Executions have been carried out in Rus' for a long time, in a sophisticated and painful manner. Historians to this day have not come to unanimous opinion about the reasons for the death penalty.
Some are inclined towards the version of the continuation of the custom of blood feud, others prefer the Byzantine influence. How did they deal with those who broke the law in Rus'?
Drowning
This type of execution was very common in Kievan Rus. It was usually used in cases where it was necessary to deal with a large number of criminals. But there were also isolated cases. For example, Kyiv prince Rostislav once became angry with Gregory the Wonderworker. He ordered to tie the hands of the disobedient man, throw a rope noose around his neck, at the other end of which they fastened a heavy stone, and throw him into the water. Executed by drowning Ancient Rus' and apostates, that is, Christians. They were sewn into a bag and thrown into the water. Typically, such executions took place after battles, during which many prisoners appeared. Execution by drowning, in contrast to execution by burning, was considered the most shameful for Christians. It is interesting that centuries later the Bolsheviks, during Civil War They used drowning as reprisal against the families of the “bourgeois”, while the condemned were tied with their hands and thrown into the water.
Burning
Since the 13th century, this type of execution was usually applied to those who violated church laws - for blasphemy against God, for unpalatable sermons, for witchcraft. She was especially loved by Ivan the Terrible, who, by the way, was very inventive in his methods of execution. For example, he came up with the idea of sewing up guilty people in bearskins and giving them to be torn to pieces by dogs or skinning a living person. In the era of Peter, execution by burning was used against counterfeiters. By the way, they were punished in another way - molten lead or tin was poured into their mouths.
Burying
Burying alive in the ground was usually used for husband murderers. Most often, a woman was buried up to her throat, less often - only up to her chest. Such a scene is excellently described by Tolstoy in his novel Peter the Great. Usually the place for execution was a crowded place - the central square or city market. A sentry was posted next to the still-living executed criminal, who stopped any attempts to show compassion or give the woman water or some bread. However, it was not forbidden to express one’s contempt or hatred for the criminal - spitting on the head or even kicking it. And those who wished could give alms to the coffin and church candles. Typically, painful death occurred within 3–4 days, but history records a case when a certain Euphrosyne, buried on August 21, died only on September 22.
Quartering
During quartering, the condemned were cut off their legs, then their arms, and only then their heads. This is how, for example, Stepan Razin was executed. It was planned to take the life of Emelyan Pugachev in the same way, but they first cut off his head and then deprived him of his limbs. From the examples given, it is easy to guess that this type of execution was used for insulting the king, for an attempt on his life, for treason and imposture. It is worth noting that, unlike the Central European, for example the Parisian, crowd, which perceived the execution as a spectacle and dismantled the gallows for souvenirs, the Russian people treated the condemned with compassion and mercy. So, during the execution of Razin, there was deathly silence in the square, broken only by rare female sobs. At the end of the procedure, people usually left in silence.
Boiling
Boiling in oil, water or wine was especially popular in Rus' during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The condemned person was placed in a cauldron filled with liquid. The hands were threaded into special rings built into the cauldron. Then the cauldron was put on the fire and slowly began to heat up. As a result, the person was boiled alive. This kind of execution was used in Rus' for state traitors. However, this type looks humane in comparison with the execution called “Walking in a circle” - one of the most brutal methods used in Rus'. The condemned man's stomach was ripped open in the area of the intestines, but so that he did not die too quickly from blood loss. Then they removed the intestine, nailed one end to a tree, and forced the executed person to walk in a circle around the tree.
Wheeling
Wheel riding became widespread in the era of Peter. The condemned person was tied to a log St. Andrew's cross fixed to the scaffold. Notches were made on the arms of the cross. The criminal was stretched out on the cross face up in such a way that each of his limbs lay on the rays, and the bends of the limbs were on the notches. The executioner used a quadrangular iron crowbar to strike one blow after another, gradually breaking the bones in the bends of the arms and legs. The work of crying was completed with two or three precise blows to the stomach, with the help of which the spine was broken. The body of the broken criminal was connected so that the heels met the back of the head, placed on a horizontal wheel and left to die in this position. Last time such execution was applied in Rus' to participants Pugachev revolt.
Impalement
Like quartering, impalement was usually used against rebels or traitors to thieves. This is how Zarutsky, an accomplice of Marina Mnishek, was executed in 1614. During the execution, the executioner drove a stake into the person's body with a hammer, then the stake was placed vertically. The executed person gradually began to slide down under the weight of his own body. After a few hours, the stake came out through his chest or neck. Sometimes a crossbar was made on the stake, which stopped the movement of the body, preventing the stake from reaching the heart. This method significantly extended the time painful death. Until the 18th century, impalement was a very common type of execution among the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Smaller stakes were used to punish rapists - they had a stake driven into their hearts, and also against mothers who killed children.
This time I decided to translate and post an article from the Polish magazine FocusHistoria about how people were impaled in the old days.
Since I sometimes write about the morals of the medieval era, it would be a sin not to touch upon such a topic as executions and torture. The thing is dirty, but in relation to those times it is integral.
Kol (of) Azya.
Agnieszka Ucinska (FocusHistoria).
On eastern lands The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was sentenced to impalement for treason. During this brutal execution, the victim lay spread out with his hands tied behind his back. To prevent the condemned person from moving, one of the executioner’s assistants sat on his shoulders. The executor drove the stake as deep as he could, and then hammered it even deeper with a hammer. The victim, “impaled,” was placed in a vertical position, and thus, thanks to the weight of his own body, the condemned man slid deeper and deeper onto the stake. To facilitate the execution, the executioner coated the stake with lard. The tip of the stake was blunt and rounded so as not to pierce internal organs. Provided the execution was carried out correctly, the stake found a “natural” path in the body and reached right up to the chest. The most famous literary description of impalement was left to us by Henryk Sienkiewicz in “Pan Volodyevsky”:
“From the waist to the very feet, he was stripped naked and, slightly raising his head, he saw between his bare knees the freshly planed tip of a stake. The thick end of the stake rested on the tree trunk. Ropes stretched from both of Azya’s legs, and horses were harnessed to them. Azya, in the light of the torches, could only see the horse’s croup and those standing a little further
two people who apparently held the horses by the bridle. (...) Lyusnya bent down and, holding Azya’s hips with both hands to guide his body, shouted to the people holding the horses:
- Touch it! Slowly! And at once!
The horses jerked - the ropes, straining, pulled Azya by the legs. His body crawled along the ground and in the blink of an eye found itself on a splintered point. At that very moment the tip entered him, and something terrible began, something contrary to nature and human feelings. The unfortunate man's bones moved apart, his body began to be torn in half, an indescribable, terrible pain, almost bordering on monstrous pleasure, pierced his entire being. The stake sank deeper and deeper. (...) They quickly unharnessed the horses, after which they lifted the stake, lowered its thick end into a pre-prepared hole and began to cover it with earth. Tugai Beevich looked at these actions from above. He was conscious. This terrible type of execution was all the more terrible because the victims, impaled, sometimes lived up to three days. Azya's head hung on his chest, his lips moved; he seemed to be chewing, savoring something, slurping; Now he felt incredible, fainting weakness and saw in front of him an endless whitish darkness, which for some unknown reason seemed terrible to him, but in this darkness he distinguished the faces of the sergeant and the dragoons, knew that he was on a stake, that under the weight of his body the tip was piercing deeper and deeper into him ; however, the body began to go numb from the legs upward, and he became more and more insensitive to pain.”
Image captions:
1) The stake tears the perineum and passes through the pelvis.
2)Damages the lower part of the urinary system ( bladder), and in women, the reproductive organs.
3) Pushed higher, the stake ruptures the mesentery of the small intestine, breaking through the intestines and accumulating food in the abdominal cavity.
4) Deflecting towards the front of the spine in the lumbar region, the stake “slides” along its surface reaching the upper part of the abdominal cavity and affects the stomach, liver, and sometimes the pancreas.
6) The stake pierces the skin and comes out.
Word from the expert:
Professor Andrzej Kulig, head of the Institute of Clinical Pathology Centrum Zdrowia Matki Polki in Lodz, emphasizes that this diagram/illustration showing the agony of impalement gives only an approximate picture of the mutilation. The extent of organ damage during this brutal execution largely depends on whether the stake passes through the central part of the body, or whether, as a result of the work of the executioners, its course has changed, deviating forward or sideways. In this case, only part of the internal organs is affected and the abdominal cavity is pierced. The stake, driven in according to all the canons of “art,” reached the chest and caused extensive damage to the heart, major blood vessels, and rupture of the diaphragm. Professor Kulig also emphasizes that the various executions retold in different historical sources and literature are greatly exaggerated. Those executed died quickly enough, either due to an immediate infection of the body (sepsis), or from numerous damage to internal organs and bleeding.
(Translation
Executions have been carried out in Rus' for a long time, in a sophisticated and painful manner. Historians to this day have not come to a consensus about the reasons for the emergence of the death penalty.
Some are inclined towards the version of the continuation of the custom of blood feud, others prefer the Byzantine influence. How did they deal with those who broke the law in Rus'? Drowning This type of execution was very common in Kievan Rus. It was usually used in cases where it was necessary to deal with a large number of criminals. But there were also isolated cases. So, for example, the Kiev prince Rostislav once became angry with Gregory the Wonderworker. He ordered to tie the hands of the disobedient man, throw a rope noose around his neck, at the other end of which they fastened a heavy stone, and throw him into the water. In Ancient Rus', apostates, that is, Christians, were also executed by drowning. They were sewn into a bag and thrown into the water. Typically, such executions took place after battles, during which many prisoners appeared. Execution by drowning, in contrast to execution by burning, was considered the most shameful for Christians. It is interesting that centuries later, during the Civil War, the Bolsheviks used drowning as reprisal against the families of the “bourgeois”, while the condemned were tied with their hands and thrown into the water.
Burning Since the 13th century, this type of execution was usually used in relation to those who violated church laws - for blasphemy against God, for unpleasing sermons, for witchcraft. She was especially loved by Ivan the Terrible, who, by the way, was very inventive in his methods of execution. For example, he came up with the idea of sewing up guilty people in bearskins and giving them to be torn to pieces by dogs or skinning a living person. In the era of Peter, execution by burning was used against counterfeiters. By the way, they were punished in another way - molten lead or tin was poured into their mouths. Burying Burying alive in the ground was usually used for husband murderers. Most often, a woman was buried up to her throat, less often - only up to her chest. Such a scene is excellently described by Tolstoy in his novel Peter the Great. Usually the place for execution was a crowded place - the central square or city market. A sentry was posted next to the still-living executed criminal, who stopped any attempts to show compassion or give the woman water or some bread. However, it was not forbidden to express one’s contempt or hatred for the criminal - spitting on the head or even kicking it. Those who wished could also give alms for a coffin and church candles. Typically, painful death occurred within 3–4 days, but history records a case when a certain Euphrosyne, buried on August 21, died only on September 22. Quartering During quartering, the condemned were cut off their legs, then their arms, and only then their heads. This is how, for example, Stepan Razin was executed. It was planned to take the life of Emelyan Pugachev in the same way, but they first cut off his head and then deprived him of his limbs. From the examples given, it is easy to guess that this type of execution was used for insulting the king, for an attempt on his life, for treason and imposture. It is worth noting that, unlike the Central European, for example the Parisian, crowd, which perceived the execution as a spectacle and dismantled the gallows for souvenirs, the Russian people treated the condemned with compassion and mercy.
So, during the execution of Razin, there was deathly silence in the square, broken only by rare female sobs. At the end of the procedure, people usually left in silence. Boiling Boiling in oil, water or wine was especially popular in Rus' during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The condemned person was placed in a cauldron filled with liquid. The hands were threaded into special rings built into the cauldron. Then the cauldron was put on the fire and slowly began to heat up. As a result, the person was boiled alive. This kind of execution was used in Rus' for state traitors. However, this type looks humane in comparison with the execution called “Walking in a circle” - one of the most brutal methods used in Rus'. The condemned man's stomach was ripped open in the area of the intestines, but so that he did not die too quickly from blood loss. Then they removed the intestine, nailed one end to a tree, and forced the executed person to walk in a circle around the tree. Wheeling Wheeling became widespread in the era of Peter. The condemned person was tied to a log St. Andrew's cross fixed to the scaffold. Notches were made on the arms of the cross. The criminal was stretched out on the cross face up in such a way that each of his limbs lay on the rays, and the bends of the limbs were on the notches. The executioner used a quadrangular iron crowbar to strike one blow after another, gradually breaking the bones in the bends of the arms and legs.
The work of crying was completed with two or three precise blows to the stomach, with the help of which the spine was broken. The body of the broken criminal was connected so that the heels met the back of the head, placed on a horizontal wheel and left to die in this position. The last time such an execution was applied in Rus' was to participants in the Pugachev rebellion. Impalement Like quartering, impalement was usually applied to rebels or traitors to thieves. This is how Zarutsky, an accomplice of Marina Mnishek, was executed in 1614. During the execution, the executioner drove a stake into the person's body with a hammer, then the stake was placed vertically. The executed person gradually began to slide down under the weight of his own body. After a few hours, the stake came out through his chest or neck. Sometimes a crossbar was made on the stake, which stopped the movement of the body, preventing the stake from reaching the heart. This method significantly extended the time of painful death. Until the 18th century, impalement was a very common type of execution among the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Smaller stakes were used to punish rapists - they had a stake driven into their hearts, and also against mothers who killed children.
A new man climbed on top of me. Now something huge, like an elephant’s, was breaking into my body, almost tearing it apart. His penis was thick, it was longer than ever, with every thrust I shuddered in pain, desperately screaming and feeling blows to the cervix. A couple more pushes and I lost consciousness. But not for long, the stream was nearby, so a couple of buckets and I returned to reality. Do we need to remember what happened? I was raped many times. Each time my refusal to confess was followed by another rape. Something else was worse. Despite the pain, the sensations that came from time to time were so strong that I could not resist - I came many times, then my nipples would become tense, my face would turn red, against my will I would begin to move my pelvis in time with the man’s movements, and a hoarse groan of pain would escape from my throat and pleasure. At these moments, I heard men’s laughter and applause, humiliating me and making me feel like a whore. Again and again this feeling of shame and powerlessness, horror for one’s own body, for one’s feelings. Finally they untied me, it was already beginning to turn gray, they dragged me to the stream, washed me, then threw me into a barn in the village on soft hay, rubbed my body with vodka, gave me a strong broth, then tied my hands to pegs driven into the ground, so that I could toss and turn, but I couldn’t bring my arms to my body. A blanket was thrown over the naked body. They poured a decoction of herbs into my mouth, a pleasant warmth passed through my exhausted body, the pain slowly disappeared, this solicitude scared me terribly, I understood that they wanted to prepare me for the next torture. Apparently something was mixed into the broth, because I soon forgot.
In the morning the door opened, several soldiers came in, they untied me, helped me up, it hurt between my legs, so I walked with my legs wide apart. I was again brought before the Duke. He looked at me carefully and asked, “Aren’t you tired? I’m giving you one last chance. Bye.” your body not yet irreparably crippled." I shook my head negatively. He smiled sadly - "well, as you know. It turns out that your stupidity turned out to be stronger. These 2 days I have been trying to get you off the chopping block. Well, if you want...” I was pushed forward.
With my hands tied behind my back, I stood under an oak branch, the executioner tightly tied my breasts with a terribly thin rope several times at the very base. The rope tightened and I hung. My whole body shuddered from convulsions, I hung with my head thrown back and heart-rendingly screaming from unbearable pain, while my breasts, unnaturally elongated under the weight of my body, were lifted up. My strong breasts turned purple, blood was oozing from my nipples, strangely, I no longer felt them, only a slight tingling sensation, the pain moved to the base of my breasts. I continued to hang, because of the wild pain I could not control myself and wet myself again. My lips, which I was biting convulsively, were swollen and a trickle of blood was oozing down my chin. I almost lost consciousness when suddenly my heels touched the ground. They gave me a few minutes to rest. All this time I was asked to answer. Then they lifted my breasts again. While I was twisting in the air, the executioners set up the brazier and fanned the fire again. One of those interrogating me came forward and said, “So girl, the game is over before you are mutilated, but if you remain silent... Do you want to ever experience sensual pleasures? So, if you don’t speak, you will lose this opportunity. Now we're going to burn your clitoris. Well?" Without answering, I watched, eyes wide with horror, as the executioner took out red-hot tongs and approached me. They lowered me to the ground and spread my legs as far apart as possible. The forceps were slowly brought to my groin. “Well? Have you thought about it? Now is the last opportunity to change your mind. Speak up, don’t be a fool.” I bit my lips and suddenly a wave of wild pain pierced my body, but I did not have time to fully experience it, falling into darkness.
I came to my senses already in the barn. It’s strange, but I couldn’t feel the middle of my body; looking down, I saw a bandage. Seeing that I had woken up, two people came up to me - “Okay, girl. You can rest. We were already afraid that you were dead. You lay like that almost the whole day.” The infusion and wine were again poured into my mouth. I forgot.
In the morning they took me out to the oak tree again.
“Listen, creature, I’m tired of you,” said Sag, “admit it, I don’t have time to endure your nonsense anymore, are you going to talk?”
I swore dirty.
The executioners tied my hands behind my back and threaded a rope through them. She began to strain, twisting my arms. A second and I was hanging by my outstretched arms. A terrible pain pierced my shoulders. I screamed.
The executioner calmly hung a large stone at my ankles, a crunch was heard, and my arms twisted even more. I groaned. The screams were so loud that they echoed throughout the area. My whole body was covered in sweat, glistening in the sun. I continued to moan. The executioner hung the second stone at his feet.
NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY - I screamed, my whole body was shaking from terrible pain. It felt like my body was being torn apart. Gasping, I moaned - “please stop, have mercy, please!”
"Speak up, bitch! Where are your accomplices? Where? Where?"
“I can’t tell you,” I heard my answer as if from the outside, understanding that this meant: even more pain! My body, stretched to the limit, was waiting for the next torture. The three executioners took wooden sticks. After the Duke's sign, they began to beat me all over my body - on my kidneys, tight buttocks, breasts, flat stomach, back. I was spinning around like crazy and screaming and screaming. After 10 blows I lost consciousness. They threw a bucket of water in my face, I came to my senses and the beating continued. My suffering was endless. The combination of racking and caning was terrible. The pain was driving me crazy. She was stronger than I could have imagined. I couldn't control myself anymore and wet myself again. The torturers just laughed and after a short break they continued the torture. Again and again the blows from the sticks broke my will and my body. I lost consciousness again, they quickly brought me back to my senses and struck me again. Torture that lasted for 2 hours!!! At the end of it I was completely gutted. I lost consciousness 12 times before the torturers decided to stop. They untied me and threw me into the barn. They treated me again so that I could gain strength for the next torment.
In the morning they took me out to the oak tree. Sag patted me on the cheek and said - “yes, you are more stubborn than I thought. However, I found new way get you talking. You can withstand the pain yourself, but what if you look at the suffering of others?" He pointed with his hand. I looked and couldn’t believe my eyes - my best friend Veronica was standing there. She was naked. I knew that she was pregnant and now I saw her big stomach and breasts. Despite this, they tied her to a tree in an embrace and beat her with rods, and then put her on a bench and threw a noose around her neck. They pulled the rope, Veronica stood on her toes and wheezed, the noose squeezed her throat.
Hearing the words addressed to Veronica - “her own life, the life of you and your born child depend on this recognition,” I made a sign that I was giving up. I told them what I knew about our people in the city.
They brought me to the city and threw me into a cell in the citadel. When they took me there, the soldiers laughed, “Well, you’re finally in the royal castle where you were so eager.” For several days I did not know what was happening. They fed me well, bandaged my wounds and burns, and gave me healing infusions. I understood that the future would be scary, especially because they were watching me so that nothing happened to me. One evening the Duke came down to the cell.
"You're out of luck, girl. Of those you named, only three were caught, the rest escaped. And of yours, about 20 people were caught during all this time. There are a lot of corpses - and who needs them? The king is furious. Your gangs are sitting in Black Forest and They're robbing rich castles and carts, but it's impossible to dislodge them, they're hiding in the cities. In general, you understand, he doesn't even want to hear of you being pardoned. Tomorrow, all 4 of you, will be impaled. He wants it to be an exemplary execution, so she will be beaten. Goodbye girl. It’s a pity that you weren’t on our side.” He left. I looked out the window, there was sunset. And I only had this night to live.
In the morning I was taken out of the cell.
Me and my three best friends for crimes committed they should have been impaled. A huge crowd had gathered in the main square of the city, convenient location there was a platform where a group of courtiers, still pale from the fear they had experienced, huddled together. They surrounded the gilded chair where Dthir, our king, lounged, enjoying every moment of his upcoming execution. In the center of the square, a high wooden platform was built, in the middle of which four sharpened aspen stakes were installed in a row. By order of the king, all convicts were smartly dressed, in all white. I was wearing a white blouse, tied in a knot at the waist, white stockings, white high-heeled sandals and skimpy white panties. In this form we were taken to the square and we climbed onto the platform.
Here, in full view, we were forced to take off our panties and placed them on supports, pressing our pubes against the surface of the stakes. Each stake had a pair of small footrests; a lever could move them up and down along special grooves. They put us on these steps. Using a lever, they were raised slightly up so that the tip of the stake was approximately at the level of our perineum. The executioner's assistants, supporting me by the hips, helped me insert the tip of the stake into my vagina, and then lowered the footrests a little so that the stake went deep enough inside.
We were lightly impaled, a rope was tied under our arms so that we could slow down the impaling, after which the verdict was read out to all those present. After which the executioner approached each of us in turn, asking if she was ready for execution and, having received an affirmative answer, threw back the footrests. The last thing he asked me was “are you ready.” After hesitating a little, I nodded my head and, closing my eyes, prepared for a terrible death. The footrests instantly disappeared from under my feet and I sat down on the stake with all my weight...
I felt something filling my vagina, then a familiar feeling of pain and pleasure appeared, as during an act of love. The feeling of distension in the vagina intensified, the rough surface of the sharpened stake irritated the clitoris, I became more and more excited, my breasts became engorged, my nipples stood erect, lubricant flowed down the surface of the stake, the unexpected sensations that came were so strong that I came: a hoarse breath escaped through my rapid breathing. a groan of pleasure, the chest turned red, the body seemed glossy with sweat. But the tearing of the vagina became more and more intense, something contrary to human nature began, my body seemed to be torn into two halves and suddenly a terrible, incomparable pain, which seemed impossible to exist in the world, which seemed impossible to endure alive, pain, felt like an unprecedented orgasm, something that a woman seemed never to have experienced, the greatest pleasure pierced my body. A terrible, piercing, hoarse cry of pain and happiness, not similar to a human, burst from his throat. The stake moved even further, my labia cracked, the tip pierced the uterus, I screamed again, even stronger, probably my scream was heard throughout the city, a new wave of pain and pleasure swept through my body, which was arched, the scream became even more hoarse, like a scream. Out of the corner of my foggy consciousness, I heard the executioner’s words “And she croaked,” they lowered me a little lower, and I repeated my terrible cry. Suddenly the rope was released, my body descended even lower and a crossbar nailed perpendicular to the stake rested on my crotch. She did not let me go lower and quickly die, pierced by a stake. I writhed on the stake for several more hours; it seemed like a fire had been lit inside my womb. But despite everything, I continued to see my friends - before the execution, my eyelids were cut off, so that I could not close my eyes. My girlfriends also wriggled on thick aspen stakes, I heard their screams, full of pain and pleasure. Then my vision began to darken and a blissful unconsciousness set in...
………………………………………………….
How beautifully I, already dead, sat on a stake with my head resting on my chest. And it was not for nothing that they dressed us all in white - blood flowed from the crotch onto the stake and onto my legs covered in white stockings and dripped onto the boardwalk from the toes of my sandals. Blood was also dripping from my mouth and nose, right onto my snow-white blouse...
Ivan Zarutsky.
Execution by impaling a criminal was practiced by many Slavic, Germanic and other Western European peoples. It was also widespread in Rus'.
Most often it was applied to state criminals, traitors, members of the opposition, rebels - in a word, everyone who did not please supreme authority in the person of the monarch. They were also impaled for adultery, abortion, and murder of babies.
Execution technology
During this most brutal execution, the criminal was slowly impaled on a sharpened stake with the entire weight of his body and died for a painfully long time from painful shock and bleeding. The massacre always took place in the central square of the city or other place of execution, where any witness could observe it. Such cruel and lengthy torture was carried out in public so that “others would not do it.”
The “technology” of the procedure was as follows: a thick wooden stake, sharpened at one end, was driven into the man’s anus, and into the woman’s vagina several tens of centimeters. Then the stake was installed vertically and buried in the ground. As a result of this, the victim settled on him for a very long time, spontaneously piercing his internal organs.
The executioner made sure that the stake did not reach the heart and the victim did not die prematurely. To do this, he installed a horizontal crossbar at a certain level. The execution could last from 10-15 hours to 4-5 days. They came up with such a cruel method of killing in the 2nd millennium BC. V Ancient Egypt, Assyria and the East. In those distant times, the same rebels and female child killers were executed in this way.
The most famous examples executions
Ivan the Terrible respected this type of execution very much. “In charge” of the impalement, as well as a host of other types of savage executions, was his guardsman, the legendary sadist Malyuta Skuratov. On Execution Place in Moscow, boyars, servicemen and lay people suspected of high treason were impaled. But even after Ivan IV, this favorite execution of Russian tsars did not lose its popularity.
In the summer of 1614, the state traitor, Cossack ataman Ivan Zarutsky, was impaled. Being a favorite of Marina Mnishek, he was an accomplice of False Dmitry I and participated in almost all the major conspiracies of the Time of Troubles. For all these “exploits,” the troublemaker was sentenced to one of the most brutal executions in Rus'.
The son of the famous governor Stepan Glebov was also executed by impalement. He was accused of having an affair with the first wife of Perth I, Evdokia Lopukhina, which amounted to high treason. Adultery was already listed as the second count of the guilty verdict. Stepan was executed in March 1718 in bitter cold. The convict was first brutally tortured. Then, on Red Square, in front of a crowd of 200,000, he was impaled, stripped naked.
Glebov suffered for 14 hours. A sheepskin coat was thrown over him so that the criminal would not die an hour ahead of time, freezing in the 20-degree frost. His disgraced lover was forced to watch the torture. When Stepan finally died, his head was cut off and his body was thrown into a common grave. Even this seemed not enough to the Emperor. 4.5 years later, on his order, the Holy Synod condemned the late lover to the empress imprisoned in the monastery with eternal anathema.