Sentence:  In 1836, near the town of Krasnophinsk, in the province of Perm, a man, about sixty years of age, was arrested as a vagrant. He received twenty blows with the <WSD>pleyt</WSD> or knout, and was sent to Siberia. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A whip, as an instrument of punishment or torture in Russia.