MOSCOW — The Russian historian always had been open about his interest in the dead and eagerly described how he loved to rummage through cemeteries, studying grave stones to uncover the life stories behind them.
What he failed to mention, according to police, was that he had dug up 29 bodies and taken them back to his apartment, where he dressed them in women’s clothes scavenged from graves and then put them on display.
A police video of the man’s apartment in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod released Monday shows his macabre collection of what looks like dolls. Lifesize, they are dressed in bright dresses and head scarves, their hands and faces wrapped in what appears to be cloth. Police said they were mummified remains.
Instructions for doll-making were found in the apartment, police said. The man lived with his parents.
Russian media reports identified the man as Anatoly Moskvin, a 45-year-old historian who was considered the ultimate expert on cemeteries in Nizhny Novgorod.
Russian newspaper reports quoted police as saying that the man had only selected the remains of young women for his grisly collection.
The arrest followed a long-running investigation into the desecration of graves at several cemeteries in Nizhny Novgorod beginning in 2010, police spokeswoman Svetlana Kovylina said. She did not explain how police tracked him down.
The Associated Press
