Daily Times

Russian sexuality and the country’s general mores became an increasingly popular subject in the USA, mostly in relation to President Trump’s possible connections with the Kremlin and his behaviour during his trip to Russia some time ago.

The British press also did not ignore the matter, and The Express published an article titled Kremlin sex threat to England players, in which Professor Anthony Glees, Director of the University of Buckingham’s Centre for Security and Intelligence, pointed to Russian women’s threat for the UK. He said, “‘gorgeous’ Russian women could seduce England players in the build-up to a big game before blackmailing them or worse.” It looks as if the danger is clear for both Washington and London, and Russia’s sexual mores symbolise the civilisational conflict between Russia and the West.

These views seem to be supported at the very top. Indeed, quite recently, Vladislav Surkov, one of Putin’s major ideologists, proclaimed that Russia should be prepared to be alienated from the West for centuries. Still, a close look at Russians’ sexual mores indicated something absolutely different: the strong desire to be Western, or at least to be related to the West, even at a time of external hostilities. And recent events in Moscow could be a good illustration.

Recently, authorities issued permits to open the first official brothel in Moscow. Still, instead of living humans, it ‘employed’ dolls, who imitated females and even have ‘artificial intelligence.’ One could be puzzled by such moves from Moscow’s authorities, if one would remember that Putin blasted the West for the spread of perversion and moral degeneracy, manifested in the legitimisation of gay marriage. Still, no contradiction can be seen if both actions were placed in the broader cultural context of Russians’ perennial fascination with the West, regardless of the continuous zigzagging in the country’s foreign policy.

In the late Soviet era — and I am old enough to remember it well — many Russians were fascinated with erotic and pornographic literature and movies brought from the West, as the Russian movie, The Envy of Gods (2000), demonstrated.

This interest in Western erotica was not due to the authorities’ imposed puritanism. Actually, Soviet men of that time were much less restrained in their sexual behaviour than males in the West. The reason for the interest in Western erotica was different: erotica and presumably loose Westerners’ sexual mores were a symbol of the mysterious West’s advanced civilisation, to which Russians wanted to belong.

Consequently, the beginning of Gorbachev’s reforms, aimed at making Russia a more Western country, led to a true sexual revolution which could be seen in popular movies. In Little Vera (1988), the sexually promiscuous girl became a peculiar heroic rebel and in Interdevochka (1989), the same honour was given to ‘currency prostitutes’ (prostitutes receiving their pay in dollars instead of rubbles). After the collapse of the USSR, prostitution became endemic in many cities, including Moscow, where prostitutes line up in the downtown area as if on parade. The spread of prostitution was, of course, caused by many factors: steep economic decline and general criminalisation of society.

The romance between Russia and her ‘groom’ might not lead to marriage

Still, it was not just that. Prostitution in the eyes of early post-Soviets was a legitimate profession in the West, and Russia wanted to be part of the West. Moreover, not only did Russians want to ‘catch up with the West”’ — the perennial drive throughout modern Russian history since the 18th century — but ‘outrun the West.’ Russians wanted to be more Western than Westerners themselves. Later on, Russia seemed to start changing its views on the West. As a result of this, they changed the approach to Western women.

They became not so much loose beauties — the fantasies of the late Soviet era — but prudish and ugly. Still, even this peculiar erotic patriotism indicated the desire to imitate the West. Indeed, as information about the real, not imaginary, West percolated to Russia, the approach to sexual mores was changed. The “dress to attract” was replaced by a conservative dress code and erotic pictures in male offices were replaced by portraits of wives and children. The introduction of doll brothels was also a peculiar attempt to follow the Western road. Russian society heard about sexual harassment as a serious issue in the West.

Some Russians, both male and female, believed that the West sometimes went too far in dealing with the issue. Still, others believed that Russia should follow this trend. Indeed, the organisers of the brothel stated that one of the reasons for introducing the dolls is that dolls would finally replace prostitution, which degrades womenfolk. Russians also heard that sexual relationships should be consensual, and partners should be emotionally involved.

Consequently, the dolls in the brothel acquire ‘artificial intellect,’ and presumably create the illusion of verbal and emotional communication. Finally, the notion that humanity might evolve into a mixture of biological creatures and machines, much propagated by such luminaries as Ray Kurzweil and Francis Fukuyama, was also taken into account. The brothel organiser noted that sex with females will be an increasingly outdated legacy of the past, at least in the West, and the doll brothel followed this global and clearly Western trend.

One, of course, could also ask how Putin’s drive against homosexuality could fit into the idea of the replacement of females with sex toys. Still, it is also a nice fit into the pro-Western trend, albeit it approaches the West from a different angle. The Kremlin ideologist proclaimed that in discouraging homosexuality, Russians do not confront Western values. They simply condemn the West for its rejection of its own historical Christian legacies, which emphasised the monogamous family based on man and woman.

Thus, both in promoting sex toys and condemning homosexuality, both the Russian elite and the masses are trying to mimic the West, or at least regard it as the point of departure. Almost a century ago, Nikolai Berdiaev, the seminal Russian philosopher, quipped, “Russia’s soul is female, and she always looks for a groom from the West.” The romance between Russia and her ‘groom’ might not lead to marriage. The ‘groom’ could be hated; moreover, the ‘bride’ and ‘groom’ could fight each other. Still, the ‘groom’ is a point of departure for critics and imitation. Indeed, even hatred could be a peculiar sublimation of love and the desire to find a cultural union. This was true in the past, and it is the same in the present, as the case with the doll brothel demonstrates.

The writer is Associate Professor, Indiana University

Published in Daily Times, May 15^th 2018.