In order to fill this information gap, I invite everyone interested in this topic to familiarize themselves with the methods of torture in the police and penitentiary institutions of China - a country in which torture of dissidents and prisoners is in many ways considered completely acceptable and officially legalized methods of influencing certain categories of people. It goes without saying that Chinese police officers and prison guards have historically been distinguished by their sophistication and skill in torture, and in this sense they are an order of magnitude superior to their Russian colleagues. But in principle, in its general terms, torture in Russian realities is no different from what has long been taking place in China. Torture "Flying airplane"
The tortured persons are forced to remain in this position for a long time (10 or more hours in a row).
In cases of non-compliance or attempts to partially change their position, they are subjected to beatings and electric shock batons in order to immediately return to their original position.
Those tortured in this way are forced to experience very severe pain for fairly short or longer periods of time.
Torture "Thread in the eye of a needle"
Both of his arms are then cuffed around the thigh of his leg with very tight handcuffs - "Death Cuffs" - and forced to remain in this position for several days or even weeks. Torture "Shackles and Handcuffs"
The meaning of this torture is to shackle the tortured person hand and foot in an uncomfortable position and leave him in that position for a long time.
Torture "Rest on a stool"
The meaning of this torture is to chain those tortured by hand to the floor and seat them on special chairs with sharp wire ribs over their entire surface, sitting on which leads to cuts and suppuration on the buttocks.
Torture "Flight of the Swallow"
The tortured person, stretched out by the arms, is chained to the window bars so that his feet do not reach the floor.
Torture "Hanging by hands cuffed behind the back"
Persons tortured in this way are suspended in such a way that they barely touch the floor with the tips of their toes, and at the same time - from time to time - their sides and backs are struck with blows from police batons.
Torture "Hanging upside down"
Tortured persons with their hands shackled are hung by their feet - attached to the door bars.
Torture "Under the bed"
Persons tortured in this way have their hands cuffed behind their backs, their legs are tightly tied together, their necks are pulled towards them, and then they are pushed under a low bed, on which several prison sadists are then seated.
Torture "Kneeling on a bamboo stick"
During this type of torture, police tie the victim's legs and press them tightly to a bench using belts.
They then begin placing bricks or other hard objects under his feet.
As a result, the victim begins to endure unbearable pain and often loses consciousness.
During such torture, the police put a plastic bag over the victim's head, and then - as he begins to suffer from suffocation - they begin to beat him with batons or subject him to electric shocks.
Torture "Roast lamb"
The victim, who is suspended by hand from the ceiling, is given a large number of blows to the legs and body using belts, batons and other improvised means.
Torture "Up in the Air"
Traffic violators are most often subjected to such torture.
The tortured, whose bodies are covered with wounds, are immersed in pits with water mixed with sewage, and they are kept there for many days.
Torture by exposure to atmospheric cold (in winter)
Those tortured in this way at night and blinded by flashlights are buried chest-deep in the ground, and then subjected to blows with batons and electric shockers.
For this type of feeding, brine, hot pepper tinctures, strong alcoholic drinks, soap solutions, urine and similar liquids are most often used as “food”.
Those tortured in this way are deprived of sleep for many days, 24 hours a day (by using rotating representatives of that category of prisoners who willingly cooperate with the administration as executioners - they begin to stab their victims with sharp needles whenever they try to close their eyes).
Torture "Comfortable chair"
Another type of torture involving sleep deprivation. A thin string is fastened around the neck of the tortured person, the end of which is in the hands of the torturer. Whenever the victim tries to close his eyes, the sadistic policeman sharply pulls the string, which begins to cut through the neck and cause unbearable pain to the victim.
Victims subjected to such torture are put on some kind of special helmets, which act on the brain like raw food baked inside a microwave oven.
They involve the use of electric shock devices to touch the genitals, as well as the pushing of various foreign objects into the vaginas or anuses of tortured victims.
Torture by gang rape (forced sexual intercourse)
Such torture involves depriving the victim of sleep and normal bowel movements for many days by subjecting the victim to an endless series of leisurely beatings.
Such tortures (which are combinations of elements of many specific ones) are usually carried out by groups of such prisoners who willingly cooperate with prison authorities and are ready to unquestioningly carry out any of their orders.
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Bullying and torture of a sexual nature in the prison department of the Russian Federation are systemic in nature. Women prisoners can be humiliated, beaten (and hit in the genitals), and subjected to sophisticated sexual acts.
These types of people are usually backed by employees or leaders of the colony. Sometimes torture is filmed on a phone and then sent to loved ones for the purpose of obtaining a bribe. Today, the number of rapes has decreased, indicating an overhaul of the system.
The topic of sexual abuse in women's colonies is taboo for the media. Human rights activists are reluctant to share facts, and the Internet contains only a small percentage of detailed information.
How do they live in places of detention?
Women prisoners have no shame in complaining and writing denunciations against their fellow inmates if they are being bullied (on days when operatives are received by the colony staff, queues form). The rules and regulations of residence are established by the administration of the institution; jailers also independently appoint elders.
In women's cells there is no common cash desk (common fund). The psychological characteristics of a woman’s character are distinguished by a more vivid manifestation of feelings - conflicts between them are always deeper and longer, and during a fight, nails and teeth are used.
Cell status is determined based on past life. If a woman has practiced anal sex, she automatically falls into the “lowered” caste (you can read about the “lowered” caste in the men’s area). Due to a long absence of contact with men, prisoners begin to look for a surrogate - to practice lesbian love.
Types of violence and torture
Sexual abuse was welcomed by guards or prison administration employees. The fact of rape in a women's colony can rarely be proven, and even more rarely can it be taken outside the zone. Such humiliations are aimed at destroying the individual and causing psychological trauma.
Common sexual tortures include:
- “flight of the swallow” - hands and feet were handcuffed to the bed;
- hanging and tying hands behind the back (anal contact);
- deliberate strangulation (BDSM element).
Previously, prisoners were raped in punishment cells, and if they became pregnant, they had an abortion on their own. Group orgies were also common; today the arbitrariness of the guards is gradually ending.
Orders in the colonies
Among female prisoners, almost there is no category that will be purposefully spread rot and pressure. Attitude depends only on personal qualities and strength of character. Outcasts in the women's area are simply shunned. Most often they despise heroin addicts - drug addicts with extensive experience. Child killers also pay for their crimes - they are initially outcasts who are subjected to regular beatings.
Also on the list of despised:
- prisoners diagnosed with HIV;
- women with sexually transmitted or oncological pathologies.
In the cells of the settlement, women try to live in “families” - make friends in misfortune and form their own group. This is not a prerequisite for lesbianism - it is easier for a “family” to survive in the conditions of the zone.
If a woman does not fulfill the production plan (she does not know how to sew, does not have time to fulfill the quota), at the end of the working day she will be beaten by her cellmates and the convoy.
The administration of the colonies does not interfere in the affairs of prisoners and does not take any measures to prevent fights between prisoners. And women who have committed economic crimes often try to cheat the employees themselves out of money.
How to behave for the first time?
The basic rule of behavior is behave naturally, “don’t be bullish” and don’t run into trouble. In the women's colony, fortitude, perseverance, and the ability to communicate and build relationships are especially valued.
If you don’t know where to sit, be sure to ask. Moving or touching other people's things is strictly prohibited. You shouldn’t withdraw into yourself and isolate yourself from the team – this can lead to fights.
You can’t open your soul and share your problems with everyone. The golden rule of the zone is to talk less, listen more. It is better not to touch on sexual topics (oral sex can become a reason for expulsion from the team). It is important not to forget about hygiene: soap in a women’s prison is valued more than tea and cigarettes in a men’s prison (a newcomer was told about the peculiarities of survival in a men’s prison).
How is the inspection carried out?
An inspection (or search) involves the identification by jailers of prohibited items and their further confiscation. In women's colonies, this procedure occurs with a significant degree of humiliation: the prisoner may be forced to strip naked and search her mouth and hair. Each shock of clothing is felt by the slicker. The inspection is divided into:
- easy(passing through the frame, checking pockets);
- deep(complete undressing);
- planned(2-3 times a month);
- unscheduled(any time).
Most often, a search is carried out upon arrival from a walk (or from a shift), before a meeting with an investigator or lawyer.
Conditions in the cells
Prisoners live in permanent cells - this is a kind of “home” for the entire period of serving their sentence. How it looks inside depends on the management and its intention to create minimal comfortable conditions. The following camera is suitable and meets the standards:
- sleeping places for each living prisoner;
- separate place for eating;
- working bathroom (toilet, washing area).
The number of people living in 1 cell varies from 10 to 40 people (4 sq.m. per person). Women's cells for 40 or more prisoners have a separate shower and kitchen. Duty and cleaning are carried out 2 times a day (those who have been in prison for more than a year do not take part).
Women's prison is a special place where the laws and rules of free life lose meaning and appear in a different context. Beatings and sexual abuse – Girls are more likely to be tortured by camp staff during prison life in Russia. More often than not, sexual abuse goes unpunished.
Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth. Some of its Chinese varieties can grow a full meter in a day. Some historians believe that the deadly bamboo torture was used not only by the ancient Chinese, but also by the Japanese military during World War II.
How it works?
1) Sprouts of living bamboo are sharpened with a knife to form sharp “spears”;
2) The victim is suspended horizontally, with his back or stomach, over a bed of young pointed bamboo;
3) Bamboo quickly grows high, pierces the skin of the martyr and grows through his abdominal cavity, the person dies for a very long time and painfully.
2. Iron Maiden
Like torture with bamboo, the “iron maiden” is considered by many researchers to be a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp spikes inside only frightened the people under investigation, after which they confessed to anything. The "Iron Maiden" was invented at the end of the 18th century, i.e. already at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.
How it works?
1) The victim is stuffed into the sarcophagus and the door is closed;
2) The spikes driven into the inner walls of the “iron maiden” are quite short and do not pierce the victim, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, receives a confession in a matter of minutes, which the arrested person only has to sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and continues to remain silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never admits to what she had done, so she was locked in a sarcophagus for a long time, where she died from loss of blood;
5) Some models of the “iron maiden” were provided with spikes at eye level in order to quickly poke them out.
3. Skafism
The name of this torture comes from the Greek “scaphium”, which means “trough”. Scaphism was popular in ancient Persia. During the torture, the victim, most often a prisoner of war, was devoured alive by various insects and their larvae who were partial to human flesh and blood.
How it works?
1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is force-fed large quantities of milk and honey, which causes the victim to have profuse diarrhea, which attracts insects.
3) The prisoner, having shit himself and smeared with honey, is allowed to float in a trough in a swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) The insects immediately begin their meal, with the living flesh of the martyr as the main dish.
4. The Terrible Pear 
“The pear is lying there - you can’t eat it,” it is said about the medieval European weapon for “educating” blasphemers, liars, women who gave birth out of wedlock, and gay men. Depending on the crime, the torturer thrust the pear into the sinner's mouth, anus or vagina.
How it works?
1) A tool consisting of pointed pear-shaped leaf-shaped segments is inserted into the client’s desired body hole;
2) The executioner little by little turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaves” segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is completely opened, the offender receives internal injuries incompatible with life and dies in terrible agony, if he has not already fallen into unconsciousness.
5. Copper Bull 
The design of this death unit was developed by the ancient Greeks, or, to be more precise, by the coppersmith Perillus, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris, who simply loved to torture and kill people in unusual ways.
A living person was pushed inside the copper statue through a special door.
So
Phalaris first tested the unit on its creator, the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Phalaris himself was roasted in a bull.
How it works?
1) The victim is closed in a hollow copper statue of a bull;
2) A fire is lit under the bull’s belly;
3) The victim is fried alive, like a ham in a frying pan;
4) The structure of the bull is such that the cries of the martyr come from the mouth of the statue, like a bull’s roar;
5) Jewelry and amulets were made from the bones of the executed, which were sold at bazaars and were in great demand..
6. Torture by rats 
Torture by rats was very popular in ancient China. However, we will look at the rat punishment technique developed by 16th century Dutch Revolution leader Diedrick Sonoy.
How it works?
1) The stripped naked martyr is placed on a table and tied;
2) Large, heavy cages with hungry rats are placed on the prisoner’s stomach and chest. The bottom of the cells is opened using a special valve;
3) Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4) Trying to escape the heat of hot coals, rats gnaw their way through the flesh of the victim.
7. Cradle of Judas 
The Judas Cradle was one of the most torturous torture machines in the arsenal of the Suprema - the Spanish Inquisition. Victims usually died from infection, as a result of the fact that the pointed seat of the torture machine was never disinfected. The Cradle of Judas, as an instrument of torture, was considered “loyal” because it did not break bones or tear ligaments.
How it works?
1) The victim, whose hands and feet are tied, is seated on the top of a pointed pyramid;
2) The top of the pyramid is thrust into the anus or vagina;
3) Using ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) The torture continues for several hours or even days until the victim dies from powerlessness and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.
8. Trampling by elephants 
For several centuries, this execution was practiced in India and Indochina. An elephant is very easy to train and teaching it to trample a guilty victim with its huge feet is a matter of just a few days.
How it works?
1. The victim is tied to the floor;
2. A trained elephant is brought into the hall to crush the martyr’s head;
3. Sometimes before the “head test,” animals crush the victims’ arms and legs in order to amuse the audience.
9. Rack 
Probably the most famous and unrivaled death machine of its kind called the “rack”. It was first tested around 300 AD. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.
Anyone who survived the rack could no longer use their muscles and became a helpless vegetable.
How it works?
1. This instrument of torture is a special bed with rollers at both ends, around which ropes are wound to hold the victim’s wrists and ankles. As the rollers rotated, the ropes pulled in opposite directions, stretching the body;
2. Ligaments in the victim’s arms and legs are stretched and torn, bones pop out of their joints.
3. Another version of the rack was also used, called strappado: it consisted of 2 pillars dug into the ground and connected by a crossbar. The interrogated person's hands were tied behind his back and lifted by a rope tied to his hands. Sometimes a log or other weights were attached to his bound legs. At the same time, the arms of the person raised on the rack were turned back and often came out of their joints, so that the convict had to hang on his outstretched arms. They were on the rack from several minutes to an hour or more. This type of rack was used most often in Western Europe
4. In Russia, a suspect raised on the rack was beaten on the back with a whip and “put to the fire,” that is, burning brooms were passed over the body.
5. In some cases, the executioner broke the ribs of a man hanging on a rack with red-hot pincers.
10. Paraffin in the bladder
A savage form of torture, the exact use of which has not been established.
How it works?
1. Candle paraffin was rolled by hand into a thin sausage, which was inserted through the urethra;
2. Paraffin slipped into the bladder, where solid salts and other nasty things began to settle on it.
3. Soon the victim began to have kidney problems and died from acute renal failure. On average, death occurred within 3-4 days.
11. Shiri (camel cap)
A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Ruanzhuans (a union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into slavery. They destroyed the slave's memory with a terrible torture - putting a shiri on the victim's head. Usually this fate befell young men captured in battle.
How it works?
1. First, the slaves' heads were shaved bald, and every hair was carefully scraped out at the root.
2. The executors slaughtered the camel and skinned its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, dense nuchal part.
3. Having divided the neck into pieces, they immediately pulled it in pairs over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces stuck to the heads of the slaves like a plaster. This meant putting on the shiri.
4. After putting on the shiri, the neck of the doomed person was chained in a special wooden block so that the subject could not touch his head to the ground. In this form, they were taken away from crowded places so that no one would hear their heartbreaking screams, and they were thrown there in an open field, with their hands and feet tied, in the sun, without water and without food.
5. The torture lasted 5 days.
6. Only a few remained alive, and the rest died not from hunger or even from thirst, but from unbearable, inhuman torment caused by drying, shrinking rawhide camel skin on the head. Inexorably shrinking under the rays of the scorching sun, the width squeezed and squeezed the slave's shaved head like an iron hoop. Already on the second day, the shaved hair of the martyrs began to sprout. Coarse and straight Asian hair sometimes grew into the rawhide; in most cases, finding no way out, the hair curled and went back into the scalp, causing even greater suffering. Within a day the man lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the Ruanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured people was found alive, it was considered that the goal had been achieved. .
7. Anyone who underwent such a procedure either died, unable to withstand the torture, or lost his memory for life, turned into a mankurt - a slave who does not remember his past.
8. The skin of one camel was enough for five or six widths.
12. Implantation of metals
A very strange means of torture and execution was used in the Middle Ages.
How it works?
1. A deep incision was made on a person’s legs, where a piece of metal (iron, lead, etc.) was placed, after which the wound was stitched up.
2. Over time, the metal oxidized, poisoning the body and causing terrible pain.
3. Most often, the poor people tore the skin in the place where the metal was sewn up and died from blood loss.
13. Dividing a person into two parts
This terrible execution originated in Thailand. The most hardened criminals were subjected to it - mostly murderers.
How it works?
1. The accused is placed in a robe woven from vines and stabbed with sharp objects;
2. After this, his body is quickly cut into two parts, the upper half is immediately placed on a red-hot copper grate; this operation stops the bleeding and prolongs the life of the upper part of the person.
A small addition: This torture is described in the book of the Marquis de Sade “Justine, or the successes of vice.” This is a small excerpt from a large piece of text where de Sade allegedly describes the torture of the peoples of the world. But why supposedly? According to many critics, the Marquis was very fond of lying. He had an extraordinary imagination and a couple of delusions, so this torture, like some others, could have been a figment of his imagination. But this field should not refer to Donatien Alphonse as Baron Munchausen. This torture, in my opinion, if it did not exist before, is quite realistic. If, of course, the person is pumped up with painkillers (opiates, alcohol, etc.) before this, so that he does not die before his body touches the bars.
14. Inflating with air through the anus
A terrible torture in which a person is pumped with air through the anus.
There is evidence that in Rus' even Peter the Great himself sinned with this.
Most often, thieves were executed this way.
How it works?
1. The victim was tied hand and foot.
2. Then they took cotton and stuffed it into the poor man’s ears, nose and mouth.
3. Bellows were inserted into his anus, with the help of which a huge amount of air was pumped into the person, as a result of which he became like a balloon.
3. After that, I plugged his anus with a piece of cotton.
4. Then they opened two veins above his eyebrows, from which all the blood flowed out under enormous pressure.
5. Sometimes a bound person was placed naked on the roof of the palace and shot with arrows until he died.
6. Until 1970, this method was often used in Jordanian prisons.
15. Polledro
Neapolitan executioners lovingly called this torture “polledro” - “foal” (polledro) and were proud that it was first used in their hometown. Although history has not preserved the name of its inventor, they said that he was an expert in horse breeding and came up with an unusual device to tame his horses.
Only a few decades later, lovers of making fun of people turned the horse breeder’s device into a real torture machine for people.
The machine was a wooden frame, similar to a ladder, the crossbars of which had very sharp angles, so that when a person was placed on them with his back, they cut into the body from the back of the head to the heels. The staircase ended with a huge wooden spoon, into which the head was placed, as if in a cap.
How it works?
1. Holes were drilled on both sides of the frame and in the “cap”, and ropes were threaded into each of them. The first of them was tightened on the forehead of the tortured, the last tied the big toes. As a rule, there were thirteen ropes, but for those who were especially stubborn, the number was increased.
2. Using special devices, the ropes were pulled tighter and tighter - it seemed to the victims that, having crushed the muscles, they were digging into the bones.
16. Dead Man's Bed (modern China) 
The Chinese Communist Party uses the “dead man’s bed” torture mainly on those prisoners who try to protest against illegal imprisonment through a hunger strike. In most cases, these are prisoners of conscience, imprisoned for their beliefs.
How it works?
1. The arms and legs of a stripped prisoner are tied to the corners of a bed on which, instead of a mattress, there is a wooden board with a hole cut out. A bucket for excrement is placed under the hole. Often, a person’s body is tied tightly to the bed with ropes so that he cannot move at all. A person remains in this position continuously for several days to weeks.
2. In some prisons, such as Shenyang City No. 2 Prison and Jilin City Prison, police also place a hard object under the victim's back to intensify the suffering.
3. It also happens that the bed is placed vertically and the person hangs for 3-4 days, stretched out by his limbs.
4. Added to this torment is force feeding, which is carried out using a tube inserted through the nose into the esophagus, into which liquid food is poured.
5. This procedure is performed mainly by prisoners on the orders of the guards, and not by medical workers. They do this very rudely and unprofessionally, often causing serious damage to a person’s internal organs.
6. Those who have gone through this torture say that it causes displacement of the vertebrae, joints of the arms and legs, as well as numbness and blackening of the limbs, which often leads to disability.
17. Yoke (Modern China) 
One of the medieval tortures used in modern Chinese prisons is the wearing of a wooden collar. It is placed on a prisoner, causing him to be unable to walk or stand normally.
The clamp is a board from 50 to 80 cm in length, from 30 to 50 cm in width and 10 – 15 cm in thickness. In the middle of the clamp there are two holes for the legs.
The victim, who is wearing a collar, has difficulty moving, must crawl into bed and usually must sit or lie down, since the upright position causes pain and leads to injury to the legs. Without assistance, a person with a collar cannot go to eat or go to the toilet. When a person gets out of bed, the collar not only puts pressure on the legs and heels, causing pain, but its edge clings to the bed and prevents the person from returning to it. At night the prisoner is unable to turn around, and in winter the short blanket does not cover his legs.
An even worse form of this torture is called “crawling with a wooden clamp.” The guards put a collar on the man and order him to crawl on the concrete floor. If he stops, he is hit on the back with a police baton. An hour later, his fingers, toenails and knees are bleeding profusely, while his back is covered in wounds from the blows.
18. Impalement 
A terrible, savage execution that came from the East.
The essence of this execution was that a person was laid on his stomach, one sat on him to prevent him from moving, the other held him by the neck. A stake was inserted into the person's anus, which was then driven in with a mallet; then they drove a stake into the ground. The weight of the body forced the stake to go deeper and deeper and finally it came out under the armpit or between the ribs.
19. Spanish water torture 
In order to best carry out the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the types of racks or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's arms and legs were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner began work in one of several ways. One of these methods involved forcing the victim to swallow a large amount of water using a funnel, then hitting the distended and arched abdomen. Another form involved placing a cloth tube down the victim's throat through which water was slowly poured, causing the victim to swell and suffocate. If this was not enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then inserted again and the process repeated. Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on a table under a stream of ice water for hours. It is interesting to note that this type of torture was considered light, and the court accepted confessions obtained in this way as voluntary and given by the defendant without the use of torture. Most often, these tortures were used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to extract confessions from heretics and witches.
20. Chinese water torture
They sat a man in a very cold room, tied him so that he could not move his head, and in complete darkness cold water was very slowly dripped onto his forehead. After a few days the person froze or went crazy.
21. Spanish armchair 
This instrument of torture was widely used by the executioners of the Spanish Inquisition and was a chair made of iron, on which the prisoner was seated, and his legs were placed in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he found himself in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly fry, and in order to prolong the suffering of the poor fellow, the legs were poured with oil from time to time.
Another version of the Spanish chair was often used, which was a metal throne to which the victim was tied and a fire was lit under the seat, roasting the buttocks. The famous poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such a chair during the famous Poisoning Case in France.
22. GRIDIRON (Grid for torture by fire) 
Torture of Saint Lawrence on the gridiron.
This type of torture is often mentioned in the lives of saints - real and fictitious, but there is no evidence that the gridiron “survived” until the Middle Ages and had even a small circulation in Europe. It is usually described as an ordinary metal grate, 6 feet long and two and a half feet wide, mounted horizontally on legs to allow a fire to be built underneath.
Sometimes the gridiron was made in the form of a rack in order to be able to resort to combined torture.
Saint Lawrence was martyred on a similar grid.
This torture was used very rarely. Firstly, it was quite easy to kill the person being interrogated, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.
23. Pectoral 
In ancient times, a pectoral was a female breast decoration in the form of a pair of carved gold or silver bowls, often sprinkled with precious stones. It was worn like a modern bra and secured with chains.
In a mocking analogy with this decoration, the savage instrument of torture used by the Venetian Inquisition was named.
In 1885, the pectoral was heated red-hot and, taking it with tongs, they put it on the tortured woman’s chest and held it until she confessed. If the accused persisted, the executioners heated up the pectoral again cooled by the living body and continued the interrogation.
Very often, after this barbaric torture, charred, torn holes were left in place of the woman’s breasts.
24. Tickle torture 
This seemingly harmless effect was a terrible torture. With prolonged tickling, a person's nerve conduction increased so much that even the lightest touch initially caused twitching, laughter, and then turned into terrible pain. If such torture was continued for quite a long time, then after a while spasms of the respiratory muscles occurred and, in the end, the tortured person died from suffocation.
In the simplest version of torture, the interrogated person was tickled in sensitive areas either simply with their hands, or with hair brushes or brushes. Stiff bird feathers were popular. Usually they tickled under the armpits, heels, nipples, inguinal folds, genitals, and women also under the breasts.
In addition, torture was often carried out using animals that licked some tasty substance from the heels of the interrogated person. The goat was very often used, since its very hard tongue, adapted for eating grass, caused very strong irritation.
There was also a type of tickling torture using a beetle, most common in India. With it, a small bug was placed on the head of a man's penis or on a woman's nipple and covered with half a nut shell. After some time, the tickling caused by the movement of insect legs on a living body became so unbearable that the interrogated person confessed to anything
25. Crocodile 
These tubular metal crocodile pliers were red-hot and used to tear the penis of the person being tortured. First, with a few caressing movements (often made by women), or with a tight bandage, a persistent, hard erection was achieved and then the torture began
26. Tooth crusher 
These serrated iron tongs were used to slowly crush the testicles of the interrogated person.
Something similar was widely used in Stalinist and fascist prisons.
27. Creepy tradition. 
Actually, this is not torture, but an African ritual, but, in my opinion, it is very cruel. Girls aged 3-6 years old simply had their external genitalia scraped out without anesthesia.
Thus, the girl did not lose the ability to have children, but was forever deprived of the opportunity to experience sexual desire and pleasure. This ritual is done “for the benefit” of women, so that they will never be tempted to cheat on their husbands
28. Bloody Eagle 
One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, his ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. Scandinavian legends claim that during such an execution, the wounds of the victim were sprinkled with salt.
Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses caught in treason were punished in this way, and still others claim that the bloody eagle is just a terrible legend. 
Still from Peter Stein's series "The Zone" (2006)
Political prisoner Ildar Dadin, convicted on a trumped-up case for participating in protests, said that employees of the Segezha IK-7 severely beat him, drowned his head in the toilet and threatened him with rape. Many eyewitnesses and victims speak about bullying and violence in places of detention. The Snob publication has compiled a unique catalog of torture, which is most often used by employees of the Russian penitentiary system, confident in their impunity.
1. "Palestinian Hanging"
The prisoner's hands are handcuffed behind his back, then the handcuffs are secured to the bars of the cell so that his feet do not touch the floor. To prevent handcuffs from leaving marks on the wrists, the hands are first wrapped in soft cloth. A prisoner can be kept in this position for several days. “Hanging causes terrible pain in the wrists, in addition, the elbow joints are twisted, and you feel terrible pain in the back. So I hung there for half an hour,” wrote Ildar Dadin about torture in the Segezha colony.
2. "Diver"
The prisoner is lowered with his head into a bucket of water, or, as in the case of Ildar Dadin, into the toilet - until the person begins to suffocate. Thus, in Kopeisk IK-1, the administration staff, before dunking the prisoners’ heads into the toilet, first forced them to strip naked and crawl on all fours from the first floor to the second, where the toilets are located.
3. Beatings
One of the most common and unoriginal methods of torture, which often involves a dozen executioners from both the colony staff and “activists” - prisoners working for the administration. To prevent beatings from leaving bruises and bruises, the beating weapon is wrapped in soft cloth - for example, a sweater or quilted jacket, which prisoners wear in winter. In Karelian IK-1, the administration, according to one of the prisoners, prefers to put heavy objects in felt boots to hit them on the head.
4. Rape
“After lights out, convicts from among the “actives”, unaccompanied by colony officers, entered the cell where I was kept, grabbed me and took me to another cell, where they laid me on the table. Having tied my arms and legs to the legs of the table, the “convicted activists” stuck their hands into my anus, which made me experience unbearable pain and suffering, and I was bleeding,” one of the former prisoners of IK-47 Kamensk complained to human rights activists -Uralsky. During rape, improvised objects are often used: bottles, chair legs, clubs.
5. Torture with music
It can be applied to prisoners with unstable mental health: a person is placed in a punishment cell and loud music is turned on, which interferes with sleep, or the same song is played in a circle. Convicted chess player Yuri Shorchev says that he was forced to listen to songs by the group Rammstein: “Periodically, I was taken out of the cell into the corridor, naked, put on a stretcher, and Rammstein was played at full blast through the speaker above my head. Such a strong sound sometimes not only makes you deaf, it physically hurts terribly, and your ears bleed. The torture lasted all night. By the way, I listened to the same Rammstein every day in my cell - through a small speaker above the door. This kind of music could also drive you crazy. I wanted to scream!”
6. Noose or bag
A noose can be any rope, belt or elastic band, which are most often used not independently, but with a bag placed on the prisoner’s head. Sometimes pepper spray is sprayed into the bag to enhance the effect. If a prisoner dies from suffocation, it is easy to pass off his death as suicide.
7. Crucifixion
The prisoner's arms and legs are stretched to their maximum width and secured to the bars with handcuffs or rope. Even an hour of being in this position causes pain in the joints, and after a day a person cannot walk, bend and straighten his arms and legs for a long time. Often such hanging is accompanied by beatings and sexual violence.
8. Torture by harsh conditions of detention
To put pressure on prisoners, colony administrations came up with several ways to worsen conditions of detention: turning off heating during the cold season and starving them. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova wrote about this from Mordovian IK-14: “It is incredibly cold in the punishment cell. This is an old move, studied by the camp authorities since Soviet times - creating an unbearably low temperature regime in the cells of the punishment cell so that the punishment turns into torture. I sit on a narrow cold bench and write. I have no right to sit on the bed - or even more so to lie on it. Dim cold light, only cold water in the tap.”
9. Pulling out nails
The painful pulling out of nails is sometimes accompanied by preliminary torture, in which sewing needles or wood chips are driven under the prisoner's nail. In 2010, relatives of convicted Vitaly Buntov, who was in Tula penal colony No. 1, brought nail plates to human rights activists as evidence of torture. The colony administration stated that the prisoner was left without nails due to a fungus.
10. "Acceptance"
An invention of the employees of the Omutninsk IK-17, which was described by former prisoner Mikhail Pulin: “Each new arrival runs past the lined up FSI officers, who beat him with batons until the person falls face down. After all the arrivals have been lying face down with their hands behind their heads for a sufficient time, having stained the parade ground with their blood, they are driven into the premises for searches.”
11. "Flush"
Using an enema, up to five liters of cold water are poured into the prisoner’s rectum, supposedly so that the colony staff will exclude the possibility of bringing prohibited items into the territory, Pulin said.
12. “Houseworks”
Forced cleaning of residential, common areas and toilets using, for example, toothbrushes. This method is also used with prisoners with illnesses: for example, a prisoner with tuberculosis may be forced outside to sweep a clean parade ground in the rain.
13. "Joker"
Tearing the cheek from the corner of the mouth, not necessarily with a knife or other sharp object, but simply by force of the hands. A convict from Karelian penal colony No. 1 told human rights activists that the colony officers, before tearing his mouth, first beat him and then choked him with a gas mask.
14. Boiling water
Hot water from a kettle is forced into the prisoner's mouth. Thus, Alexei Shangin, who was held in custody in Matrosskaya Tishina, was admitted to the hospital with traces of burns to his head and mouth - he died without regaining consciousness.
15. "Skydivers"
The prisoner is placed in a cell with convicts working for the administration, they beat him, forcing him to lie on the floor, and then jump onto him from the second tier of the bed. Not only Alexey Shangin, who died in “Matrosskaya Tishina,” was subjected to such beatings: according to former KGB officer, lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin, he also encountered this practice in the colony of Nizhny Tagil.
16. "Lower"
The most common method is to pour urine on the prisoner or simply place him in a cell with a “harem” (convicts whose homosexuality is known to the entire colony). A prisoner can get into the caste of the “lowered” in different ways, it all depends on the ingenuity of the administration: for example, employees of the Belorechensk correctional colony, according to the convicts, stripped them naked and forced them to urinate on each other.
According to official data, at the beginning of 2018 in Russia, 602 thousand people were kept in institutions of the penal system. Citizens who have experience of life behind bars number in the millions.
Although the number of prisoners has decreased significantly in recent years, any adult has the opportunity to unexpectedly go to a pre-trial detention center or a cell at a police station on a social network, participate in unauthorized activities, or simply provoke the security forces with their appearance.
Behind bars, regardless of the length of stay, a detainee, prisoner or convict may face illegal and...
To find out how the guards themselves view this problem, Reedus talked with a FSIN employee with extensive service experience in one of the Ural correctional colonies. As a result, the interview is presented in the form of thoughts expressed in the first person.
At the request of the source, the editors do not disclose his personal information.
Where is torture most common?
In pre-trial detention centers there are mostly criminal suspects who have not yet received a sentence in their criminal case, which is still with the investigator, the police or in court. There is a direct interest here - some have to solve a crime, while others have a direct interest in avoiding responsibility.
Therefore, the “professional interest” in people in a pre-trial detention center is always greater than when a person has already been convicted and is in a colony - the verdict has been received, why put further pressure on him?
In addition, pre-trial detention centers are cells, closed spaces, where it is easier to create an ostentatious “peace and quiet” and hide a lot. As the saying goes - something happened in a dark room at night, try to figure it out later. In the colony, everything is in plain sight; if something happens, they will immediately know.
I won’t say that torture is used everywhere in pre-trial detention centers, that it’s the Middle Ages there. Of course, somewhere they go too far, as in recent high-profile stories, but this rather depends on the personal qualities of employees who are too zealous in fulfilling their, as they believe, “responsibilities.” There is no such thing as an order in all pre-trial detention centers to obtain confessions from people at any cost.
Less commonly, bullying is the actions of employees aimed at extracting information from a person. More often it is arrogance, a desire to show who is in charge, a sense of power or impunity, as some employees for the time being think.
Most of it is the human factor, the desire to curry favor, the misunderstood interests of the service. The regime in a colony or pre-trial detention center, as a rule, does not affect this.
The real work of extracting information from a person in a pre-trial detention center is carried out very subtly and cunningly, without violence, but this requires a certain skill from an operative or investigator. But not everyone has the patience and not everyone knows how to solve a crime. And therefore, for some, an animal instinct is triggered - to put pressure morally and physically, maybe the person himself admits.
It all depends on the person first of all. Human factor. These are very necessary, they promptly stop many from the desire to “go too far” with the stick.
But in these stories there is always a reverse side: what kind of “person” is the one who was tortured or mocked, beaten, for what reason he - for what reason - ended up in a colony or a pre-trial detention center, and specifically the very moment for which he is now being beaten.
But it is still clear that it is in no way an excuse for an employee that he is really a criminal, dangerous to society, who has ruined someone’s life.
Why are they beating?
Facts of beatings, as a rule, both in life and behind bars, are spontaneous moments: I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Here are a couple of examples. The convict decided to express his protest against his failed life. He is serving his fifth or sixth term, all charges are serious. I've never worked - I have no idea. I broke the TV in the cell, a new plasma one. The cellmates will not pretend that there is nothing to watch, he is in authority. He broke it and demands a new one, because they have nothing to look at in the camera. And by law they must give it. And they will! The country and taxpayers will buy a new one.
The one who broke it was sent to a punishment cell. There he refused to go into the cell and began to resist. Fight - he has a couple of bruises. There was another protest in the cell - he took off the sink and broke the toilet with it. He demanded a new one - he needed to go to the toilet. They took me out again and punched me in the teeth. "For prevention." So as not to forget yourself. He got hit on the horns and sits quietly until he hits anything.
Another example. A convict goes to work in a colony, an employee stops him, gets to the bottom of some little detail - the authorities show that he has a divorce to go to work, where he is expected, and if he doesn’t show up, he can end up in a punishment cell for failure to show up for work.
Word for word with the employee: “Let me go, they’re waiting for me,” he won’t let me in, and said something offensive in response. This one spits in his face. The employee punches him in the face. Everyone sees. Other employees come running to help their colleague. As a result, the convict was in a punishment cell, and the employee... well, they scolded him not to do such things in public.
Most conflicts within prisons occur out of nowhere and last a short time. Less often “for prevention”. There is no such thing as mass beatings being ordered or carried out in the colonies on purpose. There won't be enough employees. Not only employees are beaten, but employees are also beaten. Although, of course, less. These facts are rarely made public, unlike the other side.
Indifference
The conditions themselves, the employee’s service itself does not allow you to feel sorry for anyone. This is a moral threshold beyond which you can fully work in a colony. As they say, “without snot and sentimentality.”
As a rule, the attitude of employees towards convicts is indifferent - this greatly helps in their work to look at things soberly.
And when you have a criminal case before you, and you read what this or that convict did before you met him behind bars, and sometimes you only say one thing: “To evil spirits!” How does the earth carry such people?
After all, there are maniacs, pedophiles, and killers of infants. There are also cannibals. And they all demand respectful treatment in the colony - by “right and by law.”
How can there be any respectful attitude towards them?..
This is already the level where “law and law” can move into the background. There is an opinion among employees that the most severe court verdict does not reach the heart of a maniac, but a blow with a boot in the face reaches to the very bottom of the soul.
I once met a convicted cook in a colony. Sociable, believes in God, always smiles, in good standing, a lot of gratitude, ready to fulfill any assignment, his bread is always fresh. He is preparing to be released on parole and asks for help, to write a good reference for the court.
“A hard-working guy,” I told someone about him once. And in response: “Read his sentence!” I wasn’t too lazy, opened a personal file, and started reading. I am an adult, and I have seen a lot of evil in my life, and this does not surprise me. But here I felt bad.
Twenty years ago, this cook lured a girl he knew to the river, who knew something about him - knew how he killed someone while stealing. He lured her to the river to swim and drowned her. She was drowned, and her one-year-old son, who began to scream on the shore, was thrown into the fire. But either the fire was not burning well, or this cook was in a hurry, and instead of being lazy, he took the burnt child out of the fire, tore off the branches from the tree, began to choke him with willow twigs, and then trampled his head with his boots.
I asked about this the next time I met him. “Twenty years have passed. Only God has the right to judge me. I’ve been in good standing for fifteen years,” that’s what he replied. He answered, losing his temper, with anger, and did not smile.
Twenty years have passed... and on my part, for someone like him, there is no statute of limitations. And after two hundred years. And after twenty centuries.
Then I approached the right person, and his “fifteen years in good standing” ended. He was thrown into a punishment cell for a minor violation - either for smoking a cigarette, lighting it in the wrong place, or for sitting on the bed. He was kicked out of the kitchen for being in isolation, and no one there gave him early release as a violator.
Yes, there are some. But these are only a few. The saddest thing is that employees get used to lumping everyone with the same brush. All prisoners are equal, all prisoners are non-humans. What difference does it make what he's in jail for? Once I got here, it means I’m guilty. Not all employees understand or want to understand that a prisoner is a human being.
Sometimes a person sits down for a specific, principled act.
I met a convict, against whom his ex-girlfriend before the wedding wrote a statement that he raped him and stole his earrings. I didn't want him to live with someone else. He already has a family. Got five years. According to the nasty article. I served my time. How he sat for the “shaggy article” - one can only guess about it. During this time, the family broke up, in an accident someone died, either a wife or a child. But he got out, went to that friend and killed her. Got a new term. Already 12 years. He says: “I couldn’t do it any other way. She crippled my whole life. I just took revenge." God will be his judge. How many people, so many destinies.
"Press huts"
Many prisoners work with the administration, the so-called active zone. Among them, parole release is usually the largest. They help maintain order in the colony among the convicts themselves, and the administration supports them. These are orderlies and caretakers in detachments.
Contrary to opinion, there is no unity among the convicts against the administration. Here it’s every man for himself, whoever eats who will survive. They themselves are quite critical of others, sometimes openly declaring about others “filthy convicts.”
It is certainly easier for those who work with the administration. He can receive commendations, which later influence his release, he has less chance of ending up in a punishment cell, and people can simply turn a blind eye to his minor violations.
About convicts beating or torturing convicts... yes, in some places this is present. The so-called press huts, where they extract confessions or “work” with a person to obtain other information, including inducing him to cooperate.
These are, as a rule, extreme measures, and not every convicted person will be affected by this. And all the menial work in the “press huts” is, of course, not done by employees - there won’t be enough of them either - but by other convicts. Assets.
In addition, there are also ordinary informers, “informers”, who also find out the necessary information in their own way. But the pursuit of “information” about a crime is not the main component of the reasons for the oppression of convicts. Basically, physical pressure is exerted not for the sake of some information, but for a completely different reason.
A person, entering a colony, does not want to live by its rules, does not want to sleep and wake up according to the regime, and does not obey the requirements of the administration. He wants to live his own life, as before, where he is his own boss.
For example, he was given 10 years in prison, and for 10 years he gets up at 06:00 in the morning, goes for exercises, goes to the canteen three times a day, stands at the divorce station twice a day, does not go further than his detachment, works according to the regime, goes to bed bed at 22:00 pm. In court they gave him 10 years of these charges, 10 years of this life.
Just think about it! Not everyone can stand it. And man openly rebels against this. Refuses to obey, get up in the morning, go to bed in the evening, go to the divorce... Then there are conversations, punishment cells, and then it’s not far from assault.
The employee is a trash
The mechanism for controlling an employee is always the same - you will be fired. Always.
A step to the side, an awkward word in front of your superiors, a minor official violation - this is the last day of your service in the colony. They will demand a dismissal report by order; if you don’t write it, they will follow you around, demand, threaten with problems, and drag you to the certification commission. And they will fire you if necessary.
Dismissal is the main form of stimulation of employee service. Try working in a colony from wake-up until bedtime, from 06:00 to 22:00, and at the same time say that you don’t like something. Convicts have the right to “8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.” The employee does not have such a right. Because he works for a preferential pension - and less often beyond the day when it comes. Nobody works for work. Because the attitude towards the employee is often worse than towards the convicted persons themselves.
The employee is a trash. Our head of the colony spoke directly at the divorces: “The main thing is the prisoners. You are the service staff." Therefore, an employee never has any other motivation for service. Always alone - I wish I could make it until retirement, but at least the grass won’t grow there.
There are cameras installed everywhere in the colonies, and there is no way to bypass them. Cameras record violations of both convicts and employees. Convicts are sent to a punishment cell, employees receive reprimands, moral lectures and dismissals. Who's so lucky?
For an employee to specifically look for a place where there is no video camera in order to beat up another convict there, well, it just makes you smile. From pure mathematics. When there are 1,500 prisoners in a colony, and there are 15 employees on duty shift. When will you have time to beat everyone?..
All these cases of beatings in colonies are, as a rule, specific circumstances. Communication began, the employee demanded, the convict was rude, did not do something, the employee used force, the convict resisted, and things went from strength to strength... Whoever has power is stronger and more to the right. Who in the dark corner of the colony looks at the law?
Control over an employee is, first of all, control over the work he does. No one specifically monitors the employee or his behavior, do what you want, think as you want, but so that the report on the work and the work itself are obvious. “Otherwise you will be fired and go to improve agriculture!”
What to do?
What should you do to avoid being beaten, to not be humiliated, to be treated like a person in prison?..
Yes, I’ll be honest, you can’t do anything against this. In prison means he is guilty, a criminal means he is not a person. And you also cannot please everyone without being touched. Prison is also human society. But in wolf form. Where, if you are weak, you will be torn apart. And you cannot hide and protect yourself from this. Nobody will help! Neither a lawyer nor an investigator! They will come and go, and you will remain in prison.
You cannot protect yourself from employees, although with these it is easier - you can complain about them, to higher authorities or to the prosecutor's office. But you cannot protect yourself from this world - from prison, from the “prisoners” who will take it from you, steal from you, hit you. And they do not work with the administration, they are not an asset of the zone, they are just “the masses”. And if you don’t have self-respect and moral strength (not physical, they don’t mean anything, because the “mass” will devour you) to defend yourself, you will not live for 10 years in a colony, but survive. Or you'll die.
These are not prison laws. These are the laws of life. And there is no use in complaining anywhere. Yes, the officers who beat you will go to trial, yes, they will change your squad, where other convicts humiliated you. But all of them will be replaced by others, life will bring new ones tomorrow. And you have to stand against them again. And somewhere you need to give in, and somewhere you need to endure, and somewhere you need to reconcile. To survive and return home. Where they are waiting for you.
There are no universal rules against prison. There is one thing - you can’t go there. Prison devastates a person. To the very bottom. No matter how much you resist and no matter what results you achieve, remember one thing: your life was taken away. And you didn’t live it the way you should.
It's up to you to decide what to do when you go to prison. You can stand stubbornly - and they will break you even more. You can make concessions - and they will not take you into account. But you can be wise - life will force you. And choose option three. Which? And who knows?.. Everyone has their own case and their own destiny.
Prison is a tragedy. In everyone's life. Both the employee and the thieves. And everyone experiences it differently. But it is important to remember that life does not end when prison begins. That you need to move on with your life. And the prison will end too. But how and with whom you will live in it is up to you to decide. Nobody will tell you. Nobody will teach. Learn by yourself.
There is only one thing that can help - don’t waste your energy pointlessly if you understand that you can’t change anything. Save yourself for “after prison.”