Vladimir Bratislav, the Beast of Lysva, raped, mutilated and murdered in more than a year's time thirty young women. Right now, he's a prisoner in the prison of Solikamsk in the Urals where he's serving a life sentence. Bratislav says that, whenever he sees a woman, he feels the urge to assault her immediately. [ReadOn]

Accused of raping and murdering at least six children Roman is the latest serial killer to surface in Rostov-on-Don, the former stomping grounds of the cannibal killer Andrei Chikatilo. Burtsev, 25, was arrested in July 1996, and confessed to the killings, giving investigators detailed descriptions of the crime scenes. [ReadOn]

In early January 1964, residents of Moscow whispered warnings to their neighbors of a mysterious, long-nosed killer prowling the city, knocking on doors at random, gaining entry to the homes of his victims by posing as a meter-reader for Moscow Gas. [ReadOn]

A decade after Vladimir Ionosyan sparked a local panic with the "Mosgas" murders, residents of Moscow circulated rumors of another homicidal maniac at large. According to reports, the slayer was a fair-haired, handsome young man, armed with a cobbler's bodkin or similar instrument, who trailed his female victims from the ornate subway stations, stabbing them to death in nearby streets and alleys. [ReadOn]

Vasili Komaroff was known among his neighbors as a friendly, smiling family man. He dealt in horses, and maintained a stable at his home, in Moscow's Shabolovki district. None who knew him well suspected that he might have been the "Wolf of Moscow," an elusive killer who had terrorized the neighborhood and foiled police investigators in a two-year manhunt. Times were hard and life was cheap in Russia, in the early 1920s. [ReadOn]

When police arrested 37-year-old former forrestry student, Anatoly Onoprienko on April 16, 1996, they finally ended the Ukraine's worst killing spree. Anatoly, a native of Zhitomir, was carrying a hunting rifle that matched the murder weapon in several of the killings and had jewelry and video equipment, which may belong to some of his victims. [ReadOn]

A prolific poisoner who undertook her work as much from sympathy as for the minor fees she charged, Madame Popova was an advocate of women's liberation long before the cause was recognized. A native of Samara, Russia, she was so distressed by the travail of peasant wives held "captive" by their brutish husbands that she volunteered an inexpensive, lethal remedy. [ReadOn]

With his shaved, bald head and wild eyes, Andrei Chikatilo looked for all the world like Nosferatu, the original Dracula silent movie monster, as he glared menacingly from behind his barred cage in a Russian courtroom. "I am a mistake of nature...a mad beast," the fifty-six-year-old former schoolteacher said chillingly as he confessed to killing at least fifty-five people, mostly schoolchildren, between 1978 and 1990, drinking their blood, and cannibalizing them. [ReadOn]

On June 10, 1998, Red Army army deserter Vadim Yershov fainted when he was sentenced to death for raping, robbing and stabbing 19 people. Yershov, 25, was sentenced by a military tribunal in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Fortunately for him Russia has suspended executing its convicts even though the death sentence is still part of the legal code. The Council of Europe urged Russia to abolish capital punishment as a condition for its membership in the organization.