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In 2011 Russian police raided the home of a highly intelligent and generally well-regarded historian and linguist named Anatoly Moskvin. They discovered almost 30 life sized dolls, many of which were clothed in frilly dresses and ornate head scarves. The idea of a 45-year-old man keeping a huge collection of life-sized dolls in his parents’ house, which is where Moskvin was living, is plenty creepy in its own right. These were not typical dolls though. They were actually the mummified and gussied up remains of 29 dead little girls that Moskvin had dug up and brought home.
Anatoly Moskvin spent an inordinate amount of time in cemeteries. Apart from the occasional excavation of the graves of newly deceased children, most of his time was spent doing legitimate academic work. Russia has a long and storied history of shoddy record keeping. They may or may not have misplaced entire nuclear arsenals for example. This lackadaisical approach to record keeping extends to the documentation of birth and death dates. Moskvin’s primary reason for visiting 750+ graveyards over 3 years was to create a more complete database of this information. He was dedicated to this project and the work he completed will, for decades to come, be used for a variety of purposes such as genealogy research, and to discern changes in mortality rates over time.
Then I told my mother that I would do black magic and get in touch with the spirits of dead children, mummify their bodies and keep them at home.
At some point while carrying out his research, Moskvin became obsessed with the notion of adopting a little girl. Because he was still living with his parents, he asked his mother if he could adopt a child from a nearby orphanage. Later, when recounting this interaction with his mother, Anatoly recalled, “Then I told my mother that I would do black magic and get in touch with the spirits of dead children, mummify their bodies and keep them at home.”
Listen to Episode 15 of Where is the Line? to learn more about Anatoly Moskvin and his macabre doll collection. We’ll also learn more about Samantha’s childhood sexual depravity when she recounts her experiences atop a faux bearskin rug.
Sources
Alexandra, Arkhipova. “Interview with the Head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Rossiyskaya Gazeta.” Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 2012, http://nnovgorod.sledcom.ru/news/item/765617.
“The Case of the Necropolitan Moskvin Postponed Until June 26.”, Jun 18, 2015, http://kriminalnn.ru/2015/06/18/delo-nekropolista-moskvina-otlozheno-do-26-iyunya/.
“In the Nizhny Novgorod Region, an Investigation of the Criminal Case Against Moskvin on the Facts of Abuse of the Bodies of the Deceased and their Burial Places has been Completed.”, 2012, http://nnovgorod.sledcom.ru/news/item/732309.
“In the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Compulsory Medical Measures Will be Applied to a Man Who has Committed Abuses Against the Bodies of the Deceased and their Burial Places.”, Feb 27, 2013, http://nnovgorod.sledcom.ru/news/item/727130.
Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod RegionIn the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Compulsory Medical Measures Will be Applied to a Man Who has Committed Abuses Against the Bodies of the Deceased and their Burial Places., 2013.
Jardine, Nick. “‘Genius’ Russian Historian Arrested for Living with 26 Female Corpses.” Business Insider, 2011, https://www.businessinsider.com/anatoly-moskvin-russia-corpses-2011-11.
Kelly-Ann Mills. “Psychopath Who Dug Up Children’s Bodies to Turn them into Dolls Deemed ‘HARMLESS’ by Medical Experts – WARNING: DISTRESSING IMAGES. Anatoly Moskvin Dug Up then Mummified the Girls Who were all Aged between Three and 11 Years Old.”NewsBank; Access World News – Historical and Current, 2018, https://iw-newsbank-com.libdata.lib.ua.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/16EDE1DAD4ED50A8.
Knox, Patrick. “Death Dolls.” The Sun, Sep 24, 2018, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7333048/twisted-russian-graverobber-stole-corpses-of-29-kids-mummified-them-and-dressed-them-up-as-dolls-with-lipstick-and-make-up-for-sickening-trophy-collection/.
“Madman Toys with the Dead.” MX (Brisbane, Australia), 2014, pp. 10. NewsBank; Access World News – Historical and Current, https://iw-newsbank-com.libdata.lib.ua.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/15143784AD6980E8.
“Man ‘made Dolls Out of Corpses’.” BBC News, -03-06, 2012, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15653074.
Osborn, Andrew. “Russian Police Detain Man After Finding Remains of 20 Female Corpses in Flat.” The Telegraph, Nov 3, 2011, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8868626/Russian-police-detain-man-after-finding-remains-of-20-female-corpses-in-flat.html.
Quinn, Rob. “Historian Lived with 26 Female Corpses.” Newser, Nov 4, 2011, https://www.newser.com/story/132561/historian-lived-with-26-female-corpses.html?utm_medium=goognews&utm_campaign=chan3_feed.
“Russian ‘Grave Robber made Dolls from Girls’ Corpses’.” BBC News, Mar 6, 2012, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15653074.
“Russian Historian Anatoly Moskvin Collected Dead Girls at Home – Russian Historian Anatoly Moskvin Searched Cemeteries for the Bodies of Young Women and Girls so that He could Store them in His Apartment Like a Collection of Ghoulish Dolls.”NewsBank; Access World News – Historical and Current, 2011, https://iw-newsbank-com.libdata.lib.ua.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/13CFA0D364C49518.
Stewart, Will. “Tomb Raider.” The Sun, Feb 8, 2019, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8383556/russian-body-snatcher-graves-young-girls-lipstick-stolen-corpses/.
Tank, Tanya. “Interview with Anatoly Moskvin.”, http://www.kokina.ru/moskvin/interview.htm.
“I Thought they were Alive – just Temporarily Dead”, 2018, https://lenta.ru/articles/2018/10/25/kuklovod/.
Where is the Line? 
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