Vladimir Nabokov and the First Attempt to Decriminalize Same-Sex Relationships in Russia
How a Russian liberal and the father of the great writer tried to abolish discriminatory legislation
Russia
The 1916 Corruption Case of a Secret Society of Gay Officials Who Wore a Golden Winged Penis Badge
How an investigation into wartime embezzlement during the First World War led to the exposure of a secret club of men who loved antiquity and other men.
Polmuzhichye and Razmuzhichye in the Russian North: A History of Female Masculinity
How women who lived 'like men' were perceived in northern Russian villages.
A History of Kissing Between Men in Russia
From Nicholas II’s Easter kisses with soldiers to Brezhnev’s fraternal kiss.
LGBT Chastushkas from 20th-Century Collections
Lesbian, gay, erotic, obscene, and satirical.
Aleksey Apukhtin: Homosexual, Poet, and Friend of Tchaikovsky
Also the author of popular romances and poems that do not indicate the addressee's gender.
Saint Moses the Hungarian – One of the First Queer Figures in Russian History?
The life of a monk who rejected marriage, was castrated, and became a saint, and how Rozanov, Slavists, and other scholars read it.
The Story of a Medieval Arabic Source in Which the Women of the 'Rus' Were Called the World's First Lesbians
It was all a translation error. The original text refers to a mythological people from the Quran.
The Possible Homosexuality of Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich of the Romanov Family
A Caucasian childhood, scholarship, liberalism, and involvement in the murder of Rasputin against a life without marriage or children.
Muzhik-Maslenitsa: A Maslenitsa Figure of a Man Dressed as a Woman
A cross-dressed Maslenitsa figure described in early twentieth-century Russian folklore materials.
Andrey Avinoff: A Russian Émigré Artist, Gay Man, and Scientist
How Orthodox Christianity, butterflies, a scientific career, and male eroticism came together.
Russian Poet Ivan Dmitriev, Young Favourites, and Same-Sex Desire in the Fables 'The Two Doves' and 'The Two Friends'
A friend of Karamzin and Derzhavin, minister of justice, and a fable writer whose “friendship” turns into male love.
Sergei Romanov: A Homosexual Member of the Imperial Family
His homosexuality, childless “white marriage,” service in Moscow, and death.
Peter the Great’s Sexuality: Wives, Mistresses, Men, and His Relationship with Menshikov
Was Russia’s first emperor bisexual? Or did he love only women?
The Diary of Pyotr Medvedev, a Bisexual Moscow Merchant, 1854–1863
Poor relations with his wife, admiration for young men, onanism with friends, and political views.
Russian Empress Anna Leopoldovna and the Maid of Honour Juliana: Possibly the First Documented Lesbian Relationship in Russian History
"... she spends most of her time in the apartments of her favourite, Mengden."
Homosexuality in the 18th-Century Russian Empire — Homophobic Laws Borrowed From Europe and How They Were Enforced
From Peter the Great to Alexander I.
The Homosexuality of Russian Tsars Vasily III and Ivan IV the Terrible
And who Fyodor Basmanov was.
Grigory Teplov and the Sodomy Case in 18th-Century Russia
Nine serfs accuse their master of rape.
Uncensored Russian Folklore: Highlights from Afanasyev’s “Russian Secret Tales”
“Sowing Dicks,” “The Fool,” and “The Soldier and the Priest.”
Homosexuality in Ancient and Medieval Russia
Same-sex relationships and how they were viewed from Kievan Rus to Peter the Great.
The Cross-Dressing Bogatyr: A Russian Bylina About Mikhailo Potyk, Who Disguises Himself as a Woman
Why does the hero put on “women’s clothing”?