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History’s Top Executioners of All Time

Khalid Elhassan June 5, 2020 34 min

38. Taking it Out on the Serfs

Darya saltykova torturing a serf. Russia Beyond

Darya Saltykova never got over the humiliation and hurt of her lover choosing a younger woman over her. Unable to punish him, she took out her anger on her serfs, and punished them instead. Over a period of years, Saltykova’s serfs were forced to live through a horrific nightmare of torture and murder.

The widow’s fits of fury were inexplicable and unpredictable, and at any moment, she could fly into a murderous rage for no apparent reason. At first, she threw sticks, and then logs, at serving girls when she disapproved of their work. The violence escalated, and before long, she was beating them. Then torturing them. And finally, torturing them to death.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.