Saltychikha is the story of the landowner herself. Saltychikha: the story of the most terrible Russian woman

Channel “Russia 1” continues to show the series “Bloody Lady” about the first of the famous serial killers in Russia, landowner Daria Saltykova, who brutally killed about a hundred of her peasants. Since in the documents of the 18th century there was only a verdict about this lady (Catherine II ordered the destruction of other evidence), the authors of the series were free to invent the image of Saltychikha and her biography. The result was a melodrama with a very dosed element of sadism.

But how did things really stand? We invite you to remember the life of the real Saltychikha - “a freak of the human race.” Who did the legendary landowner really love, hate and kill?

As soon as contemporaries and descendants called Daria Saltykova, who went down in history under the name Saltychikha: “black widow” and “black villainess”, “Satan in a skirt”, “sadistic noblewoman”, “serial killer”, “bloody landowner”, “ the Trinity cannibal”, “the Marquis de Sade in female form”... Her name was pronounced with a shudder for many decades, and Empress Catherine the Great, in her verdict on the villainess, which she personally rewrote several times, even avoided calling this monster woman “she”.

The story told by director Yegor Anashkin in the new series “Bloody Lady” is close to what happened in real life, but in many ways softer than the harsh reality. Because if the director had filmed the most terrible atrocities that Saltychikha is said to have committed, the film would most likely simply have been banned.

A pious girl from a good family

On March 11, 1730, a girl was born into the family of the stalwart nobleman Nikolai Ivanov, who was named Daria. Daria's grandfather, Avtonom Ivanov, was a prominent statesman of the era of Peter the Great and left his descendants a rich inheritance.

How Dasha Saltykova’s real childhood went is not known for certain. According to the version shown in the film, it was unlucky. After the death of his wife Anna, Nikolai Ivanov sent his daughter to be raised in a monastery with the wording “possessed by demons.”

Francois Hubert Drouet, “Portrait of Countess Daria Chernyshova-Saltykova,” 1762. This portrait was considered for a long time to be a portrait of Saltychikha

In her youth, a girl from a prominent noble family was known as the first beauty, and in addition to this, she stood out for her extreme piety. Although Saltychikha’s real appearance is a sealed secret. What she looked like is not known for certain, and those portraits that for many years were considered portraits of Saltychikha actually depict other women.

Most often, numerous portraits of her namesake and relative by marriage, Daria Petrovna Saltykova, née Chernysheva, the wife of Field Marshal Ivan Petrovich Saltykov, who was 9 years younger than the landowner, were mistaken for portraits of Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova.

At the age of 20, Daria married the captain of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, Gleb Alekseevich Saltykov. The Saltykov family was even more noble than the Ivanov family - Gleb Saltykov’s nephew Nikolai Saltykov would become His Serene Highness Prince, Field Marshal and would be a prominent courtier in the era of Catherine the Great, Paul I and Alexander I.

Soon Daria gave birth to her wife, two sons - Fyodor and Nikolai, who, as was customary then, were enlisted from birth to serve in the guards regiments.

Fyodor Lavrov as Gleb Saltykov in the series “Bloody Lady” (real images of Saltychikha’s husband have not survived)

It was a typical marriage for its time - two noble families united to increase wealth. Historians have not come across any particular evidence of hatred towards the husband, as well as adultery on the part of the young wife, plausibly shown in the film “Bloody Lady”. Likewise, it remains unknown why the head of the family died after six years of marriage, leaving a 26-year-old widow with two sons in her arms - and a lot of money. Subsequently, versions arose that Saltykova herself got rid of her husband, but they seem groundless to historians.

Rich widow

After the death of her husband, Daria Saltykova became fabulously rich. The reason was also that her mother (who, unlike the serial version, was not a homicidal maniac at all) and grandmother lived in a monastery and abandoned the family fortune.

So, at the age of 26, the young mother of two sons became the sole owner of six hundred peasants in estates near Moscow, located on the territory of the present-day village of Mosrentgen and the capital’s Teply Stan district. Saltychikha's town house in Moscow was located on the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most. The lady also had remote estates in the Vologda and Kostroma provinces.

The widowed Daria Saltykova, of course, did not lose interest in the opposite sex. There is evidence that she played tricks with her husband’s relative, Sergei Saltykov. In the series “Bloody Lady” his role was played by Pyotr Rykov. It must be said that Sergei subsequently really became one of the favorites of Catherine II. In addition, some historians suggest that he is the biological father of Paul I.

Saltychikha's lover Sergei Saltykov / Pyotr Rykov in the image of Sergei Saltykov in the series “Bloody Lady”

The widow led a secular lifestyle and at the same time was known as very pious - she made pilgrimages to shrines several times a year and spared no money for church needs. Saltychikha’s terrible “fun” became known only a few years later. In the meantime, having returned home after the service, she sat in a chair in the middle of the courtyard to administer “righteous judgment” over the serfs.

Mysterious passion

According to witnesses, Saltychikha began to show her sadistic tendencies about six months after her husband’s death. The film “Bloody Lady” shows that the first signs of mental illness appeared in the landowner in early childhood - but historians have not found such evidence. However, the director notes that he did not set out to make a historical film; “Bloody Lady” is, rather, a terrible fairy tale.

Apparently, Daria Saltykova began to “become crazy” precisely after the death of her husband. According to modern psychiatry, she had epileptoid psychopathy - a mental disorder in which a person often experiences attacks of sadism and unmotivated aggression.

Augustin Christian Ritt, “Portrait of Countess Daria Petrovna Saltykova”, 1794, another portrait of allegedly Saltychikha

The first complaints about her atrocities, which were far from isolated, date back to 1757. Every year Saltychikha became more and more cruel and sophisticated. According to the stories of the serfs, she flogged them to death - and if she got tired, she handed over the whip or whip to her assistants - haiduks, tore out the hair on women's heads or set them on fire, branded the ears of young women with a hot iron, scalded them with boiling water, froze them to death in the cold or in an icy pond in winter, she was even buried alive.

“Saltychikha”, Pchelin V.N.

In particular, Saltychikha loved to torture and torment brides who were preparing for their wedding. She staged whole bloody performances, which always ended in the death of young girls, cut with a whip. The coachman, the groom and a couple of other assistants, under the stern gaze of the bloody lady, tried tirelessly. After all, it is well known that one’s own skin is more valuable. Fear and horror reigned in the noble house: the short night seemed heavenly to the serfs. And each of them waited for the morning with bated breath. And the awakened Saltychikha always gets up on the wrong foot and will definitely find a reason to tear out a clump of hair from a girl passing by or burn her face with a hot iron or red-hot tongs.

Alexandra Ursulyak as Saltychikha in the TV series “Ekaterina. Takeoff"

One day, in September 1761, the cannibal, as a “prelude” to the next execution of her subjects, beat the boy Lukyan Mikheev to death with a log. Beautiful girls aroused special hatred in Saltychikha. For example, she tried to beat pregnant women in the stomach, doused them with boiling water and tore out the ears of her victims with hot tongs. Sometimes this seemed not enough to her: once Saltychikha ordered the serf Thekla to be buried alive in the ground. A small but indicative touch to the portrait of the killer: all victims were required to have the funeral service performed by the priest of the landowner. What he felt during this ritual is unknown...

Illustration by Kurdyumov for the encyclopedic publication “The Great Reform”, which depicts the torture of Saltychikha “in as soft a tone as possible”

Not only peasants suffered from psychopaths

A famous nobleman once almost fell under the hot hand of a landowner. Land surveyor Nikolai Tyutchev - the grandfather of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev - was her lover for a long time, but then decided to marry someone else. For which I paid...

Vlad Sokolovsky in the image of Nikolai Tyutchev in the series “Bloody Lady” (no real portraits of the land surveyor have survived)

This story took place at the beginning of 1762. The landowner had an affair with engineer Nikolai Tyutchev. As a result, the man could not stand Saltychikha’s violent temper and decided to leave. He wooed Pelageya Tyutcheva, who agreed. The young people began to think about the wedding, and Saltykova - about murder.

So, on the night of February 12-13, she bought gunpowder and sulfur and sent groom Roman Ivanov to set fire to the house of her former lover. She only demanded to make sure that the couple was at home and burned alive. The man did not carry out the order, being afraid to kill the nobleman. For this he was severely beaten. The second time, the landowner sent two: Ivanov and a certain Leontyev. However, this time they did not dare, returning to Saltychikha. The men were beaten with batogs, but they did not kill them.

The third time she sent three serfs at once. The Tyutchevs went to the Bryansk district to the estate of the bride Ovstug. Their path lay along the Great Kaluga Road, where an ambush was set up. The serfs had to first shoot at them and then finish them off with sticks. But someone warned the young people about the ambush, and they ended up escaping at night in a roundabout way.

Case of the Lost Souls

Complaints poured in against the ferocious landowner, but Saltychikha belonged to a famous noble family, whose representatives were also governor-generals of Moscow. All cases of cruelty were decided in her favor. Moreover, the opposite often happened - the complainants returned to the estate, where they were beaten with whips and exiled to Siberia.

Only two peasants, Savely Martynov and Ermolai Ilyin, whose wives were brutally killed by Saltychikha, were lucky. In 1762, they managed to transfer the complaint to Catherine II, who had just ascended the throne, who decided to use the sadist’s case as a show trial. It marked a new era of legality and demonstrated to the entire Moscow nobility the authorities’ readiness to combat local abuses.

Catherine II / Severija Janusauskaite as Catherine II in the series “Bloody Lady”

The investigation into the Saltychikha case lasted six years. It turned out that she tortured and killed at least 38 people. The remaining cases of missing more than a hundred peasants could not be attributed to the landowner. But this was enough for the Empress to personally sign the verdict for Daria Saltykova. The Senate, which was required by law to pass a verdict, refused to do so.

The most terrible rumor that was spread about the landowner Saltykova was that she drank the blood of young girls and was a cannibal. This, they say, explained the fact that the bodies or burials of most of the souls that were listed as missing without a trace were never found during the investigation, which lasted more than five years. The whole affair was based on the stories of the serfs.

Still from the series “Bloody Lady”

There is a version that the high-profile case of Saltychikha was beneficial to Catherine the Great and her supporters - in order to morally weaken the Saltykovs and prevent even the hypothetical possibility of taking the Russian throne by representatives of the German Welf dynasty, to which three tragically deceased Russian emperors belonged (Peter II, Peter III and Ivan VI ) and who was related to the Saltykovs. Therefore, it is quite possible that the landowner’s crime story could have been inflated.

Unrepentant

Numerous influential relatives of Daria Saltykova, including the governor of Moscow and the field marshal, made every effort to ensure that she avoided the death penalty. Nevertheless, the empress's decision was harsh. By her decree, she decided to henceforth “call this monster a man.”

In September 1768, Catherine II rewrote the verdict several times. Four of her handwritten drafts of the document have survived. In the final version, Saltychikha was deprived of her noble title and sentenced to life imprisonment in an underground prison without light and human communication.

Saltychikha was taken to the square, on the scaffold she was tied with chains to a pillory and the royal paper was read out. And before that, the priest and two of Daria Saltykova’s assistants were mercilessly flogged by the executioner. After some time, she was put in a black cart and taken to the St. John the Baptist Convent. Here a “repentance” cell awaited her - almost a pit, where not even a ray of light penetrated. Only at the moments when food was brought to the prisoner was light allowed - the stub of a candle was placed next to the bowl for the duration of the meal.

Actress Yulia Snigir in the image of Saltychikha in the series “Bloody Lady”

After more than a dozen years, Saltychikha was transferred to a stone extension of the cathedral church, where there was a small barred window. There were rumors that Daria Saltykova somehow managed to seduce the soldier guarding the dungeon, and at the age of 50 give birth to a child from him. And, they say, the random lover was subjected to a public flogging and sent to a penal company. Let us note that never once, either during the investigation or on the scaffold, does Saltychikha admit her guilt or repent. And on her face, scaring even experienced jailers, a calm and triumphant smile will walk.

St. John the Baptist Convent, where Daria Saltykova was imprisoned

What’s surprising is that the murderer, who was in excellent health, lived to be 71 years old. In the last years of her life, the prisoner already behaved like a real madwoman - she cursed loudly, spat, and tried to poke onlookers with a stick. Daria Saltykova was buried in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery, next to her relatives.

The noble Russian nobility bashfully turned a blind eye to the actions of Saltychikha’s followers. For example, the landowner Vera Sokolova beat the courtyard girl Nastasya to death in September 1842, and in the Tambov province the peasants were afraid of the wife of the nobleman Koshkarov like hell. This society lady, shining at balls, simply loved to personally whip “rude men” and “stupid women” on her estate. And a certain Saltykova, Saltychikha’s namesake, was kept in a cage next to the bed of the yard hairdresser for three years. However, these are just a few documented cases; it’s scary to imagine how many there actually were.

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, nicknamed Saltychikha, before marriage - Ivanova (born March 11 (22), 1730 - died November 27 (December 9), 1801) - Russian landowner.

...The night of October 7, 1768, the entire Ivanovo monastery spent on kneeling in repentant prayer. The night service turned into matins, which turned into mass. And only when at three o’clock in the afternoon on October 7 several young nuns fainted from nervous exhaustion and excessive prayers did the service end. Everyone was ordered to go to their cells and not stick their noses out until further notice. This means that the arrival of the mysterious prisoner was expected again. The nuns, accustomed to obedience, of course, did everything as Mother Superior ordered, the doors of the cells were closed, and the communication of the sisters of God ceased. However, the very next day what happened could not be kept secret. And the nun sisters secretly whispered:

“The murderer herself was brought to the monastery!” And they lowered her into an earthen bag!

For the past six years, the terrible landowner Saltychikha has been called a murderer in Moscow and its environs. Of course, she also had an Orthodox name. She was Daria Nikolaevna Ivanova in her parents' house, and when she got married she became Saltykova. She got married at the age of 20 in 1750. The Ivanov family was reputed to be noble - not rich, not noble. But Gleb Aleksandrovich Saltykov, captain of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, belonged to one of the noble and wealthy families of Russia.

One of his relatives became the favorite of the future Empress Catherine II; there were rumors that the real father of Catherine’s first-born heir, the future Emperor Paul I. Is this why, having become a widow six years after her marriage, the rich Moscow noblewoman Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova decided that everything was allowed to her? In this life?

She threw balls, drank and drank herself, and organized hunts on estates near Moscow. But suddenly she discovered that, it turns out, even her yard girls are sometimes happier than she is - after all, the girls have husbands, and they sleep not in cold beds, but with their husbands under a warm barrel. And none of the men look at Daria herself, even at luxurious hunting balls, and they will stop driving at all - she is inevitably aging.

It was with this sexual hunger that the eccentricities of Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova began. At first, she beat young and beautiful girls on the cheeks, and sent married young women to the stables to flog them. Then this seemed not enough - Saltychikha began beating the unfortunate women with her own hands, now with an iron, now with a log, now with an ax - and all until they bled, and often to death.

The sight of blood inflamed him, and Saltychikha ordered his assistants to kill the victim more slowly. During this, she herself rolled her eyes, bit her lips, and often screamed, holding either her own chest or her woman’s place. And everyone understood that the murderer received true pleasure from the tortured blood of the victim.

And all this happened in the very center of Moscow! Saltykova's estate was located on Kuznetsky Most, starting from the place where it approaches Lubyanka Square and ending with the corner where Rozhdestvenka crosses it. But the special torture house where Saltychikha received her pleasures was located exactly in the place where the exit from the Kuznetsky Most metro station is now. Can you imagine what kind of energy there is?

True, the mass murders were carried out by the Bloody Lady (Saltychikha received such a nickname) not in the Moscow estate, but in Troitsky (now it is Trinity Park in Teply Stan). It is quite symbolic that the Saltychikha estate on the left (Lubyanskaya) side was adjacent to the former torture order, transformed by the 17th century into the Office of Secret Affairs; in the twentieth century, the buildings of the Lubyanka - the NKVD of the USSR - appeared in the same place. And in Troitsky Teply Stan in the 20th century, right in the Saltychikha estate, there was... again, the NKVD department. As you can see, in all ages blood leads to blood...

However, there were bright spots in Saltychikha’s life when she lost interest in sadistic amusements. 1751 - on her estate in Teply Stan, Daria Saltykova met her young neighbor-landowner Nikolai Andreevich Tyutchev (later the grandfather of the famous poet Fyodor Tyutchev) and became his mistress. In Moscow, Nikolai Andreevich lived in Trekhsvyatsky Lane and was a parishioner of the Church of the Three Saints on Kulishki (again - Kulishki!) - again, not so far from Kuznetsky Most. So there were no obstacles to meetings. But for some reason Nikolai Andreevich appeared in the Bloody Lady’s house very rarely. Apparently, he felt something terrible in the soul of his mistress. It was then that dark days began again for her serfs.

And one day the day of the “ninth wave” came and forever covered the Bloody Lady with an impenetrable cover of satanic malice and hatred: Tyutchev told her that he intended to end all relationships, because he was marrying, and out of great love, a poor but meek girl Pelageya Denisovna Panyutina. They said that Saltychikha howled for several days in the torture barn on Kuznetsky Most. Didn't drink, didn't eat. But having gathered her strength, she ordered that a funeral mass be served for Nicholas and his fiancée Pelageya...

Of course, few clergy would commit such blasphemy - to perform funeral services for living people. But the Bloody Lady had her own priest, who served in the village of Trinity and also labored in some church in Kulishki.

Was it not the evil genius of that place who incited the priest to play demonic games when he, together with Daria Saltykova, watched with enthusiasm as she ordered pregnant women to be beaten to death or have their bellies ripped open? She, having lined up the children in a row, counted every sixth one and ordered the priest to perform the funeral service for the baby, after which the poor child was thrown into boiling water?.. After all, God didn’t give Saltychikha his children, so why live as strangers?

She also decided not to spare Tyutchev. First, she lured Nikolai into one of the barns and ordered him to prop the door with a log and set the barn on fire. Let the treacherous lover burn alive! However, the unexpected happened: one serf girl took pity on the poor fellow and let him out, opening the window. The girl, of course, was killed. Well, serfs were sent to the estate of the Panyutins, Pelageya’s parents, with instructions to block the chimney so that the whole family would burn to death. But again Saltychikha was unlucky - the serfs did not carry out her order. They simply ran away, hiding from the lady’s wrath.

And for the third time the Bloody Lady’s plan failed. Having learned that the newlyweds were going to go on a honeymoon to Nikolai’s estate in the Bryansk province, the murderer sent faithful peasants to kill the offenders on the road under the guise of robbers. However, someone managed to notify the Tyutchevs. And the attackers were subdued by postal guards.

A truly devilish life began in the house of Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova. Reprimanded for her failure with the Tyutchevs, the lady tortured the serfs.

She ordered to burn the hair of living girls and burn out their pubes. Then she invented the most “delicious” thing: having ordered male bodyguards to hold the victim hand and foot, she cut out the genitals of men and women. Someone had to be responsible for her humiliation. Maybe not Tyutchev and his wife, but then other men and women!

Tyutchev, in horror and rage, submitted a memo to Catherine II. That year, 1762, she had just ascended the throne and was personally dealing with complaints. It turned out that the Secret Order had already received about 20 tearful complaints about Saltykova, and they also came to the former Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. Ekaterina also discovered two papers submitted personally in her name. It turns out that the fugitive serfs Saltykova, Savely Martynov and Nikolai Ilyin were able to get to St. Petersburg and submitted a petition, which ended up right on the table of the new ruler.

Catherine was horrified by what she read. Having ascended the Russian throne, she wanted to introduce humane orders, corresponded with encyclopedists in Europe - and suddenly such a bloody Asian thing! And where - not in the outback, but in the center of Moscow!

The investigation began immediately, but it continued for more than six years. Hundreds of witnesses were interviewed. They found out about 139 ruined lives, but they could only prove the terrible murders of 30 serfs. Every day the investigation was thrown a spanner in the works, because the Saltykov family was the most influential, and the Bloody Lady herself had millions that she could spend on bribery. But by that time the favorite Saltykov had not been of interest to Catherine II for a long time, so the empress, despite the pressure from the Saltykovs, preferred to bring the matter to court.

Some of the murders, the terrible details of which emerged during the investigation, chilled the blood with their atrocities. For example, Saltychikha, famous for her remarkable strength, personally killed the serf Larionova. She tore out all the hair on her head and ordered her assistants to expose the coffin with the body of the murdered young woman to the cold. Larionova's baby, who was frozen, was placed on her body.

According to the testimony of peasants, the murderer took pleasure in torturing and tormenting her victims. She amused herself by pulling the unfortunate people by the ears with red-hot hair tongs. Among those killed by the lady were several young girls who were preparing for their wedding, pregnant women and two 12-year-old girls.

Having read all the investigation papers, Catherine washed her hands for a long time, almost in boiling water, saying:

- This is not a woman, not a person, this is a freak of the human race!

The court, represented by the legal board, sentenced the “freak” to death. It is curious that the Secret Chancellery considering the case was located in Lubyanka, practically... across the fence from Saltykova’s estate on Kuznetsky Most. So we didn’t have to go far during the investigation. But…

The Senate, in which there were many Saltykovs and their relatives, was able to replace the death penalty with “whip and 10 years of hard labor in a settlement.” Catherine did not go against the Senate, but made her decision: a shameful “civil class execution” on Red Square at the pillory and life imprisonment without any right to communicate with anyone. Translated into modern language, this meant that Saltychikha would be tied to a pillory on Red Square, a sword would be broken over her head, showing that she was deprived of the nobility, and she would be imprisoned in a monastery.

And so on October 7, 1768, Daria Saltykova was brought to Lobnoye Mesto in a linen shroud, tied to a pillory, given a lighted candle in her hands, and a plaque hung around her neck: “Tormentor and murderer.” Then, to the approving hooting of the crowd above her, the sword was broken. It seemed that the entire capital had gathered on Red Square. People sat on the roofs of nearby houses and climbed trees.

Those who were closer spat at Saltychikha, shouted swear words, cursed, and sobbed with pity for her ruined victims. Screams and sobs were mixed in a terrible roar, but suddenly it was drowned out by a wild scream - Saltychikha was screaming. Scary, frantic, but not repentant.

The crowd fell silent. What does it mean?! It turned out that the first of her assistants was thrown at the feet of the murderer, who, according to the court order, were to be beaten with a whip. A blow, a second - the first blood appeared on the shoulders of the punished - and Saltychikha howled in ecstasy...

Then other assistant murderers fell under the whips, their nostrils were torn out, they were branded with a hot iron. In the end they branded and beat the priest from Kulishki. Everything was mixed up: screams, screams of pain and horror. But that howl that sounded at the beginning remained the most terrible memory of everyone who was then on Red Square.

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova was brought directly from Lobnoye Place to the Ivanovo Monastery. That is why, even the night before, the nuns were ordered to diligently read prayers of repentance. Empress Catherine ordered Saltychikha to be put in an earthen bag forever. All her henchmen were convoyed to Siberia, where they perished. Daria had to atone for her sins on bread and water in a deep, narrow earthen prison, nicknamed the repentance pit. She could see the light only when a mug with a piece of bread was lowered to her once a day. Then a candle stub was tied to the mug, which burned out very quickly.

But the Saltykovs did not calm down either. They were still able to cut some slack for the monster in the skirt. She was transferred to a brick basement - a semi-basement with a tiny barred window. However, this did not have a pacifying effect on the witch. Vice versa! Now she howled day and night, banged her head against the wall, when she saw someone, swore in the rudest obscenities, spat, trying to hit the person.

And in such conditions, on bread and water, with rain and snow falling into her cell, she was able to survive for another 11 years! Moreover, she was able in some sophisticated way to seduce the sentry who was on duty at her door and give birth to a child from him! The soldier, of course, was driven through the ranks and sent to a penal company. The child was sent to an orphanage. But what could be done with the most abnormal devil?! Almost nothing…

It is not surprising that even when she was no longer in this world, eerie sounds could be heard from the cell during the full moon. The nuns could only be baptized. Not finding peace in death, Saltychikha screamed at night, driving everyone into a cold sweat. Sometimes this witch howled in two voices from two places - from the penitential pit and the basement at the same time. Evil multiplied...

They say that to this day, in the vicinity of what is now Zabelina Street, you can meet a strange shadow with an iron rod in its hand. Taking a closer look, people they meet see that blood is dripping from the rod. And how could it be otherwise, after all, this is the very favorite iron rod with which Saltychikha loved to beat the serfs...

“Bloody Lady” “Saltychikha”, “cannibal”, “the most terrible Russian woman”- as soon as they don’t call it Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova. Taking a quick glance at her history, you can be frightened by the atrocities and horrors that this woman did. However, upon closer examination of the “Saltychikha case,” more questions arise than indignation. Is everything so clear? Was Daria Saltykova’s life really filled to the brim with the blood of innocent people killed?

Terribly beautiful bride

Ivanova Daria was born into the family of a pillar nobleman on March 11 (22), 1730. The grandfather of the future “bloody lady,” Avtonom Ivanov, was a very successful and wealthy man - during the time of Peter I and Princess Sophia, he was able to make a fortune, which he passed on to his son Nicholas. Information about Daria’s childhood and youth has not been preserved. According to the official version, the girl was educated at home at the age of 20 and was married off with a substantial dowry.

Pedigree (genealogy) of the father of Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova

This is where the historical inconsistencies begin. According to some sources, Gleb Alekseevich Saltykov, captain of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, married Daria only because of a rich dowry, as he himself belonged to a noble family and intended to increase his fortune. Such a practical approach to the matter was due to the mediocre appearance of the bride - they say, Daria did not correspond to the canons of beauty of those years: she was distinguished by a thin build, did not have obvious and soft female forms, her skin was pale without blush. It just so happened that history, intentionally or accidentally, did not preserve not a single reliable image of Daria Nikolaevna Ivanova. Therefore, it is difficult to judge the veracity of this version.

On the other hand, it turns out that the marriage was happy. After 6 years of married life, Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova became a widow, which became the reason for her insanity. The husband left behind estates in the Moscow, Kostroma and Vologda provinces, impressive material savings and 600 peasant souls. The couple had two sons - Fyodor and Nikolai. The main reason for Saltychikha’s madness is said to be grief from the loss of her husband; could this be true if the marriage was pursued exclusively for selfish purposes?

It is also important that Saltykova was famous for a long time as a meek and pious woman. The future murderer made pilgrimages to holy places, distributed generous alms to those in need, regularly attended church and religiously revered all religious canons. By the way, the reason for such an early death of Gleb Saltykov is also unknown.

How a savage almost deprived Russian literature of a genius

The next controversial episode in the life of the “bloody lady” Saltykova is her “romance” with the nobleman Nikolai Tyutchev, the grandfather of Fyodor Tyutchev. By that time, the inconsolable widow was no longer famous for her modesty, but for her bad temper. At first, Daria Nikolaevna had hysterics and attacks of aggression, from which only the domestic servants suffered. Beat a careless girl for poorly washed clothes or unwashed dishes? Excuse me, all the landowners in those days were famous for this. Serfs died in hundreds and thousands - no one cared about ordinary people who did not have freedom and noble origin.

They wrote denunciations and complaints against Saltychikha. Only the first half of them was lost due to the high origin of the tormentor, and the second did not reach consideration due to the excessive busyness of the Senate or the unimportance of the case.

However, not only servants and courtyard girls fell under the “hot hand”. Saltykova’s neighbor, a young officer and land surveyor Nikolai Andreevich Tyutchev, once met a widow who was about to be executed.

The ancestor of the great poet, like a pheasant, was caught during a hunt in Saltykova’s domain. It would be more accurate to say - poaching. Hearing a noise in the forest, the lady sent her people to search for its source, ordering the intruder to be brought to her personally. Having examined the young man and even recognizing him as a distant relative, Saltychikha ordered Tyutchev to be locked in the basement for further investigation.

Further, there is complete absurdity: according to the main version, the murderous landowner kept Nikolai Andreevich in the basement for several days, mocked him, humiliated him and even tried to mutilate him. After such treatment, the young officer not only did not complain about Saltykova, but also became her lover!

The “outburst of love,” however, is also described in a very unusual way: after another attempt to hit Tyutchev, the landowner herself received several slaps in the face from him, so much so that she could not stay on her feet! Isn't it true that communication is very conducive to love pleasures?

Spanking of a street wench

During the mistress's romantic mood, the servants received a welcome respite. The beatings and bullying resumed 6 years later, as soon as the young lover, as often happens, turned out to be a scoundrel and married someone else. The reason for the break in relations was, allegedly, Tyutchev’s shock from the sadistic inclinations of the widow in love with him. Having expressed his indignation, the lover incurred the wrath of Saltykova - he was locked for several days in a damp and cold barn, from which the unfortunate escaped with the help of one of the serf girls.

Some time later, the former lover proposed to Pelageya Panyutina, who also lived nearby. This is where the colors thicken to black! According to the available version, Daria Saltykova planned to either burn or blow up the newlyweds’ house. But the servants failed: Tyutchev and his wife warned about the danger, but refused to set the house on fire. Then the desperate killer planned an ambush, but even then she was bypassed: Tyutchev took his wife another way, and asked the local authorities for help and protection. Many years later, the Tyutchev family bought up many surrounding lands, including the estate of the “bloody” Saltychikha.

“Bloody Lady” - Saltychikha’s case has the highest priority

Soon after the failed romance, Saltykova was taken to court and, by personal order of Empress Catherine II, her case was given the highest priority. Why such attention? Is there really one murderer for the entire empire? At the same time that the Senate was considering the Saltychikha case, other cases of abuse and murder of serfs by landowners were also being examined.

So Lieutenant Turbin personally beat three serfs to death. The mining engineer’s wife not only beat the yard girl, but also drove her half naked and barefoot through the cold, after which she kept her in the cold hallway until her death. The landowner Maryina flogged the girl to death, along with her infant child.

One can cite dozens of examples, differing little in degree of cruelty from Saltychikha’s crimes. And these are just the complaints that reached the Senate; it’s better not to know how many innocent people were dying every day at that time.

The case was given top priority for several reasons. First of all, the young empress wanted to demonstrate her commitment to the people and prove her good intentions by pointing out the implementation of the laws. Secondly, Saltykova was of fairly high origin, so her case stirred the minds of both nobles and ordinary people, adding another “+” to the empress - the laws are the same for everyone. Thirdly, when considering the Saltychikha case, all the atrocities that covered her were punished, which again played into the hands of the autocrat.

Victims and crimes of Saltychikha

The Saltychikha case contained materials on 138 alleged victims. Of these, 38 were proven, another 26 were brought under “strong suspicion,” 11 were acquitted, and the remaining 63 cases were recorded as violence without the intent to kill. The last point includes those whom the “bloody lady” tortured “exactly”, but whether they died from the injuries they received or on their own is unknown. The ledgers also contained many entries about missing, escaped, or emigrated peasants. Most often, these included brides or young wives: they went to their parents and did not return; started work and suddenly died; ran away with their fiancé or went missing.

Saltychikha at “work” - illustration of Kurdyumov’s work

It is noteworthy that information about those who were maimed but survived was not included in the case. The investigation lasted 3 years, and the trial dragged on for another 3 years. All this time the landowner remained calm. Nobody wanted to take on Saltychikha’s case. High-ranking officials were completely bought by her, and those who were simpler were afraid of reprisals. The testimony of the serfs had no weight, but the nobles completely testified about her as a pious and decent lady. The murderous landowner herself continued to attend balls and receptions, saying that “there is nothing to judge her for” and she is “of blue blood.” They were able to bring the case to a verdict only thanks to the personal attention of the Empress. There were as many as 4 sentences. Catherine II approved only one.

The fate of Saltychikha: shame and life imprisonment

Saltychikha's sentence is read out

The sentence was carried out on October 7, 1768. Saltychikha was brought to Lobnoye Mesto in a canvas shroud and with a sign on her chest “Tormentor and Murderer”; They gave him a lighted candle and in this form tied him to the pillory. The “bloody lady” spent a whole hour at the pillar, watching how her accomplices, who covered up her murder and abuse all these years, were branded and tortured. A lot of people gathered to watch this action - by the time the verdict was announced, Saltychikha was a godless creature, to whom all sorts of horrors were attributed, such as cannibalism or blood baths. The last to be flogged and branded was the priest, who, by order of Daria Saltykova, performed the funeral service and buried the murdered peasants as if they had died a natural death.

After an hour in the pillory, all the landowner's accomplices were sent to hard labor in Siberia, while Saltychikha herself was imprisoned for life in the Ivanovsky Monastery on Solyanka. The cell had no window, and food was served to the prisoner through a barred window. There is a version that in an attempt to mitigate the punishment, Daria Saltykova in 1778, if not seduced, then pityed the guard soldier, and became pregnant by him. But Saltychikha was not pardoned, but was only transferred from the basement to a stone outbuilding with a window. The born child was allegedly given to an orphanage, and traces of the compassionate soldier were lost in Siberia - there is no evidence of this.

We are talking about the first of the famous serial killers in Russia, landowner Daria Saltykova, who brutally killed about a hundred of her peasants.

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As soon as contemporaries and descendants called Daria Saltykova, who went down in history under the name Saltychikha: “black widow” and “black villainess”, “Satan in a skirt”, “sadistic noblewoman”, “serial killer”, “bloody landowner”, “ the Trinity cannibal”, “the Marquis de Sade in female form”... Her name was pronounced with a shudder for many decades, and Empress Catherine the Great, in her verdict on the villainess, which she personally rewrote several times, even avoided calling this monster woman “she”.

The story told by director Yegor Anashkin in the new series “Bloody Lady” is close to what happened in real life, but in many ways softer than the harsh reality. Because if the director had filmed the worst atrocities that Saltychikha is said to have committed, the film would most likely simply have been banned.

A pious girl from a good family

On March 11, 1730, a girl was born into the family of the stalwart nobleman Nikolai Ivanov, who was named Daria. Daria's grandfather, Avtonom Ivanov, was a prominent statesman of the era of Peter the Great and left his descendants a rich inheritance.

How Dasha Saltykova’s real childhood went is not known for certain. According to the version shown in the film, it was unlucky. After the death of his wife Anna, Nikolai Ivanov sent his daughter to be raised in a monastery with the wording “possessed by demons.”

Francois Hubert Drouet, “Portrait of Countess Daria Chernyshova-Saltykova,” 1762. This portrait was considered for a long time to be a portrait of Saltychikha

In her youth, a girl from a prominent noble family was known as the first beauty, and in addition to this, she stood out for her extreme piety. Although Saltychikha’s real appearance is a sealed secret. What she looked like is not known for certain, and those portraits that for many years were considered portraits of Saltychikha actually depict other women.

Most often, numerous portraits of her namesake and relative by marriage, Daria Petrovna Saltykova, née Chernysheva, the wife of Field Marshal Ivan Petrovich Saltykov, who was 9 years younger than the landowner, were mistaken for portraits of Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova.

At the age of 20, Daria married the captain of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, Gleb Alekseevich Saltykov. The Saltykov family was even more noble than the Ivanov family - Gleb Saltykov’s nephew Nikolai Saltykov would become His Serene Highness Prince, Field Marshal and would be a prominent courtier in the era of Catherine the Great, Paul I and Alexander I.

Soon Daria gave birth to her wife, two sons - Fyodor and Nikolai, who, as was customary then, were enlisted from birth to serve in the guards regiments.

Fyodor Lavrov as Gleb Saltykov in the series “Bloody Lady” (real images of Saltychikha’s husband have not survived)

It was a typical marriage for its time - two noble families united to increase wealth. Historians have not come across any particular evidence of hatred towards the husband, as well as adultery on the part of the young wife, plausibly shown in the film “Bloody Lady”. Likewise, it remains unknown why the head of the family died after six years of marriage, leaving a 26-year-old widow with two sons in her arms - and a lot of money. Subsequently, versions arose that Saltykova herself got rid of her husband, but they seem groundless to historians.

Rich widow

After the death of her husband, Daria Saltykova became fabulously rich. The reason was also that her mother (who, unlike the serial version, was not a homicidal maniac at all) and grandmothers lived in a monastery and abandoned the family fortune.

So, at the age of 26, the young mother of two sons became the sole owner of six hundred peasants in estates near Moscow, located on the territory of the present-day village of Mosrentgen and the capital’s Teply Stan district. Saltychikha's town house in Moscow was located on the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most. The lady also had remote estates in the Vologda and Kostroma provinces.

The widowed Daria Saltykova, of course, did not lose interest in the opposite sex. There is evidence that she played tricks with her husband’s relative, Sergei Saltykov. In the series “Bloody Lady” his role was played by Pyotr Rykov. It must be said that Sergei subsequently really became one of the favorites of Catherine II. In addition, some historians suggest that he is the biological father of Paul I.

Saltychikha's lover Sergei Saltykov / Pyotr Rykov in the image of Sergei Saltykov in the series “Bloody Lady”

The widow led a secular lifestyle and at the same time was known as very pious - she made pilgrimages to shrines several times a year and spared no money for church needs. Saltychikha’s terrible “fun” became known only a few years later. In the meantime, having returned home after the service, she sat in a chair in the middle of the courtyard to administer “righteous judgment” over the serfs.

Mysterious passion

According to witnesses, Saltychikha began to show her sadistic tendencies about six months after her husband’s death. The film “Bloody Lady” shows that the first signs of mental illness appeared in the landowner in early childhood - but historians have not found such evidence. However, the director notes that he did not set out to make a historical film; “Bloody Lady” is rather a scary fairy tale.

Apparently, Daria Saltykova began to “become crazy” precisely after the death of her husband. According to modern psychiatry, she had epileptoid psychopathy - a mental disorder in which a person often experiences attacks of sadism and unmotivated aggression.

Augustin Christian Ritt, “Portrait of Countess Daria Petrovna Saltykova”, 1794, another portrait of allegedly Saltychikha

The first complaints about her atrocities, which were far from isolated, date back to 1757. Every year Saltychikha became more and more cruel and sophisticated. According to the stories of the serfs, she flogged them to death - and if she got tired, she handed the whip or whip to her assistants - haiduks, tore out the hair on women's heads or set them on fire, branded the ears of young women with a hot iron, scalded them with boiling water, froze them to death in the cold or in an icy pond in winter, she was even buried alive.

“Saltychikha”, Pchelin V.N.

In particular, Saltychikha loved to torture and torment brides who were preparing for their wedding. She staged whole bloody performances, which always ended in the death of young girls, cut with a whip. The coachman, the groom and a couple of other assistants, under the stern gaze of the bloody lady, tried tirelessly. After all, it is well known that one’s own skin is more valuable. Fear and horror reigned in the noble house: the short night seemed heavenly to the serfs. And each of them waited for the morning with bated breath. And the awakened Saltychikha always gets up on the wrong foot and will definitely find a reason to tear out a clump of hair from a girl passing by or burn her face with a hot iron or red-hot tongs.

Alexandra Ursulyak as Saltychikha in the TV series “Ekaterina. Takeoff"

One day, in September 1761, the cannibal, as a “prelude” to the next execution of her subjects, beat the boy Lukyan Mikheev to death with a log. Beautiful girls aroused special hatred in Saltychikha. For example, she tried to beat pregnant women in the stomach, doused them with boiling water and tore out the ears of her victims with hot tongs. Sometimes this seemed not enough to her: once Saltychikha ordered the serf Thekla to be buried alive in the ground. A small but indicative touch to the portrait of the killer: all victims were required to have the funeral service performed by the priest of the landowner. What he felt during this ritual is unknown...

Illustration by Kurdyumov for the encyclopedic publication “The Great Reform”, which depicts the torture of Saltychikha “in as soft a tone as possible”

Not only peasants suffered from psychopaths

A famous nobleman once almost fell under the hot hand of a landowner. Land surveyor Nikolai Tyutchev, the grandfather of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev, was her lover for a long time, but then decided to marry someone else. For which I paid...

Vlad Sokolovsky in the image of Nikolai Tyutchev in the series “Bloody Lady” (no real portraits of the land surveyor have survived)

This story took place at the beginning of 1762. The landowner had an affair with engineer Nikolai Tyutchev. As a result, the man could not stand Saltychikha’s violent temper and decided to leave. He wooed Pelageya Tyutcheva, who agreed. The young people began to think about marriage, and Saltykova began to think about murder.

So, on the night of February 12-13, she bought gunpowder and sulfur and sent groom Roman Ivanov to set fire to the house of her former lover. She only demanded to make sure that the couple was at home and burned alive. The man did not carry out the order, being afraid to kill the nobleman. For this he was severely beaten. The second time, the landowner sent two: Ivanov and a certain Leontyev. However, this time they did not dare, returning to Saltychikha. The men were beaten with batogs, but they did not kill them.

The third time she sent three serfs at once. The Tyutchevs went to the Bryansk district to the estate of the bride Ovstug. Their path lay along the Great Kaluga Road, where an ambush was set up. The serfs had to first shoot at them and then finish them off with sticks. But someone warned the young people about the ambush, and they ended up escaping at night in a roundabout way.

Case of the Lost Souls

Complaints poured in against the ferocious landowner, but Saltychikha belonged to a famous noble family, whose representatives were also governor-generals of Moscow. All cases of cruelty were decided in her favor. Moreover, the opposite often happened - the complainants returned to the estate, where they were beaten with whips and exiled to Siberia.

Only two peasants, Savely Martynov and Ermolai Ilyin, whose wives were brutally killed by Saltychikha, were lucky. In 1762, they managed to transfer the complaint to Catherine II, who had just ascended the throne, who decided to use the sadist’s case as a show trial. It marked a new era of legality and demonstrated to the entire Moscow nobility the authorities’ readiness to combat local abuses.

Catherine II / Severija Janusauskaite as Catherine II in the series “Bloody Lady”

The investigation into the Saltychikha case lasted six years. It turned out that she tortured and killed at least 38 people. The remaining cases of missing more than a hundred peasants could not be attributed to the landowner. But this was enough for the Empress to personally sign the verdict for Daria Saltykova. The Senate, which was required by law to pass a verdict, refused to do so.

The most terrible rumor that was spread about the landowner Saltykova was that she drank the blood of young girls and was a cannibal. This, they say, explained the fact that the bodies or burials of most of the souls that were listed as missing without a trace were never found during the investigation, which lasted more than five years. The whole affair was based on the stories of the serfs.

Still from the series “Bloody Lady”

There is a version that the high-profile case of Saltychikha was beneficial to Catherine the Great and her supporters - in order to morally weaken the Saltykovs and prevent even the hypothetical possibility of taking the Russian throne by representatives of the German Welf dynasty, to which three tragically deceased Russian emperors belonged (Peter II, Peter III and Ivan VI ) and who was related to the Saltykovs. Therefore, it is quite possible that the landowner’s crime story could have been inflated.

Unrepentant

Numerous influential relatives of Daria Saltykova, including the governor of Moscow and the field marshal, made every effort to ensure that she avoided the death penalty. Nevertheless, the empress's decision was harsh. By her decree, she decided to henceforth “call this monster a man.”

In September 1768, Catherine II rewrote the verdict several times. Four of her handwritten drafts of the document have survived. In the final version, Saltychikha was deprived of her noble title and sentenced to life imprisonment in an underground prison without light and human communication.

Saltychikha was taken to the square, on the scaffold she was tied with chains to a pillory and the royal paper was read out. And before that, the priest and two of Daria Saltykova’s assistants were mercilessly flogged by the executioner. After some time, she was put in a black cart and taken to the St. John the Baptist Convent. Here a “repentance” cell awaited her - almost a pit, where not even a ray of light penetrated. Only at the moments when food was brought to the prisoner was light allowed - the end of a candle was placed next to the bowl for the duration of the meal.

Actress Yulia Snigir in the image of Saltychikha in the series “Bloody Lady”

After more than a dozen years, Saltychikha was transferred to a stone extension of the cathedral church, where there was a small barred window. There were rumors that Daria Saltykova somehow managed to seduce the soldier guarding the dungeon, and at the age of 50 give birth to a child from him. And, they say, the random lover was subjected to a public flogging and sent to a penal company. Let us note that never once, either during the investigation or on the scaffold, does Saltychikha admit her guilt or repent. And on her face, scaring even experienced jailers, a calm and triumphant smile will walk.

St. John the Baptist Convent, where Daria Saltykova was imprisoned

What’s surprising is that the murderer, who was in excellent health, lived to be 71 years old. In the last years of her life, the prisoner already behaved like a real madman - she cursed loudly, spat, and tried to poke onlookers with a stick. Daria Saltykova was buried in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery, next to her relatives.

The noble Russian nobility bashfully turned a blind eye to the actions of Saltychikha’s followers. For example, the landowner Vera Sokolova beat the courtyard girl Nastasya to death in September 1842, and in the Tambov province the peasants were afraid of the wife of the nobleman Koshkarov like hell. This society lady, shining at balls, simply loved to personally whip “rude men” and “stupid women” on her estate. And a certain Saltykova, Saltychikha’s namesake, was kept in a cage next to the bed of the yard hairdresser for three years. However, these are just a few documented cases; it’s scary to imagine how many there actually were.

Of course, I came there not only to look at it, I wanted to see the necropolis in general, the high reliefs in particular, but that’s later, I’ll post a hundred photos again..

I once read Akunin’s “Cemetery Stories”. One chapter is devoted to the Donskoye cemetery. It was put off that I should stop by on occasion. Suddenly the event finally happened. I would like to search the net in more detail in advance for the tombstone of Saltychikha (Saltykova Daria Nikolaevna), otherwise...
I remembered the photo in his book and came to that “stone stake”, but in vain, although I remembered that this was just an artistic guess. I searched through the information afterwards and chose what to me seemed closer to...
It is stated, and more than one source, that her grave is lower, in the center, that there is even an inscription visible there, on the other side it looks like it was closed by a sarcophagus that had fallen nearby not so long ago. In the video below the post, the monk said that this is the tombstone of her eldest son, who died the same year.
If I had found it in advance, I would have climbed in to look or try to feel the inscription)
Quotes from various sources:
“I had previously seen photographs of this particular grave, but at that time the monument had not yet fallen and the inscription was visible.”
“Those whose relatives are in prison or under investigation come to Saltychikha’s grave. It is believed (by someone) that Saltychikha is a defender of prisoners.”

Quote incl. - art historian M. Yu. Korobko, Russian historian, writer, archivist, Moscow expert, toponymist, publicist, journalist. In the photo below is a link to his LiveJournal.
“However, Saltychikha also has a folk tombstone, the one under which she is buried according to secret folk knowledge passed down from generation to generation! The touching flowers and the inscription made with a felt-tip pen are touching, in it Saltychikha is mistakenly called Ekaterina.”

Landmark from here- the real tombstone of Saltychikha with a tombstone lying nearby, on the territory of the monastery (entrance with a large bell tower) - from the entrance - to the right wall of the monastery. In the photo - in the background near the tower, a little further than the white cross, there is also a sculpture of a girl with a flowerpot. Although.. I haven’t looked at the inscription myself, but I’ll check it out if the opportunity arises)

There are inscriptions on the stone in front and on the right, I forgot.. it seemed like there were on the left too.. or not.. I don’t remember..
And on the list of those buried in the necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery are the Baskakovs:
Baskakov Vasily Vasilievich (1765-1794) - second major
Baskakov Ivan Egorovich (1753-1798) - court councilor, grandfather of the poet N. P. Ogarev
Baskakova (ur. Khitrovo) Vera Petrovna (1743-1827) - his wife
Baskakov Petr Vasilievich (born 1794) - lieutenant
Baskakov Alexey (b. 1761)
Baskakova Anna Filippovna (1817-1889) - maiden

______

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova 1730 - 1801.
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About portraits. More often she is confused with Daria Petrovna Saltykova, and me at first..

Completely different in the portrait representative of the extensive Saltykov family. Moreover, nee Chernysheva, Daria Petrovna, sister of Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades” Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna. Daria Petrovna was married to Field Marshal Ivan Petrovich Saltykov, the son of the hero of the Seven Years' War, Pyotr Semenovich Saltykov. So she is Saltykova not by birth, but through her husband. These Saltykovs, close to the court, had a very distant relationship with “that same” Saltychikha, the seventh water on jelly. And this portrait is a miniature by A.H. Ritt, 1790s, from the Hermitage. There is a paired portrait of her husband. But the images of Saltychikha are still unknown, alas. So we can only imagine her villainous appearance. Daria Petrovna in her youth. In Paris, her portrait was painted by Francois Drouet, he is in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. So this Saltykova was good and did not act out. Just in case, you can trust me, I already wrote a book on these Chernyshevs.
(quote from av4)

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So, portraits Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova did not survive, and there are a huge number of publications...
"..Daria Saltykova killed dozens of her peasants. Almost all of them were young women - among the victims there were only two men and five girls aged 11-15..."
"...the maid Praskovya Larionova - at first the sadist beat her herself, and then gave her to the haiduks, shouting at the same time: “Beat her to death! I myself am responsible and I’m not afraid of anyone!” Praskovya, beaten to death, was taken to Troitskoye, throwing her infant child into the sleigh, who froze to death on the way. Katerina Ivanova, whose groom Davyd “saw swollen legs from the battle and blood was flowing from the seat”, was taken along the same road..."
etc.

For example, one of the publications...

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Landowner Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova. Female murderer
In 1768, next to the Execution Place, the landowner Daria Saltykova, the famous Saltychikha, who tortured to death at least 138 of her serfs, stood at the pillory. While the clerk read out the crimes she had committed from a sheet of paper, Saltychikha stood with her head uncovered, and on her chest hung a plaque with the inscription “Tormentor and Murderer.” After that, she was sent to eternal imprisonment in the Ivanovo Monastery...

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova (nee Ivanova), daughter of a Duma clerk close to Peter I, who was related to the Davydovs, Musins-Pushkins, Stroganovs and Tolstoys. She was born in 1730 in the village of Troitskoye near Moscow (now the village of the Mosrentgen plant, adjacent to Moscow in the Teply Stan area). Her grandfather, Avtonom Ivanov, was a major figure in the times of Princess Sophia and Peter I. She married the captain of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, Gleb Alekseevich Saltykov (d. about 1755), uncle of Nikolai Ivanovich Saltykov, the future His Serene Highness Prince. They had two sons, Fedor (1750-1801) and Nikolai (d. 1775), who were enlisted in the guards regiments.

Having become a widow at the age of twenty-six, she received full ownership of about six hundred peasants on estates located in the Moscow, Vologda and Kostroma provinces. The investigator in the case of the widow Saltykova, court councilor Volkov, based on the data from the house books of the suspect herself, compiled a list of 138 names of serfs whose fate was to be clarified. According to official records, 50 people were considered to have “died of disease,” 72 people were “unknown,” and 16 were considered to have “gone to their husbands” or “gone on the run.” According to the testimony of serfs, obtained during “wide searches” in the estate and villages of the landowner, Saltykova killed 75 people, mostly women and girls.

publication of the island "Friends of Children"..

Before the death of her husband, Saltychikha had no particular tendency to violence. But about six months after her widowhood, she began regularly beating the servants. The main reasons for punishment were dishonesty in cleaning floors or doing laundry. The torture began with her striking the offending peasant woman with an object that came to hand (most often it was a log). The guilty one was then flogged by grooms and haiduks, sometimes to death. Saltychikha could pour boiling water over the victim or singe the hair on her head. Saltychikha also used hot curling irons for torture, with which she grabbed the victim by the ears. She often pulled people by the hair and slammed their heads against the wall for a long time. Many of those killed by her, according to witnesses, had no hair on their heads; Saltychikha tore her hair with her fingers, which indicates her considerable physical strength. The victims were starved and tied naked in the cold. Saltychikha did not love and broke up loving couples who were about to get married.
In one episode, the nobleman Nikolai Tyutchev, the grandfather of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev, also suffered from Saltychikha. The young captain, who in 1760 was engaged in reconciling the boundaries of Saltykova’s possessions near Moscow with the records in the land cadastre, became the lover of the young widow. Everything was fine at first, but in January 1762 Tyutchev was going to marry the girl Panyutina.

(Saltykova was 32 at the time, he was 42, and somewhere it is mentioned that he is supposedly younger than her)

Saltykova decided to destroy her unfaithful lover, and to do it in the most literal sense. Groom Savelyev purchased 2 kg in two steps. gunpowder, which, after adding sulfur and tinder, was wrapped in highly flammable hemp. The result was a powerful bomb.
By order of Saltykova, two attempts were made to plant this bomb under the Moscow house in which Captain Tyutchev and his bride lived. Both attempts failed because the sent serfs were afraid of retribution. The timid grooms - Ivanov and Savelyev - were severely flogged, but unsuccessful attempts to blow up the house forced Saltykova to reconsider the plan. She decided to organize an ambush on the captain’s route to Tambov, where he was supposed to go on business in April 1762. 10-12 men from Saltykova’s estates near Moscow were to participate in the ambush. The matter was turning out to be serious: an attack on a nobleman while he was performing a state task no longer amounted to robbery, but to conspiracy! This threatened the peasants not even with hard labor, but with beheading. Saltykova’s serfs gave the captain an “anonymous letter” in which they warned him about the impending attempt on his life. Tyutchev officially notified the authorities of a possible attack and received 12 soldiers as guards while traveling to Tambov. Saltykova, having learned about the captain’s security, canceled the attack at the last moment.

Complaint to the Empress
There were always many complaints about the cruel landowner both under Elizaveta Petrovna and under Peter III, but all cases of cruelty were resolved in her favor. Informers were punished with whips and exiled to Siberia. She did not skimp on gifts to the authorities, and, on the other hand, her family name was respected.

At the same time, Saltychikha led an outwardly pious lifestyle. She made donations to the church and made annual pilgrimages to Orthodox shrines such as the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
Initial complaints from the peasants only led to punishments for the complainants, since Saltychikha had many influential relatives and was able to bribe officials. But two peasants, Savely Martynov and Ermolai Ilyin, whose wives she killed, still managed to convey a complaint to Catherine II, who had just ascended the throne, in 1762.

Consequence
Although Saltychikha belonged to a noble family, Catherine II used her case as a show trial that would mark a new era of legality.
The Moscow College of Justice carried out an investigation that lasted six years. The investigation was carried out by the rootless official Stepan Volkov and his assistant, court adviser, Prince Dmitry Tsitsianov. They analyzed Saltychikha’s account books, which made it possible to establish the circle of bribed officials. Investigators also studied records of the movement of serf souls, which noted which peasants were sold, who was sent to work and who died.

Many suspicious death records have been identified. For example, a twenty-year-old girl could go to work as a servant and die within a few weeks. According to the records, Ermolai Ilyin (one of the complainants, who served as a groom) had three wives die in a row. Some peasant women were allegedly released to their native villages, after which they immediately died or went missing.
A study of the archives of the office of the Moscow civil governor, the Moscow police chief and the Detective Order revealed 21 complaints filed against Saltychikha by her serfs. All the complainants were returned to the landowner, who held their own trial.

Saltychikha was taken into custody. During the interrogations, the threat of torture was used (permission to torture was not obtained), but she did not confess to anything. The torture of the famous robber in the presence of Saltychikha with the notification that she would be next was also ineffective. It is possible that she was aware that torture would not be used against her. The persuasion of the priest of the Moscow Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Dmitry Vasiliev, to repent did not work either.
Then a general search was carried out in the Moscow house of Saltychikha and in Troitsky, accompanied by the interview of hundreds of witnesses. Accounting books were discovered containing information about bribes to officials of the Moscow administration, and those interviewed spoke about the murders, giving the dates and names of the victims.
The bribes were received by the head of the police chief's office Molchanov, the prosecutor of the Detective Prikaz Khvoshchinsky, those present at the Detective Prikaz Velyaminov-Zernov and Mikhailovsky, the secretary of the Secret Office Yarov, and the actuary of the Detective Prikaz Pafnutyev.

Black and white illustration. An image of the reprisal of the landowner of the Podolsk district D.N. Saltykova against the peasants. (Great Reform. T. 1 - M., 1911) (author P.V. Kurdyumov)

In the spring of 1765, the investigation at the Moscow College of Justice was formally completed and sent for further consideration to the 6th Department of the Governing Senate.
As a result of the investigation, Volkov came to the conclusion that Daria Saltykova was “undoubtedly guilty” of the deaths of 38 people and was “left in suspicion” regarding the culpability of the deaths of another 26 people.

Trial and verdict
The trial lasted more than three years. In the end, the judges found the accused “guilty without leniency” of thirty-eight proven murders and torture of street servants. However, the senators did not pass a specific verdict, shifting the burden of decision-making to the reigning monarch, Catherine II.
During September 1768, Catherine II rewrote the verdict several times. Four handwritten sketches of the empress's verdict have survived.
On October 2, 1768, Catherine II sent a decree to the Senate, in which she described in great detail both the punishment imposed on Saltykova and the procedure for its administration. In the margins of this decree, by Catherine’s hand, next to the word she is written He. The Empress wanted to say that Saltykova was unworthy to be called a woman.

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova was convicted:
1. to deprivation of the title of nobility;
2. a lifelong ban on being named by the family of one’s father or husband (it was forbidden to indicate one’s noble origin and family ties with other noble families);
3. serving a special “disgraceful spectacle” for an hour, during which the condemned woman had to stand on the scaffold chained to a pole with the inscription above her head “torturer and murderer”;
4. to life imprisonment in an underground prison without light and human communication (light was allowed only during meals, and conversation was only allowed with the chief of the guard and a female nun).

In addition, the Empress, by her decree of October 2, 1768, decided to return to her two sons all the mother’s property, which until then had been under guardianship. It was also indicated that the accomplices of Daria Saltykova (priest of the village of Troitsky Stepan Petrov, one of the “haiduks” and the landowner’s groom) should be punished with reference to hard labor.

The punishment of the convicted Daria Nikolaeva was carried out on October 17, 1768 on Red Square in Moscow. In the Moscow Ivanovo Convent, where the condemned woman arrived after her punishment on Red Square, a special cell was prepared for her, called “repentance”. The height of the room opened in the ground did not exceed three arshins (that is, 2.1 meters); it was completely below the surface of the earth, which excluded any possibility of daylight getting inside. The prisoner was kept in complete darkness, only a candle stub was passed to her during meals. Saltychikha was not allowed walks, she was forbidden to receive and transmit correspondence.
On major church holidays, she was taken out of her prison and taken to a small window in the wall of the church, through which she could listen to the liturgy. The strict regime of detention lasted 11 years, after which it was relaxed: the convict was transferred to a stone extension to the temple with a window. Visitors to the temple were allowed to look out the window and even talk to the prisoner. According to the historian, “Saltykova, when curious people would gather at the window behind the iron bars of her dungeon, would curse, spit and stick a stick through the window, which was open in the summer.”

Cathedral Church in the former Ivanovo Monastery.
“Saltychikha” was kept prisoner in the left annex.

After the death of the prisoner, her cell was converted into a sacristy. She spent thirty-three years in prison and died on November 27, 1801.
She was buried in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery, where all her relatives were buried.
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Interesting Facts

* Starting in 1764, a rumor was spread in Moscow, and then throughout the empire, that Saltykova not only killed peasants, but ate their meat. The investigation was able to reliably establish the absurdity of such accusations.
* According to some sources, in 1779 (at the age of almost 50 years) Daria Saltykova gave birth to a child from a guard soldier in prison.
* The city house of Saltychikha in Moscow was located on the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most streets, that is, on the site where buildings that now belonged to the FSB of Russia were later built. The estate where, as a rule, she committed murders and tortures was located in the village of Mosrentgen (Trinity Park) near the Moscow Ring Road in the Teply Stan area.
* Saltykova was nicknamed the Russian Marquis de Sade. Or just Saltychikha.
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There were a lot of Saltychikhs in Russia

“The 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 special pleasure in tyranny over defenseless peasants. Koshkarova had a standard for torture, the limits of which she went beyond only in extreme cases. Men were supposed to be given 100 lashes of the 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 Orlov Koshkarova whipped her because there were not enough onions in the soup.

Another “Saltychikha” was discovered in Chuvashia. In September 1842, landowner Vera Sokolova beat to death the courtyard wench Nastasya, whose father said that the mistress often punished her serfs by “pulling their hair, and sometimes forced them to flog them with rods and whips.” And another maid complained that “the lady broke her nose with her fist, and from punishment with a whip there was a scar on her thigh, and in winter she was locked in a latrine in only a shirt, because of which she froze her legs”...
"Via"
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Although the story of the noblewoman Saltykova became known, how many ruined souls remained hidden. Souls.. The account is not on people - the owners of souls are like the devil.
"She went to church and zealously atone for her sins." As now, and at all times.
There were cruel times, and there were also times of inquisitions... not to mention wars.