What happened to pioneer Pavlik Morozov and his family, and why his name is synonymous with betrayal

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The history of the USSR remembers the heroes of a very different plan - these are the leaders of production on the front pages of newspapers, and the sharp-tongued beauties of the Komsomol, and the brave pioneers … But they all have one thing in common - they had to sacredly believe in socialism and not spare themselves in order to defend the values. In this situation, Pavlik Morozov was a heroic person, and nowadays he has become the personification of a traitor and "informer". So what prompted the boy to take a desperate step, and did his act carry a socialist attitude?

The modern generation hardly knows who Pavlik Morozov is, whereas earlier, especially before the Great Patriotic War, he was almost the main positive hero, a desperate fighter for socialism. And this is despite the young years. A good example of the fact that when it comes to fighting for a just cause, it doesn't matter how old you are.

Who is Pavlik Morozov, according to the official version

Considering that the youngest communist, as a historical person, then becomes a legendary person who is set as an example for the younger generation, then a traitor who derailed the whole family, it is not surprising that there is not much official information about him. At every historical segment that our country experienced, as usual, key facts were rewritten, and the biography of Pavlik Morozov did not stand aside.

With some certainty, we can only say that he was born in 1918 in the village of Gerasimovka, located in the Sverdlovsk region, and wrote a denunciation of his father (if he wrote) in 1932. Although it would be more correct to say that it was in this year that Trofim Morozov was convicted - Pavlik's father. Currently, the official version is that Trofim Morozov, Pavel's father, was the chairman of the village council, but it cannot be said that he fulfilled his work obligations with due diligence. He helped the kulaks and profited from it, appropriating the dispossessed for himself.

The chairman's son also turned out to be a politically active member of society, but, apparently due to his teenage maximalist views, he perceived what was happening in the country too closely, especially through the prism of his father's life views. He organizes a pioneer organization in his village, and then writes a denunciation of his own father, thanks to which he receives 10 years of exile.

However, some historians are sure that Pavlik has never been a pioneer, because no one has established a pioneer organization in his native village, and a tie is added to him to "complete the picture." According to the explanations of the investigator, who imprisoned the elder Morozov, the reason for the arrest was the arrest of two peasants who had documents with a village Soviet seal. They told that Morozov had sold the forms to them. Yes, Pavlik spoke at the trial, but, allegedly, the judge even stopped him because his testimony was not particularly significant.

So was there a denunciation? And why exactly Pavlik suddenly became the main person involved in the case in the historical interpretation? The father did not even have time to serve a year when the body of Pavel and his younger brother Fyodor was found in the forest - the boys were killed when they went to pick berries. The boys' own grandfather and cousin were accused of murder. However, the local kulak was also involved - he is the uncle of the murdered. Kulak and a cousin were shot for what they had done, and their grandfather and grandmother, whom they also recognized as implicated, were imprisoned. They were not released any more.

The father, by the way, who was supposed to sit for ten years, came out three years later, even with the order for shock work, since he participated in the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.

Even when working with archival data, historians constantly stumbled upon conflicting facts. This is how the version was born that Pavlik did not denounce his father, but simply gave testimony, and it is possible that he was subjected to pressure from the investigators, who insisted that it is better to be an informer than the son of a traitor to the Motherland.

I wanted a better life …

Trofim Morozov, shortly after the birth of five sons, leaves his official wife for a neighbor. But, despite the fact that he is already living with another woman, the chairman of the village council regularly visited his wife and children, regularly beat them. This is evidenced by the stories of the teacher Pavel Morozov. The boy's mother was also badly treated by his father-in-law, who insisted on living together, and Tatyana (Pavel's mother) was categorically against it and still forced her husband to leave his parents.

The grandfather and father were opposed to the boys getting an education, seeing in them exclusively the labor force for their economy. Despite the prohibitions, Pavel liked to study at school, and he always strove to learn to read and write, even tried to teach his mother to write and read. He early began to feel like the main, senior man in the house, since he was the eldest of the brothers and after his father left, many worries fell on his shoulders.

After Trofim was appointed chairman, he began to sell fake certificates to special settlers. They needed them in order to move freely. And many knew about it. In addition, the new chairman not only dekulakize, but also hid valuables for himself, sometimes negotiated with the kulaks, took bribes.

Revenge for the mother or the twofold version

If you sweep away the socialist raid from this story, you can see an ordinary frightened boy who is trying with all his might to be a protector for his own mother. The forces are unequal, because you have to protect from your own father.

An example of patriarchal foundations, a tyrant, who loves to drink and clean up what is bad, Trofim Morozov was an example of diligence and decency only at work. At home, he turned into a tyrant, who would not allow his wife or mother to live. And then he completely went to another woman, leaving his wife and common children, of whom, according to various sources, there were four or five. Needless to say, it was not just a "divorce", but a real betrayal and shame on the whole district, especially on the scale of a patriarchal Russian village.

Was Pavlik's act in this context a betrayal? Any modern psychologist will explain that this is an attempt to protect the most dear person - mother, to make sure that the father returns to the family, but at the same time does not drink or beat.

In 1988, the book of the Soviet writer Yuri Druzhnikov was published in London, in the Union it would never have been published, because it was dedicated to the story of a boy who is legendary - "Informer 001, or the Ascension of Pavlik Morozov." The author not only carried out documentary research work and confirmed Pavlik's personal drama, which was caused by his father, but also put forward a version that the children were not killed by relatives. This was allegedly done in order to raise a wave of indignation and bring even more indignation to the kulaks. As a matter of fact, this is what happened. And on the same wave, Pavlik Morozov became a legendary person. It is likely that if he had not died tragically at the same time, then his historical role would not have been so inflated.

The tragedy and historical role of the younger Morozov

Even the fact that one system turned the boy into a hero, and the other made him an informer and a traitor, suggests that what happened is a tragedy. Only a tragedy for Pavlik himself, on a national scale, he is a cog, which by the will of fate turned out to be a very effective tool of political propaganda. Only Morozov himself was neither a hero nor a traitor, a victim of circumstances, who was forced to answer for the mistakes of the entire system.

And if we are to be frank, did Paul know that his father was bargaining for leftist certificates? Of course, like any other. However, the attention of the special services was attracted not by Pavel, but by the peasants, who told about where their documents came from. In addition, the boy had much more compelling reasons to be offended by his father, besides politics and the difference in views on justice.

So, the guilty father served the prescribed time and returned with the order, by the way, but Pavlik was no longer alive. Although, recall, in this story, it is the father of the antihero. So why, then, is he an award, and Pavlik - a knife in the stomach? Even many years later, historians do not leave this family alone, trying to involve all relatives in new and new considerations of the case. And they refuse again and again. And it's hard not to understand them.

And if it was immoral on the part of the Soviet system to use a child in order to prove the cruelty and unscrupulousness of the kulaks, then from the point of view of modernity it is also unethical to try to blame the socialist system for the trampled fate of the child, and even more so, to call him a traitor.

The role of the mother is underestimated in this story, Tatiana was a very attractive woman, but at the same time simple and kind. Realizing that there was no one to protect her from her ex-husband, she left after all this story. She is known to have survived World War II and died in 1983. As for the brothers, there is no exact version regarding their fate. One of them died at the front, others returned wounded. Alexey became the only successor of the surname.

But his fate is not easy, he was captured during the war and was considered a traitor, was married, he has two sons. He rarely spoke about the fact that he was Pavel's brother, made this information public only when, after the change of power, the attitude towards Pavlik Morozov also changed, Alexey could not silently endure historical injustice and tried to defend the honor of his tragically deceased brother.

As much as heroes were extolled in the history of the USSR, they were just as tough with traitors, even with the slightest suspicion. In the era of repression, a special camp was created for the wives of "traitors to the Motherland", which included the wives and mothers of many prominent figures.