Anatoly Moskvin — a Nizhny Novgorod local historian and necrologist, philologist and translator, author of essays on the history of urban and rural cemeteries.[1][2][3] In early November 2011 the police found mummified bodies removed from graves in his flat; Moskvin was charged under Article 244 of the Criminal Code — desecration of the bodies of the dead and of their burial places.[3][4] The court released him from criminal liability as legally insane and in 2012 committed him to compulsory treatment, which has been extended every six months since: the latest extension was issued on 31 July 2026.[4][5]

Local historian and necrologist

Moskvin was born in 1966 in Gorky, graduated from the Gorky Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages and from postgraduate study at Moscow State University in the department of Germanic and Celtic philology; until 1997 he taught Celtic studies at the Nizhny Novgorod Linguistic University.[3] He knew thirteen languages, compiled dictionaries, translated books, published the electronic almanac Celtic Dawn from 1997 and the online almanac Memory of the Land from 2005.[3]

He had been engaged in necrology — the description of cemeteries — since his school years. By his own account he began walking the city graveyards in the seventh grade, and by 2000 he knew every cemetery in the city and many in the districts.[1] Moskvin began a continuous survey of the region on 18 July 2005: over two and a half seasons he inspected 752 cemeteries in thirty-five districts and copied out nine hundred verse epitaphs.[1][3] He travelled on foot, averaging thirty kilometres a day, and slept in stairwells, haystacks and cemetery watchmen's huts.[1]

He published his essays on the necropolises of Nizhny Novgorod in the local press and was preparing a book from them — a guide to the cemeteries of the Nizhny Novgorod land, which never appeared.[2] Moskvin explained the beginning of his interest in the subject by an episode in 1979: as a twelve-year-old schoolboy he found himself at the funeral of a girl who had died of an electric shock, where the adults made him kiss the dead girl and repeat an incantation. He printed this account in the Nizhny Novgorod newspaper Nekrolog on 26 October 2011 — a week before the search of his flat.[6]

Method of work

Moskvin described his way of surveying cemeteries as follows: he came on summer evenings, when the graveyard was already empty, and worked with a notebook until dark; watchmen, by his account, were posted at Nizhny Novgorod cemeteries only around 2005.[1] He processed the material from these surveys himself and was preparing from it a guide to the cemeteries of the region.[1]

The mummy case

The police came upon Moskvin while investigating a series of grave desecrations at Nizhny Novgorod cemeteries. In early November 2011 officers of the anti-extremism centre came to the flat where he lived with his parents and found there mummified bodies removed from burials and dressed in clothing taken from the graves.[3][7] The number of bodies was reported differently: the materials mention between 26 and 29 "dolls" made from remains.[3][4]

Moskvin was charged under Article 244 of the Criminal Code.[4] He explained himself as a researcher: both during the investigation and many years later he called what had happened scientific work.[5][7]

Trial and compulsory treatment

A psychiatric examination found that Moskvin had paranoid schizophrenia.[7] The court released him from criminal liability and ordered compulsory treatment; since 2012 he has been in Psychiatric Hospital No. 2.[4] Moskvin was later declared legally incapable and guardians were appointed for him.[8]

The term of compulsory treatment is extended every six months at the hospital's petition. In October 2025 a transfer to outpatient observation was discussed, but the court kept the inpatient regime.[7] On 15 December 2025 the Leninsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod extended the medical measures until mid-June 2026,[4] and on 31 July 2026 by another six months: according to the doctor's opinion, the patient continues to regard his actions as scientific activity.[5]

Publications

Moskvin's cycle of cemetery essays, published before 2011, is still available.[9][10][11]

  • "The Jewish Cemeteries of Nizhny Novgorod"[9]
  • "The Nagornoye Cemetery near the village of Vyazovka"[10]
  • "The Lutheran Cemetery of Nizhny Novgorod"[11]

See also

Sources

  1. kokina.ru — Tatyana Kokina-Slavina — An interview with Anatoly Moskvin (archive)
  2. kokina.ru — Tatyana Kokina-Slavina — Anatoly Moskvin, the only necrologist in Russia
  3. news.ru — The scholar who lived with a collection of mummies: who Anatoly Moskvin is (archive)
  4. Kommersant (Privolzhye) — Kommersant-Privolzhye, 15 December 2025 — Compulsory treatment of the Nizhny Novgorod necrologist extended until June
  5. gazetametro.ru — Metro, 1 August 2026 — Moskvin's treatment extended by six months
  6. kokina.ru — Tatyana Kokina-Slavina — Anatoly Moskvin's dead "bride": a reprint from the newspaper Nekrolog of 26 October 2011 (archive)
  7. nn.aif.ru — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod — The necrologist Moskvin may leave the psychiatric hospital (archive)
  8. Kommersant (Privolzhye) — Kommersant-Privolzhye, 8 August 2022 — The necrologist Anatoly Moskvin will remain in the psychiatric hospital (archive)
  9. kokina.ru — Anatoly Moskvin — The Jewish Cemeteries of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  10. kokina.ru — Anatoly Moskvin — The Nagornoye Cemetery near the village of Vyazovka (archive)
  11. kokina.ru — Anatoly Moskvin — The Lutheran Cemetery of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)