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The Russian Grave Robbing Genius

(aka, "The Doll Maker")

It can be difficult for ordinary folks to wrap their heads around the truly heinous crimes that others commit. Most people don't like to go out of their way to hurt others, so the thought of someone being so dedicated to committing unforgivable things can be quite disturbing

Author and academic Anatoly Moskvin probably seemed like a perfectly normal individual in his native Russia, where he was highly respected. He was the author of several books and knew 13 different languages, and many thought he was a genius. It's unlikely that anyone had any idea of what he was doing behind closed doors.

Yet Anatoly had a terrible secret that came to light when police happened to visit his apartment and saw the childless man's collection of dolls. That would have been enough to creep some people out, but the truth about these dolls was truly horrifying!

(WARNING: Content may be disturbing to some readers.)

In the city of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia resident Anatoly Moskvin was a well-reputed author, academic, and expert in cemetery history. One day, police visited him after his parents voiced concerns about his strange obsession with cemeteries. He had told his mother that he often slept at night in graveyards, and had recently purchased a coffin to sleep inside of at home. Police got suspicious after seeing his apartment, and decided to search it.

The small apartment that the 45-year-old childless man lived in was full of toys, books, and clothing that were meant for children. The police wondered why a man without kids would fill his home with such things.

The police became even more concerned when they entered a room full of life-size dolls carefully positioned around the floor and furniture, each one appearing to be meticulously and uniquely dressed.

It wasn't just the unusual appearance of these dolls that worried the police, but the unpleasant smell. They decided to get a better look, but what they discovered was more revolting than they could have imagined.

As it turned out, these were not simply dolls, but real, mummified bodies of girls and young women. The police arrested Anatoly right then and there, and soon, his terrible secret was made known to the entire country.

Apparently, Anatoly had been sneaking into cemeteries in the dead of night for over a decade, digging up the corpses of girls and young women that had recently been laid to rest. He would take them home and try to mummify them, but if that didn't work, he would return them to their graves.

Anatoly was as cooperative with the authorities as he could be, confessing that he had dug up more than 150 bodies over the years, though he only kept 29 of them. With each one of these, he rubbed baking soda and salt over their skin to embalm them, then, after they dried, stuffed them with cloth.

Earning the moniker of "The Doll Maker," even more details soon became known to the public, like how each mummy had a mask made of wax, and how he painted their faces with nail polish. He even liked to dress them up for tea parties and "birthdays." A few of them had speaking mechanisms to make them more realistic.

In spite of all of this, Anatoly insisted that he never did anything to the dolls that could be construed as sexual. He just wanted them to live forever.

The police didn't even get the chance to identify any of the bodies before a woman by the name of Natalia Chardymova got in touch with them. She recognized her late 10-year-old daughter Olga as one of the dolls hidden in Anatoly's apartment while watching the story on the news.

The authorities wanted to know why Anatoly was so obsessed with mummies during their investigation of him, so he told them the story of how he lost his 11-year-old close friend Natalia when he was 13. His life was forever changed when he was forced to kiss the dead girl by a group of friends.

While the families of the victims were horrified by what became of their deceased loved ones, Anatoly was declared unfit to stand trial by state prosecutors. As such, Anatoly still remains confined to a psychiatric institute.

Although The Terror of Tallahassee doesn't wish to exploit such a human tragedy, we do feel it is important to bring awareness to such devious crimes, so that everyone can be more alert to spotting them. (Anatoly plied his gruesome hobby for years before detection.) To help prevent these sorts of events happening locally, we were able to offer an exchange exhibit with the Russian authorities. (A one year transfer of certain relics from our Sunland Hospital display, for various objects used in to commit Anatoly Moskvin of criminal insanity.) We are proud to announce some of those objects will be on display during this season at The Terror of Tallahassee. The display itself if tastefully arranged, however, we should acknowledge that we were never able to completely eliminate the smell of the cadavers, and we are forbidden from actually opening the dolls themselves. (So you may wish to bring some nose plugs or smelling salts when you enter the Death Display.)

Yes, it's true. Fact can be freakier than fiction.

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