Russia - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1992: Eyes Removed, Organs Eaten: Andrei Chikatilo Convicted of 52 Murders in Rostov

Andrei Chikatilo cut the eyes from his victims, believing the dead retained an image of their killer burned into their retinas. He could only reach climax while torturing or murdering, and prosecutors said he ate parts of his victims, including their sexual organs, over a killing spree across the Rostov region that claimed at least 52 lives, mostly women and children lured into forests and fields.

On this day a Russian court convicted him on all counts. He was executed by a single shot to the back of the head, a death far quicker than any he gave the people he killed.

⬅ See all events from 15 October

Cannibalism Europe Execution Murder Russia Serial Killer Trial

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1981: Andrei Chikatilo Resumes Killing After a Three-Year Pause

Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo had committed his first murder in 1978, preying on young victims lured from rail stations and bus depots around Rostov-na-Donu. By 1981, after a three-year hiatus that investigators could scarcely explain, he resumed killing. Poverty and the decay of Soviet society made his victims easy to isolate: young people drifting toward cities with no contacts, no money, and no one to report them missing.

Chikatilo would not be caught for nearly another decade. In 1984, police briefly detained him but a botched blood typing test cleared him. He was convicted of theft and served three months. By 1990, when he was finally arrested, he had murdered at least 50 people. Soviet authorities had actively suppressed public warnings during the investigation, maintaining that serial murder was ideologically incompatible with communist society.

⬅ See all events from 3 September

Europe Execution Murder Rostov-na-Donu Russia Serial Killer Soviet Union Trial

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1940: Leon Trotsky Assassinated by Soviet Agent in Mexico

Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary and founder of the Red Army, was attacked at his fortified home in Coyoacan, Mexico City, on 20 August 1940. The attacker, Ramon Mercader, was an undercover agent of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, who had spent months gaining the trust of those in Trotsky’s inner circle.

Mercader struck Trotsky with an ice axe, inflicting a fatal wound to the skull. Trotsky died the following day, aged 60. Mercader was arrested at the scene, convicted of murder, and served 20 years in a Mexican prison. He was later awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal by Stalin.

⬅ See all events from 20 August

Assassination Espionage Europe Mexico Political Crime Russia

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1960: Francis Gary Powers Pleads Guilty at Moscow Spy Trial

On 17 August 1960, American pilot Francis Gary Powers stood trial in Moscow after his U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over Soviet airspace on 1 May 1960. Powers, flying a CIA surveillance mission, had been captured alive when his high-altitude spy plane was struck by a Soviet surface-to-air missile near Sverdlovsk.

Powers pleaded guilty to espionage charges before a Soviet military tribunal, in a trial that became a Cold War spectacle broadcast to the world. He was sentenced to ten years, serving nearly two before being exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin in February 1962.

⬅ See all events from 17 August

Cold War Espionage Europe Moscow Political Crime Russia Trial USA

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