A respected Russian historian transformed 29 exhumed corpses of young girls into life-sized dolls complete with music boxes, button eyes, and makeup, storing them in his parents’ apartment while they remained completely unaware of the macabre collection surrounding them.
Story Snapshot
- Anatoly Moskvin, a linguist and folklore expert, exhumed 29 bodies of girls aged 3-29 from cemeteries across Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, mummifying them and encasing them in elaborate paper mache dolls
- Police discovered the dolls during an August 2011 raid initially targeting extremism, uncovering bodies dressed in women’s clothes with toy faces attached and music boxes embedded in their chests
- Moskvin claimed he acted to “revive” the girls through mummification rituals inspired by folklore research, insisting he showed respect by avoiding dismemberment and minimizing grave disturbance
- Authorities deemed him mentally incompetent, confining him to a psychiatric facility rather than prison, where he remains as of 2022 with no criminal trial conducted
- The case exposed critical gaps in cemetery security and mental health oversight in post-Soviet Russia while traumatizing 29 families who discovered their daughters’ graves had been violated
The Scholar Who Slept Among the Dead
Anatoly Moskvin built a reputation in Nizhny Novgorod as a brilliant historian and linguist specializing in cemetery folklore and burial rituals. Born in 1966, he mastered 13 languages and contributed extensively to local historical journals. His academic pursuits led him to spend nights sleeping on graves of young girls during research expeditions, a practice he claimed connected him to ancient rituals. This obsession, rooted initially in scholarly curiosity, gradually twisted into something far darker as the boundaries between academic study and personal compulsion dissolved entirely.
The first exhumation occurred in the early 2000s when Moskvin removed the body of an 11-year-old girl from her grave. He performed what he described as a wedding ceremony with the corpse, exchanging rings and receiving fruit and money as part of the ritual. The mummification process involved drying the remains and encasing them in paper mache, creating a doll he could dress and interact with. This initial act established a pattern he would repeat 28 more times over the following decade, each time refining his techniques and elaborate justifications.
A House of Horrors Hidden in Plain Sight
Moskvin lived with his elderly parents in their Nizhny Novgorod apartment, where the dolls accumulated over years without detection. He displayed them openly throughout the residence, dressed in stockings and women’s clothing, positioned as though alive. Each doll featured button eyes, carefully applied makeup, drawn or attached toy faces, and music boxes installed in their chests to simulate heartbeats. The parents, despite sharing the space, never suspected the dolls contained human remains, accepting their son’s explanation that they were simply artistic creations from his eccentric hobbies.
Cemetery authorities noticed disturbed graves around 2009 but lacked evidence to identify a culprit. The vast, poorly monitored graveyards of Nizhny Novgorod provided Moskvin ample opportunity to operate undetected. His academic credentials and respected position in the community deflected suspicion. Families grieving at desecrated burial sites had no answers until anti-terrorism police, investigating Moskvin for unrelated extremism allegations in August 2011, stumbled upon the dolls during a routine search of his home.
The Puppeteer’s Twisted Logic
Police confirmed 29 dolls, each containing mummified remains exhumed from different cemeteries across the region. Moskvin insisted his actions were benevolent, claiming he prevented families from enduring further trauma by carefully preserving the bodies rather than leaving them to decay. He believed folklore rituals could resurrect the girls, treating the dolls as living children who required care, attention, and companionship. Investigators emphasized the crimes appeared non-sexual, driven instead by delusional beliefs rooted in his folklore studies and deteriorating mental state.
After his arrest, Moskvin met with some victims’ families, offering apologies and explanations that left parents horrified yet strangely confronted with his warped sincerity. He expressed no understanding of the violation he inflicted, viewing himself as a savior rather than a desecrator. His detailed knowledge of burial customs and mummification techniques, products of legitimate academic work, had been perverted into justification for unspeakable acts. The families faced the agonizing task of reburying their daughters while processing the knowledge that a neighbor they may have passed on the street had violated their children’s final resting places.
Justice Denied by Insanity
Russian authorities declared Moskvin mentally incompetent to stand trial, committing him indefinitely to a psychiatric hospital rather than pursuing criminal prosecution. This decision, while reflecting his obvious psychological deterioration, denied families the closure of a public trial and formal sentencing. The bodies were exhumed from the dolls, returned to families, and reburied with increased security measures at cemeteries across Nizhny Novgorod. As of 2022, Moskvin remains confined to the mental health facility with no indication of release or further legal proceedings, leaving the case in permanent limbo.
The case exposed systemic failures in cemetery oversight, mental health intervention, and community vigilance in post-Soviet Russia. It raised uncomfortable questions about how academic eccentricity can mask severe mental illness and how individuals operating within respected institutions can exploit that cover to commit horrific acts. The transformation of scholarship into obsession, and obsession into crime, demonstrated the importance of distinguishing between intellectual curiosity and dangerous compulsion, a line Moskvin obliterated entirely in his descent into delusion.
Sources:
Ep. 15 – Anatoly Moskvin: Human Doll Collector
Read How This Guy Dug Up Dead Baby and Turned It Into a Doll