The Seven Who Were Hanged

by Leonid Andreyev

"The Seven Who Were Hanged" by Leonid Andreyev is a horror novella written in 1908. After a failed assassination attempt on a minister, seven condemned prisoners await execution by hanging: five revolutionaries, an Estonian farmhand who murdered his employer, and a violent thief. In their final days, each prisoner confronts their approaching death in starkly different ways. The novella explores how these diverse individuals—from a motherly revolutionary leader to a confused farmhand to a jovial bandit—grapple with mortality's shadow.