Maxim Martsinkevich

Maxim Sergeyevich Martsinkevich (, 8 May 1984 – 16 September 2020), better known as Tesak (Russian for Cleaver, Hatchet, Hand Axe, Machete), In 2009, he was sentenced to three years for making a video with racist content. Martsinkevich's memories from this time in prison are expressed through his book Restruct. Following his release from prison, Tesak was unemployed, posted vlogs, and made a living by charging others for joining his "hunts for pedophiles" and for attending his lectures on life in prison, ways of shoplifting, as well as other subjects. In the autumn of 2013, Tesak was indicted again for releasing new videos featuring racist remarks. As a result, on 15 August 2014, he was sentenced to five years in prison. On 11 November 2014, the court reduced the sentence to two years and 10 months.

On 27 June 2017, the Babushkinsky district court of Moscow sentenced Martsinkevich to ten years in a strict regimen corrective labor colony for his involvement in attacks targeting synthetic cannabinoids dealers. During his fourth prison term, in 2020, an investigation was started about his involvement in hate killings. Martsinkevich confessed to murders and cooperated with investigating authorities, but soon he was found dead in his prison cell.

Early life and education Maxim Martsinkevich was born in 1984 in Moscow to Sergey Yevgenyevich Martsinkevich and Viktoriya Leonidovna Martsinkevich. During his lifetime he indicated he was of Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Belarusian ancestry. As expressed in his first autobiographical audio book Destruct, his mother did not share her son's extremist views while his father was supportive.

Martsinkevich was conscripted into the Russian Army, although he claimed that he was released after a few days, following a mental health evaluation caused by him having beaten up a fellow soldier of Azerbaijani ancestry. Tesak's nickname was related to his interest in knives. He graduated from a secondary vocational school for architecture and was expelled from the Russian State Social University.

Career Martsinkevich said he had been employed as an engineer for three and a half years. He sold his videos and tried to sell music through his website. He also sold ads in his videos and tried to organize a financial pyramid scheme called Tesak Money.

Tesak was a member of the white power skinhead group "Russian Purpose" led by Semyon Tokmakov. One of the publicly available Format 18 videos called "Dacha History X" depicts a skinhead dressed as an old woman who hates black people, with her grandson burying them in the garden. A similar event takes place in the movie Russia 88. Among other similarities, the main character of the film is nicknamed Shtyk (Bayonet), and like Tesak, he takes a camera and films Russians asking their opinion on immigrants from the Caucasus and Asia.

The organization maintained a website which was banned in 2007 after a complaint from one of the writers for an antifascist website. A number of followers of Format 18 have also uploaded their own videos of humiliations and physical violence. The most recognized video of that kind has been described as the "execution of a Tajik and a Dagestanian", released in August 2007, at a time when Martsinkevich was already incarcerated. The Investigative Committee of Russia made a statement indicating that the executions shown in the videos have been verified as real.

In September 2010, a Russian court order banned Format 18 for extremism.

First conviction, 2007 On 28 January 2007, Martsinkevich and his friends visited the Bilingua book club in Moscow. At the time, it was used as a platform for the political debates involving journalists Yulia Latynina and Maxim Kononenko. Tesak asked if they agreed that in order for Russia to improve, every democrat needed to be killed, then shouted "Sieg!" and put his hand up in the Nazi salute, followed by his friends yelling "Heil!". The shouting continued for a few more minutes, with a number of the female attendees yelling "fascism will not pass!" in response. Kononenko suggested that they call the police, as performing Nazi salutes in public places was prohibited in Russia. The police were not called. Eventually, the host of the debates Alexei Navalny submitted a letter to the Russian public prosecutors' office.

On 2 July 2007, about 10 members of a Russian anti-extremist special forces unit arrested Martsinkevich at a gym he had used for training. On 18 February 2008, Tesak was sentenced to three years in prison for inciting ethnic or racial hatred (article 282 in Russia). The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta published an opinion piece stating that investigators ignored the worst cases of this neo-Nazi's criminal activity, thus leading to the mild punishment.

Second conviction, 2009 In 2006, 20 people dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan staged the execution of a Tajik drug dealer, filming and releasing it on the Internet. The organizers of the performance were Martsinkevich and Artyom Zuev. Zuev also provided the voice-over for the video.

In September 2013, the media began to report on one of Tesak's videos recorded in an apartment in Moscow, resulting in the arrest of Andrey Kaminov, ex-deputy chief of the Federal Bailiff Service for Moscow Oblast.

Activists of the movement and Tesak in particular were criticized by the media for vigilantism, violence, and connections to another branch of Martsinkevich's Restruct movement called Occupy Gerontophilia , which targeted young males allegedly interested in dates with older same-sex partners. Actions of members of both of the branches have also been described as campaigns against LGBT people, with one Occupy Pedophilia local group leader saying that "practically all gay men [are] pedophiles".

Third conviction, 2013 A new criminal charge against Tesak was filed in the autumn of 2013. Fleeing from prosecution, Martsinkevich traveled to Cuba through Belarus, planning to make new videos. In December 2013, a court in Moscow convicted him In absentia for extremism in the publication of three YouTube videos featuring Tesak. Two of the videos were his reviews of the Russian movies Stalingrad and Okolofutbola (Kicking Off), with racist remarks, while the third video criticized all the candidates of the Moscow mayoral elections and suggested removing immigrants as a means of improving the city. Videos related to the "Occupy pedophilia" movement have also been investigated. Martsinkevich said that the indictment was ordered by the "pedo lobby" seeking revenge, mentioning the official Andrey Kaminov he caught during a date with a minor organized by Maxim.

On 17 January 2014 Tesak was arrested in Cuba. On 27 January 2014, he was handcuffed and deported from Havana to Moscow for overstaying, then arrested by Russian authorities. On 29 January 2014 Martsinkevich was indicted in person.

A Moscow court began hearing the case on 30 July 2014. Martsinkevich was charged with inciting ethnic hatred with the threat of violence (part 2 of the article 282 of the criminal code in Russia). The prosecution argued that the defendant has shown three videos with extremist content and psychological threats made by Martsinkevich on his personal page on the social network Vkontakte. The court agreed and, on 15 August 2014, sentenced Martsinkevich to five years in a penal colony with a strict regimen. On 11 November 2014, the prisoner's lawyers appealed the decision and the court reduced the sentence to two years and ten months.

Fourth conviction, 2017 On 18 March 2015, it was reported that Martsinkevich had been charged with robbery and hooliganism. His lawyer said that the charges were related to Tesak's activities against smoking blends dealers. The case was heard at the Babushkinsky District Court in November 2016, with Marsinkevich pleading not guilty. The prosecutor asked for 11 years and 6 months of confinement in a strict regimen corrective labor colony. Tesak was found guilty of the attacks - one having resulted in death, and on 27 June 2017, judge Alexander Glukhov sentenced Martsinkevich to 10 years in a strict regimen labor colony, beginning on 27 January 2014. One other attacker received 10 years, while the others have received 3 to 5.

On 21 May 2018, it was reported that the Moscow City Court overturned the 27 June 2017 conviction and requested another hearing, while leaving Martsinkevich incarcerated. In December 2018, the Babushkinsky District Court again sentenced Martsinkevich to 10 years in a strict regimen labor colony. Martsinkevich filed an appeal. He was serving the sentence in Matrosskaya Tishina.

Other legal troubles In February 2013, Tesak was in Minsk, Belarus to get a laser vision correction. During the visit, he entered into a fight with a group of anti-fascist football fans of FC Partizan. His associate Sergey Korotkikh stabbed one of them with a knife, which resulted in Martsinkevich getting arrested by the police on the suspicion of hooliganism. He was soon released with no charges pressed.

One of Martsinkevich's lawyers made a public statement in October 2014, saying that his client had been charged with hooliganism for cutting off a man's hair.

In November 2014, Tesak was charged with inciting ethnic hatred for writing and publishing his book Restruct, which has been classified as extremist. Eventually, despite all the confessions made by Martsinkevich and others, the investigation against him was closed in the beginning of 2023 at his father's request, due to the death of the suspect.

Personal life and death In a September 2012 interview, Martsinkevich said he was not married and he did not have children. Investigators launched a preliminary inquiry into his death, in light of the security cameras near his cell having been inoperative on the night of his death. He had been due to travel to Moscow for questioning regarding a criminal case originating from 1999. He was 36. Martsinkevich’s funeral at Kuntsevo Cemetery in Moscow was attended by estimated two to 4.5 thousand people. His attorney Matvey Dzen contested the official explanation of his death as a suicide. According to a report in Meduza, a suicide note was discovered after Martsinkevich was found dead in his prison cell. The note was reported to have contained a request for officials to give a private diary and a book on communism to Martsinkevich's wife in Yekaterinburg.