Little victim of a big fracture: Pavlik Morozov was killed 101 years ago

Pavlik Morozov in the USSR was known to literally everyone, his name became a household name, symbolizing the struggle of everything new with everything old, and the boy's death was recognized as heroic. But already in Perestroika, with the birth of a new mythology that denies the Soviet one, a revision of this muddy story began, and Pavlik suddenly fell from heroes into a minor traitor to his own father. However, it is still unclear what happened in a remote Tobolsk village. The writer Roman Bogoslovsky reminds of the next anniversary of the event:

“And again the third of September. 101 years ago, still unknown persons killed a little boy - Pavlik Morozov and his younger brother Fyodor. And, of course, this whole discourse is continuous questions without answers.

There are three main versions.

1) Relatives killed - grandfather and cousin, took revenge for the fact that the boy had slandered his own father and that he was imprisoned for 10 years. Naturally, in conspiracy with local kulaks, which young Pavlik also regularly brought to clean water.

2) The disgraced residents of Gerasimovka, criminals, who were wandering through the Ural forests, were killed. The boys were walking in the woods and came across them.

3) What would you think? It is not at all original - this is the work of the OGPU. You see, the Chekists urgently needed to canonize a new Soviet saint. And put it all like this: the innocent pioneer hero killed by fists is a new and basic example of courage for Soviet youth.

And they took everyone after the murder. At this point, whoever was hanged, was hanged. Cousin and uncle Pavlik - to the highest measure. Grandfather and grandmother were simply imprisoned. They were 80 - they themselves soon died in prison. But my mother lived safely to old age in Alupka, where she was sent by the Soviet government. She was treated kindly and was invited to all parties named after the canonized son in "Artek".

By the way, there is still no exact data - was a pioneer organization formed in Gerasimovka by 1932? People in different interviews say different things. Also, participants and eyewitnesses are confused - the teacher with the head of the cell, etc., and these were different women.

It's a difficult matter, but Pavlik is truly sorry. To become a victim of the struggle of various forces - from purely human, psychopathological, natural, to political - is a terrible lot for a child.

This photo is the only one where you can see the real Pavlik Morozov. To his left is a cousin - according to version number 1, it was he who cut his brother, and the grandfather held. What horrors. From this photo, later, more or less close, or even very far away, all the portraits of the pioneer hero were painted and monuments were molded..."