Red Closet

Rustam Alexander is a historian and independent scholar who obtained his PhD from the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Regulating homosexuality in Soviet Russia, 1956–91. -- .

Part I: Under Stalin
1 Stalin decides to make male homosexuality a crime
2 A Scottish man stands up for the rights of Soviet homosexuals
3 A young man from Siberia comes to Moscow in pursuit of his dreams
4 A Soviet celebrity leads a double life and lives in quiet suffering
5 A visit to a bathhouse ends in a nightmare
6 Soviet homosexuals travel to Siberia for "medical" treatment

Part II: Under Khrushchev
7 Stalin’s heirs deal with homosexuality in the GULAG
8 In which a murder occurs
9 Soviet jurists push for the decriminalization of sodomy
10 Soviet psychiatrists try to cure lesbianism
11 A KGB lieutenant goes rogue
12 Soviet doctors invent a new medical science and try to cure male homosexuality

Part III: Under Brezhnev
13 Soviet jurists try to decriminalize consensual homosexuality
14 A married couple try to save their marriage
15 Yan Goland tries to cure a youth of his homosexuality
16 A jurist proposes to criminalize lesbianism
17 A former soldier is crippled with internalized homophobia
18 In which we learn about emerging gay activism in the USSR

Part IV: Under Gorbachev
19 A strange patient from Africa baffles Soviet doctors
20 Soviet officials try to protect the USSR from AIDS
21 The Soviet KGB becomes inspired by the American gay press
22 Soviet doctors find Soviet "Patient Zero"
23 Soviet homophobia hits its peak
24 Soviet homosexuals finally speak about themselves in public

Epilogue: In which Boris Yeltsin decriminalizes consensual homosexuality – but homophobia remains

Index -- .