SF. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) – A St. Petersburg court on Friday convicted a prominent history teacher of killing and dismembering a student and sent him to 12-and-a-half years in prison.
The court found 64-year-old Oleg Sokolov, who teaches at St. Petersburg State University, guilty of shooting and killing 24-year-old student Anastasia Yeshchenko in his apartment in November 2019.
Sokolov was detained after being pulled from the Moika River outside his St. Petersburg apartment with a two-armed backpack cut inside.
The limbs were identified as Yeshchenko’s, and investigators found other parts of the body in the river and in Sokolov’s apartment in the historic part of St. Petersburg, less than a mile from the Hermitage Museum.
During the trial, Sokolov confessed that he and Yeshchenko had a romantic relationship and that he shot her during an argument.
Prosecutors sought a 15-year sentence.
Sokolov was known for his books on the Napoleonic era and his enthusiastic participation in the reconstruction of historical battles, and his case attracted widespread attention in Russia.
A fluent French speaker, Sokolov was a leading member of the military reconstitution movement in the early 1990s and represented Napoleon in numerous performances of historical battles and other events.
Sokolov’s extraordinary style and fiery delivery made him popular with students, and he talked about his passion for the Napoleonic era in TV interviews. Napoleon was his idol, and his history colleagues would call him “Sire,” the title of emperor.