Russia's gay propaganda law is ironic considering the homo-erotic and pederastic nature of much Soviet/Russian art
Feb. 2, 2013
"One time is not a pederast - twice, not for a bastard" .... or Propaganda of homosexuality in the Soviet style
The text of bill No. 44554-6, approved by the State Duma deputies in the first reading, does not provide any explanation at all: “Propaganda of homosexuality among minors - entails the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of four thousand to five thousand rubles; on officials - from forty thousand to fifty thousand rubles; for legal entities - from four hundred thousand to five hundred thousand rubles.
United Russia deputy Alexander Chuev, one of the authors of this legislative initiative, offers the following interpretation: “Homosexual propaganda contained in a public speech, publicly displayed work or mass media, including that expressed in a public demonstration of a homosexual lifestyle and homosexual orientation, is punishable ... "
But what is a "homosexual lifestyle"?
For example, a public demonstration of a crowd of naked men frolicking on the beach - is this a "homosexual lifestyle" or not?
I am sure deputy Chuev will answer that this is not just propaganda, but the most vicious agitation of homosexuality.
But, meanwhile, this is the plot of many paintings by prominent Russian and Soviet artists, among which there are world-famous names.
And now art historians and museum workers throughout the country are thinking: what to do with these paintings? Remove and send to the storerooms - away from sin? Or ignore the legislative activity of the State Duma? What if the kids see it?
And then what do you order - to pay a fine of up to five hundred thousand?!
Here are a few such paintings that have suddenly become forbidden art.
P. Konchalovsky, "Students in the workshop", 1932.
N. Bogdanov-Belsky, "Tug of war", 1939.
K. Petrov-Vodkin, Bathing the Red Horse, 1912
N. Bogdanov-Belsky, "Bathing horses", 1939.
V. Serov, "Bathing a horse", 1905.
A. Plastov, "Bathing horses", 1938.
A. Treskin, “Kotovtsy. Bathing horses.
P. Konchalovsky, "Bathing of the Red Cavalry", 1928.
D. Zhilinsky, "Bathing soldiers. Bridge builders", 1959.
A. Deineka, "After the battle", 1942.
A. Deineka, "In the south".
A. Deineka, "After work", 1948.
A. Deineka, "Noon", 1932.
A. Deineka, "Crimean Pioneers", 1934.
K. Somov, "Boxer", 1933.
K. Petrov-Vodkin, "Playing Boys".
K. Petrov-Vodkin, "The Thirsty Warrior", 1915.
Soviet propaganda posters also sometimes gave rise to ambiguous associations.
How should one treat such artifacts of Soviet history now?
A bit of history.
In the Middle Ages, homosexual behavior was ambivalent. On the one hand, sodomy has been defined as part of the sinful fornication condemned by the church. On the other hand, secular authorities did not persecute subjects in any way - neither for homosexuality, nor for other sexual perversions.
Everything changed in the 18th century, when absolutist monarchs sought to subjugate the church - the result of this process was that the state began to punish crimes against morality by secular courts. For example, in the British Navy, homosexual intercourse was punished by castration, and part of the nose was removed for women for lesbianism.
Progressive in those days, the Napoleonic Code provided for punishment only for public or violent homosexual intercourse.
In Russia, homosexuals began to be persecuted under Peter the Great - in 1706, when the tsar ordered that sodomites be burned at the stake.
Ten years later, burning at the stake was replaced by corporal punishment, and in cases of violence, by eternal exile.
Then the attitude towards same-sex sex softened somewhat - for example, in the "Punishment Code" sodomy was punished by the deprivation of all rights of state and exile to Siberia for 4-5 years.
And in 1903, regarding sodomy, Art. 516: this crime was punishable by imprisonment for a term of at least 3 months, and under aggravating circumstances (with the use of violence or against minors) - for a term of 3 to 8 years.
The revolutionary events of 1917 led to the decriminalization of homosexuality: the new Soviet regime abolished all criminal sanctions for homosexual contacts.
This was justified as follows: "Soviet legislation does not know the so-called crimes against morality.
Our legislation provides for punishment only in cases where minors and minors become the object of interest of homosexuals.
Understanding the incorrectness of the development of homosexuals, society creates all the necessary conditions for the alienation inherent in them to dissolve in the new socialist society.
Everything changed in the early 1930s. The dictatorship, which sought to take control of all spheres of the life of a Soviet person, could not ignore the fact with whom the Soviet person sleeps.
Moreover, it was the main issue. And so, in 1933, the deputy chairman of the OGPU Genrikh Yagoda, in his memorandum to Stalin, wrote: “pederasts were engaged in recruiting and corrupting perfectly healthy youth, Red Army soldiers, Red Navy soldiers and individual university students.
We do not have a law according to which it would be possible to prosecute pederasts in criminal procedure. I would consider it necessary to issue an appropriate law on criminal liability for pederasty.
And already on March 7, 1934, a law comes into force, according to which sodomy is qualified as a criminal offense in all the republics of the USSR. The term of punishment is 5 years.
If violence is used or there is a proven relationship with minors - 8 years.
But how do you order to create a cult of a new Soviet superman: a kind of muscular, handsome proletarian, a masculine male of the new world?!
And then the authorities made an unspoken deal with the artists: yes, homosexuality was banned, but artists could not limit themselves in their work.
In today's Russia, the situation has turned upside down in a mirror image: the authorities no longer care who and with whom sleeps, but they are very worried about activity in the media sphere.
And art historians are now tormented: should the paintings by Deineka and Petrov-Vodkin be considered “propaganda of a homosexual lifestyle” or should they not pay attention?
The fines are pretty big.
A. Rodchenko, photo report from the Parade of athletes. Muscular proletarians are the visible embodiment of the Soviet cult of the superman.
B. Ignatovich "Shower", 1935. A classic of Soviet photography.
Source: https://newsland.com/post/1798059-propaganda-gomoseksualizma-po-sovetski