Rack

Initially, the instrument of punishment was called a rack on Russia — a deck or block to which the accused was tied (“put on the rack”).

As a form of punishment, it was first mentioned at the beginning of the 13th century in the agreement between Smolensk and Riga ( 1229 ), according to which, “If the Rusyn is found guilty, then do not put him on the rack, but bail him; if there is no bail, then put him in iron. " The pitch was envisaged by the Pskov judicial certificate : if “someone who by force gets into the court or hits the door, then put him in the rack”. From the second half of the 17th century the word acquired the meaning of a tool of torture ^[1] .

In Western Europe, it usually consisted of a special box with rollers at both ends, on which were wound ropes holding the wrists and ankles of the victim. During the rotation of the rollers, the ropes stretched in opposite directions, stretching the body and tearing apart the joints of the victim. At the moment of relaxation of the ropes, the tortured also experienced terrible pain, as well as at the moment of tension. Sometimes the rack was equipped with special rollers, studded with spikes, tearing the victim apart during pulling.

Another variant of the rack was used: it consisted of two pillars dug in the ground and connected by a crossbar. The interrogated was tied with his hands behind his back and lifted by a rope tied to his hands. Sometimes an extra weight was tied to his bound legs. At the same time, the hands of a person raised on a rack turned upside down and often left their joints, so that the convicted or tortured person hung on their arms turned out. On the rack were from a few minutes to an hour or more. In the Russian Empire, a suspect who was hoisted up was beaten on the back with a whip , and “put on a fire,” that is, they drove through the body with burning brooms. In some cases, the executioner broke the edges of a person hanging on a rack with red-hot mites. This hanging rack (known as strappado ) was also used in Western Europe .

In the middle of the XVII century, Grigory Kotoshikhin described the Russian rack as follows:

But tortures are arranged for all thieves: they will remove the shirt from the thief and tie his hands back and tie them near the hand, with a rope, sewn that rope with felt, and lift it to the top, a place is made that hangs, and its legs will be tied with a belt; and one man the executioner will step on his belt with his foot, and thereby weighed him, and that thief’s hands will be directly against his head, and out of the joints they will blow out; and then from behind the executioner will begin to beat on the back with a whip occasionally, at the time of combat strikes there are thirty or forty; and how it will strike a place on the back, and on the back it will become so, word for word, as if a large belt had been cut with a knife to the bone. (...) It will not be blamed from the first torture, and after a week they will be tortured by a sudden row of fires and thirdly, they will burn with fire, they will bind their hands and feet, and they will put a log between their hands and between their legs, and they will raise them to the fire, and others will kindle iron mites breaking ribs in vain (...) The female sex is tortured against the same as the male sex, apart from the fact that the ribs are broken ^[2] .