About Us

“Urania” is a media project about the history and present of LGBT people in Russia and around the world, as well as LGBT politics and queer theology. By this we mean the lives and experiences of people whose sexual orientation or gender identity does not fit common social norms.

This website was originally created by Russian authors, and all articles are translated from Russian.

We write for a broad audience, but try to stay as close as possible to academic scholarship. The texts on this site are written by authors trained in history and related humanities fields. We aim for scholarly rigor and the greatest possible objectivity, while understanding that complete objectivity does not exist even in scholarship.

At the end of every article, you will find a references and sources section so you can check what we relied on. The bibliography is usually based chiefly on scholarly monographs, academic journal articles, and primary sources; depending on the topic, we may also include literary texts when they are genuinely important for the piece.

We do not label people as gay or lesbian without evidence and sufficient sources. If the sources do not support a confident conclusion, we say so directly or leave the question open. If you read our articles, you will see this for yourself.

The name “Urania” comes from an ancient Greek myth about Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In Plato’s dialogue The Symposium, it is said that there are two Aphrodites: Aphrodite Pandemos (“of all the people”) and Aphrodite Urania (“heavenly”). In Plato, Aphrodite Urania stands for “heavenly” love between men, based mainly on spiritual closeness and a kinship of mind rather than physical desire. We chose the name of this “heavenly” Aphrodite for our project.

Contacts

• Telegram (in Russian): @urania_institute . Telegram posts may include a translation for Premium users. You can also follow the channel in Russian: new posts include links to the website, where you can switch the language. Most new articles will usually be published with the translation right away.
• Email: uraniarossica@gmail.com (you can write to us in any language).