Under the reign of Peter the Great in the 18th, who introduced a wide range of reforms aimed at modernizing and Westernizing Russia, there was a ban on male homosexual activity, but only in military statutes for soldiers.
Historian Dan Healey, whose 2001 book Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia was translated into Russian in 2008, argues that despite several prohibitive laws sexuality was considerably less regulated in pre-revolutionary Russia than elsewhere in Europe at that time. Several researchers claim that historical accounts show that before the 18th century, Russian society held rather lenient views toward homosexuality, and that homophobia was at least in part “imported” from Europe by Peter the Great — along with European traditions in food, architecture and fashion.
Stage 1: Be Western! Move away from this Eastern gay sex, at least for soldiers!
In 1832, the criminal code included Article 995, which stated that "muzhelozhstvo", or men lying with men, was a criminal act punishable by exile to Siberia for up to 5 years. Men lying with men was interpreted by courts as meaning anal sex.
Stage 2: Be Western: No gay sex for men in general!
Application of the laws was rare, and the turn of the century found a relaxation of these laws and a general growing of tolerance and visibility.
Stage 3: Westernization stuff is nonsense, back to sex in the butt.
In the wake of the October Revolution, the Bolshevik regime decriminalized homosexuality. The Bolsheviks rewrote the constitution and "produced two Criminal Codes – in 1922 and 1926 – and an article prohibiting homosexual sex was left off both."[22]
Stage 4: Lenin says sex in the butt is okay! We'll show the West how society should properly be organized!
The new Communist Party government removed the old laws regarding sexual relations, effectively legalising homosexual and transgender activity within Russia, although it remained illegal in other territories of the Soviet Union,
...but only in Russia. Not like those backwards other SSRs!
...and the homosexuals in Russia were still persecuted and sacked from their jobs.[22]
Though clearly, not everyone was onboard with the Russian government's program.
Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union recriminalized homosexuality in a decree signed in 1933.[23] The new Article 121, which punished "muzhelozhstvo" with imprisonment for up to 5 years, saw raids and arrests. Female homosexuals were sent to mental institutions. The decree was part of a broader campaign against "deviant" behavior and "Western degeneracy".[22]
Stage 5: Western stuff is nonsense! Stalin says sex in the butt is Western, and it isn't okay!
Following Stalin's death, there was a liberalisation of attitudes toward sexual issues in the Soviet Union, but homosexual acts remained illegal. Discrimination against LGBT individuals persisted in the Soviet era, and homosexuality was not officially declassified as a mental illness until 1999.[24]
Stage 6: Sex in the butt isn't quite as bad, but it's still not okay!
2023:
Stage 7: Western stuff is bad! NATO is sex in the butt! Fight against sex in the butt!
I feel like there are some kinda bipolar views about the Western or non-Western nature of political positions on homosexuality going on here.
I feel like there are some kinda bipolar views about the Western or non-Western nature of political positions on homosexuality going on here.
It’s 200+ years of nationalistic propaganda to ensure most of the Russian population really does believe their country is “good” and that everyone that even hints otherwise is “evil”. So pretty much everything that’s more common in “the west” than in Russia, will be promoted as “evil”.
You see the same thing in many US republicans, where they defend anything the US does as “good” and label anyone speaking against it as “evil”, no matter how illogical. I guess that’s why so many are basically their assets.
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