_Yet they themselves introduced hanging and
flogging in public for petty civil crimes!_ The death penalty was never
inflicted for civil crimes under the late Czar. It was never inflicted for
political offenses. Only rarely was it inflicted for murder. It remained
for a so-called "Socialist" government to resort to such savagery as we
find described in the following extract from the recognized official organ
of the Bolshevik government:
Two village robbers were condemned to death. All the people of Semenovskaia
and the surrounding communes were invited to the ceremony. On July 6th, at
midday, a great crowd of interested spectators arrived at the village of
Loupia. The organizers of the execution gave to each of the bystanders the
opportunity of flogging the condemned to obtain from them supplementary
confessions. The number of blows was unlimited. Then a vote of the
spectators was taken as to the method of execution. The majority was for
hanging. In order that the spectacle could be easily seen, the spectators
were ranged in three ranks--the first row sat down, the second rested on
the knee, and the third stood up.[43]
The Bolshevik government created an All-Russian Extraordinary Commission,
which in turn created Provincial and District Extraordinary Commissions.
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