The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1895-11-20
THE RUSSIAN KNOUT.
A BRUTAL PUNISHMENT INFLICTED
liz THE CzAR'S DOMAIN.


Claim That Its Uso In Some Respects Has
Been hbolished7-Tho Uso of tho Cruel
Instrument Described by Political
Ex;lo Who Has Suffered In Siberia.
One never knows for certain how
much of the lnout is left i'll modern
Russia. The telegraph wire still Mt times
carries tho horrid whiz of it from re-
mote Siberia, and only tho other day ]
saw mention i'll news from st. Peters
burg of u new imperial ul,ase, "abolish.
ing tho use of the knout for the punish.
Ment OF offenses committed by tho peas
antry, which has hitherto been complete.
ly Mt the mercy of tho local judges in
this respect. was under tho impress
sion that tho local judges" had been
deprived of their knout for go years or
moro, but the sender of this message
adds that statistics were submitted to
the car, showing that i'll ten years 8, 900
persons, mostly gailty of thcfts of prod
uce, had died after punishment with tho
knout.''
Granted the infliction 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 its equivalents have
had IL moro extended and bloody exist
enco than i'll any other European state
the humancr spirit of tho ago has been
felt, and one is disposed to regard as cx-
aggeraicd tho statements just quoted.
Certainly We had been given to believe
that the lnout was abolished for all but
the gray st offonso as long ago as 1866.
But Russia has never been eoyernrd
wholly by its written laws, anti there
arc regions of that empire where ukase
may be slow reach tho "local Judges.
The merciful edict of 1866, however,
stopped short ut the confines Of Siberia.
and it was with tho object of learning
to what eXtent the knOut is used in the
Siberia of today that sought an inter
view with distinguished aad very in
tercsting exile, NJ. Alexander Sochac.
zewski, on q visit to England M. So.
chaczewski, q Polo by birth, an artist
by profession, and i'll England to ar
range for tho exhibition of picture
which will move tho sympathies of ev-
cry friend of tho victims of the car,
was Il political exile in Siberia at tho
ago of Fl and suffered H.. years in tho
mines, during 21a of which no carried,
night and day, chains of which marks
are permanently craven on his ankles
Twenty year. in all were tho days of
his exile, and he counts himself happy
that he did not, like so many of his
comrades i'll oppression, perish under
that cruel yoke. Indeed he speaks with
out bitterness and says that even in ST.
beria one may often forget oneself
III. Sochaczewslli could say much about
the knout. He had been many times u
witness Of its infliction. Tho knout, in
fact, was in use i'll the mines during the
whole of n. SochacZewski' exile, and
those who were condemned to it suffered
in public.
AT the present day NJ. Sochaczcwsli
believed that it was practically abolish
cd i'll 1898, but tho governor retains a
certain discretionary power, which may
mean much i'll Siberia. Would NJ. So
chacZowski describe tho punishment?
He took half sheet of note paper and q
pen and mado q rapid sketch "That is
n
rs is we'll known, serves tho execu-
toner for handle, and tho knout it.
self is u single thong of leather, rough
and very hard, tapering toward the ex.
tremity, where it is weighted with q
ball of lead. With this the executioner
who is generally Il repricvcd murder
er-can infiict as great or as little suf
fering as he plcases
Thus" said NJ. SochacZewski, "the
prisoners would sometimes give him u
ruble to prove his skill, when no 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 q scratch With tho
Same instrument lie could kill at single
stroke, and was occasionally bribed by
condemned prisoner to do so, breaking
the ribs and almost tearing out the
heart.
What number Of strokes, asked NJ
Sochaczewsli, were ordinarily inflicted?
He replied that it was of no great con-
sequence, inasmuch as punishment with
the knout was generally regarded as Is
sentence of death. A man under sen
tence of 100 lashes might die at tho
third lash, i'll which case tho remaining
81 would be given to tho corpse. 1t was
possible, If the eXccutioner did not en-
ploy his whole art or strength, for the
victim to escape death, but he woult!
then inevitably be n cripple for tho rest
of his life There were men in the hctt
pital in his timo whom the lnout had
MANNED forever.
asked whether the lnout exhausted
the resources of penal discipline in ST.