The pillar noblewoman Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, who will forever remain in the people's memory as Saltychikha, can be called the first known serial killer in Russia. In the middle of the 18th century, this sophisticated sadist tortured to death several dozen (according to other estimates, more than a hundred) of her serfs, mainly young girls and women.
Unlike her bloody followers, Saltychikha mocked defenseless victims completely openly, without fear of punishment. She had powerful backers whom she paid generously to cover up crimes.
Ivanova from a noble family
Ivanova is the maiden name of Saltychikha. Her father, Nikolai Avtonomovich Ivanov, was a pillar nobleman, and her grandfather once held a high post under Peter I. Daria Saltykova's husband, Gleb Alekseevich, served as a captain of the Life Guards Horse Regiment. The Saltykovs had two sons, Fedor and Nikolai.
It is noteworthy that Saltychikha, whom Empress Catherine II eventually put into a monastery prison for life for her atrocities, eventually outlived all members of her family - both her husband and both sons.
Many historians believe that, most likely, it was after the funeral of her husband that the 26-year-old widow's roof went off, and she began to beat the servants to death.
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Where and what did she do
Saltychikha in Moscow had a house on the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most. Ironically, there are now buildings run by the FSB. Plus, after the death of her husband, the landowner inherited estates in a number of Russian provinces. Saltychikha owned a total of almost 600 serfs.
On the site of the estate, where the sadist most often tortured her victims, Troitsky Park is now located, it is not far from the Moscow Ring Road, the Teply Stan area.
Before the death of the master Gleb Alekseevich, Daria Saltykova kept herself in control and was not noticed in a particular tendency to assault. Moreover, Saltychikha was distinguished by her piety.
According to the testimony of the serfs, the phase shift at Saltychikha occurred about six months after the funeral of her husband. She began to beat her peasants, most often with logs and mostly women and young girls, for the slightest offenses, finding fault with every little thing. Then, by order of a sadistic lady, the guilty woman was flogged, often to death. Gradually, Saltychikha's torture became more sophisticated. Possessing remarkable strength, she tore out her victims' hair, burned their ears with hair tongs, poured boiling water over them …
I wanted to kill the poet's grandfather Fyodor Tyutchev
The grandfather of the famous Russian poet land surveyor Nikolai Tyutchev was the lover of this shrew. And then he decided to get rid of her and marry the girl he liked. Saltychikha ordered her serfs to set fire to the girl's house, but they did not do it out of fear. Then the sadist sent the peasant "killers" to kill the young Tyutchevs. But instead of taking sin on their souls, the serfs warned Tyutchev himself about the intentions of his former mistress.
Why did she go unpunished?
Saltychikha freely committed atrocities during the reign of three (!) Royal persons - Elizaveta Petrovna, Peter III and Catherine II. They complained about her fanaticism to everyone, but the result of these appeals turned out to be deplorable only for the martyrs themselves - they were flogged and exiled to Siberia. Among the relatives of the representative of a dignified noble family, Daria Saltykova were the Governor-General of Moscow and the Field Marshal. In addition, Saltychikha generously gave gifts to everyone on whom the decision on complaints against her depended.
Long consequence
In relation to the influential tormentor, it was necessary to show the royal will, which was done by Catherine II, who ascended the throne. In 1762, she got acquainted with the complaints of the serfs of Saltychikha Savely Martynov and Yermolai Ilyin, whose wives were killed by the landowner (three in a row at Ilyin's), and found it expedient to start a public trial against Daria Saltykova.
The Moscow Justice Collegium has been investigating for six years. They found out which of the officials Saltychikha bribed, revealed many cases of dubious deaths of serfs. It was established that during the time of Saltykova's atrocities in the office of the Moscow civil governor, the police chief and the Investigative Order, 21 complaints were filed against the tormentor by peasants. All appeals were returned to the sadist, and she then cruelly dealt with their authors.
The arrested Saltychikha did not confess to anything, even under the threat of torture. The investigation and the trial, which lasted three years, proved the “undoubted guilt” of Daria Saltykova, namely the murder of 38 serfs. She was "left in suspicion" about the death of 26 more people.
The Empress wrote the verdict in person
Throughout September 1768, Catherine II drew up a sentence against Saltychikha: she repeatedly rewrote it. In October, the empress sent a ready-made decree to the Senate, which detailed both the punishment itself and the details of its implementation.
Saltychikha was stripped of her noble rank. For an hour she had to stand on the scaffold, chained to a pillar, with a sign above her head that said: "Tormentor and murderer." Until the end of her life, Daria Saltykova was imprisoned in an underground prison, without light and human communication. Saltychikha's accomplices were sent to hard labor.
Snapped and in captivity
At first Saltychikha sat in the "penitential" cell of the Moscow Ivanovsky monastery. After 11 years, she was transferred to a stone annex with a window and allowed the curious to communicate with the prisoner. According to eyewitnesses, Daria Saltykova remained a vicious fury even in captivity: she cursed at those who gazed, spat at them through the window and tried to reach them with a stick.
Saltychikha spent 33 years in prison. She was buried in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery, the grave has survived.