When, in 1762, two serfs decided to write directly to the new ruler of Russia, they could not have known that they would unleash an avalanche that would consume one of the most influential women of Moscow’s aristocracy.
A Pious Widow With a Dark Side
Daria Ivanova was born in March 1730 into a wealthy aristocratic family. Her marriage to Gleb Saltykov, a captain in the imperial guard, seemed like the start of a life befitting her status.
Contemporaries described her as a devout woman, regularly making pilgrimages to monasteries and generously supporting the poor. No one saw the shadow of a future murderer in her.
Her husband’s death in 1755 left the 25-year-old widow with two sons and a vast estate to manage. Soon after, her father passed away, making Daria the sole heir to a fortune encompassing hundreds of hectares of land and over six hundred serfs.
It was then, as she concentrated nearly unlimited power over the lives of hundreds of families in her hands, that the first disturbing signals began to emerge.
A Vicious Spiral of Violence
Initially, Saltykova’s aggression was limited to outbursts of anger and beating servants for allegedly poor work. Over time, however, her methods became increasingly sophisticated and cruel.
Scalding victims with boiling water, setting their hair on fire, exposing them for hours to freezing temperatures, followed by tortures with heated pincers. In every room, there were wooden logs with which she would beat her subjects.
Around 1760, a surveyor named Nikolay Tyutchev entered the aristocrat’s life. The affair seemed to soften her disposition, but when her lover left her two years later for a younger woman, Saltykova plunged into obsessive revenge.
She even tried to arrange an attempt on the lives of her ex-lover and his new partner. However, the servants, instead of carrying out her orders, warned the threatened pair, who obtained military protection.
The aristocrat’s victims were mostly young women and girls working on her estates. She did not spare even twelve-year-old girls. She justified her brutality by claiming that she was teaching her subjects about real life, as if violence were an educational method. Historians estimate that the total number of people murdered by her could reach one hundred and thirty-eight.
Powerless Before Influence
For years, the peasants filed complaints against their lady. More than twenty petitions reached the authorities, but none were considered.
The corrupt administration of tsarist Russia had no intention of crossing an influential aristocrat related to the most distinguished families. The serfdom system left subjects practically defenseless against their owners’ whims.
It was not until Catherine II took the throne in 1762 that the situation changed. The new empress was critical of serfdom and dreamed of modernizing the empire along Western European lines. When two peasants decided to write directly to the empress, she treated the case as an opportunity to demonstrate her new political course.
Six Years Until Justice
The investigation, initiated at Catherine’s command, lasted nearly six years. Investigators encountered obstacles caused by the accused’s social standing and widespread corruption.
Nevertheless, testimonies were collected, painting a terrifying picture of systematic terror. According to the serfs’ accounts, Saltykova killed about seventy-five people, though the final indictment confirmed thirty-eight murders and suspicions of twenty-six more.
During the trial, the aristocrat behaved with the arrogance typical of someone convinced of their impunity. She even insulted the priest sent to hear her confession. In September 1768, Catherine II personally formulated the verdict. Saltykova was stripped of her noble title and her entire estate, which was transferred to her sons.
The culmination of her punishment was public degradation. For an hour, she stood chained to a post with a sign announcing her crimes. She was then locked in an underground cell, with no light or contact with people.
Only after eleven years was she moved to a room with a window, from which she was taken to Sunday services. In this strange purgatory, she spent thirty-three years, dying in December 1801. She was buried at the Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow, ironically next to relatives whose memory she had so disgracefully tarnished.
Rory Thornfield
Rory's grandfather left behind a wartime diary filled with accounts of a minor Burma skirmish that history books never mentioned. Reading it, Rory realized: behind every famous battle are dozens of forgotten struggles, each with its own human drama.
His preferred topics: The overlooked corners of military history – secondary campaigns, shadow battalions, local conflicts that never made headlines. From medieval sieges to twentieth-century expeditions, he focuses on the soldiers, not the generals. The people who faced impossible choices and carried those experiences forever.
Rory strips away the romanticism without losing respect for those who served. He combines tactical analysis with personal stories, examining human endurance and moral complexity rather than celebrating warfare. His writing is balanced, thoughtful, and deeply researched.
Outside work, Rory visits forgotten battlefields (now quiet farmland), photographs war memorials nobody tends anymore, and interviews veterans' families.