Joannervej

Bob Delmonteque

In his diary he noted his frequent visits and sexual encounters. Unfortunately for the closeted Grand Duke, he also suffered that which was most dreaded, being blackmailed by someone who learned his secret.

Perhaps the two most notorious of these St. Petersburg institutions were the Znamensky and Usachevikh Baths. The latter happened to be a favorite hunting ground for Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich.

While bathhouses served an important and traditional function, by the turn of the century some were notorious for being little more than male brothels. As one attendant noted, “all the money we got for that we put together and then divided it up on Sundays.”

And then, of course, there were the bathhouses. Many were staffed by recent arrivals from the countryside who were only too willing to learn from their comrades how they could earn a few extra kopeks.

For 25 kopeks, a soldiers would allow his genitals to be fondled; if a client wanted sex, the charge was usually 3-5 rubles.

“A soldier passing along glances significantly [at a potential client] and goes off in the direction of the water closet,” recorded one contemporary, “checking to see if [the man] is following him. If he does, then he pretends to see to his bodily functions and tries to show off his member.”

Off-duty members of the Horse and Cavalry Life Guards Regiments looking to make extra money loitered ear the public toilets at the Zoological Gardens.

Teenaged boys seeking easy money could be solicited along the Fontanka Canal; in the Tauride Palace Gardens; and especially around the Cinizelli Circus, where they would ask for cigarettes or a light amid a “nonchalantly thrown glance.”

The Passage, a covered shopping arcade which had opened on the Nevsky in 1848, was a favorite cruising area, as was the Mikhailovsky Square with which it was linked.

Certain locations in St. Petersburg were known as spots where men seeking same-sex encounters could reliably find either willing partners or male prostitutes. The stretch of the Nevsky Prospekt from Znamenskaya Square to the Anichkov Bridge was known as a homosexual meeting place.

Bright red neckties and handkerchiefs were apparently taken as a recognizable symbol of homosexuality. A few of the more daring and flamboyant members of this milieu even took to sporting rouge and lipstick.

Those seeking same-sex encounters in St. Petersburg developed certain code words, signals, and even manners of dress to identify each other. “Our circle” indicated sexual kinship; “aunt” or “auntie,” similar to the use of the word “queen” in English, was used to denote men with same-sex preferences.

The Russian Government, he boldly declared, had no business interfering in the private sexual relationships of its consenting citizens. This was a striking position, particularly within the profoundly Orthodox Russian Empire, and Nabokov found himself ridiculed and subjected to threats.

All of this led to much debate of the issue in the country’s newspapers and journals. For the first time the issue of homosexuality was a common topic in the arena of public discussion.

The capital’s Bohemians – Sergei Diaghilev, Zinadia Gippius, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva – all freely and openly indulged in same-sex relationships. Two years after the easing of censorship under the October Manifesto, a pair of startling novels appeared in St. Petersburg bookstores.

This tolerance became the subject of popular scorn when Rasputin’s proteges, including Pitirim, who as Metropolitan of Petrograd was the highest-ranking member of the clergy in Russia, were appointed to prominent positions.

And, while officially condemning homosexuality, it had always flourished within the Russian Orthodox Church. In the reign of Nicholas II numerous clergy were quite open about their sexual preferences.

He was also among the capital’s most notorious homosexuals, a fact well-known by members of the Imperial Family. In 1887 Alexander III actually covered up an incident when the Prince was caught having sex with a young soldier at Gatchina.

Prince Vladimir Meshcherskii served as editor of the influential and ultraconservative newspaper Grazhdanin and was a favorite and close advisor to both Alexander III and Nicholas II.

Whispers about the sexual tastes of certain members of the Imperial Family were widespread; other Romanovs, like Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, managed to successfully conceal their secret lives even in the face of blackmail.

..it was derisively referred to as “the Guards’ Disease.” Certain units, like the elite Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment, were notorious for the way in which officers quite openly engaged in same-sex relationships.

As the 19th C. progressed, it was understood that homosexuality was often practiced in many of the country’s most prestigious educational institutions, including the famous Corp des Pages. Homosexuality was so prevalent among the highest echelons of the military that...

Although officially, at least, homosexuality was condemned, it was often tolerated and even indulged in by those in the highest positions of Peter the Great’s Table of Ranks.

Although it officially defined homosexual acts as mortal sins, there had always been a flourishing subculture within Russia. One Nineteenth Century historian recorded: “Nowhere, either in the Orient or in the West, was this vile, unnatural sin taken as lightly as in Russia.”

Somewhat surprisingly, and in contrast to present day conventions, the Russian Orthodox Church differed radically from the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Western churches in its moral denunciations, at least up until the onset of Romanov rule.