Russian Life Editor Tried in Absentia

Prosecutors have requested an eight-year prison sentence for historian Tamara Eidelman in their criminal case against Eidelman, tried in absentia, Mediazona reported. Eidelman, who was Russian Life's history editor for 18 years and founding editor of the literary journal Chtenia, was in November 2025 charged with two counts of rehabilitating Nazism and disseminating wartime "fakes."

The prosecutor asked the court to take into account Eidelman's age, the fact that she is unemployed, and her status as a "foreign agent." He cited political hatred as an aggravating circumstance.

Eidelman is actually self-employed, has an extremely popular YouTube channel on Russian and world history that has nearly two million subscribers, and is a popular lecturer on history, leading courses and tours all over the world. She was declared a foreign agent in September 2022. She currently lives in Europe.

The grounds for the first charge – rehabilitating Nazism – was a video posted on May 5, 2024, "The Day of Stolen Victory," which the prosecutor's office stated "contains negatively colored statements about the actions of the USSR during World War II, the days of military glory, and memorable dates of Russia related to the defense of the Fatherland, as well as about veterans of the Great Patriotic War."

In his closing arguments, the prosecutor noted that Eidelman spoke of a criminal conspiracy between the USSR and Germany, and that she had insulted the honor and dignity of veterans – specifically, by describing them as people incapable of independent judgment, who had forgotten the events in question and were telling falsehoods.

The "fakes" case was opened over a post about Russia's missile strike on the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv on July 8, 2024.

On that date, Russian forces’ strikes on multiple cities in Ukraine killed at least 42 civilians, including five children, and injured at least 190, according to Ukrainian authorities. The attacks also caused significant damage to vital infrastructure, including at the Okhmatdyt hospital, the country’s largest children’s hospital. The attack drew immediate, widespread international condemnation from the UN, NATO, and global leaders. In the immediate hours following the strike, an outpouring of global support and crowdfunding initiatives – such as the official UNITED24 platform – raised millions of dollars to aid in the rescue and reconstruction operations. Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, thoroughly analyzed visual and physical evidence to investigate the strike as a potential violation of the laws of war.

In closing arguments, Eidelman's defense attorney said her guilt was not proven and pointed to procedural violations in the trial. According to the attorney, the indictment does not specify which of Eidelman's statements about the USSR's wartime conduct are considered knowingly false. Instead, the case file relies on an expert's opinion that the video contained "negative" information about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, among other claims.

"The prosecution is substituting the conclusions of experts for Eidelman's actual actions," her defense attorney said. He called for the criminal case to be returned to the prosecutor's office so that the violations could be corrected.

At the hearing, a prosecution witness, 23-year-old Ruslan Dadashov, who works for the autonomous nonprofit organization Gorod Neravnodushnykh (roughly, "City of Concerned Citizens"), said that, in 2024, he came across Eidelman's video from the "Important Conversations" series.

"I remember that video perfectly – I rewatched it. She said we shouldn't talk about victory, that we should talk about needless casualties, about the mistakes of the leadership. It struck me, I was even angered! She talked, if you'll pardon the expression, about 'tame' veterans. Supposedly today's veterans just repeat what the current commanders in power tell them to say," he said.

Dadashov also said that Eidelman spoke about the deaths of civilians resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine without citing Russia's Defense Ministry as a source. The young man said he came in for questioning at the investigator's invitation, because he had "shared this video with friends." After the criminal case against Eidelman was opened, the investigator offered Dadashov an opportunity to testify.

At the end of May, the court questioned Alexander Bezborodov, head of the department of modern Russian history at the Institute of History and Archives of the Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU), as an expert witness. He called Eidelman's statements about the USSR's role in the Second World War lies.

"Where does all this come from with Tamara Natanovna Eidelman? Where does all this originate? As is well known, in March 2009 the European Parliament adopted a resolution equating communism with Nazism and fascism. That is exactly what's being put into practice here. It is an absolutely false concept from start to finish. It is the rehabilitation of Nazism in its purest form," he said.