimony of Tatyana Baidakova, “when my slaughtered children were brought from the forest, grandmother Aksinya met me on the street and said with a grin: “Tatiana, we made you meat, and now you eat it!” The initiator of the murder was Pavlik and Fedya’s uncle Arseny Kulukanov, and the direct perpetrators of the murder were 76-year-old grandfather Sergei and 19-year-old Danila, Pavlik and Fedya’s cousin. Grandma Aksinya helped hide the evidence.
In general, a typical “dispute between economic entities,” as they would say now. What gives it a special piquancy is that all this was done by BELARUSIANS, who came to Siberia under Stolypin’s recruitment during the reign of the Emperor.
This is what the happy Stalinist USSR looked like in real life. Corruption, which even the heroes of the civil war did not shun, banditry and the merging of local authorities with bandits, lawlessness, murders based on hostility or property claims, and all on such a scale that the authorities did not know what to grab onto - if they imprisoned everyone, then half the country need to be sent to camps.
Now you can appreciate what Stalin had to deal with, and what a mess he dragged the country out of. At the same time, it will become more clear where the prisoners in the camps came from, all these “innocent prisoners” screaming about rehabilitation. Even 68 years later, the General Prosecutor’s Office, after checking the investigative case, decided “to recognize Sergei Sergeevich Morozov and Daniil Ivanovich Morozov as reasonably convicted in the present case for committing a counter-revolutionary crime and not subject to rehabilitation” - everything in this case is so obvious from the evidence.
The question of what Pavlik Morozov did can be answered by most people living in the countries of the former USSR. Indeed, his story is well known, and his name has long become a household name. True, unlike the communist version, history has now become more negative character. What did Pavlik Morozov do? A feat that deserves to be known and remembered for many centuries to come? Or an ordinary denunciation that has nothing to do with heroism? In the search for truth, you will have to hear supporters of both versions.
Background
Pavlik Morozov was the eldest child in the family of Tatyana and Trofim Morozov. In addition to him, his parents had three more boys. As far as we know from surviving memories, the family lived on the verge of poverty - the guys didn’t even really have clothes. It was difficult to get a piece of bread, but despite this, the boys attended school and diligently learned to read and write.
Their father worked as chairman of the Gerasimovsky village council and was far from the most popular person. As it later became known, the children were “swelling from hunger” not because of their father’s poor earnings. The money simply did not reach home, ending up in the pockets of card sharpers and vodka dealers.
And Trofim Morozov handled considerable sums, and he had quite a thief’s biography. Pavlik Morozov knew what his father was doing: appropriating confiscated things, various documentary speculations, as well as covering for those who had not yet been dispossessed. In a word, he extremely actively interfered with the promotion public policy. You could even say that Pavlik’s father himself became a full-fledged kulak.
The starving children had no idea about this, because very soon daddy finally stopped showing up at home, moving in with his mistress. From this point on, the continuation of the story diverges. For some, it takes on a connotation of heroism, while others perceive it as an ordinary judicial situation. But what did Pavlik Morozov do?
USSR version
The 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 thought that his own father is doing everything to break his achievements October revolution, was disgusting to him. How loving son and a man with high moral principles, the hero Pavlik Morozov hoped that his father would come to his senses and become correct. But there is a limit to everything. And at some point the boy’s patience ran out.
As the only man in the family, after his father left, he had to carry the entire household on himself. He renounced his parents, and when 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.
Perestroika version
Like any Soviet idol, young Pavlik Morozov 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 surrender his father to the hands of the Soviet law enforcement system. He just gave testimony that helped once again confirm that Trofim is an enemy of the people and a corrupt official who has committed many crimes. In fact, the pioneer’s father was caught, as they say, “in the act” - they found forged 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 giving evidence about the crimes of his relative can be called that, one can understand. Probably, the young pioneer did not think much about kinship - from childhood, his father was a real “scourge” for the family, who did not give way to either his wife or children. For example, he stubbornly did not allow boys to go to school, believing that they did not need to read and write. This is despite the fact that Pavlik had an incredible thirst 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 not only didn’t care about the children, he didn’t even think about them. Therefore, the son’s action is understandable - for him it was already a stranger who had managed to bring a lot of evil to the Morozovs’ house.
But the story is not the end
In fact, there would be no hero if it were not for the events that happened further, which led to the fact that Pavlik Morozov became a real great martyr Soviet era. Close family friend ( Godfather Pavel) Arseny Kulukanov decided to take revenge. Since he used to actively do business with Trofim and was a “kulak”, the arrest of a close comrade greatly affected the financial situation of the future murderer.
When he learned that Pavel and Fedor had gone into the forest to pick berries, he persuaded his middle brother Danila, as well as the Morozovs’ grandfather, Sergei, 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 killed, or more precisely, stabbed to death.
The evidence against the “gang” that had gathered for the murder was the found utility knife and Danila’s bloody clothes. DNA testing did not yet exist, so the investigation decided that the blood on the shirt belonged to the brothers of the arrested man. All participants in the crime were found guilty and shot. Danila Morozov immediately admitted all the charges were true, grandfather Sergei either denied or confirmed his guilt, and only Kulukanov chose to go into deep defense during the trial.
Propaganda
The Soviet nomenklatura simply could not miss such an incident. And it’s not even about the fact of testifying against his father - this happened all the time at that time, but about disgusting and base revenge for this. Now Pavlik Morozov is a pioneer hero.
The crime, which was publicized in the press, caused a huge resonance. The authorities cited it as evidence of the cruelty and greed of the “kulaks”: they say, look at what they are ready to do because of the loss of material gain. Began mass repression. Dispossession broke out with renewed vigor, and now any wealthy citizen was in danger.
The fact that Pavlik Morozov betrayed his father was omitted - after all, he did it for a just cause. The boy who laid his life on the foundation of the building of communism became a real legend. He was set as an example to follow.
Pavlik Morozov, the feat of a young communist and fighter for the ideas of October became the topic for huge amount books, plays, songs and poems. His personality occupied a truly enormous place in the culture of the USSR. Assessing the scale of propaganda is, in fact, very simple - now everyone knows the general plot of what happened to this boy. He had 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 research, which later resulted in the book "Informer 001".
It questioned the entire pioneer biography. Pavlik Morozov Druzhnikov was brutally killed by the OGPU. This statement is based on two facts. The first is a protocol for 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 point that Druzhnikov cites is the absolutely illogical behavior of the killer. By all the "rules", so brutal crime should have tried to hide it as best as possible, but the accused did literally the opposite. The killers did not bother to bury the corpses or at least somehow hide them, but left them in plain sight 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 there?
Based on these theses, the writer concludes that this is an unreal story. Pavlik Morozov was killed by order, specifically in order to create a myth. Druzhnikov states that the materials of the case, which are available in the archives, show how the judge and witnesses are confused and talk incoherent nonsense. In addition, the defendants repeatedly tried to say that they were tortured.
Soviet propaganda suppressed the attitude of fellow villagers towards the boy's denunciation. The writer claims that “Communist Pashka” 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 book was published in Great Britain, stated that he could not tolerate such treatment of the memory of his relative.
He wrote to the newspapers open letter, where he condemned the “trial” that was held for Pavlik. In it, he reminds that in addition to the legend, there is also a real person, a real family who suffered from these events. He cites the example of the times of Stalin, also full of slander and hatred, and asks: “How much do all these “writers” now differ from the liars of that time?
In addition, it is argued that the arguments found by Druzhnikov do not coincide with the teacher’s recollections. 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 planning 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 taken seriously by few people.
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 concern the legal system. But the author himself used these recordings to his own advantage.
In the end, 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 was a fiction and a deliberately planned operation. The incident rather proves how cleverly any incident can be twisted into propaganda.
Supreme Court
and the crime associated with it were not missed during the investigation of the prosecutor's office into the rehabilitation of victims of political cases. Attempts were made to find evidence of ideological motives 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 - clean water 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 the 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 themselves and their family, and not about general team, people, it’s difficult to call his “feat” 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 did not deserve to be included in the pioneer heroes. Pavlik Morozov has become a negative character for many. This is evidenced by the destroyed monuments to the hero.
Many see his testimony as a selfish motive - he sought to take revenge on his father for his childhood. Allegedly, Tatyana Morozova did the same thing, trying to intimidate her husband and force him to return home after the trial. Some writers and cultural experts find the very meaning of Pavlik’s feat terrible - an example for children that teaches them to inform and betray.
Conclusion
We will probably never fully know who Pavlik Morozov really is. Its history is ambiguous and still full of secrets and understatement. Of course, you can look at it from completely different angles, presenting the information in any way 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 times in which Pavlik Morozov and his family lived. It was an era of terrible changes, a painful, cruel and destructive period. The USSR lost many 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 the events lies the simple tragedy of another family who lived at that time. Pavlik is neither a hero nor a traitor. He is just a young man who became a victim of cruelty and revenge. And we can talk as much as we like about hoaxes and propaganda, but we should never forget about the existence of a real person.
Every totalitarian power had similar story. Even Nazi Germany had its own boy hero, 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 profitable for the propaganda machine. Isn't it time to just forget this whole story? Give justice to the innocent fallen child and no longer use it as evidence of anything, no matter the greed of the fists or the horrors of the USSR.
Who is Pavel Morozov, a hero or a traitor?
The story of Pavel Morozov is well known to people of 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 Soviet times.
According to the official version, Pavlik Morozov, who sincerely believed in the idea of socialism, reported to the OGPU about how his father was helping kulaks and bandits. Morozov Sr. 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 yet been figured out. Who, in reality, was Pavel Morozov, and what was actually done?
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 chairman of the village council of his native village. It was a difficult time.
Back in 1921, the villagers of Central Russia started a revolt, rebelling against the Bolshevik surplus appropriation system, which was taking away the last grain for the proletarians.
Those of the rebels who survived the battles went to the Urals or were convicted. Some were shot, others were given amnesty a few years later. Two years later, five people, the Purtov brothers, who played their role in Pavel’s tragedy, also came under amnesty.
The boy's father, when Pavlik reached the age of ten, abandoned his wife and children, leaving for another family. This event forced young Morozov to become the head of the family, taking upon himself all the worries about his relatives.
Knowing that the only shield for the poor was the power of the councils, with the onset of the 30s, Pavel joined the ranks of the pioneer organization. At the same time, my father, having taken a leading position in the village council, began to actively collaborate with kulak elements and the Purtov gang. This is where the story of Pavlik Morozov’s feat begins.
Feat (USSR version)
The Purtovs, having organized a gang in the forests, engaged in robbery in the surrounding area. They have only 20 proven robberies on their conscience. Also, according to the OGPU, 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 document forms, issuing fake certificates of poverty.
In those years, such certificates were an analogue of a passport and gave 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 actions 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 Fedora was deprived of his life. While picking berries in the forest, they were stabbed to death by their own relatives. At the end of the investigation, four were convicted of murder: Sergei Morozov - paternal grandfather, Ksenia Morozova - grandmother, Danila Morozov - cousin, Arseny Kulukanov - Pavel’s godfather and his uncle.
Kulukanov and Danila were shot, grandfather and grandmother died in custody. The fifth suspect, Arseny Silin, was acquitted.
Interesting facts (new version)
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 facts that were considered indisputable. By the beginning of the 90s, people appeared who called the boy not a hero, but a traitor and an 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 commit a slander, offended that her husband abandoned her with the children. This option is not relevant; my father still helped his family a little, supporting them financially.
One more interesting fact are documents of the OGPU. According to some of them, denunciation was not necessary. The authorities had evidence of Trofim Morozov’s participation in the gang’s activities. And Pavlik acted only as a witness in his father’s case. The boy was threatened with an article for complicity! His father, as was not surprising at the time, was illiterate. And Pavel wrote out those same certificates in his own hand, on pieces of paper from student notebooks. These sheets are present in the archives, but he remained only a witness, assuring these facts to the OGPU employees.
Another point is controversial. Was the first pioneer hero even among the pioneers? It is definitely difficult to answer this question. In the thirties, there was still no document in use certifying one’s membership in the pioneers. Soviet Union. Also, no evidence of Pavlik Morozov’s membership in the pioneer community was found in the archives. The pioneers of the village of Gerasimovka are known only from the words of school teacher Zoya Kabina.
Trofim Morozov, Pavlik’s father, was locked up for ten years. But, according to some reports, he was released three years later for successful work on the White Sea Canal, and was even awarded. This is hard to believe. 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 either. The most common opinion is that the elder Morozov served his sentence and left for the Tyumen region. There he lived out his years, keeping his family connection with his famous son secret.
This is the story of Pavlik Morozov, who became the first pioneer hero. Subsequently Soviet power accused of false propaganda, denying or distorting the events of those distant times. But everyone is free to draw their own conclusions and determine their attitude towards those old matters.
In the Soviet Union, Pavlik Morozov was considered a hero who suffered for an idea. During the years of perestroika, history was revised and the pioneer was called a traitor. What really happened to Pavlik and why was he stabbed to death?
Events begin in 1932, when Pavlik Morozov testifies against his father in court. He confirms that his father, being the chairman of the village council, issued fake certificates to settlers and appropriated the property of dispossessed people. He was sentenced to 10 years.
And some time later he was killed while walking in the forest. Here the data differs slightly; according to one version, he was killed by his own cousin, according to another - by his grandfather. Then the entire Morozov family was destroyed, except for the mother, who, by order of Krupskaya, was given an apartment in Crimea. By the way, Pavlik’s father returned from the camps and was even awarded for his hard work. True, he had to move to another place.
Perestroika version
How it really was
In fact, this story contains more questions than answers. Most researchers are inclined to believe that the name of Pavlik Morozov was used by the Soviet propaganda machine. What was needed was the image of a pioneer hero who suffered for the system and justice.
Pavlik really became a victim. The family had a difficult relationship, the father abandoned them, lived with his mistress, and drank. His mother harbored a grudge against him. It is believed that the denunciation was her initiative, but she did not know how to write, she asked Pavlik, who could not refuse his mother. And when in court he was asked whether his father had issued fake certificates, he answered in the affirmative. In fact, it was no secret to anyone.
Of course, the whole family - grandparents, uncles and aunts - were angry with Pavlik. And they could very well have staged his death. However, there is no hard evidence. Some researchers mention that Pavlik’s brother idolized him, but at the same time suffered mental illness and could not control his attacks of aggression. It is likely that Pavlik’s death was a tragic accident.
Now in the village of Gerasimovka, Tavdinsky district, a museum of Pavlik Morozov has been opened, and children carry notes with their wishes and requests to his grave. They say that Pavlik helps them.
09/10/2003 The mystery of the life and death of Pavlik Morozov
Tyumen. September 3 marked the 71st anniversary of the death of Pavlik Morozov. He, along with his younger brother Fedya, was killed for informing the security officers about his father. The village of Gerasimovka, where Pavlik was born and buried, is located 40 kilometers from the regional center of Tavda Sverdlovsk region.
IN Soviet times, when the pioneer hero Pavlik Morozov was a model for the younger generation, an asphalt road was laid in the village and a House Museum was built. Tourists from all over the country were transported by buses - 10-15 excursions a day. Now only old-timers and historians know Gerasimovka. Memorial Complex closed and in poor condition.
Trail of mystery
Dozens of streets still bear the name of Pavlik Morozov. Russian cities, although the main monument to the hero with a banner in his hand has long been removed from its pedestal in the park on Moscow's Krasnaya Presnya. After his death, he was forever inscribed in the history of the pioneers under number 001, and now his name has become a symbol of betrayal.
“There is still no clarity in this case. Even in the materials that are available, inconsistencies can be found, but no re-analysis has been carried out,” says Anna Pastukhova, chairman of the Yekaterinburg branch of the human rights society Memorial. She believes that it is too early to close the case of Pavlik Morozov, “who has become a bargaining chip in adult games.”
After several decades, it is already difficult to understand where is the myth about a 14-year-old boy who allegedly sacrificed his life in the fight against the “kulaks” who hid bread from the village poor, and where real life a semi-literate teenager from a large village family.
Informer 001
The first attempt to carry out an independent investigation into Pavlik’s life was made back in the mid-80s by the Moscow prose writer Yuri Druzhnikov, who subsequently wrote the book “Informer 001, or the Ascension of Pavlik Morozov,” translated into several foreign languages. During the investigation, Druzhnikov was able to talk with some of the boy’s surviving relatives, including his mother Tatyana Morozova, whom Soviet propaganda turned into the heroic mother of the pioneer hero.
His closest relatives were accused of Pavlik’s death - his grandfather Sergei Morozov, his wife Ksenia, cousin Danil and godfather - Armenia Kulukanov. Druzhnikov was the first to question the verdict. The trial itself was conducted in violation of legal norms, and “the main evidence of the defendants’ guilt were quotes from the reports of Stalin and Molotov that the class struggle in certain areas was intensifying, and the defendants were an illustration of the correctness of their statements.”
Druzhnikov, now a teacher at the University of California, believes that Pavlik’s denunciation of his father was made by him at “the instigation of his mother, whom his father left, going to another.”
“He was never a pioneer either, he was made a pioneer after his death,” says Druzhnikov. “And the most important thing is that I discovered secret documents that Pavlik and his brother were killed not by fists, but by two NKVD officers: one a volunteer and the other a professional. They killed and pinned the blame on relatives who did not want to join the collective farm. By the way, the convicts were not forced to dig a hole for themselves, they were stripped naked and shot as an example. This is how Stalin’s directive on total collectivization was carried out locally. And the pioneer hero. it was necessary two years later, when the Writers' Union was created and the boy was named the first positive hero of socialist realism.
Unhappy Pavlik Morozov
On September 3, 1982, the country widely celebrated the 50th anniversary of the death of the pioneer hero Pavlik Morozov, brutally killed by kulak bandits. And just a few years later, the memory of the hero began to be debunked, who allegedly turned out to be a juvenile informer on his own father. Meanwhile, the famous Shlisselburg revolutionary N. Morozov told the truth about the tragedy that unfolded in the Urals to the writer Alexei Tolstoy back in 1939... This mysterious story is told in an article by Tsarskoe Selo local historian, our longtime author Fyodor Morozov.
About twenty years ago, I remember, portraits of Pavlik Morozov were papered over Lenin’s rooms in secondary, music and sports schools throughout the country. And stories about the young pioneer, who allegedly exposed the hostile activities of his kulak father, who hid grain from the starving workers, and for this, was brutally killed by his own grandfather and brother - kulak members, diluted the airwaves of the Mayak and Yunost radio stations almost every Saturday.
During Andropov's reign, Pavlik's feat received a new interpretation. His father turned from a kulak into a village headman, who enjoyed a reputation among his fellow villagers as a respected, decent person, but succumbed to the intimidation of kulak bandits hiding in the forests, to whom he issued false certificates. And in 1984, it suddenly became clear that Pavlik Morozov himself was not at all who he had been passed off for for fifty years...
The family of Trofim Morozov - the headman of the village of Gerasimovka, Tavdinsky district, Sverdlovsk region - was, it turns out, very pious and did not miss a single Sunday service and church holiday. Moreover, both sons of the headman, Pavel and Fyodor, often helped the local priest, for which he taught them to read and write. On the day of their death, September 3, 1932, when both brothers were returning home from the local priest, they were stabbed to death not far from their native village.
In 1989, Ogonyok magazine published new version, according to which it turned out that Pavlik Morozov, in principle, could not be a pioneer, since the nearest pioneer organization in those days was located 120 kilometers from Gerasimovka. The reason for his murder seemed to be purely domestic. Pavlik’s own mother allegedly died, and his relationship with his stepmother did not work out. A strange and terrible role in the events was played by the jealousy of Morozov’s neighbor, who wrote a denunciation on behalf of Pavlik to the Tavda department of the GPU, casting a shadow of suspicion on the unsuspecting boy. During interrogations, Pavlik allegedly answered offensive questions with silence, which was taken as his admission of writing a denunciation. Grandma Aksinya, distraught with shame and grief, decided to deal with Pavlik and his brother in her own way. Having ambushed them on a forest road late in the evening of September 3, 1932, she strangled them...
In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, this story looks different. Pavlik Morozov handed over his father, who allegedly sold documents to enemies of the people, to the secretary of the Tavdinsky district party committee back in 1930 and then appeared in court as an accuser of his own ancestor. At the same time, Pavlik Morozov was allegedly elected chairman of the council of the pioneer detachment of Gerasimovka. And in 1932, Pavlik, as a 14-year-old teenager, allegedly led local food detachments to seize surplus grain from the kulaks of the entire Tavda region, for which the kulaks slaughtered him and his brother on a forest road (TSB 1954, vol. 28, p. 310 ).
Meanwhile, back in 1939, the famous honorary academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, revolutionary Shlisselburger Nikolai Morozov, outraged by the proximity of his surname to Pavlik’s surname in the first Soviet encyclopedia 1936, undertook an investigation into this case, so to speak, without delay. And I found out that everything was not at all as it was said and written in all the then official sources. According to Morozov’s investigation, it turned out that Pavlik was not a pioneer, just as he was not an informer. At the trial against the head of the family, he acted as a witness and defended his father with all his might, to which there were still many witnesses at that time: the court hearing in Tavda was held with open doors.
The honorary academician was unable to talk with the secretary of the Tavdinsky district committee, to whom Pavlik allegedly whispered in his ear about his father’s atrocities: the official had already been shot as an enemy of the people. But in the case of the murder of Pavel and Fyodor Morozov, Nikolai Alexandrovich discovered the testimony of members of the Morozov family - his mother, sister and uncle. In her explanatory note, Tatyana Semyonovna, Pavel’s mother, clearly under dictation, called her son an informer, and blamed his grandfather, grandmother and uncle Danila for his death. In the same note, she first called Pavlik a pioneer. “My son Pavel, no matter what he saw or heard about this kulak gang, always reported them to the village council. Because of this, the kulaks hated him and in every possible way wanted to wipe out this young pioneer from the face of the earth.” (An interesting detail: the chairman of the Gerasimovsky village council was Pavlik’s father, so it turns out that he passed on denunciations against his father and relatives to his father himself!)
As a result of meetings and conversations with the surviving Morozov relatives, the academician found out that a conflict had been brewing in the family for a long time. By writing false documents, Trofim Morozov brought terrible misfortune to the family. Endless fights at night eventually led to divorce and division of property. Taking advantage of the opportunity, numerous “well-wishers” intervened in the matter; a trail of denunciations against Trofim Sergeevich, grandmother Aksinya and grandfather Sergei reached out to the Tavdinsky district committee and the district police department. All the slander was allegedly written from the words of Pavlik by the local policeman Ivan Poputchik and the lodge owner Pyotr Yeltsin. Based on them, I was on a quick fix the trial of Trofim Morozov was concocted.
By that time, Pavlik himself knew how to write, so the denunciations allegedly recorded from his words that went to the area were one hundred percent fakes! For some reason, Pavel was not asked any questions about his “denunciations” at the trial. Nevertheless, although Trofim Sergeevich’s guilt was not proven, he received a prison sentence, and the Morozov family was almost repressed as a kulak family. This happened, however, two years later, and the district police officer demanded that Pavel himself testify against his grandfather and grandmother, who were respected in the area. Morozov, as their eldest grandson, responded with a decisive refusal, declaring that he would ask a priest he knew to anathematize the district police officer for such thoughts and suggestions. Pavel’s conversation with the local police officer took place on September 1, 1932; Pavel managed to convey its contents to his confessor. And on September 3, returning from church with his brother, he did not reach home... Two days later, the bodies of the tortured brothers were discovered literally a stone's throw from the village. On the same day, the district police officer had terrible suspicions, and he conducted searches in the house of Pavlik’s grandfather and his cousin Danila, where he found bloody pants, a shirt and a knife. What kind of fool keeps such evidence in his house? The district police officer had no intention of answering such a stupid question from his fellow villagers; he didn’t care about little things.
On September 8, the district police officer, with the support of an officer from Tavda, extracted testimony from Danila Morozov that the brothers were stabbed to death by the Morozovs’ neighbor Efrem Shatrakov, who, also known as Danila, only held both “pioneers.” In connection with the case of the murder of the brothers, the district police officer I. Poputchik added the latest “denunciation” written allegedly from Pavlik’s words in the hand of the district police officer against the neighbor Shatrakov, who allegedly hid large surpluses of grain. On the same day, a strange explanatory note from Pavlik’s mother appeared, in which he appears as a pioneer and informer, and Danil’s grandfather, grandmother and cousin are named as the main culprits of the tragedy.
On September 12, Danila changed his testimony and declared their own 80-year-old frail grandfather Sergei Sergeevich guilty of the death of the brothers, who was unable to even keep up with his grandchildren, let alone lift a knife over their heads! The final version of the investigation already states that bloody “evidence” was found in the house of his grandfather, S.S. Morozov...
The court sentenced Pavlik Morozov’s grandfather and cousin, as well as his grandmother, to death “for failure to inform”, while Shatrakov’s neighbor was released from the courtroom as “repentant”...
According to Tatyana Semyonovna, Pavlik’s mother, testimony against her grandfather was extorted from her by employees of the Tavdinsky department of the OGPU with threats of reprisals against the entire family.
Honorary academician N.A. Morozov brought this maternal recognition with him in 1939 from Gerasimovka; he showed it to his friends, in particular, to the deputy Supreme Council SySR to the writer Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy. However, he was afraid to use the document.
Just before his death in 1946, Morozov handed over the confessions of Pavlik’s mother to Tsarskoe Selo local historians, from whose funds they were stolen in April 1951. Vladimir Nikolaevich Smirnov, at that time deputy chairman of the local history section, told me about this.
Before the war, no one tried to photograph even a small documentary about the most legendary pioneer of the era... Is it because, apart from the Tavda security officers and their crude cooking, there was nothing to film?
The name of Pavlik Morozov remained forever defiled, truth-tellers of all generations trashed him on every corner and, scary as it may be, they trash him to this day. Who and when will anathematize them for such fanaticism and mockery of the memory of innocent people?
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