On the latter issue, it recommended that “disobedient wives should be severely whipped, though not in anger.” Even a good wife should be taught by her husband “by using the whip to her from time to time, but nicely, in secret, and in a polite fashion, avoiding blows of the fist which cause bruises.” In the lower classes, Russian men beat their wives on the slightest pretext. “Some of these barbarians will tie up their wives by the hair of their head, and whip them stark naked,” wrote Dr. Collins. Sometimes the beatings were so severe that the woman died; then the husband was free to remarry.
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