The Case of Svetlana Gogolevskaya

Svetlana Valeryevna Gogolevskaya (born 1968 ) graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in piano , then did graduate school in the class of accompaniment , performed concerts in 1992 - 1994 , then worked at the Leader Center for Creative Development and Humanitarian Education of Children of the South-Western District Education Department Department of Education of Moscow . She was one of the accompanists of the musical “ Nord-Ost ”.

Her son Alexander was born in 1994 , he is disabled due to a history of Perthes disease (destruction of the hip joint). He studied at the English special school No. 1264 on Leninsky Prospekt , 93a. In September 2007, Svetlana Gogolevskaya got a job as a music teacher at the same school (“I didn’t really want to go to work there. But I really needed money after the next Sashkina operation” ^[1] ).

Kamran Shukur-oglu Tagizade, an Azerbaijani, the son of Shukur Aziz-oglu Tagiyev, the owner of a large vegetable company, studied in the same class with Alexander (according to other sources, the founder and director of Jennet LLC ^[2] ). Alexander and Kamran did not get along with each other, quarrels often occurred between them.

In November 2007 , checking the control work of the 5th grade, Svetlana Gogolevskaya put the four students Tagiyeva (sister of Kamran), who could not cope with the task. A day later, the director of the school, Viktor Evgenievich Kiselev, asked to correct the grade of five (“Tagiyev should not be less than five!” ^[3] ). This happened after a visit to the director of the father of the girl, Shukur Tagiyev. Tagiyev also forbade his daughter to attend music lessons.

After this, Tagiyev’s son Kamran, along with his friends Sergei, Savely and Ramzan, began to mock Alexander’s son Gogolevskaya (at that time they were in 7th grade). Bullying continued the following year. On Saturday, May 17, 2008, after a citizenship lesson, Kamran (who studied in the karate section) hit Alexander several times in the head and stomach. Alexander became ill, he called his mother and asked to pick him up. When Svetlana Gogolevskaya arrived at school, Kamran rude to her ("I am the master here - I will make sure that neither he nor you will be here. I went from here, you fool!" ^[3] ). She called an ambulance , Alexander was hospitalized with a concussion and spent six days in the hospital; after the beating, his vision decreased greatly.

Svetlana left school and transferred her son to another school. Kamran as a minor (at that time he was 13 years old) was registered at the school. However, the matter did not end there, and on August 26, 2008 , returning from the dacha, Svetlana found a subpoena on charges of insulting and beating Kamran.

The trial lasted from September 3 to October 9, 2008 ; it took place in the magistrate court of the judicial section No. 215 of the Lomonosov district of Moscow (the judge - Ryabikina E.V., representative of the plaintiff - G. Krutovsky). Svetlana Gogolevskaya was charged under two criminal articles - Art. 116 h. 1. (beating) and Art. 130 h. 1 (insult to honor and dignity). The plaintiff claimed that during a meeting with Kamran at school, Svetlana came up to him and said: “black, sneaky, Caucasian, you came in, you need to be kicked out of Moscow, because you are non-Russian, stupid, stupid, moron” ^[1] , and then gave him a slap and a slap in the face. In a statement, Tagiyev argued that Gogolevskaya had long been persecuting his son, driven, among other things, by national hatred. Witnesses from the plaintiff were Sergei M. and Savely P., as well as the driver of the Tagiyev family, Yu.E. Borisov. Witnesses from the side of the accused were a friend of Svetlana N.A. Goose and English teacher T.Yu. Tyagunova.

The parties did not agree to reconciliation. Svetlana Gogolevskaya was found guilty in all respects and was obliged to pay 4 thousand rubles in fine and 1 thousand rubles of compensation for moral damage to the victim.

An appeal was filed on October 16, 2008.

The case of Svetlana Gogolevskaya was widely covered in the media and caused a heated discussion on blogs . A series of publications on the conflict appeared in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda (with a change in the names of the participants).

The Russian public movement, including its executive director Natalia Kholmogorova , took an active part in the matter ^[4] . Representatives met with both sides of the conflict to form an unbiased view of the situation. After the appeal was filed, fundraising was organized for the legal support of Svetlana, who did not have a lawyer. Thus, in November 2008 , 75 thousand rubles were collected. The interests of Svetlana were represented in court by V.A. Beck and E.V. Anosova.

The broadcast, dedicated to the case of Svetlana Gogolevskaya, was supposed to take place on December 3, 2008 in the talk show “ Let They Speak ” on Channel One of Russian television; however, just before the show, it was taken off the air without explanation ^[5] .

The court of appeal began on December 8, 2008 in the Gagarinsky district court. Judge - L. A. Zvyagina, lawyers V.A. Beck (in defense of the defendant), V.V. Belyaev (representative of the victim). Gogolevskaya and Tagiyev, witnesses Remizov (the head teacher of the school) and Chernenko (the teacher, who served as the administrator on duty on May 17) were heard.

At a hearing on December 17, 2008 , schoolboy witnesses were questioned in court.

At the meeting on January 21, 2009, witnesses were interrogated and the parties debated.

A sentence was pronounced on January 22, 2009 : the Gagarinsky District Court of Moscow found Svetlana Gogolevskaya not guilty of all the charges against her. Such an outcome of the case was quite unexpected for modern Russia, since the courts (not counting the jury trial) extremely rarely pronounce acquittals, and the higher court rarely completely repeals the conviction ^[6] .

After the trial, Sh. Tagiyev filed a cassation appeal, pointing out that in the process formal violations of the CPC were committed.

Svetlana Gogolevskaya also filed a civil lawsuit against Sh. Tagiyev to redress the damage caused to her son’s health as a result of the beating.

On March 13, 2009 , Channel One nevertheless showed Andrei Malakhov ’s previously recorded talk show “ Let They Speak ” (the program was called “Wrong Accent”). The program was attended by Svetlana Gogolevskaya and Shukur Tagiev, as well as the driver of the Tagiyev Yuri Borisov, the friend of Svetlana Mikhail Gnesin, class teacher Nadezhda Mukhina, head of the district education department Olga Susakova and others. State Duma deputy Igor Barinov , honored teacher Maya Pildes , editor-in-chief of GQ magazine Nikolai Uskov acted as experts discussing the problem ^[7] .

In March 2009, the Moscow City Court sent the case for review, finding the procedural violations in court, at which Svetlana Gogolevskaya was acquitted.

In May 2009, the cassation court again fully confirmed her innocence ^[8] .

• Daria Tokareva. Conflict at a Moscow school: A teacher went on trial due to a “wrong” assessment (11/05/2008)
• Daria Tokareva. “Now it’s fashionable to send a teacher with three letters”: Readers of “Komsomolskaya Pravda” discuss material about a teacher who was condemned because of the four in music (11/13/2008)
• Daria Tokareva. Lesson of mutual responsibility: The new court did not find the crime in the actions of the teacher Svetlana Gogolevskaya (01/29/2009)
• Oleg Kashin. Everything is not so clear here: How an Azerbaijani family condemned a Russian teacher (November 19, 2008)
• Russian teacher and vegetable king (11/13/2008)
• The teacher’s case: “What kind of rubbish is this?” (February 09-15, 2009)
• Vladimir Laktanov. The victory of the teacher. Victory of the clan. Victory of the Russian people (02/02/2009)
• “The Case of the Russian Teacher” ended in victory (01/29/2009)
• Full text of the verdict of January 22, 2009
• Talk Show "Let They Talk" (Channel One, March 13, 2009) (unavailable link)