Executed in Russia for a long time, subtly and painfully. Historians to this day have not come to a consensus about the reasons for the appearance of the death penalty.
Some are inclined to 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 Russia?
Drowning
This type of execution was very common in Kievan Rus. Usually it was used in cases where it was required to deal with a large number of criminals. But there were also isolated cases. So, for example, the Kyiv prince Rostislav was somehow angry with Gregory the Wonderworker. He ordered to tie the rebellious hands, throw a rope loop around his neck, at the other end of which a heavy stone was fixed, and throw it into the water. With the help of drowning, in Ancient Russia, apostates, that is, Christians, were also executed. They were sewn into a bag and thrown into the water. Usually 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. Interestingly, centuries later, the Bolsheviks during the Civil War used drowning as a massacre against the families of the "bourgeois", while the condemned were tied hands and thrown into the water.
burning
From the 13th century, this type of execution was usually applied to those who violated church laws - for blasphemy against God, for unpleasing sermons, for witchcraft. Ivan the Terrible especially loved her, who, by the way, was very inventive in the methods of execution. So, for example, he came up with the idea of sewing the offenders into 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 applied to counterfeiters. By the way, they were punished in another way - they poured molten lead or tin into their mouths.
instillation
Burying alive in the ground was usually applied to 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 a crowded place became a place for execution - a central square or a city market. Next to the still alive executed criminal, a sentry was put up, who stopped any attempts to show compassion, to give the woman water or some bread. It was not forbidden, however, to express their contempt or hatred for the criminal - to spit on her head or even kick her. And those who wished could give alms for the coffin and church candles. Usually, a painful death came on 3-4 days, but history recorded 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. So, for example, Stepan Razin was executed. It was planned to take the life of Emelyan Pugachev in the same way, but he was first cut off his head, and only then he was deprived 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 for imposture. It is worth noting that, unlike the Central European, for example, Parisian crowd, which perceived the execution as a spectacle and dismantled the gallows for souvenirs, Russian people treated the condemned with compassion and mercy. So, during the execution of Razin, there was deathly silence on the square, broken only by rare female sobs. At the end of the procedure, people usually dispersed in silence.
Boiling
Boiling in oil, water or wine was especially popular in Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The condemned was put into a cauldron filled with liquid. Hands were threaded into special rings built into the cauldron. Then the cauldron was put on fire and slowly heated up. As a result, the person was boiled alive. Such an execution was applied in Russia to state traitors. However, this view looks humane compared to the execution called "Walking in a circle" - one of the most cruel methods used in Russia. The condemned was cut open in the stomach in the area of the intestines, but so that he did not die too quickly from blood loss. Then they removed the gut, nailed one end of it to a tree and forced the executed person to walk around the tree in a circle.
wheeling
Wheeling became widespread in the era of Peter. The sentenced was tied to a timbered St. Andrew's cross fixed on the scaffold. Notches were made on the rays of the cross. The criminal was stretched on the cross face up in such a way that each of his limbs lay on the rays, and the places of the folds of the limbs were on the notches. The executioner dealt one blow after another with an iron crowbar of a quadrangular shape, gradually breaking the bones in the folds of the arms and legs. The work of crying ended with two or three precise blows to the stomach, with the help of which the ridge was broken. The body of the broken criminal was connected so that the heels converged with the back of the head, laid on a horizontal wheel and left to die in this position. The last time such an execution was applied in Russia to the participants in the Pugachev rebellion.
Impaling
Like quartering, impalement was usually applied to rebels or thieves' traitors. So Zarutsky, an accomplice of Marina Mnishek, was executed in 1614. During the execution, the executioner drove a stake into the human body with a hammer, then the stake was placed vertically. The executed gradually, under the weight of his own body, began to slide down. After a few hours, the stake came out through his chest or neck. Sometimes a crossbar was made on the stake, which stopped the movement of the body, preventing the stake from reaching the heart. This method significantly extended the time of painful death. Impaling until the 18th century was a very common type of execution among the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks. Smaller stakes were used to punish rapists - they were driven a stake through the heart, as well as against mothers who killed children.
Since ancient times, people brutally dealt with their enemies, some even ate them, but mostly they were executed, deprived of their lives in terrible and sophisticated ways. The same was done with criminals who violated the laws of God and man. Over a thousand-year history, a lot of experience has been accumulated in the execution of the condemned.
Decapitation
The physical separation of the head from the body with the help of an ax or any military weapon (knife, sword) later, a machine invented in France, the Guillotine, was used for these purposes. It is believed that during such an execution, the head, separated from the body, retains sight and hearing for another 10 seconds. Decapitation was considered a "noble execution" and was applied to aristocrats. In Germany, beheading was abolished in 1949 due to the failure of the last guillotine.
Hanging
Strangulation of a person on a rope loop, the end of which is fixed motionless. Death occurs in a few minutes, but not at all 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, a vertical column (pillars) and a horizontal beam, on which the condemned were hung, placed above the likeness of a well. The well was intended for falling off parts of the body - 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 his neck, while death occurs instantly from a rupture of the cervical vertebrae. There was an “official table of falls”, with the help of which the necessary length of the rope was calculated depending on the weight of the convict (if the rope is too long, the head separates from the body).
A variation of hanging is garrote. A garrote (an iron collar with a screw, often equipped with a vertical spike on the back) is generally not strangled. She breaks her neck. The executed in this case does not die from suffocation, as happens if he is strangled with a rope, but from crushing the spine (sometimes, according to medieval evidence, from a fracture of the base of the skull, depending on where to put it on) and a fracture of the cervical cartilage.
The last high-profile hanging - Saddam Hussein.
Quartering
It is considered one of the most cruel executions, and was applied to the most dangerous criminals. When quartered, the victim was strangled (not to death), then the stomach was cut 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 "where the king deems it convenient."
Thomas More, the author of Utopia, sentenced to quartering with burning of the inside, on the morning before the execution was pardoned, and the quartering was replaced by decapitation, to which More replied: "God spare my friends from such mercy."
In England, quartering was used until 1820, formally abolished only in 1867. In France, quartering was carried out with the help of horses. The convict was tied by the arms and legs to four strong horses, which, whipped by the executioners, moved in different directions and tore off the limbs. In fact, the convict had to cut the tendons.
Another execution by tearing the body in half, noted in pagan Russia, was that the victim was tied by the legs to two bent young trees, and then released. According to Byzantine sources, Prince Igor was killed by the Drevlyans in 945 because he wanted to collect tribute from them twice.
wheeling
A common type of death penalty in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. 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 Charter. 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 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 it 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.
Burning at the stake
The death penalty, in which the victim is burned at the stake in public. Along with immuring and imprisoning, burning was widely used in the Middle Ages, since, according to the church, on the one hand, it happened without “shedding blood”, and on the other hand, the flame was considered a means of “purification” and could save the soul. Heretics, "witches" and those guilty of sodomy were especially often subject to burning.
The execution became widespread during the period of the Holy Inquisition, and only in Spain about 32 thousand people were burned (excluding the Spanish colonies).
The most famous people burned at the stake: Giorgano Bruno - as a heretic (engaged in scientific activities) and Joan of Arc, who commanded the French troops in the Hundred Years' War.
Impalement
Impaling was widely used in ancient Egypt and the Middle East, its first mention dates back to the beginning of the second millennium BC. e. Execution was 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 especially serious crimes. On the Assyrian reliefs, there are two options: with one of them, the condemned person was pierced with a stake in the chest, with 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 did not receive much distribution in Ancient Rome.
For a large part of medieval history, the execution by 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, conferring on her a young girl of a noble family. The unfortunate was laid on his stomach, and the executioner drove a wooden stake into his anus with a hammer, after which the stake was driven 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 Tepes (“the impaler”) Dracula, distinguished himself with particular cruelty. According to his instructions, the victims were impaled on a thick stake, in which the top was rounded and oiled. The stake was inserted into the anus to a depth of several tens of centimeters, then the stake was placed vertically. The victim, under the influence of the gravity of his body, slowly slid down the stake, and sometimes death 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 bar 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 critical organs. In this case, the death of rupture of internal organs and great blood loss did not come very soon.
King Edward of England was executed by impalement. The nobles rebelled and killed the monarch by driving a red-hot iron rod into his anus. Impaling was used in the Commonwealth until the 18th century, and many Zaporizhian Cossacks were executed in this way. With the help of smaller stakes, rapists were also executed (they drove a stake into the heart) and mothers who killed their children (they were pierced with a stake after being buried alive in the ground).
Hanging by the rib
A type of death penalty in which an iron hook was thrust into the side of the victim and hung up. Death came from thirst and blood loss after a few days. The hands of the victim were tied so that he could not free himself. Execution was common among the Zaporizhian Cossacks. According to legend, Dmitry Vishnevetsky, the founder of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, the legendary “Baida Veshnivetsky”, was executed in this way.
stoning
After the appropriate decision of the authorized legal body (the king or the court), a crowd of citizens gathered to kill the guilty person by throwing stones at him. At the same time, small stones should have been chosen so that the condemned person would not be exhausted too quickly. Or, in a more humane case, it could be one executioner, dropping one large stone from above on the condemned.
Currently, stoning is used in some Muslim countries. On January 1, 1989, stoning remained in the legislation of six countries of the world. An Amnesty International report gives an eyewitness account of a similar execution in Iran:
“Next to a wasteland, a lot of stones and pebbles were poured out of a truck, then they brought two women dressed in white, bags were put on their heads ... A hail of stones fell on them, turning their bags red ... The wounded women fell, and then the guards of the revolution broke through their heads with shovels to finally kill them.
Throwing to Predators
The oldest type of execution, common among many peoples of the world. Death came because the victim was bitten by crocodiles, lions, bears, snakes, sharks, piranhas, ants.
Walking in circles
A rare method of execution, practiced, in particular, in Russia. The victim's stomach was steamed in the area of the intestines, so that he would not die from blood loss. Then they took out an intestine, 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 come down to our time. Burial alive was applied to Christian martyrs. In medieval Italy, unrepentant murderers were buried alive. In Germany, female child killers were buried alive in the ground. In Russia of the 17th-18th centuries, women who killed their husbands were buried alive up to the neck.
crucifixion
Condemned to death, the hands and feet were nailed to the ends of the cross or the limbs were fixed with ropes. This is how Jesus Christ was executed. The main cause of death during crucifixion is asphyxia caused by developing pulmonary edema and fatigue of the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles involved in the process of breathing. The main support of the body in this position is the hands, and when breathing, the abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles had to lift the weight of the whole body, which led to their rapid fatigue. Also, squeezing the chest with 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.
Welding in boiling water
Welding in liquid was a common type of death penalty in different countries of the world. In ancient Egypt, this type of punishment was applied mainly to persons who disobeyed the pharaoh. The slaves of the pharaoh at dawn (specially so that Ra saw the criminal) made a huge fire, over which there was a cauldron of water (and not just water, but the dirtiest water, where waste was poured, etc.) Sometimes whole families.
This type of execution was widely used by Genghis Khan. In medieval Japan, boiling water was applied mainly to ninja who failed an assassination and were captured. In France, this execution was applied to counterfeiters. Sometimes intruders were boiled in boiling oil. There remains evidence of how in 1410 in Paris a pickpocket was boiled alive in boiling oil.
Pouring lead or boiling oil down the throat
It was used in the East, in Medieval Europe, in Russia and among the Indians. Death came from a burn of the esophagus and strangulation. The punishment was usually set for counterfeiting, and often the metal from which the offender cast coins was poured. Those who did not die for a long time were cut off the head.
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, in the French code of customary law "Livres de Jostice et de Plet" (1260), created on the basis of Justinian's Digest, it is said about the "execution in a bag" 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, an execution based on poena cullei also appeared in Germany, where it was used in the form of hanging a criminal (thief) upside down (sometimes hanging was carried out by one leg) together (on the same gallows) with a dog (or two dogs hung on the right and left from the executed). This execution was called the "Jewish execution", since over time it began to be applied exclusively to Jewish criminals (it was applied to Christians in the rarest cases in the 16th-17th centuries).
Excoriation
Skinning has a very ancient history. Even the Assyrians skinned captured enemies or rebellious 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 flayed so many skins from the guilty nobility that he covered the columns with it.
Especially often used in Chaldea, Babylon and Persia. In ancient India, the skin was removed by fire. With the help of torches, she was burned to meat all over her body. With burns, the convict suffered for several days until death. In Western Europe, it was used as a method of punishment for traitors and traitors, as well as to ordinary people who were suspected of having love affairs with women of royal blood. Also, the skin was torn off the corpses of enemies or criminals for intimidation.
ling chi
Ling-chi (Chinese: “death by a thousand cuts”) is a particularly painful method of execution by cutting off small fragments from the body of the victim for a long period of 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, a prominent Ming commander 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 gathering of onlookers for the purpose of intimidation. Surviving descriptions of the execution differ in detail. The victim was usually drugged with opium, either out of mercy or to prevent her from losing consciousness.
In his History of Torture of All Ages, George Riley Scott quotes from the notes of two Europeans who had the rare opportunity to be present at such an execution: their names were Sir Henry Norman (he saw this execution in 1895) and T. T. Ma-Dawes:
“There is a basket covered with a piece of linen, in which lies a set of knives. Each of these knives is designed for a certain 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, in all likelihood, was supplanted by another, which left no room for chance and provided for cutting off parts of the body in a certain sequence with a single knife. According to Sir Henry Norman, the convict 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 limbs and ends the execution with one sharp blow to the heart ...
The institution of law and the institution of punishment accompanying it contributed to the formation of a whole professional subculture of “shoulder masters”. The contribution of these "professionals of suffering" to the treasury of human infamy can hardly be overestimated. Wheeling, racking, impalement, Spanish boot, quartering (only a small part of the list of executions and tortures) - all this is not a fever attack of an inflamed diabolical fantasy, but the fruits of an inquisitive human mind. Man is truly a unique being. He spent a significant part of his intellectual and spiritual abilities on inventing the most effective methods of killing and bullying his own kind.
An excursion into history: how they impaled under Peter I
“According to contemporaries, it was in this way that Peter I dealt with Stepan Glebov, the lover of his wife Evdokia, who was exiled to the monastery. On March 15, 1718, exhausted by torture, Glebov was brought to Red Square, filled with crowds of people. Peter arrived in a heated carriage. Glebov was put on an unplaned "Persian stake".
The sentenced man was placed with his back to the post, his hands were brought back and tightly tied behind his back. Then they put him on a stake, or rather on planks. At the same time, the stake did not enter deeply, but the depth of further penetration was regulated by gradually reducing the height of the support posts. The executioners made sure that the stake, entering the body, did not affect the vital centers.
On the personal instructions of Peter, so that the martyr would not die of frostbite, they put on a fur coat and a hat instead of him. Glebov suffered for fifteen hours, filling the square with inhuman cries. He died only at six o'clock in the morning of the next day. (Gitin V.G. This is a cruel animal man. M. 2002) The "masters" of the enlightened West did not lag behind their colleagues from the "wild Muscovy", as evidenced by the following example.
Quartering in French
The description given here tells of the last hours of a man who was executed in 1757 on charges of plotting to assassinate the king of France. According to the sentence, the unfortunate man was torn out the meat on his chest, arms and legs, and the wounds were poured with a mixture of boiling oil, wax and sulfur. Then he was quartered with the help of horses, and the dismembered remains were burned.
The officer of the guard wrote the following account of what happened: “The executioner plunged the shackles into a cauldron of boiling potion, with which he generously poured over each wound. Then they harnessed the horses and tied them by the arms and legs. The horses pulled strongly in different directions. A quarter of an hour later, the procedure was repeated and the horses were changed: those that were at the feet were placed at the hands in order to break the joints. Everything was repeated several times.
After two or three attempts, the executioner Samson and his assistant, who held the tongs, took out knives and cut the body at the thighs, the horses were pulled again; then they did the same with the arms and shoulders; the meat was cut almost to the bone. The horses tensed with all their might and tore off first the right, then the left arm. The victim was alive until the moment when her limbs were finally torn from her body ”/Foucoult Michel. Discipline and Panish. Harmondsworth, 1979/
Reading the description of medieval executions, it is hard to believe that they took place with large crowds of people eagerly listening to what was happening. Such executions were big events and served as a form of mass entertainment.
"Sallic Truth"
Interestingly, already in the early Middle Ages, there is a tendency to use money as a universal exchange equivalent - even in legal relations. Indicative in this respect is the “Sallic Truth”, whose action falls on the 4th-3rd centuries of our era, when the barbarization of the Roman Empire took place, accompanied by the destruction of “everything and everything”. As historians note, cruelty and aggression reached frenzy.
This can be judged by the following excerpts from the law then in force: “Whoever rips out another's arm, leg, eye or nose pays 100 solidi, but if the arm is still hanging, then only 63 solidi. The thumb that has been torn off pays 50 solidi, but if the thumb remains hanging, then only 30. And all in the same spirit. In particular, for the index finger it was necessary to pay 5 solidi more than for the rest, because it is necessary for archery.
Of course, the expediency that the legislator wanted to introduce into this norm pales in our eyes before the alleged forms of its violation. But again, this is one of the first steps towards the future emergence of rational Western law in its modern form. Over time, corrective crime control practices become widespread in most Western societies. The first prisons are created, which later developed into penitentiary systems.
London's Fleet Prison
In the 12th century, two prisons were built in London, the very mention of which struck terror into the hearts of not only criminals, but also debtors ... Built in 1130, the Fleet prison has been famous for corruption ever since. The post of guardian was hereditary and was retained by one of the families for more than three hundred and fifty years.
In the Middle Ages, people imprisoned for religious reasons languished in the Fleet - often such criminals were branded with a red-hot iron, their nostrils were mutilated and their ears were cut off. Prison torture tools included a finger vise and an iron collar that caused fatal suffocation in the unfortunate.
Prison has always been a desirable target for rebels and revolutionaries. In past centuries, the Fleet was burned to the ground and rebuilt three times. The conditions in it were so deplorable that, judging by the testimony of Moses Peet, dating back to the last decade of the 17th century, “Lice could be taken directly from the clothes of dozens of prisoners crammed into the cell.”
For punishment, a dungeon, called a "safe", was also used. This chamber of unplastered brick had neither a fireplace nor a stove, and the light came in only through a crack above the door. The dungeon was damp and foul-smelling and, as a rule, was located near the mountain, which was taken from all over the prison to one place of sewage. Usually in the "safe" were along with the living and the dead awaiting burial.
In 1729, the then warden of the prison was tried for murder after six prisoners died as a result of inhuman conditions, but he was acquitted as a result. Fleet Prison was demolished in 1846.
Russian prisons of the last century
By the end of the 19th century, there were 895 prisons in Russia. As of January 1, 1900, they contained 90,141 people.
The Englishman Vening examined the St. Petersburg, Moscow and Tver prisons in 1819. Here are his impressions: “... The two low-lying rooms were damp and unhealthy; in the first, food was cooked and women were placed, who, although they were fenced off, were in full view of all passers-by; there were no beds or beds in them, but women slept on planks; in another room there were 26 men and 4 boys, of which three men were in wooden blocks; up to 100 people were kept in this room, who had nowhere to lie down either day or night. The room for the upper-class convicts was almost in the ground; it was possible to get into it through a puddle, this room should give rise to diseases and premature death.
Ivan the Terrible greatly respected this type of execution. “He was in charge” of impalement, as well as a host of other types of savage executions, by his oprichnik, the legendary sadist Malyuta Skuratov. At the Execution Ground in Moscow, boyars, servicemen and lay people suspected of treason were impaled. But even after Ivan IV, this favorite execution of the 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 main conspiracies of the Time of Troubles. For all these "feats" the troublemaker was sentenced to one of the most cruel executions in Russia.
The son of the famous governor, Stepan Glebov, was also executed by impalement. He was accused in connection with the first wife of Perth I, Evdokia Lopukhina, which was equivalent to high treason. Adultery was already the second count of the guilty verdict. Stepan was executed in March 1718 in severe frost. The convict was first severely tortured. Then, on Red Square, in front of a 200,000-strong crowd, they were stripped naked and put on a stake.
Glebov suffered for 14 hours. A sheepskin coat was thrown over him so that the criminal would not die ahead of time in an hour, freezing in a 20-degree frost. His disgraced mistress was forced to watch the torture. When Stepan finally died, his head was cut off, and his body was thrown into a common grave. The Emperor thought this was not enough. After 4.5 years, on his orders, the Holy Synod betrayed the deceased lover to the empress imprisoned in the monastery of eternal anathema.
The French traveler and merchant Jean de Thévenot in 1687, witnessing such an execution in Egypt, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire, told that the sentenced person was forced to carry a stake to the place of execution (compare with the ancient Roman "carrying the cross"). then they forced him to kneel in a comfortable position, pressed and cut the anus with a knife (the executioner has a knife in his hand, and not some kind of dildo, as is sometimes thought).
CHAP. LXXIX.
Of Punishments in Use in Egypt.
The usual Punishments in Ægypt are Beheading, which they dextrously perform: For the Sous-basha finding a Robber, or any one that looks like such, seises him, and making him kneel, one of his Men cuts off his Head at one blow with a Shable, and yet not striking with great force neither; but drawing towards him the Shable, and so using the whole length of it, he never fails at the first blow to sever the Head from the Body. Impaling is also a very ordinary Punishment with them, which is done in this manner. They lay the Malefactor upon his Belly, with his Hands tied behind his Back, then they slit up his Fundament with a Razor, and throw into it a handful of Paste that they have in readiness, which immediately stops the Blood; after that they thrust up into his Body a very long Stake as big as a Mans Arm, sharp at the point and tapered, which they grease a little before; when they have driven it in with a Mallet, till it come out at his Breast, or at his Head or Shoulders, they lift him up, and plant this Stake very streight in the Ground, upon which they leave him so exposed for a day . One day I saw a Man upon the Pale, who was Sentenced to continue-so for three Hours alive, and that he might not die too soon, the Stake was not thrust up far enough to come out at any part of his Body, and they also put a stay or rest upon the Pale, to hinder the weight of his body from making him sink down upon it, or the point of it from piercing him through, which would have presently killed him: In this manner he was left for some Hours, (during which time he spoke) and turning from one side to another, prayed those that passed by to kill him, making a thousand wry Mouths and Faces, because of the pain be suffered when he stirred himself, but after Dinner the Basha sent one to dispatch him; which was easily done, by making the point of the Stake come out at his Breast, and then he was left till next Morning, when he was taken down, because he stunk horridly. Some have lived upon the Pale until the third day, and have in the mean while smoaked Tobacco, when it was given them. This poor wretch carried the Scales and Weights, of those who go about to visit the Weights, to see if they be just, and he had so combined with such as had false Weights, that he brought false ones also with him; so that the Searchers not perceiving the change of their own Weights, thought the other to be just. When Arabs, or such other Robbers are carried to be Empaled, they put them on a Camel, their Hands tied behind their Backs, and with a Knife make great gashes in their naked Arms, thrusting into them Candles of Pitch and Rosin, which they light, to make the stuff run into their Flesh; and yet some of these Rogues go chearfully to Death, glorying (as it were) that they could deserve it, and saying, That if they had not been brave Men, they would not have been so put to death. This is a very common and ordinary Punishment in Ægypt, but in Turkie it is but very rarely put into practice. The Natives of the Country are punished in this manner, but the Turks are strangled in Prison.
Well, how the notorious forest of stakes looked like is clearly seen from an excerpt from the novel "Jester" by James Patterson and Andrew Gross:
The people we passed by no longer greeted us like they did in the Trail. Some spat in our direction, others turned away.
“Damned rioters… heretics… go home…”
Look what you brought us! wailed a woman who was picking up leftovers from the road. - Go, go, admire what you are met with.
How are we met? What would that mean?
Suddenly the front ranks slowed down. People pointed to the pillars or crosses visible ahead. Several people ran forward. Gradually the others came along.
What we saw made some close their eyes in horror, others turn away. Even the boldest faces turned whiter than chalk. Those who had just boasted of future exploits seemed to be dumbfounded.
We were met not by crosses, we were met by people impaled on stakes. Some were still alive; they muttered something and even moved their hands. Those who were impaled upside down looked even worse. There were old people and young people, peasants and merchants. There were even women stripped naked like whores. They moaned, opened their mouths, rolled with glassy eyes.
Thirty people.
