Human remains with postmortem damages (skulls pierced by nails, etc.) were found in some towns of South Russia and around. According to historical and ethnographic materials of Volhynia and Subcarpathia, damage to certain categories of decedents was a common defensive practice among Eastern Slavs. Those decedents known as "zalozhniye" (i.e. the "undead," like vampires, walking dead etc.) could harm the living. One category of the undead were those who died by violence. The author compares the manipulation with the bodies of the undead and massacres with victims of vengeance followed by the post-mortem damage to their bodies (the murder of those guilty of Prince Vasilko of Terebovl's blinding).