 Morozov 's life and death in the village of Gerasimovka in the Ural Mountains , has no connection with Turgenev 's literary work . Morozov was a 13 @-@ year @-@ old boy who denounced his father , a kulak , to the Soviet government authorities , and was in turn killed by his family . It was a Soviet morality tale : opposing the state was selfish and reactionary , and the state was more important than family . The most popular account of the Morozov story is as follows : born to poor peasants in Gerasimovka , a small village 350 kilometres ( 220 mi ) north @-@ east of Sverdlovsk , Morozov was a dedicated communist who led the Young Pioneers at his school , and supported Stalin 's collectivization of farms . In 1932 , at age 13 , Morozov reported his father to the political police ( GPU ) . Morozov 's father , the Chairman of the Village Soviet or Selsoviet , was alleged to have been " forging documents and selling them to the bandits and enemies of the Soviet State " ( as his sentence read ) . The elder Morozov , Trofim , was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp , and later executed . However , Pavlik 's family did not approve of the young boy 's actions . 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 , convicted , and sentenced to " the highest measure of social defense " , execution by a firing squad . 
