Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1895-12-05
THE RUSSIAN KNOUT.
A BRUTAL PUNISHMENT INFLICTED
IN THE CARS DOMAIN.


Claim That Its Use In Some Respects Has
Been Abolished-The Uso of the Cruel
instrument Described by q Political
Exile Who Has Suffered In Siberia.
Ono never knows for certain how
much of tho knout is left in modern
Russia. The telegraph wire still at times
carries the horrid whiz Of it from re-
mote Siberia, and only the other day l
saw mention in news from st. Peters,
burg Of a new imperial ullase, "abolish-
ing the use Of the knout for the punish
ment Of offenses committed by the peas
antry, which has hitherto been complete
ly at the mercy Of the local judges in
this respect" I was under the impress
sion that tho "local judges" had been
deprived Of their knout for 20 years or
more, but the sender Of this message
adds that "statistics were submitted to
the car, showing that in ten years 5000
persons, mostly guilty Of thefts Of prod
uce, had died after punishment with the
knout.'
Granted the infection of the knout,
the 5000 deaths are easily believed.
The instrument itself, supposing this re-
port to be true, evidently dies harder
than its victims. But even in Russia,
where the rod and it's equivalents have
had more extended and bloody exist
ence than in any other European state,
the humaner spirit Of the age has been
felt, and one is disposed to regard as ex-
aggerated the statements just quoted.
Certainly we had been given to believe
that tho knout was abolished for all but
the gravest offense as long ago as 1866.
But Russia has never been governed
wholly by its written laws, and there
are regions Of that empire where ukase
may be slow to reach the "local judges"
The merciful edict Of 1866, however,
stopped short at the confines Of Siberia,
and it was with the object Of learning
to what extent the knout is used in the
Siberia of today that sought an inter-
view with distinguished and very in
teresting exile, M. Alexander Sochac-
zewski, on a visit to England. M. So
chaczewski, Pole by birth, an artist
by profession, and in England to ar
range for the exhibition Of q picture
which will move the sympathies of ev-
cry friend of the victims Of the car,
was political exile in Siberia at the
age Of 81 and suffered AZ years in the
mines, during ~ Of which he carried,
night and day, chains of which marks
are permanently craven OH his ankles.
Twenty years in all were the days Of
his exile, and he counts himself happy
that he did not, like so many Of his
comrades in oppression, perish under
that cruel yoke. Indeed he speaks with
out bitterness and says that even in ST.
IBERIA one may often forget oneself.
NJ. Sochaczewski could say much about
the knout. He had been many times a
witness Of it's infliction. The lnout, in
fact, was in use in the mines during the
whole Of M. Sochaczewski's exile, and
those who were condemned to it suffered
in public.
At the present day M. Sochaczewski
believed that it was practically abolish
ed in 1898, but the governor retains
certain discretionary power, which may
mean much in Siberia. Would M. So
chaczewski describe the punishment?
He took half sheet Of note paper and a
pen and made rapid sketch. "That is
the knout," he said. A band of leather,
as is we'll known, serves tho execu-
toner for handle, and the knout it.
self is single thong of leather, rough
and very hard, tapering toward the ex-
tremity, where it is weighted with
ball of lead. With this the executioner
who is generally a reprieved murder
er-can infiict as great or as little suf-
fering as he pleases.
"Thus," said M. Sochaczewski, "the
prisoners would sometimes give him
ruble to prove his skill, when he would
strike one Of them, apparently with full
force, across the palm Of the hand, but
the blow would scarcely be felt and
would not leave a scratch. With the
same instrument he could kill at single
stroke, and was occasionally bribed by
a condemned prisoner to do so, breaking
the ribs and almost tearing out the
heart.
What number of strokes, asked M.
Sochaczewski, were ordinarily inflicted?
He replied that it was Of no great con-
sequence, inasmuch as punishment with
the knout was generally regarded as q
sentence Of death. A man under sen.
tence Of 100 lashes might die at the
third lash, in which case the remaining
81 would be given to the corpse. It was
possible, If the executioner did not en-
ploy his whole art or strength, for the
victim to escape death, but he would
then inevitably be cripple for the rest
Of his life. There were men in the hos
pital in his time whom the Mout had
MANNED forever.
! asked whether the knout exhausted
the resources Of penal discipline in ST.
beria "By no MEANS" said M. So
chaczewski.
He took up his pen again, and scratch
ed me a picture Of whip called the
plet, which has three tails Of twisted
leather, with bits Of metal at the tips.
1t is a little less deadly than the knout,
but an expert fogger can kill his victim
at the fifth stroke. There is a difference
in fogging with the knout and with the
plet. The knout, like the English "cat,"
is laid across the back. The three tails
OF the plet score the back downward,
from the nape Of the neck to the loins,
and every stroke, properly given, carries
away three strips of skin and bites we'll
into the flesh. Yes. M. Sochaczewski
had seen many comrades suffer under
the plet. Protest? To what end?" To
protest was to be tied up oneself The
very 1ogger ran the risk Of being cut to
pieces with knout or plet if he failed to
kill or MAIN his victim. st. Paul's.