35. The Difficulty of Holding the Connected Accountable
The depraved ongoings at Darya Saltkova’s estate were an open secret for years, but nothing was done. She was a noblewoman, her victims were serfs, and Saltykova and her family were well-connected to Russia’s imperial court. Complaints from the victims’ relatives were routinely ignored, and many complainants were punished for complaining. Finally, the victims’ relatives victims managed to bring a petition directly before Empress Catherine the Great, who ordered Saltykova arrested.
She was imprisoned while the authorities conducted a six year investigation. In 1768, Saltykova was found guilty of murdering 38 serfs. It was a severe undercount, as scholars estimate that she had killed at least a hundred more, and the actual number of victims might have been significantly higher. Catherine the Great was unsure how to punish Saltykova. The death penalty had recently been abolished, and the empress needed the Russian nobility’s support. Eventually, Saltykova was chained in public for an hour with a sign describing her crimes, while onlookers hurled abuse at her. Then she was sent to a convent, in whose cellar she was imprisoned until her death in 1801.
