Graverobber who stole girls’ corpses for his ‘doll collection’ refuses to apologise to their parents

A historian who robbed the graves of 29 young girls and lived with the mummified corpses has refused to apologise to their parents.

It comes as he appeals to be released from psychiatric hospital so he can go and live with his new girlfriend.  

Anatoly Moskvin, 53, from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, turned the dead children into ‘dolls’, dressing them in stockings, clothes and knee length boots.

He applied lipstick and make-up to their faces.

Anatoly Moskvin ( left) with his attorney Dmitry Repkin. Moskvin, 53, turned the dead children into ‘dolls’, dressing them in stockings, clothes and knee length boots

One of the 29 dolls found in Moskvin’s flat, above and below. He applied lipstick and make-up to their faces

One of the dolls pictured above. The grave robber has refused to apologise to his victims’ parents as he attended a custody hearing

The highly-educated bodysnatcher – an expert on cemeteries – marked the birthday of each of his dead victims in his bedroom.

His parents who lived in the same flat in Russian city Nizhny Novgorod claimed to know nothing of his macabre activities.

The grave robber has refused to apologise to his victims’ parents as he attended a custody hearing amid his efforts to be released from psychiatric hospital to care for his elderly mother and live with a new girlfriend.

‘These girls are girls,’ he said.

‘There are no parents in my view.

‘I don’t know any of them.

‘Besides, they buried their daughters, and this is where I believe their rights over them finished…

Anatoly Moskvin pictured getting into a police van. 

The corpse of murder victim Olga Chardymova, aged ten, was one of the 29 he dug up and turned into mummified dolls, some with music boxes wedged in their chests. One of the dolls pictured above 

Head of a corpse covered in wax. Moskvin said he wanted to become a teacher of English to children after an initiative by Vladimir Putin to boost foreign languages in schools

‘So no, I would not apologise.’

Moskvin also said he wanted to become a teacher of English to children after an initiative by Vladimir Putin to boost foreign languages in schools.

In Soviet times, he worked as a translator for military intelligence in the Red Army, and later wrote several history books.

One medical commission has already recommended releasing Moskvin asserting his schizophrenia had been treated, but this was overturned by a court.

One of the 29 dolls found in Moskvin’s flat. Moskvin was detained in 2011, and confessed to 44 counts of abusing graves of girls aged three to 12

One of the dolls found in the flat. The grave robber has refused to apologise to his victims’ parents as he attended a custody hearing

A judge last week renewed his detention in a psychiatric hospital for another six months.

‘Sorry, I won’t speak about it,’ said Moskvin after the decision.

Moskvin was detained in 2011, and confessed to 44 counts of abusing graves of girls aged three to 12.

Previously he has told the parents of his victims: ‘You abandoned your girls in the cold – and I brought them home and warmed them up.’

The corpse of murder victim Olga Chardymova, aged ten, was one of the 29 he dug up and turned into mummified dolls, some with music boxes wedged in their chests.

One medical commission has already recommended releasing Moskvin asserting his schizophrenia had been treated, but this was overturned by a court

Moskvin’s mother Elvira Moskvina,pictured above. His parents who lived in the same flat in Russian city Nizhny Novgorod claimed to know nothing of his macabre activities

Her mother Natalia Chardymova, 46, did not realise that on her regular visits to her daughter’s graveside, the coffin was empty.

She has opposed his release and said ‘this creature brought fear, terror and panic into my life’ with his ‘grotesque’ abuse of the dead children.

She called for him to be permanently locked up.

‘I would be happy to know he will spend his life in the hospital,’ she said.

‘He is a sick person.

‘From one side, it’s not good to be happy about this.

‘But I will give me the chance to put a gravestone on the plot of my daughter.

‘She was buried unnamed to prevent him finding her grave again if he is released.’

His mother Elvira, 77, said: ‘We saw these dolls but we did not suspect there were dead bodies inside. We thought it was his hobby to make such big dolls and did not see anything wrong with it.’

She claimed the court was biased against her son who was ‘not able to be in society, work, or get married’.