Russian Criminals

Known as the Chessboard Killer, Alexander Pichushkin set out to kill people matching all the 64 squares on his chessboard, and would cross out a square with every kill. Mostly targeting elderly people, he managed to kill about 48 to 60 people and was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment.

Semion Mogilevich is an organized crime boss from Russia. Widely described as the boss of bosses, Mogilevich is believed to control the operations of a vast criminal empire. Even though the FBI considers him the most dangerous mobster, Semion Mogilevich lives freely in Moscow, thanks to his close alliances with important Ukrainian and Russian political figures, including Vladimir Putin.

Born into a poverty-stricken family of farmers, Fanny Kaplan was home-schooled. Later, while working as a milliner, she joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and thus became part of radical politics. She developed anti-Bolshevik sentiments and attempted to assassinate Lenin. Though Lenin recovered, Kaplan was later executed.

Russian baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg gained fame as an anticommunist general during the Russian Civil War. Also known as the Mad Baron for his cruelty toward his enemies, he had converted to Buddhism but retained strains of Christianity in his faith. He was eventually executed by a firing squad.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a Soviet-born terrorist best remembered for planting two homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three people. Many people were injured and 17 of those lost limbs. He planted the bombs with his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the two killed a policeman after the FBI declared them suspects. Tsarnaev was killed in the ensuing shootout.

Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova was a noblewoman, serial killer, and sadist. She achieved notoriety for torturing and killing at least 38 female serfs. Since she was well-connected with the Russian nobility and with those in power at the royal court, Darya got away with many of her murders until she was found guilty in a trial organized by Empress Catherine II.

Chechen separatist Dokka Umarov later declared himself the emir of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate. Though a civil engineer by profession, he continued to indulge in criminal activities while working in Russia. He was eventually poisoned, and his body was found in a remote Russian area.

Maxim Martsinkevich was a Russian media personality, nationalist activist, and vlogger. He is credited with co-founding the Restruct movement, which among many objectives, aimed at propagating neo-nazi views among youth. Martsinkevich was indicted on multiple occasions for inciting ethnic or racial hatred. In 2020, Maxim Martsinkevich was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Anatoly Slivko made headlines when he was convicted of killing seven teenage boys in Russia. The serial killer admitted that he had killed the boys to recreate an incident where he had seen a young boy dying in a road accident and had been sexually aroused by the sight.