coralstuffandthings:Saltykova was born to into wealth and luxury in 1730. Some state t
coralstuffandthings: Saltykova was born to into wealth and luxury in 1730. Some state that the reason for her decline into madness was a love affair gone sour. She took a lover after her husband died, and when he betrayed her, she nearly killed him with her own hands. Her lover and his lover fled from the region, but the incident seemed to awaken a kind of bloodlust in Saltykova. Though she was a woman of great refinement, she became famous for her tempers and her sudden mood swings. Court records from her trial stated that she would grow incensed and suddenly throw logs at the girls who were trying to serve her. Sometimes this would quell her rage, but other times, she would simply begin to beat them violently. Eventually, Saltykova’s violent outbursts became even more cruel. There were whispered reports of her casting young women and girls into the snow to die of cold, of beating them until their bones broke and of pouring boiling water over their bare bodies. She continued with these terrible murders until 1762. That was the year when two serfs finally presented their case to Catherine II, the empress of Russia. Catherine II proclaimed a strange sentence on Saltykova. She was to be displayed for an hour in Moscow’s famous Red Square wearing a sign that said “I have tortured and murdered.” she spent the next 33 years of her life imprisoned. At first she was kept in a windowless cell in absolute darkness. A nun would come and offer her food and a candle, removing the candle when the food was done. In later years, she would be allowed to go to church, though she could only stand outside and hear the sermon, though not enter. -- source link