Regulating Homosexuality in Soviet Russia, 1956–91: A Different History, by Rustam Alexander

Abstract

How did the Soviet authorities approach the problem of homosexuality after Stalin’s death? In this rich and insightful investigation, Rustam Alexander looks at the ways in which Soviet experts and officials confronted the issue of same-sex relations in a range of social settings. The post-1953 Soviet social landscape was in flux: Stalin’s forced-labour camps (the ‘Gulag’) were being scaled down and reformed, while leaders opened a range of legal, social and economic questions to fresh inquiry that stimulated new voices. As Alexander demonstrates, homosexuality was one of the questions that de-Stalinisers under Khrushchev and neo-Stalinists under Brezhnev contended with, if mostly behind closed doors: it was not the totally taboo subject of common perception, but one that troubled penal officials, pedagogues, medical, juridical and police experts. This well-written monograph is divided into five chapters that illuminate specific Soviet debates about male and female homosexuality, based on official archives, published and unpublished studies, and private professional archives. Alexander’s resourcefulness in assembling these materials from Russian state, institutional and private collections is extraordinary, and the novelty of these sources makes the book essential reading. Alexander applies four major lenses to his analysis of these materials to make significant interventions in the history of sexuality and in Soviet histories.