Sacrifices, blood feud, execution - all these options for the legal deprivation of a person’s life by other people have existed since ancient times, and all of them were considered necessary. At the same time, people have always understood that the death penalty is terrible. It is no coincidence that criminals often preferred to be doomed to exile, so as not to desecrate their native land with shed blood. It is no coincidence that Socrates could not be executed until the ship sent for the sacred holiday returned to Athens - if the philosopher drank a cup of hemlock at the moment when rituals were performed in honor of Apollo, God would have been offended. It is no coincidence that the executioners were feared and shunned. And yet, in different eras, in different societies and cultures, people were condemned to execution. Historian Tamara Eidelman talks about how ordinary citizens, politicians, philosophers, writers, and artists felt and still feel about this.