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boorrito's review
4.0
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.
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.
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