Was There Sex Under Soviet Rule?

Abstract

Until quite recently, the subject of intimate relations between the sexes was not an acceptable topic for discussion. Basically, only newly married couples were permitted to approach the subject; along with their stamped passports they were handed the popular manual Harmony in Marriage [Garmoniia brakaj. Perhaps because we tried so hard to avoid showing any emotion, it was widely believed that there were no intimate relations—sex—in the USSR, nor could there be. Archival materials and sociological research from the early years of Soviet rule do, however, show that for the people building the world's first socialist state, private life was by no means relegated to last place.