Wer ist a a morozova

Boris Ivanovich Morozov, (born 1590—died Nov. 1 [Nov. 11, New Style], 1661), Russian boyar and statesman who was chief minister (1645–48) under Tsar Alexis and influential in the government thereafter. A man of considerable ability, Morozov implemented a number of measures to improve the position of the gentry and townspeople, as well as to stabilize state finances. However, his authoritarian manner and unpopular economy measures alienated many and contributed to the Moscow rebellion of 1648.

The tutor and later the brother-in-law of Alexis, Morozov was appointed to several key offices upon the impressionable tsar’s accession to the throne in 1645. In order to reduce government expenditures, Morozov dismissed a number of officials and lowered the pay of many others, including the military. He also instituted state monopolies on tobacco and salt, which, in the case of the latter commodity, resulted in the quadrupling of the duty exacted. The salt monopoly proved so unpopular that it was abrogated in 1647, but discontent continued; and, when in 1648 commoners were prevented from petitioning the tsar with their grievances, riots broke out and a number of unpopular officials were lynched.

Morozov was exiled for his role but returned a few months later and, though unable to hold office again, effectively ran the government through intermediaries for the next decade. He played an important role in the formulation of the ulozheniye (code of laws) of 1649, which granted a number of rights to the gentry and equalized taxation on the townspeople. However, it also formally tied serfs to the estates on which they resided.

Anya Morozova watches and aches. There, right before her eyes. There, half a world away. She becomes paralyzed by the horror on the TV screen. The killing, the destruction, the inhumanity, all directed by a Russian tyrant with a dark heart and vacant soul. Regretfully, it is one mess this private domestic from Cinnaminson is powerless to clean up. 

“To see what Putin is doing in Ukraine is the worst kind of man,” said Morozova, 41. “Killing people, children, it means nothing to him. I pray for Ukraine. They need my prayers because Putin will not stop until his day in this world is done.” 

Morozova aches for Ukraine. 

Morozova is Russian. 

“People have asked me about this, about my country doing this to Ukraine,” she said. “I tell them this is not my country doing this. This is Putin. Look at the news. What do you see in Russia? My people do not want this. You see them in the street, the protests, being taken away (by police) by the thousands. You hear them chanting Nyet Voine! Nyet Voine! No to war! Putting Putin on our faces is not truth. We are not him. We are Russian.” 

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Morozova has lost two of her jobs as a domestic. In each instance, she was told it was a monetary decision. She wonders if that is true or if she is paying a price for the actions of a madman bent on victory regardless of the body count. 

“Blame in history is put wrongly,” she explained. “German people didn’t want war (during World War II). Hitler wanted war. But people looked at Germans badly. Same with the Japanese people. Do people look at Russian people the same as that? Are we to blame? No. The leaders are the problem; all people want is to be free.” 

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Morozova’s family came to America when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. They emigrated from her native Vologda, in northwest Russia, when she was 10. They settled in Wildwood because, she explained, “my father believed at the ocean was a place where people could breathe.” 

Morozova could benefit now from that breathable time and place, as her native land's cruel leader shows no signs of ending this barbarity. There or, she believes, beyond.

"I fear Ukraine in Putin's mind is only the start," she said. "I worry for Poland and Hungary. He is certain the US will not send troops to fight him. He has threatened nuclear. If sanctions don't stop him, what will, what can?

Morozova is a small, thin woman searching for the strength to deal with the horror she sees every single day. A brutality perpetrated by the leader of her native country on a neighboring people who, as she noted, just want to be free.

"War is so unnecessary," she said. "It is violent and bloody. When will we learn?"

The woman paused, then said, softly:

"We never learn."

Columnist Phil Gianficaro can be reached at 215-345-3078, [email protected], and @philgianficaro on Twitter.