ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) – A St. Petersburg court Friday convicted a leading history professor on charges of murdering and dismembering a female student and sentenced him to 12 1/2 years in prison.
The court found 64-year-old Oleg Sokolov, who taught at St. Petersburg State University, guilty of shooting and murdering 24-year-old doctoral student Anastasia Yeshchenko in his apartment in November 2019.
Sokolov was detained after pulling from the Moika River outside his St. Petersburg apartment with a backpack with two severed arms in it.
The limbs were identified as Yeshchenko’s, and researchers found other body parts in the river and in Sokolov’s apartment in the historic part of St. Petersburg, less than a mile from the Hermitage.
At the trial, Sokolov testified that he and Yeshchenko had a romantic relationship and that he shot her during an argument.
Prosecutors have requested a sentence of 15 years.
Sokolov was known for his books on the Napoleonic era and his enthusiastic participation in reenactments of historical battles, and his case attracted wide attention in Russia.
Fluent in French, Sokolov had been a leading member of military reenactment movements since the early 1990s, representing Napoleon in numerous representations of historic battles and other events.
Sokolov’s flamboyant style and fiery expressions made him popular among college students, and he spoke of his passion for the Napoleonic era in TV interviews. Napoleon was his idol and fellow history buffs would address him as ‘Sire’, the emperor’s title.