A well-known Russian professor and Napoleon expert was found by Russian police in the Moika river in St. Petersberg on Saturday. Oleg Sokolov, 63, was trying to dispose of the severed body parts of his girlfriend when he slipped and fell into the Moika.
His victim, Anastasia Yeshchenko, 24, was a former student of Sokolov. The two had authored numerous papers together and had been seen in period costumes together at an event.
When the police rescued Sokolov from the river, they found severed arms in his backpack. After conducting a search at his home, they found Anastasia’s decapitated body. Sokolov has since been taken for treatment of hypothermia and has admitted to murder. Local media reported that he was drunk when he was found.
Sokolov was a well-known Napoleon expert, who had previously taught at Paris's Sorbonne University. in 2003, published a book on Napoleonic tactics and history titled l'Armee de Napoleon. That year, he received France’s highest civilian award, Legion d'Honneur.
In 2018, Russian paper Moskovsky Komsomolets published a testimony by a former student of his, which claimed he had beaten and bullied her, once threatening to disfigure her face with a hot iron.
According to sources quoted by AFP, Sokolov had a habit of dressing as Napoleon, and would ask his lovers to address him as ‘sire’. He was well-known for re-enacting historical battles.
The police report reportedly says that he planned to commit suicide dressed as Napoleon following his murder of Anastasia.
Sokolov’s lawyer, Alexander Pochuyev, told Russian news agency Interfax that he had acted under “some sort of strong influence”.
Sokolov was also a member of the Institute of Social, Economic and Political Sciences (ISSEP) in Lyons, France, which has been described as a far-right academy. ISSEP has removed Sokolov from his position, releasing a statement on Saturday condemning his actions. “We learn with horror...the atrocious crime of which Oleg Sokolov is guilty," the statement said, adding that they could never have imagined that Sokolov, “an academic of such standing” could commit such an “odious act”.
ISSEP was founded by Marine Le Pen’s niece, Marion Marechal.
