Authors

Nick Mayhew¹;  ¹ University of Glasgow, UK

Discussion

In 1716, Peter I passed a series of military decrees that included an article against sodomy. The article was based on a Swedish prototype, and it marked the beginning of two centuries of Russian legislation against homosexuality heavily influenced by European models. This paper examines the translation and reception of European anti-sodomy laws in the Russian Empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I suggest that, in a comparative European context, Russian law dealt with sodomy leniently, and that this leniency stemmed, perhaps surprisingly, from Russian Orthodox tradition.