The Knout

 

Whipping has been one of the more popular ways of punishing used by man in its history. Many different instruments had been used to that end,  some of them, as the roman flagrum or the cat ‘o nine tails, are famous because of their severity. Other, like the South Africa sjambok, forever identified with the apartheid, is remembered as a symbol of the cruelty of some regimes.

 

The Russian knout is famous for both reasons: is a cruel instrument in any of its types, and is a symbol of the tyranny of the tsars.

 

The name knout, knoot or knoot, appears as the transliteration to the Cyrillic alphabet (кнут) of a French word, of probable Scandinavian origin, knut, knot, knout in Sweden, kntr o knot in Iceland, related with Old English cnotta, originally meaning knot.

 

If it sounds complicated, we can add that the instrument is probably of tartarian origin.

 

We found at least three different whips that were called knout in Russia:

• a multitailed scourge with a bundle of tails of intermingled leather and wire, twisted or plaited, with the bare wire points protruding at the ends, for tearing the punished's flesh.
• a single tailed whip with a handle of about  nine inches, to which was attached a sixteen inches thong ending in a ring, with another nine inches thong added with another ring, to which was fixed a tapered hard leather strap finished in a metal hook, capable also of inflicting deep wounds.
• the better known, with a wooden handle about a foot long, with a twisted leather thong about eighteen inches in length finishing in a ring, to which a triangular piece of leather, about two inches at its base and sixteen inches long and tapering to a point. This piece of leather was soaked in milk and dried in the sun to make it harder and could cut the skin like a knife. This extension was changed every six lashes or so, when it became soft when wetted by the criminal’s blood.

 

This punishing instrument was introduced into Russia by Tsar Ivan III in the fifteenth century, and used about 400 years until its abolition by Tsar Nicholas I in 1845, being replaced by a scourge of three tails, sometimes with leaden balls at the points, called pleti, but it was probably used after that. After the Napoleon's campaigns in 1814, it was also used in France and other European countries.

 

The knout was used for flogging the culprit’s bare back, the subject being bound to a post or triangle, or hoisted in the back of another man. A 100 to 120 lashes punishment was a death sentence, but 20 to 25 lashes could maim a person.

 

 

It was used as a judicial punishment for criminals, but also for punishing servants, and not even the nobility was spared.

 

Prince Alexander, son of Peter the Great, died by the knout, probably by being flogged to death by his father, who suspected he was planning a revolt against him.

 

Also Empress Eudoxia, Alexander's mother, suspected of complicity with her son and of infidelity, was punished by the knout.

 

Published: 12/20/02

Rev: 01/09/04