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.
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.
Nevaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 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...
Since ancient times, people have brutally dealt with their enemies, some even ate them, but mostly they executed them and took their lives in terrible and sophisticated ways. The same was done with criminals who violated the laws of God and man. Over a thousand years of history has accumulated great experience execution of the condemned.
Decapitation
Physical separation of the head from the body using an ax or any military weapons(knife, sword) later, a machine invented in France - the Guillotine - was used for these purposes. It is believed that with such an execution, the head, separated from the body, retains vision and hearing for another 10 seconds. Beheading was considered a “noble execution” and was reserved for aristocrats. In Germany, beheading was abolished in 1949 due to the failure of the last guillotine.Hanging
Strangulation of a person on a rope noose, the end of which is fixed motionless. Death occurs within a few minutes, but not from suffocation, but from squeezing the carotid arteries. In this case, the person first loses consciousness and later dies.
The medieval gallows consisted of a special pedestal, vertical pillar(pillars) and a horizontal beam, on which the condemned were hanged, placed above something like a well. The well was intended for falling off body parts - the hanged remained hanging on the gallows until complete decomposition.
In England, a type of hanging was used, when a person was thrown from a height with a noose around the neck, and death occurs instantly from rupture of the cervical vertebrae. There was an “official table of falls”, with the help of which the required length of the rope was calculated depending on the weight of the convict (if the rope is too long, the head is separated from the body).
A type of hanging is garrote. A garrote (an iron collar with a screw, often equipped with a vertical spike on the back) is generally not used to strangle. They break her neck. In this case, the executed person dies not from suffocation, as happens if he is strangled with a rope, but from a crushed spine (sometimes, according to medieval evidence, from a fracture of the base of the skull, depending on where to wear it) and a fracture of the cervical cartilages.
The last high-profile hanging was Saddam Hussein.Quartering
It is considered one of the most cruel executions, and was applied to the most dangerous criminals. During quartering, the victim was strangled (not to death), then the stomach was ripped open, the genitals were cut off, and only then the body was cut into four or more parts and the head was cut off. Body parts were put on public display “wherever the king deemed it convenient.”
Thomas More, the author of Utopia, sentenced to quartering with his entrails burned out, was pardoned on the morning before his execution, and the quartering was replaced by beheading, to which More replied: “God spare my friends from such mercy.”
In England, quartering was used until 1820; it was formally abolished only in 1867. In France, quartering was carried out with the help of horses. The condemned man was tied by the arms and legs to four strong horses, which, whipped up by the executioners, moved in different directions and tore off the limbs. In fact, the convict’s tendons had to be cut.
Another execution by tearing the body in half, noted in pagan Rus', involved tying the victim by the legs to two bent saplings and then releasing them. According to Byzantine sources, Prince Igor was killed by the Drevlyans in 945 because he wanted to collect tribute from them twice.Wheeling
Species common in Antiquity and the Middle Ages death penalty. In the Middle Ages it was common in Europe, especially in Germany and France. In Russia, this type of execution has been known since the 17th century, but wheeling began to be regularly used only under Peter I, having received legislative approval in the Military Regulations. Wheeling ceased to be used only in the 19th century.
Professor A.F. Kistyakovsky in the 19th century described the wheeling process used in Russia as follows: St. Andrew's cross, made of two logs, was tied to the scaffold in a horizontal position. On each of the branches of this cross two notches were made, one foot apart from each other. On this cross they stretched the criminal so that his face was turned to the sky; each extremity of it lay on one of the branches of the cross, and at each place of each joint it was tied to the cross.
Then the executioner, armed with an iron rectangular crowbar, struck the part of the penis between the joints, which lay just above the notch. This method was used to break the bones of each member in two places. The operation ended with two or three blows to the stomach and breaking the backbone. The criminal, broken in this way, was placed on a horizontally placed wheel so that his heels converged with the back of his head, and he was left in this position to die.Burning at the stake
Capital punishment in which the victim is burned at the stake in public. Along with walling up and imprisonment, burning was widely used in the Middle Ages, since, according to the church, on the one hand it happened without “shedding of blood,” and on the other hand, the flame was considered a means of “purification” and could save the soul. Especially often, heretics, “witches” and those guilty of sodomy were subject to burning.
Execution became widespread during the period of the Holy Inquisition, and about 32 thousand people were burned in Spain alone (excluding the Spanish colonies).
The most famous people, burned at the stake: Giordano Bruno - as a heretic (engaged in scientific activities) and Joan of Arc, who commanded French troops in the Hundred Years' War.Impalement
Impalement was widely used back in Ancient Egypt and in the Middle East, its first mentions date back to the beginning of the second millennium BC. e. Execution became especially widespread in Assyria, where impalement was a common punishment for residents of rebellious cities, therefore, for instructive purposes, scenes of this execution were often depicted on bas-reliefs. This execution was used according to Assyrian law and as a punishment for women for abortion (considered as a variant of infanticide), as well as for a number of particularly serious crimes. On Assyrian reliefs there are two options: in one of them, the condemned person was pierced with a stake through the chest, in the other, the tip of the stake entered the body from below, through the anus. Execution was widely used in the Mediterranean and the Middle East at least from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. It was also known to the Romans, although it was especially widespread in Ancient Rome I didn't receive it.
Throughout most of medieval history Impalement was very common in the Middle East, where it was one of the main methods of painful death penalty. It became widespread in France during the time of Fredegonda, who was the first to introduce this type of execution, condemning a young girl of a noble family to it. The unfortunate person was laid on his stomach, and the executioner drove a wooden stake into his anus with a hammer, after which the stake was dug vertically into the ground. Under the weight of the body, the person gradually slid down until after a few hours the stake came out through the chest or neck.
The ruler of Wallachia, Vlad III the Impaler (“impaler”) Dracula, distinguished himself with particular cruelty. According to his instructions, the victims were impaled on a thick stake, the top of which was rounded and oiled. The stake was inserted into the anus to a depth of several tens of centimeters, then the stake was installed vertically. The victim, under the influence of the weight of his body, slowly slid down the stake, and death sometimes occurred only after a few days, since the rounded stake did not pierce the vital organs, but only went deeper into the body. In some cases, a horizontal crossbar was installed on the stake, which prevented the body from sliding too low and ensured that the stake did not reach the heart and other important organs. In this case, death from rupture of internal organs and large blood loss did not occur very soon.
The English homosexual king Edward was executed by impalement. The nobles rebelled and killed the monarch by driving a hot iron rod into his anus. Impalement was used in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until the 18th century, and many Zaporozhye Cossacks were executed in this way. With the help of smaller stakes, they also executed rapists (they drove a stake into the heart) and mothers who killed their children (they were pierced with a stake after burying them alive in the ground).Hanging by the rib
A form of capital punishment in which an iron hook was driven into the victim's side and suspended. Death occurred from thirst and loss of blood within a few days. The victim's hands were tied so that he could not free himself. Execution was common among the Zaporozhye Cossacks. According to legend, Dmitry Vishnevetsky, the founder of the Zaporozhye Sich, the legendary “Baida Veshnevetsky”, was executed in this way.Stoning
After the relevant decision of the authorized legal body(king or court) a crowd of citizens gathered and killed the culprit by throwing stones at him. In this case, the stones should be chosen small so that the person sentenced to execution would not suffer too quickly. Or, in a more humane case, it could be one executioner dropping one large stone from above onto the condemned person.
Currently, stoning is practiced in some Muslim countries. As of January 1, 1989, stoning remained in the legislation of six countries. The Amnesty International report provides an eyewitness account of a similar execution that took place in Iran:
“Near the vacant lot, a lot of stones and pebbles were poured out of a truck, then they brought two women dressed in white, with bags put on their heads... A hail of stones fell on them, painting their bags red... The wounded women fell, and then the guards of the revolution struck shovel their heads to kill them completely.”Throwing to predators
The oldest type of execution, common among many peoples of the world. Death occurred because the victim was mauled by crocodiles, lions, bears, snakes, sharks, piranhas, and ants.Walking in circles
A rare method of execution, practiced, in particular, in Rus'. The executed man's stomach was cut open in the intestinal area so that he would not die from blood loss. Then they took out the gut, nailed it to a tree and forced it to walk in a circle around the tree. In Iceland, a special stone was used for this, around which they walked according to the verdict of the Thing.
Buried alive
A type of execution not very common in Europe, which is believed to have come to the Old World from the East, but there are several documentary evidence of the use of this type of execution that have survived to this day. Burial alive was used for Christian martyrs. In medieval Italy, unrepentant murderers were buried alive. In Germany, female child killers were buried alive in the ground. In Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries, women who killed their husbands were buried alive up to their necks.Crucifixion
The person condemned to death had his hands and feet nailed to the ends of the cross or his limbs were fixed with ropes. This is exactly the way Jesus Christ was executed. The main cause of death during crucifixion is asphyxia, caused by developing pulmonary edema and fatigue of the intercostal and abdominal muscles involved in the breathing process. The main support of the body in this pose is the arms, and when breathing, the abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles had to lift the weight of the entire body, which led to their rapid fatigue. Also, compression of the chest by tense muscles of the shoulder girdle and chest caused stagnation of fluid in the lungs and pulmonary edema. Additional causes of death were dehydration and blood loss.Boiling in boiling water
Boiling in liquid was a common form of capital punishment in different countries peace. In ancient Egypt, this type of punishment was applied mainly to persons who disobeyed the pharaoh. Pharaoh's slaves at dawn (especially so that Ra would see the criminal) lit a huge fire, above which there was a cauldron of water (and not just water, but the very dirty water, where waste was dumped, etc.) Sometimes entire families were executed in this way.
This type of execution was widely used by Genghis Khan. In medieval Japan, boiling was used primarily on ninjas who failed to kill and were captured. In France, this penalty was applied to counterfeiters. Sometimes the attackers were boiled in boiling oil. There is evidence of how in 1410 a pickpocket was boiled alive in boiling oil in Paris.Pouring lead or boiling oil down your throat
It was used in the East, in Medieval Europe, in Rus' and among the Indians. Death occurred from burns to the esophagus and suffocation. The punishment was usually established for counterfeiting, and often the metal from which the criminal cast the coins was poured. Those who did not die for a long time had their heads cut off.Execution in a bag
lat. Poena cullei. The victim was sewn into a bag with different animals (snake, monkey, dog or rooster) and thrown into the water. Practiced in the Roman Empire. Under the influence of the reception of Roman law in the Middle Ages, it was adopted (in a slightly modified form) in a number of European countries. Thus, the French code of customary law “Livres de Jostice et de Plet” (1260), created on the basis of Justinian’s Digest, speaks of “execution in a sack” with a rooster, a dog and a snake (the monkey is not mentioned, apparently for reasons of rarity this animal for medieval Europe). Somewhat later, execution based on poena cullei also appeared in Germany, where it was used in the form of hanging a criminal (thief) upside down (sometimes the hanging was carried out by one leg) together (on one gallows) with a dog (or two dogs hanged on the right and left from the executed). This execution was called the “Jewish execution” because over time it began to be applied exclusively to Jewish criminals (it was applied to Christians in rare cases in the 16th-17th centuries).Excoriation
Skin picking has a very ancient history. The Assyrians also skinned captured enemies or rebel rulers and nailed them to the walls of their cities as a warning to those who would challenge their power. The Assyrian ruler Ashurnasirpal boasted that he tore off so many skins from the guilty nobility that he covered the columns with it.
It was especially often used in Chaldea, Babylon and Persia. In ancient India, skin was removed by fire. With the help of torches they burned her down to the flesh all over her body. The convict suffered from burns for several days before death. IN Western Europe used as a method of punishment for traitors and traitors, as well as ordinary people who were suspected of having love affairs with women of royal blood. Skin was also torn off from the corpses of enemies or criminals for intimidation.Ling-chi
Ling-chi (Chinese: “death by a thousand cuts”) is a particularly painful method of capital punishment by cutting small fragments from the victim’s body over a period of time. long period time.
It was used in China for high treason and parricide in the Middle Ages and during the Qing Dynasty until its abolition in 1905. In 1630, the prominent Ming military leader Yuan Chonghuan was subjected to this execution. The proposal to abolish it was made back in the 12th century by the poet Lu Yu. During the Qing dynasty, ling chi was performed in public places with a large crowd of onlookers for the purpose of intimidation. Surviving accounts of the execution differ in detail. The victim was usually drugged with opium, either out of mercy or to prevent him from losing consciousness.
In his All-Time History of Torture, George Riley Scott quotes from the accounts of two Europeans who had the rare opportunity to witness such an execution: their names were Sir Henry Norman (who witnessed the execution in 1895) and T. T. May-Dows:
“There is a basket there, covered with a piece of linen, in which there is a set of knives. Each of these knives is designed for a specific part of the body, as evidenced by the inscriptions engraved on the blade. The executioner takes one of the knives at random from the basket and, based on the inscription, cuts off the corresponding part of the body. However, at the end of the last century, this practice was, in all likelihood, supplanted by another, which left no room for chance and involved cutting off body parts in a certain sequence using a single knife. According to Sir Henry Norman, the condemned man is tied to the likeness of a cross, and the executioner slowly and methodically cuts off first the fleshy parts of the body, then cuts the joints, cuts off individual members of the limbs and ends the execution with one sharp blow to the heart...
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 This kind of execution was applied in Rus' to participants in the Pugachev rebellion.
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.
Story
Ancient world
Impalement was widely used in Ancient Egypt and the Middle East. The first mentions date back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Execution became especially widespread in Assyria, where impalement was a common punishment for residents of rebellious cities, therefore, for instructive purposes, scenes of this execution were often depicted on bas-reliefs. This execution was used according to Assyrian law and as a punishment for women for abortion (considered as a variant of infanticide), as well as for a number of particularly serious crimes. On Assyrian reliefs there are 2 options: in one of them, the condemned person was pierced with a stake through the chest, in the other, the tip of the stake entered the body from below, through the anus. Execution was widely used in the Mediterranean and the Middle East at least from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. It was also known to the Romans, although it was not particularly widespread in Ancient Rome.
Middle Ages
Impalement in Romanian chronicles
For much of medieval history, impalement was very common in the Middle East, where it was one of the main methods of painful capital punishment.
Impalement was quite common in Byzantium, for example Belisarius suppressed soldier mutinies by impaling the instigators.
According to a widespread legend, the Romanian ruler Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Ţepeş - Vlad Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Kololyub, Vlad the Piercer) distinguished himself with particular cruelty. According to his instructions, the victims were impaled on a thick stake, the top of which was rounded and oiled. The stake was inserted into the vagina (the victim died almost within a few minutes from heavy uterine bleeding) or anus (death occurred from a rupture of the rectum and developed peritonitis, the person died within several days in terrible agony) to a depth of several tens of centimeters, then the stake was installed vertically . The victim, under the influence of the weight of his body, slowly slid down the stake, and death sometimes occurred only after a few days, since the rounded stake did not pierce the vital organs, but only went deeper into the body. In some cases, a horizontal crossbar was installed on the stake, which prevented the body from sliding too low and ensured that the stake did not reach the heart and other important organs. In this case, death from loss of blood did not occur very soon. Regular option The execution was also very painful, and the victims writhed on the stake for several hours.
The Legend of Dracula the Warlord:
| The king made himself angry about this and went against him with an army and came against him with many forces. He, having gathered as many troops as he could, attacked the Turks overnight and beat them up a lot. And it is not possible to return against a great army with small people.
And those who came with him from the battle, and began to look at them; whoever was wounded in front, I commanded him to give honor and punish him with a knight; those from behind, I commanded him to be impaled by the passage, saying: “You are not a husband, but a wife.” |
Europeans sometimes perceived the bloodthirsty sophistication of the Wallachian governor as some kind of oriental exoticism, inappropriate in a “civilized” power. For example, when John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, probably having heard a lot about effective “draculistic” methods during his diplomatic service at the papal court, began to impale Lincolnshire rebels in 1470, he himself was executed for - as the sentence read - actions “against the laws of this country."
New time
However, impalement was sometimes used in European countries. In 17th-century Sweden, it was used for mass executions of resistance members in the former Danish provinces in the south of the country (Scania). As a rule, the Swedes stuck a stake between the spine and the skin of the victim, and the torment could last up to four to five days until death occurred.
According to the testimony of Peter I's contemporaries, in particular the Austrian envoy Player, this was exactly how he dealt with Russian Emperor with Stepan Glebov, the lover of his wife Evdokia, exiled to a monastery.
A similar execution was quite popular in South Africa. The Zulus used execution for warriors who failed in their tasks or demonstrated cowardice, as well as for witches whose spells threatened the ruler and fellow tribesmen. In the Zulu version of the execution, the victim was placed on all fours and then several sticks 30-40 cm long were driven into her anus. After this, the victim was left to die in the savannah.
Notes
Literature
- // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
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