Table Of ContentGendersandSexualitiesintheSocialSciences
Series Editors: Victoria Robinson, University of Sheffield, UK and Diane
Richardson,UniversityofNewcastle,UK
EditorialBoard:RaewynConnell,UniversityofSydney,Australia,KathyDavis,
Utrecht University, the Netherlands, Stevi Jackson, University of York, UK,
Michael Kimmel, State University of New York, Stony Brook, USA, Kimiko
Kimoto, Hitotsubashi University, Japan, Jasbir Puar, Rutgers University, USA,
Steven Seidman, State University of New York, Albany, USA, Carol Smart,
University of Manchester, UK, Liz Stanley, University of Edinburgh, UK, Gill
Valentine,UniversityofLeeds,UK,Jeffrey Weeks,SouthBankUniversity,UK,
KathWoodward,TheOpenUniversity,UK
Titlesinclude:
JyothsnaBelliappa
GENDER,CLASSANDREFLEXIVEMODERNITYININDIA
EdmundColeman-Fountain
UNDERSTANDINGNARRATIVEIDENTITYTHROUGHLESBIAN
ANDGAYYOUTH
NiallHanlon
MASCULINITIES,CAREANDEQUALITY
IdentityandNurtureinMen’sLives
BrianHeaphy,CarolSmartandAnnaEinarsdottir(editors)
SAMESEXMARRIAGES
NewGenerations,NewRelationships
SallyHinesandYvetteTaylor(editors)
SEXUALITIES
PastReflections,FutureDirections
MeredithNash
MAKING‘POSTMODERN’MOTHERS
PregnantEmbodiment,BabyBumpsandBodyImage
MeredithNash
REFRAMINGREPRODUCTION
ConceivingGenderedExperiences
BarbaraPiniandBobPease(editors)
MEN,MASCULINITIESANDMETHODOLOGIES
VictoriaRobinsonandJennyHockey
MASCULINITIESINTRANSITION
FrancescaStella
LESBIANLIVESINSOVIETANDPOST-SOVIETRUSSIA
Post/SocialismandGenderedSexualities
YvetteTaylor,SallyHinesandMarkE.Casey(editors)
THEORIZINGINTERSECTIONALITYANDSEXUALITY
ThomasThurnell-ReadandMarkCasey(editors)
MEN,MASCULINITIES,TRAVELANDTOURISM
S.HinesandY.Taylor(editors)
SEXUALITIES:PASTREFLECTIONS,FUTUREDIRECTIONS
YvetteTaylor,MichelleAddison(editors)
QUEERPRESENCESANDABSENCES
KathWoodward
SEXPOWERANDTHEGAMES
GendersandSexualitiesintheSocialSciences
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Lesbian Lives in Soviet
and Post-Soviet Russia
Post/Socialism and Gendered Sexualities
Francesca Stella
UniversityofGlasgow
©FrancescaStella2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-32123-7
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
1 Introduction:LocatingRussianSexualities 1
2 Same-SexSexualitiesandtheSoviet/Post-SovietGender
Orders 26
3 LesbianRelationshipsinLateSovietRussia 45
4 FamilyMatters:Negotiating‘Home’ 67
5 TheGlobalCloset?NegotiatingPublicSpace 88
6 CarvingOutQueerSpace:In/visibility,Belongingand
Resistance 111
7 Conclusions:FromRussianto(Post)SocialistSexualities 132
Notes 161
Bibliography 170
Index 189
v
Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to thank the women I met in Russia, who
shared their experiences and thoughts with me in interviews and gen-
eral conversation,and oftengenerously helped out in the projects and
welcomed me into their homes, introducing me to their friends and
family.Ithasbeenaprivilegetogetaglimpseintotheirlives,andIhope
I did justice to their stories in the pages that follow. I have very warm
memories of my time in Russia, and over the years I have been lucky
tomeetfriends,activistsandacademicswhoremainasourceofinspira-
tion: I remember them here with affection and respect. Some people
went out of their way to help me, particularly during my first visits
to Russia, when I arrived with only a couple of telephone numbers as
clues to follow. Activists and regulars at the Moscow Gay and Lesbian
Archive,attheorganisationIa+Iaandatinitiativesvariouslylinkedand
affiliatedwiththemprovidedinvaluablehelp.SpecialthankstoOlgerta
Kharitonova for her unfailing support over the years, and for allowing
metodisseminatefindingsthroughthepagesofthelesbianzineOstrov.
AniaandOlia,RaiaandEl’viraputmeontherighttrackinUl’ianovsk,
whereIalsobenefitedfromthesupportofstaffattheREGIONresearch
centre;Masha,NataliaandSvetatranslatedtwoconferencepapersinto
Russian.Thismonographisdedicatedtoyouall.
The monograph is based on empirical data from two separate
projects, which were supported by various institutions and funding
bodies; I gratefully acknowledge their support. The original research
project(‘LesbianIdentitiesandEverydaySpacesinContemporaryUrban
Russia’,2003–2008)wasfundedthroughadoctoralscholarshipfromthe
University of Glasgow, and additional funding for fieldwork was pro-
videdbytheCarnegieTrustfortheUniversitiesofScotland,theBritish
AssociationforSlavonicandEastEuropeanStudiesandtheDepartment
of Central and East European Studies (CEES), University of Glasgow.
The follow-up project (‘Female Homosexuality and Actually Existing
Socialism:AnOralHistoryProjectofLesbianRelationsinSovietRussia’,
2010–2011) was funded by a small grant from the Carnegie Trust for
theUniversitiesofScotland.Valuabletimetothink,reviseandwriteup
the original work as a monograph was provided by an Economic and
Social Research Council (ESRC) postdoctoral fellowship (‘Queer Lives
andUrbanSpace:FromRussiatotheNewEurope’,ES/I038497/1,2012).
vi
Acknowledgements vii
I would also like to thank all those who over the years have shared
ideas,advice,coffee,foodandofficespacewithme.Singlingoutpeople
forspecialmentionisdifficultandIapologiseinadvancefor(inevitably)
missingpeopleout.IamgratefultoRebeccaKayandMoyaFlynn,who
supervised the doctoral research where it all began, for their percep-
tive suggestions, for their support and friendship over the years and
for teaching me by example. Hilary Pilkington and Matthew Waites
provided insightful comments on the doctoral thesis, and Dan Healey
suggested valuable clues to follow. Thanks for support and encourage-
menttostaffandfellowstudentsatCEESduringmytimethere,firstas
a doctoral student and later as a member of staff – particularly to Jon
Oldfield,ElwiraGrossmanandClaireMcManus.IspentayearasESRC
Research Fellow at London South Bank University (LSBU) – thanks to
Yvette Taylor, my mentor during the fellowship, for her support, and
to everyone at the Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research. Also,
thankstoMarkFreeman,RobertKulpaandAntoineRogersforwelcom-
ingmetoLondon.AftermyspellinLondon,IreturnedtotheUniversity
ofGlasgow,whereIhavehadthepleasuretoworkwithgreatcolleagues
andstudents.WorkingacrossthesubjectareasofsociologyandCentral
and East European studies has challenged and inspired me, and I am
privilegedtobepartofGRAMNet(GlasgowRefugees,AsylumandMigra-
tionNetwork),awonderfulmixofpeople.Overtheyears,mystudents
havetaughtmealot,keptmeonmytoesandremindedmewhatuniver-
sitiesarefor.Thankstothetwoanonymousreviewersfortheirconstruc-
tivecommentsonthebookproposalandthefinalmanuscript.Finally,
thankstotheeditorialteamatPalgravefortheirpatienceandsupport.
Lastbutnotleast,Iwouldliketothankallthepeoplewhosecompany
andsupporthavebeenhugelyimportanttomeoutsideofwork.Thanks
to Suzanne, for her love, humour and patience, and for inspiring me.
TomyextendedfamilyinItaly(‘labelafamea’),foralwaysbeingthere
for me – particularly to my mum Carla and my dad Italo, my sisters
LauraandGiovanna,mybrother-in-lawGianlucaandmynieceElenina.
TomyfriendsinGlasgow,Italyandelsewhere,forsharinggoodandbad
times–aspecialmentionforClaire,Daniela,Lyndell,Maud,Panosand
Roberta, and to the Baradei. And to my fellow drummers at Sheboom,
forkeepingitrealandforremindingmewhatsisterhoodmeanstome.
Copyrightacknowledgements
Somepartsofthismonographarebasedonworkpreviouslypublished
elsewhere, and they are reproduced here by kind permission of the
publishers.
viii Acknowledgements
AnearlierversionofChapter3waspublishedasStella,F.(2013)‘Les-
bianLivesandRealExistingSocialisminlateSovietRussia’,inTaylor,Y.
and Addison, M. (eds.) Queer Presences and Absences (Basingstoke:
PalgraveMacmillan).
An earlier version of Chapter 4 was published as Stella, F. (2008)
‘Homophobia Begins at Home: Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Experi-
ences of the Parental Household in Urban Russia’, in Healey, D. (ed.)
‘Queer Issue’, Kultura. Online Russian Cultural Review, June. Available
at http://www.kultura-rus.uni-bremen.de/, last accessed 7 March 2014.
(Also published in Russian in the Moscow-based non-for profit lesbian
journal Ostrov as Stella, F. (2008b) ‘Gomofobiia Nachinaetsia Doma’,
Septemberissue.)
AnearlierversionofChapter6waspublishedasStella,F.(2012)‘The
PoliticsofIn/Visibility:CarvingoutQueerSpaceinUl’yanovsk’,Europe-
AsiaStudies,64(10),1822–1846.
1
Introduction: Locating Russian
Sexualities
Inspiteofaburgeoningsocialsciencesliteratureinsexualitiesandgay
andlesbian/queerstudies,mostoftheexistingempiricalandtheoretical
work has focused on English-speaking or Western European countries
(Binnie, 2004; Puar, 2007; Rahman, 2010). Research on postcolonial
sexualitieshashighlightedhowcurrenttheoreticalworkremainsdeeply
ethnocentric,andisthereforeinadequatetoaccountforthelivedexpe-
riences of queers from the global South (Murray, 1995; Manalansan,
2002,2003;Boellstorff,2005;Jackson,2009a,2009b).However,compar-
atively little has been written about sexualities in postsocialist Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union; yet similar Orientalist (Said,
1978)discoursesconstructingtheregionas‘traditional’,‘premodern’or
‘underdeveloped’ have positioned it as the west’s ‘Other’, both during
the Cold War and since the demise of communist rule and the onset
of the process of European integration (Bonnett, 2004; Stychin, 2003;
KulpaandMizielin´ska,2011).
Thisbookisbasedonextensiveethnographicresearch,andfocuseson
theexperiences,practicesandidentitiesofnon-heterosexualwomenin
Sovietandpost-SovietRussia.Thismonographcontributestotheoretical
andmethodologicaldebatesonethnocentrismandtheconstructionof
normativesubjectsandofOriental‘others’,whicharewidelystruggled
withwithingenderandsexualitystudies(KuntsmanandMiyake,2008;
WaitesandKollman,2009;Caseyetal.,2010;Tayloretal.,2010).Afocus
onRussianlesbianandbisexualwomenprovidesan‘intersectionalloca-
tion’ (Rahman, 2010) that can illuminate and contribute to existing
debates, given Russia’s geographical position astride the European and
Asiancontinents,itshistoryasthecorenationoftheSovietUnionand
bearer of an alternative model of (socialist) modernity, and its current
marginal position in the process of European integration (Neumann,
1
