A Purely Russian Crime: The Most High-Profile and Mysterious Criminal Cases of the 18th – 20th Centuries

The new book by the famous human rights activist and journalist Eva Merkacheva, author of the bestsellers "High-profile Cases", "The City of the Doomed" and "Who Sits Well in Rus'", tells about the most interesting criminal cases - from those that thundered throughout Russia to those that were classified (until recently). It includes court proceedings from the tsarist era, including trials of sorcerers and poisoners. For the first time, unique court materials related to Leo Tolstoy - a justice of the peace, a juror and... accused of murder - are published. You will learn about the trials of the executioner Lieutenant Schmidt and the high-profile case of the inventor of the theremin, Termen, read about justice in Leningrad during and after the siege, as well as about high-profile post-war trials. The author painstakingly collected materials about the murders of Soviet citizens during the peacetime years that stirred up the entire country, such as the Raskin case, the terrorist attack at the Kotlyakovskoye Cemetery, and the mysterious death of the Dyatlov Pass expedition. The book includes the high-profile cases of Joseph Brodsky for parasitism and the large Ovechkin family for hijacking an airplane in the 1980s. The book is written in the genre of court essays and contains unique archival materials, including illustrative ones, many of which have not been published before. Victor Hugo said: "For me, it does not matter whose side is might; what matters is whose side is right." However, at different times, the law has appeared in different guises. There were periods when in our country people were tried for things that at other times seemed wild to even talk about... I invite the reader to take a stroll through the court archives with me and immerse themselves in the atmosphere of ancient justice - no matter how it may seem from today's point of view. Unique documentary materials, including archival and previously unpublished ones. For everyone interested in the history of Russia and the history of the development of criminal law, the topic of crime investigation, forensic science and sociology.