Is it true that Pavlik Morozov was a scammer?

In the 1930s, Pavlik Morozov became the first pioneer hero, in the 1980s he turned into a traitor, and in the 2020s was on the verge of oblivion. We tried to figure out whether the boy committed the act, for which he was first extolled loudly, and then they were just as fiercely overthrew.

According to the official version, in 1931 Pavlik Morozov, who was 12 years old at that time, exposed his fatherHelped fists. In addition, the boy told the investigating authorities about neighbors and relatives who hid grain from the state. A year later, the teenager and his younger brother were killed. Grandfather and grandmother of the boys, their uncle and cousin were accused of the crime.

Journalist Pavel Solomein on the basis of the history of Pavlik Morozov wrote the book “In the Kulak Nest” and sent her to Maxim Gorky. The famous writer drew attention to the plot and at the congress of the Writers' Union made a fiery speech dedicated to the memory of the boy. Since the mid-1930s, the formation began cult Pavlik Morozov: In his honor, the streets and squares were called, the monuments were placed, it was dedicated to articles and poems. Throughout the union, Pavlik Morozov had imitators - children reported in the OGPU about the misconduct of their parents. In 1955, Morozov was awarded the title of Pioneer Hero of the Soviet Union, he was introduced near No. 1 in the book of honor of the All-Union Pioneer Organization named after V.I. Lenin.

In the 1980s, during the time of perestroika, the debunking of the prevailing cult began. One of the important roles in its destruction was played by the book of Yuri Druzhnikov published in 1987 "Scammer 001, or Ascension Pavlik Morozov". The writer did not sympathize with his hero, so he introduced him to a small scammer, who also had a delay in mental development. Pavlik Morozov turned into an antihero, whose name became a synonym for betrayal. In the 1990s, many monuments to the boy were demolished, and the streets and squares were renamed.

By historical standards, Pavlik Morozov lived relatively recently, but he was a hero, a traitor or a victim used by propaganda for his own purposes, is difficult for two reasons. Firstly, the materials of the Morozov-Father case are absent. It is believed that they burned in a fire in 1950. Secondly, a new wave of interest in the story of the boy fell on the 1980–2000s, when the surviving witnesses were at old age. They could significantly adjust their memories taking into account the information received by the post -fact, since the murder of Pavlik Morozov was widely covered in the press.

Not easy family story

It is known that Pavlik Morozov was born on November 14, 1918 In the village of Gerasimovka, the Tavdinsky city district of the Sverdlovsk region (at that time the Tobolsk province). He was the eldest of five or four children. The boy’s father Trofim Morozov fought in the Red Army during the civil war, in peacetime he was the chairman of the village village council. The family lived poorly. According to the memoirs of others, the father of the family drank, beat his wife and children. In the late 1920s, he left his family, a property scandal broke out between his relatives and his ex-wife. Pavlik Morozov, as an older child in the family, took over part of his paternal duties. The boy went to school only at 12 years old.

Further events are closely related to collectivization and dispossession that occurred in the country. The duties of the chairman included the search for kulaks and work with peasants in order to convince them to join the collective farm. In Gerasimovka at that time, not a single farm became part of the collective farm. The situation was tense, including because in the area for special settlement more than 11,000 dispossessed peasants arrived. This is information with which all researchers more or less agree. Then the discrepancies begin.

In April 1930, Trofim Morozov wrote a statement with a request remove the duties of the chairman from him. He was fired or not, is not known for certain. V. A. Kuchin in the book “To the history of the development and development of the Tavdinsky district and the city of Tavda” gives the text of the statement and notes that there was no resolution on it. Therefore, it is unclear whether Trofim Morozov remained at the time of the arrest of the head of the village council or worked in the Selpo, according to other sources.

In November 1931, at the Tavda station, 40 km from Gerasimovka, police officers The special settler Zvorykin was detained. During the search, he found two pure forms with the stamps of the Gerasimovsky village council. Such forms allowed people to leave exile and get a job or at a construction site. After that, Trofim Morozov was detained, who, according to the peasant, sold to special migrants of the certificate.

However, according to the official version, Morozov was arrested after the denunciation of the son of Pavlik. At the end of 1931 or at the beginning of 1932, a demonstrative court was held in Gerasimovka, in which Pavlik made a fiery indictment. The father was condemned for ten years for the fact that "as the chairman of the village council, he was friends with his fists, hid their farms from taxation, and upon leaving the village council contributed to the flight of special settlers by selling documents."

The murder of Pavlik Morozov and the investigation

Neither the process nor about the boy’s act, if he was, was mentioned in the press until the fall of 1932. The case ceased to be ordinary when Pavlik Morozov and his younger brother Found on September 6, 1932 stabbed. The mother of the boys Tatyana Morozova suspected relatives from her husband. They were detained, and soon Danil's cousin confessed to the murder of children. The alleged motive was a suspicion of reporting: the family illegally stored a gun, and Paul told a policeman about it. At that moment, revenge was considered the reason.

But soon to local investigators Employees of the OGPU joined, the testimony of the suspects changed several times - perhaps under torture. The matter began to grow into new details, and Pavel Morozov turned into a pioneer and an activist who exposed his fists. There were documents according to which the boy reported on the concealment of bread and theft of state grain. In the final charge, it was written: “Pavel Morozov, being a pioneer over the current year, conducted a devoted, active struggle with a class enemy, fist and their sovercraft, spoke at public meetings, exposed the kulakist’s tricks and repeatedly stated this.”

It was the death of the teenager that attracted the attention of the press. The first material In a local newspaper, he went out in September under the heading “Kulak gang killed Pioneer Morozov. Shoot the unbelted fists and brilliants. ” And already in October, the story of the boy was printed in Pioneer Pravda. For the first time, the connection between the crime of his father and the murder of Pavlik Morozov was traced in it. A fragment of the speech appeared there, with which the boy allegedly spoke in trial of his father: “I, uncle judge, act not as a son, but as a pioneer! And I say: my father betrays the case of October! "

The murder of Pavlik Morozov by the efforts of newspapers was turned into a manifestation of kulak terror, repression began throughout the Union. The boy himself became a symbol of the struggle against the kulaks, a man who "Preferred spiritual kinship (with a party) blood (with his father)".

Facts that cause doubts

There are several inconsistencies in this matter who attract the attention of modern researchers. Firstly, it is not known for certain whether it was in Gerasimovka at that time Pioneer organization And whether Paul was in it. The boy could consider himself a pioneer, like many peasant children, but he hardly knew all the features of ideology well. In addition, at the time of the murder, Pavlik studied in the second grade, and his high level of literacy, including political, is in doubt.

Secondly, the very murder case was carried out carelessly, not only the testimony of witnesses, but also rumors were included in it. Some documents were not preserved, and some were falsified. A separate volume is made up of letters and collective appeals with the demands to sentenced the participants of the Kulak conspiracy to the execution. And the boy’s biography itself is largely built on artistic invention: trying to fill in the gaps in his biography, the writers were not shy about the speculation, which were fed as facts in later retelling.

Thirdly, there is no evidence that the boy reported his father's fraud. Trofim Morozov lived separately, relations with his family were hostile, so Pavel was unlikely to know about the affairs of the parent. Most likely, he acted as a witness in the case already in court. So, the investigator in the case of the murder of boys E.V. Shepelev wrote in the indictment that Pavel Morozov announced the crimes of his father. Already in 1989-1990, when the journalists took up a repeated investigation of the case, the investigator said: "I can't understand how on earth I wrote all this, in the case there is no evidence that the boy turned to the investigating authorities and that it was for this that he was killed. I probably meant that Paul testified to the judge when Trofim was judged. ”

Fourth, the image of a boy as a scammer was formed largely thanks to the book of Yuri Druzhnikov, who appeared in 1989. The writer in search of textures turned to artistic works and used examples from the press to prove the central thesis that Pavlik was a traitor. The opposite position is held by a professor at the University of Oxford, Katrion Kelly. She was engaged in the study of the cult of the pioneer hero in the Soviet Union. And in his book "Comrade Pavlik. Take-off and fall of the Soviet hero boy"She came to the conclusion that the children died due to property disputes between relatives, and the ideological component was brought from the outside, because the murder of Pavlik coincided with the beginning of the repression against the fists, which required the justification.

The main question

Did Pavlik Morozov bring to his father? Katrion Kelly brings a copy of the Donation (spelling and punctuation is preserved): “Morozov’s son is 12 years old, Pavel Trofimovich Morozov, the latter declares his mother’s interrogation: uncle, my father created a clear counter-revolution, I must say this as a pioneer, my father is not a defender of the interests of October. And in every possible way helps to escape fist. I stood for him by a mountain and I am not as a son, but as a pioneer, to bring my father to strict responsibility, because in the future it is not to let others hide the fist and clearly violate the party’s line and I add that my father is now assigning kulak property, I took a bunk of Arsenti Kulakanov’s fist and also wanted to take a hay of Kulakanov, but not a hay of Kulakanov, but not a hay, but a hay of Kulakanov, but a hay, but a hay, but a hay of Kulakanov, but a hay. He said let it take the treasury better. ” 

But the authenticity of the document is in doubt: the copy is not dated, there is no indication of the sources (for example, the father’s business number). This text is found not only in the case file, but also in the party report. Somewhere it is mentioned as a letter, and somewhere-as an oral statement at the cross interrogation of his mother. Another oddity is that such a fact as the exposure of the collective farm chairman in the fact that he took bribes and issued false certificates should be the public at least at the local level in the summer or autumn of 1931. But there is nothing about this case in the press.

According to Katriona Kelly, the text of the Pavlik’s denunciation was written after his death either for the party report or by order of the investigation. Of course, this is only a reasoned assumption of the researcher, and it does not exclude the version in theory that the teenager dreamed of restoring order in Soviet society and resorted to intra -family denunciation. But there is no convincing evidence of this. 

Most likely not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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