Weird Tales/Volume 4/Issue 2/Punishment of the Knout in Russia

Punishment of the Knout in Russia

OLEARIUS gives a description of the manner in which he saw the knout inflicted on eight men and one woman, only for selling brandy and tobacco without a license. The executioner's man, after stripping them down to the waist, tied their feet, and took one at a time on his back. The executioner stood at three paces distance with a large pizzle, to the end of which were fastened three throngs of an elk's skin untanned, with which, springing forward, whenever he struck, the blood gushed out at every blow. The men each had twenty-five or twenty-six lashes: the woman, though only sixteen, fainted away. After their backs were thus dreadfully mangled, they were tied together two and two; and those who sold tobacco having a little of it, and those who sold brandy a little bottle put about their necks; they were then whipped through the city of Petersburgh for about a mile and a half; and then brought back to the place of their first punishment and dismissed. According to M. de la Motreye, this is what is termed the moderate knout; for when the sentence orders it between the moderate and severe, the executioner takes off pieces of flesh at every stroke. It is no wonder that many die of this cruel and inhuman punishment.