Comrade Pavlik
The Rise And Fall Of A Soviet Boy Hero
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
It was September, 1932. Gerasimovka, Western Siberia. Two children are found dead in the forest outside a remote village. Both have been repeatedly stabbed and their bloody bodies are covered in sticky, crimson cranberry juice. Who committed these horrific murders has never been proved, but the elder boy, thirteen-year-old Pavlik Morozov, was quickly to become the most famous boy in Soviet history - statues of him were erected, biographies published, and children across the country were exhorted to emulate him. Catriona Kelly's aim is not to find out who really killed the boys, but rather to explore how Stalin's regime turned Pavlik into a hero designed to produce good Soviet citizens. Pavlik's story is intriguing and multi-layered: did he denounce his own father to the authorities? Was he murdered by members of his own family? Did he ever belong to the Pioneers, the Communist youth organization who claimed him as member No. 001? This is the first book in English on Pavlik's legend, using previously inaccessible local archives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This dogged and creative exploration of the political uses of a 1930s family tragedy demonstrates the strides made in Soviet history since the field emerged from the grip of the Cold War. Pavel Morozov was found murdered in Siberia at age 13 with his younger brother. The case was turned into an opportunity by the Soviet authorities, who said Pavlik had denounced his father for being in league with the despised "kulaks" allegedly rich peasants. Kelly, a professor of Russian at Oxford, is less interested in the facts of the case (although she explores them in her last chapter) than in tracing how the Soviet machine turned Pavel into a model for millions of Soviet children and how the story changed over time along with the political winds. Kelly finds Pavel's primary meaning "was as a symbol of self-sacrifice and relentless commitment to the cause, rather than as a denouncer." Kelly also relies on oral histories with elderly Russians to explore how they remembered reacting to the story as children. Readers interested in propaganda and in Russian history will learn much from Kelly's scrupulous research. Photos, maps.
