The braid of a serf girl from Chuvashia, torn out in 1842 by a landowner.

An exhibit of the National Museum of Chuvashia (a fake, the real braid is hidden in a special chamber so that it does not deteriorate over time).

The braid of the serf peasant woman Tatyana Petrova was attached as “material evidence” to the criminal case of the district court of Улатӑр (Ulatӑr) about landowner Vera Sokolova’s cruel treatment of her serfs. The criminal case is currently kept in the State Historical Archives of Chuvashia.

The document about the story with the landowner said the following:

“On May 23, 1842, the landowner Sokolova from Alatyr beat with her own hands the 18-year-old serf girl Tatyana from Chirikov village, Alatyr district, dragged her along the floor by her hair and torn out her hair with skin, braided into a braid, from her head.” During the investigation it became known that the landowner Sokolova systematically abused her serfs, subjecting them to cruel torture for the slightest disobedience. The investigator established that in 1842, a serf girl, Anastasia Samoylova, died suddenly in Sokolova’s house after thirty blows with rods, carried out on the orders of the landowner. Despite the fact that the landowner cruelly tyrannized her serfs, she did not bear serious responsibility for this – she only received a warning from the court. It is difficult to imagine how one could tear off a scalp with her hands. Leaning on her leg? However, in the description of the atrocities of another landowner known for her cruelty, the famous Saltychikha, we read:

“Many of those killed by her, according to witnesses, had no hair on their heads; Darya tore out hair with her fingers, which demonstrates her considerable physical strength. Saltykova’s acquaintances and neighbors often noticed that almost all the serfs had no hair on their heads.” This is all that Moscow brought to Chuvashia when occupied it. Any support for Moscow, Moscow rulers, kings, and leaders is equal to supporting the occupiers’ mockery of the population of Chuvashia. This includes the recent procession with the cross near Елчĕк (Elchĕk) village in honor of the memory of the king killed by the bolsheviks. There was no longer serfdom then, but the population of Moscow colonies was in captivity, and remained so.