It is no coincidence that in almost all countries and among all peoples it is customary to bury the body not immediately after death, but only after a few days. There were many cases when the "dead" suddenly came to life before the funeral, or, worst of all, right inside the grave...

Imaginary death

Lethargy (from the Greek lethe - "oblivion" and argia - "inaction") is a little-studied painful condition, similar to sleep. Signs of death have always been considered the cessation of the heartbeat and the absence of breathing. But during a lethargic sleep, everything life processes also freeze, and distinguish real death from imaginary (so often called Sopor) without modern equipment is quite difficult. Therefore, earlier cases of burial of people who did not die, but fell asleep in a lethargic sleep, took place quite often, and sometimes with famous people.

If now burial alive is already a fantasy, then even 100-200 years ago, cases of burying living people were not so uncommon. Very often, gravediggers, digging a fresh grave at ancient burial sites, found twisted bodies in half-decayed coffins, which showed that they were trying to get free. They say that in medieval cemeteries every third grave was such a terrible sight.

Fatal sleeping pill

Helena Blavatsky described strange cases of lethargic sleep: “In 1816, in Brussels, a respected citizen fell into deep lethargy on a Sunday morning. On Monday, when his companions were preparing to hammer nails into the coffin lid, he sat down in the coffin, rubbed his eyes and demanded coffee and a newspaper. In Moscow, the wife of a wealthy merchant lay in a cataleptic state for seventeen days, during which the authorities made several attempts to bury her; but since decomposition did not occur, the family rejected the ceremony, and after the expiration of the said period, the life of the allegedly dead was restored. In Bergerac in 1842, the patient took sleeping pills, but ... did not wake up. They let him bleed: he did not wake up. Finally he was declared dead and buried. A few days later, they remembered taking sleeping pills and dug up the grave. The body was turned over and bore signs of a struggle. ”This is only a small part of such cases - a lethargic dream is actually quite a frequent occurrence.

Terrible awakening

Many people tried to protect themselves from being buried alive. For example, the famous writer Wilkie Collins left a note by his bed with a list of measures to be taken before he was buried. But the writer was an educated person and had the concept of a lethargic dream, while many ordinary people did not even think of something like that. So, in 1838 in England there was incredible case. After the funeral of a respected person, a boy was walking through the cemetery and heard an indistinct sound from under the ground. The frightened child called the adults who dug the coffin. When the lid was removed, the shocked witnesses saw that a terrible grimace had frozen on the face of the deceased. His arms were freshly bruised and his shroud was torn. But the man was already actually dead - he died a few minutes before being rescued - from a broken heart, unable to withstand such a terrible awakening to reality. An even more terrible incident occurred in Germany in 1773. A pregnant woman was buried there. When screams began to be heard from under the ground, the grave was dug up. But it turned out that it was already too late - the woman died, and moreover, the child who had just been born in the same grave died ...

crying soul

In the fall of 2002, a misfortune happened in the family of Irina Andreevna Maletina, a resident of Krasnoyarsk - her thirty-year-old son Mikhail unexpectedly died. A strong athletic guy who never complained about his health died at night in his sleep. The body was autopsied, but the cause of death could not be determined. The doctor who drew up the death report told Irina Andreevna that her son had died of sudden cardiac arrest. As expected, Mikhail was buried on the third day, a wake was celebrated ... And suddenly the next night the dead son dreamed of his mother crying. In the afternoon, Irina Andreevna went to church and lit a candle for the repose of the soul of the newly deceased. However crying son continued to appear to her in a dream for another week. Maletina turned to one of the priests, who, after listening, said disappointing words that the young man might have been buried alive. Irina Andreevna had to make incredible efforts to obtain permission to carry out the exhumation. When the coffin was opened, heartbroken the woman turned gray in an instant with horror. Her dearly beloved son lay on his side. His clothes, ritual veil and pillow were torn to shreds. There were numerous abrasions and bruises on the hands of the corpse, which were not present at the time of the funeral. All this eloquently testified that the man woke up in the grave, and then died long and painfully. Elena Ivanovna Duzhkina, a resident of the city of Bereznyaki near Solikamsk, recalls how once, in her childhood, she and a group of children saw a coffin floating from nowhere during the spring flood of the Kama. The waves washed him ashore. Frightened children called adults. People opened the coffin and were horrified to see a yellowish skeleton dressed in decayed rags. The skeleton lay prone, legs tucked under it. The entire lid of the coffin, which had darkened from time to time, was dotted with deep scratches from the inside.

Live Gogol

The most famous such case was scary tale associated with Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. During his life, he several times fell into a strange, absolutely immobile state, reminiscent of death. But great writer always quickly came to his senses, although he managed to pretty scare others. Gogol knew about this peculiarity of his, and more than anything in the world he was afraid that one day he would fall into deep dream for a long time and he will be buried alive. He wrote: “Being in the full presence of memory and common sense, I present here my last will.
I bequeath my body not to be buried until they appear clear signs decomposition. I mention this because even during the illness itself, moments of vital numbness found on me, my heart and pulse stopped beating. ”After the writer’s death, they did not heed his will and buried him as usual - on the third day ...

These terrible words were remembered only in 1931, when Gogol was reburied from the Danilov Monastery on Novodevichy cemetery. According to eyewitnesses, the lid of the coffin was scratched from the inside, and Gogol's body was in an unnatural position. Then another one was discovered. terrible thing, which had nothing to do with lethargic dreams and burials alive. Gogol's skeleton was missing... a head. According to rumors, she disappeared in 1909, when the monks of the Danilov Monastery restored the grave of the writer. Allegedly, they were persuaded to cut it off for a considerable amount by the collector and rich man Bakhrushin, with whom she remained. This is a wild story, but it is quite possible to believe in it, because in 1931, during the excavation of Gogol's grave, a number of unpleasant events occurred. famous writers, who were present at the reburial, literally stole from the coffin "as a keepsake" some pieces of clothing, some shoes, and some Gogol's rib ...

Call from beyond

Interestingly, in order to protect a person from being buried alive, in many Western countries there is still a bell with a rope in morgues. A person who is considered dead can wake up among the dead, get up and call him. The servants will immediately come running to his call. This bell and the revival of the dead are very often played out in horror films, but in reality such stories almost never happened. But during the autopsy, the "corpses" came to life more than once. In 1964, a New York mortuary performed an autopsy on a man who died on the street. As soon as the pathologist's scalpel touched the "dead man's" stomach, he immediately jumped up. The pathologist himself died of shock and fright on the spot... Another similar case was described in the Biysk Rabochiy newspaper. An article dated September 1959 told how, during the funeral of an engineer of one of the Biysk factories, while delivering mourning speeches, the deceased suddenly sneezed, opened his eyes, sat down in a coffin and “almost died a second time, seeing the situation in which located". A thorough examination at the local hospital of the man who had risen from the coffin did not reveal any pathological changes in his body. The Novosibirsk doctors, to whom the resurrected engineer was sent, gave the same conclusion.

Ritual burials

However, people are not always buried alive against their will. So, among some African tribes, nationalities South America, Siberia and Far North there is a ritual in which the healer of the tribe buries a relative alive. In a number of nationalities, this rite is also carried out as the initiation of boys. In some tribes, it is used for and for certain diseases. In the same way, the elderly or the sick are prepared for the transition to another world. The ritual of “pseudo-burial” occupies an important place among the ministers of shamanic cults. It is believed that, lying alive in the grave, the shaman receives the gift of communication with the spirits of the earth, as well as with the souls of dead ancestors. Some channels seem to open in his mind, through which he communicates with unknown mere mortal worlds. Naturalist and ethnographer E.S. Bogdanovsky was lucky in 1915 to witness the ritual funeral of a shaman of one of the Kamchatka tribes. In his memoirs, Bogdanovsky writes that before the burial, the shaman fasted for three days and did not even drink water. Then the assistants, using a bone drill, made a hole in the crown of the shaman, which was then sealed with beeswax. After that, the body of the shaman was rubbed with incense, wrapped in the skin of a bear, and lowered into a grave arranged in the center of the family cemetery, accompanied by ritual singing. A few days later, during which rituals were continuously performed over the grave, the buried shaman was taken out of the ground, washed in three running waters and fumigated with incense. On the same day, the rebirth of a respected fellow tribesman was magnificently celebrated in the village, who, having visited “ realm of the dead", occupied the top step in the hierarchy of the ministers of the pagan cult...

IN last years there was a tradition to put next to the dead charged Cell phones- suddenly it’s not death at all, but a dream, suddenly a dear person comes to his senses and calls his relatives - I’m alive, dig me back ... But so far such cases have not happened - nowadays, with perfect diagnostic devices, in principle it is impossible to bury a person alive. But nevertheless, people do not believe doctors and try to protect themselves from the terrible awakening in the grave. In 2001, a scandalous incident occurred in the United States. A resident of Los Angeles, Joe Barten, who was terribly afraid of falling into a lethargic sleep, bequeathed to make ventilation in his coffin, put food and a phone in it. And at the same time, his relatives could receive an inheritance only on the condition that they call his grave three times a day. Interestingly, Barten's relatives refused to receive an inheritance - the process of making calls to the other world seemed too creepy to them ...

The death penalty [History and types of capital punishment from the beginning of time to the present day] Monestier Martin

Buried alive

Buried alive

Two Gauls buried alive in 232 BC Engraving by Adolf Pannemaker from a painting by Philippoteaux. 19th century Private count

The execution, which consisted in the fact that the convict was buried alive in the ground, existed at all times on all continents. In 220 B.C., the Chinese emperor Huan-Ti ordered five hundred scholars whose writings were contrary to the principles of his government to be buried alive. The Incas executed the Virgin of the Sun in this way for breaking the vow of chastity. The same was done in Rome with the Vestals, who were accused of neglecting their duty. The noblest and most noble gave their daughters to the temple of the goddess Vesta. ancient families Rome. Girls were placed in the temple at the age of six or ten years, so that, remaining chaste, they could serve the goddess Vesta for at least thirty years. Those who broke their vows and those who were responsible for extinguishing the sacred fire entrusted to their care were buried alive in the "Field of Criminals". The Vestal Order lasted eleven centuries and was abolished by Theodore in 389. It is known that many Vestals were executed in this way. Suetonius claims that this sad fate befell even the high priestess Cornelia.

A woman buried with her dead husband. Engraving. D.R.

The very history of the founding of Rome begins with an instillation. Rhea Sylvia, the daughter of King Numitor of Alba, became a Vestal at the compulsion of her brother, but gave birth to Romulus and Remus. She claimed that they were the sons of Mars, but she was executed by being buried alive in the ground.

Pope Calixtus I was also executed. He was elected in 218, during the reign of Alexander Severus, and killed by dropping to the bottom of a well, which was covered with garbage.

Throwing captives into the sea, onto rocks, and into a tower filled with ashes. Biblical Dictionary of Dom Calmet. Private count

The Code of Hammurabi, which was in force in the Babylonian Empire, permitted the application of the law of retribution. One of the texts said that if the building of a bad architect collapsed, burying the son of one of the inhabitants under the ruins, the son of the architect had to be punished and be buried alive.

The Persians perfected this terrible execution: the condemned was thrown into a huge pile of ash, which filled the lungs, causing suffocation much more painful than a simple lack of oxygen during traditional instillation.

Choking on gold foil

In China, the perpetrator of a criminal offense could escape punishment by finding a replacement and agreeing with the victim's family on the amount of damages. Yes, after mass extermination of the French in Qin-Qin in June 1870, mandarins guilty of incitement could get away with offering the coolies five hundred to six hundred francs, a beautiful coffin and a top-notch funeral, if they would agree to substitute their heads for them. But, if the death sentence was passed by the emperor, there was no salvation. Usually the sovereign gave the nobility a choice between a public decapitation and a quiet death at home. In the second case, they were sent a bag of poison, a silk rope - yellow or white, depending on the rank, or gold foil, from which a person suffocated. A special Chinese method of suicide with gold foil was that the sentenced person placed the thinnest gold plate on the palm of his hand or on his mouth and inhaled it. The foil clogged the throat, and the man suffocated. Volunteer - voluntary departure from life, analogue Japanese hara-kiri, took place in front of several mandarins, who then sent a report to the emperor.

Gauls and Germans did this with traitors and cowards. The Goths were buried for pederasty. This practice did not bypass the Franks. Chlodomir got rid of the king of the Burgundians Sigismund and his two sons by lowering them to the bottom of the well, which was immediately covered with earth. Under Pepin the Short, Jews were executed so often.

The Carolina Code, published around 1530, was the first attempt to codify criminal law among the Germanic peoples and peoples. Central Europe. It provided for seven methods of execution, including being buried alive, mostly for infanticide.

Only for women

In medieval France, women were not hanged for reasons of "decency". It was considered indecent to watch a woman's legs jerk convulsively at the level of the spectators' eyes. The women were buried alive. The legal and criminal archives hold records of numerous trials that ended in such a verdict, in particular, in the case of a certain Colette de Saint-Germain, who robbed an officer, for which she was buried alive in Abbeville in 1420. Only from 1449 were women sent to the gallows: skirts were tied to the legs at the knees. religious wars gave rise to mass executions of this kind to both Catholics and Protestants.

In Sweden and Denmark, being buried alive was a legal form of punishment up to late XVI century. This is how women were usually executed, replacing the burial on the wheel, to which men were usually sentenced. Mostly buried women accused of infanticide and bestiality. In Gabon, Indonesia and the Solomon Islands, burial alive existed until the 19th century, and in India until the beginning of the 20th century: according to the religious custom of some peoples, wives were to be buried alive with their dead husbands. In other cases, religious law forced wives to climb the stake to die in the flames next to their dead husband.

To save ammo

By burying alive, some Nazi units punished recalcitrant residents and partisans, whose death was supposed to serve as a cruel lesson for everyone. Such executions have been noted in Poland and Russia. The Asians seem to have a particular fondness for this barbaric relic of the past. In 1968, when the Americans recaptured from the Viet Cong imperial palace, they found piles of corpses in the pits - more than three thousand people buried alive by the communists of Vo Nguyen Ziala.

From April 1975 until the end of 1978, the Khmer Rouge, who ruled Cambodia, staged mass executions of the population, including using burial alive. Believing that their victims (more than two million people) were unworthy of execution and did not deserve precious cartridges to be spent on them, they practiced primitive methods of murder: hitting the back of the head with a club or hoe and burying them alive. Whole families of men, women and children were buried in the pits they dug for themselves.

We owe the Khmer Rouge another "invention": suffocation with a plastic bag, which was put on the head of the condemned, from which he died in terrible convulsions. Plastic bag intended mainly for adults, children were strangled by placing in jute bags.

Was Gogol buried alive? Why did Dostoevsky die? Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol ... The legend associated with his death makes one shudder: buried alive ... To immediately dispel the myth, let's say that this version has not found documentary evidence. Nikolai Zenkovich,