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Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi

Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi

by Dan Healey (Author)

  • New

    Hardcover 2017

    $147.23
Synopsis

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.

$147.23

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 288
 Edition: HPOD
 Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 14 Dec 2017
ISBN 10: 1350000787
ISBN 13: 9781350000780
Book Overview: An historical exploration of Russian homophobic attitudes and their origins in the country's troubled 20th century.

Media Reviews
A thorough, impeccably researched portrait of persecution. * Attitude *
Healey presents a nuanced and sophisticated analysis of how this homophobia has been shaped and maintained. * Times Literary Supplement *
Poses some intriguing questions ... Healey manages to draw on a range of other original and surprising sources for this well-written history of modern Russia and human sexuality. * History Today *
In this meticulously researched and highly readable book, Healey draws on a lifetime of ground-breaking research on homosexuality in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia to trace the roots of Russia's antipathy towards sexual deviance from the anti-homosexual politics of Stalin to the politicisation of homophobia and `gay propaganda' under Vladimir Putin. A fascinating insight into sexual politics in Russia. * Richard Mole, Senior Lecturer in Political Sociology, University College London, UK *
Dan Healey's expert analysis of homophobia's history in Russia uses riveting case studies of lesbian and gay life and the law to paint a vivid picture of queerness and its persecution from the 1930s through to the Putin era. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the uphill battle for LGBTQ rights and recognition in contemporary Russia. * Valerie Sperling, Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, Clark University, USA *
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 *
Author Bio
Dan Healey is Professor of Modern Russian History at the University of Oxford, UK. He is the author of Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia: The Regulation of Sexual and Gender Dissent (2001) and Bolshevik Sexual Forensics: Diagnosing Sexual Disorder in Clinic and Courtroom, 1917-1939 (2009). He is also the editor of Soviet Medicine: Culture, Practice, Science (2010), with F. Bernstein and C. Burton, and Russian Masculinities in History and Culture (2002), with B. Clements and R. Friedman.