Wikipedia: Olga Konstantinovna Briscorn (née Strukova, born Mavrogeni;
1776 — 1836), nicknamed The Kursk Saltychikha [Saltykova], was a wealthy Russian
landowner and socialite, as well as torturer and serial killer of her own serfs,
who operated in the Kursk, Yekaterinoslav and Saint
Petersburg Governorates. She owned households in the capital, and other
estates in Pyataya Gora, Prilepy and Khomutovka.
~ Biography ~
Olga Konstantinovna Strukova, born in 1776 in the family of
a wealthy landowner, came from the well-known Mavrogeni family, who were Moldovan
boyars.
She married the provincial marshal of nobility, Ananiy
Gerasimovich Strukov, the richest man in the province, receiving a very good dowry
from the marriage: 56,000 rubles, large plots of land and households, as well
as several hundred slaves. After a very profitable wedding, Olga became the
"first lady" among the Yekaterinoslav elite. A young (a little over
30) woman, well-read and witty, she was keenly interested in theater and
amateur performances.
Soon after her husband's death, the widow moved to St.
Petersburg, but did not mourn for long - only a year later, she married a major
official, senator and diplomat named Fyodor Maximovich Briscorn. Since then,
Olga Konstantinovna began living a double life: in St. Petersburg, she posed as
a model of piety, in whose metropolitan house on Galernaya Street, the family
of the great poet Alexander Pushkin lived for some time; however, in the
Yekaterinoslav, "Senator Briscorn" became known for something
completely different.
~ Abuse of peasants ~
In 1817, the 40-year-old Briscorn bought an estate in the
Dmitrievsky district of the Kursk Governorate. Many serfs were transferred to
the estate, and in just a year, she ordered a cloth factory be built in the
village of Prilepy. The factory was a unique on the technical side, with the
weaving machines being bought from abroad, and a steam engine, the first in the
Central Black Earth economic region, were set in motion.
Her "glory" did not come from this, however, but
by the fact that she constantly punished both adults and minors who worked in
her factory. In a short time, the material situation of the serfs worsened, and
the mortality rate increased. In 1822, local farmers turned towards Emperor Alexander
the First, whose official, yet secret, investigation lasted 3 years.
The landowner was convicted of torturing her serfs via
beating them with whips, bats and sticks, as well as starving them to death.
She forced the peasants who built the factory to work on holidays and in their
"own days", which is why they didn't have time to cultivate their own
land. When people were assigned to her factory, Briscorn would take away their
property and order them to live in the machine room. In 1820, the salary's
factory was doubled, but very little - Briscorn kept most of the money for food
and clothing. From October 1820 to May 1821, 121 workers died of starvation,
disease and injuries, of which 44 were under the age of 15; 74 of them were
buried by the priest, while the rest were buried in pits. During this period,
more than 300 people fled the estate. According to the results of the
investigation, fraudulent operations concerning the products were also
revealed, and Briscorn (already a widow by this time), was removed from ownership
of the Prilepy factory, which was taken under state guardianship.
In total, the factory employed 379 people, about 90 of whom
were children from seven years and older. The working day was 14-15 hours long,
with the serfs having to sleep on straw in the workshop.
The food was extremely modest: bread with cake; cabbage
soup; a spoonful of porridge; there was meat, but wormy and when divided to
all, it added up to 8 grams per person. Life wasn't any easier for those who
worked the land, as they were forced to work on Briscorn's land exclusively. As
a result, serfs were unable to grow crops of their own, and then starved along
with their families.
~ Patronage ~
Despite her notoriety, the Kursk Saltychikha was also famous
for her piety and patronage of the arts: she built large temples and churches,
and granted alms to the poor. In the village of Pyataya Gora, the church built
by Briscorn in 1826 has been preserved to this day.
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~ Notes
In the second half of the 19th century, three other cruel
serfresses and followers of Saltychikha were documented: princess Anna Stepanovna
Sheleshpanskaya, who earned the nickname of the "Chukhloma
Saltychikha" for torturing and then, in a drunken stupor, slaying 15
serfs; princess Alexandra Vladimirovna Kozolovskaya, who tortured, maimed and
killed her serfs; and Honorata Stotskaya, the "Saltychikha from Mozyr
Uyezd", whom surpassed all of her "serf-colleagues" and was
exiled in Siberia.
References
"Olga
Konstantinovna Briscorn". www.kva.kursk.ru. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
"Kursk
'Saltychikha' Olga Briscorn built 3 churches and rented an apartment to
Pushkin" (in Russian). Yandex Zen. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
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Ольга Константиновна Брискорн
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