In 1768, the landowner Daria Saltykova, the famous Saltychikha, who tortured to death at least 138 of her serfs, stood near the Execution Ground at the pillar of shame. While the clerk read from the page the crimes she had committed, Saltychikha stood with her head uncovered, and a plaque with the inscription "Tormentor and murderer" hung on her chest. After that, she was sent to eternal imprisonment in the Ivanovo monastery …
The picturesque, quiet, surrounded by a coniferous forest, the Saltykov estate in Troitsky near Moscow, soon after the sudden death of the owner, turned into some kind of cursed place. “It's like a plague has settled in those parts,” the neighbors whispered. But the inhabitants of the "enchanted estate" themselves lowered their eyes and pretended that everything was as usual and nothing special was happening.
Meanwhile, the number of serfs was steadily decreasing, and a new grave mound appeared almost every week in the village cemetery. The reason for the inexplicable pestilence among the Saltykov serfs was not a mass epidemic, but a young widow, mother of two sons - Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova.
To the Empress with a complaint
In the spring of 1762 the serfs Savely Martynov and Yermolai Ilyin escaped, aiming to get to St. Petersburg and convey a complaint against their mistress to the Empress herself. The peasants were not afraid of either police raids or a possible march on a stage to Siberia. Savely had nothing to lose at all. After Saltykova cold-bloodedly killed three of his wives in a row, the peasant lost hope for a calm and happy family life.
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Maybe a wonderful miracle happened or heaven heard the prayer of the serfs driven to an extreme degree of despair, but only "written assault" - as the letter to Catherine II was called - still fell into the hands of the empress. The empress was not embarrassed by either the title of the noble of the accused, or her numerous patrons, and a few days after reading the complaint, a criminal case was opened against Darya Nikolaevna Saltykova, who was accused of numerous murders and cruel treatment of her serfs.
The investigation into the Saltychikha case lasted six years, dozens of volumes were written in and hundreds of witnesses were interviewed, and they all said that after the death of her husband, the new owner of the estate seemed to have broken loose. No one would have thought that the once timid and devout 26-year-old woman would not only scoff at her serfs in the most cruel way, but also brutally deal with anyone who made the slightest mistake in housekeeping.
For seven years, Saltykova killed at least 138 of her subjects. The reason for the execution could have been the lady's dissatisfaction with the quality of the washing or cleaning. As witnesses in the Saltykova case later said, the landowner was furious because some courtyard girl could not cope with her duties at home. She grabbed whatever came under her arm and began to beat the unfortunate peasant woman. Then she could scald her with boiling water, rip out more than one clump of hair from her head, or simply set them on fire.
And if, after many hours of executions, the landowner was tired, and the victim was still showing signs of life, then she was usually chained to a post for the night. In the morning, the savage execution continued, if at least one drop of life was still hidden in the condemned.
Only a few of those tortured to death by Daria Saltykova were buried in church and buried in the village cemetery, as required by Christian customs. The bodies of the rest disappeared without a trace. And in the household books it was indicated that "one escaped, three were sent to our Vologda and Kostroma estates, and about a dozen were sold at 10 rubles per capita." However, during the investigation it was not possible to find a single person from this list.
Revenge for dislike
This terrible woman was in close relationship with the Davydovs, Musin-Pushkins, Tolstoy, Stroganovs, moved in the highest circles of society, had the most influential connections, but at the same time was absolutely illiterate and could not even write. It is known for certain that the Trinity landowner was very religious. She made several pilgrimages to Christian shrines and never spared donations. But the cruel Saltychikha was the complete opposite of that Daria Nikolaevna, who was received with honor and respect in the best houses of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
All Moscow officials were afraid to take on such a dubious case in which the serfs went against their mistress, and even so influential and titled. In the end, the folder ended up on the desk of investigator Stepan Volkov. He, a rootless and not secular person, was distinguished by impartiality and perseverance, and with the help of Prince Dmitry Tsitsianov, he was able to successfully bring the matter to an end.
No matter how many obstacles Saltykova did to the investigation, she did not manage to get out of the water dry. Each new piece of evidence led to a whole chain of crimes. It turned out that long before the serfs handed over their complaint to Catherine II, more than 20 similar complaints written earlier were quietly gathering dust in the archives of the Moscow authorities. But the authorities did not give a go to any of them. And rampant searches in Saltykova's estates and seized accounting books indicated that the officials of these departments received rich gifts or some kind of financial assistance from Daria Nikolaevna.
Perhaps that is why the landowner herself, throughout the entire investigation, was not only sure of a safe release, but also continued to intimidate her serfs in every possible way. Nevertheless, Catherine II was extremely offended by the behavior of her subject, who created a certain model of “state within a state”, established her own laws, single-handedly decided “who to execute and whom to have mercy,” and thus elevated herself to the rank of a royal person.
In the course of the investigation, one more fact became clear, which brought the investigation to a new level. It turned out that in addition to reprisals in her own lands, Saltykova was planning the murder of her neighbor, a nobleman, Nikolai Tyutchev. The famous poet's grandfather was in a love relationship with a young widow, but decided to marry another. Quite possibly precisely because he knew the strange inclinations of an exalted mistress. Daria Nikolaevna went crazy with jealousy and resentment. She decided to take revenge on her unfaithful lover and his new passion.
On her behalf, the trusted servants, who more than once helped her in domestic executions, acquired several kilograms of gunpowder. This would be enough to smash to the last brick the entire Moscow mansion of Tyutchev, into which he then moved with his bride. But Saltykova realized in time that the murder of a nobleman and a serf are completely different things, and abandoned her bloody intentions.
In the second year of the investigation, Saltykova was taken under guard. Only then did the frightened peasants become reluctant to talk about all the horrors they had never witnessed. 38 cases of deaths at the hands of a landowner were fully proven: 36 women, girls and girls, and only two young men became victims.
The Saltykovs' estate.
There were also double murders, when the landowner beat pregnant women until they had a miscarriage, and later dealt with the mother herself. 50 people died from all sorts of diseases and fractures that were the result of beatings. Of course, there were still dozens of peasants who disappeared without a trace, whose bodies were not found, and the traces were lost, but the available evidence was enough for the most cruel sentence.
The torturer and murderer
In the archives, four drafts of the Saltykova case, written by the empress with her own hand, have survived. Regularly for six years, she received reports detailing all the atrocities of the landowner. In the protocols of interrogations of Saltykova herself, investigator Stepan Volkov was forced to write the same thing: “He does not know his guilt and will not stipulate himself.”
The Empress realized that the landowner did not take advantage of the chance for repentance, and for her steadfastness she would not receive concessions. It was necessary to demonstrate that evil remains evil, whoever did it, and the law in the state is the same for everyone. The verdict, which Catherine II was personally involved in drawing up, replacing the surname "Saltykov" with the epithets "inhuman widow", "freak of the human race", "completely apostate soul", entered into force on October 2, 1768. Daria Saltykova was deprived of the title of nobility, maternal rights, as well as all land and property. The verdict was not subject to appeal.
Daria Saltykova at the Donskoy Monastery.
The second part of the sentence included civil execution. On the eve of the event, posters were posted around the city, and tickets for the execution of their former friend were sent to titled persons. On November 17, 1768, at 11 o'clock in the morning, Saltychikha was taken to the Execution Ground of Red Square. There she was tied to a post with a sign "torturer and murderer" in front of a large crowd of Muscovites who had gathered on the square long before the convict was brought there. But even the hour-long "revolting show" did not make Saltykov repent.
Then she was sent to eternal imprisonment in the prison of the Donskoy monastery. For the first eleven years, she was literally buried alive in a "penitential pit" dug in the ground, two meters deep and laid on top of a grate. Daria saw the light only twice a day, when a nun brought her meager food and a candle stub. In 1779, Saltychikha was transferred to a solitary confinement cell, which was located in the monastery annex.
The new apartment had a small window through which the convict could look at the light. But more often they came to look at her. They say that Saltychikha spat through the bars at the visitors and tried to reach them with a stick. It is also said that she gave birth to a child from a jailer.
After 33 years of imprisonment, Daria Saltykova died within the walls of the Donskoy monastery and was buried in the monastery cemetery. The grave of the murderer landowner exists to this day, but the name of the villainess was completely erased, and instead of the tombstone, a large stone stake remained.
There were many Saltychikhs in Russia
“Second Saltychikha” was popularly called the wife of the landowner Koshkarov, who lived in the 40s of the 19th century in the Tambov province. She found particular delight in tyranny over defenseless peasants. Koshkarova had a standard for torture, from which she went only in extreme cases. Men were supposed to be given 100 blows with a whip, women - 80. All these executions were carried out by the landowner personally.
The pretexts for torture were most often various omissions in the household, sometimes very insignificant. So, the cook Karp Orlova Koshkarova whipped with a whip because there was not enough onion in the soup.
Another "Saltychikha" was found in Chuvashia. In September 1842, the landowner Vera Sokolova beat Nastasya, a courtyard girl to death, whose father said that the mistress often punished her serfs with "tatting the hair, and sometimes forced them to flog with rods and whips." And another servant complained that "the lady knocked her nose out with her fist, and the punishment with the whip left a scar on her thigh, and in winter she was locked in a latrine in one shirt, because of which she froze her feet" …