Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi

Examining nine 'case histories' that reveal the origins and evolution of homophobic attitudes in modern Russia, Dan Healey asserts that the nation's contemporary homophobia can be traced back to the particular experience of revolution, political terror and war its people endured after 1917.

The book explores the roots of homophobia in the Gulag, the rise of a visible queer presence in Soviet cities after Stalin, and the political battles since 1991 over whether queer Russians can be valued citizens. Healey also reflects on the problems of 'memorylessness' for Russia's LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) movement more broadly and the obstacles it faces in trying to write its own history. The book makes use of little-known source material - much of it untranslated archival documentation - to explore how Russians have viewed same-sex love and gender transgression since the mid-20th century.

Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi provides a compelling background to the culture wars over the status of LGBT citizens in Russia today, whilst serving as a key text for all students of modern Russia.

“Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi is a stunning accomplishment … Healey shows why he is the leading historian of Soviet sexuality writing today … Historians of the Soviet century broadly construed, historians of sexuality in other geographical fields, and general-interest readers looking for a well-researched history of the current discrimination in Russia should all find Healey’s book a must-read.” - Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History

“[The] book is highly recommended to both researchers within academia and people interested in understanding contemporary Russian society.” – H-Socialisms

“This marvellous book should be recommended for all readers interested in Russian history and politics – and should be required reading for those who research and teach in those subjects.” – Canadian Slavonic Papers

“Healey is a careful and imaginative historian. Each chapter deals with a different subject in gay Russian history, jumping across decades … Russian Homophobia is rich in the kind of tantalizing, upsetting detail that makes the history of sexuality so fascinating.” – Los Angeles Review of Books

“Healey’s valuable book offers a timely contribution to Slavic studies and will be of interest to specialists and general readers alike.” – The Russian Review

“This ambitious, well-sourced, eminently readable volume functions as a corrective to Western LGBTQ scholarship, which treats the sexual subjects of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation as outliers, and as an overview of available archival material regarding the Soviet and Russian queer experience since the mid-century. Healey (Russian history, Oxford) aims to trace the origins and consequences of "modern" Russian homophobia, which he firmly roots in the Stalinist project, in a way that distinguishes it from the critiques of the postcolonial West. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; professionals.” - CHOICE