In 2019, Russian historian Oleg Sokolov—once celebrated as an expert on Napoleon—was pulled from a freezing river carrying a backpack stuffed with severed limbs. Behind the bizarre headlines was a story of obsession, abuse, and academic arrogance gone homicidal.
This week, we unpack the chilling case of the so-called Napoleon Butcher of St. Petersburg—a man who thought he was a genius but turned out to be just another violent coward in a costume.
