A 24-year-old student was shocked to learn that his graduation photo was being used to advertise the services of an undertaker. Now Vitaly Bushmin wants compensation from the photographer and the company that ‘buried’ him alive.

It was a fellow-student who alerted Vitaly to the advertisement that suggested he was no longer alive.

“I am not superstitious, but I went through a degree of emotional turmoil as I am nowhere near to being six feet under,” Vitaly said.

The morticians in question refused to give their names or to speak on camera, but agreed to give their side of the story behind closed doors.

“We can't check the identity of the people in the photos. Why don't you find the entrepreneur who brought it to us? Had we known it had been a picture of a living man we wouldn't have placed it here,” said the funeral company’s manager.

The photographer, known only as Aleksandr, reportedly insisted that the man in the picture was dead.

Vitaly, who graduated as an advocate, has filed a lawsuit. He is demanding more than $US 200,000 compensation for emotional damages from the undertaker and the photographer.

And for those who consider it a bad omen, there is a belief among Russian people that once someone says you are dead when you are not, you are destined to have a long life.