WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Anatoly Moskvin, 59, who dug up 29 children and dressed them up as ‘dolls’ before carrying out sick rituals is set to be released by Russian authorities
A depraved historian who robbed the graves of 29 young girls and lived with their mummified corpses is set to be freed within weeks.
Anatoly Moskvin, 59, turned the dead children into life-size “dolls”, dressing them in stockings, clothes and boots, and even applied lipstick and make-up to their faces.
The bodysnatcher, a former military intelligence translator who became an expert on cemeteries in his academic career, marked the birthday of each of his dead victims in his bedroom by taking part in the chilling rituals. Until now, courts in Russia have repeatedly refused to release him – but reports from within the country say psychiatric doctors are now recommending he return home.
Medics are “submitting documents to the court to discharge the patient and place him under the care of relatives”, according to pro-Kremlin news outlet Shot. They are said to be looking at recategorising him as “incapacitated”, which means he could live with friends or relatives, rather than in a facility.
Moskvin was first arrested in 2011, and confessed to 44 counts of abusing graves of girls aged three to 12. Parents of the dead children whose graves he opened and robbed have long pleaded to keep him locked up for the rest of his life.
They fear the former author will return to his sinister habit, which saw him living with some children’s remains for up to 10 years. Moskvin earlier told the authorities he wants to marry his unnamed girlfriend and work as a foreign languages tutor.
He has consistently refused to apologise to the families of his victims. Murder victim Olga Chardymova, aged 10, was one of the 29 he dug up and turned into mummified dolls, some with music boxes wedged in their chests.
Her mother Natalia Chardymova, 53, had made regular visits to her daughter’s graveside without knowing that the coffin was empty. During an earlier attempt by the doctors to free him – which was ultimately overturned by the court – she said: “I am also very afraid that he will go back to his old ways.
“I have no faith in his recovery. He’s a fanatic. And it will be very hard for us, God forbid, to go through those events one more time – exhumation and reburial – if he again finds the place she was reburied. My health is failing me, and I don’t think I can face this. This creature brought fear, terror and panic into my life.”
In a sick outburst, the bodysnatcher told the parents: “You abandoned your girls in the cold – and I brought them home and warmed them up.” He added: “These girls are girls. There are no parents in my view. I don’t know any of them.
“Besides, they buried their daughters, and this is where I believe their rights over them finished. So no, I would not apologise.”
In Soviet times, Moskvin worked as a translator for military intelligence in the Red Army, and later wrote several history books. Claiming previously that she did not realise his ‘dolls’ were in fact corpses, his mother Elvira, 86, said: “We saw these dolls but we did not suspect there were dead bodies inside. We thought it was his hobby to make such big dolls and did not see anything wrong with it.”
She claimed after a 2020 decision against releasing him that the court was biased against her son, leaving him “not able to be in society, work, or get married”.