‘Soviet leaders claimed there were wads of gay men who appeared to be conspiring in groups together, and they recommended a law against sodomy so they could put these people in prison. There’s a crisis in the cities, as there isn’t enough houses or food and they’re trying to sort out who belongs in each city and who doesn’t. Healey noted: ‘In 1933, there was a conversation among the top of the Soviet regime, led by Stalin, who was consolidating his power as a dictator. It shows the kind of imagination that the Revolution had stimulated.’ Stalin brings back homophobiaīut the onslaught of homophobia was coming with the rise of dictator Joseph Stalin. ‘They were, in a sense, proposing a form of same-sex marriage. ‘They wrote to propose that a woman who dressed masculine or similar to a man should be able to marry their female partner,’ Healey said. This meant much closer censorship.Ī meeting in September 1929 was held among public health officials, psychiatrists and doctors to discuss homosexuality.
At the beginning of the 30s, big publishers were shut down and you could only get printed if you went through the state. There was a way of conforming to the expectations of the revolutionary sect by dressing like a butch lesbian. ‘If you were an emancipated Soviet women you dressed more like a man. But, actually, this was an accepted way for a woman to dress in the 20s and 30s. Many of her female lovers were masculine presenting. Queer women could fly beneath the radar including legendary poets like Sophia Parnok. Gay people understand they have to keep their heads down.’ Queer women, and the idea of two women marrying, flourished ‘It doesn’t want the law against sodomy, but it doesn’t embrace sexual emancipation either. There’s less private enterprise and the regime is ambivalent about sexual minorities. Healey said: ‘Moscow didn’t have the same exuberance.
It wasn’t as free in Moscow and St Petersburg, as, say, Weimar Berlin during the 20s. ‘Soviets were progressive about this…and quite relaxed about the sexuality side of it,’ Healey added, ‘Western Europe was anti-surgical adjustments for intersex people.’ Doctors would trust the intersex patient to make their own medical judgment and help them realize the identified gender. Intersex people, unusually in the 1920s and 30s, were possibly treated as humanely as they could be in any country in the world. In 1917, all laws against sodomy were abolished as well as with the rest of the Tsarist penal code. Tchaikovsky’s secret gay history that Russia doesn’t want you to know After his death, acknowledgment of his homosexuality was suppressed. But because of his cache, it was unthinkable to arrest the cultural hero. Exceptions made for ‘gay heroes’ĭuring this time, the country’s greatest composer Tchaikovsky was under threat to be jailed for the ‘crime’ of being gay. Prosecutions became rare, and a gay subculture developed.
In comparison, England hanged 55 men for gay sex between 18.Īfter a reform of the penal code in 1903, this was drastically reduced to three months imprisonment. This was still less strict than many western neighbors. In 1832, a sodomy law was enacted punishing civilians with ‘birching’ or deportation to Siberia for four to five years to work in the internment camps. Consensual gay sex led to flogging, while male rape could bring death or life in prison. He included a clause against ‘men lying with men’ in his Military Articles, so it only applied to the army and navy.
There was no state law against sodomy until 1716, when Peter the Great decided to westernize the empire. But even then, believers could use confession and were rarely disciplined.
Under the Orthodox Church in the 15th and 16th centuries, sex between men was considered a sin. Sex between men, on the other hand, has faced more persecution. Lesbian sex has never been a crime in any part of Russia or the Soviet Union. So how did Russia become the largely homophobic nation we know today? Gay sex as a ‘crime’ in Russia In the 1920s, Russia even became the first country in the world to consider same-sex marriage. Once slammed as the ‘land of sodomy’ by its western European neighbors, there have been many years in its tumultuous history when many LGBTI people could live freely. Russia used to be one of the best places in the world to be gay.