Authors

Discussion

Based on my master’s thesis, I propose to present a study of queer subculture to understand underrepresented sexual minorities in the final decade of Soviet rule and in the 1990s in Belarus and Moldova. Gaining queer perspectives is imperative since non-heteronormative individuals have remained personae non gratae in post-communist identity formation. 

Through first-hand accounts from interviews with queer individuals in the region and queer magazines published in the 1990s and early 2000s from the former two Soviet republics, I examine the space queer individuals carved for themselves and the discourse they employed to express their voices and experiences. The persistence of the Soviet narrative and limitations are considered, while also analyzing how queer subjectivities engaged in self-reflection about their queer identity through publications. 

My research considers queer communities’ non-visibility as a political concept that should not carry negative connotations but rather a possibility for protection, alternative forms of resistance or resilience. The history of this community is crucial to understand the endurance of culture of silence or ‘Soviet ethos of secrecy’ to this day. 

Critically, my research dehomogenizes the region by considering the specificities of Belarusian and Moldovan Soviet culture and history as well as their impact on the distortion of sexual discourse and the community’s ability to emancipate. In doing so, my work inspired by scholarship on decolonizing the history of LGBTQ+ people in the post-socialist space (i.e., Channell-Justice (2020), Buyantueva and Shevtsova (2020)) forefronts local queer voices and moves beyond approaches limited to the repression of LGBTQ+ communities by considering Belarusian and Moldovan queer resilience and the expression of queer subjectivities. Furthermore, my analysis of queer lived experiences from the 1980s to the end of the 1990s challenges the idea that the nineties represented a period of transition for all strata of society.