Historical basis of Pavel from Metro Last Light [Spoiler]

[Makarov]

Pavel from Metro Last Light


There are no known photos of Pavel. There only exists the official drawing of him based of his school picture.

There is a character from Metro Last Light called, Pavel Morozov. Which bears striking resemblance to Pavel Trofimovich Morozov a 13-year martyr who denounced his father to the authorities and was in turn, was killed by his family as retribution.

The most popular account of the story is as follows: born to poor peasants in Gerasimovka, a small village 350 kilometers north-east of Yekaterinburg (then known as Sverdlovsk), Morozov was a dedicated communist who led the Young Pioneers at his school, and a supporter of Stalin's collectivization of farms. In 1932, at the age of 13, Morozov reported his father to the political police (GPU). Supposedly, Morozov's father, the Chairman of the Village Soviet, had been "forging documents and selling them to the bandits and enemies of the Soviet State" (as the sentence read). The elder Morozov, Trofim, was sentenced to ten years in a labour camp, and later executed. However, Pavlik's family did not take kindly to his activities: on September 3 of that year, his uncle, grandfather, grandmother and a cousin murdered him, along with his younger brother. All of them except the uncle were rounded up by the GPU and convicted to "the highest measure of social defense" - execution by a firing squad.

Thousands of telegrams from all over the Soviet Union urged the judge to show no mercy for Pavlik's killers. The Soviet government declared Pavlik Morozov a glorious martyr who had been murdered by reactionaries. Statues of him were built, and numerous schools and youth groups were named in his honour. An opera and numerous songs were written about him. Gerasimovka's school, which Morozov attended, became a shrine and children from all over the Soviet Union went on school excursions to visit it.

The actually accuracy has come under fire since the fall of the Soviet Union.Since that time, Russians usually call traitors "Pavlik Morozov"showing that they betray their closest associates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlik_Moro...te-Figes-1

http://web.archive.org/web/2005031401014...p?id=27304

http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/morozov.html