Why was Yaroslavl shot. Types and variations of the death penalty

Is it true that executioners from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were sent on business trips to other union republics, where for years there were no people willing to carry out the "tower"? Is it true that in the Baltics no one was executed at all, and all those sentenced to capital punishment were taken away to be shot in Minsk? Is it true that the executioners were paid solid bonuses for each executed executioner? And is it true that it was not customary to shoot women in the Soviet Union? Behind post-Soviet period so many common myths were created around the “tower” that it is hardly possible to figure out what is true and what is speculation without painstaking work in the archives, which can take more than a dozen years. No complete clarity neither with pre-war executions, nor with post-war ones. But worst of all is the data on how death sentences were carried out in the 1960s and 1980s.

As a rule, convicts were executed in pre-trial detention centers. In each union republic there was at least one such pre-trial detention center special purpose. There were two in Ukraine, three in Azerbaijan, and four each in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Today, death sentences are carried out in only one Soviet-era pre-trial detention center - in the Pishchalovsky Central of Minsk, also known as Volodarka. This unique place, the only one in Europe. They execute about 10 people a year there. But if it is relatively easy to count the firing squads in the Soviet republics, then even the most trained historian will hardly be able to say with certainty how many such specialized detention centers were in the RSFSR. For example, until recently it was believed that in Leningrad in the 60-80s, convicts were not executed at all - there was nowhere. But it turned out that this was not the case. Not so long ago, documentary evidence was found in the archives that Arkady Neiland, a 15-year-old teenager sentenced to capital punishment, was shot in the summer of 1964 precisely in northern capital, and not in Moscow and not in Minsk, as previously thought. So, there was still a "prepared" pre-trial detention center. And Neyland was hardly the only one who was shot there.

There are other common myths about the "tower". For example, it is generally accepted that since the late 1950s, the Baltic states have not had their own firing squads at all, so all those sentenced to capital punishment from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were transferred to Minsk for execution. This is not entirely true: death sentences were also carried out in the Baltic states. But the performers were really invited from outside. Mostly from Azerbaijan. Still, as many as three firing squads for one small republic is a bit much. The convicts were executed mainly in the Baku Bayil prison, and the shoulder masters from Nakhichevan were often unemployed. They still “dripped” their salaries - the members of the firing squad received about 200 rubles a month, but at the same time there were no bonuses for “enforcing” or quarterly bonuses. And it was a lot of money - the quarterly amounted to about 150-170 rubles, and "for the performance" they paid a hundred members of the brigade and 150 - directly to the performer. So they went on business trips to earn extra money. More often - to Latvia and Lithuania, less often - to Georgia, Moldova and Estonia.

Another popular myth is that recent decades existence of the Union death penalty women were not sentenced. They sentenced. IN open sources You can find information about three such executions. In 1979, the collaborator Antonina Makarova was shot, in 1983, the embezzler of socialist property Berta Borodkina, and in 1987, the poisoner Tamara Ivanyutina. And this is against the backdrop of 24,422 death sentences passed between 1962 and 1989! Well, only men were shot? Hardly. In particular, the verdicts of money-changers Oksana Sobinova and Svetlana Pinsker (Leningrad), Tatiana Vnuchkina (Moscow), and Yulia Grabovetskaya (Kiev) handed down in the mid-1960s are still shrouded in secrecy.

They were convicted to the "tower", but they were executed or pardoned, it's hard to say. Their names are not among the 2355 pardoned. So, most likely they were still shot.

The third myth is that they became executioners, so to speak, at the call of the heart. In the Soviet Union, executioners were appointed - and nothing more. No volunteers. You never know what they have in mind - what if perverts? Even an ordinary employee of the OBKhSS could be appointed as an executioner. Among law enforcement officers, as a rule, those who were dissatisfied with their salary, who urgently needed to improve their living conditions, were selected. They offered a job. Invited for an interview. If the subject fit, he was registered. I must say that the Soviet personnel officers worked perfectly: from 1960 to 1990 there was not a single case when the executioner quit his job. own will. And certainly there was not a single case of suicide among the executioners - the Soviet executioners had strong nerves. “Yes, I was appointed,” recalled the former head of the institution UA-38/1 of the UITU of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR, Khalid Yunusov, who carried out more than three dozen death sentences. – I caught bribe-takers six years before. Tired, only made enemies for himself.

How, in fact, was the execution procedure itself? As a rule, several years elapsed after the announcement of the verdict by the court and before it was carried out. All this time, the suicide bomber was kept in the “solitary cell” of the prison of the city in which the trial was taking place. When all petitions for clemency were rejected, the sentenced were transported to a special isolation ward - as a rule, a few days before the sad procedure. It happened that prisoners languished in anticipation of execution for several months, but these were rare exceptions. Prisoners were cut bald and dressed in clothes made of striped fabric (light gray stripe alternated with dark gray).

Meanwhile, the head of the pre-trial detention center was gathering his firing squad. In addition to the doctor and the executioner, it included an employee of the prosecutor's office and a representative of the operational information center of the Internal Affairs Directorate. These five gathered in a specially designated room. First, the prosecutor's office got acquainted with the personal file of the sentenced. Then the so-called supervisors for supervision, two or three people, brought the convict into the room in handcuffs. Movies and books usually follow a passage in which the death row is announced that, they say, all his petitions for clemency have been rejected. actually departing in last way this was never reported. They asked what to call, where he was born, under what article he is sitting. They offered to sign several protocols. Then they said that it would be necessary to draw up another petition for pardon - in the next room, where the deputies were sitting, and the papers would need to be signed in front of them. The trick, as a rule, worked flawlessly: those condemned to death cheerfully walked towards the deputies.

And there were no deputies behind the door of the neighboring cell - there was a performer standing there. As soon as the condemned entered the room, a shot in the back of the head followed. More precisely - "in the left occipital part of the head in the region of the left ear", as required by the instructions. The suicide bomber fell, a control shot was heard. The head of the dead was wrapped in a rag, the blood was washed off - a blood duct was specially equipped in the room. The doctor came in and pronounced him dead. It is noteworthy that the executioner never shot the victim with a pistol - only with a small-caliber rifle. They say that they shot from Makarov and TT exclusively in Azerbaijan, but the lethal force of the weapon was such that at close range the convicts literally blew their heads off. And then it was decided to shoot the convicts from the revolvers of the times civil war– they had a more sparing fight. By the way, it was only in Azerbaijan that those sentenced to death were tightly bound before the procedure, and only in this republic was it customary to announce to the convicts that all their requests for pardon were rejected. Why this is so is unknown. The binding of the victims affected them so strongly that one in four died of a broken heart.

It is also noteworthy that the prosecution officers never signed the documents on the execution of the sentence before the execution (as the instructions prescribed) - only after. They said - Bad sign, worse than ever. Next, the deceased was placed in a pre-prepared coffin and taken to the cemetery, to a special area, where they were buried under nameless tablets. No names, no surnames - just a serial number. The firing squad was issued an act, and that day all four of its members received a day off.

In Ukrainian, Belarusian and Moldovan pre-trial detention centers, as a rule, they managed with one executioner. But in the Georgian special detention centers - in Tbilisi and Kutaisi - there were a dozen of them. Of course, most of these "executioners" never executed anyone - they were only listed, receiving a large salary according to the statement. But why did the law enforcement system need to maintain such a huge and useless ballast? They explained it this way: it is not possible to keep secret which of the SIZO employees shoots the sentenced. The accountant will always talk! So, in order to mislead the accountant, in Georgia they introduced such a strange system of payments.

The worst punishment for a criminal death sentence. Even long term conclusion gives hope for some kind of indulgence in the future. In this case, the convict receives the right to die his own death. But her constant expectation can lead to madness. Therefore, never believe those who say that life imprisonment is worse than the death penalty. This is absolutely false. Otherwise, in prisons where life-sentenced prisoners sit, suicides would constantly occur, despite all security measures.

A full understanding of the essence of a harsh sentence comes to the convict a few days after he is transferred to death row. The agonizing wait can last for several months, until it makes its final decision the highest court is the Supreme Court. In the vast majority of cases, sentences remain unchanged. But there is one more chance - pardoning the highest official of the state. In most cases this last hope is not justified. How is the death penalty carried out?

This question, posed in the present tense, is irrelevant for the vast majority of countries. After the Second World War, there was a trend in the world towards the abolition of the death penalty. progressively thinking people began to argue that the deprivation of the life of a criminal is a cruel and inhuman act.

In 1978, this type of punishment was abolished in Spain. France did the same in 1981. Since 1990, wholesale imitation of the above-mentioned countries has begun. Bloody punishment was canceled by 40 states. By 2008, there were 89 countries in which criminals had ceased to be deprived of their lives for serious crimes. 30 countries have imposed a moratorium on this case. To date, there are no death sentences in 130 states of the world, and in 68 there are.

In terms of numbers, China comes first. In it, an average of 1,700 people are sentenced to death every year. In the US, the corresponding figure is 38 in 2010-2012 (106 in 2009). In Iran, the figure is 345. And in Saudi Arabia, an average of 105 people are killed each year. In 2009, 2,812 criminals were executed in 30 countries.

Execution of the death penalty in the USSR

In Russia, a moratorium has been imposed on this type of punishment. It has been operating since 1996. Last execution dated September 2, 1996. But in the days of the USSR, criminals were deprived of their lives for especially serious crimes. There was a special firing squad for this. Officially, it was called - a special group for the execution of death sentences.

Such a unit consisted of 12-15 people. This number of people included the perpetrators, the doctor, and the supervising prosecutor. He was appointed by the Attorney General of the country. There were 2 direct perpetrators who shot in the back of the head. But if necessary, they could be replaced by other members of the group. That is, universality was encouraged, but usually each employee performed only his own range of duties.

Such a team was completed with physically strong and mentally balanced men. Several people were shot at once. Therefore, such procedures did not happen so often. Before completing the task, each employee took with him a service weapon. After the briefing, some of the employees went to the place of execution of the sentence, while the other part organized the removal of the suicide bombers from the cells, their boarding in transport and delivery to their destination.

According to the instructions, in the event of an attack on a transport with suicide bombers, the special forces were to immediately shoot all the escorts and only then leave the car. But this measure security was never put into practice, as such attacks simply did not occur.

After arriving at their destination, the suicide bombers were placed in a special cell. Opposite was a room where the supervising prosecutor and the commander of the special unit sat at the table. Before them were placed the personal files of those sentenced to death.

Again, in accordance with the instructions, the convicts were brought one at a time into the office, and the prosecutor, clarifying personal data, was convinced that in front of him were exactly those people whose personal files were on the table. To each sentenced, the prosecutor announced that his petition for pardon had been rejected, and the sentence would be carried out immediately. The suicide bomber at that moment turned into a meek creature and almost did not understand what was happening to him.

The next stage of the execution of the death penalty was the transfer of the sentenced to the place of execution. The offender was blindfolded and taken to a special cell, where an officer with a pistol was already waiting. Two other employees wringed the convict's hands, lowered him to his knees, and the perpetrator fired a shot in the back of the head. Death came instantly. She was diagnosed by a doctor. After that, acts on the execution of the sentence and an act on burial were signed. All these documents were attached to the personal file of the executed. The body was packed in a bag and buried. The burial place of the executed was a state secret.

Execution by email chair in the USA in the 20th century

Execution of the death penalty in the United States

In the US today, the death penalty is practiced in 36 states. This measure of punishment is also used by federal judges. In total, there are 5 methods of deprivation of life: lethal injection, gas chamber, el. chair, hanging and execution. The most popular is the lethal injection. In second place is email. chair. Shooting in America is not popular. Hanging and the gas chamber were not used in the 21st century, although state laws provide for them along with other methods of killing.

Only in Nebraska the only way deprivation of life was el. chair until 2008. In all other administrative divisions, the convicts themselves could choose the way to die.

The execution of the death penalty in the United States has certain rules and traditions. The condemned has the right to the last supper. He is also given the last word just before death. The process itself is carried out in the presence of witnesses. This is the accuser, the lawyer, the relatives of the victims. A priest is required. They try to make the transition to another world absolutely painless.

Before execution in China

Execution of the death penalty in China

China is an exotic country. In addition, she is terribly relocated. Therefore, there are more people prone to crime in percentage terms than in other countries of the world. In this regard, the country's leadership practices public executions. They shoot officials involved in corruption, drug dealers, keepers of underground brothels, smugglers. In total, there are 68 articles of the criminal code that allow deprivation of life.

Today, criminals are shot and given a lethal injection. In the second case, 2 injections are made. First, an anesthetic is injected under the skin, and then lethal dose potassium cyanide. The condemned dies within 1 minute. It is planned to completely abandon executions, as this is a harsher and inhumane action compared to an injection.

In other countries, the execution of the death penalty is very diverse. The condemned are hanged, shot, killed with poison. The same states that have refused this type of punishment contain criminals in special prisons. The question of the complete abolition of the death penalty throughout the world is not yet on the agenda..

The article was written by Yuri Kashirin

The worst punishment for anyone who commits a crime is the death penalty. Indeed, in a long imprisonment, a person’s hope for the mercy of fate shines through. And the convict is given the opportunity to die naturally. While the rest of life, spent in the daily expectation of death, turns a person inside out. If death were better than life sentences, then prisons would regularly give out news about the suicides of convicts. Even with security measures.

The criminal begins to fully realize the essence of his last sentence only days after being transferred to death row. The vague, agonizing wait lasts for months. At all times during this period, the convict hoped for pardon. And it didn't happen that often.

IN Russian Federation V this moment time the death penalty is prohibited. She has been under a moratorium since her last death sentence on September 2, 1996. However, as a measure in the USSR, they organized throughout the history of the country for crimes of particular gravity.

Execution after tsarist times

In tsarist times, execution was carried out by hanging or shooting. With the advent of the Bolsheviks to power, only the second was applied - it was faster and more convenient for mass executions in the USSR. Until the 1920s, there were no laws in the country that would regulate this. Therefore, there were a whole lot of variations of this action. The sentence of execution in the USSR of those times was passed and carried out, including publicly. So they shot the tsarist ministers in 1918. The execution of the terrorist Fanny Kaplan was carried out in the Kremlin without subsequent burial. Her body was burned in an iron barrel right on the spot.

How did the executions take place in the USSR?

The state killed its citizens only for committing special serious crimes. There were special firing squads in the country that carried out executions. Most often it was about 15 people, including executors, a doctor, a supervising prosecutor. The doctor declared death, the prosecutor made sure that the convict was executed. He made sure that the perpetrators did not kill another person, releasing the criminal for a fabulous sum. All duties were strictly divided into this narrow circle of people.

The execution of people in the USSR was always carried out by physically strong and morally stable males. They executed several people at a time, which made it possible to carry out executions with less frequency. In the USSR, the technology of execution was not distinguished by intricacy. After the issuance of service weapons to each performer, there was a briefing. Then they split in half. The first took the convicts out of the cell and organized the transfer to the final destination. The second was already in place.

There was an instruction when attacking a convoy of suicide bombers, the first thing to do was to shoot the convicts. However, no such cases have ever been reported. So it never came in handy.

Upon arrival at the final destination, the criminals were put in a special cell. In the adjoining room were the prosecutor and the detachment commander. They laid out the personal file of the convict in front of them.

The suicide bombers were brought into the room strictly one at a time. Their personal data were clarified, they were reconciled with data from the personal file. The important point was to make sure that the right person was executed. The prosecutor then announced that the requests for clemency had been rejected and the hour of sentencing had arrived.

Next, the convict was moved to the immediate place of bringing the death penalty into effect. There, an impenetrable bandage was put on his eyes and they led him into a room in which there was a ready performer with a service weapon. Hands were held on both sides of the suicide bomber, putting him on his knees. And there was a shot. The doctor pronounced him dead. Burial certificates were collected, and the body in a bag was buried in secret place.

Secrets

The technologies of this process were concealed with special care from the citizens of the country. During the civil war, however, the advertisements only talked about counter-revolutionaries for intimidation. Relatives were never allowed to receive documents about the execution. The highest measure of execution in the USSR of the early period was announced only orally.

According to the documents of 1927, executions for banditry were not announced at all. Even after writing appeals, the relatives could not get any information about these people.

Mass executions

The executions of triples in the 1930s have always shrouded in mystery. Since 1937, mass executions in the USSR, also called mass operations, have been carried out in an atmosphere of complete secrecy. Even those who were convicted in a couple were never sentenced, so that people would not have a chance to resist. The fact that they were brought to the execution, they realized only when they were on the spot. In the most early period the condemned were not sentenced at all.

In August 1937, a decision was made to execute ten criminals. At the same time, it was decided to carry out the action without announcing it. IN Supreme Court the words "death penalty" were disguised as "the sentence will be announced to you." Some of the accused were told that the verdict would be announced in the cell. Sentences to NKVD officers

A special procedure was carried out during the execution of NKVD workers in the USSR, even if they had already retired. There was a special procedure for them, there were no documents on the investigation, no sentences. Without trial, by decision of Stalin and his entourage, the victim was transferred to the military board of the Armed Forces with a note of execution. Everything was extremely secret, so the notes were made by hand. The reason for the execution was a note in the certificate, which was in the case, indicating the volume and sheet. Later, when studying Stalin's volumes, it turned out that the number of each volume and sheet coincides with the number of the volume and sheet of the list with the names of the condemned.

What was announced to relatives?

The fate of the person sentenced under the article on execution in the USSR was announced to his relatives with the wording "10 years in a camp without the right to correspond." In 1940, this was harshly criticized by Zakharov for the fact that such a method would discredit the prosecutor's office. Many relatives made inquiries to the camps, and then answered that their relative was not registered with them. Then they came with scandals to the prosecutor's office, seeking confessions from the NKVD about the execution about their subsequent deception.

Who was present at the execution?

Usually the prosecutor, the judge and the doctor were absent when the execution was carried out without trial. But at judgment on execution, the presence of a prosecutor was mandatory. They had to be sure to monitor the murder of major figures. So, sometimes they were entrusted with the task of monitoring whether he would make a confession about death before death. The presence of an NKVD officer was not uncommon.

IN Tatar Republic since 1937, convicts were photographed and without fail happened after the execution with a photo. However, many documents of that era do not have photos, and they themselves are confused.

Violations

The law established humane conditions for the execution of the sentence. However, evidence has been preserved of how the execution in the USSR actually took place. Although according to the law the fact of death was established by the doctor, in reality this was often carried out by the perpetrators. Numerous reports have been preserved that, despite the strict regulation of the procedure with the aim of killing the condemned instantly, the survivability of those killed was often manifested. In the absence of a doctor, at executions, still living people were sometimes buried, who seemed killed only at first glance. For example, in Yakovlev's letters with descriptions of the execution of those who refused to pass military service contains a description of a truly terrible execution. Then 14 Baptists, still wounded, threw themselves into the ground, they were buried alive, one escaped and confirmed this personally.

In the document of 1935 on the execution of Ovotov, there is evidence that the convict died only 3 minutes after the shot. There was a regulation to shoot from a certain angle so that death was instantaneous. However, the shots may not have resulted in a painless death.

Terminology

Those involved in the implementation of the executions used evasive names for this action. It was not suitable for wide publicity among the population, it took place in an atmosphere of secrecy. Executions were called "the highest measure of punishment or social protection". Among the Chekists, the names of military massacres were “exchange”, “departure to Kolchak’s headquarters”, “put into consumption”. And since the 1920s, executions have been completely dubbed with a cynical term for conspiratorial purposes - “wedding”. Probably, the name was chosen because of the analogy with the expression "marry with death." Sometimes performers allowed themselves florid names like "transfer to a state of non-existence."

Since the 1930s, executions have been called deportations in the first category, and ten years without the right to correspond, and special operations. The explanations, written by the hands of the perpetrators themselves, were full of the phrases “I brought the verdict”, which sounded so veiled and evasive. The main words were always omitted. The same was true in the ranks of the SS. Such words as murders, executions were always masked there. Instead, it was popular to use the expressions "special actions", "purges", "exclusions", "resettlement".

Features of the procedure

IN different periods the existence of the Soviet state, the procedure for carrying out the sentence was very different, passing through military regimes, tightening and softening the dictatorship. The bloodiest years were 1935-1937, when death sentences became very common. Over 600,000 people were executed during that period. The execution was carried out on the day of the announcement of the verdict, immediately. There were no sentiments, rituals, there was no right to last requests and last meals, which were accepted even in the Middle Ages.

The sentenced was taken to the basement and quickly fulfilled the predetermined.

The pace slowed down when Khrushchev and Brezhnev came to power. The sentenced received the right to write complaints, requests for pardon. They have time for this. The sentenced were placed in a special cell, but the convict did not know the date of the execution of the sentence until the last moment. This was announced on the day when he was taken to a room in which everything was already ready for execution. There, the rejection of requests for pardon was announced, and execution was carried out. And even then there was no talk of the last meals and other rituals. The sentenced ate the same as all the other convicts, and did not know that this meal would be their last. The conditions of detention, despite the norms established by law, in reality were frankly bad.

The inmates of that era, eyewitnesses of executions in the prisons of the USSR, recalled that their food could be rotten, with worms. There were numerous violations everywhere. statutory humane standards. And those sentenced to death in the USSR could not receive packages from relatives who would be able to somehow brighten them up. last days on this earth.

The only mercy from the firing squads was the tradition of giving a person a cigarette or a cigarette before being shot, which the person smoked in last time. According to rumors, sometimes the performers gave the condemned tea with sugar to drink.

Mass executions

Remained in history and cases of massacres in the country. So, a loud shooting of a demonstration in the USSR took place in 1962 in Novocherkassk. Then 26 workers were shot, who had gathered as part of thousands of demonstrators for a spontaneous rally due to higher prices and lower wages. 87 people were injured, the dead were secretly buried in cemeteries different cities. About a hundred demonstrators were convicted, some were sentenced to death. Like many things in the USSR, the execution of workers was carefully concealed. Separate pages of that story are still classified.

This execution of a demonstration in the USSR is considered a real crime, but no one was punished for it. The authorities did not make a single attempt to disperse the crowd with either water or clubs. In response to legitimate demands to improve the oppressive, miserable situation of tens of thousands of workers, the authorities opened fire with machine guns, carrying out one of the most mass executions of workers known in the USSR.

This was just one of the most notorious cases, despite all attempts to classify, mass executions of that era.

Execution of women in the USSR

Of course, cruel sentences extended to the beautiful half of humanity as well. There was no ban on the execution of women, with the exception of pregnant women, and even then not in all periods. From 1962 to 1989, more than 24,000 people were executed, almost all males. The most widely publicized were 3 executions of women in the USSR of that period. This is the execution of "Tonka the machine-gunner", who personally shot Soviet partisans in the Great Patriotic War, speculators Borodkina, poisoners Inyutina. Many cases were classified.

The shooting of minors in the USSR was also practiced. But here it is important to note that it was the Soviet state that made the law regarding children more humane compared to what existed in tsarist times. So, in the time of Peter I, children were executed from the age of 7. Before the Bolsheviks came to power, the criminal prosecution of children continued to be carried out. Since 1918, commissions for juvenile affairs were established and executions for children were prohibited. They ruled on the application of measures against children. Usually these were attempts not to imprison them, but to re-educate them.

In the 1930s, the state experienced an intensification of the criminal situation, and cases of sabotage by foreign states became more frequent. There has been an increase in the number of crimes committed by minors. Then in 1935 capital punishment for minors was introduced. The shooting of children in the USSR thus again proved to be legal.

However, the only such documented case was the shooting of a 15-year-old teenager in the USSR during the Khrushchev era, in 1964. Then a guy who grew up in a boarding school, previously caught on theft and petty hooliganism, brutally killed a woman with her young child. With the intention of taking pornographic pictures with a view to their further sale, he stole the necessary equipment for this and photographed the corpse, placing it in obscene poses. Then he set fire to the crime scene and fled, and was caught three days later.

The teenager until the last believed that he was not in danger of death, cooperated with the investigation. However, under the influence of the cynicism that accompanied his actions, the Presidium of the Supreme Court published a provision that allowed the use of execution for juvenile delinquents.

Despite the massive outrage caused by this decision, Soviet authorities in relation to juvenile offenders remained quite humane. As before, the decision to re-educate teenagers was a priority. There were really few sentences for this category of citizens. Indeed, in the United States, for example, until 1988, executions of persons were widely practiced. adolescence. There are cases of death sentences for persons aged 13 years.

Memoirs of performers

According to the memoirs of the members of the firing squad, Soviet methods executions were still brutal. Especially unworked at first. Cases of appeals from them to the Ministry of Internal Affairs on this matter have been documented. The execution was carried out at night, after 12 hours. In fact, there were practically no deputies for the performers, although, according to the law, they had to change to distract the performer from the horror he had experienced. So, one of the members of the firing squad testified already in our time that after killing 35 convicts in 3 years, he was never replaced by anyone.

Although the condemned were not told where they were being taken, they usually understood what was going on. Even complete inner strength in the face of death, they cried out farewell words, chanted slogans. There were those who sat down in an instant. One of the most terrible memories of a participant in the execution is how a person who understands where he was brought refuses to cross the threshold of the last room in his life. Someone tearfully begged not to kill, escaping, clinging to the threshold. That is why people were not told where they were being taken.

Usually it was a closed office with a small window. Someone who did not have the will and character fell right there, entering the room. There were cases of death from heart failure minutes before the actual execution. Someone resisted - they were knocked down and twisted. They shot at point-blank range in the back of the head, slightly to the left, in order to hit a vital organ, and the convict immediately died. Understanding where he was brought, the condemned could ask for the last request. But, of course, there has never been a fulfillment of unrealistic wishes like a feast. The maximum was a cigarette.

While waiting for the execution, the suicide bombers could not communicate with the outside world in any way, they were forbidden to take them out for walks, only a toilet was supposed to be once a day.

The charter for the performers included a clause according to which, after each execution, they were supposed to have 250 grams of alcohol. They were also entitled to a salary supplement, which was significant in those days.

Usually performers were paid about two hundred rubles a month. During the entire existence of the Soviet state since 1960, not one of the executioners was dismissed by his own decision. There were no cases of suicide in their ranks. The selection for this role was made carefully.

Eyewitnesses have preserved the memories of the tricks used by the executioners to soften the blow to the convict. So, he was informed that he was being led to write a request for pardon. This had to be done in another room with the deputies. Then the sentenced man walked into the room with a brisk step, and when he entered, he found only the executor. He immediately shot in the area of the left ear according to the instructions. After the fall of the condemned, a second control shot was fired.

No more than a few people included in the leadership knew about the occupation of the performers themselves. On trips to perform "secret assignments," officers took other people's names. When traveling to other cities for execution, they immediately went back after the execution of the sentence. Before the start of the "execution", each performer without fail got acquainted with the case of the convict, then read the guilty verdict. Such a procedure was envisaged in order to exclude any pangs of conscience from the officers. Each of the firing squad realized that he was saving society from the most dangerous persons, leaving them alive, he would have untied their hands for further atrocities.

Participants in the execution in the USSR often became drunkards. There have been cases of them getting into psychiatric hospitals. Sometimes sentences accumulated, and dozens of people had to be shot.

Violations

With the publication of the "Order of Executions" in 1924, it becomes clearer what violations could have taken place during the execution of the sentence. So, the document prohibited publicity, publicity of the execution. No painful methods of killing were allowed, there was a ban on removing parts of clothing and shoes from the body. It was forbidden to give the body to anyone. The burial was carried out in the absence of rituals and signs of the grave. There were special cemeteries where the condemned were buried under plates with numbers.

In what year was the execution canceled in the USSR

The last sentence to be executed by firing squad was the execution of Sergei Golovkin, the murderer of more than a dozen people. This was in August 1996. Then a moratorium on the death penalty was introduced, and since then they have not been practiced on the territory of the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, discussions about the return of this procedure continue to periodically flare up in the country.

However, the system of administration of justice since Soviet Union has already undergone many changes. There are more opportunities for corruption than in that era. The execution of the death penalty may simply turn into a means of massacring enemies over each other. There are many cases of miscarriage of justice.

Despite the fact that decades have passed since the collapse of the Soviet state, the topic of mass executions, the execution of death sentences still remains full of secrets and riddles. Many direct participants have passed away, much has remained classified as "top secret" to this day. Nevertheless, from the stories of eyewitnesses, one can trace how the execution of criminals actually took place. And, it should be noted, in comparison with other civilized states, humane considerations in the actions of the authorities can be clearly seen. Contrary to the popular opinion today about the inhumanity of the USSR authorities.

Is it true that the executioners were paid solid bonuses for each executed executioner? And is it true that it was not customary to shoot women in the Soviet Union? During the post-Soviet period, so many common myths were created around the “tower” that it is hardly possible to figure out what is true and what is speculation without painstaking work in the archives, which can take more than a dozen years. There is no complete clarity either with pre-war executions or with post-war ones. But worst of all is the data on how death sentences were carried out in the 1960s and 1980s.

As a rule, convicts were executed in pre-trial detention centers. In each union republic there was at least one such pre-trial detention center for special purposes. There were two in Ukraine, three in Azerbaijan, and four each in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Today, death sentences are carried out in only one Soviet-era pre-trial detention center - in the Pishchalovsky Central of Minsk, also known as Volodarka. This is a unique place, the only one in Europe. They execute about 10 people a year there. But if it is relatively easy to count the firing squads in the Soviet republics, then even the most trained historian will hardly be able to say with certainty how many such specialized detention centers were in the RSFSR. For example, until recently it was believed that in Leningrad in the 60-80s, convicts were not executed at all - there was nowhere. But it turned out that this was not the case. Not so long ago, documentary evidence was found in the archives that the 15-year-old teenager Arkady Neiland, sentenced to capital punishment, was shot in the summer of 1964 in the Northern capital, and not in Moscow and not in Minsk, as previously thought. So, there was still a "prepared" pre-trial detention center. And Neyland was hardly the only one who was shot there.

Another common myth is that in the last decades of the existence of the Union, women were not sentenced to death. They sentenced. In open sources, you can find information about three such executions. In 1979, the collaborator Antonina Makarova was shot, in 1983, the embezzler of socialist property Berta Borodkina, and in 1987, the poisoner Tamara Ivanyutina. And this is against the backdrop of 24,422 death sentences passed between 1962 and 1989! Well, only men were shot? Hardly. In particular, the verdicts of money-changers Oksana Sobinova and Svetlana Pinsker (Leningrad), Tatiana Vnuchkina (Moscow), and Yulia Grabovetskaya (Kiev) handed down in the mid-1960s are still shrouded in secrecy.

They were convicted to the "tower", but they were executed or pardoned, it's hard to say. Their names are not among the 2355 pardoned. So, most likely they were still shot.

The third myth is that they became executioners, so to speak, at the call of the heart. In the Soviet Union, executioners were appointed - and nothing more. No volunteers. You never know what they have in mind - what if perverts? Even an ordinary employee of the OBKhSS could be appointed as an executioner. Among law enforcement officers, as a rule, those who were dissatisfied with their salary, who urgently needed to improve their living conditions, were selected. They offered a job. Invited for an interview. If the subject fit, he was registered. I must say that the Soviet personnel officers worked perfectly: from 1960 to 1990 there was not a single case when the executioner quit of his own free will. And certainly there was not a single case of suicide among the executioners - the Soviet executioners had strong nerves. “Yes, I was appointed,” recalled the former head of the institution UA-38/1 of the UITU of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR, Khalid Yunusov, who carried out more than three dozen death sentences. – I caught bribe-takers six years before. Tired, only made enemies for himself.

Meanwhile, the head of the pre-trial detention center was gathering his firing squad. In addition to the doctor and the executioner, it included an employee of the prosecutor's office and a representative of the operational information center of the Internal Affairs Directorate. These five gathered in a specially designated room. First, the prosecutor's office got acquainted with the personal file of the sentenced. Then the so-called supervisors for supervision, two or three people, brought the convict into the room in handcuffs. Movies and books usually follow a passage in which the death row is announced that, they say, all his petitions for clemency have been rejected. In fact, the departing on his last journey was never informed about this. They asked what to call, where he was born, under what article he is sitting. They offered to sign several protocols. Then they said that it would be necessary to draw up another petition for pardon - in the next room, where the deputies were sitting, and the papers would need to be signed in front of them. The trick, as a rule, worked flawlessly: those condemned to death cheerfully walked towards the deputies.

And there were no deputies behind the door of the neighboring cell - there was a performer standing there. As soon as the condemned entered the room, a shot in the back of the head followed. More precisely - "in the left occipital part of the head in the region of the left ear", as required by the instructions. The suicide bomber fell, a control shot was heard. The head of the dead was wrapped in a rag, the blood was washed off - a blood duct was specially equipped in the room. The doctor came in and pronounced him dead. It is noteworthy that the executioner never shot the victim with a pistol - only with a small-caliber rifle. They say that they shot from Makarov and TT exclusively in Azerbaijan, but the lethal force of the weapon was such that at close range the convicts literally blew their heads off. And then it was decided to shoot the convicts from the revolvers of the times of the Civil War - they had a more sparing battle. By the way, it was only in Azerbaijan that those sentenced to death were tightly bound before the procedure, and only in this republic was it customary to announce to the convicts that all their requests for pardon were rejected. Why this is so is unknown. The binding of the victims affected them so strongly that one in four died of a broken heart.

It is also noteworthy that the prosecution officers never signed the documents on the execution of the sentence before the execution (as the instructions prescribed) - only after. They said it was a bad omen, worse than ever. Next, the deceased was placed in a pre-prepared coffin and taken to the cemetery, to a special area, where they were buried under nameless tablets. No names, no surnames - just a serial number. The firing squad was issued an act, and that day all four of its members received a day off.

There is still talk about exactly how and where executions were carried out. Some say that the criminals were simply put "against the wall", which was the case in prison special device for execution... In my journalistic notebook there is a man's story about how "it" happened in reality. He asked to call himself Ivan Ivanovich.

There were several places where capital punishment was carried out: Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zhitomir, Lvov, Kyiv, Lugansk, Dnepropetrovsk, - says Ivan Ivanovich. - The procedure for the execution of capital punishment (CMN) was regulated only by a departmental regulatory document, that is, an order. At one time, this document was signed by the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Even when Ukraine became independent state, then, in my opinion, they still used the old order and instructions on the procedure for using VMN. Only a limited circle of people could get acquainted with them.

Who shot the criminals?

An executor was appointed from among the employees of the pre-trial detention center - the person who carried out the sentence (he was, as a rule, an officer). He had two assistant controllers - physically strong guys, prepared. They carried out their service as usual, and when the time came to carry out the punishment, they did this work.

The people gossiped that the performers in the end could not stand it - either drank too much, or became mentally unbalanced people.

I don't remember them getting drunk. But from practice I know that such work had a little effect on their psyche. There is an allegation that these people were allegedly transferred after some time to other regions for service. There was no such thing. Satisfied, perhaps, the request for "resignation" ... If the performers were often changed, then the circle of people would expand, which means that it would be more difficult to keep the secret.

What is the technology of the execution itself? What preceded it?

The commission sits in the isolation ward. It includes four people. The prosecutor's office presides. A representative of the pre-trial detention center, a medical worker and an employee of the information center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are sitting with him. The commission meets in a separate room. This is usually a basement. She studies the personal file of the convict: she looks to see if there is a sentence for such and such a person (the death penalty), if there is a decree of the President of Ukraine refusing pardon, if there is a court order to enforce this measure of punishment. The personal file must also be accompanied by an accompanying paper from the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate, which says that, they say, we are sending the personal file of such and such a person sentenced to capital punishment for the execution of the sentence. Having studied all this, the command is given to deliver the convict.

The performer's assistants go to the building and take him out. Here it is also necessary to tell how the members of the commission enter the pre-trial detention center. They go in so that no one sees them.

Did they have invisibility hats?

Everything is much easier. The day before, the prosecutor received a call from the leadership of the pre-trial detention center, saying that tomorrow there is a case. And that's it, no details. It's already agreed. The next day in a certain place, in certain time a minibus with curtained windows stops at some distance from the prosecutor's office. An employee of the prosecutor's office, who is admitted to this case, sits in it. On the way, they pick up a representative of the information center and drive into the pre-trial detention center through the checkpoint. Security does not inspect this car.

Was that what was ordered?

Yes. The minibus pulls up to the SIZO building. Members of the commission come out and go to the meeting room.

Where do they find a doctor?

A local doctor, from a pre-trial detention center.

Why such secrecy?

Not to arouse suspicion. By the way, they leave the same way. When the sentence was carried out, the coffin with the body of the executed was placed in the same car. The perpetrator, his two assistants, as well as an employee of the prosecutor's office and a representative of the information center also sit there. And on the same day they leave the pre-trial detention center. At the agreed place, the minibus stops and the prosecutor and the representative of the information center go out and go home. And the car goes to the crematorium.

What does an employee of the information center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs do in the commission?

He writes off the convict. Removes from the register as a resident of this country.

What days were they shot?

On different days.

Who decided that the commission should meet?

They decided when the personal file of the convict came. The head of the pre-trial detention center, having received a personal file, determined when to carry out the sentence. If a case comes and there is a decree of the President, the sentence, if possible, was carried out in the coming days.

How was the criminal taken out of the cell?

They came to him and said: “Convicted such and such - go out with things!” They immediately handcuffed him. Hands behind your back.

They didn't handcuff him to themselves?

No. They held him to the side.

Did the offender have any idea where they were taking him?

In most cases, a person feels that this is his last exit. Therefore, it also leads in different ways, some try to escape, some fall to their knees in front of the commission, crying, they say, I'm sorry, I won't do it anymore, I'll prove it to everyone, and so on.

And were there those who calmly went to the "scaffold"?

There were some. Although they were all suppressed. Looking at them is one disgust.

Where did their personal belongings go?

As a rule, they were placed in a coffin along with the cargo.

Were the assistant performers armed?

No. But from such guys, few will break out. They lead the convict to the commission to the basement. They bring. And the prosecutor interrogates him.

Do all members of the commission sit at the same table, like in the presidium?

As in the presidium. The controllers hold the convict, because some of the legs are weak, some are trembling, and some are crying. The prosecutor asks his last name, first name, patronymic, where he was born, where he got married, in short, he asks questions that only this person can answer. That is, the prosecutor is convinced that it is against this person that the verdict has been passed.

How long is the interrogation?

Ten minutes. Other committee members rarely ask questions. Of course, they may ask, for example, do you agree with the verdict or something like this: how could you, so-and-so, rape, rob and kill a woman? The doctor usually does not ask questions.

And then they tell the convict, they say, go to the next room, there sits a commission of high-ranking officials. They will listen, maybe they will replace capital punishment with imprisonment. They take him into the room. There, of course, there is no commission, the door closes and a shot is heard, and then two more - control ones. This is already running the performer. After that, the performer and his assistants leave the room, and the corpse is left there to rest, so to speak. A doctor comes in, ascertains death, about which two documents are drawn up: the first is that the measure of punishment sanctioned by the prosecutor is being executed, the second is that this measure of punishment has been executed. After that, the table is laid ... and drunk in a cup. For this, money is allocated for which they buy food. They didn't drink cognac, only vodka. That's how it was done. But they drink a cup not to get drunk (there were no such cases), but to relieve stress. It is provided. We drank two or three cups, then the performer's assistants deal with the corpse. He is placed in a coffin made of ordinary boards and taken out of the pre-trial detention center in the same minibus. The coffin was knocked down in a pre-trial detention center, in production workshops. The assistants of the performer were engaged in this - so that there would be no unnecessary suspicions.

Did the performer's assistants also drink a cup?

Yes. They need it the most.

Because they did all the dirty work?

And if a person, for example, is a non-drinker?

Sometimes it happens. No one is forcing anyone to take a cup.

Well, what do they say when they take one hundred grams? Or drink silently?

They drink the first cup in silence - for peace. Before the second, they can say something on various abstract topics.

Is everyone sitting at the same table?

Yes, at the table where the commission met.

Tell us about the room where the execution was carried out.

Under one of the buildings there is a basement. There are two rooms. In one, the commission sits, and in the second, sentences are executed. This is a small room. No windows. No tables, chairs. It is intended for these purposes only.

Did no one hear the shots?

I did not hear, because they shot from a small-caliber rifle. Shot at close range in the back of the head. The little guy has enough lethal force to take a man's life. Shooting a gun would be very loud.

And where was the performer when the condemned was brought into the execution room?

The performer stood outside the door. And the convict did not see him. The performer came up behind and pulled the trigger. The distance between him and the convict is a meter and a half.

Were there any misfires?

I don't remember this.

Shot in the head?

In the back of the head.

And the second and third shots also in the back of the head?

Was three shots always enough?

Sometimes one is enough. But according to the rules, two more control shots must be fired.

And where did the performer store weapons, ammunition?

In the same place, in the pre-trial detention center, in a metal safe. He was in the same basement. No strangers enter there. There is not just one castle. Keys
were only the performer and his assistants.

And what, in Kyiv they shot with the same weapon all the time?

One and the same.

After the execution, who washes and removes the blood?

This is done by assistant performers. Blood flows down the drain. They wash it off with hoses.

Ivan Ivanovich, what requirements were imposed on the executor of capital punishment?

He must have a strong hand so that he does not tremble. It was impossible to allow an accidental shot. And the endurance needed was a dog.

Was he offered this job because of his good business qualities?

Certainly. It is necessary that a person be disciplined, strong-willed, strong, that his nerves be in order. The candidate for the performers was studied for a certain time. A person was selected with a strong character, as they say, Nordic. He had to be literate and decent.

Could the head of the pre-trial detention center be the executor?

Did the performer's family know what kind of work he was doing?

Did they themselves not want to tell, or was it forbidden?

This was not accepted.

What did a person experience, performing, in fact, the role of an executioner? Maybe he dreamed about the victims?

The performer did the work that was assigned to him. And he didn't worry about anything.

And what about remorse?

The state took the decision to carry out the sentence. What remorse can there be? It is the criminal who must have remorse for the ruined human lives. And the performer just carried out the order, realizing the will of the state.

And if a person is used to shooting? And did you already feel the need for it?

For those I knew, there was no such need.

Wasn't there someone who refused to pull the trigger?

Did not have. I only remember that people asked for "resignation" either due to illness or because of the retirement age.

Does the executioner have a partner?

What if you get sick or go on vacation?

It means that one of the assistants will replace him, these people were also prepared.

How many criminals were executed in one day?

The execution of the sentence within one day was given only in relation to one convict. So provided regulations MIA.

What time did this all happen?

Well, it was usually lunch time.

I once published a series of articles about the former head of Kievavtomattorg. He was sentenced to capital punishment. Then the execution was replaced by 15 years. He said that he was twice taken out to be shot. Were there such situations, that is, an imitation of execution?

There were no such provocations. And no one would go for it. It was very difficult to even try to get the convict out of the cell somewhere.

But they took him for a walk. What was worth putting face to the wall?

This is out of the question.

Were they shot every month?

It happened differently. It happened that for a whole month they did not carry out sentences (no documents were received against anyone). And it happened that I had to work twice a month.

Did the executioner see the face of the victim?

The first meeting only at the execution?

Were there those among those sentenced who asked to call a priest or begged for a cigarette?

These are inventions that before death they are asked to give a smoke. Maybe pour a cup for the convict? You know, these people had their own cigarettes, and they already had time to smoke enough. And then, their thoughts in last minute not about a cigarette - they thought how it would all end.

And yet it is strange that they shot from a small-caliber rifle, because a pistol is much more convenient.

The choice of weapons is up to the performer. The main sentence to fulfill ...

The executioner's assistants held the person sentenced to death by both hands. The one with the rifle came up behind and...

And he pulled the trigger.

And if, before execution, the criminal fell to his knees or to the floor, then how?

He was still brought up. The lying man was not shot.

How was the sentence carried out for women on death row?

In my opinion, during the period of independence, not a single sentence against women was carried out in Kyiv.

- ... A shot, a man falls. And only after that they remove the handcuffs from him?

Yes. The doctor recorded the death - and the handcuffs are removed. There have been cases when death has already occurred, but air is still coming out of the corpse, a wheezing is heard. But this rarely happened.

Were the performers paid for this work?

They paid extra. AND additional leave gave, in my opinion, up to 15 days. We did dirty work, dirty work for ourselves.

Why do you think so?

It's one thing to sit in a chair, and another thing to clean up the dirt on the street.

Forgive me for naturalism, but I can’t help but ask: when they were shot, didn’t blood splash on those standing nearby?

No, a bullet from a small thing does not spray. The performer and his assistants wore the usual blue robes given to cleaners.

Where were the dead buried?

Before the opening of the crematorium, they were buried in one of the districts of the Kyiv region. In the forest, a plot of about one and a half hectares was allocated, surrounded by a fence ... It was under round-the-clock supervision, that is, it was guarded so that no one climbed there ...

And there are no grave mounds in this area?

There are no hillocks. It can only stand a column and some figure is written there ... With the advent of the crematorium in Kyiv, the corpses began to be burned there.

Buried without a priest?

Did you hand over any personal items, valuables, for example, to your relatives?

If there were valuable things, they were given to relatives. But, as a rule, the executed valuables were not. One junk.

Well, if the gold crowns?

Nobody filmed them.

Did the crematorium know who was burned?

There was an agreement with the leadership of the pre-trial detention center ... And no one stood in line there. And there were no questions.

Finally, let's ask you, Ivan Ivanovich, why did you decide to be frank with a journalist on such a delicate topic?

Tired of the scribbles and inventions of ignorant people in the means mass media about this theme. In addition, everything secret will sooner or later become clear, and in our case it is obvious, because capital punishment has been abolished.

P.S. In our country, the "execution article" has long been abolished. In April 2001, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Criminal Code, which replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment. And in 2002, Ukraine acceded to Protocol No. 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides for the complete abolition of the death penalty under any circumstances - in peacetime and wartime.