Creditors paid for the maintenance of debtors in a debt prison.
The prices for modern collectors would not have been in the time of Ivan the Terrible, when they did not stand on ceremony with debtors. It was Peter I who ruined everything again and replaced the pillars of shame with boring debt pits. And at the end of the 19th century, and the pits were abandoned, as outdated and inhuman. Although in them the debtors were, perhaps, most comfortable - no one offended, they did not demand money, and even fed at the expense of the creditor.
Moral satisfaction is more valuable than money
In pre-Petrine Russia, debts were knocked out in the literal sense of the word. When the lender despaired of collecting money from the borrower, he had every right to drag him to the central square of the city by force, tie him to a pillory and beat him until he agreed to give what was taken or his relatives came with the money. If someone was in debt to the state, his fate was even less enviable - the defaulter was sent to prison, from where he was taken out every day and also flogged. They usually beat the shins with sticks. This punishment was called "right". The debtor was "ruled" with sticks and whips for the edification of others. This measure often gave creditors only moral satisfaction, not material.
The German adventurer Heinrich Staden, who became the guardsman of Ivan the Terrible, described by personal example how the rule was organized in those years. During the plague, a peasant with his entire family died in a village owned by a German. Their property was hastened to appropriate a neighbor Mitya Lykoshin on the sole grounds that he was allegedly the lover of the deceased's wife. Staden, having learned about this, considered that he had been deceived, and demanded that Mitya return everything. He refused. Heinrich wrote to his clerks to beat Lykoshin at the auction. But he continued to persist. Then he was shackled and taken to Moscow, where he continued to "rule". The oprichnik never received the desired money - 260 rubles - from Mitya. And he seized the moment and ran away. However, Staden was not at all saddened, as he was morally satisfied.
From pillars to pits
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With the accession to the Russian throne of Peter I, the punishment of debtors began to change, acquiring a more European look. Under the emperor-reformer, the traditional "rule" became a thing of the past, and Peter also abolished servitude. In the 18th century, a system of imprisonment for overdue debts to the state and creditors began to take shape. For example, in Moscow, those who were fined were imprisoned in cells that were in the area of the Resurrection Gate of Kitai-Gorod. They were located below ground level - in a pit. This is where the name "debt hole" came from.
This is how the debt hole looked. Modern renovation.
The debtor was sent there at the request of the lender. He could apply to the Commercial Court (the prototype of the current Arbitration Court) and provide overdue bills or receipts. By the decision of the judge, the debtor was obliged to appear in prison himself, but if he resisted, the policemen "helped" him.
The debtor's maintenance in the cell was paid by his creditor at a fixed rate. As soon as the plaintiff stopped issuing "fodder" money, the convict was released. The creditor could keep the debtor in prison for years until he was tired of it or until he received the funds due on bills and receipts.
An end to this arbitrariness was put by the Code of Laws of 1857. It prescribed the conditions for keeping debtors. Children, the elderly over 70, pregnant women and women who have just given birth (up to 6 weeks after childbirth), parents of children who are left without a livelihood, and clergy were completely exempted from detention on debts. Spouses and close relatives could not send each other to prison. Those who owed less than 100 rubles were "not taken" behind bars.
Finally, they established the terms of detention: for a debt from 100 to 2000 rubles - 6 months; from 2,000 to 10,000 rubles - a year; from 10 to 30 thousand - 2 years; from 30 to 60 thousand - 3 years; from 60 to 100 thousand - 4 years; over 100 thousand - maximum five years. At the same time, once released by the will of the creditor or for non-payment of fodder money, the debtor was not subject to further detention and was released from debt.
The ravaged Apollo
Anyone could fall into a hole in debt, regardless of origin and rank. Once, for example, the famous critic and poet Apollon Grigoriev, the author of the catch phrase “Pushkin is our everything”, appeared there. Ruined his addiction to luxurious life and revelry. As a result, Apollo was left without money, but with debts. Creditors did not stand on ceremony and put him in jail. The poet was saved by a good friend - the general's wife, who loved literature. She paid off his debts. But four days after his release, Grigoriev died.
Apollon Grigoriev
In his youth, Apollo Grigoriev managed to work in the St. Petersburg Deanery Board. It was located at 55 Sadovaya Street. It was at this institution that cells for debtors were originally created. However, over time, there were so many prisoners that they began to be sent to ordinary prisons. When they overflowed, a separate house of Kartasheva in the Narva part of the city was rented for the capital's debtors in 1844. In addition, in the middle of the 19th century, debt prisons in St. Petersburg were located at 7 on 1st Izmailovskaya (now 1st Krasnoarmeiskaya), as well as in an eerie red brick building on Kalinkinskaya Square (now Repin Square).
On March 7, 1879, debt prisons in Russia were completely abolished. Since then, such disputes should have been resolved in the courts. But many creditors continued to act by force, returning to the practice of "knocking out debt", only now using the services of the dashing people they hired.
Debtors sat in these niches-cells.
Author: Elena Ozhegova
