from the book by Dmitry Sherikh "City at the Scaffold. Why and how they were executed in St. Petersburg"

The events of March 1, 1881 are textbook known: on this day the Narodnaya Volya members managed to successfully complete their many-year hunt for Alexander II, the emperor was mortally wounded near the Catherine Canal, after which he died. Then there were investigations, arrests, trial and - a death sentence.

Six were sentenced to death by hanging: Gesya Gelfman, Andrei Zhelyabov, Nikolai Kibalchich, Timofey Mikhailov, Sofya Perovskaya, Nikolai Rysakov; Because Gelfman was pregnant at the time of sentencing, she was legally granted a reprieve.

Immediately after the verdict was pronounced, a discussion arose in society about death penalty in general and the executions of March 1st soldiers in particular. Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir Solovyov appealed to the new emperor Alexander III with a call to pardon the regicides. The Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, addressed the monarch in response: “Fear is already spreading among the Russian people that they may present perverted thoughts to Your Majesty and convince you of pardoning the criminals... Could this happen? No, no, and a thousand times no - it cannot be that in the face of the entire Russian people you would forgive the murderers of your father, the Russian sovereign, for whose blood the whole earth (except for a few who have weakened in mind and heart) demands revenge and loudly grumbles that it is slowing down."

On this letter, the emperor wrote in his own hand: “Be calm, no one will dare come to me with such proposals, and that all six will be hanged, I guarantee that.”

But here is the morning of the execution, April 3, 1881: the shameful chariot, under a reinforced escort and accompanied by many onlookers, moves along the St. Petersburg streets to the Semenovsky parade ground. In the memoirs of the St. Petersburg writer Pyotr Gnedich, who then lived on Nikolaevskaya Street, there is an episode related to this morning: “The procession did not move at a slow pace, it walked at a trot.

Several rows of soldiers rode ahead, as if clearing the way for the motorcade. And then two chariots followed. People with their hands tied back and with black boards on their chests sat high above. I remember Perovskaya’s plump, bloodless face, her wide forehead. I remember Zhelyabov’s yellowish, bearded face. The rest flashed before me imperceptibly, like shadows.

But it was not they who were terrible, not the convoy that followed the chariots, but the very tail of the procession.

I don’t know where it was recruited from, what rags made it up. In the past, on Sennaya Square, near the Vyazemsk Lavra, such figures were grouped. In normal times, there are no such degenerates in the city.

These were bare-haired, sometimes barefoot people, ragged, drunk, despite the early hour, joyful, animated, rushing forward with screams. They carried with them - in their hands, on their shoulders, on their backs - ladders, stools, benches. All this must have been stolen, stolen somewhere.

These were “places” for those who wanted them, for those curious people who would buy them at the place of execution. And I realized that these people were animated because they expected rich profits from the entreprise of places for such a highly interesting spectacle.”

Nothing fundamentally new, as the reader already knows, but for Gnedich this picture turned out to be a strong impression: “Forty years have passed since then, and I definitely see this procession in front of me now. This is the most terrible sight I have seen in my life.”

Of course, that morning there were also people who expressed sympathy for the condemned, sometimes at the risk of their own well-being. Two episodes are described by the memoirist Lev Antonovich Planson, then a cornet of the Life Guards Cossack Regiment, called upon to maintain order (the reader can get acquainted with the text of his memoirs at the end of the book), some details are also in the diary of General Bogdanovich, a diligent chronicler of St. Petersburg executions of that time: “One the woman was captured for greeting Perovskaya. She flew away from the crowd into a house on Nikolaevskaya; the doorman locked the door behind her to save her, but the crowd broke down the door and beat the doorman, as well as the lady”; “Only one person said that he saw people expressing sympathy for them; everyone unanimously says that the crowd longed for their execution.”

So, a procession, two chariots, five people with “Kingslayer” signs hanging on their chests. At 8:50 a.m. they were already at the Semenovsky parade ground; the official report reports that “when the criminals appeared on the parade ground under a strong escort of Cossacks and gendarmes, the dense crowd of people visibly swayed.” From the balcony of her apartment on Nikolaevskaya, 84, the actress of the Alexandrinsky Theater Maria Gavrilovna Savina is watching what is happening (as lawyer Karabchevsky talks about in her memoirs): “The famous artist M.G. Savina, who lived at the end of Nikolaevskaya Street at that time, saw the entire sad cortege from her balcony. She claimed that, except for one of the condemned, Rysakov, the faces of the others being dragged to execution were brighter and more joyful than the faces surrounding them. Sofya Perovskaya, with her round, childish, freckled face, blushed and simply shone against the dark background of the gloomy procession.”

It is known that that morning the Semenovsky parade ground was still covered with snow “with large melting places and puddles.”

In the official report, the picture of what was happening was described in full: “A countless number of spectators of both sexes and all classes filled the vast place of execution, crowding into a tight, impenetrable wall behind the trellises of the army. A wonderful silence reigned on the parade ground. The parade ground was surrounded in places by a chain of Cossacks and cavalry. Closer to the scaffold, first mounted gendarmes and Cossacks were located in a square, and closer to the scaffold, at a distance of two or three fathoms from the gallows, were the infantry of the Life Guards Izmailovsky Regiment.

At the beginning of the ninth hour, the mayor, Major General Baranov, arrived at the parade ground, and soon after him the judicial authorities and persons from the prosecutor's office: the prosecutor of the judicial chamber Plehve, the acting prosecutor of the district court Plyushchik-Plyushchevsky and comrades of the prosecutor Postovsky and Myasoedov ... "

Let's pause the description for a second and pay attention to Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Pleve, who then held a rather modest prosecutorial position, but soon made a high-profile career: director of the police department, senator, minister of internal affairs. In 1904, he, too, would become a victim of political terror: not far from the Obvodny Canal, the Socialist-Revolutionary Yegor Sozonov would throw a bomb at his carriage.

And further: “Here is a description of the scaffold: a black, almost square platform, two arshins in height, surrounded by small railings painted black. The length of the platform is 12 arshins, width 9. There were six steps leading up to this platform. Opposite the only entrance, in a recess, stood three pillory pillars with chains on them and handcuffs. These pillars had a small elevation, to which two steps led. In the middle of the common platform there was a stand necessary in these cases for the executed. On the sides of the platform rose two high pillars, on which was placed a crossbar with six iron rings for ropes on it. Three iron rings were also screwed into the side pillars. Two side posts and a crossbar on them depicted the letter “P”. This was the common gallows for the five regicides. Behind the scaffold were five black wooden coffins with shavings in them and canvas shrouds for criminals sentenced to death. There was also a simple wooden ladder lying there. At the scaffold, long before the executioner arrived, there were four prisoners in sheepskin coats - Frolov’s assistants.

Behind the scaffold stood two prisoner's vans, in which the executioner and his assistants were brought from the prison castle, as well as two dray carts with five black coffins.

Soon after the mayor's arrival at the parade ground, executioner Frolov, standing on a new unpainted wooden staircase, began attaching ropes with loops to five hooks. The executioner was dressed in a blue coat, as were his two assistants. The execution of the criminals was carried out by Frolov with the help of four soldiers of the prison companies, dressed in gray prison caps and sheepskin coats.”

A blue outfit, not red, like in the past. It is not known why Frolov decided to change his appearance: perhaps the red color was already acquiring a stable revolutionary meaning. Be that as it may, the painting by the Soviet artist Tatyana Nazarenko, widely known and now kept in the Tretyakov Gallery, dedicated to the execution of March 1st soldiers, is inaccurate in detail: in it, an executioner in a red shirt attaches a rope, standing on a scaffold made of unpainted wood (in fact, as we know , it was painted in the traditional black color).

And again the report, the terrible procedure in all its details: “Zhelyabov, Perovskaya and Mikhailov were put in three pillory places; Rysakov and Kibalchich remained standing at the extremes near the railing of the scaffold, next to the other regicides. The convicted criminals seemed quite calm, especially Perovskaya, Kibalchich and Zhelyabov, less so Rysakov and Mikhailov: they were deathly pale. Mikhailov’s apathetic and lifeless, as if petrified, face stood out especially. Unperturbed calm and spiritual humility were reflected on Kibalchich’s face. Zhelyabov seemed nervous, moved his hands and often turned his head towards Perovskaya, standing next to her, and twice towards Rysakov, being between the first and second. A slight blush wandered across Perovskaya’s calm, yellowish-pale face; when she drove up to the scaffold, her eyes wandered, feverishly gliding over the crowd and then, without moving a single muscle of her face, she gazed intently at the platform, standing at the pillory. When Rysakov was brought closer to the scaffold, he turned to face the gallows and made an unpleasant grimace that momentarily twisted his wide mouth. The criminal's light reddish long hair flowed over his wide, full face, escaping from under his flat black prisoner's cap. All the criminals were dressed in long black prison robes.

While the criminals were ascending to the scaffold, the crowd was silent, anxiously awaiting the execution.”

After the condemned were placed in the pillory, the command “on guard” was sounded and the reading of the verdict began. Those present bare their heads. Then the small beat of drums - and the very last preparations for the inevitable began: “The condemned almost simultaneously approached the priests and kissed the cross, after which they were each led by the executioners to their own rope. The priests, having made the sign of the cross over the condemned, came down from the scaffold. When one of the priests gave Zhelyabov the cross to kiss and made the sign of the cross over him, Zhelyabov whispered something to the priest, kissed the cross passionately, shook his head and smiled.

Cheerfulness did not leave Zhelyabov, Perovskaya, and especially Kibalchich, until the moment they put on the white shroud with a hood. Before this procedure, Zhelyabov and Mikhailov, taking a step closer to Perovskaya, said goodbye to her with a kiss. Rysakov stood motionless and looked at Zhelyabov all the time while the executioner put the fatal long shroud of the hanged on his companions in the terrible crime. Executioner Frolov, having taken off his undershirt and remaining in a red shirt, “started” with Kibalchich. Having put a shroud on him and put a noose around his neck, he pulled it tightly with a rope, tying the end of the rope to the right post of the gallows. Then he proceeded to Mikhailov, Perovskaya and Zhelyabov.

Zhelyabov and Perovskaya, standing in their shroud, shook their heads repeatedly. The last in line was Rysakov, who, seeing the others fully dressed in shrouds and ready for execution, visibly staggered; his knees buckled when the executioner quickly threw the shroud and cap over him. During this procedure, the drums continuously beat small but loud beats.”

And the finale: “At 9:20 a.m., executioner Frolov, having completed all preparations for the execution, approached Kibalchich and led him onto a high black bench, helping him up two steps. The executioner pulled back the bench, and the criminal hung in the air. Death befell Kibalchich instantly; at least his body, having made several weak circles in the air, soon hung without any movements or convulsions. The criminals, standing in a single row, in white shrouds, made a grave impression. Mikhailov turned out to be taller than everyone else.

After the execution of Kibalchich, Mikhailov was executed second, followed by Perovskaya, who, having fallen heavily from the bench in the air, soon hung motionless, like the corpses of Mikhailov and Kibalchich. The fourth to be executed was Zhelyabov, the last was Rysakov, who, being pushed off the bench by the executioner, tried for several minutes to hold onto the bench with his feet. The executioner's assistants, seeing Rysakov's desperate movements, quickly began to pull the bench away from under his feet, and the executioner Frolov gave the criminal's body a strong push forward. Rysakov’s body, having made several slow turns, hung also calmly, next to the corpse of Zhelyabov and the other executed.”

As detailed as the official report is in describing the preparations for the execution, it is just as stingy with words when it comes to the execution itself. One can guess the reasons: the hanging of the March 1st soldiers was accompanied by dramatic circumstances that had never happened before in the history of St. Petersburg executions. Timofey Mikhailovich Mikhailov was hanged three times! When the executioners first knocked the bench out from under his feet, the rope broke and Mikhailov fell onto the platform; during the second attempt at hanging, when Mikhailov himself climbed onto the bench again, the rope broke again.

Lev Antonovich Planson recalled: “It is impossible to describe the explosion of indignation, cries of protest and indignation, abuse and curses that erupted from the crowd that flooded the square. If the platform with the gallows had not been surrounded by a comparatively impressive squad of troops armed with loaded rifles, then, probably, there would have been nothing left of the gallows with the platform, and of the executioners and other executors of the court’s sentence in an instant...

But the excitement of the crowd reached its climax when they noticed from the square that Mikhailov was about to be hanged on the gallows again...

More than thirty years have passed since that moment, and I still hear the roar of the fall of Mikhailov’s heavy body and see his dead mass, lying in a shapeless heap on a high platform!..

However, a new, third rope was brought from somewhere by the completely confused executioners (after all, they are people too!..)

This time it turned out to be stronger... The rope did not break, and the body hung above the platform on a rope that was stretched like a string.”

The diary of Alexandra Viktorovna Bogdanovich gives another version, even more terrible: according to her, Mikhailov was actually hanged four times. “The first time he broke off and fell on his feet; the second time the rope came undone, and he fell to his full height; for the third time the rope stretched; the fourth time he had to be lifted so that death would follow sooner, since the rope was loosely tied. The doctors kept him in this position for 10 minutes.”

And also from her diary: “Zhelyabov and Rysakov had to suffer for quite a long time, since the executioner Frolov (the only executioner in all of Russia) was so shocked by the failure with Mikhailov that he put a noose on both of them badly, too high, close to the chin, which slowed down the onset of agony. I had to lower them a second time and turn the knots straight to the back bone and, tying them tighter, again leave them to their terrible fate.”

There was no way to write about all this in an official report designed to demonstrate the impeccable execution of the monarch’s will!

It all ended at 9:30 am. The drumming stopped, five black coffins were brought onto the scaffold, in which the removed bodies of the executed were placed; This procedure began with Kibalchich’s body. “The coffins were filled with shavings at the head,” for some reason the compiler of the official report tells us. After examining the bodies, the coffins were sent to the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery: first by carts, then by railway to the nearby Obukhovo station. The former caretaker of the cemetery, Valerian Grigoryevich Sagovsky, recalled how in the early morning of April 3 a steam locomotive with a freight car attached to it arrived at the station, how a hundred Cossacks arrived to guard the funeral, and how the burial itself took place: “They brought boxes with the bodies of those executed to the grave and began to lower them. The boxes were so bad, they were thrown together so quickly that some of them broke right away. The box in which the body of Sofia Perovskaya lay was broken. She was dressed in a teak dress, the same one in which she was hanged, in a cotton jacket.

There was an eerie silence as the coffins were lowered into the grave. No one uttered a single word... Immediately the bailiff gave the order to fill up the grave, level it with general level land."

IN Soviet years Almost on the burial site, buildings of a house-building plant grew up.

And on the parade ground, already at 10 o’clock in the morning, the mayor gave the order to dismantle the scaffold, which was carried out by specially hired carpenters. Meanwhile, the executioners - according to eyewitnesses - opened a trade in pieces of ropes taken from the gallows, and there were many who wanted to buy them “for good luck.”

After the fact: Gesya Gelfman passed the fate of her comrades, but her life also ended tragically. She gave birth in prison, and although, under pressure from the European public, the emperor replaced her death sentence with indefinite hard labor, Gelfman soon died: the difficult birth that took place without medical care, and the loss of a child - he was taken from his mother shortly after birth.

And one more detail, not known to everyone: in the mid-1880s, the famous Russian battle painter Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin wrote “Trilogy of Executions”; the first picture depicted a crucifixion in ancient Roman times, the second a “cannon blast in British India,” and the third was simply titled “Execution by Hanging in Russia.”

This picture is also called “Execution of Narodnaya Volya” or even more specifically – “Execution of March 1st”. On April 3, 1881, Vereshchagin was not present at the Semenovsky parade ground; Apparently, he visited the place of execution later. The work on the triptych was helped by the fact that Vereshchagin did observe the executions with his own eyes, this is known for certain. The famous pre-revolutionary journalist Alexander Amfitheatrov recounted one battle-player’s monologue this way: “Calmly, without trembling, like a lion vigilantly, grasping everything, observing, he was present at such scenes that filled with horror.

He talked about the execution of political figures:

– When the bench is pulled out, the person will spin. He will begin to move his legs quickly and quickly, as if he were running. And with the elbows of his bound hands he makes upward movements, like a slaughtered bird fighting. The rope is spinning. It twists, stops and starts to unwind. Slowly at first, then faster, then slowly again. Stop again. And again it starts spinning in the other direction. And so, first in one direction, then in the other, ever slower, shorter, and finally the body hangs. A puddle forms under it. And as soon as the execution is completed, representatives of the “better society” rush for a piece of rope “for luck in the cards.” They tear at each other.

He told how he painted his paintings.

In all the brutal details."

Five gallows in Vereshchagin's painting. Square crowded with people. Snowy winter. Not a completely accurate depiction of the circumstances, to be sure.

V. Vereshchagin "Execution of the First March soldiers"

Jan Neumann. Parting. S. Perovskaya and A. Zhelyabov

Such cases, as those described below, should be recognized as extremely undesirable excesses, indicating the low qualifications of the executioners or wear and tear of the equipment. Moreover, until the 40s of the 20th century, random criminals sentenced to long prison terms were sometimes recruited as executioners, promising them pardon or early release.

In 1803, a certain Joseph Samuel was to be hanged in Australia. However, the rope on the gallows broke. This happened a second and a third time. After this, the judges decided that there was a sign from heaven, and Samuel was pardoned.

On February 10, 1885, a similar story occurred in Great Britain. Here is what the newspaper “Independence Belge” wrote about this: “The small town of Exeter ... became the theater of a terrible scene, which is destined to stir up talk in all countries where the question of the death penalty is more or less on the minds. The memory of the murder of Miss Case, Queen Victoria's lady of state, by her footman John Lee is still fresh. This latter was to be executed this morning in the yard of Exeter Gaol. The fatal moment has arrived. The gallows was erected by the executioner Berry, the successor of the deceased Marwood. The criminal was taken out. His head, according to custom, was covered with a black cap. They put a rope around his neck and placed him on a ladder, which was supposed to lower so that the body of the criminal would hang. After the priest read the parting prayer, a signal was given. The executioner pulls out the bolt holding up the ladder. A universal cry of amazement is heard. The bolt is pulled out, but the ladder does not lower, and the condemned man, who has already prepared to give up his life, stands on his feet, trembling with excitement. Executioner Berry doesn't understand anything. Together with two prison guards, he kicks the ladder in the hope that it will go down. Wasted work. After three or four minutes of fruitless effort, the executioner considers it necessary to inspect the execution apparatus, and John Lee, with a rope around his neck, is taken back to prison. An inspection leads the executioner to believe that the boards of the ladder have swollen due to dampness. In the firm belief that the ladder will lower under the weight of several people, the executioner calls for help from several prison guards. The criminal is again taken to the scaffold. The priest again reads a prayer, then six or seven people kick the ladder at once, but this time the ladder does not move. The convict is taken away again. The executioner and his assistants are busy again at the gangway. It seems to him that now everything will be as it should. For the third time, John Lee is taken out, and for the third time, history repeats itself - the ladder just doesn’t want to go down! Then deeply agitated journalists and other witnesses to this scene stand up for the convicted person. A rope is removed from John Lee's neck and a black cap is removed from his head. The eyes of the audience see the deathly pale face of the criminal: he clicks his teeth, his legs give way. The prison authorities abandon the idea of ​​continuing the execution and decide to report what happened to the Minister of the Interior.”

This story ended with the queen, on the proposal of the minister, replacing John Lee's death penalty with hard labor.

Continuing the conversation about the rabble who became executioners not out of conviction in the fairness of the law and the inevitability of punishment for the crime committed, but simply to save their own skin, it is necessary to mention Paula Sokowski. He was a 17-year-old communist when the fascists captured him at the border in 1937: Paul was going to Spain to fight against fascism in the ranks of the Republican army. But instead he ended up in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. According to one version, he subsequently killed a guard in a quarry with a pickaxe when he began to mock an elderly prisoner. After keeping Paul in a punishment cell for several months and breaking him physically and mentally, the Nazis made him a camp executioner.

According to another version, everything happened differently. He was called and asked: “If you had a child and a scoundrel abused him, would you be able to hang him?” Paul replied yes. And the next day they gave him such a “criminal”. In fact, he was a Soviet prisoner of war (there was already a war with the USSR). Sokowski strung him up on the gallows. In total, Sokovsky personally has 34 executions, and the former communist took a “collective” part in the extermination of 12 thousand prisoners. In 1946, he was identified by a former concentration camp prisoner, and the executioner was sent to Vorkuta. Ten years later he was handed over to the authorities of the GDR, where Sokowski was in political prison until 1970. In 1997, the historian Regina Scheer tracked him down, in a conversation with whom he rejected all accusations against him, saying that he “only set up gallows and carried away corpses.”

But in the Stasi archives they found Paul’s own description of the first execution he committed: “When you kill, you don’t feel anything. You don’t even feel afraid that your turn will come. At night I had a nightmare: the executed man was standing in front of me, blood was oozing from his wounds. I jumped out of bed and called the guard.” Then the nightmares stopped tormenting him: No one felt compassion for me, and I didn’t feel compassion for anyone.”

The traitor, however, repented by the end of his life. He was asked, “What would you like to do differently in your life if it were possible?” The bloated communist replied: “I wouldn’t want to live.” Now he, terminally ill, lives in a Berlin nursing home, and no longer makes contact with any of the journalists, especially Soviet ones. The same goes for Ivan Frolov, the famous executioner in Russia. Convicted in 1869 of reckless murder, and then running away twice and even participating in robbery, he eventually got himself 30 years and 10 months in prison. It seemed that there was almost no hope left for freedom: by the time of his sentencing he was 30 years old. But suddenly an opportunity arose - it so happened that in St. Petersburg it was necessary to execute the political criminal Dubrovin, but there was no regular executioner. Or rather, there was one of the “free men,” but he got drunk, the dog, and disappeared somewhere. But things don't wait. Ivan was offered to carry out the execution, and as a reward they promised 10 rubles in silver and knock off six months of his sentence. Frolov agreed, especially since soon they began to pay him 15 rubles for each execution, and besides, they brought the hour of release closer. In this way he worked until the day when he had to hang Alexander Ulyanov, an old friend from childhood. After this execution, Ivan committed suicide.

American soldier John Wood, on the contrary, never felt remorse for his execution. He volunteered for this role. B. Polevoy notes: “The work he took on is necessary, necessary. Perhaps he agreed to it not even out of desire, but by order...” However, not a single Soviet volunteer was allowed to do this “necessary task,” although there must have been plenty of them, too. In addition, J. Wood - this short, massive guy, with a long, fleshy, hooked nose and a triple chin - having passed the so-called. “war” as an unknown sergeant, returned home as a celebrity. Long before the execution, he began actively giving out interviews and autographs, and after the execution of the sentence, he sold pieces of rope on which the criminals were hanged. Sometimes the gallows was used as an additional argument to the requirement of the law. Thus, during the installation in Rome of an Egyptian obelisk, brought to Italy by Caligula’s legionnaires, at the time of the last phase of the lifting, the Pope who was monitoring the work, under pain of death, forbade the workers to make noise, so that sharp sounds would not disturb the balance of the carefully lifted 440-ton colossus. The cost of the work was too high - after all, the obelisk was raised by about a thousand workers over the course of four months. Even coughing and sneezing were strictly forbidden. To reinforce the threat, a gallows with an executioner was placed next to the construction site. However, the incident still happened. IN last moment the ropes became very tense, and it became clear that they were about to burst. Then one of the workers, sailor Domenico Bresca, without being taken aback, loudly commanded: “Water on the ropes!” The advice of the experienced sailor was immediately followed, and the ropes soaked in water withstood the weight of the gigantic obelisk. However, Bresca was sentenced to death for disobeying the order, and only later did the pope revoke this order.

Strangulation, unlike hanging, was performed only in prison. Therefore, descriptions of eyewitnesses of such an execution have not reached us and we know only the general features of the technology. Besides Ancient Greece, V ancient world it was used quite often under the emperor Tiberius, but already in the time of Nero this type of execution is said to have long fallen out of use. In those days, and even later, during the Inquisition, the condemned man was strangled in the following way: he was seated on a bench, a rope with a noose was thrown around his neck, and two people pulled it in opposite sides. Apparently, this is how the participants in the Catiline conspiracy - Lentulus and four of his associates - were executed.

In the final part of the auto-da-fe, when the criminals against the faith had already been sentenced and some of them were sent to the stake, strangulation also sometimes took place. This happened in two cases: either the heretic managed to renounce his views, but the gravity of the crime he committed still did not exempt him from death, or if the executioners were dishonest about their duties, he could, by paying a certain fee to the perpetrator, buy himself the right to be strangled in front of those waiting his fire. Then the condemned man was strangled in the same way, two with one rope, or, if the executioner was significantly superior to him in strength and build, then he threw a tow rope around the condemned man’s throat and, putting him on his back, slowly walked around the prepared fire.

The garrote, a typically Spanish invention, consisted of a small stick with a dead (non-tightening) noose attached to it, which was thrown around the neck of the condemned person, and by rotating the stick, they strangled him. More accurate description Unfortunately, it didn’t reach us. It was actively used in wars of conquest in Latin America. In particular, the Indian leader Atahualpa was executed by garrote after he was unable to pay the full ransom amount assigned by himself.

Finally, civil courts medieval Europe a special chair was used for suffocation. The condemned person was seated on it, a clamp was put on his throat, which was connected to a screw behind the back of the chair. At the same time, they often didn’t even tie their hands, because... he could not interfere with the execution. The executioner, standing behind the back of the chair, slowly rotated the screw for half an hour, gradually cutting off the criminal’s access to oxygen. This method of execution is rightly considered one of the most painful, since there are a sufficient number of people in the world who can withstand physical pain, but there is not a single person who easily endures the agony of suffocation.

I think there is no need to blame medieval civilization in barbarism and cruelty, because many American Indian tribes already in modern times practiced a similar slow method of strangulation: the victim was tied to a tree before sunrise, with a thin strip of raw skin thrown around his neck. Under the rays of the rising sun, the skin dried out and shortened, gradually suffocating the doomed man.

Hanging in violation of established rules, such as: hanging by the legs, mustache, breasts, genitals, rib, jaw, female breasts, as well as, for example, hanging on the same crossbar of the nobleman Ovtsyn and a real sheep, committed by order of Ivan the Terrible, should be classified, rather, as exotic types of the death penalty, not enshrined in the laws of countries around the world, and considered in the corresponding article.

Loris-Melikov's assistant and confidant was called Benedikt Karlovich Millers, court councilor. About forty-five years old, with gray tousled hair and an intelligent, dry face, he sat comfortably in a small, dimly lit office: the windows there were hung with heavy burgundy curtains and, despite the afternoon, the light was lit by faintly hissing coal lamps.
“Please sit down, Mr. Ryazanov,” said Millers, sorting through the heaps of papers on the table.
There were two chairs in front of the table, but on both of them lay the same papers, and Ivan Ivanovich, not without difficulty, freed up the space he needed.
“Wait a minute, otherwise I’ll forget what I was looking for,” Millers said, continuing to dig through the documents.
Out of boredom, Ryazanov began to look at the books lying in complete disarray on the edge of the table, most of them familiar at least by their titles: the first volume of “Proceedings of the Ethnographic Statistical Expedition to the Western Russian Territory”, the Code of Punishments of 1846, Collection of the Kharkov Historical and Philological Society, scattered numbers of “The Week” and “Kievlanin”, as well as in German and English: “History of the German People” by Jansen, reprint of “Glossography” by Blount, “On the Truth Contained in Popular Superstitions” by Mayo, “Essays on Elia” by Lam, “On Crimes and punishments” by Ludovico Sinistrari – however, this one is already in Italian. The “List of Land and Freedom” and the twenty-year-old “Polar Star” from the London edition, stained either with wine or blood, looked rather wild here.
There was also a variety of literature on spiritualism - a very sensible and complete selection, in which Ivan Ivanovich noticed Mendeleev’s well-known “Materials for judgments about spiritualism”, the St. Petersburg edition of William Crookes “Spiritism and Science. An experimental study of psychic power”, the books “Mesmerism, Odilism, Table Turning and Spiritualism” by Carpenter and “Spiritism” by Hartmann, as well as magazines: Aksakov’s “Psychische Studien”, published in Leipzig, and the Russian “Rebus”.
- Are you curious? – Millers asked, finally freed. He took a small sheet of paper, which he immediately tore up carefully and threw into the basket under the table.
Interesting selection of books, your honor. I didn’t expect to see such people in Mikhail Tarielovich’s Commission,” Ryazanov boldly noted. - Except perhaps this. – And he tapped his finger on the “Land and Freedom Sheet”.
You can see a lot in Mikhail Tarielovich’s Commission, although almost all of these books are my personal property. I apologize for keeping you waiting, Mr. Ryazanov. Do not be surprised by the confusion on my desktop, for it is not confusion, but only I know the order. It’s much more convenient, I assure you... Well, let’s get down to business. Don’t be offended if the questions I ask remind you, albeit chaotic, but interrogation: this is my style, what can I do, this is the system.
“I’m not offended, your honor,” Ryazanov assured.
– I know, I know... I know much more about you than you think, Mr. Ryazanov. Do you really believe that the count invited you without bothering to make all kinds of inquiries?
“He told me... and even revealed that someone tried to dissuade him from the idea of ​​inviting me to the Commission.
“Strictly speaking, you are not invited to the Commission,” said Millers, again moving his hands in the papers. – In the positive case, you will be as if hired by the Commission - such a practice is extremely convenient, and you will work under my direct supervision. The commission is too conspicuous an institution for some matters... But let’s return to the questions that I have prepared for you. Please answer in detail and without concealment, Mr. Ryazanov. First, tell me what languages ​​and to what extent do you speak?
– French and German – excellent, Latin and English – fair.
– You forgot Romanian.
– Oh, your honor, I speak Romanian to a rather modest extent... I could just as well be talking about Italian and Hungarian.
- Great. And please leave the title. We are alone, we won’t fix things... What made you break off relations with your fiancee, Mrs. Mamaeva?
– What does this have to do with my possible work, Mr. Millers?...
- Nobody is captivating you, Mr. Ryazanov. You can leave immediately if you don't want to answer. I believe that a career in law suits you completely, and I would not like to...
- No, no, let's continue! - Ryazanov said quickly.
In fact, who is Aglaya to him now? What's wrong with Millers wanting to know about their relationship and the reasons for the breakup - given that Aglaya is clearly on the secret surveillance lists of the gendarme department, to which Millers has undoubted access.
“As you apparently know,” said Ivan Ivanovich, “Ms. Mamaeva has been convicted of having connections with an organization called “ People's will"; with such gentlemen as Voinoralsky, Kovalik, Myshkin... After I found out, we had a rather unpleasant conversation, and then a break. I can assure you that for more than three months I have not maintained any relationship with Mrs. Mamaeva. At the same time, I see no reason for her arrest: Mrs. Mamaeva’s interest in famous personalities is the same as that of the majority of representatives of Russian students and intelligentsia, that is, contemplative and enthusiastic. There is no danger Ms. Mamaeva...
-...It's gratifying, gratifying. I don’t need to listen to a defensive speech, Mr. Ryazanov, I only asked you to answer my question, which is what you did. Do you know Mr. Wagner, the spiritualist?
– Familiar, and close enough. I visited his salon several times. I saw him just the day before yesterday, if you're interested.
– Do you seriously believe in spiritualism?
– Let’s put it this way: this is the unknown, Mr. Millers. Although I can convincingly prove to you with equal success both the reality of communication with the world of spirits and the fact that this is a hoax. However, I have known some cases after which I cannot easily dismiss spiritualism. By the way, you have books and magazines on your table from which you can draw polar opposite conclusions on this matter.
- But the Church...
– I don’t believe in the Lord, Mr. Millers. I'm an atheist. Sorry to interrupt you, but if this is an obstacle...
- It’s okay, Mr. Ryazanov, it’s okay. Now, Mr. Ryazanov, I would like to hear from you in more detail about your trip to the Romanian Principality. Please take your time, this is a very important part of your biography that I would like to know almost everything about.
– Why him, I would like to ask? I expected that you were interested in practice at the Surete.
- Because you, Mr. Ryazanov, visited very interesting places - such as the island of Snagov, Sighisoara and Targovishte. Each individual place seems to be of no interest to an outsider, but in such a combination... The Sûreté also interests me, without a doubt, but first I want to hear about the Romanian voyage.
“The selection of books on your table is beginning to become clearer to me, Mr. Millers,” said Ryazanov and tapped his finger on the hard Mayo cover.
“Well, little by little we will understand each other,” Millers smiled. – Let’s start with Sighisoara, the first stage of your most interesting journey through the Romanian lands...

2

On February 20, the Chief Chief of the Supreme Administrative Commission, Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov, at the corner of Bolshaya Morskaya and Pochtamtskaya, near the house where the count lived, was almost killed by the Slutsk Jew Ippolit Mlodetsky. His “lefoche” was aimed straight at the general’s side, and only by a miracle did Mlodetsky miss.
“These Jews don’t know how to do anything right,” Loris said angrily. At least that's what Ivan Ivanovich was told. He himself was perplexed to learn that the attempt on Loris-Melikov’s life was not sanctioned by Narodnaya Volya. It happened in the presence of two sentries standing at the entrance, two mounted Cossacks escorting the crew, and, of course, in view of the policemen hanging out right there.
Two days later, from a very early hour, people gathered on the Semyonovsky parade ground. Ryazanov was later interested in the police calculations - he was told that a little less than half a hundred thousand had gathered, but the newspapers wrote that all sixty, which was not difficult to believe: on the parade ground itself, which was quite spacious, everyone did not fit, although they brought barrels, boxes and other elevations, therefore the roofs of the surrounding houses, and the large frames of the shooting range targets, and even the carriages of the Tsarskoye Selo road, standing in rows at a distance, were black with people. Ryazanov saw how a curious woman and either relatives or just good people they began to lift her back up with curses.
A simple gallows made from three beams was painted black, as was the pillory dug next to it. Representatives of the authorities had already gathered on a special wooden platform, also freshly built, among whom Ryazanov spotted Mayor Zurov and two familiar officials from the military district court.
Around the gallows, four battalions of guards infantry were lined up in a square with a detachment of drummers in front, and a gendarmerie squadron was located on the outside of the square.
Could the unfortunate Jew-philistine from godforsaken Slutsk have thought that such splendor would be assembled in his honor - even his deathbed one?!
Could he have hoped that tens of thousands of people would see his death and that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, would read about it in the newspapers?!
“Can you believe it, Ivan Ivanovich, places range from fifty kopecks to ten rubles,” said Kuzminsky, rubbing his hands chillily.
Stepan Mikhailovich Kuzminsky was also a lawyer, three years older than Ryazanov, and practiced advocacy; and even though he didn’t win the laurels of Kony or Spasovich, he lived comfortably. They met by chance, having already arrived with different sides to Semenovsky parade ground.
- What? – asked the distracted Ivan Ivanovich.
- From fifty kopecks to ten rubles for space, I say, as if at the opera. Would you like to buy it?
“I can see perfectly from here,” Ryazanov responded with irritation.
“And in 1949 the frost was, by the way, forty degrees,” said a man standing next to them and obviously listening to the conversation. He spoke in a low voice, almost in a whisper, but, undoubtedly, to the public.
Ryazanov carefully examined his neighbor. Short, thin, but rather broad-shouldered, with a sallow and sickly face, with a small brown beard, he was quite old - and his sunken, dull eyes looked especially old. It seems that somewhere Ivan Ivanovich had already seen this man, but he could not find in his memory who he was.
“They called in threes,” he muttered just as dully, “and I was in the third line, and I had no more than a minute to live... At fifteen steps - fifteen privates with non-commissioned officers, with loaded guns...”
– Excuse me, aren’t you talking about the execution of the Petrashevites? – Kuzminsky asked with interest, continuing to squeeze his frozen palms.
The old man was about to answer something, seemingly nodding affirmatively, but then the crowd began to chatter:
- They're taking it! They're driving!
A tall carriage appeared, on which Mlodetsky sat with his back to the coachman. His hands were tied to the bench with straps, and a sign was attached to his chest, which clearly read: “State criminal.”
Mlodetsky was to be hanged by the famous executioner Ivan Frolov, a man of great strength and - contrary to popular opinion about executioners - not devoid of outward pleasantness. Having untied the unfortunate man, but without freeing his hands, Frolov literally pushed Mlodetsky to the pillory, where he obediently - along with the crowd of people - listened to the verdict. Then the priest appeared, extremely excited, and quietly said something to the criminal, after which he held out the cross for him to kiss.
- Kissed me! Kissed! - rustled in the crowd.
- Excuse me, but he’s a Jew! – exclaimed Kuzminsky. – A purely Jewish type of the most nondescript type...
“It seems they said that he recently converted to Orthodoxy,” Ryazanov noted.
“What is happening to the soul at this moment, what kind of convulsions are they bringing it to?” said the old man, looking at the preparations for execution with great sorrow. His eyes seemed to sink even deeper, and his thin, bloodless lips twitched nervously.
Frolov, with the help of an assistant, put a white cap and a canvas robe on the executed man, deftly tying the latter with the sleeves at the back, then deftly threw a noose over his head and, without any effort, put Mlodetsky on the bench. The drums beat, the rope tightened, and Mlodetsky began to writhe in agony. This was far from the first hanging that Ivan Ivanovich had seen, but right now he suddenly felt creepy and cold inside.
-...Do not scold them so much as their fathers. Carry out this thought, because the root of nihilism is not only in fathers, but fathers are even more nihilists than children. Our underground villains have at least some kind of vile heat, and our fathers have the same feelings, but cynicism and indifferentism, which is even more vile,” the old man muttered, like a prayer. This is what people usually say who are used to being listened to, or, on the contrary, who are inclined to listen only to themselves, perhaps crazy.
Silence hung over the parade ground, only crows screamed in the distance and a steam locomotive hummed on the outskirts, as if saluting a hanged man. His body alternately arched and hung relaxed, but as soon as it seemed that everything was over, it again beat in death's languor. The executioner Frolov looked at the hanged man with concern, but did nothing, although Ryazanov knew that in such cases it is customary to “humble” the executed person by grabbing him by the legs and pulling him strongly down.
- The devil knows what! - Kuzminsky finally exclaimed, taking out his watch and peering at it. - Ten minutes! No, I can't see this anymore. Let's go have a drink, Ivan Ivanovich.
“Yes, this will come in handy,” Ryazanov agreed. - Won't you join us? Dear Sir? – unexpectedly for himself, he asked his old neighbor.
“Killing for murder is a disproportionately greater punishment than the crime itself,” he said, looking in front of him, as if he had not heard the proposal. “Murder by sentence is disproportionately more terrible than murder by robbery.” Anyone who is killed by robbers, slaughtered at night, in the forest, certainly still hopes that he will be saved, until the very last moment... And then all this last hope, with which it is ten times easier to die, is probably taken away! Here is the verdict, and in the fact that you probably cannot escape, all the terrible torment sits there, and there is no stronger torment than this in the world. “There are ten thousand of them, and they don’t execute anyone, but they execute me!” - he probably thinks...
“The old man must be crazy,” Kuzminsky whispered, lightly pushing Ryazanov in the side. - Leave him alone! He doesn’t drink, most likely because he’s sick, but only eats haber soup.
“Allow me one more question,” Ivan Ivanovich again turned to the old Petrashevite, ignoring the lawyer. -Where could I see you? For some reason, your face seems very familiar to me.
– Don’t you recognize? – the old man asked with hidden joy. – You don’t recognize... That’s right: why would you, a young, blossoming man... No, no. No need. Although it is sad, sad.
And, waving his hand, he walked away. Ryazanov looked after him in confusion and turned to Kuzminsky:
– Stepan Mikhailovich, who was it? Didn't his face seem familiar to you?
“He talked about the execution of the Petrashevites,” Kuzminsky shrugged, “perhaps one of them... There were one hundred and twenty-three people under investigation, but only twenty-one were executed.” Maybe even one of the leaders of the circle - Mombelli, Kashkin. Yes, let him, Ivan Ivanovich; let’s go, it’s too cold here, and I don’t feel good at heart.
And they actually went to the restaurant, where, to the sounds of the French orchestra, they warmed up with meat and strong drinks.

3

The hall shone with splendor - portraits of the now living sovereign, Alexander the First and Catherine the Second, were literally buried in flowers, garlands and greenery, just as the huge bust of Pushkin was buried in them. The Moscow City Duma held a reception of deputations, and Ivan Ivanovich Ryazanov came to it, frankly speaking, completely undeservedly, for he was not a member of any deputation and could not be included. He arrived for official reasons, since he had such a task.
The task was very strange: to go to the reception and participate in it, observing and not interfering in anything, even if something unexpected happened. When asked who or what needs to be watched, Millers answered mysteriously: “Yes, anyone, if something happens, you’ll understand for yourself. And don’t neglect casual conversations.”
Meanwhile, the hall was filled with many familiar and semi-familiar faces. A little further away in a snow-white dress - without any mourning, which should be present as a sign of grief for Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who died as soon as she returned from the Cote d'Azur - stood Mrs. Evreinova, a doctor of law from the University of Leipzig, familiar to Ryazanov from his German voyage. It seems that now she has not recognized him, which is for the best. Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg did not recognize Ryazanov either, but Ivan Ivanovich was introduced to him in his distant youth.
Ryazanov was mistaken for some deputy from newspapers or magazines, or even a foreign guest - of course, by those who did not know Ryazanov at all. But Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin, the son of the poet, commander of the Narva Hussar Regiment, eagerly approached him. He bowed extremely politely, asked several ordinary, meaningless questions, as he should well-mannered person, who met the same one at random, and left with an apology, saying that it was fitting for him to be near his sisters and brother.
Ryazanov, however, never noticed Grigory Pushkin, but Natalya Alexandrovna, Countess Merenberg, and Maria Alexandrovna Hartung were actually standing at the column, barely talking about something. Ryazanov saw Natalya Alexandrovna for the first time and found her an absolute beauty, but her sister looked sad and dull. I remembered the story of her late husband, Major General Hartung, who shot himself three years ago after a jury found him guilty of forgery and fraud. Whether it was true or a slander had been erected against Hartung was now no longer possible to know, but his widow was still sad to this day.
Two gentlemen in black tailcoats with white boutonnieres, on which, as expected, were the golden initials “A. P.”, they quite loudly discussed the composition of the deputations, and one, with a well-groomed black beard, emphasized that not a single person from the Orthodox clergy appeared, and from all other faiths only the Moscow rabbi arrived.

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“They called in threes,” he muttered just as dully, “and I was in the third line, and I had no more than a minute to live... At fifteen steps - fifteen privates with non-commissioned officers, with loaded guns...”

– Excuse me, aren’t you talking about the execution of the Petrashevites? – Kuzminsky asked with interest, continuing to squeeze his frozen palms.

The old man was about to answer something, seemingly nodding affirmatively, but then the crowd began to chatter:

- They're taking it! They're driving!

A tall carriage appeared, on which Mlodetsky sat with his back to the coachman. His hands were tied to the bench with straps, and a sign was attached to his chest, which clearly read: “State criminal.”

Mlodetsky was to be hanged by the famous executioner Ivan Frolov, a man of great strength and - contrary to popular opinion about executioners - not devoid of outward pleasantness. Having untied the unfortunate man, but without freeing his hands, Frolov literally pushed Mlodetsky to the pillory, where he obediently - along with the crowd of people - listened to the verdict. Then the priest appeared, extremely excited, and quietly said something to the criminal, after which he held out the cross for him to kiss.

- Kissed me! Kissed! - rustled in the crowd.

- Excuse me, but he’s a Jew! – exclaimed Kuzminsky. – A purely Jewish type of the most nondescript type...

“It seems they said that he recently converted to Orthodoxy,” Ryazanov noted.

“What is happening to the soul at this moment, what kind of convulsions are they bringing it to?” said the old man, looking at the preparations for execution with great sorrow. His eyes seemed to sink even deeper, and his thin, bloodless lips twitched nervously.

Frolov, with the help of an assistant, put a white cap and a canvas robe on the executed man, deftly tying the latter with the sleeves at the back, then deftly threw a noose over his head and, without any effort, put Mlodetsky on the bench. The drums beat, the rope tightened, and Mlodetsky began to writhe in agony. This was far from the first hanging that Ivan Ivanovich had seen, but right now he suddenly felt creepy and cold inside.

-...Do not scold them so much as their fathers. Carry out this thought, because the root of nihilism is not only in fathers, but fathers are even more nihilists than children. Our underground villains have at least some kind of vile heat, and our fathers have the same feelings, but cynicism and indifferentism, which is even more vile,” the old man muttered, like a prayer. This is what people usually say who are used to being listened to, or, on the contrary, who are inclined to listen only to themselves, perhaps crazy.

Silence hung over the parade ground, only crows screamed in the distance and a steam locomotive hummed on the outskirts, as if saluting a hanged man. His body alternately arched and hung relaxed, but as soon as it seemed that everything was over, it again beat in death's languor. The executioner Frolov looked at the hanged man with concern, but did nothing, although Ryazanov knew that in such cases it is customary to “humble” the executed person by grabbing him by the legs and pulling him strongly down.

- The devil knows what! - Kuzminsky finally exclaimed, taking out his watch and peering at it. - Ten minutes! No, I can't see this anymore. Let's go have a drink, Ivan Ivanovich.

“Yes, this will come in handy,” Ryazanov agreed. – Would you like to join us, dear sir? – unexpectedly for himself, he asked his old neighbor.

“Killing for murder is a disproportionately greater punishment than the crime itself,” he said, looking in front of him, as if he had not heard the proposal. “Murder by sentence is disproportionately more terrible than murder by robbery.” Anyone who is killed by robbers, slaughtered at night, in the forest, certainly still hopes that he will be saved, until the very last moment... And then all this last hope, with which it is ten times easier to die, is probably taken away! Here is the verdict, and in the fact that you probably cannot escape, all the terrible torment sits there, and there is no stronger torment than this in the world. “There are ten thousand of them, and they don’t execute anyone, but they execute me!” - he probably thinks...