Queer and Ethnicity in Minsk, 1952: Belarusian Reading of Kaspars Irbe’s Diary

Abstract

This article proposes an intersectional approach to studying non-Russian queer experiences in the Soviet empire. While earlier applications of intersectionality focused on race, gender, and class, other regional perspectives may highlight ethnicity, citizenship, and language. The text approaches non-Russian queer subjects in the USSR as a heterogeneous multiplicity via a contextualised reading of a diary fragment written by the Latvian Kaspars Irbe in Minsk in 1952. It highlights the prominence of communication between queers and people from the “centre” but also notes the hindrance of immediate contact between ethnicised subalterns due to Soviet social engineering. Tracing contingencies of Belarusian history, the article reveals how national identity and queer emancipation projects can evolve together.