Gay life Stal’s Gulag | openDemocracy

Contents:

• SIBERIA AND HIM TRACKS A GAY RELATNSHIP RSIA
• GAY LIFE STAL’S GULAG
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA BILL PASSED SIBERIA
• 5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)
• LGBTQ+ ACTIVISTS FIGHT ANTI-GAY HATE SIBERIA
• PUT’S PRI? SIX FAMO GAY SONS OF RSIA

SIBERIA AND HIM TRACKS A GAY RELATNSHIP RSIA

Wrer/director Viatchlav Kopturkiy mak a promisg feature but wh his gay drama Siberia and Him, out May 26 on DVD.

Sasha is distrght, even suicidal, but he eventually heads out to a private gay bar to drown his sorrows.

GAY LIFE STAL’S GULAG

But Kopturevskiy’s film sh a necsary light on this solate rner of the world where gay (or bisexual) men eke out liv whout much hope. This terview troduc the work of acclaimed historian Dan Healey, who sheds light on how gay men survived the Soviet Gulag, their life afterwards and different attus the USSR to gay men and Healey, Profsor of Morn Rsian History at Oxford Universy, has explored the history of homosexualy tsarist and Soviet Rsia, the nature of masculy unr socialism, the problems of sexual disorrs and sexual vlence the USSR and the history of medice Stal’s Gulag.

'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

Healey is the thor of the only published monograph on the history of homosexualy Rsia: Homosexual Dire Revolutnary Rsia: The Regulatn of Sexual and Genr Gkov spoke to Dan Healey after the lnch of his latt book: Rsian Homophobia om Stal to do we know about gay/queer people Gulag? We know om FSB archiv and publicly accsible urt papers that homosexual mat of the Gulag were generally men aged between 25 and 50, most of them urban dwellers. That giv you a kd of snapshot of the posn of the group of people imprisoned for their homosexualy unr Article 154-a of the RSFSR Penal relatns between men were punishable by imprisonment of between three and five years, and sexual relatns between men wh the e of vlence or the subjugatn of one party to the other were punishable by imprisonment of between five and eight subjects of your book were not only people arrted unr Article 154-a.

You talk about homosexual relatns between prisoners nvicted of other offenc. Dan Healey's latt book: Rsian Homophobia om Stal to the first place, we need to be reful when we talk about what meant to be a homosexual the Gulag. We don’t know for certa whether the prisoners analysed were actually gay or lbian, or whether they jt acmodated themselv to a particular culture.

ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA BILL PASSED SIBERIA

Soviet lears feared that homosexual groups uld make a pact wh Germany or other powers to stabilise the n, however, offer a circumstantial explanatn about the polil nature of the cisn.

It’s known that 1933 Genrikh Yagoda, the head of the Soviet secret police, wrote a letter to Stal which he said that “homosexuals are beg arrted, but we have realised that we don’t have an article to charge them unr.

5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)

” Gays had their own groups, and this put the Soviet ernment on edge. Also, “outg”, the public disclosure of rmatn about gays’ sexual orientatn, uld, an atmosphere of public homophobia, bee a potential risk for blackmail by foreign telligence polil terpretatn of this “crime” was the reason for the severy of sentenc unr Article 154-a, as “polils” were “socially hostile” mat the Soviet prison mp system. Homosexuals were treated even more harshly than prisoners nvicted unr Article 58 (anti-revolutnary activy), as everyone knew that “polil” charg were often fabrited.

This leads to the ncln that those nvicted unr Article 154-a were the lowt of the low the prison system, although homosexual crimals were treated ls harshly, pecially unr Stal. Homosexuals were treated even more harshly than prisoners nvicted unr Article 58 (anti-revolutnary activy)The send reason for the severy shown to gays was to do wh public homophobia.

LGBTQ+ ACTIVISTS FIGHT ANTI-GAY HATE SIBERIA

Agents of the OGPU/NKVD (as the Soviet secret police was known at different tim), the police and other bodi that alt wh the matters knew exactly what “crime” they were arrtg homosexuals for. Homosexual prisoners were huiated both physilly and psychologilly, separated om other mat, forced to e separate toilets and kchen equipment. Here the rapist, takg the active role, was not regard as gay: he was a person assertg his power over a “grad element”.

The “ordary” crimals were not ted people and had ltle sire to wre do you know about other typ of gay relatnships the Gulag? Public ’s nearly impossible to answer the qutns, bee few even amongst the most ted of Gulag mat left any wrten documentatn behd, given the homophobia of Soviet society and the all-embracg fear the populatn.

When ex-prisoners began to wre about gay relatnships the Gulag, they would always talk about them as someone else’s experience, not their own. Koz’s se is tertg bee he left a diary which he had kept all his adult life, and part of , the entri for 1955-1956, has been even Koz don’t speak about his own homosexual experienc, if he had any, the mps.

PUT’S PRI? SIX FAMO GAY SONS OF RSIA

Koz was, of urse, staggered by this ankns, as his diary entry wre your book that the most open gays the mps belonged to the “crimal” populatn.

The memoirs wrten about homosexuals the mps are mostly about mon crimals. This wasn’t a universal suatn, but was pretty gay men and lbians hold hands, for example, whout anyone botherg about ?

The younger partner a male gay relatnship would sometim bee more feme and even take a female name, and an equivalent velopment might take place a lbian society bee more homophobic after the Gulag was closed down? On the one hand, there were a lot of “visible” gays returng om the mps.