Executions in Russia

Executions in Russia

Due to customs in Russia, the death penalty was also applied in cases not provided for by laws. So, Kyiv prince Rostislav, angry with Gregory the Wonderworker, ordered his hands to be tied, a heavy stone hung around his neck and thrown into the water.

During the period Tatar-Mongol yoke the khans issued labels to the Russian Orthodox clergy, according to which the clergy enjoyed the right to be punished by death. Label issued Tatar Khan Menchu ​​Temir, gave the right to Kyiv Metropolitan Kirill to execute for the blasphemy of the Orthodox Church, as well as for any violation of the privileges granted to the clergy. In 1230, four wise men were burned for witchcraft.

But among representatives supreme power there were opponents death penalty. The commandment of Vladimir Monomakh is well known, which has become a proverb: "Do not kill, do not command to kill, even if someone is guilty of someone's death." Nevertheless, many rulers of Russia resorted to the death penalty in the 13th and XIV centuries. So, Dmitry Donskoy in 1379 ordered the execution of the boyar Velyaminov for treason, and in 1383 the Surzh guest Nekomat was executed. Back in 1069, during the time of Russkaya Pravda, which did not provide for the death penalty at all, Prince Gizoslav, having taken possession of Kyiv, sent his son to Kyiv, who put to death 70 people who participated in the expulsion of Izyaslav from Kyiv. Conclusion: the death penalty has been used in Russia for a long time, both in cases provided for by law, and when the law was silent about it.
About ways

In Russia, the Code of 1649 provided for five types of execution of the death penalty.

However, justice resorted to other methods of punishment.

The method of execution depended on the type of crime.

The death penalty by hanging was considered humiliating and was applied to the military who defected to the enemy. Drowning was used in cases where the execution was carried out on a large scale, burning alive was used on those convicted of religious crimes.

The origins of this punishment should be sought in Byzantine law.

In Russia, especially under Ivan the Terrible, boiling in oil, wine or water was used. Ivan the Terrible executed state traitors in this way.

This king was generally distinguished by extraordinary cruelty, bordering on pathology: suffice it to say that he beat his own son Ivan with his own hands, after which he died.

Terrible was inexhaustible in inventing how to execute his subjects. Some (for example, the Novgorod Archbishop Leonid), on his orders, were sewn up in a bearskin and thrown to be torn to pieces by dogs, others were flayed alive, and so on. Filling the throat with molten lead was applied exclusively to counterfeiters. In 1672, this type of death penalty was replaced by cutting off both legs and the left arm of the criminal.

Quartering was used for insulting the sovereign, for an attempt on his life, sometimes for treason, and also for imposture.

Wheeling received wide use with the introduction of the military regulations of Peter I. According to the description of the Russian scientist XIX century of Professor A.F. Kistyakovsky, the method of wheeling was as follows: “A 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 the other. On this cross, the criminal was stretched so that his face was turned to the sky, each end of it lay on one of the branches of the cross, and in every place of each joint he was tied to the cross. Then the executioner, armed with an iron quadrangular crowbar, struck at the part of the penis between the joint, which just lay above the notch. In this way, the bones of each member were broken in two places. The operation ended with two or three blows to the stomach and a breaking of the backbone. The criminal, broken in this way, was placed on a horizontally placed wheel so that the heels converged with the back of the head, and they left him in this position to die.

Burying, "digging", alive in the ground was usually prescribed to wives for the murder of their husband.

Impaling was applied, as well as quartering, mainly to rebels and "thieves' traitors." In 1614, Marina's accomplice Mnishek Zarutsky was impaled.

The introduction of the death penalty for certain crimes was justified by state interests. So, Peter I, having begun the construction of the fleet and in need of material for ships, issued a decree prohibiting logging in certain areas. For cutting down an oak forest, the guilty were punished by death.

In the era of Peter I, execution by lot was also widely used. Peter I introduced arquebusing, or execution, to the list of official executions. Execution was not considered a shameful punishment and did not cover the name of the executed with dishonor. Hanging in Peter's time was a shameful form of death. Hanged during the suppression of riots, uprisings and peasant unrest.

Suspension on a hook by the rib was added to the previously existing methods of execution: the executed person had to hang sideways, with his arms, head and legs hanging down. In Elizabeth's time, the abolition of the death penalty was only a formality. It was used in disguised form - cutting with a whip, sticks, batogs, rods.

About savage torture in Medieval Europe a lot has already been said. Unfortunately, the realities of that time were such that executions in Russia were no less cruel. So, perhaps, the most famous ruler who “creatively” executed people was Ivan the Terrible. This review presents 5 ruthless execution methods adored by the Russian Tsar.

One of the favorite executions and spectacular executions of Ivan the Terrible was the one in which the unfortunate man was dressed in a bearskin and dogs were set against him. The dogs immediately tore the victim. This method of execution was called "sheathing with a bear." Leonid, a bishop from Novgorod, was executed in a similar way. There were frequent cases when the victims were not sewn into the skin of bears, but simply thrown to them to be torn to pieces.

Executions, in the understanding of Ivan the Terrible, were supposed to be long and painful. So, for example, the clerk and diplomat Ivan Viskovaty, who tried to convey to the cruel tsar the unreasonableness of the death sentence he had pronounced against a group of boyars, was himself tied to a pole, and then pieces of flesh were gradually cut off from a living person.

A part of Russian fairy tales reflects an episode when, for rejuvenation, a person plunges into a cauldron of boiling water, then into cold water. Unfortunately, such a practice existed, and the reality was more cruel than a fairy tale. State traitors were boiled alive.
The guardsmen of the king also showed creativity and poured boiling water over the unfortunate, then ice water until the skin "came off like a stocking."

Mass executions were also not uncommon during the time of Ivan the Terrible. Once he ordered to drown several dozen boyars from Veliky Novgorod, after dragging them across the field, tied to horses. The tsar did not spare anyone: following the boyars, their tied wives and children were sent into the river. If someone managed to get to the surface, then they were finished off by guardsmen.

The delinquent monks were often destined to be tied to a barrel of gunpowder. It is believed that in those moments the king liked to repeat: "Let them go, like angels, they immediately go to heaven."
Ivan the Terrible is a controversial figure. On the one hand, he went down in history as a tyrant, and on the other,

Fight at height 444.3

On the morning of September 5, a detachment of militants led by Umar Edilsultanov, Amir of the Karpinsky jamaat (Grozny district), crossed the border with Dagestan. Edilsultanov, Amir Karpinsky was personally subordinate to Brigadier General Abdul-Malik Mezhidov, commander of the Sharia Guard of Ichkeria. One group of militants, numbering 20 people, crossed the Aksai border river south of height 444.3 and, entering the village of Tukhchar from the rear, was able to immediately take the village police department. In the meantime, the second group, led personally by Edilsultanov - also twenty or twenty-five people - attacked a police checkpoint near the outskirts of Tukhchar. The Chechens occupied the checkpoint with a short blow, where there were 18 Dagestan policemen, and hiding behind the tombstones of the Muslim cemetery, began to approach the positions of motorized riflemen. At the same time, the first group of militants also began shelling height 444.3 from small arms and grenade launchers from the rear, from the village of Tukhchar.

Recalls the surviving participant in the battle, Private Andrey Padyakov:

“On the hill that was opposite us, on the Chechen side, first four, then about 20 more militants appeared. Then our senior lieutenant Tashkin ordered the sniper to open fire to kill ... I clearly saw how after the sniper's shot one militant fell ... Then massive fire was opened on us from machine guns and grenade launchers ... Then the Dagestan militia surrendered their positions, and the militants went around the village and took us into the ring. We noticed how about 30 militants ran across the village behind us.”

From the side of the village, the caponier of the BMP had no protection, and the lieutenant ordered the driver-mechanic to bring the car to the crest of the height and maneuver, firing at the militants. Despite this, after half an hour of battle, at 7:30, the BMP was hit by a grenade launcher. The gunner-operator died on the spot, and the driver was seriously shell-shocked. Tamerlan Khasaev, a militant who participated in the battle for height 444.3, says:

“They were the first to start - the BMP opened fire, and Umar ordered the grenade launchers to take up positions. And when I said that there was no such agreement, he assigned three militants to me. Since then, I myself have been with them as a hostage.

At the third hour of the battle Russian soldiers ammunition began to run out. For requests for assistance, Art. Lieutenant Tashkin was ordered to hold out on his own. The fact is that at the same time, the militants attacked the district center with. Novolakskoe, where employees of the Novolaksky District Department of Internal Affairs and a detachment of the Lipetsk OMON were blocked ( see "Capture of Novolaksky by Militants") and all forces were thrown to their release. After that, the platoon commander Tashkin decided to withdraw from a height of 444.3. The Russian fighters, taking with them weapons, the wounded and the dead, were able to break through to the Dagestan policemen, who took up all-round defense at the second checkpoint, on the outskirts of Tukhchar. Seeing the soldiers running towards them, the police covered them with fire from the checkpoint. After a brief skirmish, there was a lull. By this time, up to 200 militants had already entered the village and started looting and pogroms. The militants sent the elders of the village of Tukhchar to the defenders with an offer to surrender, but were refused. It was decided to break out of the encirclement through the village. Lieutenant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Akhmed Davdiev, the commander of a detachment of Dagestan policemen, while doing reconnaissance, was ambushed by militants. During the battle, Davdiev destroyed two militants, but he himself was killed by a machine-gun burst. After that, the soldiers and policemen dispersed throughout the village and began to try to get out of the encirclement in all directions, but all the streets of the village were tightly blocked by militants.

Execution of military personnel by militants

By order of Amir Karpinsky, the gang members began to search the village and the surrounding area. Having fallen under heavy fire from the militants, Senior Lieutenant Tashkin and four other soldiers jumped into the nearest building. A few seconds before that, police sergeant Abdulkasim Magomedov died here. The building was surrounded by militants, who sent a truce to the fighters with a proposal to surrender. The Chechens promised to save the lives of those who surrendered, otherwise they threatened to burn everyone. "Decide, Commander! Why die in vain? We don't need your lives - we'll feed you, then exchange them for our own! Give up!" After a warning shot from a grenade launcher, soldiers led by Art. Lieutenant Tashkin were forced to leave the building and surrender.

The shell-shocked and badly burned BMP mechanic Aleksey Polagaev came out to the house of G. Dzhaparova. Tukhchar resident Gurum Dzhaparova says:

“He came - only the shooting subsided. Yes, how did you come? I went out into the yard - I look, it is standing, staggering, holding on to the gate. He was covered in blood and badly burned - no hair, no ears, the skin burst on his face. Chest, shoulder, arm - everything is cut with fragments. I'll take him to the house. Fighters, I say, all around. You should go to yours. Will you come like this? She sent her eldest Ramadan, he is 9 years old, for a doctor ... His clothes are covered in blood, burnt. Grandma Atikat and I cut it off, rather into a bag and threw it into a ravine. Somehow washed. Our rural doctor Hassan came, took out the fragments, smeared the wounds. He also made an injection - diphenhydramine, or what? He began to fall asleep from the injection. I put it with the children in the room.

Aleksey Polagaev was handed over to the militants by local Chechens. Gurum Dzhaparova unsuccessfully tried to defend him. Polagaev was taken away, surrounded by a dozen Wahhabis, towards the outskirts of the village. From the testimony of the defendant Tamerlan Khasaev:

“Umar (Edilsultanov) ordered to check all the buildings. We dispersed and two people began to go around the house. I was an ordinary soldier and followed orders, especially a new person among them, not everyone trusted me. And as I understand it, the operation was prepared in advance and clearly organized. I learned by radio that a soldier had been found in the shed. We were told by radio the order to gather at the police post outside the village of Tukhchar. When everyone gathered, those 6 soldiers were already there.”

By order of Umar Karpinsky, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. The captives were first held in a destroyed checkpoint. Then field commander ordered "Execute Rusaks". In the battle for the height of 444.3, the Edilsultanov (Amir Karpinsky) detachment lost four militants, each of those killed in the detachment found relatives or friends, who now "hung with a debt of blood." "You took our blood - we'll take yours!" Umar told the prisoners. Further massacre was scrupulously recorded on camera by the cameraman of the militants. The prisoners were taken out one by one to the concrete parapet. Four bloodlines slit the throat in turn Russian officer and three soldiers. Another one escaped, tried to escape - militant Tamerlan Khasaev “blundered”. Having slashed the victim with a blade, Khasaev straightened up over the wounded soldier - he felt uneasy at the sight of blood, and handed the knife to another militant. The bleeding soldier broke free and ran. One of the militants began to shoot after him with a pistol, but the bullets missed. And only when the fugitive, stumbling, fell into the pit, he was finished off in cold blood from a machine gun. Umar Edilsultanov killed the sixth person personally.

Together with senior lieutenant Tashkin Vasily Vasilyevich (08/29/1974 - 09/05/1999) were killed:

• Anisimov Konstantin Viktorovich (01/14/1980 - 09/05/1999)
• Lipatov Alexey Anatolyevich (06/14/1980 - 09/05/1999)
• Kaufman Vladimir Egorovich (06/07/1980 - 09/05/1999)
• Erdneev Boris Ozinovich (07/06/1980 - 09/05/1999)
• Polagaev Alexey Sergeevich (01/05/1980 - 09/05/1999)

The next morning, September 6, the head of the village administration, Magomed-Sultan Hasanov, received permission from the militants to take the bodies. On a school truck, the corpses of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin and privates Vladimir Kaufman, Alexei Lipatov, Boris Erdneev, Alexei Polagaev and Konstantin Anisimov were delivered to the Gerzelsky checkpoint.

The rest of the soldiers of military unit 3642 managed to sit out in their shelters in the village until the bandits left.

Videotape of the murder

A few days later, a video of the murder of soldiers from the 22nd brigade was shown on Grozny television. Later, in 2000, a video recording of the murder of Russian servicemen, made by one of the gang members, was found by members of the operational services of Dagestan. Based on the materials of the videotape, a criminal case was initiated against 9 people.

The trial of the participants in the murder

Umar Edilsultanov (Amir Karpinsky)

The first to be punished for the Tukhchar crime was the leader of the killers, Umar Edilsultanov (Amir Karpinsky). He was the executor of the murder of Private Alexei Polagaev and the leader of the murder of all other servicemen. Edilsultanov was destroyed after 5 months in February 2000

Tamerlan Khasaev

The first of the thugs to hand law enforcement got Tamerlan Khasaev. He is the executor of the attempted murder of Private Alexei Lipatov. After that, Lipatov tried to escape, but they caught up with him and shot him. T. Khasaev ended up in the Basayev detachment in early September 1999 - one of his friends seduced him with the opportunity to get him on a campaign against Dagestan captured weapons which could then be sold at a profit. So Khasaev ended up in the gang of Amir Karpinsky.

He was sentenced to eight and a half years for kidnapping in December 2001, was serving a term in a strict regime colony in the Kirov region, when the investigation, thanks to a videotape seized during a special operation, managed to establish that he was one of those who participated in bloody massacre on the outskirts of Tukhchar. Khasaev did not deny. Moreover, the case already contained testimonies from residents of Tukhchar, who confidently identified Khasaev. Khasaev stood out among the militants dressed in camouflage with a white T-shirt.

On October 25, 2002, T. Khasaev, a 32-year-old resident of the village of Dachu-Borzoi, Grozny District of Chechnya, was found guilty of committing this crime by the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Dagestan. He admitted his guilt in part: “I recognize participation in illegal armed formations, weapons and invasion. But I did not cut the soldier ... I just approached him with a knife. So far, two have been killed. When I saw this picture, I refused to cut, gave the knife to another.»

For participation in an armed rebellion, the militant Khasaev received 15 years, for the theft of weapons - 10 years, for participation in illegal armed formations and illegal possession of weapons - five years each. For the encroachment on the life of a serviceman, Khasaev, according to the court, deserved the death penalty, however, in connection with the moratorium on its use, an alternative measure of punishment was chosen - life imprisonment. Tamerlan Khasaev sentenced to life imprisonment.. Soon after it he died in prison.

Arbi Dandaev

Arbi Dandaev, born in 1974, is the perpetrator of the murder of Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin. On April 3, 2008 he was detained by police officers in the city of Grozny. According to the materials of the investigation, the militant Dandaev turned himself in, confessed to committed crimes and confirmed his testimony when he was taken to the place of execution. In the Supreme Court of Dagestan, however, he pleaded not guilty, saying that the appearance took place under duress, and refused to testify. Nevertheless, the court recognized his previous testimony as admissible and reliable, since they were given with the participation of a lawyer and no complaints were received from him about the investigation. The court examined the video recording of the execution, and although it was difficult to recognize the defendant Dandaev in the bearded executioner, the court took into account that the recording of Arbi's name was clearly audible. Residents of the village of Tukhchar were also interrogated. One of them recognized the defendant Dandaev. Dandaev was charged under Art. 279 "Armed rebellion" and Art. 317 "Encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer."

In March 2009, the Supreme Court of Dagestan sentenced the defendant Dandaev to life sentence, despite the fact that the public prosecutor asked for 22 years in prison for the defendant. Besides, the court satisfied civil lawsuits parents of four dead servicemen for compensation for non-pecuniary damage, the amounts for which amounted to from 200 thousand to 2 million rubles. Dandaev later tried to appeal the verdict. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the verdict.

Islan Mukaev

He is an accomplice in the murder of Private Vladimir Kaufman, holding his hands. Islan Mukaev was detained at the beginning of June 2005 during a joint operation by officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya and Ingushetia. The operation was carried out in the Ingush regional center Sleptsovskaya, where Mukaev lived. He fully admitted his guilt, repented of his deeds at the trial, as a result of which the court did not appoint a life sentence for him, as the state prosecutor demanded.

On September 19, 2005, the Supreme Court of Dagestan sentenced Mukaev to 25 years in prison in a strict regime colony.

Mansur Razhaev

He is the executor of the murder of Private Boris Erdneev. He did not admit guilt, said that he simply approached him with a knife. The video shows that Razhaev approaches Erdneev with a knife, Erdneev’s murder itself is not shown, the footage after the murder is shown below. On January 31, 2012, the Supreme Court of Dagestan found Mansur Razhaev guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Rizvan Vagapov

Vagapov was detained on March 19, 2007 in the village of Borzoi in the Shatoi region of Chechnya. In 2013, his case was referred to the Supreme Court Dagestan. November 12, 2013 sentenced to 18 years in prison.

In Russia, sophisticated executions were not shunned. Moreover, the execution of death sentences was approached seriously, thoroughly. To last minutes or the hours of the life of the criminal seemed to him the most terrible, the executions were chosen the most sophisticated and painful. Where the custom of cruelly cracking down on those who broke the law came from in our land is unknown. Some historians believe that this is a logical continuation of the bloody rites of paganism. Others favor the influence of the Byzantines. But, one way or another, in Russia there were several especially any types of execution by the rulers.

This execution was also awarded to rebels or traitors. For example, Ivan Zarutsky, one of the main accomplices of the troubles of the time of Marina Mnishek, was put on a stake. For this, he was specially brought from Astrakhan to Moscow.

Rebels and traitors to the Motherland were impaled

The execution took place in the following way. First, the executioner lightly impaled the body of the offender on a stake, and then put the "piece of wood" vertically. Under the weight of its own weight, the victim gradually sank lower and lower. But this happened slowly, so the doomed one had a couple of hours of torment before the stake went out through the chest or neck.

Particularly "distinguished" was impaled on a stake with a crossbar so that the point did not reach the heart. And then the torment of the criminal was significantly extended.

And this "entertainment" came into use by Russian executioners during the reign of Peter the Great. A criminal sentenced to death was tied to a log St. Andrew's cross, which was attached to the scaffold. And special recesses were made in its rays.

The unfortunate man was stretched so that all his limbs took the “right” place on the beams. Accordingly, the folds of the arms and legs also had to fall where needed - into the recesses. It was the executioner who was engaged in "adjusting" it. Wielding an iron stick, of a special, quadrangular shape, he struck, crushing the bones.

Members Pugachev rebellion have been wheeled

When the "puzzle" was being put together, the offender was hit hard in the stomach several times in order to break his spine. After that, the heels of the unfortunate were connected to his own back of the head and laid on the wheel. Usually, by this time the victim was still alive. And she was left to die in that position.

The last time the wheel was taken for the most ardent supporters of the Pugachev rebellion.

Ivan the Terrible loved this type of execution. The offender could be boiled in water, oil, or even wine. The unfortunate was put into a cauldron already filled with some kind of liquid. The hands of the suicide bomber were fixed in special rings inside the tank. This was done so that the victim could not escape.

Ivan the Terrible liked to boil criminals in water or oil.

When everything was ready, the cauldron was put on fire. He heated up rather slowly, so the criminal was boiled alive for a long time and very painfully. Usually, such an execution was "prescribed" to a traitor.

This type of execution was most often applied to women who killed their husbands. Usually, they were buried up to the throat (less often up to the chest) in some of the busiest places. For example, on main square city ​​or local market.

The scene of execution by means of instillation was beautifully described by Alexei Tolstoy in his landmark, albeit unfinished, novel Peter the Great.

They usually buried the murderers

While the murderer was still alive, a special guard was assigned to her - a sentry. He strictly ensured that no one showed compassion to the criminal and did not try to help her by giving food or water. But if passers-by wanted to mock the suicide bomber - please. This was not allowed. If you want to spit in her - spit, if you want to kick - kick. The guard will only support the initiative. Also, anyone could throw a few coins on the coffin and candles.

Usually, after 3-4 days, the criminal died from beatings, or her heart could not stand it.

Most a famous person who was “lucky” to experience all the horrors of quartering is the famous Cossack and rebel Stepan Razin. First they cut off his legs, then his arms, and only after all this - his head.

In fact, Emelyan Pugachev should have been executed in the same way. But first they cut off his head, and only then his limbs.

Quartering was resorted to only in exceptional cases. For an uprising, imposture, treason, personal insult to the sovereign, or an attempt on his life.

Stepan Razin - the most famous quartered

True, such "events" in Russia practically did not enjoy spectator success, so to speak. The people, on the contrary, sympathized and empathized with those sentenced to death. In contrast, for example, from the same "civilized" European crowd, for which the deprivation of life of a criminal was just an entertainment "event". Therefore, in Russia, at the time of the execution of the sentence, silence reigned in the square, broken only by sobs. And when the executioner completed his work, people dispersed silently to their homes. In Europe, on the contrary, the crowd whistled and shouted, demanding "bread and circuses."

In Russia, according to the Pskov Judicial Charter of 1467, theft in the church, horse theft, high treason, arson, theft committed in the suburb for the third time were punishable by death. Each subsequent document establishing responsibility for the commission of crimes only toughened the penalties. The Sudebnik of 1550 significantly expanded the scope of crimes punishable by death: for the first theft (if the thief is caught red-handed or confessed to the theft as a result of torture), for the second theft and the second fraud (if the offender confessed to it), for robbery, murder (murder) , for sneaking (slander) or other "dashing" deed, for the murder of a master, treason, church theft, arson, adultery.

However, it is known that in Russia the severity of laws is mitigated by the optionality of their implementation and the will of the head of state. Boris Godunov, entering the kingdom, vowed to stop the death penalty for five years. The act, of course, is spectacular, given that the people have already "fed up" with reprisals for many years to come.

After Boris Godunov, a severe time of unrest began in the Russian state. There was no time and no one to administer the court, so they were no longer executed so much as simply killed.

price inflation human life determined the cruelty of the laws. In the Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of 1649, there are about sixty crimes for which the death penalty is due.

The first chapter of the Code defined responsibility for "blasphemers and church rebels." They were ordered to be burned. Also, those who seduced the Orthodox into the infidel faith were dear to the stake.

It was necessary to punish the death penalty not only for murder in the church, but also for obstructing the celebration of the liturgy and sacrilege.

By tradition, the death penalty was relied on for state crimes: treason, malicious intent on the sovereign's health, gathering the army of rebellion, intercourse with the enemy, and so on.

The new legislation tried with a hard hand to instill rules of conduct in public place. Murder or mutilation committed in the presence of a sovereign or a judge was certainly punishable by death.

Developing state machine took care to protect his prerogatives. The basis for the application of the death penalty was the preparation of forged papers on behalf of the government or the sovereign, the application of the sovereign seal to the false paper, the forgery of orders, travel abroad without a travel letter.

And, finally, a whole range of economic crimes has appeared in the new law, providing for the death penalty for violators. Thieves could now be executed even for breaking into someone else's house if malicious intent was proven. It was possible to execute judges for bribes and buyers of furs from yasak foreigners without paying a fee. Even the use and sale of tobacco were now fraught with death. And counterfeiters, as before, were supposed to fill their throats with molten metal.

The new legislation determined not only what to execute, but also how. For example, it was stated: “Thieves who had the death penalty, hang thieves and robbers, and execute mortal killers, flog their heads.”

In the Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, hanging was also ordered to appoint defectors to the enemy army and spies.

Execution by hanging for edifying purposes was often arranged in the squares, where gallows were erected in the shape of the letters "T" or "G". True, it was too lazy for the captured robbers to beat the gallows, and they were simply pulled up in the trees. For rioters, the gallows were sometimes erected on rafts, which, after the execution, were sent down big rivers- to intimidate the surrounding population.

Most brutal executions, as in other states, were intended for the rebels. Impostors and leaders of riots, as a rule, were quartered. In Russia, this was done by cutting off first the arms and legs, and then the head. In 1654, LzheShuisky was executed in this way - Timoshka Ankudinov, then the conspirators Sokovnin and Tsikler, and in 1671 - Ataman Stenka Razin.

How this execution was carried out can be illustrated by the example of the execution of the adventurer and drunkard Timoshka Ankudinov. Timoshka's favorite pastime was drinking with slutty girls in taverns and playing grain. Behind this occupation, both the wife's dowry and the love of loved ones flowed away. His father died, cursing him, his mother went to a monastery, and his wife was exhausted in tears and grief. Having drunk everything except the mind, Timofey came to his senses and took up this very mind. And he didn't let him down. For three years, Ankudinov made a dizzying career in Moscow. He was entrusted to manage the collection of money and the storage of the treasury in the order. Alas, vodka again turned out to be stronger than willpower. He began to quietly drink away the royal treasury entrusted to him.

In those days, a hand was cut off for embezzlement. Timokha regretted his hand, but not his wife. Before the revision of the treasury entrusted to him, he committed a real villainy. He locked his sleeping wife in the upper room and set fire to the house, after which he went on the run with the Polish gentry Konyukhovsky. A whole street burned out from the Ankudinovs' house in Moscow, but everyone decided that Timofey and his wife had burned down.

Meanwhile, Ankudinov fled to Poland, where he began to impersonate the son of the deceased Vasily Shuisky and the pretender to the Moscow throne.

In foreign wanderings, the impostor Timoshka was graciously received by King Vladislav, Bogdan Khmelnitsky, and Khan Davlet-Giray. But he was especially welcomed by the Swedish Queen Christina, who appointed him a house for accommodation, lunch from her table, 4 horses, 10 servants and 5,000 thalers a month, and also promised assistance in taking the throne. The impostor was lucky that foreigners did not know Russian history well, and in particular the fact that Vasily Shuisky had no children at all.

Ankudinov and his comrade Konyukhovsky skated like cheese in butter. Continuous balls, feasts, hunts and other entertainments of the nobility came to their liking. Probably for the shine beautiful life Timothy has already forgotten whom he deceived and robbed in his homeland, but those people did not forget him. When Queen Christina was told who was hiding behind the guise of Shuisky's son, she became indescribably angry. And immediately ordered to seize Timothy.

But Ankudinov managed to escape. However, he was overtaken in Revel and thrown into prison. Fate gave him a gift for the last time. Timoshka managed to escape from prison. He traveled to several other countries. Fatal for him was his stay in Neustadt. There Ankudinov came face to face with the merchant Miklaf, who had been robbed by him, was identified and captured. For 100,000 chervonets, the Duke of Holstein happily betrayed the impostor to Russia.

In August 1654, in Moscow, crooks staged a shameful procession to the place of execution. Kostya Konyukhovsky was the first to be taken. Behind him is Ankudinov. A thick iron collar was wrapped around his neck, from which came a chain, chained to a wide hoop that served as a belt. His hands were tied behind his back with a rope, the ends of which dragged along the ground. Nearby, a clerk rode a horse and shouted: “Look, Orthodox, here is a reckless and traitor to the sovereign!”

Under the hooting of the crowd, Ankudinov and Konyukhovsky were taken to the place of execution, located on the Bolshoi Market Square in the Kremlin. There the executioner first chopped off Ankudinova left hand and the left leg, then the right arm and the right leg, and finally the head. The executioners ran them over five stakes and threw them into a dump pit. To Konyukhovsky, justice showed indulgence, he lost only three fingers, after which he was sent to Siberia. Moreover, at the request of the Patriarch, Konyukhovsky was cut off the fingers on the left, and not on right hand so that he can be baptized.

Sometimes the leaders of the riots were impaled. In 1606 they impaled the rebel Anichkin, and in 1614 Zarutsky, an accomplice of Marina Mnishek.

Ordinary rebels were preferred to be drowned and hanged. Sometimes hanging by the rib was applied to them. In 1676, the voivode Meshcherinov, having taken the Solovetsky Monastery, "hung many by the ribs." It is curious that this execution was often used by the leader of the rebels, Stepan Razin.

With this type of hanging, the iron hook pierced the convict's side, hooked under the rib and protruded out. The hanged man thus assumed a curved position: the legs and head hung down. The hands were sometimes tied, sometimes not. But slipping off the hook, even with free hands, was almost impossible. Only isolated cases are known when the hanged fell off it. During the execution of schismatics, sometimes hanging by the rib was combined with wheeling.

The torment of the victims, hanged by the rib, could last for several days before they died of blood loss and thirst. A similar, but even more terrible form of execution was applied to women in Russia. In the Russian chronicles of the beginning of the 17th century, there are stories about how women were cut through their breasts and, having threaded ropes through the wounds, they hung them on the crossbars.

Exclusively for women, there was another type of execution - entrenchment. It was used as a punishment for the murder of a husband. The execution was carried out in a crowded place - in the square or in the market. The convict was buried alive upright or on her knees - up to her shoulders, with her hands tied behind her back. Guards were assigned to her so that no one would give food and drink to the unfortunate. The only thing that was allowed was to throw money at her, which then went to the coffin and candles. During the day, the priest prayed by lit candles for the soul of the perishing woman and gave her parting words.

Death during such an execution occurred on the second or third day, mainly from thirst and from self-poisoning of the body, deprived of air. But sometimes women fought for life and longer. There is a known case when one of the women, being buried, lasted 31 days. Apparently she was still given food and drink.

When it was necessary to hasten death, the earth was compacted around the victim, tapping it with a large wooden mallet or the end of a stake. The soil compacted in this way squeezed the chest more strongly - and then death occurred within a few hours.

The English ambassador to Russia, Charles Whitworth, described the execution through a trench, which he witnessed in 1706: “The murderer was lowered alive into a hole dug in the square and covered up to her shoulders; then, right before her eyes, they placed a chopping block, on which they immediately beheaded the servant who helped the murderer; another accomplice - the steward and at the same time the buried lover - was hung right above her head. Both corpses remained before her and this terrible sight was removed from her eyes only 24 hours later, at the request of many persons; she herself remained without food and drink until the night of November 24, when, finally, the earth around her was beaten denser in order to hasten death, otherwise the unfortunate woman would have lived for another two or three days in a terrible situation.

Women buried up to their necks in the ground aroused sympathy from those around them. Sometimes, at the request of the public, they were amnestied. For example, when in 1677, when on retail space in Vladimir, a certain Fetyushka was buried for cutting off her husband's head with an oblique head; the clergy came out in her defense. The abbots of two Vladimir monasteries with the brethren and the abbess of the convent with the sisters filed a petition to the voevoda, “to take her, the wife Fetyushka, out of the earth and tonsure her into a monastery, for the sake of his royal long-term health and for the sake of commemoration of the blessed memory of the great sovereign tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich. And from the earth she, the wife Fetyushka, was taken out and sent to mow in the Dormition maiden monastery.

In 1682, the Yamskaya wife Marinka and the archer’s wife Dashka Perepelka “were dug into the ground for three days and promised to cut their hair in the ground and not do evil deeds; and the great sovereign ordered those chicks to be dug up and cut.

In the second half of the XVII century. the death penalty by entrenchment was either abolished or restored again. Finally, apparently under the influence of foreigners, who considered it a barbaric custom, it was finally eliminated in Russia.

Execution in pre-Petrine times was almost never used. Under Fyodor Alekseevich, one case of execution is known: in 1679, by order of the Mangazeya governor, a thief, a native of the Yurat Samoyed, was hanged by the legs and shot.

True, the free Don Cossacks practiced execution in the form of execution widely. Moreover, it was used both for theft and for "weak friendship."

During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, not only new legislation was worked out, but also the rituals of the death penalty.

The Sudebnik of 1669 stated that the execution of criminals "is not to be carried out in empty places, but to be carried out in those places where they stole or where they lived."

In Moscow, executions were carried out on Red Square near the Execution Ground near the Spassky Gates and on the Goat Swamp. Sometimes - on the Yauza and on the Moscow River.

The execution place got its name because of its location - on the vzlobe - a steep bank of the river. It served not only to punish criminals, but also for announcements. The most important decrees were announced from the Execution Ground, tsars and patriarchs addressed the people. This place was lined with bricks and equipped with a wooden lattice, locked with an iron bolt. Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, cannons stood near the Execution Ground and there was a tsar's tavern.

But before getting to the place of execution, the criminal had to be not only convicted, but also subjected to a certain ritual. After the verdict was announced, the criminal was put in a penitent hut for a week, where he fasted and prepared for communion. A priest came there a day or two before the execution. “After the fairy tale, in a penitent hut, fast for a week until the communion of the holy mysteries, and after the communion of the holy mysteries, they will be for two days, and on the third day they will be performed,” Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich regulated the procedure of repentance.

However, in 1653 the penitential huts for tatyas and robbers were abolished. And Patriarch Nikon forbade "not only the communion of robbers and thieves, but lower confession of them in last hour execute them."

There were nuances in the execution procedure. Sundays were not executed. Pregnant women were given a reprieve until relief from the burden. Apostates from the Orthodox faith were supposed to be persuaded three times before the execution to re-convert to their former religion.

A shameful but magnificent procession was sometimes organized for the criminals to the place of execution. For example, in 1696, for the German traitor Yakushka, it was organized in this way: he stood on a cart harnessed to quadruple, on the cart there was a gallows, into which two axes, two knives were stuck, two collars, two belts, two tongs were hung, with the crossbar of the gallows descended ten whips. Yakushka was dressed in a Turkish dress, a turban. His arms and legs were adorned with thick chains, and there was a noose around his neck, the end of which was tied to the crossbar of the gallows. On the crossbar there is an inscription: “This villain changed his faith four times, the traitor became God and man, this Catholic became a Protestant, then a Greek, and finally a Mohammedan.” Above were depicted the moon and the star - symbols of Mohammedanism, and on the chest the inscription: "Villain."

Despite the cruelty of the laws, Russia could become an example of humanity for civilized Europe. There was no inquisition, no crazy extermination of witches, no bloodshed between Catholics and Protestants. But she didn't. In Russia Orthodox Church also not a model of tolerance and forgiveness.

Mass executions among the clergy caused a split in the Russian church. It all started with the fact that the son of a Mordovian peasant, Nikita Minov, who became Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, started church reform. He decided to unify church rituals and establish the uniformity of church services. The Greek rules and rituals adopted in the Byzantine Empire were taken as a model. In an effort to make the Russian church the center of world Orthodoxy, Nikon took up the matter harshly, according to the principle "they cut down the forest, the chips fly."

They did not stand on ceremony with adherents of the old Russian church. Bonfires for the Old Believers blazed all over the country.

In the 17th century, execution by burning was provided for "for blasphemy, for sorcery, for witchcraft." Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, “the old woman Olena is burned in a log house, like a heretic, with magic papers and roots ...” In Totma in 1674, the woman Theodosia was burned in a log house and with numerous witnesses, according to a slander, in damage.

But especially often, burning was used as a punishment for schismatics for their adherence to the "old faith." Although the faith of the schismatics was the same as that of the patriarch - Orthodox, they conducted worship in the old way, and followed in a new way, according to the "Nikonian". There were many nuances between the old and the new services, but now they do not seem so significant that they go to the stake or send their neighbors there. The stumbling blocks between the old and the new faith were, for example, how many fingers to be baptized - two or three, or how to make a procession - along or against the sun.

But in the second half of the 17th century, these nuances were more important for the clergy than life. During this period, hundreds of adherents of the old faith were put to a painful death. And the apotheosis of the fight against the Old Believers was the massacre of the monks of the Solovetsky monastery.

These monks did not kill anyone, did not rob anyone, but they encroached on something more important for those times - the dominant religion. The Solovki monks were firmly convinced that betraying the old faith meant betraying the Church and God Himself. They wrote to the king:

“It is better for us to die a temporary death than to perish forever. And if we are given over to fire and torment, or if we are cut into pieces, even then we will not change the apostolic tradition forever.

The tsar decided to break the stubbornness of the Old Believers by force and in 1668 sent Solovetsky Monastery troops. The monks did not let the archers in and turned their holy monastery into a fortress, preparing to defend it. It took the tsarist troops eight whole years to break the resistance of God's people. On the night of January 22, 1676, thanks to the betrayal of one of the brethren, archers broke into the monastery through a secret hole, and a terrible massacre began against the inhabitants of the monastery.

To punish almost four hundred defenders of the monastery, all three types of mass executions were used: some were hanged, others were deprived of their heads on chopping blocks, and others were drowned in an ice hole. But they approached the massacre creatively. It was one of the first cases in Russia when hanging on a hook by the edge was widely used. Drowning also diversified. Some were simply lowered into the hole, while others were frozen into the ice, so that with their sad fate they would frighten other stubborn people until spring.

Also, for the purpose of intimidation, the bodies of the killed and executed were not removed for half a year. They were buried only when a special royal decree arrived, ordering them to do so.

And the destroyed and plundered monastery was inhabited by loyal monks sent from Moscow, who led worship according to new books and baptized with three fingers.

The most famous burning in Russia is the burning of Archpriest Avvakum, an ascetic of schismatics.

Devout believers have such a feature as intolerance towards any other faith. Avvakum was a zealot of ancient piety. Patriarch Nikon is a supporter of innovations. A fundamental dispute between them unfolded over how many fingers to be baptized. Habakkuk's phrase became winged: "It is better for a man not to be born than to be known with three fingers."

Patriarch Nikon tried for a long time to re-educate Avvakum. First, Petrov was cut and anathematized - it did not help. Then they sent him to the North. Again, the measure had no effect. Avvakum spent 15 years in an earthen cell of the Pustozersky prison, during which he wrote his main works. Fearing that the speeches of the schismatic would lead to a riot, Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich ordered to send him to the stake.

On April 14, 1682, in Pustozersk, “for the great blasphemy against the royal house,” the main ideologist of the Old Believers, Archpriest Avvakum Petrov, was burned in an earthen log house. Together with him, his closest associates, the Old Believers Epiphany, Lazar and Fedor, were martyred. It turns out that in Europe they burned sorcerers, and in Russia - the Stroitors.

Traditionally, the authorities treated criminals more tolerantly than political ones. In 1653, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich even organized an amnesty for them, ordering them to release and send into exile those imprisoned and awaiting execution, the thieves and robbers.