Flogging of Vasiliev and Nepomnishy

The flogging of Vasiliev and Nepomnishy was a brutal act of state violence that laid bare the true nature of the Russian penal system. Ordered by the prison governor in response to a minor act of insubordination, the punishment was carried out in the women's interviewing room, a space normally reserved for family visits, thereby transforming a place of potential human connection into a site of official torture. The event was known throughout the prison the evening before, and it dominated the conversations of the inmates, including Maslova and her companions, who discussed it with a mixture of fear and indignation.

Causes and Background

The flogging was the culmination of a conflict between the prisoner Vasiliev and the prison authorities. Vasiliev, a young clerk imprisoned for killing his mistress in a fit of jealousy, was popular among his fellow prisoners for his generosity and his firm insistence on his legal rights. Three weeks before the flogging, a jailer struck a prisoner-scavenger for spilling soup on his uniform. Vasiliev intervened, arguing that it was unlawful to strike a prisoner. The jailer responded by verbally abusing Vasiliev, who then seized the jailer's hands, held them fast for about three minutes, and pushed him out of the door. For this act of defiance, the inspector ordered Vasiliev to be placed in a solitary cell. The solitary cells were dark closets with no furniture, where rats ran freely over the prisoners. Vasiliev refused to go, and when the jailers used force, he and two other prisoners resisted. The jailers, including the notoriously strong Petrov, eventually overpowered them and forced them into the cells. The governor was informed of a "rebellion" and ordered that the two chief offenders, Vasiliev and the tramp Nepomnishy, each receive thirty strokes with a birch rod.

What Happens

The flogging was scheduled to take place in the women's interviewing room. On the morning of the event, the prison was filled with a tense, expectant atmosphere. The women in Maslova's cell, including Korableva, Khoroshavka, and Theodosia, sat drinking tea, all of them flushed and animated by the vodka Maslova had provided. They discussed the impending punishment with a mixture of horror and fascination. The watchman's wife recounted a story of seeing a peasant flogged in her village, while Khoroshavka related how the notorious convict Schegloff had been flogged without uttering a sound. The conversation was interrupted by the sounds of voices and steps from the corridor above, signaling that the prisoners were being led to the punishment. The women fell silent and listened. Khoroshavka remarked, "There they are, hauling him along, the devils! They'll do him to death, they will. The jailers are so enraged with him because he never would give in to them." The flogging itself is not directly described in the narrative, but its aftermath is vividly felt. When Nekhludoff later visited the prison, he encountered the jailer Petrov, who emerged from the inner door "heated and perspiring" and muttered, "He'll remember it." The inspector himself appeared "even more confused than his subordinates, and sighing continually." The atmosphere of shame and brutality was palpable.

Consequences and Aftermath

The flogging had profound consequences for both the prisoners and the officials. For Vasiliev and Nepomnishy, it was a brutal physical and psychological trauma, a demonstration of the state's absolute power over their bodies. For the prison community, it served as a terrifying reminder of the violence that underpinned the system. The event also affected Nekhludoff, who, upon learning of it, was filled with a "mixed feeling of curiosity, depression, perplexity, and moral nausea, that grew into physical sickness." This experience deepened his understanding of the prison as a place of systematic cruelty, not correction. The flogging also exposed the moral corruption of the officials. Maslennikoff, the vice-governor, when confronted by Nekhludoff about the punishment, blushed and became evasive, revealing his complicity in the violence. The event thus served as a catalyst for Nekhludoff's growing disillusionment with the entire legal and penal system, reinforcing his conviction that the only place for an honest man in Russia was a prison.