The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-01-28
Russian Penalties.

At the bare mention of corporal pun.
ishment in Russia, that terrible instru.
ment known as the @knout," hourished
aloft in the hands of some savage Mus
covite, instantly appears before the
minds eye of the reader. However,
the knout, which the majority of the
people of Russia still believe to be ON
nipresent in their own country, has
actually been abolished for sixty years.
Not less surprising will the statement
appear that the former criminal code
of Russia was less barbaroas than the
painful fortunes practiced in the German
and Latin countries of old Europe,
where but century ago the rack, mu-
tilation, and pyre were still in operation.
After the use of the knout was abol-
ished, runnin g the gauntlet, mainly a
military punishment, was in vogue, and
after that had been abandoned corpo-
raj punishment in Russia was confined
to the whipping bench, which last
mode of chastisement was done away
with in 1863, except in out-of-the-way
places, where il is still administered,
chiefly by local justices.
The introduction of fhe knout from
the German word "knote," knott
dates back TO the fifteenth century. 1t
was a barbarous instrument of torture,
consisting of short handle and lash of
hard leather strips, with a knot at the
end of each. The skin and flesh could
be laid bare to the bone at a second or
third stroke. Even with moderate
infiiction, the Wet IN seldom outlived
thirty lashes. During the last century
one hundred lashes was the maximum
penalty. Under Alexander ]. this
number was humanely reduced to
thirty-five.
Running the gauntlet was a hardly
less cruel mode of punishment. The
company or battalion be ng formed In
two lines, and each soldier armed with
a hazel stick, the Grim nal was pressed
forward by two privates with fixed
bayOnets, and given blow from every
man along the line, receiving, accord
ing to his sentence, from FIVE hundred
to one or two thousand lashes, the lat
ter number being paramount to the
death penalty. But the most common
instruments Of punishment was the
switch. 1t would seem that in former
times whipping was sort OF pastime
for all Russia, from the Emperor, who
whipped everybody, but who could be
whipped by nobody, down to the serf,
who was whipped by everybody, but
was allowed to whip nobody. his wife,
perhaps, excepted. Peter the Great,
who restricted the death penalty
which, however, did not prevent him
from decapitatiDg with his own hand
rebellious subject, now and then-was
al .xf ,t.la
ing the diversion frequently upon the
back of his favorite Menchikoff. Bat
even in Russia the march of civilization
has brought the people to, a realization
of the shamefulness of this practice.
1t was not accomplished, however,
until the mobiles, the clergy, the Off
Gals, and the better class of citizens
generally, had been reused against be-
ing whipped like common serfs; so
that to-day, with the exception of local
country proceedings, as before men,
toned, whipping is only practiced in
disciplinary companies and in prisons.
But Russian territory is of such vast
extent, and the Gar SO far away, that
it is easy for the police to evade the
law and occasionally resort TO the old
custom of switching an offender to
save time and expense. The death
penalty was abolished in Russia in
1853, by the Empress Elizabeth, but
by statute only, rs capital punishment
could still be inflicted by severe APP
plication of the knout. At the present
time the death penalty can only be en-
ployed against regicides or traitors.
In the reign of Alexander III. execu-
| tiona of Olish insuroents and of
Karakazoo. who made an attempt on
the life of the Gar, took place. But
between 1479 and 1882, during the ex-
istencc of Nihilism, executions have
become more frequent in Russia. -
1non.