ABSTRACT
The propaganda machine was about to create the model of a new man, a man with all the traits necessary to set a standard of usefulness one who would help to separate friends from foes. On the same day that the show trial of Pavlik Morozov's murderers began in Tavda, a general session of the Komsomol Central Committee opened in Moscow. Morozov's name was invoked by speakers at various conferences. The Komsomol Central Committee developed a master plan for propagandizing Morozov's accomplishment. In its coverage of the show trial of Morozov's murderers, the press often used a famous quotation from Maxim Gorky: If the enemy does not surrender, he is liquidated. With the help of the provincial journalist Pavel Solomein, Gorky found a hero worthy of contemplation. For it was Solomein who created the first version of the myth of Morozov.
