Travesti parties, Vladimir Lenin advocating sexual
freedom, nudist anarchists aboard trams, a nude beach near the cathedral
of Christ the Savior… such was Russian life at the beginning of the
Soviet state. What could possibly go wrong?
“Stark
naked people wearing armbands reading “Down With Shame!” have recently
appeared in Moscow. A group was seen boarding a tram. The tram stopped,
the public was outraged,” Mikhail Bulgakov, the famous Russian writer,
wrote in his diary in 1924. Just 15 years prior to that, women could not
think of going out in a knee-long dress. But did these changes happen
overnight?
Pre-revolutionary Russian society, especially in the
capitals, was not puritanical in nature. An anonymous soldier born at
the end of 19th century
recalls
(link in Russian): “at 10, I had already been exposed to all kinds of
lewd behaviour… Pornographic pictures were not exactly a rarity.”
Cross-dressing, travesti and gay parties were popular in artistic
circles, with even a certain few noblemen having been known for being
gay. Party life, often involving multiple partners, was a regular
pastime for some. However, male homosexuality was a criminal offense…
until Bolsheviks came onto the scene.
‘Glass of water’ – fake theory?
Ideologically, sexual liberation was one of the key weapons in
fighting Orthodoxy, and the old order in general. Among early
Bolsheviks, the key propagandist of a new family order was Alexandra
Kollontai, Russian revolutionary and later, a diplomat. There’s a
popular theory often attributed to Kollontai – that of the ‘glass of
water.’ It states that love (and consequently, sex) should be available
to anyone as easily as asking for a glass of water. This, however, is a
gross oversimplification of Kollontai’s idea.
Kollontai promoted a
concept of the ‘new woman’ – one freed from the oppression of marriage,
household work and the business of raising children; all these chores
must be taken on by society and state. They would take on children’s
education (including sexual), urge a move toward a nationwide catering
industry, collective housing, foster care and so on. For Kollontai, love
was to be freed, too – civil partnership would take the place of
traditional marriage.
Obviously, Bolsheviks were building their policy on family along the
most progressive lines – something that would not be seen in the West
for decades. However, the onus was now on the individual, and such
all-encompassing freedom was simply too much for the agricultural,
barely urbanized Russian society of the 1920s.
New world's dark corners
“On the abolition of marriage” and “On civil partnership, children and
ownership” were among the first decrees of the Soviets in 1918. Church
weddings were abolished, civil partnership introduced. Divorce was a
matter of choice. Abortions were legalized. All of that implied a total
liberation of family and sexual relations. This heralded the beginning
of the raunchiest epoch in recent Russian history.
A relaxed attitude to nudism was a a vivid sign of the times: on the
bank of the Moskva river, near the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, a
nude beach formed, the likes of which Western Europe could not have
dreamed of at the time. The aforementioned “Down With Shame!” society
had held numerous marches, one numbering as many as 10,000 people.
Alexander Trushnovich, a monarchist,
recalls
(link in Russian) one of their gatherings: “‘Down with philistines!
Down with deceiving priests! We don’t need clothes – we’re children of
the sun and air!’ – a naked spokesman was shouting from a stage in
Krasnodar’s main square. Walking past this place in the evening, I saw
the stage dismantled... and somebody beat up the ‘child of sun and
air’”.
All of these wild developments had been taking place while
Russia was still in the midst of the World War, as well as the Civil
War. Amnesties in 1917, 1919, 1920 and beyond freed a great many
criminals in a country where state power had only begun to form. The
masses of criminals were joined by defecting and discharged soldiers.
Rape
by 1920s has become an epidemic. Quite strikingly, sexual violence
towards former noble and bourgeois women was for a time even considered
“class justice” among the proletarian males. Meanwhile, up to 20 percent
of Russia’s male population had carried sexually-transmitted diseases
(although in Tsarist Russia in the beginning of the century, the numbers
were 25-27%). New laws on marriage and the overall atmosphere of
breaking with the past encouraged promiscuity and casual approach to
sex, unthinkable just years ago.
Soviet society was breeding a dangerous generation of homeless
orphans – official reports indicate that, by 1923, half of the children
born in Moscow had been conceived out of wedlock, and many of them were
abandoned in infancy. The pendulum of sexual revolution had to swing
back – and if it didn’t, it had to be pulled forcibly.
‘Winged Eros’ of Soviet oppression
Already
in the first half of 1920s, when sexual liberation was still in full
swing, the Soviets had set about promoting traditional values… again.
In
1924, psychiatrist Aron Salkind publishes ‘12 Sexual Commandments of
the Revolutionary Proletariat’, that read “love must be monogamous”,
“sexual intercourse must only be the final link in the chain of deep and
complicated feelings connecting two people in love”.
Even as “Down With Shame!” were parading naked through the Moscow
streets, People’s Commissar of Public Health Nikolay Semashko wrote that
such behaviour “must be most categorically condemned… At a time when
capitalistic monstrosities like prostitution and hooliganism are not yet
eliminated, nudity aids immorality… That is why I consider absolutely
necessary to stop this disgrace at once, with repressive methods, if
needed...”
Soviet leaders did not want the population to squander
its energy on self-gratification anymore. Severe austerity and cutbacks
were introduced. Women’s rights groups were in decline. Moreover, the
women themselves now barely had any reason for the education the
feminists had so desperately fought for: no sooner had the woman been
freed from the traditional, patriarchal society the Bolsheviks sought to
remove that she was being brought back into the kitchen, having to cook
for her worker husband; meanwhile, factory rations were already being
redistributed, which made home cooking a necessity. Kollontai’s “new
woman” was new for just about a decade.
Now, the family was once
more the basic unit of society. Decrees were reversed one after another.
Finally, by 1934, homosexuality had been re-criminalized, and a ban on
abortion reintroduced (1936). This did not lead to a reduction of the
free woman’s propaganda value, of course. Because now, she could “do it
all” – perform the communist task of forging the revolution, while also
being a mother, wife, cook and cleaner.
For decades to come,
sexuality and erotica would be completely shunned by Soviet culture and
society – and considering this, it is no wonder Russian society had
become so hypocritical about sex. The next sexual revolution would take
place only in 1990s.
Original article:
https://www.rbth.com/history/328265-russian-sexual-revolution
From the 45 Communist goals for America:
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography
and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural and healthy."
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
