Comrade Pavlik: The Rise And Fall Of A Soviet Boy Hero

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 satisfactorily proved, but the elder boy, 13-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 exhorted to emulate him. This book sets out to explore why he rose to fame, and later fell from grace. This is the first book in English on the extraordinary legend of Pavlik. To write it, Catriona Kelly, who has long been fascinated by the case, has visit Pavlik's village, the Siberian forest where he was murdered, and previously inaccessible local archives.