Maxim Sergeyevich Martsinkevich (Макси́м Серге́евич Марцинке́вич, 8 May 1984 – 16 September 2020), better known as Tesak (Russian for Cleaver, Hatchet, Hand Axe, Machete), was a Russian neo-Nazi activist, media personality, vlogger, and the leader and co-founder of the Restruct movement which manifested in post-Soviet countries.
Tesak first gained public attention as a white power skinhead and the leader of the far-right youth group Format 18, which has been described as the "armed wing" of the National Socialist Society.
There are numerous branches within Martsinkevich's Restruct movement, the most prominent of which is Occupy Pedophilia, stating that its goals are fighting pedophiles and spreading neo-Nazi views among youth.
Tesak's racism, violent approach and targeting of gay males have been criticized.
On one occasion his actions have led to the imprisonment of a highly ranked official within the Russian judicial system.
Martsinkevich received three prison sentences for inciting racial or ethnic hatred.
2003
Martsinkevich was also in the People's National Party until 2003.
2005
In 2005 he created the skinhead organization "Format 18".
The number 18 is a code or euphemism for "Adolf Hitler", as the letter A is the first in the Latin alphabet and H is the eighth.
Members of Format 18 have beaten Asian migrant workers and homeless people, filming the attacks, and releasing the videos through the Internet.
Martsinkevich made fictional videos promoting hatred towards black people and antifascists.
The Russian Reporter magazine published a story about one of the videos, in which "Martsinkevich shocks the public with his video of the execution of a "...Tajik drug dealer"...."hanged and dismembered by people dressed as members of the Ku-Klux-Klan"... "soon revealed as having been staged, and the flesh of the dismembered captive turned out to be beef".
2007
Tesak was first indicted in 2007, after disrupting political debates by performing the Nazi salute and yelling "Sieg Heil!" at a book club in Moscow.
The organization maintained a website which was banned in 2007 after a complaint from one of the writers of for an antifascist website.
A number of followers of Format 18 have also uploaded their own videos of humiliations and physical violence.
The most recognized video of that kind has been described as the "execution of a Tajik and a Dagestanian", released in August 2007, at a time when Martsinkevich was already incarcerated.
The Investigative Committee of Russia made a statement indicating that the executions shown in the videos have been verified as real.
2009
In 2009, he was sentenced to three years for making a video with racist content.
Martsinkevich's memories from this time in prison are expressed through his book Restruct.
Following his release from prison, Tesak was unemployed, posted vlogs, and made a living by charging others for joining his "hunts for pedophiles" and for attending his lectures on life in prison, ways of shoplifting, as well as other subjects.
2012
In a September 2012 interview, Martsinkevich said he was not married and he did not have children.
According to a report in Meduza, a suicide note was discovered after Martsinkevich was found dead in his prison cell.
The note was reported to have contained a request for officials give a private diary and a book on communism to Martsinkevich's wife in Yekaterinburg.
Martsinkevich was conscripted into the Russian Army, although he claimed that he was released after a few days, following a mental health evaluation caused by him having beaten up a fellow soldier of Azerbaijani ancestry.
Tesak's nickname was related to his interest in knives.
He graduated from a secondary vocational school for architecture and was expelled from the Russian State Social University.
Martsinkevich said he had been employed as an engineer for three and a half years.
He sold his videos and tried to sell music through his website.
Later on he used to sell his book, Restruct, in the same way.
He also sold ads in his videos and tried to organize a financial pyramid called Tesak Money.
Tesak was a member of the white power skinhead group "Russian Purpose" led by Semyon Tokmakov.
2013
In the autumn of 2013, Tesak was indicted again for releasing new videos featuring racist remarks.
2014
As a result, on 15 August 2014, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
On 11 November 2014, the court reduced the sentence to two years and 10 months.
2017
On 27 June 2017, the Babushkinsky district court of Moscow sentenced Martsinkevich to ten years in a strict regimen corrective labor colony for his involvement in attacks targeting synthetic cannabinoids dealers.
2020
During his fourth prison term, in 2020, an investigation was started about his involvement in hate killings.
Martsinkevich confessed to murders and cooperated with investigating authorities, but soon he was found dead in his prison cell.
During his lifetime Martsinkevich indicated he was of Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Belarusian ancestry.
His parents are Sergey Yevgenyevich Martsinkevich and Viktoriya Leonidovna Martsinkevich.
As expressed in Tesak's first autobiographical audio book Destruct, his mother did not share her son's extremist views while his father was supportive.
