Anna Barusseau’s feral formula of love: an experiment in scientific reconstruction of a trial from the early 20th century

The study aims to establish the circumstances of the “Barusseau case” (a murder in the Lyakhovo estate near Moscow in 1909) and to determine the main reasons for the acquittal of the accused. The sources were prosecutor’s reports, newspaper reports, criminal case materials and records in parish registers; the unpublished materials used are stored in the Central State Archive of Moscow. The methodological basis of the study was a systemic-historical approach in combination with the hermeneutic method and the reconstruction method. The events associated with the crime are described; the main biographical facts about Anna Barusseau, accused of murder, are reconstructed (birth, parental family, marriage). The characteristics of the circle of people who often visited the Lyakhovo estate during the described period and were involved in the criminal case (including the victim of the crime, Anastasia Safonova) are given; the most illustrative facts from their biographies are revealed. The article establishes the details of the relationship between the accused woman and her lover that caused her jealousy, which ultimately led to the murder. The course of the court hearings (selection of jurors, hearing of witnesses’ interrogations, main points of the lawyer’s speech, etc.) is analyzed; the defense strategy is reconstructed, the tasks (primarily non-obvious ones) facing the prosecution are identified; the formal basis for the subsequent cancellation of the acquittal rendered by the jury is determined. The circumstances of the retrial are reflected, including the specific behavior of the accused; errors made by law enforcement officers at the stage of the preliminary investigation, as well as during the trial, are identified. It is determined that the failure of the prosecution and the acquittal were the result of several factors: (1) the jury was not provided with crime scene diagrams and photographs; (2) important evidence was lost; (3) no ballistic examination was conducted; (4) the defense chose a winning defense strategy that shifted the focus from the crime event to the relationships between the main defendants; (5) the prosecution’s position was based almost exclusively on witness testimony; (6) the prosecutor’s speech was abundant with unjustified imagery; (7) the accused initially adhered to a strict line in communicating with the investigation; her testimony was completely consistent. An important practical aspect of the study is the possibility of using the forgotten episode with the murder to reveal the potential of the Lyakhovo estate as an object of museum display.