Case file · Witch trials
The Multan case: Udmurt peasants accused of human sacrifice
After a beggar's headless body was found near the village of Old Multan in May 1892, ten Udmurt (Votyak) peasants were charged with sacrificing him to pagan gods; they were convicted twice before the writer Vladimir Korolenko helped win their acquittal in 1896.
1892 CE · 56.42, 51.77 · status: hoax
The account
The prosecution claimed that Udmurts secretly practised human sacrifice; the defence showed the case was built on prejudice and fabricated evidence. Korolenko's own inquiry pointed to peasants from a neighbouring village. The case became a cause célèbre for minority rights in the Russian Empire, and the village is now named Korolenko.
The sceptical view
The 'sacrifice' charge was false; the trial is a study in prejudice against an Indigenous Finno-Ugric people.