Товарищ Павлик: Взлет и падение советского мальчика-героя

by Catriona Kelly

Мало кто из детей-героев в мировой истории сумел приобрести столь скверную репутацию, как Павлик Морозов. Между тем все материалы о жизни этого героя подлежат сомнению, включая официальное "дело об убийстве братьев Морозовых", составленное ОГПУ. Не исключено, что не было даже знаменитого доноса на отца, причины же убийства Павлика и его брата Феди носили скорее бытовой, а не политический характер. Одна из основных задач этой книги - вписать фигуру Павлика Морозова в контекст исторического процесса, в частности в историю коллективизации уральской деревни начала 1930-х годов. Рассмотрение эволюции легенды о его "подвиге" с сентября 1932 и до конца 1980-х помогает представить, как создавались культы советских героев.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia, Biography, Russian History, Soviet Union

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant and fascinating account of the creation of one of the most famous 'fictions' of Soviet history/propaganda and, even before the demise/collapse of the Communist world, one of its least loved idols. Either the title and sub-title will grab your interest - in which case this book is for you - or it won't - in which case it isn't. But if you are interested in that vanished world which was the Soviet Union and the whole demented process of creating an alternate reality that it demanded then give this book a try. Although not commented upon in depth the author does touch on the way this sad, ugly and tawdry story was accepted and repeated by so many Western Soviet apologists and just plain stupid journalists. Perhaps those who cynically reported upon it as a sign of the new 'Soviet Man' being forged in the the hell of famine and camps are the ugliest but the ordinary journalists who reported on what was going in the USSR and accepted up until the last minute the lies that made up the surprisingly insubstantial foundation of the Soviet Union is equally ugly.

It is a fascinating story on so many levels and I can't praise it or recommend it highly enough.

[Boorrito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who was Pavel Morozov? Was he the radical child activist willing to turn in even his family for the cause? The ideal Pioneer hero who was brutally murdered by 'kulaks'? Or in the words of one of his fellow villagers, a little shit who stunk of urine, had lice and couldn't read? Did he even inform on his father like the legend says?

This book explores this hero of the Soviet Union who has been seen as essential Stalinist - after all, only in Stalinist Russia would a boy whose main ability is squealing would become a national hero, right?* - and looks at both how his story changed over time and what those changes tell us about Soviet society and what the actual story behind the legend is.

Kelly manages to piece together from archive material an account of the investigation of Pavlik's murder and the following show trial and shows just how quickly the investigation went from a local murder thought to be over a saddle to a 'kulak conspiracy' when regional officials became involved and how political the case was from the start.

This is followed by the charting of the history of the myth of Pavlik- who quickly lost his place as number one child hero with WWII and the rise of new child heroes whose lauded ability was to keep silent instead of telling all and the increasing distance between Soviet children and collectivisation.

Lastly Kelly discusses her own theory on what happened to Pavlik and who the possible murderers were. I personally found it convincing but of course, we'll never know what really happened.

Kelly's use of archive material is great - especially as she's very critical of it, something which some historians forgot to do once they managed to get into the police archives - and shows just how hard it is to discover the 'truth' of any historical situation, and even more so when dealing with the Stalinist Soviet Union.

If you're interested in the Soviet Union under Stalin and how propaganda was aimed at children and how successful it was, or perhaps just want an example of how little the truth has to do with the stories we've told, this book might be for you.

*Interestingly, the only (alleged) comment on record that was made by Stalin on Pavlik was that he was a swine for denouncing his own father.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Спойлер: в конце книги автор все же сознается, что воссоздать личность Павлика и обстоятельства его гибели не представляется возможным.

[Tasseka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book in spring to have some reading before night, I was reading it slowly, for a couple of pages, until I got to the business trip in Kazakhstan in the middle of summer. There it turned out to be a real detective book, at every page I was excited of how deep the author had dived to proceed her amazing historical investigation.
I tend to agree with their person who requested some more editing to tighten the book but it wasn’t a big problem for me. I was pleased to jump from testimony to testimony, from one document to another to feel the atmosphere of early soviet life in the Ural village and uneducated police.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could give this 3-and-a-half stars, I would.

This was a very interesting book. Kelly gets beyond the "boy who informed on his father" cliche that Americans grew up with. She does a good job spelling out the setting for the tragedy and, most fascinatingly, traces how the image of Morozov changed through the decades. (It was fascinating to see that Morozov was most emphasized in the Sixties/Seventies than in the Thirties, in part as a response to the lure of Western youth culture.)

Also fascinating to see that Stalin himself was deeply ambivalent about the Morozov cult.

However, this book needed editing.

The prose could have been tightened up. There should have been a chart revealing how people were related to each other. Some of the translations were awkward. (Admittedly, this was from German, but "Hitler Boy Quex" when the film/novel is usually rendered into English as "Hitler Youth Quex" just struck me as cringeworthy.)

This book could have been better. As it is, it is only of interest to specialists.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m so great the excellent historian, Kelly, researched the impact of this incident and resulting mythology on Soviet life. It says so much about Soviet political culture. However, the book dragged a bit for me.

[Shivaji Das · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much guesswork