The Nizhny Novgorod Scaffold — the site for the carrying out of "public execution," a shaming punishment, erected in Nizhny Novgorod in accordance with the law of 21 January 1846.
The scaffold was a special raised platform designed to make the proceedings visible to a large number of spectators. The public nature of these "executions" served to intimidate, to underscore Authority, and to entertain the masses.
Nature of the Practice
By law, criminals sentenced to deprivation of all civil rights and exile were required to undergo the ceremony of a symbolic public execution.
The criminal was conveyed to the place of execution in a "black hearse" (those guilty of murdering their father or mother were transported under a black shroud) and with a placard on their chest describing the nature of their crime; after the verdict was read aloud, a sword was broken over the criminal (if he was a nobleman), and he was placed at the scaffold's "black pillar of shame," where he remained for 10 minutes.
In Nizhny Novgorod, there was moreover a custom of pressing small coins into the executioner's hand during the procession to the place of public execution and back to the prison.
Historical Background
The Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Administration entrusted the construction of the scaffold to the Fire Chief of the 1st Kremlin Fire Brigade (stationed at the corner of what are now Kostina Street and Bolshaya Pokrovskaya). Until 1869, the assembly, disassembly, and storage of the scaffold were handled by the fire brigade. Subsequently, responsibility for the scaffold was assigned to the Warden of the 2nd Wing of the Nizhny Novgorod Prison. (Today, the dark-grey building of the former prison company and jail at the corner of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya and Gorky Square houses the advanced training and correspondence education faculties of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.)
At the formal request of the Nizhny Novgorod Municipal Police Department, the scaffold was erected on Novaya Square opposite the 2nd Prison Wing (somewhere in the vicinity of the present-day monument to M. Gorky on the square of the same name). It was assembled quickly — within half an hour; forty inmates assigned to the work hauled the logs, planks, iron hooks, hoops, and other materials and fittings (totalling, as the provincial architect assured, up to 60 puds in weight) and nailed together the platform — perhaps for their own execution one day. A military escort of 6 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division was assigned to supervise them.
The Procession Route
The Warden of the 1st Wing of the Prison Castle (the building of the Nizhny Novgorod Ostrog on what is now Freedom Square), or more often his deputy, the senior warden, would assemble a group of exiled prisoners due to undergo the public execution ceremony and hand them over to the care of a deputy police inspector. Boards listing their crimes were hung around the prisoners' necks; they were loaded into tall black "disgrace wagons," and at around noon, accompanied by the executioner and under military escort, the procession solemnly set off along Gorky Street) toward the scaffold.
On the high platform, which had a staircase and rope railings, stood a wooden "kobyla" (flogging bench) for punishment by the knout, a black post, and branding equipment.
Forms of Punishment at the Nizhny Novgorod Scaffold
Under the Penal Code of 1845, flogging with the knout became the highest form of corporal punishment for the "base estates"; it was mentioned in 134 articles and was administered regardless of sex or age, in quantities of 30 to 100 strokes for hard labor sentences and 10 to 30 for sentences of exile to a settlement. The executioner led the criminal onto the scaffold and, after the verdict was read, tied him to the "kobyla" and flogged him, endeavoring to lay the strokes crosswise and ensuring that the end of the three-tailed leather knout did not touch the head or sides.
Immediately following the flogging, as a precaution against escape, branding was carried out — also publicly and by the executioner's hand. In place of the former brand — ВОРЪ (THIEF) — the 1845 code prescribed marking the forehead with К, the right cheek with А, and the left cheek with Т (katorzhny — "convict"). For this reason, executioners were called "kats" in common parlance. Only the very elderly, minors, women (from 1753), and persons of privileged educated estates were exempt from branding. From the 14th to the 17th centuries in Russia, branding was done with red-hot iron; from the progressive era of Peter I until 1863 it was performed with special stamps fitted with steel needles forming letters; the needles were pressed into the skin and the wounds rubbed with a mixture of indigo and ink.
Who Served as Executioners
"Masters of the back-room trade," as they called themselves, were recruited from criminals sentenced to hard labor. They were exempted from punishment by the knout and from exile to Siberia, and were issued double food allowances and the clothing provided to inmates.
Executioners lived in the prisons like all other convicts, but in quarters separate from the other inmates, sometimes together with their families.
Financing
"Festivals of justice" in Nizhny Novgorod were frequently marred by a lack of adequate funding.
The Warden engaged in lengthy correspondence over the purchase of a black shroud for murderers — at 45 kopeks — and complained that "the castle in his charge has only seven boards with various inscriptions of crimes for placing on inmates during the performance of the public execution ceremonies." He requested that, "given the extreme shortage," 30 new ones be purchased and the old ones repaired, "on which the inscriptions have worn away through frequent use."
Abolition of the "Public Execution" Ceremony
In September 1878, the Sovereign Emperor, upon a report by the Minister of Justice, decreed that criminals sentenced to deprivation of all civil rights and exile be dispatched to settlement or to hard labor without the performance of the public execution ceremony. In December 1878, the scaffold together with the disgrace wagons was sold at auction for 20 rubles.
Interesting Facts
- In the year 1875 alone, the Nizhny Novgorod scaffold was assembled and dismantled 34 times.
- The ceremony was conducted frequently and rather carelessly. In the autumn of 1877 another scandal occurred: by mistake, instead of the 37-year-old exiled prisoner Natalya Satina, held in the women's prison and convicted of arson, it was the minor Matryana Samaylova who was subjected to the execution. The prison wardens, having failed to verify the identities of the inmates, dispatched one prisoner instead of another. And although no complaints against the officials were lodged by the person who had been executed, Senior Warden Ivan Rubtsov was reprimanded "for negligence."
- In January 1876, the military refused to escort inmates during the assembly and disassembly of the scaffold owing to "non-receipt of payment for this work." The Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Committee of the Prison Welfare Society proposed putting the work of erecting and dismantling the scaffold out to contract with hired laborers. To this the prison castle warden, Major Grigoryev, replied that it was "impractical and disadvantageous to the treasury" and that it would be better after all to pay the escorts as "required under the regulations — 6 kopeks per man." For six months the provincial administration carried on its correspondence, and in May 1876 it advanced 5 rubles toward paying the escort.
- Ceremonial dress for the formal outings of Nizhny Novgorod's executioners was provided for by law, yet the sources of funding were not specified therein, and so the provincial authorities were obliged to seek money for this item of expenditure and to design the official costumes. In 1867, after years of correspondence, Governor Odintsov ordered (for only the second and last time in Nizhny Novgorod's history) the "construction" of an outfit for the executioner for public carrying-out of sentences: a red calico shirt, black velveteen trousers, a red woolen sash, a pair of leather boots, a black broadcloth kaftan (a poddyovka — a fitted outer garment), a fur hat, and cotton gloves. But since executions were held nearly every week and the work was not only stressful but also filthy, the garments wore out very quickly. In December 1874, yet another executioner complained: "In the wet autumn season, during the journey to a public execution, I am obliged to follow behind the disgrace wagon in quite worn-out koty (men's overshoes of the galosh or boot-cover type, without legs) and a filthy convict's kaftan, so that I am very liable to catch cold" — and tearfully begged "at least for boots to be issued." His request was refused.
Sources
- Central Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, f. 5, op. 49, files 8254, 8363, 8729; f. 392, op. 220, files 286, 302, 710, 751, 771, 883, 888, 976, 998, 999, 1001, 1039, 1105, 1172, 1247, 1381, 1409, 1410, 1443, 1725, 1833, 2053, 2075, 2115, 2155, 2278, 2279, 2283.
- Journal "Russkaya Starina" — No. 7 — 1890.