The past five years have wnsed an explosn of tert the histori of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer people the Soviet Unn and s succsor stat. This special issue extends our unrstandg of the history of queer experience the late Soviet Unn and s succsor stat. Its eight articl balance attentn between the Rsian “re” and republics on the “periphery” of the USSR: Geia, Kyrgyzstan, and Latvia. One article draws attentn to Italy, and t...
Contents:
- 1917 RSIAN REVOLUTN: THE GAY MUNY'S BRIEF WDOW OF EEDOM
- GAY THE USSR
- A DOUBLE DEFEAT: CATASTROPHE FOR GAY EMANCIPATN GERMANY AND THE USSR
- THE HISTORY OF HOMOSEXUALY RSIA: OM SOVIET SEX CHANG TO GAY GULAGS
- ‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA
- GAY RIGHTS RSIA AND THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS
1917 RSIAN REVOLUTN: THE GAY MUNY'S BRIEF WDOW OF EEDOM
Rsian tolerance of the gay muny was briefly terpted unr the Bolsheviks. * gay in soviet union *
He did not thk guts would e if had jt been a he gambled - rightly - that a proper weddg wh all the Rsian tradns, bread and salt, a blsg om the proud parents, and a ncert to follow, would be the time Rsia's gay muny was enjoyg a brief wdow of the October Revolutn 1917, the Bolsheviks scrapped and rewrote the untry's laws.
They produced two Crimal Cos - 1922 and 1926 - and an article prohibg gay sex was left off source, Central State Library of St PetersburgImage ptn, Rsian sailors wh young men drsed women's cloth, 1916But the weddg Petrograd (now St Petersburg) was not all seemed. The se was eventually closed and the "unter-revolutnari" got away wh nothg more than a to regnise 'one's own'Image source, Olga KhoroshilovaImage ptn, Apasha and Apashka, fashn ins of the NEP era, Lengrad, mid-1920sGay men had been part of a distct unrground muny Rsia long before the revolutn and they regnised each other by the "secret language" of St Petersburg, some wore red ti, or red shawls, onto which they would sew the back pockets of powred their fac and wore a lot of the revolutn, the heavily ma-up "silent film star look" beme more mastream and no longer jt a fashn for young gay more about the Rsian RevolutnThe upheaval of the revolutn and civil war brought hard tim to Rsia and gay men were not able to match the flamboyant cloth and luxury accsori favoured by some of their unterparts across but still persecutedThe Bolsheviks were directly fluenced by Magn Hirschfeld, a German scientist who found the Instute of Sexology Berl.
GAY THE USSR
In 1933-34 the gas ma by gay men Germany and the Soviet Unn were abptly reversed. * gay in soviet union *
Image source, Olga KhoroshilovaImage ptn, Hansi Sturm, a famo Berl drag queen of the although there may not have been an article relatg to gay sex the crimal s of the 1920s, the muny was still persecuted.
They poured out their souls, askg him to help them pe wh prsn and even to "cure their illns" letters and other documents show that members of the gay muny were credibly brave - some wore women's drs and rsets, wore their hair long and often looked like real women. It nsisted of soldiers, sailors, clerks - people who had not been part of the fashnable St Petersburg salons before the revolutn and who were not wele guts of the "aristocrats" after the 1920s, German Travti theatre - which men drs as women and vice versa - beme popular among Soviet gay men.
Before the revolutn, Leifert was a supplier to the imperial urt and he also ma stum for the dancers of the Marisky then all me to an endAfter Afanasy Shr's plot to ensnare "unter-revolutnari" wh his spectacular gay marriage ceremony, there were no more high-profile weddgs or arrts like this the 1920s. Although homosexualy was tolerated, the muny started to lose s eedom the source, Olga KhoroshilovaImage ptn, Rsian "Travti" theatre, 1910sIn July 1933, 175 gay men om different walks of life were arrted what me to be known as the Case of the Lengrad Homosexuals. Petrograd, 1916-1917Those same assertns were repeated the early 1930s, as well as forced nfsns obtaed by the secret Case of the Lengrad Homosexuals led to the re-cln of the article outlawg homosexualy the new Crimal Co of 1934 and Rsia's short-lived tolerance of gay rights fally me to an Khoroshilova was speakg to BBC Rsian's Anna on this story.
A DOUBLE DEFEAT: CATASTROPHE FOR GAY EMANCIPATN GERMANY AND THE USSR
Wh Rsia set to host next year’s Wter Olympics, ternatnal attentn is focsed on the untry’s relatnship wh s gay and lbian cizens. * gay in soviet union *
Though homosexualy is no longer outright illegal -- and has not been nsired a mental disorr sce 1999 -- a stubbornly homophobic stra of natnalism persists, as evinced most recently by an anti-homosexual "propaganda" bill that is gag momentum the State Duma. Though homosexualy is no longer outright illegal — and has not been nsired a mental disorr sce 1999 — a stubbornly homophobic stra of natnalism persists, as evinced most recently by an anti-homosexual "propaganda" bill that is gag momentum the State Duma. The artist’s new book, Mosw, is an evotive but unembellished medatn on gay cisg the pal cy, featurg photographs of the public toilets near the Hermage Garns; the stairs to the riversi embankment by Mosw Universy; the Bolshoi Theater; and many other inic lotns.
Inially, my rearch began wh Article 121 of the 1934 RSFSR Crimal Co, and s apparent associatn between male homosexualy and the od crime of paedophilia (a logil assumptn ma om an analysis of the wordg – albe English translatn). I then read, (after the first draft of this say was published), a very tertg bgraphy of Len piled by Tamas Krsz, wh which he asserts that Len liberately ‘crimalised’ homosexualy, and that Stal later ‘crimalised’ .
THE HISTORY OF HOMOSEXUALY RSIA: OM SOVIET SEX CHANG TO GAY GULAGS
I was able to e to this ncln, when I recently read the excellent article entled ‘Homosexualy the USSR’ (lked below) wrten by Alfonso Casal (and published on the Stal Society of North Ameri – SSNA – April, 2015).
However, also rri the implied nnotatn that the practice of ‘homosexualy’, is fact the practice of ‘child abe’, wh the former beg clearly nflated wh the latter, spe the fact that Article 121 appears to fe ‘perasty’ as the performance of a sexual act between one man and another. The Czarist fdalistic law did nta openly hostile laws outlawg homosexualy (possibly fluenced by the Rsian Orthodox Church), and when the laws were abolished, the anti-homosexual laws were also abolished.
The old anti-homosexual laws were retaed the Islamic Republics, and Christian Geia, even after 1917, apparently as a means not to offend relig sensibili the area, at a time of otherwise great social upheaval. Article 121, spe s cur readg, appears to have been signed to protect Soviet society om the menace of child abe and paedophilia, although is rerd that Soviet amia was terted the practice of homosexualy om a medil perspective, and attemptg to ascerta s root e (wh a number of early Soviet rearchers followg the Czarist assumptn of aberratn). The attus, built up and staed over many hundreds of years, are difficult to uproot over-night, even a regime as progrsive as the USSR, which did not pursue liberately anti-gay agendas, but looked to ‘clu’ rather than ‘exclu’.
‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA
However, the important area of homosexualy, s progrsive nature was not fully veloped at the time, not bee of any ‘imaged’ anti-gay agendas, but bee Socialist dialectil velopment simply tak time to unfold a scientific and logil manner.
It is an tertg pot to observe that both the USSR (and the post-Soviet-Rsian Feratn), reta a hostile and negative attu toward both the theory and practice of homosexualy – if homosexualy is fed as a sexual relatnship between two nsentg adults of the same genr; i. The Soviet law text entled ‘Crimal Co of the RSFSR’, Chapter Four – ‘Crim Agast the Life, Health, Freedom, and Digny of the Person’, ntas Article 121 (1934), which stat full the followg, which forbids male homosexual relatnships:.
GAY RIGHTS RSIA AND THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS
However, also rri the implied nnotatn that the practice of ‘homosexualy’, is fact the practice of ‘child abe’, wh the former beg clearly nflated wh the latter, spe the fact that the actual anti-homosexual legislatn qutn, f ‘perasty’ as the performance of a sexual act between one man and another. Most bourgeois legal systems at that time did not protect their ordary cizens to the extent that the Soviet legal did, and none acknowledged the existence (or validy) of lovg, homosexual relatnships. Where homosexualy was mentned by the bourgeois legal s, was ually viewed as an exprsn of sexual viancy, and is tertg to note that the legal system of the Soviet Unn took this le, when virtually all other areas, the USSR thoroughly parted away om tablished bourgeois thkg.