View source for Knout

==For corporal punishment==
According to  ''Brockhaus and Efron'', a typical knout used by Russian executioners consisted of a  wooden handle about half ''[[arshin (length)|arshin]]'' ({{convert|35|cm|in|abbr=on}}) to which attached was a thick braided rawhide piece, one ''arshin'' ({{convert|70|cm|in|abbr=on}}) long. The latter piece ended in a metal ring, to which was attached a wide rawhide belt made as long, also of one ''arshin'' length with a stiffened beak-like end.<ref name=efron>{{cite Efron|Кнут, орудие наказания}}</ref>

[[Image:Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, Supplice du knout ordinaire (1766).png|thumb|"Punishment with an Ordinary Knout" (1766), depicting the flogging of [[Natalia Lopukhina]]]]
[[Image:Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, Supplice du grand knout (c. 1765).png|thumb|"Punishment with a Great Knout" (1765)]]

Knouts were used in Russia for flogging as formal [[Judicial corporal punishment|corporal punishment]] of criminals and political offenders. The victim was tied to a post or on a triangle of wood and stripped, receiving the specified number of strokes on the back. A sentence of 100 or 120 lashes was equivalent to a death sentence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=de Lagny |first=Germain |title=The Knout and the Russians: Or, the Muscovite Empire, the Czar, and his people |date=1854 |publisher=Harper&Brothers |lccn=16010158|oclc=2959335 |series=Russia observed |location=New York |language=}}</ref>{{pn|date=February 2025}}

Emperor [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] abolished punishment by knout in 1845, after years of deliberation, and replaced it with the ''pleti'',<ref name=efron/> a lighter whip, commonly with three tails, which was used previously for punishment as well.<ref>{{cite Efron|Плети}}</ref>