Queer and trans lives in the USSR.
An essay from my last year of highschool for my history class. ao3 link.
Sources: LGBTQ history in Russia (Wikipedia) Queer life in the Soviet Union (Worker's liberty) The Trans Man Whose Pioneering Surgery Was A State Secret For Decades (Buzzfeed news) Strategies of resistance among queer people in the USSR (Left East)
Notes: I don't think I used enough sources in this one, so treat with a pinch of salt.
The relationship between the Soviet system and queer citizens was a complicated one. It is full of contradictions from the state itself and requires us to navigate the weird balance the USSR often achieved by being oppressive but leagues less conservative than its western counterparts. In this essay, I will present this multifaceted relationship as best I can from the limited sources available on this niche topic. I will first go through an official history of queer and trans people in the Soviet Union. Then, I will address some more specific aspects of queer culture within the massive nation.
Following the October Revolution, the new government was fixated on replacing the entirety of the old tsarist system and ideals with the new, often more progressive, Soviet ones. One such change was the decriminalization of homosexuality in December 1917. The Soviet government confirmed the legalization of homosexuality in 1922 and 1926 with the redrafting of the penal code, although this only applied to the Russian SFSR and Ukrainian SSR. The Great Soviet encyclopedia wrote as such under homosexuality, “Soviet legislation does not recognize so-called crimes against morality. Our laws proceed from the principle of protection of society and therefore countenance punishment only in those instances when juveniles and minors are the objects of homosexual interest.” Despite the official legalization, Soviet social policy pertaining to homosexuals was often mixed in the 1920’s, ranging from active attempts to attain legal equality and social rights to attempts to classify homosexuality as a disease to be cured. This swing in opinions represented well the opinions within the party and between medical professionals on the subject. In the scientific community, opinions seemed to lean strongly towards supportive ideals. With the liberalization of the scientific sphere, many innovative studies came out on sexuality and gender, often stating that homosexuality was a natural state and advocating for improved medical rights.
However, during the 1930s, opinions started to change drastically. A wider societal backlash towards homosexuality appeared, the scientific community dialed down their support, and homosexuality was officially classified as a disorder. Under Stalin, oppression had doubled for the general populace, and this reflected in queer rights as well. In 1933, after a strong push from the deputy secret police chief, Stalin personally demanded the recriminalization of sex between men with a punishment of up to 5 years of hard labor. However, since the wording of the law specifically prohibited sex between men, many lesbians escaped conviction by utilizing the loophole and claiming that since there were no men involved, the law did not pertain to them. The law was mainly enforced by secret police officials who often infiltrated groups of queer individuals. Stalin himself was known to often equate homosexuality with pedophilia. Additionally, propaganda began equaling homosexuality to fascism and Nazism, claiming that all homosexuals were traitors of the state and Nazis. In 1936, the Justice Commissar also declared that the anti-homosexuality law was aimed at the old ruling class, further strengthening the link between homosexuality and the right wing in citizens' minds. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia’s article on homosexuality was rewritten to claim homosexuality was shameful and criminal, erasing most proof that the government had ever been supportive towards homosexual ideals. While the post-Stalin USSR modernized, the view on homosexuality stayed the same. The law prohibiting homosexual activities remained in place until the collapse of the USSR and broader society only started to consider decriminalizing homosexuality again towards the end of the Soviet Union. Propaganda and opinions on homosexuality eventually shifted to include the idea that queerness was pedophilia. This belief was especially perpetuated under Kruschev, who pushed this idea into legislation, propaganda and even sex education.
While laws and official policies may have prohibited queerness for most of the lifetime of the USSR, it did not cease to exist in the country. As always, the oppressed group found ways to recognize each other, form communities and resist. As opposed to their western counterparts, queer people in the USSR formed smaller, more localized communities in practice. However, they still abided by the idea of an untold comradery that connected all gay people regardless of borders. In the closer localized communities, individuals communicated openly by letter without any sort of code and did so regularly to stay connected. Despite how dangerous this might seem many say it felt completely safe specifically due to the localized nature of the community. The broader imaginary community did come together occasionally, mainly to help other queer people avoid convictions. The threat of the violent and efficient secret police was too big and risky to form gay institutions such as bars or newspapers. This, and the secret police keeping homosexuality a taboo subject, led to a great lack of information about queer lives in the USSR. While the oppression from the state was harsh, it was not impossible to escape it. Many celebrities in the USSR, such as Sergei Eisenstein and Rudolf Nureyev, and were homosexuals who simply married members of the opposite sex while having affairs with men and produced content that appealed to the Party to avoid prosecution. Popularity offered such great protection, that occasionally celebrities were even allowed to be relatively open about their homosexuality, such as Vadim Kozin who was known for inviting young men up to his room after his concerts. Due to this culture of uncertainty and secrecy, cruising was the main method for gay people to date. Pleshki were location where queer people, mainly gay men, could cruise to scout out other potentially queer people. This method relied heavily on one’s ability to recognize when another person around the area was also gay and not just a tourist. To be effective, pleshki had to fulfill two main goals, being a well-known spot within the queer community but also being a well-known and frequently frequented spot. As such, some famous pleshki include the fountains in Moscow, the Bolshoi theatre, and the statue of Karl Marx.
A few subtle forms of resistance also started to develop within the community. For example, due to the lack of knowledge about their own history, the group quickly named icons based on gut feelings or subtle imagery. This included people like Tchaikovsky, who is rumored to have been gay, or more contemporary artists such as Andre Gide, a French communist novelist. This doubled as an act of resistance towards the oppression from the USSR, by claiming that popular communist figures were gay. There were also a few pieces of gay media that circulated on the black market, mostly important from the west, or written by Soviet homosexual authors, such as Yevgeny Kharitonov and Gennady Trifonov. Yevgeny circulated gay fiction until his death in 1981 and Gennady circulated romantic poems and was sentenced to 4 years of hard labour for it. Additionally, the mere existence of homosexual communities and individuals can be counted as resistance, as they defy the rhetoric of the USSR claiming that homosexuality was not present, or at least should not be allowed to be, within the country. Towards the end of the country, more outright forms of resistance surfaced. The first LGBT publication, Tema, appeared in 1980 and was published and edited by the first group of Russian queer activists. This sparked a wave of queer activism. By 1984, the first LGBT organization was established. Gay Laboratory, an informal collective who tried to build connections with queer organizations in Scandinavia, ceased its activities due to pressure from the KGB but many followed it, such as Siberian Association of Sexual minorities and many other groups in Moscow. The first human rights organization was established in 1989 and struggled for equality regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.
If information on queer lives during the USSR is few, information on trans individuals is nonexistent. As a result, I could sadly not find any evidence about a broader trans community. Transgenderism seemed to be taboo even within the queer community, which was not unusual for the time. Trans people were not, both legally and medically, allowed to transition or express themselves under any circumstances. However, we can derive from contextual evidence that, especially during the later years of the USSR, trans individuals may have transitioned secretly and changed identities to pass unnoticed. However, this phenomenon was rare, due to the refusal of Soviet doctors to perform such risky and undocumented surgeries. In the 1960’s a doctor in Moscow encountered the first case of transgenderism in the USSR. Rakhim had approached the psychologist, expressing the clear wish to transition from male to female. She became the first ever patient to be issued the diagnosis of transsexualism. While surgery was not allowed, it is known that Rakhim eventually had vaginoplasty and a legal name change outside of Moscow. In 1968, another Soviet doctor performed the first ever successful, fully completed sex change from female to male. The Latvian doctor, Viktors Kalnbērzs, had operated on Innokenty whose identity to this day is confidential. Between 1970 and 1972, Innokenty underwent nine major operations. Once they were complete, he changed his name and moved away to a farther corner of the Russian SFSR. Based on letters from Innokenty, we know he lived until old age, even marrying twice. Kalnbērzs was threatened imprisonment in the Gulag but was spared due to the intervention of the Latvian health minister. Despite the government immediately declaring that such operations were illegal, mutilations and against soviet ideology, Kalnbērzs performed multiple other similar operations. In 1980, transgenderism was officially classified as a mental illness in the USSR.
In conclusion, the history of queerness and transgenderism in the USSR is one with many complicated details. The mechanisms of this oppression are more complex than its western counterparts. While occasionally more brutal, queer, and trans individuals still found a way to survive and establish communities despite the oppression they faced. Despite the secrecy, major steppingstones for LGBT rights in Russia were established by activists and doctors alike during this time period. When looking at the oppression from the Russian state today, it is important to remember the history of those individuals and that they have always, and always will, exist. Whether the state tries to suppress them or not.
