Kommersant-History: where did executioners come from in Russia?

160 years ago, in 1863, almost all serious corporal punishment was abolished in the Russian Empire, and ordinary people expected that, following this, executioners would disappear from Russian life, but the need for them, despite all assurances, did not decrease; There were few people who wanted to become “backpack masters,” so for many years the Russian authorities had to look for ways to fill empty vacancies, and the most effective of them was found only at the beginning of the 20th century.

From the Council Code of 1649, chapter XXI

…96. And to become executioners in Moscow, select from free people, and serve as executioners with sureties, and give them the sovereign’s salary from the Sovereign’s treasury from the Robust Prikaz.

97. And in the cities, build prisons and clerks, and clerks, and prison guards, and executioners to be chosen from the towns and from the districts, from the lands, from the palace villages, and from the black volosts and from all sorts of people, and from the Patriarchal, and from the Metropolitan, and from Archbishops, and Episcopals, and from monasteries, and from all local and patrimonial lands…

From the boyar sentence, September 22, 1680

In the cities, the executioners are given an annual salary of four rubles per person by the Great Sovereign…

From the boyar verdict, May 16, 1681

Send letters to the Great Sovereign to the Voivods, so that they will take as masters of those cities from the townspeople who, by their will, want to be in that service; But if there are no hunters, the townspeople will be ordered to choose from among themselves, from young people, or from walking people, so that in every city there will be no executioners.

From the decree of the Governing Senate, June 10, 1742

The Governing Senate ordered: there should be two shoulder masters at the Provincial Chancelleries, and one person at a time in the Provincial Chancelleries, with a salary against the garrison soldier’s salary in cash, for clothes and for bread at 9 rubles 95 kopecks per year, according to those announced in that report from the Provincial and Provincial Chancelleries to the requirements and in the opinion of that Office at the Provincial and Provincial Chancelleries, for the searches and executions that occur there, if in the Gubernias it is certainly impossible to get by with less than two, then the above number should be determined and their salaries should be made from the duty money collected for cases; and if in which Gubernias and Provinces they were located, and there was no salary for them since 1738, then according to authentic certificates from that year 1738, according to the above-mentioned salary, make it from the above-described income.

From the decree of the Governing Senate in pursuance of the decree of Empress Catherine II, April 28, 1768

Her Imperial Majesty was aware through the report of the Senator, Lieutenant General, Chief General of Police and Cavalier Nikolai Ivanovich Chicherin, about the ongoing disorders and insults to citizens during public punishments, in public squares, and in order to hold those sentenced to punishment, vile people of various classes are caught by force from the spectators people, not only as soldiers and guards, but also as executioners, sometimes without making distinctions and the most honest state of people, albeit vile ones. In disgust of this, the All-Merciful deigned to indicate that this should not be done anywhere in the future; and to take and employ in this position criminals and convicted convicts similar to the one being punished…

(On March 13, 1805, by decree of the Governing Senate, due to the lack of those willing to be executioners, it was allowed to use convicted criminals as executioners in Little Russia. On December 11, 1818, this practice was extended to the entire Russian Empire. The exact rules for this were established by the decision of the State Council on December 27, 1833 years, corrected and supplemented in 1836.— “Story”.)

From the provisions of the State Council, approved by Emperor Nicholas I on November 18, 1836

…1) Executioners who come from among criminals by their voluntary consent shall be appointed to this position for an indefinite period; but if any of them turns out to be incapable of further discharging their position due to old age or illness, then distribute them… to live at a distance of 60 versts from the provincial city, for subsistence through feasible labor; those who have relatives should be given into the care of these latter, if they wish; but, in any case, the executioners must remain in their places of residence under the supervision of local authorities.

2) To appoint civilian executioners only when there are no willing criminals sentenced to punishment with lashes and exile to Siberia for a settlement or to be sent to prison companies.

3) To appoint people of free status from the lower classes to this position, according to voluntary conditions with them.

4) The annual payment to civilian executioners can range in capitals from 300 to 400 rubles, in provincial cities from 200 to 300 rubles, in addition to clothing and double the amount of food money for prisoners according to the report card, or government provisions in kind.

5) The amount required for the maintenance of civilian executioners should be allocated from the zemstvo tax.

6) Freely hired executioners, who come from the taxable state and receive the agreed payment, should not be excluded from performing monetary duties of the class to which they belong, being freed from personal duties while they are correcting their position; but their families continue to bear responsibilities, both personal and monetary, on a common basis.

7) During the entire period of office, civilian shoulder masters… must be in prison locks separately from prisoners, under the supervision of caretakers; after the expiration of the agreed period, or in case of inability, upon dismissal from their positions, leave them in their previous state.

8) When hiring executioners, announce to those wishing to enter this rank a condition obliging them to remain in a prison castle for the entire duration of the position.

9) In the event that there were no civilians willing to hold the position of executioner, appoint, for this reason, criminals as masters of the shoulder, regardless of their disagreement, with exemption from corporal punishment and with the obligation to remain in this rank for at least three years; and after this period, if they do not want to stay any longer, they will be sent to their destination in accordance with the verdicts of the courts…

From Circular of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 269 “On the procedure for keeping executioners in prisons,” December 23, 1866

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has received information that in one provincial town a murder was committed in a private apartment by an executioner who left the prison castle without permission during the absence of the warden.

Taking into account that, according to the current regulations… those serving as executioners at prison locks, even if they were civilians, must be constantly in prison, but separately from the prisoners, under the supervision of prison guards; these latter can leave the prison castle only with the permission of the authorities and with the adoption of appropriate measures to maintain order between those kept…

In case of unauthorized absence of the executioner from the prison castle, it should be considered as an escape of the prisoner, for which the perpetrators should be subject to legal liability in the prescribed manner.

From the circular of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 55 “On reducing the number of executioners in the provinces,” August 28, 1867

…By the Decree of the Governing Senate, which followed on March 14, 1866, regarding the abolition, on the basis of the Highest Decree of April 17, 1863, corporal punishment with whips and branding, the participation of executioners in the execution of court sentences over criminals was recognized as necessary only in those cases where there should be death sentences were carried out.

Guided by this decree of the Governing Senate, some provincial authorities, in view of the rare cases of condemnation to death, entered the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the idea: whether the positions of executioners at prison castles should be abolished.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs, after considering such submissions from the provincial authorities, found that the Highest Decree of April 17 did not abolish severe corporal punishment imposed on exiled convicts and exiled settlers for new crimes… but by force of the regulations set out in the Charter on exiles, punishment the whips of the mentioned criminals should be carried out publicly, then at present there is no reason to begin to abolish the duties of executioners, guided by the explained decree of the Governing Senate, especially since nothing is mentioned in it. Taking into account that by virtue of this decree of the Senate, the number of executioners can now be reduced, it would be necessary to consider whether it would not be possible, in order to protect the interests of the treasury, to leave only one executioner in the province…

From the publication “Modern Inquisition” in the newspaper “Social Democrat”, March 9, 1909

In the Khamovnichesky part there are executions almost every day. They are led by: bailiff Abrosimov, assistant bailiff Mukhanov, warden of the Khamovnitsa prison Sorin, executioner Zhabin, who is also a paramedic at the reception ward of the Khamovnitsa unit, an old priest of the neighboring Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Executions take place at 2 am…

The current executioner Zhabin charges 25 rubles per head, and treats patients brutally in the emergency room; for executions in the provinces they pay 100 rubles, excluding travel and expenses. Bailiff Abrosimov offers 3 rubles per head to firefighters and policemen to help hang them. Some immediately refuse, some agree, but soon refuse: “Conscience,” they say, “torments, they appear in dreams.” One woman was present when they were hanged, went crazy and was in a madhouse.

Whose heart will not tremble at the executions in the Khamovnichesky part: there are still very boys – the executioner takes them under the arms and puts a noose on them. Others climb onto the scaffold themselves (that is, onto a stool – there is no scaffold, there is a woodshed) and throw a noose over themselves. Recently they brought three people during the day, took them to a woodshed at night and hanged one in front of the other (this is always the case). One old man himself stood on a stool, unbuttoned his shirt, straightened his gray beard and, putting on a noose, said: “suffer less.” One Jewish girl did not want to go into the barn, but in the yard she began to resist; she was strangled with her hands right there in the yard… You can’t tell everything.

Publication by Evgeny Zhirnov