Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie listener Discretion advised. For most,
Speaker 1: it was just another very early morning in Imperial Russia.
Speaker 1: The large estate was beginning to come to life as
Speaker 1: servants woke up and started their morning work, but the
Speaker 1: true hustle and bustle of the day was still a
Speaker 1: ways off. Still in the silence, there was a man
Speaker 1: creeping towards one of the mansion's many bedrooms. There was
Speaker 1: a woman asleep inside the bedroom, completely unaware as to
Speaker 1: what was about to happen to her. Perhaps she should
Speaker 1: have had an inkling. The woman still asleep in bed
Speaker 1: was the de facto lady of the house, the mistress
Speaker 1: of the estate owner, and she, Natasia Mincoln, was so
Speaker 1: cruel that she had pushed the staff to the breaking point.
Speaker 1: She was abusive, petty, vindictive and violent. And now there
Speaker 1: was a man standing over her bed brandishing a large
Speaker 1: kitchen knife. What happened next was intimate, visceral, and brutal.
Speaker 1: The murder was so brutal it would traumatize even the
Speaker 1: man who carried it out, and it would devastate Natasia's lover,
Speaker 1: a man many people considered to be the cruelest man
Speaker 1: in Tsarist Russia. Back when he and Natasia had both
Speaker 1: been alive, it must have seemed like a perfect match.
Speaker 1: I'm Danish Schwartz and this is noble blood. Very little
Speaker 1: information has survived about the woman known as Madame Mincoln.
Speaker 1: I first encountered her name as a party goer at
Speaker 1: Satan's ball in Mikhail Bolgokov's novel The Master and Margarita.
Speaker 1: Even if you haven't read the novel, you can probably
Speaker 1: guess that no one portrayed as a guest of the
Speaker 1: Devil is considered one of history's good guys. Like so
Speaker 1: many women from history, the most famous thing about Madame
Speaker 1: Mincoln was her association with a powerful man. In her case,
Speaker 1: that man was Alexei arek Chayev, the infamously cruel military
Speaker 1: adviser to Sar Alexander the First. Though she's referred to
Speaker 1: frequently as Madam Mincoln, she wasn't technically a madam in
Speaker 1: the formal sense, but rather the mistress of the man
Speaker 1: whose cruelty became legendary. While his reign of terror operated
Speaker 1: on a national scale, hers was contained to the domestic sphere,
Speaker 1: but it was no less brutal within those confines. Arak
Speaker 1: Chayev's rise to power began under Czar Paul the First
Speaker 1: in the seventeen nineties, under whom he quickly gained favor
Speaker 1: thanks to his artillery expertise and rigid discipline. He was
Speaker 1: given the title of count. When Paul was murdered in
Speaker 1: eighteen oh one, the new young Czar Alexander inherited not
Speaker 1: just a throne but also his father's most capable and
Speaker 1: most ruthless military adviser. Czar Alexander the First was a
Speaker 1: complicated ruler, a man who spoke eloquently about liberal reforms
Speaker 1: and Enlightenment ideals. In his early years, he created new universities,
Speaker 1: made improvements to the country's legal system, and appointed progressive advisers.
Speaker 1: He dreamed, at least publicly, of modernizing Russia into a
Speaker 1: European style state where even peasants might enjoy citizenship rights,
Speaker 1: but he never followed through on the most meaningful reforms,
Speaker 1: and eventually he lost interest in affecting positive change. That
Speaker 1: impulse grew exponentially after the war with Napoleon, which left
Speaker 1: Alexander increasingly conservative and religiously fervent. He created the Holy
Speaker 1: Alliance to squash potential revolutionary uprisings across Europe and reversed
Speaker 1: many of his earlier progressive policies into that moral swamp
Speaker 1: stepped Irakchaiev, whose power grew in direct correlation with his
Speaker 1: csar's descent into reactionary conservatism. For over a decade, Arakcheyev
Speaker 1: was arguably the most influential figure in the Russian government,
Speaker 1: with authority that at times seemed to exceed the Tsar's own.
Speaker 1: Those who once dreamed of bringing European enlightenment back to
Speaker 1: Russia found their country unchanged, with peasants still treated as
Speaker 1: slaves and Arakcheyev's military colonies imposing forced labor under violent discipline.
Speaker 1: One officer wrote that returning to Russia after Paris and
Speaker 1: London quote felt like going back to a prehistoric past.
Speaker 1: One contemporary described the era as quote an iron age
Speaker 1: of gloom and cruelty, beneath which almost the whole of
Speaker 1: Russia groaned. The gratuitous and arbitrary violence was perhaps the
Speaker 1: worst feature of the country. Beatings everywhere from army camps
Speaker 1: to schools, from market squares to family homes. Stories of
Speaker 1: Count arek Chayev's own own personal cruelty were widespread and
Speaker 1: frankly stomach turning. He allegedly executed two junior officers by
Speaker 1: bearing them up to their necks and leaving them to die.
Speaker 1: Another officer lost his head entirely. At Grizino, the expansive
Speaker 1: estate given to Arakchev by Zar Paul, the count imposed
Speaker 1: bizarre and tyrannical rules. Local peasant women were required to
Speaker 1: produce a child each year, and because he enjoyed hearing
Speaker 1: nightingales sing, he ordered all cats on his property to
Speaker 1: be exterminated. In this world of systemic brutality, we meet
Speaker 1: Natasia Lincoln. Details about her background are scarce and contradictory.
Speaker 1: What we know is that she was physically striking, with
Speaker 1: dark features and and what one observer called quote the
Speaker 1: figure of a grenadier. No one at Grizzino seemed to
Speaker 1: know where she came from, but one thing was certain.
Speaker 1: She wasn't one of them. According to one account, Irakcheyev
Speaker 1: had purchased her from an advertisement in a Saint Petersburg newspaper.
Speaker 1: It's not explicitly stated what her advertised services were, but
Speaker 1: based on the quick progression of their relationship, we can
Speaker 1: make some assumptions about their general nature, although it's possible
Speaker 1: the original arrangement with her started with her merely working
Speaker 1: as a servant. Immediately smitten with Natasia, Irakcheyev granted her
Speaker 1: freedom and provided her with an endowment of several thousand roubles.
Speaker 1: The peasants at Grizino, unable to explain the influence she
Speaker 1: wielded over their master, became convinced she was a romani,
Speaker 1: which with magical abilities. It's possible that she was a
Speaker 1: master manipulator, but it's also possible that the Count saw
Speaker 1: something in Natasia Mancan that he recognized in himself a
Speaker 1: boundless capacity for cruelty. Either way, he needed her in
Speaker 1: his life. He installed her at Grazino as his housekeeper
Speaker 1: and gave her ultimate authority. When Irakchev was called back
Speaker 1: to public service, he left the estate entirely in Natasia's hands,
Speaker 1: with complete confidence in her managerial ability. It's unclear how
Speaker 1: much experience she had at managing an estate of that size,
Speaker 1: but she took to it like a natural. She ran
Speaker 1: the place straight out of an Irakchev playbook. She was strict,
Speaker 1: exacting and punishingly cruel. In this way, she was a
Speaker 1: perfect mirror of Iraqi Chayev himself, but she was also
Speaker 1: sowing the seeds of her own destruction. In the spring
Speaker 1: of eighteen o three, Arakcheyev left for Saint Petersburg. No
Speaker 1: sooner was he back in the capitol than he received
Speaker 1: word from home Natasia was pregnant with his child. The
Speaker 1: news created immediate suspicion among the local population. Natasia had
Speaker 1: already made herself deeply unpopular at Gerzino, ruling the household
Speaker 1: with the same iron discipline Arakchev himself employed. The serfs
Speaker 1: didn't trust her horrendous behavior aside, her exotic looks and
Speaker 1: murky origins certainly didn't help endear her to the local
Speaker 1: peasant population. Rumors spread that she had faked the pregnancy,
Speaker 1: orchestrating an elaborate deception involving a widowed peasant woman and
Speaker 1: a stolen infant, though such a scheme would have required
Speaker 1: near impossible coordination and secrecy, But when the child finally came,
Speaker 1: the gossip only intensified. The baby was a boy named Shumsky,
Speaker 1: with bright red hair and blue eyes, neither of which
Speaker 1: were seen in his parents. Despite the physical irregularities, Arakcheyev
Speaker 1: never questioned the child's parentage and raised Shumsky as his son.
Speaker 1: A couple of years later, still in Saint Petersburg, Arakcheyev
Speaker 1: made the unexpected decision to take a wife. His bride
Speaker 1: was Anastasia Vassilievna Kumatova, eighteen years old, the shy and
Speaker 1: beautiful daughter of wealthy landowners. His plan was to bring
Speaker 1: his new wife to Gruzino and arrange a marriage for
Speaker 1: his former mistress, Natasia. He saw no reason why everyone
Speaker 1: couldn't coexist on the large estate. For Natasia, we can
Speaker 1: imagine the situation would have been panic inducing. Whatever security
Speaker 1: she thought she'd built through her position and her son
Speaker 1: now seemed threatened by a legitimate wife with good social
Speaker 1: standing and imperial connections. But Natasia didn't need to worry
Speaker 1: for long. The marriage collapsed quickly. Arakcheyev's controlling nature proved
Speaker 1: too much for the young woman, and his wife soon
Speaker 1: withdrew to the countryside. One has to wonder if the
Speaker 1: presence of Madame Mincoln at the estate had anything to
Speaker 1: do with the bride's eagerness to get away. With the
Speaker 1: marriage dissolved, the bond between Arakcheyev and Natasia only intensified.
Speaker 1: He managed government business in Saint Petersburg while she ran Grizzino,
Speaker 1: sending him regular correspondents about estate operations. Her letters also
Speaker 1: revealed deep emotion mixed with constant anxiety about his fidelity.
Speaker 1: She wrote of her complete devotion while acknowledging her fear
Speaker 1: that younger women might replace her in his affections. But
Speaker 1: while Natasia's emotional position remained vulnerable and dependent on favor,
Speaker 1: she held complete authority over the household staff, and she
Speaker 1: exercised that authority with increasing cruelty. By the summer of
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty five, conditions at Grizino had deteriorated to a
Speaker 1: crisis point. Natasia became more erratic and more vicious, dishing
Speaker 1: out harsh punishments for trivial offenses. The staff understood a
Speaker 1: grim reality. Arakcheyev was either un away aware of Mincoln's behavior,
Speaker 1: or he was aware and simply didn't care, and, given
Speaker 1: his history, possibly even encouraged her behavior. The staff knew
Speaker 1: that any complaint to him would surely result in far
Speaker 1: worse treatment. They were trapped with no avenue for appeal.
Speaker 1: Three young maids in particular, suffered under Natasha's rule. She
Speaker 1: tormented them constantly, no doubt fueled by jealousy of their
Speaker 1: youth and beauty, as well as the rage she couldn't
Speaker 1: direct at her benefactor. She ordered the young women beaten
Speaker 1: and imprisoned in the house jail for the slightest of infractions.
Speaker 1: One account describes her attacking a maid's face with a
Speaker 1: heated curling tongue. At least one maid unsuccessfully attempted to
Speaker 1: poison Natasia. The situation reached critical breaking point in August
Speaker 1: when the butler took his own life after Natasia threatened
Speaker 1: to report him to Arakcheyev over a disorganized cellar. A
Speaker 1: member of the staff approached Vasili Antonov, whose sister Praskovia
Speaker 1: was one of the three tormented maids. Vasili was offered
Speaker 1: money to kill the lady of the house, but he
Speaker 1: couldn't bring himself to do it, not yet anyway. Shortly
Speaker 1: after Irakcheyev departed for the Novgorod colonies one Sunday, Natasia
Speaker 1: unleashed her rage on her maids again. Prascovia was beaten twice,
Speaker 1: the others locked up. Days later, early Thursday, morning, Prascovia
Speaker 1: found Natasia asleep. Her own body was still riddled with
Speaker 1: aches and pains from her recent beating, and as she
Speaker 1: looked down on her sleeping mistress, something snapped inside her.
Speaker 1: She ran to find her brother, Vasily and begged him
Speaker 1: to act, now, insisting that she would accept all of
Speaker 1: the blame. Her brother Vasily took a kitchen knife and
Speaker 1: followed his sister to Madam Minkin's quarters. He tried to
Speaker 1: move quietly, but a small dog started barking and had
Speaker 1: to be carried out by Prascovia. Alone with his target,
Speaker 1: Vasily summoned the courage and attacked. His first attempt missed
Speaker 1: the mark, and he slashed and Tassia on the cheek.
Speaker 1: She woke immediately and threw herself from the bed, screaming.
Speaker 1: The struggle was violent and ugly, but ultimately Madame Minkin
Speaker 1: lost the fight to keep her life. Vasily threw down
Speaker 1: the knife and ran from her chambers in a panic.
Speaker 1: No one at Grissino would later admit to hearing their
Speaker 1: mistress's screams, despite people being away wake and the windows
Speaker 1: not yet fitted with winter insulation. Eventually, Prascovia's sobbing was
Speaker 1: impossible to ignore. The gruesome scene was discovered, and the
Speaker 1: household was thrown into panic. Arakcheyev was expected back that evening.
Speaker 1: How could they tell Russia's most fearsome man that his
Speaker 1: beloved companion of two decades had been murdered by servants.
Speaker 1: They sent a messenger to find him and bring him
Speaker 1: the news that Natasia had fallen gravely ill. When his
Speaker 1: carriage neared Grazino, Arakcheyev stopped a man from the estate
Speaker 1: to ask about Natasia's condition. The man, unaware that the
Speaker 1: truth had been withheld, answered directly. Her head had barely
Speaker 1: remained attached to her body. Arakchev's response was immediate and total.
Speaker 1: He threw himself onto the ground, tearing at his head
Speaker 1: and the earth, shouting, you have killed her, Kill me too,
Speaker 1: Kill me, and kill me quickly. The people traveling with
Speaker 1: him stood frozen, watching something no one had thought possible,
Speaker 1: The cruelest man in Russia reduced to a sobbing, broken
Speaker 1: figure at their feet. When Arakcheyev reached Grizino, he went
Speaker 1: straight to Natasia's room and threw himself onto her body.
Speaker 1: He stopped eating and refused to shave. He took a
Speaker 1: handkerchief stained with his slain mistress's blood, tied it around
Speaker 1: his neck, and refused to remove it. The household staff
Speaker 1: were placed under arrest while officials worked to identify who
Speaker 1: was responsible. In a bizarre decision, vasili Antonov chose not
Speaker 1: to flee. Instead, he remained at the estate, even helping
Speaker 1: prepare Natasia's body for burial, apparently betting that his sister's
Speaker 1: confession would be treated as the complete story. Questions arose
Speaker 1: about the burial itself. Given the nature of Natasia's relationship
Speaker 1: with Arakcheyev was never formalized by marriage, The local priest
Speaker 1: sought guidance from church authorities about whether she could be
Speaker 1: buried on consecrated ground. When Arakcheyev found out, he erupted,
Speaker 1: declaring that a priest who would ask such a question
Speaker 1: had no place anywhere on earth. Even through his grief,
Speaker 1: the Tsar's Grand Vizier always had a death threat at
Speaker 1: the ready. At the funeral, Natasia was lowered into a
Speaker 1: grave next to the one Arakcheyev had long ago earmarked
Speaker 1: for himself. He rushed forward as the coffin descended, bending
Speaker 1: over it and crying out, kill me. You villains. You
Speaker 1: have taken my only friend for me. Now I have
Speaker 1: lost everything. The next day, Arakcheyev composed a message to
Speaker 1: Tsar Alexander the First. In it, he described himself as destroyed,
Speaker 1: his health and reason shattered by loss. He wrote that
Speaker 1: he only wanted to die and could no longer handle
Speaker 1: any official responsibilities without authorization. He immediately transferred his military
Speaker 1: and administrative duties to subordinates, a legally questionable action that
Speaker 1: would have brought severe consequences for anyone else. When Alexander
Speaker 1: received word of the tragedy at Grazino, the Tsar's first
Speaker 1: assumption was political. He guessed that Natasia had been killed
Speaker 1: as part of a scheme to force Arakcheyev from power,
Speaker 1: not that she was murdered in response to her own actions.
Speaker 1: The Tsar was initially displeased by Irakcheyev's unauthorized transfer of power,
Speaker 1: but he ultimately forgave him, chalking it up to his
Speaker 1: griefust tree brick. State justice came quickly for the murderous siblings,
Speaker 1: and as to be expected, it was extreme. Though Prascovia confessed,
Speaker 1: Vasily was unable to avoid blame, and he received a
Speaker 1: sentence of one hundred and seventy five lashes. Prascovia received
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five. Both punishments proved fatal, as
Speaker 1: they were surely designed to be. The system had completed
Speaker 1: its cycle cruelty leading to desperation, which led to cruelty
Speaker 1: of a deadlier nature, which in turn was met with
Speaker 1: deadly cruelty again. Zar Alexander I died in November eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty five, just months after Natasia's murder, and the new Czar,
Speaker 1: Nicholas the first had different advisors and different priorities. Arekcheyev
Speaker 1: returned to Gruzino permanently living at the scene of the
Speaker 1: crime until his own death in eighteen thirty four. He
Speaker 1: built a monument to Natasia on the grounds and visited
Speaker 1: it often. What happened at Grizino wasn't just a domestic tragedy.
Speaker 1: It reflected the larger system Rakchayev had spent decades constructing
Speaker 1: and maintaining. For more than twenty years, he had been
Speaker 1: among Russia's most powerful figures, creating an environment where violence
Speaker 1: functioned as the default method of control. The culture of
Speaker 1: systemic brutality that Arakchev helped establish at the national level
Speaker 1: had filtered into his own household. When looking at what
Speaker 1: you might call complicated women in history, there is often
Speaker 1: the urge to rationalize behavior by looking at the bigger picture.
Speaker 1: Systemic injustices and historical circumstances can often go a long
Speaker 1: way towards viewing, at some point life through a more
Speaker 1: generous lens. But Natasia Mincoln had a well documented history
Speaker 1: of cruelty and abuse, and no amount of context can
Speaker 1: justify the pain that she caused for others. She certainly
Speaker 1: did not deserve to be violently murdered for it, of course,
Speaker 1: But for the serfs at Grazino, there was nowhere else
Speaker 1: to turn, and the chronic abuse had pushed them far
Speaker 1: beyond what people can be expected to endure. The Russian
Speaker 1: Revolution wouldn't derive for nearly another century, but common themes
Speaker 1: were already visible. Sustained oppression with no possibility of relief
Speaker 1: eventually produces violent resistance. Natasia Mincoln's death was a small
Speaker 1: scale demonstration of what occurs when systemic cruelty becomes intolerable
Speaker 1: and people don't see any other ways out. That's the
Speaker 1: tragic story of Madame Mincoln. But keep listening after a
Speaker 1: brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about
Speaker 1: her legacy in literature. Natasia Mincoln and Count Arek Chayev
Speaker 1: had more in common than a shared son and a
Speaker 1: taste for cruelty. They were both immortalized in fiction. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, Madame Mincoln
Speaker 1: is mentioned in the infamous Satan's Ball seen in the
Speaker 1: novel The Master and Margarita rubbing elbows with the rest
Speaker 1: of history's most damned sinners. Koroviyev, the Devil's assistant, presents
Speaker 1: her to the gathering, quote, her Majesty is delighted. Madame Mincoln, Ah,
Speaker 1: how pretty she is? A trifle nervous, though, why did
Speaker 1: she have to burn her maid with a pair of
Speaker 1: curling tongs? Of course, in the way she used them,
Speaker 1: it was bound to be fatal. The author was, no
Speaker 1: doubt echoing in satire what many of Madame Mincoln's contemporaries
Speaker 1: must have thought. Yes, it was said that she was murdered,
Speaker 1: but she must have known she had it coming. Compared
Speaker 1: to that, Erek Chaiyev's literary legacy actually treats him relatively
Speaker 1: gently In Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. He appears as
Speaker 1: an unpleasant minor character, rude and harsh, with quote scowling brows,
Speaker 1: dull eyes, and an overhanging red nose. Tolstoy criticizes him
Speaker 1: in the novel's epilogue as a symbol of governmental dysfunction,
Speaker 1: but he still afforded a measure of civility. At the
Speaker 1: very least, he isn't literally portrayed as kicking his heels
Speaker 1: up in hell. It's a final lasting reminder that for
Speaker 1: Madame minkn, proximity to power wasn't always the same as
Speaker 1: actually halving it. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research
Speaker 1: by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and
Speaker 1: Julia Milaney. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk,
Speaker 1: with supervising producer rima il KLi and executive producers Aaron Manke,
Speaker 1: Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
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