The most famous executioners. The most famous executioners in the history of mankind

Not a single state in the world in the course of its development could do without the institution of executioners. not an exception. In Russia, in the Moscow kingdom, in Russian Empire, death sentences were passed, which were carried out by the executioner, or, as our ancestors called him, cat.

JUSTICE IN RUSSIAN

We would consider the oldest code of laws, Russian Truth, dated 1016, to be surprisingly mild. The death penalty was provided only for murder. The captured and exposed criminal was to be executed by one of the relatives of the murdered. If there was none among them, the killer got off with a fine of 40 hryvnia. In all other cases, only a monetary penalty was provided.

The highest measure of punishment was considered "stream and plunder" (expulsion of a criminal or his enslavement with complete confiscation of property). Agree, such legislation cannot be called bloodthirsty.

In a serious way, the death penalty is mentioned only after almost four centuries in the Dvina Charter of 1397. The Moscow prince Vasily Dmitrievich believed that the state did not need a serf who did not want to work, and the Russian land should be rid of such. It was also necessary to kill the one who was caught stealing for the third time.

In the Sudebnik of Ivan III (1497), the death penalty was provided for crimes against the state, murder, robbery, robbery and horse theft (how about the introduction of the death penalty for car theft?). Executed by death for theft in the church and sacrilege (dancers from Pussy Riot would be impaled). There were such types of punishment as beating with a whip, cutting ears, tongue, branding.

As the state developed, the number of articles providing for the death penalty increased. By Cathedral Code In 1649, about 60 crimes were punishable by death. The list of executions also expanded: in addition to the previous quartering and impalement, burning, filling the throat with metal, hanging and burying in the ground were added. For smoking and sniffing tobacco, the nostrils were torn. (This is how our ancestors fought for the health of the nation!)

Such a variety of penalties provided for the presence of specialists, that is, executioners. They, of course, always existed, but only in the 17th century were amateurs given the status of professionals and equated their hard work with socially useful work.

LOW PRESTIGE PROFESSION

On May 16, 1681, the Boyar Duma determined by its verdict: "In every city there can be no executioners." So if the question arises about the date of the professional holiday of Russian kat, May 16 is the best. Hunters (volunteers) from townspeople and free people were supposed to be appointed as executioners, they were considered service people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Robbery Order), and they were supposed to receive a salary of 4 rubles a year.

However, the advertised vacancies were not filled for years. The governors constantly complained that there were no hunters to break bones, beat with a whip, brand and tear their nostrils. And those chosen by coercion or tempted by high salaries soon run away. The Russian people did not want to become executioners.

The Orthodox Church openly showed its hostile attitude towards the executioners: the cat was deprived of spiritual guidance, was not allowed to take communion. If the church still accepted repentant robbers, then only one case of forgiveness by the church of the executioner is known: in 1872, the Solovetsky monastery received the former kata of Petrovsky.

The state was strengthened, and the need for masters of shoulder cases grew. In 1742, the Senate ordered each county town to acquire an executioner, the provincial city - two, Moscow and St. Petersburg - three. The salary of the executors was doubled, under Emperor Paul I twice more, and yet there was a catastrophic shortage of "specialists". In many provincial cities there was no one to carry out court sentences.

THE PROBLEM OF LACK OF STAFF

In 1804, there was only one full-time executioner in the whole of Little Russia. The governor of the region, Prince Alexei Kurakin, as it seemed to him, found a way out of the situation and sent a proposal to the capital to allow the convicts to be recruited as executioners. The Senate marveled at the prince's ingenuity and gave the go-ahead.

In 1818 the situation was repeated in St. Petersburg. Then, almost simultaneously, two executioners died in the capital and the prison administration fell into a stupor. Convicts accumulated in the prison, who, before going through the stage, had to receive their portion of the whip or brand on their foreheads. The St. Petersburg mayor Count Miloradovich remembered Kurakin's initiative and went the same way.

In 1833, the State Council extended the practice to the entire Russian Empire. And soon the executors of the convicts everywhere ousted rare well-wishers. Practically since 1833, all executioners in the Russian Empire were recruited exclusively from criminals.

SPECIAL CONDENTS

Most often, criminals were called to executioners, sentenced, in addition to imprisonment, to corporal punishment. 30-40 blows of the whip often meant death, because after such a beating, many died on the second or third day. Those who agreed to the position of executioner were exempted from flogging, that is, they saved their lives. But he was not sentenced for this. The executioner remained convicted and continued to serve his term in prison.

Initially, kats from criminals even continued to sit in a common cell with the rest of the inmates, but this practice was soon abandoned: too often executioners were found dead in the morning. “He took it and hanged himself at night, his conscience probably tortured him,” the cellmates explained to the authorities with a grin. The executioners began to be placed in separate cells, and if it was possible, separate rooms were built for them in the prison yards. And yet, the shortage of personnel for executioners remained a pressing problem until the beginning of the 20th century.

SHORT SPECIALISTS

At the beginning of the 20th century, a wave of revolutionary terrorism swept Russia. In 1905-1906, more than 3.5 thousand high-ranking government officials were killed. In response, in August 1906, the authorities introduced courts-martial, which preferred to issue very quick and exclusively death sentences for captured terrorists.

Due to the lack of executioners, hanging was replaced by execution. The execution was carried out by soldiers bound by an oath. The commanders of the districts reported that the frequent involvement in the shooting had a harmful effect on the soldiers, and demanded that civilians be hanged by regular executioners in accordance with the law. But where did you get so many of them?

The few full-time executors now spent most of their time on business trips, they were transported under escort from one city to another. Another batch of shackles awaited in the kata prison.

Executioners - "STAKHANOVTS"

The 20th century turned the world upside down. Millions of people went through the war and stepped over the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." The phrases "revolutionary necessity", "class enemy" freed a person from the burden of moral responsibility. Hundreds, thousands of volunteer executioners appeared. They are no longer social outcasts. They were given titles and orders. Among them there were also their leaders in production.

The most prominent were the brothers Ivan and Vasily Shigalev, Ernst Mach, Peter Maggo, who, being listed as employees for special assignments, carried out death sentences. How many people were executed by them, even they themselves probably do not know, the victims number in the hundreds and thousands.

However, all of them are far from Vasily Blokhin. For 29 years, from 1924 to 1953, in various positions, he was engaged exclusively in executions. He is credited with 10 to 15 thousand executed. Blokhin worked in a leather apron below the knees and a cap, put on leather leggings on his hands. For executions he received seven orders and finished his service with the rank of major general.

With the death of Stalin, the era of mass repressions ended, but death sentences continued to be issued. Now they were executed for murder, rape, banditry, espionage and for a number of economic crimes.

LOOK INTO THE Executioner's Soul

Who are they - people who kill not for personal reasons, but ... for work? How do professional hangers and shooters feel? Today, many of those who worked in the 1960s and 1970s are alive, there is no state for a long time to which they pledged to remain silent, and this gives them the right to speak.

Police officers, investigators, judges work in the justice system. Like a relay baton, they pass the criminal to each other. The last one in this chain is executioner.

ONE OF THE OLDEST PROFESSIONS

As soon as they got together in a flock, people began to establish certain rules for life within the community. Not everyone liked it. Violators, when caught, were dragged to court and punished. For a long time people knew only one kind of punishment - death. It was considered quite fair to cut off a head for a stolen bunch of radishes.

Each man was a warrior, knew how to wield a sword or, in extreme cases, a club, and could always personally execute a thief who encroached on the most sacred thing - property. If it was a murder, then the sentence was carried out with pleasure by the relatives of the murdered.

As society developed, legal proceedings also improved, the punishment already had to correspond to the severity of the crime, for a broken arm it was also necessary to carefully break the arm, and this is much more difficult than killing.

A fantasy woke up in a person, he knew the torments of creativity, such types of punishment as scourging, branding, cutting off limbs and all kinds of tortures appeared, for the implementation of which specialists were already needed. And they appeared.

The executioners were in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. This is, if not the oldest profession (let's not encroach on the sacred), then one of the most ancient, that's for sure. And in the Middle Ages, not a single European city could do without an executioner.

To execute a criminal, to interrogate a person suspected of high treason with prejudice, to carry out a demonstrative execution in the central square - there is no way without an executioner!

OFFICER OF THE MAGISTRA

Officially, the executioner was an employee of the city magistrate. A contract was concluded with him, he took an oath, received a salary, the magistrate provided the worker with a “working tool”.

The executioner was given uniforms and service housing. The executioners never put any hoodie with slits for the eyes on their heads. They were paid by the piece, for each execution or torture.

Account dated 03/25/1594 of the executioner Martin Gukleven to the Riga magistrate: he executed Gertrude Gufner with a sword - 6 marks; hung the thief Martin - 5 marks; burned a criminal for false weight of firewood - 1 mark 4 shillings, nailed 2 posters to pillory- 2 stamps.

As you can see, cutting off the head was the most expensive (this required the highest qualifications), hanging was cheaper, and burning was paid for sheer nonsense, like for nailing 1 poster to a bulletin board.

As in any craft, there were masters and virtuosos among the executioners. A skilled executioner owned several dozen types of torture, was a good psychologist(quickly determined what the victim was most afraid of), compiled a qualified torture scenario and knew how to carry it out so that the interrogated person did not lose consciousness and did not die before the end of the investigation (this was already considered a marriage in the work).

Both old and young gathered for executions in the medieval city, as if on a show. There were no cinemas, no televisions, visits by itinerant actors were rare, only entertainment was executions. In the morning, heralds walked around the city and called the people.

The poor crowded on the square, the nobility bought places in houses with windows on the chopping block. A separate lodge was built for the nobles. The executioner, like a real artist, did his best to please the audience with the heart-rending cries of the condemned and make the spectacle unforgettable, so that he would be remembered for a long time.

Such a highly qualified specialist was a rarity, so the executioners were well paid, their salaries were not delayed. There were also some kind of "premium": the clothes of the executed belonged to the master of the ax. Taking on the scaffold a noble gentleman sentenced to death, the executioner assessed whether his trousers were strong and whether his shoes were too worn.

However, the “axe workers” also had additional sources of income.

SIDE-WORKINGS

The executioner was engaged not only in executions and torture. Initially, he exercised supervision from the magistrate over the city's prostitutes. The disgraceful position of a brothel keeper was very lucrative. The city authorities soon realized what a fool they were playing by handing over the city's sex industry to the wrong hands, and to early XVI century, this practice was universally discontinued.

Until the 18th century, the executioner was responsible for cleaning the city's public latrines, that is, he performed the functions of a goldsmith. In many cities, the executioner also performed the functions of a flayer: he was engaged in catching stray dogs. And the executioner also removed carrion from the streets, drove out lepers.

However, as the cities grew, the executioners had more and more main work, and gradually they began to free them from functions unusual for them, so as not to be distracted.

In private, many executioners were engaged in healing. By the nature of their work, they knew anatomy very well. If city doctors had to steal corpses from cemeteries for their research, then the executioners did not experience problems with "visual aids".

There were no better traumatologists and chiropractors in Europe than masters of torture. Catherine II mentioned in her memoirs that a famous specialist, an executioner from Danzig, treated her spine.

The executioners did not disdain illegal earnings. For their occupations, warlocks and alchemists needed either a brush cut off from a criminal, or a rope on which he was hung. Well, where can you get all this, if not from the executioner?

And the executioners took bribes. Relatives of those sentenced to a painful execution gave: "For the love of all that is holy, give him a quick death." The executioner took the money, strangled the poor fellow, and the corpse was already burned at the stake.

The executioner could kill the one sentenced to scourging: to carry out the execution in such a way that the poor fellow died on the third or fourth day after the execution (this is how they settled scores). And, on the contrary, he could only rip the skin on the back of the condemned with a whip. A sea of ​​blood, the audience is happy, and only the executioner and the executioner tied to the pole knew that the pole takes the main force of the whip.

Even those sentenced to death paid, so that the executioner would try and cut off his head with one blow, and not bale 3-4 times.

In Germany and France, the executioners were very wealthy people. But, despite this, the work of the executioner was considered an unrespectable occupation, they were not loved, they were afraid and bypassed the third way.

Caste of the outcasts

The social status of the executioners was at the level of prostitutes and actors. Their houses were usually located outside the city limits. No one has ever settled near them. The executioners had the privilege of taking free food from the market, because many refused to accept money from them. In the church, they had to stand at the very door, behind everyone, and be the last to come to communion.

They were not accepted in decent houses, so the executioners communicated with the same pariahs - gravediggers, flayers and executioners from neighboring cities. In the same circle, they were looking for a companion or life partner. Therefore, entire dynasties of executioners practiced in Europe.

The work was dangerous. The executioners were attacked, the executioners were killed. This could be done by both the accomplices of the executed, and the crowd, dissatisfied with the execution. The inexperienced executioner John Ketch cut off the head of the Duke of Monmouth with the 5th blow. The crowd roared with indignation, the executioner was taken away from the place of execution under guard and put in prison in order to save him from massacre.

I WANT TO BECOME A SHOOTER

There were few highly qualified executioners. Each city that had its own "specialist" valued him, and almost always a clause was introduced into the contract of employment that the executioner should prepare a successor for himself. How did they become professional executioners?

Most often, executioners became inherited. The son of the executioner actually had no other choice but to become an executioner, and the daughter - to become the wife of an executioner. The eldest son accepted his father's position, and the youngest went to another city.

It was not difficult to find a place for an executioner, in many cities this vacancy was empty for years. In the 15th century, many Polish cities did not have their own master and were forced to hire a specialist from Poznań.

Often, those sentenced to death became executioners, buying their lives at such a price. The candidate became an apprentice and, under the guidance of a master, mastered the craft, gradually getting used to the cries of the tortured and blood.

DECLINE OF THE PROFESSION

In the 18th century, European enlighteners regarded the usual medieval executions as savagery. However, it was not the humanists, but the leaders of the Great French Revolution who dealt a mortal blow to the profession of the executioner, putting executions on stream and introducing the guillotine into the process.

If the possession of a sword or an ax required skills, then any butcher could handle the guillotine. The executioner has ceased to be a unique specialist.

Public executions gradually became a thing of the past. The last public execution in Europe took place in France in 1939.

On the guillotine under rushing out open windows the sound of jazz was executed Serial killer Eugene Weidman. The lever of the car was turned by the hereditary executioner Jules Henri Defurno.

Today is 60 more superfluous countries practice death sentences, there are also professional executioners working in the old fashioned way with a sword and an ax.

Mohammed Saad al Beshi, executioner Saudi Arabia(work experience since 1998), works with a sword, cutting off an arm, leg or head with one blow. When asked how he sleeps, he replies: "Strongly."

Klim PODKOVA

Initially, this article by Arkady Sushansky was published in the newspaper "Secret materials of the XX century", N3, February 2014 under the title "Skill of shoulder cases".

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In our Fatherland, the first known annalistic news about the introduction of the death penalty dates back to 996. They were executed for robbery, which caused human casualties. Even before the formation of legislation in the Russian principalities, the first international agreements in the field of law and order appeared. In the Agreement between the Russians and the Greeks under Prince Oleg in 911, there is such a phrase: “If Rusin kills a Christian (i.e. Greek) or a Christian kills Rusin, let the killer be detained by the neighbors of the slain and may they kill him.” The peace agreement of 944, concluded during the reign of Prince Igor between Russia and Greece, assumed, for example, such conditions: “XI. If the Greeks, being in the Russian land, turn out to be criminals, yes, the Prince does not have the power to punish them; but let them receive this punishment in the Kingdom of Greece... XII. When a Christian slays a Rusyn or a Rusyn Christian, the relatives of the slain, having detained the murderer, let him be put to death.

Thus, at first, the death penalty among the Russians was associated with blood feud. It is no coincidence that the relatives of the murdered person were supposed to carry it out. And such a narrow specialist as an executioner was not really needed. But soon legal consciousness began to change, and the scope of the death penalty expanded. It should be noted that Russian word"executioner" in its modern sense appeared relatively late, and in the Middle Ages the executioner was called the "swordsman" - the bearer of the sword, the squire under the militant prince, his bodyguard and in certain cases executioner of death sentences.

The executioner profession exists in the cultures, laws and customs of almost all peoples and social classes. The question of the "culture of deprivation of life" cannot be considered without analyzing the culture of execution of punishment - the professional culture of executioners. This profession can be considered one of the oldest, born simultaneously with the first proto-state formations, power and laws prohibiting something, and, accordingly, punishments for their violation. At first, the functions of the executioners were performed by ordinary warriors, who killed the victim as primitively as the enemy on the battlefield. But when the executions began to differ from a simple murder and turned into qualified public procedures, it turned out that this also required especially qualified specialists. With the strengthening of the central government and the development of cities, a system of a more professional court arises, and punishments become more complicated. Along with the old forms, such as a fine and a simple execution, new ones appear - scourging, branding, cutting off limbs, wheeling ... In some places, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b"an eye for an eye" was retained I had to break my arm). Now a specialist was needed who could carry out the punishment procedure so that the convicted person would not die if he was not sentenced to death or before all the tortures prescribed by the court were completed. Here short list what a professional executioner should have been able to do: master dozens of methods of torture, be a good psychologist and quickly determine what the victim is most afraid of (a person often testifies not so much from pain as from fear of the upcoming torture), competently write a scenario of torture and apply these tortures in such a way that the victim does not die before execution (or vice versa - died during interrogation, if such a task is set), master several methods of execution, perform this procedure with “jewelry” - precise actions so as not to cause the victim unnecessary torment, or vice versa - make the execution extremely painful if it was required by the verdict or the authorities. As an illustration, we can recall the execution of the Comte de Chalet, accused of attempting to assassinate King Louis XIII. The executioners were not found that morning, but they managed to persuade one soldier who was sentenced to death to act in this role, promising to save his life for this. The execution of the Comte de Chalet was a most terrible sight. The inexperienced executioner failed to finish off his victim not only from the first blow, but also from the tenth. After the twentieth stroke, he groaned, “Jesus! Maria!" After thirty-two it was all over.

The executioner profession has acquired an incredible number of myths and legends. For example, his traditional headdress is a fiction. In fact, the executioners did not hide their faces. The only exception is the execution of some medieval kings. The executioners had the right to hold a wedding, received income from the executed. At first they were allowed to take only what was under the belt, then - all the clothes of the convicts. The executioner took food for free in the markets. This right was granted so that he could have food that he could not buy, since many refused to accept money from his hands.

An executioner in the Middle Ages could engage in exorcism (the procedure for exorcising demons that had inhabited a person). The fact is that torture was considered one of the most reliable ways to expel an evil spirit that had taken possession of the body. Causing pain to the body, people, as it were, tortured the demon, forcing him to get out. In the church, the executioner had to stand behind everyone, at the very door, and be the last to come to communion.

In France, women were also executioners. The decree of King Louis the Saint of 1264 says: "... one who slandered or acted illegally, according to a judicial decision, will be carved with rods by a person of his gender, namely: a man - a man, and a woman - a woman, without the presence of men."
If the executioner retired, he was obliged to offer the city a candidate for his post. In his position in society, he was close to such lower strata of society as prostitutes and actors. The executioner often provided services to the townspeople - he traded parts of corpses and potions made from them, as well as various details related to the execution. Things like the "hand of glory" (a hand cut off from a criminal) and a piece of rope from which a criminal was hung are often mentioned in various books on magic and alchemy.

In essence, the city executioner was a hired worker of the magistrate, in our opinion - an official. He entered into the same contract and took the same oath as all employees. From the city authorities, the executioner received the salary due to him by law for each execution or torture, sometimes - the house where he lived, and in some German cities he was even required to wear the insignia of an employee of the magistrate on his clothes. In some cases, the executioners, like other employees, were also paid for uniforms. Sometimes it was the uniform of city employees, sometimes special, emphasizing its importance. Most of the "work tools" were paid for and owned by the city. The symbol of the executioner in France was a special sword with a rounded blade, designed only for chopping off heads. In Russia - a whip.

Who could become an executioner? The most common case is the inheritance of a "profession" from father to son. So there were whole clans of executioners. Families were closed, because the executioner's son could not marry a girl from a "normal" family - this would tarnish the reputation of the whole family of the bride. As a rule, the children of executioners married or married representatives of the same profession from neighboring cities. In Germany, in the list of the Augsburg city law of 1373, the executioner is called the “whore’s son”, and for good reason: prostitutes often became the wives of the executioners.

However, despite such a low position on the social ladder, highly professional executioners were relatively rare and were literally worth their weight in gold. They quickly became very wealthy people (the payment for this "labor" was quite large), but mastering the "art of torture and killing" turned out to be very difficult. Very few have reached true heights. Individual highly skilled executioners also received international fame. It happened that the famous executioner was invited abroad for a large reward to carry out a particularly qualified execution.

In our Fatherland, city self-government was not very developed. And therefore, only in the 17th century in Russia they decided to join Western European practice and bring in specially trained people to carry out death sentences, which became more and more. The Boyar Duma, by its resolution of May 16, 1681, determined that "in every city there can be no executioners." The governors had to pick up volunteers in the shoulder cases of the master from the city and townspeople. If there were none, it was necessary to staff the staff of executioners from vagabonds, enticing them with constant earnings. During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, executioners were entitled to a salary of 4 rubles a year. But despite this, the governors continually complained that "there are no willing people to be executioners, and those chosen by coercion run away." This "personnel problem" became especially acute during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. As a result, the Decree of the Senate of June 10, 1742 was born, which ordered the local authorities to ensure the presence of two full-time executioners in each provincial city, and one in the county. The capitals - Moscow and St. Petersburg - had to constantly maintain three shoulder masters. Their salary was indexed and equated to a soldier's - 9 rubles. 95 kopecks a year. Under Emperor Paul I, another indexation of the salaries of executors took place: the amount of monetary allowance increased to 20 rubles. 75 kopecks a year.

But with the advent of executioners recruited from among the prisoners, the authorities discovered for themselves a wonderful opportunity to save public funds. It is known that domestic executioners did not receive a salary for years. If a civilian executioner could, with a clear conscience, demand money from his superiors, then the convicts preferred not to download the rights and kept quiet. However, sometimes the executioners were lucky (usually this happened when there was a threat of a large-scale revision), and then the provincial treasury chamber, which was in charge of maintaining prisons in its jurisdiction, began to feverishly pay off debts. For example, the St. Petersburg executioner Yakovlev in 1805 unexpectedly received a salary for 8 years of service without any requests from his side. However, the salary increase did not solve the problem. In 1804, there was only one full-time executioner in the whole of Little Russia. Governor-General Kurakin sent a proposal to St. Petersburg with a proposal to officially allow the recruitment of criminals convicted of minor crimes as executioners. By decree of the Senate of March 13, 1805, it was allowed to entrust the execution of executions to prison inmates. The decree clearly spelled out the categories of criminals who could be recruited as executioners. It is curious that after the announcement of this decree on prisons, there were no people who wanted to become executioners. No one! In 1818 the situation repeated itself, this time in St. Petersburg. Then, with an interval of several months, both capital executioners died. It almost caused paralysis of the entire legal system state - there was no one to execute court sentences in terms of imposing penalties. The prisoner could not leave the capital's prison and go through the stage until he received the corporal punishment and branding due to him. The stupor into which the capital's administration fell, being unable to find a candidate for the position of executioner, caused a discussion of the problem at the very high level. In St. Petersburg, they remembered Kurakin's performance and decided that they should follow the same path. On December 11, 1818, Count Miloradovich ordered the provincial government to officially recruit executioners among criminals.

Under Nicholas I, another, more radical, indexation of the executioners' salaries took place. On December 27, 1833, the emperor approved the decision of the State Council to increase the salaries of civilian executioners. For Moscow and St. Petersburg, the amount of payment was set at 300-400 rubles per year, for provincial cities - 200-300 rubles. In addition, the executioners relied on the so-called "feed" money (for food), which could be obtained with food, as well as clothing at public expense. By the way, if they did not want to take official clothes, the executioner was paid money - 58 rubles a year (quite a lot, if you keep in mind that a pair of boots cost up to 6 rubles). In the case of the executioner leaving for execution in another city, he was paid travel allowances - 12 kopecks per day.

But such an increase monetary reward did not generate an influx of applicants. Not a single volunteer who wished to sign up as an executioner was found either in Moscow or in St. Petersburg.

Since that time, all the executioners of Russia have been criminals.

At first they were kept in ordinary prison cells. But it soon became clear that they needed to be kept separate. During the day they executed, and at night the cellmates could well execute them. In addition, prison visitors began to complain about meetings with these "specialists", who terrified them with their bloody clothes and "working" tools in their hands. For the executioners began to build special rooms in the prison yards.

A few words should be said about the way of life of executors. Despite the special status acquired with the transition to the category of prison employees, they remained prisoners and served their sentences. Often, even after serving time, they remained in prison, because life in such conditions was familiar to them, familiar and in many ways convenient.

The executioners had the right to engage in crafts at their leisure - some were good tailors and shoemakers. But, of course, it was not these activities that consumed their time.
Continuous improvement required their, so to speak, professional skills. To improve and maintain spanking skills, they made models of human bodies from birch bark, on which they practiced daily. For this, either their living quarters or the neighboring one was properly equipped. The main condition for such a room was the possibility of free movement of the executioners around the "mare" with a dummy tied to it and a high ceiling, which allowed them to swing correctly. Whipping required special skill (rods and lashes were much easier to handle), which was explained by the uniqueness of its design. A whip was attached to a wooden handle - narrow long belts twisted like a female braid, and the shock part, the so-called "tongue", was already tied to it. The length of the braid was 2-2.5 meters and was selected individually for the height of the executor. The tongue was made from a strip of thick pigskin soaked in a strong saline solution and dried under pressure in such a way as to give it a V-shape in cross section. The "tongue" had a length of about 0.7 meters, the blow was delivered by its very end. A flat blow was considered weak, unprofessional, the master had to hit only with the sharp part of the “tongue”. Hard pigskin cut through the human body like a knife. The executioners flogged usually together, while the blows were applied alternately from the right and left sides. Everyone put their blows from the shoulder of the convict to the waist in such a way that they did not intersect. Traces of whips on the back of a person left a pattern resembling a "herringbone". If the execution was carried out by one executioner, then he had to move from one side to the other in order to alternate blows from the right and left. The virtuoso possession of the whip made the executioner the master of human life. An experienced executor could beat a person to death with literally 3-4 dozen blows. To do this, usually, the executioner deliberately put several blows in one place, tearing them to pieces. internal organs- liver, lungs, kidneys, causing extensive internal hemorrhages. And, conversely, in the event that the executioner had to save the life of the punished, he could flog him so that the person remained generally intact.

Over time, the executioners in Russia got worse and worse. In April 1879, after the military district courts were granted the right to pass death sentences, a single executioner by the name of Frolov was found throughout the country, who, under escort, moved from city to city and hanged the convicts.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the shortage of executioners remained. So, for political executions, the executioner Filipyev was used, who every time had to be brought from Transcaucasia, where he permanently lived, in order to hang another revolutionary. They say that in the past, the Kuban Cossack Filipyev himself was sentenced to death, but traded his life for his consent to become an executioner. He was not the most skilled shoulder craftsman, but in a difficult situation he was rescued by physical strength. Filipyev's life ended quite naturally. After the next execution of the sentence, he was transported home to Transcaucasia under the guise of a tramp. The prisoners who followed him found out who he was and killed him.

In the 20th century, changes in attitudes in society towards shoulder craftsmen occurred almost everywhere. Now journalists are considered lucky to interview them. Books are written about them, films are made about them. For example, in 2005, the film “The Last Executioner” was released, telling about the life of the British state executioner Albert Pierpoint, who hanged 608 convicts from 1934 to 1956, receiving £15 for each. He also became famous for being able to execute an execution in a record short time - 17 seconds. But the scriptwriters and the director were attracted to him by something else: Pierpoint was forced to execute even his friend, but after that something broke in his soul and he asked to resign.

France also has its own star of the executioner art - Fernand Meyssonier, who from 1953 to 1957 executed about 200 Algerian rebels on the guillotine. He was also famous for not letting his head fall into the basket, having time to pick it up in order to demonstrate that the work was done properly. Mensonier was the successor of the executioner dynasty, but he was attracted to this profession by a purely material side - a high salary, free trips around the world, the right to have military weapon and even benefits for the content of the pub. He still makes money on his guillotine, exhibiting it in various museums.

In Saudi Arabia, the executioner Mohammed Saad al-Beshi is known, who carries out the most important sentences. His tool is a traditional Arab sword - a scimitar - with a curved blade, more than a meter long, with which he was rewarded by the government for his good work.

One of the most famous executioners in modern history The United States was Robert Green Elliot, who was listed as a "staff electrician" in Dannemora prison. From 1926 to 1939, he sent 387 people to the next world through the electric chair. For each executed, he received $150. In his autobiography, Eliot described his professional know-how: “Over the years of work, I have been able to improve the execution on electric chair. Before me, a voltage of 500 volts was used, which after one minute rose to 2000 volts. In this case, the condemned died painfully for 40-50 seconds. I first turned on a strong voltage of 2000 volts, which instantly burned all the internal organs of a person, and only after that gradually lowered the discharge.

And the most famous American executioner was Junior Sergeant John Woodd, who was entrusted with carrying out executions according to sentences passed on Nuremberg Trials. And although before that, at his home in San Antonio, he carried out 347 death sentences against murderers and rapists, he was glorified by the executions of the leaders of the Third Reich. Woodd noted that the condemned turned out to be very tenacious. Ribbentrop, Jodl, Keitel suffered in the noose for several minutes. But Streicher had to be strangled with his hands.

In the Soviet Union, until the 1950s, the function of executioners carrying out death sentences was usually performed by employees of state security agencies. The following executioners in the USSR are best known: Blokhin - the head of the commandant's office of the OGPU-NKVD, who led the executions of convicts in the 1930s and 1940s, Colonel Nadaraya - in the 1930s the commandant of the internal prison of the NKVD of Georgia, Peter Maggo and Ernst Mach. During the Great Terror of 1937-1938, operatives, police officers and even civilian party activists were also involved in executions. But the most famous executioners of the Stalin era were the Shigalev brothers. The eldest, Vasily, having received a four-year education in his native Kirzhach, studied to be a shoemaker, joined the Red Guard, was a machine gunner, and then suddenly became a warden in the infamous Inner Prison. After serving for some time in the commandant's office of the NKVD, in 1937 Vasily received the position of an employee for special assignments - this was another way to encrypt the executioners. Over time, he became an Honorary Chekist, holder of several military orders and, needless to say, a member of the CPSU (b). Vasily is also known for the fact that he was the only one of the performers who "honored" a denunciation from his colleagues. It’s hard to say what he annoyed them with, but in his personal file there is a report addressed to the Deputy People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs Frinovsky, which states that “an employee for special assignments Shigalev Vasily Ivanovich had a close acquaintance with the enemy of the people Bulanov, often visited him at apartment." In 1938, such a report was enough to fall into the hands of his colleagues at the commandant's office, but the chief of the NKVD, Frinovsky, apparently decided that it was not worth scattering such personnel, and left the denunciation without consequences. Apparently, this story taught Vasily Shigalev something, and he, impeccably fulfilling his direct duties, for which he soon received the Order of the Badge of Honor, after 1938 tried not to be seen anywhere: not a single piece of paper from his signature.

But his brother Ivan acted less cautiously. Either his three-year education had an effect, or the fact that for some time he worked as a salesman and was used to being in the public eye, but after serving in the army, he followed in the footsteps of his older brother: a warden in the Inner Prison, then a janitor, head of the pass office, and finally an employee for special instructions. He quickly catches up with his brother in the number of executions, and even overtakes in the number of awards: becoming a lieutenant colonel, he receives the Order of Lenin and, the strangest thing, the medal "For the Defense of Moscow", although he did not kill a single German. But my compatriots...
Present at the execution of Lavrenty Beria, Colonel-General (later Marshal Soviet Union) Pavel Batitsky (according to the official version) himself volunteered to carry out the sentence from a personal award pistol, thus acting as a volunteer executioner.

Since the 1950s, in the USSR, death sentences were carried out by employees of pre-trial detention centers.