Russian-Queer-History on Uránia

The Story of a Medieval Arabic Source in Which the Women of the 'Rus' Were Called the World's First Lesbians

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In English-language academic and popular literature on the history of sexuality in the Middle East, one occasionally encounters the claim that the medieval Arab encyclopedist Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri wrote that the women of the “Rus” practiced same-sex love, and that those women were the first in human history to engage in such practices.

Peter the Great’s Sexuality: Wives, Mistresses, Men, and His Relationship with Menshikov

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 22:45:37 +0700

Peter the Great entered history as a reformer who drastically changed the old order. But his private life was no less turbulent and contradictory.

Russian Empress Anna Leopoldovna and the Maid of Honour Juliana: Possibly the First Documented Lesbian Relationship in Russian History

Sun, 10 Nov 2024 22:45:37 +0700

Empress Anna Leopoldovna ruled Russia for only a year and remains a relatively little-known figure. She is rarely discussed in school textbooks. Yet her relationship with her lady-in-waiting (often rendered as ‘maid of honour’ in English), Juliana (Julia) von Mengden, deserves attention: it may represent one of the earliest documented indications of lesbian love in Russian history.

Homosexuality in the 18th-Century Russian Empire — Homophobic Laws Borrowed From Europe and How They Were Enforced

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 22:45:37 +0700

The 18th century was a time when Russia was becoming one of the leading powers of Europe. It was also when the state for the first time established a punishment for male same-sex relations in secular law. Under Peter the Great, in 1706, Russia adopted an especially harsh provision borrowed from Western European practice — death by burning. At first, it applied only to the military, above all to soldiers.

The Homosexuality of Russian Tsars Vasily III and Ivan IV the Terrible

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 22:45:37 +0700

Vasily III

Vasily III was Grand Prince of Moscow and ruler of the Russian state from 1505 to 1533. His reign is generally considered successful: stone construction expanded; Pskov, Smolensk, and Ryazan were incorporated into the state; and the country continued to recover after centuries of dependence on the Horde — the Mongol political domination often referred to as the “Tatar Yoke” — along with the raids and devastation associated with it.

Homosexuality in Ancient and Medieval Russia

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 22:45:37 +0700

While in England, the Netherlands, France, and Spain, people were burned at the stake and tortured for homosexuality, in Rus’ there was not a single secular law up to the 18th century that punished the “sin of Sodom.”