A Russian teacher who beheaded his student who became a lover – and then planned suicide like Napoleon Bonaparte – was sentenced to more than 12 years in a stockade, according to a report.
Oleg Sokolov, 64, a former history professor at St. Petersburg State University, was found drunk on a river in November 2019 with a bag containing the severed arms of 24-year-old Anastasia Yeshchenko.
His severed head was discovered in an IKEA bag in his luxury apartment, while his torso and legs were recovered from the Moika River in St. Petersburg, East2West News reported.
Sokolov – Russia’s most famous Napoleon reenacter – remained unmoved while wearing a mask while a court in St. Petersburg sentenced him to 12 ½ years in a penal colony on Friday.
“He shot her, then he tried to strangle her, but she kept giving signs of life, so he shot her again,” said Judge Yulia Maksimenko, adding that he shot her four times with a rifle before dismembering her with a knife and saw.
One of the bullets, which was fired from a Soviet-era TOZ-17 stylized as a 19th-century cavalry rifle, struck the woman’s right eye, East2West said.
After killing her and hiding parts of her body under the bed, Sokolov celebrated with friends.
“His friends visited him, they all drank brandy,” heard the court.
As soon as they left, he beheaded and dismembered the corpse in his bathroom.
Sokolov was caught when he was found in the icy river trying to get rid of his lover’s arms, which he had cut off his shoulders.
The unfortunate academic pleaded guilty to the murder, but told the court that it was not premeditated and that the doctoral student had led him to “a state of complete insanity” by making insulting comments about his children from another relationship.
It turned out that he suspected Yeshchenko was cheating on him – and became violent when she said that she planned to go to a friend’s birthday party.
She told him that his freedom must be respected, but the judge said that Sokolov was ferociously jealous amid the 40-year age difference.
Sokolov – who taught at the Sorbonne and received the merit order from the French Legion of Honor – and Yeschenko had participated in Napoleonic reenactments in full historical costumes.
Earlier, Sokolov said in court: “I want to express deep and complete remorse for what I have done. I not only believe that I should be punished, I want to be punished in order to atone for the crime I committed ”.