strain on MGBofficers for purloined documents during negotiations
with the British and Americans during and immediately following the
war. As minister of foreign affairs, Molotov was the first head of the
Komitet Informatsii(Committee on Information), which controlled
the foreign intelligence assets of both the MGB and the GRU.
Stalin became suspicious of Molotov and in his last days meant to
purge his old friend. Molotov was stripped of his ministerial position.
His wife, Polina, was arrested in the 1948, accused of corruption and
sexual wantonness, and imprisoned in Central Asia. At the 19th Party
Conference, Stalin attacked Molotov, accusing him of proposing that
the Crimea be given to the Soviet Jews as a homeland. Stalin also at-
tacked Molotov’s wife, maintaining that she had friends “who were
not to be trusted.” Only Stalin’s death saved Molotov from execution,
and he regained his position as foreign minister, representing the So-
viet Union at international conferences several times.
Molotov gradually lost power. He fought with Nikita Khrushchev
over de-Stalinization and was banished to Mongolia as ambassador.
In 1962 he was stripped of his Communist Party membership. In his
dotage, Molotov and his wife bitterly defended Stalin to any who
would listen. He repeatedly petitioned the Central Committee to re-
instate his party membership, which they finally acceded to 18
months before his death. Molotov left some interesting biographical
notes. A young acolyte copied down their conversations over several
years, producing 140 Conversations with Molotov, one of the most
revealing memoirs of the Stalinist period.MOROZOV, PAVEL (PAVLIK) TROFIMOVICH (19??–1932).
Perhaps the most famous informantin Soviet history, Pavlik (Little
Paul) Morozov denounced his father to the OGPUfor hiding grain
during collectivizationand was in turn murdered by members of his
own family. The trial of the Morozov family resulted in the execution
of several relatives, including a 90-year-old grandfather. Morozov’s
father, who was in a labor camp, was also shot. Pavlik Morozov be-
came the poster child for informants in the 1930s. Hundreds of chil-
dren’s books and articles were written about him, and statues of the
young hero appeared in most major towns. His “martyrdom” was
used by the regime and the security service in their drive to recruit in-
formants. The recruitment of informants led to a number of in-166 •MOROZOV, PAVEL (PAVLIK) TROFIMOVICH (19??–1932)06-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 166