Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Letter To The Homosexual Community

The idea that someone is different than everyone else has always been hard for people to comprehend. Throughout history there have been numerous accounts of people or groups of people being oppressed because they were different. From the African American community to the homosexual community; oppression of people that were considered different or strange has always been present. The oppression of the homosexual community was present specifically in Russia. This instance of oppression and many others like it prompted Alexander Solzhenitsyn to write a letter to the Russian congress. In this letter, Solzhenitsyn states “The oppression, no longer tolerable” (Solzhenitsyn). This makes it evident that the people of Russia were sick of the horrible …show more content…
Before Stalin’s regime there were no laws in Russia against homosexuality. In fact many visitors to Russia in the 16th and 17th century were astonished by the public displays of homosexual affection. However, when Stalin became the leader of Russia he put a stop to this behavior; he criminalized these acts with Article 121. This article instantly began to show very serious effects; from the imprisonment of over 1000 men per year to forcing homosexuals to lead secret lives in fear of being caught, this article affected thousands of people and continued to affect them for many years. In the 1980’s it became clear that this article had a huge impact on the people of Russia. As Kevin Moss states in his article Russian Gay History, “another threat by the 1980s was the gangs of gay-bashers who robbed and beat gay men, often with the encouragement of the police. They knew that if they were brought to court, it was their victims who would be put in prison” (Moss). This makes it clear that criminalizing homosexuality had lasting effects on Russia. Cops were allowing people to beat homosexual men with no consequences. This shows that many of Russia’s people believed that homosexuality is wrong. As a different article states “five years ago, they would ignore the issue and now they say homosexuality is a sin” (Khazan). This article shows that even today a …show more content…
Like many other countries in the world Russia has anti-gay laws that make public displays of homosexuality illegal. These laws are making it extremely hard for homosexuals in Russia to be accepted. Not only are these laws making it hard for them to be accepted, but the people of Russia are making it difficult as well. Russian people are some of the most homophobic people in the world because of this the homosexual community in Russia is afraid to come forward and demand the rights that they deserve in fear of being assaulted or fined by the people of the government. This fear truly emphasizes the effect that Stalin’s criminalization of homosexuality has had on modern day