Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova (1730 - 1801) was a young Russian Countess from Moscow who became notorious for torturing and killing over a hundred of her serfs, mostly women and girls.

She was found guilty of having killed 138 female serfs by beating and torturing them to death. The Empress Cathreen II was unsure about how to punish her because the death penalty had been abolished in Russia in 1754, and the new Empress needed the support of the nobility.

Saltykova was arrested in 1762 and washeld for six years while the authorities conducted a painstaking investigation.

In 1768, Saltykova was chained on a platform in Moscow for one hour, with a sign around her neck with the text: "This woman has tortured and murdered." Many people came to look at her during the hour she was displayed. Afterward, she was sent to imprisonment for life in the basement of a convent.