In pre-Petrine times, criminals in Russia were punished in various ways. Depending on the degree of wrongdoing, in addition to imprisonment, they ripped out their nostrils, burned the word “thief” with a hot iron on their forehead, chopped off their right hand, which was stolen. In special cases, the villain was put to shameful death on the scaffold, committing an act of justice in the most diverse and intricate ways. The reformer emperor left the methodology for the enforcement of sentences practically unchanged, it fully corresponded to the then European standards, but changed the name of the procedure.
Where did this word come from
The direct meaning of the word “execution” does not mean anything terrible. His translation from Latin corresponds to the Russian counterparts “performance” or “performance”. However, the context of the application of this legal term gave this concept a gloomy meaning. For the defendant, the execution of the sentence did not bode well. In the best case, cruel corporal punishment was expected, much worse if the executioner crippled or disfigured, and it would become very bad when the head rests on the block or the loop compresses the neck.
This term has passed to us by inheritance from ancient Roman jurisprudence. The position of the executor did not correspond to the duties of the executioner, but he clearly and unequivocally determined the degree of guilt, delving into the circumstances of the investigated events, and determined the punishment to be executed. This specialist in legal and penitentiary issues supervised all the paperwork, and after its completion stated: "The investigation is over." Then he added quietly: “Forget it.”
Watching the execution, don't yawn
Public execution today is in some places considered an effective remedy against corruption and theft. In some countries, the execution of death sentences is even broadcast on television, as a warning to robbers and bribes. Perhaps such a sight can catch up with fear, but, as a rule, the effect is manifested in an increase in the amount of bribe, which partly compensates for the moral suffering of the still-caught corrupt officials. Even in medieval Europe, it was noticed that it was during public executions in the squares that thieves were most active, cutting off wallets and rummaging through the pockets of onlookers, watching how other crooks were chopped off their hands.
Execution as a pedagogical method
So, execution is a one-time execution of a decision of an authorized instance. This clarification is important because sending to hard labor or imprisonment was not called that. Moreover, in ancient times, the severity of punishment did not matter, its inevitability and timeliness was important. Between the decision and its implementation in educational institutions, for example, a minimum period of time passed. Only once, on the occasion of the upcoming Easter of Christ, according to the memoirs of a former student of Bursa Pomyalovsky, the execution with rods was delayed (but not canceled). Without idealizing the old and clearly outdated pedagogical methods, one cannot but notice that they had an effective impact on the educational process. People with a four-year parish education completely coped with the duties of the people's commissars in the first Soviet decades, the level of knowledge allowed. In England, by the way, school corporal punishment was abolished only in the sixties of the XX century. True, according to Michael Gove, the British Secretary of State for Education, did it in vain. He offers to introduce them again.
Execution is terror against civilians
After the Second World War, new terms began to be widely used, designating the types of crimes before humanity: genocide, the Holocaust, and, of course, execution. This word began to mean the mass execution of civilians with the aim of intimidation. Terror against the inhabitants of the occupied territories was used by German punitive units, the troops of the allies of Nazi Germany and the national units of the SS troops recruited from defectors. Monstrous ethnic cleansings were carried out in Lviv by the Nachtigal battalion, in Kiev tens of thousands of Soviet citizens were shot and buried in Babi Yar by collaborators, in Odessa, Romanian invaders hung the central streets of the city with corpses of hostages. Numerous war crimes were exposed during the trial of Nazi criminals in Nuremberg.
Modern economic execution
But this word has a different, peaceful, although also unpleasant for many citizens meaning. Today in European countries, execution is a forced deprivation of property in order to compensate for damage. The property is rejected by unlucky debtors and sold at auction, and the proceeds go to the creditors. Similar actions are carried out with us, and when the bailiff is knocking on the door, and in his hand is an executive (executio!) Sheet, then malicious defaulters experience emotions that no one envies. Of course, they will not lead to the execution, but ...