A MSU student spoke about harassment from a teacher. After that, she was hounded on social networks

Daria Varakina, a student at the Faculty of History at Moscow State University, said on her social media pages that she was harassed by the head of the ethnology department, Dmitry Funk. The teacher intends to file a libel suit, and the faculty is conducting an internal audit.

In a conversation with Takiye Dela, Daria said that on March 2, she came to Funk’s office to discuss future plans, including summer practice. According to her, the teacher made obscene jokes during the conversation, and then kissed her on the lips and locked the door. When someone knocked on the door and the teacher went to open it, the girl took advantage of the moment and ran away.

“Only now I realized that [Dmitry Funk’s] behavior previously went beyond the ethical boundaries of “teacher-student.” These included affectionate addresses, messages like “I miss you,” and supposedly fatherly hugs. I was sure that he behaved like this with all the students, that he was just a kind grandfather who took care of everyone and treated everyone warmly. But after this incident, I saw everything from a completely different angle,” Varakina said.

Daria added that during the conversation with the teacher she was wearing an Apple Watch, which constantly received notifications with sounds. When she decided to take them off and put them in her bag, Funk, according to the student, said: “That’s right, yes, take off your clothes.” To the girl’s request to do a summer internship in Altai, Funk replied: “I’ll take you,” she recalls. This phrase, as Daria said, did not seem obscene to her at first, but after that the teacher added: “Ha ha, a joke.”

“The man holds the post of head of the Department of Ethnology at Moscow State University, director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I saw how kindly he treats students and helps them. He also helped me with literature. If this incident had not happened, I would also continue to consider him a pillar of Russian science,” Varakina noted.

Almost two months after the incident, Daria wrote about what happened on Instagram and on VKontakte (the profile is now closed. - Note TD ). Users of social networks began to harass the student for her story and accused her of slandering the teacher.

“It’s one thing when I read similar stories [about harassment] from other people, looked at the comments and was horrified at how rotten this world is. It’s another matter when the same comments rained down in my direction. I’m already afraid to even go there [my pages]. I didn’t expect that my post to an audience with 30 active subscribers would cause such an angry reaction,” concluded Daria.

Funk told Such Things that he intends to file a libel suit in the near future. He declined to comment further.

An open letter from Funk was published on the Instagram stories of the Moscow State University history department, in which he says that by personal example he is ready to prove that “no one is allowed to lie, accuse honest people with impunity and manipulate public consciousness, hiding behind an important, sensitive topic.”

Chairman of the Moscow State University Student Council Anton Khanjyan said that the history department should conduct an internal investigation, and recalled the presumption of innocence. “It is impossible now to start persecuting a teacher just on the basis of the girl’s words. Also, in no case should you, as is often done in such situations, start harassing a girl by accusing her of lying,” Khanjyan said.

A former graduate student at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, on condition of anonymity, told First University that Funk also made ambiguous hints and remarks to her and invited her to his home. He, she said, often locked the door to the pulpit when they were alone.

“He has a really unusual way of communicating, which is difficult to understand clearly: whether it is paternal concern, or strange hints,” she said.