The peasants of Poland do not seem very amiably disposed toward the
great Russian czar. Having been already emancipated by their own
leaders, they do not appear to be aware of his superhuman benevolence in
their behalf. They have issued a manifesto against him. They propose to
raise a peasant army of a million of men, from the ages of sixteen to
sixty, to assault Warsaw and other Polish cities held by the Russians.
They treat with scorn the offered emancipation, and determine to resist
'the odious, fierce, greedy, and astute Muscovite, and to organize _en
masse_ under their own captains, while their own National Government
will designate the day upon which the general movement will take place.'
Having accomplished their object--the deliverance of Poland--the
peasants will elect chiefs to arrange the repartition of taxes, and a
national diet will undertake the management of the affairs of the
country. Prussia and Austria will then be called in again to aid in the
subjugation of Poland. This will throw the firebrand of war and
revolution over Western Europe, the oppressed peoples will rise in their
might, and Liberty be inscribed on the banner of the world. In the
indignant refusal of the Polish peasants to receive as a boon from the
foreigner what they already possess as a right from their own leaders;
in the devoted patriotism they are now evincing, they rob Russia of the
vast advantage she hoped to gain in depriving Poland of what has made
part of her marvellous force, the moral sympathies of the civilized
world. For can any one be weak enough to believe that the ukase of
emancipation originated in the magnanimity of Russia? The design was
evidently to divide the peasants from the nobles, to light the flames of
civil war, to murder by the hands of her own sons that unhappy country,
which, deserted by all the nations of the earth, has again and again
risen from her bloody grave to startle her oppressors with the old hymns
of faith and triumph. But, if uncultured, because the iron heel of the
tyrant has been on the heart of the murdered mother, the Polish peasant
is faithful and devoted. He knows the nature of Russian rule. He has
seen women knouted, childred murdered, boys imprisoned, and men exposed
to the tortures of Siberia. Have our readers any true conception of what
it is to be knouted? We will place before them a translation from
Piotrowski of three modes of punishment used by Russia.
'The _Knout_ is a long narrow thong of leather, which is steeped and
boiled in a chemical solution until it becomes thickly coated with
metallic filings and deposit. Prepared in this way, the thong acquires
considerable weight and hardness. Before it cools and hardens, however,
they take care to turn the edges, made thin for this purpose, up toward
each other, thus forming a groove extending through the whole length of
the metal-coated thong, with the exception of the extremity, which is
left limber that it may be wound round the hand of the executioner,
while a strong iron hook is appended to the other extremity. The
scaffold on which the victim suffers is called in Russian 'Kobyla,'
literally a mare. It is an inclined plane, on which the sufferer is
tied, his back is stripped naked, his arms embrace the higher end of the
plank, his hands are tied under it, his feet are fastened on the lower
end, all movement being thus rendered impossible. Hacking down upon the
naked back of the victim, the knout falls with its concave side upon the
skin, which the metalized edge of the instrument cuts like a knife, the
blades of the groove burying themselves in the flesh; the instrument is
not lifted up by the operator, but is drawn horizontally toward himself,
tearing away, by means of the hook, the severed flesh in long strings.
If the operator performs his part conscientiously, the sufferer loses
consciousness after the third blow, and frequently expires with the
fifth. Peter the Great fixed the maximum of the number to be given at
one hundred and one--of course, this was a sentence of death. It is a
singularity of the Russian laws that the number of blows decreed for the
knout is always uneven. As soon as the wretched victim has received the
prescribed number, he is untied, forced to kneel, and submit to the
punishment of the brand. This brand consists of the three letters VOR
(robber, criminal), cut in iron points upon a stamp, and is struck by
the executioner into the forehead and cheeks of the sufferer. While the
blood is still flowing, a black fluid, partly composed of gunpowder, is
injected into the wounds. When the wounds heal, the letters assume a
dark blue tint, and are forever after indelible. After the infliction
of the brand, it was formerly the custom to tear out the nostrils, but
this horrible barbarity was definitely abolished toward the close of the
reign of Alexander I. I have, however, met more than one Siberian exile
thus hideously disfigured, no doubt belonging to the time anterior to
the publication of the ukase. I have met an incalculable number of men
bearing upon cheeks and forehead the triple inscription VOR. I do not
think the brand is applied to woman; at least I have never seen one thus
desecrated.
'The _Plète_, which is often and wrongfully confounded with the knout,
is a far less formidable instrument. It is composed of three strong
leathern thongs, terminated at the one end by balls of lead; the other
is wrapped round the hand of the executioner. In accordance with the
Russian law, this instrument should weigh from five to six pounds. It
strikes like a triple lash upon the naked back of the sufferer. It does
not plough or tear up the flesh like the knout, but the skin of course
breaks under the heavy blows inflicted upon the spinal column and the
sides. Phthisis is a common complaint with those who have been subjected
to the punishment of the plète, the strokes frequently detaching the
viscera from their living walls. In order to give more force to the
blow, the executioner takes a leap and run, only striking as he reaches
his victim. If possible to gain him by a bribe, he may diminish the
punishment without detection. He may manage not to use his little finger
on the instrument, which softens the force of the blow, without
attracting the attention of the superintending officer. If the number of
lashes is to be great, the operator is often bribed to give all his
available force to the first blows, directing them principally toward
the sides, in order to put as short a term as possible to the torture
and life of the miserable sufferer.
'A third kind of punishment is that of the _Skvoz-stroï_, literally,
_through the ranks_. This is generally used for soldiers only, though
many Polish patriots have been subjected to it after condemnation for
political offences. It is thus inflicted: Long rods are taken, freshly
cut and well soaked in water to render them perfectly flexible, and
given to the men who are to operate. A company of soldiers range
themselves, facing each other, in a double file, placing themselves at
such a distance from one another that they may be able to strike with
their whole force without being in the way of each other. The sufferer
is stripped to the waist, his hands are tied before him to a gun, the
bayonet of which rests on his breast, while the butt end of it is
carried by the soldier appointed to lead him through the ranks charged
with the duty of inflicting his punishment. He is led slowly forward
through the files, receiving the lashes on his back and shoulders. When
he faints or falls on the ground, he is raised up and urged to move on.
Peter the Great fixed the maximum of blows at twelve thousand, but
unless they intend to make an example of some offender, more than two
thousand are rarely administered. If more are decreed, the patient is
usually carried to the hospital and cured of his wounds ere he is forced
to undergo the rest of the sentence.
'A conspiracy broke out in Siberia, which was betrayed on the very eve
of its commencement at Omsk. The Abbé Siérocinski was concerned in it,
and he and five of his accomplices, among whom was found an officer of
the empire between sixty and seventy years of age, were condemned to
seven thousand lashes, each without remission. The other conspirators,
numbering nearly a thousand in all, were sentenced to receive from one
thousand to fifteen hundred lashes, and to hard labor for life. The day
of execution arrived. It occurred in 1837, early in the month of March.
It took place at Omsk. General Golofeïev, in consequence of being
celebrated for his cruelty, was sent from the capital to superintend the
punishment and command this mournful _cortége_. Two entire battalions
were ranged in a great plain near the city, the one destined for the six
principal conspirators, the other for those whose punishment was not to
be so severe. It is not our intention to describe the detailed butchery
of this day of horror: we will confine ourselves to the Abbé Siérocinski
and his five companions in misfortune. They were escorted on the plain,
their sentence was read aloud to them with great solemnity, and then the
running of the gauntlet commenced. The lashes were administered,
according to the letter of the decree, 'without mercy,' and the cries of
the wretched sufferers rose to the skies. None of them lived to receive
the full number of lashes: executed one after another, after having
passed two or three times through the dreadful file, they fell upon the
earth, dyeing the pure snow red with the blood of their agonies as they
expired. In order that the Abbé Siérocinski might drink to the dregs the
bitter cup of his punishment, that he might suffer doubly through the
torture of his friends, he had been reserved to the last. His turn now
arrived, they stripped his back and tied his hands to the bayonet, and
the physician advanced to give him, as he had given the others, some
drops to strengthen him for the torment, but he refused them, saying: 'I
do not want your drops--I will not taste them, I am ready--drink, then,
the blood for which you thirst.' The signal of his fearful march was
given, and the strong voice of the old superior of the monastery was
heard entoning with high, clear chant: 'Miserere mei, Deus, secundum
magnam misericordiam tuam!'
'The chant of the priest was broken in upon by the harsh cry of General
Golofeïev to the soldiers: _Pokreptche! Pokreptche!_ 'Harder! Harder!'
Thus was heard for some time the chant of the Basilien broken by the
hissing of the lashes and the angry cry of the general. Siérocinski had
only passed once through the ranks of the battalion, that is to say, he
had received but a thousand lashes, when he rolled without consciousness
over the snow, staining it with his dauntless blood. In vain they tried
to place him again on his feet--he was too weak to stand; and he was
then stretched upon a sled which had been prepared in advance. He was
fastened upon this species of support so as to present his back to the
blows, and again the defile through the ranks began. Cries and groans
were still heard: though they were constantly growing weaker, they
ceased not until the commencement of the fourth course--the three
thousand last blows fell on the body of the hapless corpse.
'A common ditch received those who died on this dreadful day, Poles and
Russians being thrown in together. The holy sign of our faith was placed
by the friends of the dead upon this crowded grave, and even in 1846 the
great wooden cross still stretched its black arms over the steppe
shrouded in its snow of dazzling whiteness.'