Onegin et al. (correction & reply)

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

17 April 2006

Dear Irene Zohrab,
Thank you for supplying us with this most valuable information. I was 
aware of the "Ne dlia Dam" volume which included some works by 
Lermontov, but the other material is new to me. I now feel more 
confident in my 1989 assertion about Onegin's latent homosexuality, but 
I do not expect apologies from either the homophobes who were personally 
offended by my assertion, or from the homophiles who disregarded my 
assertion after 1989.

Sincerely,
Daniel Rancour-Laferriere

Irene Zohrab wrote:

>Dear Vera Beljakova,
>
>I feel obliged to comment on your statement that the current postings relating to homosexuality are “quasi-political” and have nothing to do with the culture of Russia in the nineteenth century. Not wishing to “overwork” these “notions” I feel it is only fair to remember that there is evidence to show that homosexuality was not unknown in many sections of Russian society in the nineteenth century. Already in 1830-40s according to the Memoirs of “Peterburgskii starozhil”, the pseudonym of V P Burnashev (1810-1888) (a writer mainly of childrens’ literature) “pederasticheskii razvrat”  as he refers to it, was prevalent in St. Petersburg. Amongst other things he notes that along the Nevsky, in addition to the usual street women, there were also young men: ”Vse eto byli prekhoroshen’kie soboiu foreitory. . .kantonistiki, pevchie razlichnykh khorov, remeslennye ucheniki opriatnykh masterstv, preimushchenstvenno parikhmakherskogo, oboinogo, portnogo, a takzhe lavochnye mal’chiki bez mest, moloden’kie pisar’ki voennogo i morskogo ministerstv, nakonets dazhe vitsmundirnye kantseliarskie chinovniki raznykh departamentov. . . .  mezhdu molodymi izvozchikami, osobenno likhachami, bylo ves’ma mnogo paren’kov, promyshliavshikh etim gnusnym promyslom”. (Quoted in: K.K. Rotikov, Drugoi Peterburg, Sankt-Peterburg, 1998, pages 357-8) 
>In relation to the elite “salons of St Petersburg” there is an interesting publication printed in Geneva in 1879 (due to censorship in Russia) entitled “Erot Russe: Ne dlia Dam” that consists of homoerotic material.  The collection opens with an ironic address to the reader pointing out that the contents is a reflection of the mores of a number of well-known educational institutions that had produced many of Russia’s leading personages and statesmen in the past. It contains amongst other things the well-known long poem by A F Shenin “The adventures of a Page” and some early poems of Lermontov’s. 
>There is more evidence regarding the latter part of the nineteenth century. Often cited is the report by the Minister of State Property. M.N. Ostrovsky (the brother of the playwright) that supplies some graphic details about homosexuality in St. Petersburg of the 1880s: “porok muzhelozhestva sushchestvuet uzhe neskol’ko let, no nikogda ne prinimal takogo razmera, kak v nastoiashchee vremia, kogda, mozhno skazat’, net ni odnogo klassa v peterburgskom naselenii, sredi kotorogo ne okazyvalos’ by mnogo ego posledovatelei. . . . ”. (Quoted in Rotikov, p.358-360)
>
>Various other sources could be cited. 
>
>I.Z.
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