»In which I am not a knouter

One of my favourite stories is Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game (anthologised in a paperback my father read to us often; the collection also included "Miss Hinch", a creepy story indeed). The famous hunter Dr Zaroff mentions that his hench-man Ivan was a knouter for the tsar. Where does this word come from? Russian via French? French via Russian?

update A knouter uses a knout.