In no other area of human knowledge has so much fantasy manifested itself as in the ability to inflict pain or sow death. And if the executions, depending on the degree of guilt of the condemned, could be quick or long, then when conducting an interrogation “with partiality”, the main art of the executioner always consisted in maintaining a clear consciousness of the victim throughout the execution.
The worst tortures were long procedures. In order for the suspect to be able to give out the largest number of his accomplices, tell the details of the crime he committed and have time to confess to everything, no time was spared.
According to historians and doctors, the "top" of the most terrible tortures (it was believed that there were twenty of them - twice as many as Egyptian executions) is headed by a plant common in Asian countries - bamboo. These stems grow quickly, completely ignoring the obstacles that arise, and by cutting off their ends at an angle, you can achieve a stunning effect. In just a few hours, the unfortunate body will be pierced by ruthless sprouts. Enough to get the required readings.
But this is Asia, and inIn Europe, the most terrible tortures became widespread during the era of the Holy Inquisition. The riot of imagination of medieval masters demonstrates technically advanced thinking.
If in Russia at that time the executioner, as a rule, managed with an ax, or, in extreme cases, with a rack, then the Catholic champions of purity of morals used rather complex mechanisms. Among them are the "iron maiden" with a double-leaf front wall, equipped with sharp spikes from the inside (opposite the most sensitive parts of the body), and the "Spanish boot" with ingenious crushing clamps, and a wheel (an ancient invention used specifically). Particularly effective was the "pear" with petals that opened inside various internal cavities where it was thrust.
It's hard to say which of the 20 worst tortures was worse. For example, an ordinary fork with teeth at both ends rested on the neck and chin. Her purpose is to make her speak, although it was precisely the ability to speak that she interfered with, causing unimaginable suffering with every attempt to say something. But the sentenced man knew what was needed, and gave the required testimony indistinctly, but inevitably.
The rats caused unbearable pain as they gnawed their way to freedom through the flesh of the condemned with their sharp teeth. Special steel cages served to hold and guide them. Edgar Allan Poe also described the terrible pointed crescent on the pendulum, sinking lower and lower with each stroke. To invent such a device, one had to have serious knowledge in the fieldmechanics.
There were easier ways. A person was seated on the top of the pyramid and dragged down with straps so that the top went as deep as possible into his natural hole. Few people could withstand such mockery for a long time, a painful shock set in, so this method was not suitable in cases where it was required to obtain the necessary information.
The worst tortures of the 20th century have spread in countries with totalitarian forms of government. The Gestapo and the NKVD employed shoulder masters who had a variety of tools at their disposal, but if it was not enough, they did not get lost and pinched the fingers (or other protruding parts of the body) of the detainees with ordinary doors.
Representatives of the secret services of democratic states did not lag behind. During the Vietnam War, in order to obtain the necessary information, the guerrillas were hung on a rope and lifted higher by helicopter. They also used an ordinary field telephone, the contacts of which were connected to the head and genitals. Twisted the knob - and the order.
And yet, as the field of psychotropic drugs progresses, the worst tortures are becoming a thing of the past. Why torture those being interrogated, and even yourself? It is enough to make an injection of "truth serum", and the suspect himself will willingly tell everything. Solid progress and humanism.
