Darja Nikolaevna Saltykova

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Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova punishing a serf, illustration from 1910

Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova ( Russian Дарья Николаевна Салтыкова , scientific. Transliteration Dar'ja Nikolaevna Saltykova ), often nicknamed Saltytschicha (russ. Салтычиха called) (*  1730 , † November 27 jul. / 9. December  1801 greg. In Moscow ) was a Russian nobleman and landlady . She went down in history as an extremely brutal serial killer .

prehistory

Saltykowa, née Iwanowa, was the third daughter of a wealthy landowner. She was married to the officer Gleb Saltykov and the mother of two of his sons. At the age of 26, the death of her husband made her the sole owner of a house in Moscow as well as further land areas and estates in the European part of Russia and thus also the mistress of thousands of serf farmers.

To this day, it is unclear exactly when the series of crimes started and what the decisive trigger was. However, it has been reported that it could have something to do with an unfortunate love Saltykovas had for the engineer Nikolai Tyuttschew, the grandfather of the poet Fyodor Tyuttschew , who allegedly left her because of a red-haired woman.

crime

A total of 139 people are said to have died as a result of Saltykova's crime, although only 38 victims could be proven. As a rule, they were not killed directly, but died in an extremely painful manner as a result of the torture that Saltykowa inflicted on them. Except for two proven cases, all victims were female, including some 11 to 12 year old girls. Saltykowa was assisted in her crimes by several accomplices who detained the victims during the torture and later disposed of the bodies. Typically, Saltykowa would start hitting a woman serving her while she was cleaning the house, usually on the pretext of poorly executed work. She hit the woman several times with a wooden beam or hot iron and then forced the woman to continue doing her work. Since she was no longer able to do this after the beatings, she was then tied down and further tortured. Saltykova's preferred torture methods included: burning one's hair, starving or dying of thirst, pouring boiling water over the head or face, tying naked outdoors in freezing temperatures, tearing off the ears with red-hot pliers, and kicks in the stomach for heavily pregnant women. In addition, Saltykova was suspected of cannibalism .

She committed most of her deeds on her Troitskoye estate near the city of Podolsk, south of Moscow. It took several years before the series of murders became public and Saltykowa was arrested. At first there were rumors in neighboring villages about a brutal landlady in the vicinity. A little later, carriages coming from Troitskoye with suspicious, poorly covered cargo were spotted again and again - of corpses, as it turned out. Initially, the drivers of these carriages tried to talk themselves out of the fact that these dead were farmers who had died of natural causes or accidental death . It was later discovered that the bodies were cruelly mutilated. A few peasants who dared to report Saltykowa to the authorities failed because of the corrupt police and the rich Saltykova's relationships with the power structures that had been bribed by her . It was not uncommon for the plaintiffs to be punished instead of Saltykowa.

process

The turning point in this matter only became apparent after Catherine the Great came to power , who was already critical of the serfdom of the peasants in Russia. In 1762, two farmers, whose wives had fallen victim to Saltykova, managed to convey their complaint directly to the Tsarina. In May 1764 charges were brought against Saltykowa . The investigation lasted for years, and many details could only be proven gradually, as many witnesses refused to testify out of fear for their lives. It can only be assumed that Saltykowa was mentally ill at the time of the crime and therefore insane, as there were no psychiatric reports in the 18th century .

The process could not be completed until 1768. Many of the corrupt police officers who had suppressed earlier complaints against Saltykowa were also exposed. Their titles were revoked, they were expropriated and sent into exile . Saltykova's immediate accomplices were sentenced to public flogging and to labor camp detention. Saltykowa himself was initially sentenced to death ; However, since Catherine the Great probably did not want to set a precedent for the other nobles in Russia in order not to attract the anger of this influential section of the population, but on the other hand she wanted a kind of show trial , the death sentence was overturned and instead ordered, Saltykova imprisoned for life in an underground hole in a Moscow monastery. Immediately before it was at the Moscow Red Square with the attached inscription " torturer and murderer " for an hour to the public pillory asked.

Detention

In her subsequent imprisonment, Saltykova spent 33 years until her death. Her underground, dark cell was only lit when food and drink were brought to her. She had a child from one of her guards, the details of which are unknown.

She has neither confessed nor regretted what she did . She is said to have been an extremely devout person throughout her life. Saltykova's neglected grave has been preserved in the cemetery of the Donskoy monastery in Moscow to this day.

Others

In Boris Akunin's book Friedhofsgeschichten (German 2007, published by Goldmann Verlag, ISBN 978-3-442-31160-6 ) there is a fictional horror story that revolves around Saltykova's atrocities and contains authentic facts.

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