A doctor writes...

In the old days of the Soviet Union, corporal punishment was
prohibited in the schools for either sex. I worked out there in a
hospital (I speak Russian) for a year and got to know quite a few
Russian girls. One night the conversation turned to cp (not
instigated by me), and the two girls in the company told me that
both had been beaten by their fathers (with a leather strap or belt)
on a regular basis, and that this was not uncommon, and in fact that
it still happens (This was in 1992, but not much changes in Russia,
so I guess it's still going on). They said it was better to pretend
that it hurt (although they were used to it), because one girl they
knew was very tough, and did not respond to the beatings. Her father
simply beat her for longer (he was often drunk on vodka). Apparently
her mother tried to intervene on one occasion, and she got a good
belting too, though as one of them commented, she was well used to
it.
Russian women, whilst many of them are very beautiful, are often
very tough. For example, I frequently saw injections given to young
girls, often with big needles, and with all the finesse of throwing
a dart, the girls never flinched, and when I commented on this, they
said that they were Russian, and taught from an early age not to
behave like babies. They are told to keep quiet during childbirth
for example, and many did. One girl commented that if she got a
beating from her father she just accepted it because all her friends
were beaten, and it was just part of life.
On one occasion I had to examine a girl of 14, and with a (lady)
doctor present, I asked her to strip off. She did so without any
inhibitions, and I saw that she had been leathered across the
backside very recently. I mentioned this to the doctor afterwards,
and she said 'Don't worry about it. I got it regularly from my
father too - they all get it'

A very interesting post, Frank.

Often, several Russian families lived in just one apartment. I suppose the slap of leather against flesh was often heard in those tiny apartments. At least, if the recipient took her/his punishment quietly, then others would not have been disturbed.

There are a few websites of pictures depicting brides being spanked on their wedding nights. Even one of a future bride being caned by her prospective groom. Eastern Europe, of course. Such things simply do not go on in Lewisham.

Here is an image from the series referred to in the earlier post. Hubby-to-be is busy laying down the law to his prospective wife. She takes it all in her stride, even when he gets busy with his cane.

"Such things simply do not go on in Lewisham" says Seth.

I've got news for him - such things don't go on in Russia either.

Well now ...
I've previously mentioned (on a thread dealing with the topic of teachers going to pupils homes to punish them) the work of Fyodor Sologub. The birch is of course the Russian instrument of castigation par excellence.

2 other famous Russian C.P. scenes
1. Maxim Gorki either "My Childhood" or "My Boyhood" in which he describes being birched naked and tied up by his grandfather.
2. Dostoevsky in a once banned section of his novel variously translated as "The Possessed" or "The Devils" called "Stavrogin's Confession" (it appears as an Appendix in the current Penguin edition) has an account of how a man lodging with a woman lets her birch her 12 year old daughter on her bare bottom in front of him, although he knows she did not commit the offence for which she is being punished. She later hangs herself after he has (we believe) sexually assaulted her. Acutely erotic if disturbing. The same scene wormed its way into Visconti's film "The Damned" although we only see Helmut Berger listening through the wall to the beating taking place.
I always like to bring a bit of culture into your lives, don't I?

If anyone's interested in the reality of the situation in late Soviet to modern Russia (as opposed to what one finds on internet sites clearly tailored to ppl specifically interested in these topics and the exaggeration thereof):

I was born in Russia (we left in 1993, when I was 8), and of course my parents spent most of their life there. Belting (or porka, as it was called) was a universally accepted fact of life even for the children of my generation. My parents were highly unusual in that they did not practice cp; part of the reason for this being that it was rather overdone in my father's childhood. However, at one point or another I heard tales of practically all my friends getting belted by their fathers (keep in mind, these were children less than 8 years old) and later on when we moved to America, what few other Russian immigrants I talked to about the subject admitted to catching it from their parents as well... in fact they were amazed when I mentioned that I didn't. I know nothing of husbands 'punishing' wives... it certainly did not happen in my extended family or circle of acquantainces. Certainly, drunkenness is still a prevalent problem and violence of all sorts is bound to follow, but to classify that as cp is stretching it, imho.
School cp has never been allowed in Russia (at least not in anything like modern times), as far as I know (in fact my parents were horrified at the very concept when they first heard about it after we moved to America). The prime reason for this, I think, is that it was simply not necessary. Teachers routinely wrote down all grades and behavior marks in the student's 'journal' which was then shown to the parents, and it as it was assumed that any bad reports would get one strapped at home, there was no need for the school to interfere.
Similarly, I've never heard of the birch ever being used on children in modern Russia. There are some scenes mentioned in the literature (ie: the aforementioned Gorky and Dostoyevsky examples) but one should keep in mind that these were written during what was essentially the Russian equivalent of the Victorian era (when even in western europe some pretty disturbing things were going on). The 'birch switches' survive only as a half-comical threat on the part of parents (at least in my experience), a reference to literature but never meant to be taken seriously.

Of course, all of the above is meant to apply to mainstream. What goes on in the Russian cp community (ie: the people actually interested in this sort of thing) I cannot and do not want to fathom, but I imagine the lack of legal recourse and all that would imply it has few bounds.

Dear Eto,

Thank you for sending us your excellent piece on life in Russia and congratulations on being our first correspondent therefrom.

We pride ourselves on being an International Happy Circle and are delighted to receive messages from everyone except J***s and K****s.

Gillian