"Rods - branches from the tree of knowledge": How the greats of this world and the children of commoners were punished in childhood

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Until recently, in the social structure of many countries, it was believed that parental love is a strict attitude towards children, and any corporal punishment implied benefits for the child himself. And until the beginning of the twentieth century rod was an ordinary thing, and in some countries this punishment took place until the end of the century. And what is noteworthy is that each nationality has its own national method of flogging, developed over the centuries: in China - bamboo, in Persia - a whip, in Russia - rods, and in England - a stick. The Scots preferred a belt and acne skin.

One of the famous public figures of Russia said: “

Rods, being a means of education in educational institutions, were soaked in a tub installed at the end of the class and were always ready for use. For various children's pranks and offenses, a certain number of blows with rods was clearly provided.

English "method" of upbringing with rods

A popular English proverb says: "If you take pity on a stick, you spoil the child." Children in England have never really spared sticks. To justify the use of corporal punishment on children, the British often referred to the Bible, especially the parables of Solomon.

Regarding the famous Eton rods of the nineteenth century, they instilled terrible fear in the hearts of the disciples. It was a broom made of a bunch of thick rods attached to a meter long handle. The director's servant prepared these rods, bringing an armful of them to school every morning. A huge number of trees were plagued for this, but as it was believed, the game was worth the candle.

For simple offenses, the student was regulated by 6 blows, for serious offenses, their number increased. Sometimes they whipped to blood, and the marks from the blows did not go away for weeks.

Guilty girls in English schools of the nineteenth century were flogged much less often than boys. Basically, they were beaten on the arms or shoulders, only in very rare cases the trousers were removed from the pupils. In correctional schools for "difficult" girls with great zeal they used rods, a cane and a belt-toe.

And what is noteworthy: corporal punishment in public schools in Britain was categorically banned by the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg, you will not believe, only in 1987. Private schools for another 6 years after that resorted to corporal punishment of students.

The tradition of severe punishment of children in Russia

For many centuries, corporal punishment has been massively practiced in Russia. Moreover, if in workers 'and peasants' families, parents could easily attack a child with fists, then children from the middle class were ceremoniously flogged with rods. As a means of education, canes, brushes, slippers and everything that parental ingenuity was capable of were also used. Often, the duties of nannies and governesses included whipping their pupils. In some families, the fathers "raised" their children themselves.

Punishing children with rods in educational institutions was practiced everywhere. They beat me not only for offenses, but also simply for "preventive purposes." And students of elite educational institutions were beaten even harder and more often than those who attended school in their native village.

And what is completely shocking is the fact that parents were punished for their fanaticism only in those cases if they accidentally killed their children in the process of "education." For this crime, they were sentenced to a year in prison and church repentance. And this despite the fact that for any other murder without extenuating circumstances, the death penalty was imposed at that time. From all this it followed that the mild punishment of parents for their crime contributed to the development of infanticide.

For one beaten - seven unbeaten give

The highest aristocratic nobility did not at all disdain to mend assault and flog their children with rods. This was the norm of behavior towards offspring, even in royal families.

So, for example, the future Emperor Nicholas I, as well as his young brothers, their mentor, General Lamsdorf, was flogged mercilessly. Rods, rulers, rifle ramrods. Sometimes, in a rage, he could grab the Grand Duke by the chest and knock him against the wall so that he fainted. And what was terrible was that it was not only not hidden, but also recorded by him in the daily journal.

Ivan Turgenev recalled the cruelty of his mother, who flogged him until he came of age, complaining that often he himself did not know what he was punished for:

Afanasy Fet and Nikolai Nekrasov were subjected to corporal punishment in childhood.

How little Alyosha Peshkov, the future proletarian writer Gorky, was beaten before he lost consciousness, is known from his story "Childhood". And the fate of Fyodor Teternikov, who became the poet and prose writer Fyodor Sologub, is full of tragedy, since in childhood he was mercilessly beaten and "stuck" to beating so that physical pain became for him a cure for mental pain.

Pushkin's wife, Natalya Goncharova, who was never interested in her husband's poetry, was a strict mother. Fostering extreme modesty and obedience in her daughters, she mercilessly slapped them on the cheeks for the slightest offense. The very same, being charmingly beautiful and raised on children's fears, could not shine in the light.

Ahead of her time, even during her reign, Catherine II, in her work "Instructions on the upbringing of grandchildren," called for the abandonment of violence. But only in the second quarter of the 19th century, the views on raising children began to seriously change. And in 1864, during the reign of Alexander II, there was a "Decree on the exemption from corporal punishment of students of secondary educational institutions." But in those days, flogging students was considered so natural that such a decree of the emperor was perceived by many as too liberal.

Count Leo Tolstoy advocated the abolition of corporal punishment. In the fall of 1859, he opened a school for peasant children in his Yasnaya Polyana school and declared that "the school is free and there will be no rods in it." And in 1895 he wrote an article "Ashamed", in which he protested against the corporal punishment of the peasants.

This torture was officially abolished only in 1904. Nowadays, punishment is officially prohibited in Russia, but assault is not uncommon in families, and thousands of babies are still afraid of their father's belt or rod. So the rod, having begun its history from Ancient Rome, lives on in our days.

About how schoolchildren in Great Britain raised an uprising under the slogan: "Abolish the spanking and home lessons!" you can find out here