The Sexual Revolution in Russia

Igor Kon has received fame in the Western world because of his frequent visits but more so for his insistent work on sexual life in Russia. Before he ventured into the field of sexology, he worked in philosophy, sociology, history, and became a member of the Soviet and now Russian Academy of Education. He is a true interdisciplinarian focusing earlier on youth and recently on sexual problems. His first work that came to my attention was a book on friendship, translated into German. It was surprising to see a Soviet study on this theme in the late seventies. It made me suspect that the author wanted to discuss homosexuality, but not being able to do so, chose for an innocent but close theme. Nowadays, Kon participates in heated debates on the legal status and the social place of same-sex love.

Kon's Sexual Revolution is both his own story and Russia's history of sexuality. The book's double face makes it compelling reading as Kon's memoirs add to the sexual history of the country. The part that deals with the pre-War history, is based on written sources and the few studies that have up till now appeared, such as Laura Engelstein's magnificent study. Kon offers us an interesting story of this period, stressing and using the sexological successes in Russia in the early part of this century. Just before and after the Bolshevist Revolution of 1917, several rather primitive sex surveys were executed among prostitutes, students, workers and other social groups. But soon after the communists came to power, hopes for greater sexual freedoms that were expected could be forgotten and surveying sex became impossible. As prudish as their bourgeois opponents, the communists very soon started to thwart prostitution and homosexuality. Although they legalized abortion in their early days, they forbade it again in the thirties for demographic reasons.

In the age of the czars, political society had been morally traditional and not supportive of sexual liberation. But in the arts a rich erotic culture had developed under the aegis of Sergei Diaghilev, famous for his ballets and literary enterprises. Others started to write about carnal love, brothels, homosexuality, necrophilia and comparable erotic topics. Leo Tolstoy might have condemned sex, but in his wake others as the philosopher Vasily Rozanov began to defend it. Russian culture reached just before the Revolution with the so called "Silver Age" its erotic pinnacle, and declined very soon after it because many artists left the country, others were killed or imprisoned, while few remained active under communism.

Kon divides the communist period in four parts. From 1917 to 1930, the main characteristics were disintegration of the family and emancipation of women. From 1930 to 1956, marriage and family were strengthened, and the erotic culture was eliminated. Kon calls it the totalitarian epoch which developed into the authoritarian period from 1956 to 1985 when sex became domesticated and regulated and some individual freedoms were allowed. In the last period from 1985 to 1990 sex came out of the closet what produced both radical sex movements and also anomie and sex panics.

(sources: 1, 2)

In hand with the earlier posted history of homosexuality, the Russian boot was placed over sexuality as a whole, especially under the reign of communism. Not only did the Soviet era put a hold on any possibility of tolerating homosexuality, but sex, in all forms and presentations, was watered down or simply blacked out. I also thought it was interesting how abortion was initially legal, but eventually condemned along with prostitution and homosexuality.

Recent Homophobia in Russia

BELGRADE, September 19, 2009 – Nikolai Baev, a co-organizer of Moscow Pride, arrived in Belgrade at lunchtime looking forward to taking part in his very first Pride march.

But when he got to his hotel his excitement turned to sorrow when he learned that tomorrow’s Belgrade Pride march had been suddenly canceled by the organizers when the Serbian Government announced this morning that the parade in the city center could not go ahead but offered an alternative location in the suburbs.

“I came all this way for nothing,” he told UK Gay News.

“So it appears that Moscow is the only capital city where Pride organizers have not given in to the authorities who don’t want a Pride in a city center,” he added.

Mr. Baev flew in from Moscow with Nikolai Alekseev and said that there were skinheads at the airport when they arrived.

Nationalist groups, skinheads and religious organizations had vowed to disrupt the gay parade, some of them inciting violence.

But the authorities from the Serbian President downwards had backed the rights of the gay community to stage the parade, which was scheduled for lunchtime tomorrow (September 20).

“The government has ordered state institutions to take all necessary measures to stop violence, uncover and arrest those who threaten with violence,” an earlier government statement said. “The government will ensure public order and peace, the security of the citizens and property, and the right of every citizen to enjoy his or her constitutional and legally guaranteed rights.

But it was “security concerns” that led government officials from prohibiting the planned parade, and suggesting an alternative out-of-town venue, a wooded area on the banks of the Danube in Ušće.

Nikolai Alekseev, who runs the GayRussia.ru Website and is a co-organiser of Moscow Pride, told UK Gay News that he could not understand the cancellation.

“The authorities seem to have put any personal views of gay matters to one side and to back the rights of the gay community to hold the Pride Parade.
(sources: 1, 2)

MOSCOW, June 1, 2008 – Yuri Luzkhov, Moscow's mayor, had already banned the city's third Gay Pride march after dismissing homosexuals as Satanists.

Campaigners were too afraid to protest on the street, so a small group instead hung a banner calling for tolerance from an apartment window opposite Mr Luzhkov's offices. As the four activists unfurled the banner, Orthodox priests on the street below denounced the "moral corruption" of homosexuality.

Their female followers, clutching crucifixes, threw eggs at the banner which was quickly pulled down by angry neighbors – to the cheers of passers-by.

Police tried and failed to break down the door of the apartment to arrest the protesters, leading to a standoff that lasted several hours.

Earlier in the day 30 gay rights campaigners had held a furtive five-minute vigil outside the Tchaikovsky music hall before scattering.

The manner in which the demonstrations were held reflects the Kremlin's increasing intolerance for all forms of public protest. Political demonstrations in the past two years have been stamped on by the police with increasing brutality.
(source)

These very recent examples of the Russian government opposing pride marches show that homosexuality is still widely looked down upon. Not only that, but demonstrations of all kinds, from small to medium (larger organization does not seem to be possible at all, presently) are put down easily, quickly, and to public approval.

Russian Gay History: Soviet Era - Present

Unfortunately, decriminalization in the early Soviet period did not mean an end to persecution. The modern Soviet fervor for science meant that homosexuality was now treated as a subject for medical and psychiatric discourse, an illness to be treated and cured. The sexual liberation that accompanied the Revolution was to be short-lived. The egalitarian and pro-women policies that had liberalized divorce and marriage laws and promoted abortion gave way by the early 1930s to Stalinist pro-family policies. It was in this context that the Soviet Union re-criminalized homosexuality in a decree signed in late 1933.

The new Article 121, which punished muzhelozhstvo with imprisonment for up to 5 years, was followed by raids and arrests at the height of the Stalinist terror. The numbers of men arrested are not known, but by the 1980s there were about 1000 every year. The Soviet Union had the largest population of incarcerated men in the world, and given the importance of prison culture for Soviet culture as a whole, it is likely that prison homosexuality played a part in forming Soviet gay culture.

In Soviet prisons there was a class of men called opushchennye (degraded) who were required to fulfill the sexual needs of the rest. On the one hand, they were at the lowest rung of the social ladder, but they were sometimes protected by their lovers. And not only men charged with Article 121 were opushchennye: any prisoner could be degraded by ritualized rape -- for losing at cards, over an insult, or even because his beauty made him an attractive sex object. Gay men in Russia kept a low profile in the Soviet period, many restricting their gay activities to small circles of proven friends.

In 1984 a handful of gay men in Leningrad attempted to form the first organization of gay men. They were quickly hounded into submission by the KGB. It was only with Gorbachev's glasnost that such an organization could come into existence in 1989-90.

The collapse of the Soviet Union that soon followed the failed coup only accelerated the progress of the gay movement. Occasional gay discos were held, more gay publications appeared, gay plays were staged. In 1993 a new Russian Criminal Code was signed -- without Article 121. Men who had been imprisoned under the article began to be released. Gay life in Russia today is in the process of normalization. Capitalism has brought the first gay businesses--bars, discos, saunas, even a travel agency. While life in the provinces remains hard for gay men, Russian gays in the cities are beginning to create a community.
(source)

The early Soviet era began a period of time in which Russian culture stigmatized homosexuality by putting it in a corner. It is pretty obvious that how homosexuality was treated in this time period is what made tolerance even harder to obtain. Glasnost was clearing the opening needed to begin a more free period of open homosexuality, which is still recent. The Soviet era really badly stigmatized Russian homosexuals, and it is still distinctly difficult for tolerance to be obtained... but it's a start.

Russian Gay History: Kievan Rus - October Revolution

"We've waited long enough!" This was handed out at a gay disco in May 1993, when Article 121, which criminalized gay sex, was eliminated from the Russian criminal code.

Medieval Russia was apparently very tolerant of homosexuality. There is evidence of homosexual love in some of the lives of the saints from Kievan Rus dating to the 11th century. Homosexual acts were treated as a sin by the Orthodox Church, but there were no legal sanctions against them at the time, and even churchmen seemed perturbed by homosexuality only in the monasteries. Foreign visitors to Muscovite Russia in the 16th and 17th centuries repeatedly express their amazement at the open displays of homosexual affection among men of every class. The first laws against homosexual acts appeared in the 18th century, during the reign of Peter the Great, but these were in military statutes that applied only to soldiers. It was not until 1832 that the criminal code included Article 995, which made muzhelozhstvo (men lying with men, which the courts interpreted as anal intercourse) a criminal act punishable by exile to Siberia for up to 5 years. Even so, the legislation was applied only rarely, especially among the upper classes. Many prominent intellectuals of the 19th century led a relatively open homosexual or bisexual life.

Scholars disagree about the effect of the Bolshevik Revolution on homosexual rights. Some argue that the Soviets were at the forefront of humanity in decriminalizing gay sex; others that the Bolshevik asceticism and distaste for sexuality of any kind set the movement back. In fact, the October Revolution of 1917 did away with the entire Criminal Code, and the new Russian Criminal Codes of 1922 and 1926 eliminated the offense of muzhelozhstvo from the law.
(source)

This rather brief history of Russian homosexuality was interesting. The span of time in which homosexuality went public and tolerated is surprising to me, and that is wasn't until 1832 that homosexuality was considered to be a crime. The conflict over how the Bolshevik Revolution impacted homosexuality is interesting too, I think it was a combination of removing the Criminal Code on top of the sexual distaste that staggered acceptance, and not one or the other.

St. Petersburg Erotica Museum

The first Russian sex museum was opened in May 2004 in St. Petersburg by a local gynecologist, as part of the Prostate Centre, a Russian clinic. The permanent exhibition hosts quite a lot of interesting objects, sculptures, and paintings. The opening got an extensive coverage on the press because the museum exhibits Rasputin's penis - quite a unique object by all means. They say the owner of the museum is going to buy the organs of Janne d'Arc on an auction in France to "get a girlfriend for the old man."

Rasputin, nicknamed “Mad Monk” by historians was born in 1869 in Siberia, arrived in St. Petersburg in 1911 and within a few years had become one of the most influential men in government circles. His rise to preeminence was due to his close relationship with Nicholas II’s wife, Alexandra. The heir to the throne suffered from hemophilia, and only Rasputin could stop the boy’s bleeding. Because of this, Alexandra believed he was a holy man sent to protect Alexis and she kept him close by at all times.

However, many historians point to the unusual cult that Rasputin practiced at the Emperors’ court — a strange mixture of Christianity and sexual practices. Many of the noble women were believed to be in sexual relations with Rasputin, possibly including the Empress.

There is no entrance fee for the museum. You either have to be a patient or buy a souvenir. They have lots of souvenirs for sale ranging from a book on the voluminous History of Petersburg Prostitutes to a DVD with Russian sex lessons.
(sources: 1, 2, 3, 4)

I thought this was a pretty bizarre finding in my research and decided to open postings on my blog with this. The museum is actually part of a clinic, where "the erotic items help the patients relax, so they can more easily discuss their (sexual) problems with the doctor." I just think it's an interesting/vaguely weird/quirky display of modern sexuality in Russia.

Testing

Testing testing testing.