Can't stop instances without terminating them

[garretul]

Hi I'm running brenda through a python console in windows, so I'm trying to run this command that stops the brenda-node script on all instances, but not shut down the instances:
$ brenda-tool ssh 'kill $(cat brenda.pid)'

So in my console I have to add python at the beginning of the line like that:
python brenda-tool ssh 'kill $(cat brenda.pid)'

And it should work, but it doesn't. The instances don't stop. I think it has to do with the $ at the beginning, but I don't know to change it. Anyone can tell me about it? Maybe other ways to get the same?