The Moscow City Court sentenced historian Tamara Eidelman in absentia to eight years in a general-regime penal colony in a criminal case over army “fakes” and two counts of rehabilitation of Nazism. A Mediazona correspondent reported this from the courtroom. Prosecutors had earlier requested the same sentence.
The court also banned Eidelman from administering internet resources for five years and stripped her of the title of Honored Teacher of Russia.
The first charge was tied to the video “Important Conversations: The Day of a Stolen Victory”, published on Eidelman’s YouTube channel on May 5, 2024. According to the prosecution, the video contained “negative information” about the actions of the USSR during World War II, Russia’s military remembrance days and commemorative dates, as well as veterans of the Great Patriotic War.
In closing arguments, the prosecutor said the historian spoke about a criminal collusion between the USSR and Germany and also insulted the honor and dignity of veterans by portraying them as dependent people who had forgotten past events and were telling untruths.
The case over army “fakes” was opened because of a post about the Russian missile strike on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv on July 8, 2024. The defense argued that Eidelman’s guilt had not been proven and pointed to procedural violations. According to her lawyer, the indictment does not specify which statements about Soviet history investigators consider knowingly false.
“The prosecution is substituting Eidelman’s actions with expert conclusions,” the lawyer said, urging the court to return the case to prosecutors to remedy the violations.
At a hearing on April 28, the prosecution called witness 23-year-old Ruslan Dadashov, who works for the nonprofit “City of Caring People.” He said that in 2024 he came across one of Eidelman’s videos from the “Important Conversations” series and later went to be questioned at an investigator’s invitation. In late May, the court also questioned expert Aleksandr Bezborodov, head of the Department of Modern Russian History at the Russian State University for the Humanities’ Historical and Archival Institute, who called Eidelman’s statements about the USSR’s role in World War II false.
Eidelman taught history and social studies at Moscow School No. 67. After the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she spoke out against the war and left the country. In October 2025, a Moscow court ordered her arrest in absentia.