Anna Korneva attended every day of the trial. She sat in the front row, directly across from the defendant. She looked at the man she had once trusted with her students.
She had respected him as an educator and mentor. Gromov, now old and broken, never once met her eyes.
He answered the judge’s questions quietly, often coughing. He admitted guilt without qualification. He apologized to the parents of the dead students in a low, strained voice.
During those moments, many people in the courtroom openly wept. Parents who had spent 30 years waiting for answers were finally hearing the truth.
They learned that their children had not abandoned them for a better life in the city. They had not run away at all.
They had died in a terrible, preventable accident after becoming witnesses to adult greed and fear. Independent technical experts confirmed Gromov’s account of the cause of death.
Air analysis from the sealed basement space showed critically high levels of combustion byproducts. The old gas boiler had indeed been running that night.
The ventilation in the boiler room was grossly inadequate for that many people. Experts concluded the fatal event unfolded within 15 to 20 minutes.
The students had no real chance to survive once the door was blocked. There were no windows in the underground room. The trial lasted two difficult months.
On December 19, 2022, the judge delivered the verdict. Former principal Victor Gromov was found guilty on all counts.
He was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum-security penal colony. His former accomplice, Olga Maximova, received 10 years for helping conceal the crime.
Gromov heard the sentence in silence, head bowed. He did not ask for mercy. He said only that he accepted the punishment as just.
He added that he had already spent 30 years in a prison of fear and guilt, and now that prison had simply become literal. Maximova broke down crying after her sentence was read.
Her attorney immediately filed an appeal. The higher court later upheld the verdict without changes.
She was transferred to a general-regime correctional colony in February 2023. The surviving relatives of the students received one-time state compensation payments. The money was symbolic at best and could never restore what had been taken from them….
