nt feared that the granting to
them of judicial or administrative protection would inevitably awaken
in them a spirit of insubordination, and hence it was ordered that those
who presented complaints should be punished with the knout and sent
to the mines.*** It was only in extreme cases, when some instance of
atrocious cruelty happened to reach the ears of the Sovereign, that the
authorities interfered with the proprietor's jurisdiction, and these
cases had not the slightest influence on the proprietors in general.****

* See ukaz of October 7th, 1792.

** As an example of making presents of serfs, the following
may be cited. Count Panin presented some of his
subordinates for an Imperial recompense, and on receiving a
refusal, made them a present of 4000 serfs from his own
estates.--Belaef, p. 320.

*** See the ukazes of August 22d, 1767, and March 30th,
1781.

**** Perhaps the most horrible case on record is that of a
certain lady called Saltykof, who was brought to justice in
1768. According to the ukaz regarding her crimes, she had
killed by inhuman tortures in the course of ten or eleven
years about a hundred of her serfs, chiefly of the female
sex, and among them several young girls of eleven and twelve
years of age. According to popular belief her cruelty
proceeded from cannibal propensities, but this was not
confirmed by the judicial investigation. Details in the
Russki Arkhiv, 1865, pp. 644-652. The atrocities practised
on the estate of Count Araktcheyef, the favourite of
Alexander I. at the commencement of last century, have been
frequently described, and are scarcely less revolting.

The last years of the eighteenth century may be regarded as the
turning-point in the history of serfage. Up till that time the power
of the proprietors had steadily increased, and the area of serfage had
rapidly expanded. Under the Emperor Paul (1796-1801) we find the first
decided symptoms of a reaction. He regarded the proprietors as his most
efficient officers of police, but he desired to limit their authority,
and for this purpose issued an ukaz to the effect that the serfs should
not be forced to work for their masters more than three days in the
week. With the accession of Alexander I., in 1801, commenced a long
series of abortive projects for a general emancipation, and endless
attempts to correct the more gla