Russian cruelties
For my history class we had to read an article on how Russian peasants punished criminals in the nineteenth century. They were really cruel. For example, if you stole something, you could be paraded down the street with the stolen item laced around your neck. As this happened, the townsfolk would jeer and mock you. Afterwards you would be forced to beg the town's forgiveness and buy everybody drinks until they forgave you.
It sounds harsh, but this was the way the peasants had of keeping their communities in check. You can bet that if this happened to you that unless you were really stupid, you weren't going to commit that crime again. I think it was a great deteerant.
There were, however, cases when it went to far. Witch burning, for example. If a town was stricken with missfortune, things could be blamed on the witch and she could be barred in her house and burned.
Yeah...light reading for history class, huh? > <
What do you guys think of this? I think that it worked for them in their time and age. Keep in mind that in those times, police did very little for these country communities. How could they? The police were far away in the big cities. It's not like the peasants could just call 911 and have a sherrif at their door in two minutes. They did what they had to do, disturbing as it was.
It sounds harsh, but this was the way the peasants had of keeping their communities in check. You can bet that if this happened to you that unless you were really stupid, you weren't going to commit that crime again. I think it was a great deteerant.
There were, however, cases when it went to far. Witch burning, for example. If a town was stricken with missfortune, things could be blamed on the witch and she could be barred in her house and burned.
Yeah...light reading for history class, huh? > <
What do you guys think of this? I think that it worked for them in their time and age. Keep in mind that in those times, police did very little for these country communities. How could they? The police were far away in the big cities. It's not like the peasants could just call 911 and have a sherrif at their door in two minutes. They did what they had to do, disturbing as it was.