Russian University Professor Under Investigation for Holocaust Denial

Professor Vladimir Matveyev teaches at St. Petersburg State University of Economy and Finance (Flickr).

A university professor in St. Petersburg is currently under investigation by local law enforcement for claiming the Holocaust was “a myth” and “a fiction” during an online lecture in January. The Leningrad Oblast Prosecutor’s Office revealed this information in a statement on March 25.

The lecture was part of an online webinar for teachers on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, instructing staff on how to teach about the history of the Holocaust and the Red Army's liberation of prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945. 

While the report from law enforcement does not divulge the identity of the professor, according to the radio station Ekho Moskvy, the webinar was hosted by Professor Vladimir Matveyev. Matveyev was employed at the St. Petersburg State University of Economy as well as the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, but he was fired from both positions after the scandal broke in January.

Video taken from the webinar by correspondents of the online media outlet Novye Koltushi appears to show Matveyev, a professor of international relations, stating that “no gas chambers were found to kill people in concentration camps,” “the gas was used by the Germans for disinfection,” and “six million dead Jews are a fiction.”

“The citizen publicly committed actions to rehabilitate Nazism, namely the denial of the facts established by the verdict of the International Military Tribunal for the trial and punishment of the main war criminals of the European Axis countries,” said the Prosecutor’s Office of the Leningrad Region in a public statement.

The professor is being investigated under Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The law states that “to deny facts recognized by the international military tribunal that judged and punished the major war criminals of the European Axis countries [referring to the Nuremberg trials], to approve of the crimes this tribunal judged, and to spread intentionally false information about the Soviet Union’s activities during World War II" constitutes a criminal offense.

The law also prohibits "the spreading of information on military and memorial commemorative dates related to Russia’s defense that is clearly disrespectful of society, and to publicly desecrate symbols of Russia’s military glory." This law was introduced in 2014 by the Russian Duma and faced backlash from European authorities for suppressing freedom of speech.

If found guilty, Matveyev faces up to five years in prison.