The Lady of the Estate

Darya Saltykova and the Private Power of Serfdom

Darya Saltykova was a Russian noblewoman who exercised near-absolute authority over the people bound to her estates. For years, violence unfolded within that private world, sustained by serfdom, silence, and a system that treated suffering as an internal matter.

In The Lady of the Estate, Alana Sanchez examines Saltykova’s case not as an isolated act of cruelty, but as a study of private power. Drawing on petitions, legal process, and the political context of Catherine II’s Russia, this book traces how abuse persisted, why intervention was delayed, and how punishment ultimately served state authority as much as justice.

A sober, evidence-led account of serfdom, gender, and unchecked domestic sovereignty, this is a work of historical true crime that refuses spectacle in favour of understanding.