A presentation for the conference 'Discourse(s) in Social Sciences' at the University of York (10 May 2016)

1. The Russian media discourse on
homosexuality: a reflection of the new
gender order or a tool of state control?
Olga Andreevskikh
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
Faculty of Arts
University of Leeds

2. Homosexuality in pre-revolutionary and
Soviet Russia
• Christianisation of Russia – 988 A.D.
• duality of Russian culture (Kon 1997)
• 1706 – sodomy announced a criminal offence; offenders to be
burnt alive
• 1716 – burning substituted by corporal punishment and exile
• Article 995 (the 1832 criminal code) – confiscation of all property
and four-five years or exile in Siberia
• Article 516 (the 1845 criminal code) – a minimum three months’
imprisonment; up to eight years if committed under aggravating
circumstances

3. Homosexuality in pre-revolutionary and
Soviet Russia
• 1917 – the tsarist laws abolished
• ‘Bolshaia sovetskaia entsiklopediia’ on homosexuality (1930):
“Searching for sexual satisfaction among those of their own sex
forces them [homosexuals] to violate the so-called social norms.
Abroad, as well as in pre-revolutionary Russia, such violations of
the general rule of behaviour were penalized by special “moral
legislation”. … Soviet law does not recognize so-called crimes
against morality. Our legislation, based on the principle of social
defense, punishes only those cases in which the object of the
homosexual’s interest is under age.” (cited in Blasius et al. 1997 p.
214)

4. Homosexuality in pre-revolutionary and
Soviet Russia
• Article 121 (1934): up to five years of imprisonment for those
found guilty of anal intermission between two men
• Maksim Gorky on homosexuality (1934):
“Eliminate homosexuality and you destroy fascism.” (cited in Essig
1999, p.5)
• ‘Bolshaia sovetskaia entsiklopediia’ on homosexuality (1952):
“Soviet society, with its healthy morality, considers homosexuality,
as a sexual perversion, shameful and criminal. <…> In bourgeois
countries, where homosexuality expresses the moral disintegration
of the ruling class, it is virtually never punished.” (cited in Blasius et
al. 1997 p. 215)

5. Homosexuality in post-Soviet and
contemporary Russia
• December 1991 – dissolution of the USSR
• June 1993 – homosexuality decriminalised in Russian Federation
• 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009 – projects of federal law against
“propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” discussed
• June 2013 – federal law against “propaganda of non-traditional
sexual relationships among minors” passed (Federal Law #463
Article 5 Part 4)

6. Regional laws against “gay-
propaganda” passed in:
• May 2006 – Ryazan’
• September 2011 – Arkhangel’sk
• December 2011 – Kostroma
• March 2012 – Saint Petersburg
• June 2012 – Novosibirsk
• June 2012 – Magadan
• June 2012 – Samara
• June 2012 – Kransodar
• January 2013 – Kaliningrad
• April 2013 - Irkutsk

7. Russian Non-
LGBTQ media
on LGBTQ
The Rossiiskaia
Gazeta, 10 December
2012
‘Europa: the rape of the
family’
Image: ‘The Rape of
Europa’ by Titian
Source: www.britannica.com

8. Russian Non-
LGBTQ media
on LGBTQ
Image: ‘Madonna and
Child with St John the
Baptist and a Saint’ by
Giovanni Bellini
Source:
www.allposters.com

9. Russian Non-
LGBTQ media
on LGBTQ
TV Rain, 19 September 2014
‘Participants of a queer festival in
Saint Petersburg attacked by
Orthodox activists’
Image: Mr Milonov and other activists trying
to force their way into the building
Source:
https://tvrain.ru/news/pravoslavnye_aktivisty_
napali_na_uchastnikov_lgbt_festivalja_v_pet
erburge-375559/

10. Russian Non-LGBTQ media on
LGBTQ
The Kommersant, 1 February 2016
‘Complaints about Ban on Gay-Parade in Russia to be Considered
by ECHR’
“As it was reported before by ‘Kommersant’, Nikolai Alekseev, an
LGBT activist, was planning to file a complaint to the ECHR about
the ban on LGBT meetings in Moscow”
Source: http://kommersant.ru/doc/2905918

11. Russian Non-LGBTQ media on
LGBTQ
The Novaya Gazeta, 4 May 2016
‘A Pervomay invisible to the naked eye’
“Since among the participants of the march there were LGBT activists,
Enteo could not be avoided. Typical: for some it is the International
Workers’ Day; for some it is Easter; for him it is always a gay-pride.”
“Everything and everyone seem quite harmless. However, Aleksei
Fomichev, the politologist of the ‘Bozhia volia’, is full of doubt and
premonition: “Unfortunately, on the Easter day our authorities allow a
march organised by sodomites. I believe the sodomites might even
become violent”. So he believes that gays and lesbians will beat him up –
him being a stocky, healthy, grown up man. One can’t but feel worried
about him.”
Source: http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/72932.html

12. Russian Non-
LGBTQ media
on LGBTQ
Image: A participant of the
‘Pervomay’ march holding
a placard
‘Whether you are a
working woman or a
peasant woman, fight the
homophobe if you are a
lesbian’
Source:
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/soci
ety/72932.html

13. Russian Non-
LGBTQ media
on LGBTQ
Image: Participants of the
‘Pervomay’ march with
placards (source:
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/7
2932.html)
On the left: ‘Don’t pry into my
private life; respect my
labour’
On the right: ‘Only those who
try to change something get
their rights’
At the back: ‘NO homophobic
dismissals’

14. Russian Non-
LGBTQ media
on LGBTQ
Aleksandr Vassiliev
Fashion historian
Source: vassiliev.com.ru

15. Russian Non-
LGBTQ media
on LGBTQ
‘Modnyi prigovor’
(‘Fashion sentence’)
Channel 1 (ORT)
10:55 – 12:00
Daily TV show
Image: Aleksandr Vassiliev
teaching the audience how to
wear a scarf
Source: www.1tv.ru

16. Russian Non-
LGBTQ media
on LGBTQ
Vassilii Sigarev
‘Strana OZ’ 2015
(The Land of OZ)
Image: Diuk, an ex-convict,
looking out of the kiosk
belonging to his friend
Source: kinoart.ru

17. Russian LGBTQ Media
• 1989 – first print medium is started (‘Tema’)
• 1990s – fast rise in number of print LGBTQ media (60) appearing in
Moscow, Saint Petersburg and provinces (‘Ostrov’, ‘1/10’, ‘Kvir’ etc.);
LGBTQ issues are tackled in media targeting wider audiences (e.g.
‘SPID-info’)
• late 1990s / 2000s – first internet resources are developed (gay.ru,
GayNews.ru, lesbiru.com etc.); print media start losing popularity
• late 2000s – first YouTube channels devoted to the problems of Russian
LGBT appear
• 2015 – the first official video channel of Russian LGBTQ-activists
‘Rainbow Association’ is started

18. Russian LGBTQ Media
lesbiru.com gay.ru

19. Russian LGBTQ Media
LaSky.ru
Facebook:
LGBT Discussion Board

20. References
• Baer B.J. (2009) Other Russias. Homosexuality and the crisis of the Post-Soviet identity.
Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Blasius, M. and Phelan, S. (eds.) (1997) We are everywhere. A historical sourcebook of
gay and lesbian. New York and London: Routledge.
• Essig, L. (1999) Queer in Russia. A story of sex, self and the other. Durham and London:
Duke University Press
• Kon, I. (1997) Seksualnaia kultura v Rossii. Klubnichka na berezke. Moscow: OGI
• Sperling, V. (2015) Sex, politics and Putin. Political legitimacy in Russia. New York: Oxford
University Press.
• Information on the film ‘The Land of OZ’: Dr Vlad Strukov (University of Leeds).
‘Contemporary Russian Cinema’s Afterlife: The Strange Case of Vassilii Sigarev’ (public
lecture for the Russian Cinema Research Group, University College London; 14 March
2016)