Execution in Russia has long been, sophisticated and painful. Historians to this day have not come to a consensus about the reasons for the appearance of the death penalty.
Some are inclined to the version of the continuation of the custom of blood feud, while others prefer Byzantine influence. How did they deal with those who broke the law in Russia?
Drowning
This type of execution was very common in Kievan Rus. Usually it was used in cases where it was required to deal with a large number of criminals. But there were also isolated cases. So, for example, the Kiev prince Rostislav was somehow angry at Gregory the Wonderworker. He ordered to tie the recalcitrant hands, throw a rope loop around his neck, at the other end of which a weighty stone was fixed, and throw him into the water. With the help of drowning, apostates, that is, Christians, were also executed in Ancient Russia. They were sewn into a sack and thrown into the water. Usually such executions took place after battles, during which many prisoners appeared. Execution by drowning, in contrast to execution by burning, was considered the most shameful for Christians. It is interesting that centuries later the Bolsheviks during the Civil War used drowning as a reprisal against the families of the "bourgeois",while the condemned were tied hands and thrown into the water.
Burning
Since the 13th century, this type of execution was usually applied to those who transgressed church laws - for blasphemy against God, for displeasing sermons, for witchcraft. She was especially fond of Ivan the Terrible, who, by the way, was very inventive in methods of execution. So, for example, he came up with the idea of stitching the guilty in bear skins and giving them up to be torn apart by dogs or ripping off the skin from a living person. In the era of Peter, execution by burning was used in relation to counterfeiters. By the way, they were punished in one more way - they poured molten lead or tin into their mouths.
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Burying
Burying alive in the ground was usually applied to male killers. Most often, a woman was buried up to her throat, less often - only up to her chest. Such a scene is excellently described by Tolstoy in his novel Peter the Great. Usually the place for execution was a crowded place - the central square or the city market. A sentry was posted next to the still living executed criminal, who prevented any attempts to show compassion, to give the woman water or some bread. It was not forbidden, however, to express their contempt or hatred for the criminal - to spit on the head or even kick her. And those who wished could donate alms to the coffin and church candles. Usually painful death came on 3-4 days, but history recorded a case when a certain Euphrosyne, buried on August 21, died only on September 22.
Quartering
When quartering, the condemned were cut off their legs, then their arms, and only then their head. So, for example, Stepan Razin was executed. It was planned to take the life of Emelyan Pugachev in the same way, but they first chopped off his head, and only then deprived of his limbs. From the examples given, it is easy to guess that this type of execution was used for insulting the king, for an attempt on his life, for treason and for imposture. It is worth noting that, unlike the Central European, for example, the Parisian crowd, which perceived the execution as a spectacle and dismantled the gallows for souvenirs, the Russian people treated the sentenced with compassion and mercy. So, during the execution of Razin, there was a deathly silence on the square, broken only by rare female sobs. At the end of the procedure, people usually dispersed in silence.
Boiling
Boiling in oil, water or wine was especially popular in Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The sentenced person was put into a cauldron filled with liquid. Hands were threaded into special rings mounted in the cauldron. Then the cauldron was put on fire and began to slowly heat up. As a result, the man was boiled alive. Such an execution was applied in Russia to state traitors. However, this view looks humane in comparison with the execution called "Walking in a circle" - one of the most cruel methods used in Russia. The condemned had his stomach ripped open in the intestines, but so that he would not die too quickly from loss of blood. Then they removed the intestine, nailed one end of it to a tree and forced the executed to walk around the tree in a circle.
Wheeling
Wheeling became widespread in the era of Peter. The condemned was tied to the log Andreevsky cross fixed on the scaffold. Notches were made on the rays of the cross. The offender was stretched face up on the cross in such a way that each of his limbs lay on the beams, and the places where the limbs were bent were on the recesses. The executioner struck one blow after another with a quadrangular iron crowbar, gradually breaking bones at the bends of his arms and legs. The work of crying ended with two or three precise blows to the stomach, with the help of which the ridge was broken. The body of the broken offender was connected so that the heels converged with the back of the head, laid on a horizontal wheel and in this position left to die. The last time such an execution was applied in Russia was to the participants in the Pugachev riot.
Impaling
Like quartering, impalement was usually applied to rioters or traitors to thieves. So Zarutsky, an accomplice of Marina Mnishek, was executed in 1614. During the execution, the executioner drove a stake into the human body with a hammer, then the stake was placed vertically. The executed gradually, under the weight of his own body, began to slide down. After a few hours, the stake came out through his chest or neck. Sometimes a crossbar was made on the stake, which stopped the movement of the body, not allowing the stake to reach the heart. This method significantly extended the time of painful death. Until the 18th century, impalement was a very common form of execution among the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Smaller colas were used to punish rapists - they drove a stake into their hearts, as well as against mothers who had infants.