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.