Russian-Queerography on Uránia

Saint Moses the Hungarian – One of the First Queer Figures in Russian History?

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0700

The Life of the Venerable Moses the Hungarian is one of the most unusual texts in Old Russian hagiography. A monk of the Kyiv Cave Monastery who was taken captive to Poland, he refused for years to marry a wealthy and powerful woman, was castrated for it, and was later canonized as a model of chastity.

The Possible Homosexuality of Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich of the Romanov Family

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 22:45:37 +0700

Nikolai Mikhailovich was almost the only Romanov praised both by his contemporaries and by historians of very different political persuasions — left and right alike. Within the family, he stood out as an intellectual who pursued scholarship seriously.

Andrey Avinoff: A Russian Émigré Artist, Gay Man, and Scientist

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 22:45:37 +0700

Andrey Avinoff was a Russian entomologist and artist, and a friend of Alfred Kinsey. He was a collector, a connoisseur of beauty, and a gay man, yet he never made his sexuality public. After the Revolution in 1917, Avinoff left Russia for the United States. His homoerotic watercolors were published only in the 21st century.

Russian Poet Ivan Dmitriev, Young Favourites, and Same-Sex Desire in the Fables 'The Two Doves' and 'The Two Friends'

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 22:45:37 +0700

Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev entered history as a notable sentimentalist poet of the late 18th–early 19th centuries and as a statesman who rose to the post of minister of justice under Alexander I. In official biographies, he appears as a strict, rational administrator. At the same time, sources and the memoir tradition suggest that young, talented men regularly appeared in his circle. His bachelor life, persistent rumors about the nature of his attachments, and the absence of public scandals create the impression of a figure whose private biography may have been deliberately shielded from publicity, yet remains legible through indirect evidence.

Sergei Romanov: A Homosexual Member of the Imperial Family

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 22:45:37 +0700

In the Romanov dynasty (Russia’s ruling imperial family from 1613 to 1917), every adult family member was expected to marry and produce heirs — this was seen as part of one’s duty to both the family and the state. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (a “Grand Duke” was a high-ranking title reserved for close male relatives of the Russian emperor), the brother of Emperor Alexander III, also married, but the couple never had children. The Grand Duke was homosexual.

The Diary of Pyotr Medvedev, a Bisexual Moscow Merchant, 1854–1863

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 22:45:37 +0700

Information about intimate life in the 19th-century Russian Empire was left primarily by nobles. The diary of Pyotr Vasilyevich Medvedev, a Moscow merchant of the third guild, is a rare exception. From 1854 to 1863, he recorded his thoughts on faith, marriage, the body, desire, and sexual experience – with both men and women. This is the voice of someone outside the elite: a former peasant, a small entrepreneur, a resident of Moscow during the era of the Great Reforms.

Grigory Teplov and the Sodomy Case in 18th-Century Russia

Sun, 22 Sep 2024 22:45:37 +0700

“Having summoned him to his bed, first caressing him and holding out promises of reward, and in the end also threatening him with a beating, he forced him to commit muzhelozhstvo (literally “lying with a man”) on him.” This is a line from the interrogation of a serf peasant, where he accuses his master, Grigory Nikolayevich Teplov, of “muzhelozhstvo” (a historical legal and church term usually translated as “sodomy”) and of rape.