Translated material
"The Lord of the Rings" at the settlement
The first real victims appeared in the games of Tolkien's followers
The ambiguous attitude in society towards Tolkienists, whom some consider overplayed adults, while others consider them the ultimate romantics, may soon change. On Wednesday, the Kirovsky District Court of Yekaterinburg finished considering the case of the murder of a 16-year-old Tolkienist during role-playing games. The emergency happened at a performance by the Novouralsk historical fencing club, whose leader, 31-year-old Alexei Zhivaev, has long been involved in the movement of followers of J.R.R. Tolkien. Together with his students, he often traveled to Yekaterinburg to participate in general role-playing games taking place near the center - in the park on Blucher Street. One of the meetings ended sadly for its participants.As is now known from the investigation materials, having arrived in February for the annual fights in the city park, the Novourals residents began a training battle. Sixteen-year-old Oleg Brusnitsyn became Alexey Zhivaev’s opponent. The student and the teacher clashed. But, despite the difference in age and weapons - Alexei Zhivaev’s textolite (textolite is a multilayer plastic) sword was one and a half times larger than Brusnitsyn’s, the teacher could not defeat the student for a long time. In their testimonies, witnesses to the battle say that the Tolkienists fought on equal terms.
Alexey Zhivaev won only by hitting the young student in the eye, thereby violating the rules of these game fights, which prohibit any blows to the head. The wound received by the young man turned out to be very serious, but did not stop the participants in the annual tournament. Mr. Zhivaev continued the fights with other students, and the Tolkienists tried to bring their friend to his senses on their own. But the condition of the vanquished became worse and worse, and fans of “The Lord of the Rings” had to turn to professional doctors. The ambulance specialists arrived and hospitalized Oleg Brusnitsyn with an open head injury. However, it was not possible to save him - five days later the young man died.
In connection with this incident, a criminal case was opened under Part 1 of Art. 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Causing death by negligence”). The maximum penalty under this article is two years in prison. The Kirov District Prosecutor's Office, which began an investigation into the circumstances of the death, admitted to a Vremya Novostei correspondent that there were no difficulties in identifying the suspect and bringing charges against him. The investigation itself took a matter of days - Alexey Zhivaev fully admitted his guilt and stated that he repented of what he had done. The court also quickly accepted the case for consideration. However, at the request of both sides, media representatives were not allowed into the meetings. From the comments of both the defense and the prosecution, it is known that at the meetings they discussed more the ethical side of the Tolkienist movement and its dangers, rather than a specific case.
The prosecution convinced the court that, even when playing on equal terms, according to the traffic rules, the teacher should not forget about his seniority and responsibility for the children. The prosecutor's office confirmed its message by the fact that Alexey Zhivaev was wearing a protective helmet during the fight, and his opponent had an unprotected head. The state prosecutor is confident that this is a mistake by the teacher, who is obliged to warn the student about the danger. Mr. Zhivaev himself responds to this that during the fight everything happened too quickly - his opponent simply did not have time to defend himself and stumbled upon the sword.
Another important question for the court was: “Could a teacher twice the age of a student fight him with a longer sword?” The defense is convinced that he could, since role-playing games are just a way of passing time, and not competitions or real fights, everyone is equal in them, regardless of age, gender and physical fitness. The parents of the deceased also agree with this, especially since his father was an active role player in his youth and himself advised his son to join the movement.
This is largely why, after the death of the child, they made soft financial demands (the family estimated their damage at 39 thousand rubles), and the prosecutor’s office demanded a prison sentence for Alexey Zhivaev. State prosecutor Alexey Gorbunov admits that bringing charges against the Tolkienists was very unpleasant. But this did not affect the court - on Wednesday, Alexei Zhivaev was sentenced to a year in prison to serve the term in a penal colony. Tolkienists themselves say that death during the games and the trial of one of the participants happened in the history of the Russian movement for the first and, perhaps, the last time. Among Russian Tolkienists, what happened in Yekaterinburg was discussed many times. According to representatives of the Moscow “hard” fencing school, the Yekaterinburg tragedy could have been avoided if the “soft” rules of the Yekaterinburg residents had been better thought out. Let us remind you that Yekaterinburg is the birthplace of the “soft” fencing school. According to the rules of the soft school, fights are allowed only with “humane” weapons - plastic, but very dangerous piercing blows are allowed. And for all Tolkien fans who fight during games and festivals according to strict rules (Moscow and especially St. Petersburg), including with steel weapons, piercing blows are prohibited.
However, in any case, a real sentence for a participant in the games could undermine mass interest in the movement, fueled in recent years by the release of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and change public attitudes towards this wing of the pacifist camp.