Sexuality in Recent Russian Literature

Although the law granting freedom of the press was passed in August 1990, the old law forbidding the sale and distribution of pornography was not, and still is not, formally abolished. Therefore some publishers exercise extra caution, cutting out risque passages, whereas others publish questionable texts in their entirety.

A Soviet dictionary of literary terms proudly declared in the entry on pornography: "French art especially is rich in pornography, whereas Russian art, on the contrary, is rather marked by the spirit of chastity and purity."

To repeat, the tradition of prudery is still very much alive in Russian literature. Although sex of the domestic variety has been pouring onto the movie screens and theater stages in greater and greater quantities, pages of books and literary journals have been filled mostly with erotic productions from the West or from the past.
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