A Stalinist Childhood

How the Soviet Union shaped children's lives

One day in 1932, in the obscure village of Gerasimovka, a young boy’s courageous actions became a model for the Soviet nation.

Here’s what happened: thirteen-year-old Pavel Morozov, whom everybody called Pavlik, realized to his horror that his father, the head of the local soviet, had been fabricating official documents and selling them to peasants who …