Under Stalin, those sentenced to death in the Soviet Union were most often executed almost the next day, so there could be no question of any "last" sorry ". During the times of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, suicide bombers had more options for saying goodbye to life.
In the old days, before decapitation, they forced to repent for a long time
The ritualization of the process of carrying out the death sentence, as well as the observance of a number of conventions for those condemned to execution, originates in ancient Russia, when the variety of methods of murder by sentence was the broadest - from burning alive to "simple" hanging. For example, according to the Code of 1649, those sentenced to death were forced to forgive their sins in special penitential huts for six weeks before the last day.
State criminals - the Decembrists and pre-revolutionary "bombers" also had the opportunity to confess, write letters to relatives and see loved ones. Before the execution, whoever wished could make a short farewell speech.
First half of the twentieth century: executions without sentimentality
If in tsarist Russia there were still some conditional manifestations of mercy towards death row such as the last confession and communion, then in the USSR, especially in the first half of the century, people were most often shot in the shortest possible time after sentencing. Therefore, in this case, no one thought about any "preparations" of the convicted person to retreat to another world. Although there were exceptions, sometimes the death row was extended, sometimes even for several months. In the 1930s, at the height of the Stalinist terror, a person sentenced to death had exactly three days to file a petition for clemency (although the overwhelming majority of them were not satisfied). Such petitions, in particular, were submitted by Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev. The Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR considered them immediately and rejected both - a day later the enemies of the people were shot.
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In some regions of the Soviet Union, in accordance with the order of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs dated July 9, 1935, before execution in the NKVD, suicide bombers were photographed in order to compare the pictures with the corpse. According to the memoirs of the former prisoner of the death row Butyrka, the Socialist-Revolutionary V. Kh. Brunovksy, in the 1920s, the OGPU spent months "twisting" those sentenced to death, thus collecting dirt on other people. This practice was widespread and ended in the same way - the execution of death sentences in respect of the "screwed up". Brunovsky was literally lucky: as an enemy of the people, since 1923 for three years he was imprisoned with a death sentence in various Moscow prisons, but he refused to "knock". He was literally miraculously pulled out of prison by representatives of foreign diplomatic missions and then fled with his family to the West.
Prayer was allowed, but kept alone
Under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, suicide bombers had more time to write requests for clemency and appeals. As Khalid Mahmudovich Yunusov, who at one time headed one of the Azerbaijani institutions of the USSR penitentiary system and who himself repeatedly carried out death sentences (one of the few who agreed to reveal himself to the media in this capacity), recalled that on the day of the execution, the death row did not know where they were being taken. they spoke, but many guessed and often died of a heart attack before reaching the execution chamber. Such convicts were not supposed to be given programs, they were not taken out for a walk. They ate from the same cauldron as all the prisoners. The suicide bomber, according to Yunusov, upon arrival at the prison, was taken to an appointment with the head of the penitentiary institution, and the "owner" was obliged to inform the convict about his right to write a petition for pardon.which was then sent to the republican prosecutor's office and further to higher authorities. While the appeal went to the very top and was sorted out in Moscow, the suicide bomber was not shot.
According to the special order of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, the suicide bombers were kept in solitary confinement, and relatives could visit them only in exceptional cases and only with the personal permission of the Chairman of the Supreme Court. Those who asked were provided with the opportunity to pray. But, as the jailers and prosecutors themselves, who supervised the observance of the rule of law during executions, recall that there were few such people among prisoners brought up in the spirit of atheistic ideology. Trivial requests such as the last cigarette before death were also fulfilled.
According to the instructions, it was impossible to transfer to relatives any of the personal belongings of the condemned to be shot, but if it came to, for example, a photograph of a son for his mother, the jailers could break the rule.
Tellingly, sick suicide bombers in the USSR were not shot. They were treated until they recovered with regular checkups.
Nikolay Syromyatnikov
