Bestiality in the Everyday Life in Eighteenth-Century Russia: an Archival Study

Abstract

Following in the footsteps of M. Muravyeva and A. Kamensky the paper offers a close examination of 25 cases of real, alleged, or implied sex of a human male with a non-human animal in eighteenth-century Russia discovered in the collections of local administrations in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA). In analyzing these cases I address the issues of their representativeness, the motives of the defendants and the peculiarities of their psychology, and the factors facilitating such activities. I also seek to trace the link between involvement in bestiality and church calendar (fasts and holidays), consumption of alcohol, contacts with human females leading to possible sexual arousal, and social background.