Planting on an anthill — for which Russia relied on a painful execution

In the history of mankind, people have come up with thousands of ways to exterminate their own kind. Our ancestors showed a particularly sophisticated imagination in the matter of torture and executions. There is nothing strange in this, because if they tried to destroy the enemy quickly on the battlefield, then during the execution they did not value time and tried to cause maximum suffering to the victim. One of the slowest and most painful executions of our ancestors was planting on an anthill.

Historians claim that the execution with the help of an anthill was very widespread in Russia. Moreover, it was practiced not as an official punishment, but as a lynching. Thieves were most often subjected to it. People in Russian villages were quick to kill. They reasoned that the authorities were far away and too busy, so the villain could escape punishment. Besides, everyone knew that a criminal always has the opportunity to pay off if he is tried.

The authorities rarely resorted to this execution, mainly in Siberia. There, escaped convicts who caused a lot of trouble or committed murder during their escape were dealt with in this way. Having caught such a person in the forest, the guards preferred not to bring the matter to official registration. The criminal was simply put on an anthill and this was the end of the expedition.

This execution, from the point of view of the perpetrators, had many advantages. Firstly, I didn't have to take a sin on my soul and kill the villain with my own hands. Secondly, the process was of great educational importance for others who wanted to escape, and thirdly, it was not necessary to escort a dangerous criminal back, spending forces and resources that were worth their weight in gold in the conditions of the taiga.

There were several ways of this terrible massacre. Most often, the doomed person was tied to a tree, sitting on an anthill. Less often, to speed up the process, the unfortunate was smeared with honey to attract insects faster. The ants first attacked the honey, and then took over the man.

Especially terrible executioners were red ants, whose bites are incredibly painful. The convict died a few hours later from pain shock and poisoning with formic acid. Anyone who has been bitten by an ant at least once in the forest can imagine how painful such a death was.

More sophisticated executioners, having securely fixed the victim, buried his feet in an anthill. Thousands of insects literally gnawed on the legs, while the rest of the body suffered much less. In this case, the person died especially long. But it didn't end there — the insects ate the corpse very quickly, from which only bones remained after a few days.

There was also a non-lethal version of punishment by ants. The culprit could be stripped naked, tied up and put on an anthill for a while. When the torturers believed that the pedagogical effect had been achieved, the bitten and swollen victim was released and released. This was usually how Siberian hunters punished those who did not disdain to rob other people's snares or steal supplies.

Exposing a person "to mosquitoes" or "to midges" was considered no less sophisticated execution. A thief or a runaway convict was stripped and simply tied to a tree. In summer, there are a huge number of mosquitoes and midges in Siberia, which became torturers.

It was possible to limit ourselves to an edifying lesson and release the person in a couple of hours. But sometimes the victim was left to be completely torn to pieces by the midge. They say that insects drank all the blood out of a person in a day. Although, most likely, the unfortunate man died much earlier from pain and intoxication.

They were tied to anthills and given to the gnats not only during the Dark Middle Ages. Many sources claim that such executions were liked to be carried out in Soviet gulags.