The products of the era: Russian landlords, famous for their special cruelty to serfs

Serfdom existed in Russia since the XI century and up to 1861, in fact, only tightened. Of course, in different epochs there were legislative restrictions on the treatment of serfs, but punishment could befall a raging nobleman only if the peasants' complaint reached the appropriate instance. And this happened extremely rarely.

In fact, involuntary people were equated in their rights to animals. Newspaper ads for the sale of serfs were side by side with ads for the sale of dogs, furniture, clothes. But even in such conditions there were landowners whose villainies even contemporaries considered excessive.

Nikolai Struysky

Struysky, who ran the Ruzaevka estate in the Penza province, was reputed to be a tyrant. He loved to walk around his lands, dressed in outfits of different eras and peoples, and recite poems of his own composition. On the territory of the estate, he even opened a printing house to publish his works. They say these poems were of very bad content.

But Struysky's main passion was bullying serfs. He, in modern parlance, adored role-playing games. He invented crimes and selected victims, accused and witnesses among the servants. After that, he arranged interrogations and decided the court. The punishments, unlike the crimes, were real. For the execution of sentences in the basement at Struysky organized a torture room. There was also a live shooting gallery. People were running from wall to wall, and the master was firing a gun.

Otto Gustav Douglas

Many foreigners who entered the royal service readily adopted the existing mores. One of these was Otto Gustav Douglas, Governor-General of Finland and Governor of Reval Province. In history, he remained as a man who adhered to scorched earth tactics. Ruining Finnish villages, he sent about two thousand people to Russia as slaves.Kasatkin's painting "A serf actress in disgrace, breastfeeding a lordly puppy".

He had a special sadistic handwriting. Otto liked to have fun with spinal fireworks. At first, he whipped peasants on the back with a whip, and then covered fresh wounds with gunpowder and set fire to them. In 1760, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment. Not for the treatment of serfs, but for the murder of a certain captain. But he got off with three weeks of work in the Summer Garden in St. Petersburg.

Daria Saltykova

Saltykova was widowed at the age of 26 and received at her disposal six hundred souls in the Moscow, Vologda and Kostroma provinces. Before, she was a rather meek woman, but after that, it was as if a demon possessed Saltychikha. According to contemporaries, she killed up to 140 people.

From the very morning, Saltychikha went to check how the household was being run. And as soon as she noticed at least a leaf flying through the window on the floor, the landowner began to beat the scrubber with the first object that came to hand. When I got tired of beating, I called for the help of a groom. She herself sat and, reveling, watched the execution. If the culprit survived, she was sent half-dead to wash the floors again. Naturally, Saltychikha's arsenal was not limited to beatings. Boiling water, red-hot tongs, pouring ice water in the cold...An illustration to the encyclopedic publication "The Great Reform", which depicts the torture of the Saltychikha "if possible in soft tones."

Using her connections, the tormentor intercepted complaints. All informers were immediately sent into exile. But two peasants still managed to convey the complaint to Empress Catherine II. The investigation lasted eight years, according to its results, Saltykov was sentenced to life imprisonment in an underground prison without light and deprivation of a noble family.

Lev Izmailov

The cavalry general Izmailov, who lived in Tula province, respected dogs more than people. In his kennels there were royal conditions: each of several hundred dogs had a separate room and selected food. When Izmailov noticed a good puppy from one of his acquaintances, he was ready to give almost any number of peasants for him. Once the valet allowed himself to say that "you can't compare a person with a stupid creature." Then Izmailov pierced his hand with a fork.

Izhakevich's painting "Serfs are exchanged for dogs".

The second passion of the landowner was women. His personal harem consisted of 30 girls, including 12-year-olds. They looked at their master's dogs with envy: they themselves lived under lock and key, and went outside only for a short walk in the garden or a trip to the bath. The guests who came to Izmailov could always count on the girls being delivered to their room. And the more important the guest is, the younger the ladies will be.