In Russia, attitudes towards homosexuality ebbed and flowed, ranging from benign toleration in the wake of the October Revolution, through stigmatisation and criminalisation of same-sex (particularly male) desire in the Stalin era, to state-sponsored and politically motivated homophobia fostered by the current Russian regime. In the last decade, pro-Kremlin media outlets have peddled the idea of LGBTQ rights as a product of the decadent West and a tool of hybrid warfare posing a threat to national security and the Russian way of life. Much ink has been spilled over the censorship of LGBTQ content in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, where progressive authors are deemed ‘foreign agents’ and books referencing ‘non-traditional sexual relationships’ are sold wrapped in plastic and labelled with an adult content warning. While the picture is bleak, the country’s independent publishers attempt to challenge the regime by exposing and, ultimately, circumventing state censorship. This blog highlights works centred on LGBTQ experiences that attracted swathes of readers and caused a stir among Russian lawmakers.

Since the early 2010s, Russia’s stance on LGBTQ issues has been radically conservative. The legal enshrinement of compulsory heterosexuality and the systematic oppression of queer people began with the notorious anti-LGBTQ law, which severely restricted the ability to speak and educate about sexuality and gender issues. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin’s regime has tried to frame the conflict as a re-enactment of the Great Patriotic War, portraying Russia as a bulwark of tradition and vilifying the proponents of LGBTQ rights, secularism, and multiculturalism as modern-day fascists. Soon after Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders, the Kremlin initiated another ruthless crackdown on the LGBTQ community. This time around, the law introducing a complete ban on ‘gay propaganda’ was prompted by a teenage romance novel set at a Young Pioneer camp.

Covers of Leto v pionerskom galstuke and O chem molchit lastochka by Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova redesigned to comply with anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia. In order to draw attention to the censorship of literature, the publisher labelled the covers with Article 29.5 of the Russian Constitution. The Article reads: “The freedom of mass media shall be guaranteed. Censorship shall be prohibited.” Awaiting shelfmarks

Leto v pionerskom galstuke (‘Summer in a Pioneer Tie’), co-authored by Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova, is a lyrical coming-of-age novel about the clandestine relationship between two men who met at a summer camp in Soviet Ukraine in the 1980s. The book is not sexually explicit. Instead, the authors tenderly describe the experience of falling in love for the first time. Initially published in 2021 on a fan-fiction website, it was discovered by Popcorn Books, an imprint specialising in queer fiction. The book proved a runaway success, selling over 200,000 copies in its first year of publication. In 2022, it became the target of a witch hunt after the militant nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin called for the publishing house to be burned down. The novel and its sequel, O chem molchit lastochka (‘What the Swallow Won’t Say’), were hastily withdrawn from sale. The authors were declared ‘foreign agents’ and forced to flee the country.

As the term ‘propaganda of non-traditional relations’ remains undefined in the legislation, writers and editors have found themselves forced to guess what the unwritten rules are. For fear of charges for the violation of the draconian law, some publishers scrambled to censor LGBTQ themed literature ahead of the implementation of the new law in December 2022. One notable example was Max Falk’s debut novel Vdrebezgi (‘Shattered’), released by LikeBook in October 2022. With the author's consent, the publisher took the precaution of painting over approximately 3% of the text that contained descriptions of an intimate relationship between two men. The decision to visibly redact the ‘controversial’ sections rather than omit them was also made to draw public attention to state censorship without technically defying it. Despite these efforts, the novel was withdrawn from sales shortly after its publication.

Cover of Vdrebezgi by Max Fal'k. Awaiting shelfmark

Censorship has been equally pronounced in translated literature. Translated works are rarely acquired for the British Library's Russian Collection. However, we collect and preserve books targeted by the regime as they document the struggle for human rights and freedom of speech in Putin's Russia.

In April 2024, the publishing holding AST announced that several books capturing LGBTQ experiences were pulled from its website to comply with anti-gay propaganda laws, including Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life (‘Malen’kaia zhizn’), Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles (‘Pesn’ Akhilla’), James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (‘Komnata Dzhovanni’), and Michael Cunningham’s A Home at the End of the World (‘Dom na kraiu sveta’). Furious at having to withdraw titles, AST released Roberto Carnero’s biography of the openly gay Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini with whole pages relating to his sexual orientation demonstratively inked out. The publisher sarcastically remarked that the redactions made the book ‘interactive’ as they allowed the reader to decide for himself whether to seek out the censored material through alternative channels.

Cover of Pazolini. Umeret’ za idei, the Russian translation of Roberto Carnero’s book Pasolini: ‘Dying for One’s Own Ideas (Awaiting shelfmark). On the right, cover of the Italian original Morire per Le Idee: vita letteraria di Pier Paolo Pasolini (Milano, 2010) YF.2011.a.2102

Censored pages from Pazolini. Umeret’ za idei by Roberto Carnero. Awaiting shelfmark

Pages from Morire per Le Idee: vita letteraria di Pier Paolo Pasolini by Roberto Carnero (Milano, 2010) YF.2011.a.2102

The obscured sections of Carnero’s novel, totalling some 70 out of 400 pages, deal with Pasolini’s private life, but the content is innocent. The initial print run of 1.500 copies sold out immediately, and another one was ordered to keep up with the demand. The heavy-handed redactions, prompted by the passages of law hostile to the LGBTQ community, turned the book into a celebrated object of art, a powerful attribute of performance. 

With its opaque formulations, the anti-LGBTQ legislation gave rise to a culture of fear and self-censorship. The books featured in the blog transgress the boundaries of censorship and generate meanings, bringing LGBTQ struggles back into the light. They also illuminate a simple truth: Love is Love. 

Hanna Dettlaff-Kuznicka, Curator of Slavonic and East European Collections

References/Further reading:

Chris Ashford, Research handbook on gender, sexuality and the law (Cheltenham, 2020) ELD.DS.519753

Radzhana Buyantueva, The emergence and development of LGBT protest activity in Russia (Basingstoke, 2022) ELD.DS.736424

Laurie Essig, Queer in Russia: a story of sex, self, and the other (Durham, NC, 1999) 99/31881

Dan Healey, Russian homophobia from Stalin to Sochi (London, 2018) YC.2018.a.1153

Jon Mulholland, Gendering nationalism: intersections of nation, gender and sexuality (Basingstoke, Hampshire, 2018) ELD.DS.412134

Conor O'Dwyer, Coming out of communism: the emergence of LGBT activism in Eastern Europe (New York, 2018) m18/.11529

Dennis Scheller-Boltz, The discourse on gender identity in contemporary Russia: an introduction with a case study in Russian gender linguistics (Hildesheim, 2017) YC.2019.a.6769

Valerii Sozaev, Nasha istoriia: zametki i ocherki o LGBT v Rossii (Saint Petersburg, 2018) YP.2019.a.5058

Valerie Sperling, Sex, politics, and Putin: political legitimacy in Russia (Oxford, 2015) YC.2015.a.3806

Galina Yuzefovich, Weapons of the Weak: Fighting Literary Censorship in Contemporary Russia

Slovene Lands is a geographical term that describes the territories in Central and South-East Europe inhabited by the Slovenes since the sixth century AD. The Slovene Lands included Carniola, the southern part of Styria, the southern part of Carinthia, Istria, Gorizia and Gradisca, Trieste, Istria and Prekmurje.

Each Slovene land was a feudal unit. Carniola, Styria and Carinthia were duchies, Gorizia a county, Istria a margravate and Trieste a town. All the Slovene lands were ruled by the Habsburgs except those on the western and eastern borders which were controlled by Venice and Hungary respectively.

The historic maps presented in this blog are from the Topographical Collection of King George III.

A 1697 French map of the Duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola as the hereditary lands of the Habsburg Crown in which were included the Counties of Celje and of Gorica, and Windic March. A copperplate engraving, hand colour in outline. Maps K.Top.90.53. (Image from the British Library's Flickr account)

Carniola (in Slovene Kranjska) where about the half of Slovenes lived was ruled by German ecclesiastical and lay princely houses in succession until 1335 when it became a Habsburg province. Raised to the status of Duchy in 1364 as a Hereditary Land of the Habsburg monarchy it became integral part of the Austrian Empire in 1804, and from 1867 a constituent part of Austria-Hungary until 1918. The capital of Carniola was Ljubljana which is the capital of Slovenia today.

A 1686 Italian map of the Duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola and the other hereditary entities that made up part of the Austrian Circle. A copperplate engraving. Maps K.Top.90.54. (Image from the British Library's Flickr account)

Styria (Štajerska) and Carinthia (Koroška) became Habsburg Crown lands in 1282 and 1355 respectively. Most inhabitants of the two duchies were ethnic Germans but there was a strong Slovene minority. After the First World War, part of southern Styria including Maribor, Ptuj, Velenje and Celje, and a small part of southern Carinthia, were ceded to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

A map produced in Amsterdam between 1696 and 1708 showing part of the Austrian Circle comprising the Duchies of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and other hereditary states of the Habsburg Crown. A copperplate engraving, hand colour in outline. Maps K.Top.90.56. (Image from the British Library's Flickr account)

A 1709 French map showing part of the Austrian domain comprising the Duchies of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and other hereditary states of the Habsburg Crown. A copperplate engraving, hand colour in outline. Maps K.Top.90.57. (Image from the British Library's Flickr account)

A German map produced around 1720 showing the Duchy of Carniola, Windic March and Istria. A copperplate engraving, hand colour in outline. Inset at upper right shows a view of Ljubljana, the capital of the Duchy of Carniola. Inset at lower right is Cerknica Lake (In Slovene Cerkniško jezero) Maps K.Top.90.72. (Image from the British Library's Flickr account)

A map produced in Amsterdam between 1726 and 1750 showing the Duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola with the County of Celje which comprised the Austrian Circle. Inset at lower left features the coats of arms of the four areas. A copperplate engraving, hand colour in outline. (Image from the British Library's Flickr account) Maps K.Top.90.55.

Map of the Slovenian Lands and Regions, produced and published in Vienna in 1864 by Peter Kozler (1824-1879) a jurist, geographer and politician. A copperplate engraving, hand colour in outline. Maps 27730.(7.)

Kozler also compiled the Directory of cities, towns and places in Slovene and German as an appendix to the map of Slovenia (1864). The first 1852 edition of the map is available from the Slovenian Digital Library.
 

Milan Grba, Lead Curator South-East European Collections

Novela famosa, y exemplar, no hay contra el amor venganza. Recopilada por Isidro de Robles … En la qual se refieren los tragicos sucessos de un caballlero ingles, llamado Eduardo, por los amores de una dama inglesa, llamada Isabela, muger de el almirante de Inglaterra, y de el dichoso fin, que tuvieron sus trabajosos quebrantos, como vera el curioso lector (Sevilla: en la imprenta Castellana, y Latina de Joseph Antonio de Hermosilla, [1720?])

[Famous and exemplary novel, there is no revenge against love. Collected by Isidro de Robles … In which are told the tragic experiences of an English gentleman named Edward for love of an English lady named Isabella, wife of the Admiral of England, and of the happy end to their sufferings, as the curious reader will see.]

Title page of Novela famosa, y exemplar, no hay contra el amor venganza (Sevilla, [1720]) RB.23.a.40411

The plot: In England, the good English knight Eduardo is imprisoned for injuring the Scottish Ambassador in a joust. In prison, he falls in love with a picture of Isabella. The Admiral of England replaces Eduardo in a joust and King Ricardo (The Lionheart) rewards him with Isabella’s hand. Eduardo spies on Isabella. Her Spanish maid Rosaura sings a song in Spanish which Eduardo had written. Isabella knows Eduardo by reputation. The Admiral comes home unexpectedly and Eduardo kills him. He flees to the court of Alfonso VIII in Toledo. Eduardo rescues Alfonso when he is ambushed by Baron Belflor. Isabella wants revenge on her husband’s murderer. Dagger in hand, she finds Eduardo asleep and ‘like Psyche’, falls in love with his beauty. Love overcomes revenge. She imprisons him to protect him from execution. King Richard visits Alfonso to plan a crusade. Eduardo reminds Richard he saved his life and asks him to make Isabella pardon him. Isabella says she wants revenge, but asks the Princess to ask the King for a pardon. The King tells Isabella to pardon Eduardo and marry him.

Not an entirely accurate picture of medieval England: hunting can only take place early in the morning because of ‘the rigour of the Sun’; they arm themselves with pistols.

As you might imagine, the importance of this text is bibliographical rather than literary.

This blog celebrates the acquisition of a small book. By small book I mean a chapbook, made by folding one or two sheets twice to make a pamphlet. These were news reports (relaciones), ballads, plays (including monologues excerpted from plays, called ‘relaciones de comedia’: see Gabriel Andrés) and novels, plus works of popular religion. By novel I mean what Dr Johnson meant: ‘a small tale, generally of love’. Among famous readers of Spanish chapbooks were Samuel Pepys and Queen Christina of Sweden.

The subjects of ballads, plays and novels often overlapped (we might note the sympathetic servants in our novel), and so did their form of publication. There was a ban on printing plays and novels (from 1625 to 1634), which the publishers tried to circumvent by passing their sometimes sensational stories off as exemplary history. (Our book is ‘exemplar’ and ‘tragico’.) People were still reading these 17th-century texts in the 18th century.

Ballads, plays and novels could be published in collections (single- or multi-authored) or as chapbooks (pliegos sueltos [‘independent quires’] or when appropriate, [comedias] sueltas [‘independent plays’])).

Separately printed ballads and plays are much more common than separately printed novels, which I think it’s safe to say are rare: hence the interest of this item. Today’s book is a novel, but it has a woodcut and layout in two columns which make it resemble a ballad. And its title could be a play.

It’s difficult to know who the author is. Ripoll (pp. 54-57) confuses our No hay contra el amor venganza with El amor en la venganza by the fertile Alonso de Castillo Solórzano (1584-c.1648). Our text was first published in the collection Varios efectos de amor en onze novelas exemplares … recogidas por Isidro de Robles (1666; with reprints up to 1760) (Ripoll, pp. 165-66). So Robles is just the compiler. This suelta appears to be the only separate printing of No hay contra el amor venganza.

Alonso de Alcalá y Herrera wrote five lipogrammatic stories which were included in Varios efectos de amor of 1666: this explains why someone has written his name in pencil at the head of the title page.

The printer, Joseph Antonio de Hermosilla printed large books and small books. Indeed, he printed in Latin as well as Spanish. It’s tempting to suppose that the small books, quick and easy to print and sold at low prices but in large numbers, subsidised the bigger books (Griffin). Small books are rarely dated, but big books are (indeed, it was a legal requirement) and approximate dates for one can be deduced from the other.

Hermosilla printed a good number of comedias sueltas, all undated (Whitehead, STC, III, 51; Escudero, pp. 616-17). Novelas sueltas from his press are rare, but two are known, to which ours should now be added. The Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, has a novela suelta:

Alcalá y Herrera, Alonso de ?

Novela famosa, y exemplar, la Peregrina Hermitaña, escrita sin la letra O, recopilada por Isidro de Robles. (Seville, [s.a.]) 32 p.; 4º. CCPB000038807-6

To which (Ripoll, p. 166) adds Novela famosa y burlesca; Los tres maridos burlados … (Seville, [s.a.])

Hermosilla indeed advertises on the last page that he specialises in small books:

En la imprenta castellana, y latina, de Joseph Antonio de Hermosilla, Mercader de libros en Calle de Genova, donde se hallarán otras muchas Relaciones, Romances, Entremeses, y comedias, corregidas fielmente por sus legitimos Originales.

[In the Spanish and Latin press of Joseph Antonio de Hermosilla, bookseller in the Calle de Génova, where many other newsbooks [or monologues], ballads, interludes and plays may be found, faithfully corrected against their genuine originals]

Harold Whitehead records just one dated book printed by Joseph Antonio de Hermosilla: El león prodigioso of 1732 (item G162; shelfmark 1456.f.7); significantly this is a book and not a chapbook. Whitehead ascribes a date of [c. 1720] to many of Hermosilla’s comedias sueltas, and I follow his lead.

Barry Taylor, Curator Romance Collections

References/further reading:

Gabriel Andrés, ‘Relaciones de comedia en Cerdeña: los pliegos del taller sevillano de los Hermosilla (1684-1730) en la Biblioteca Universitaria de Cagliari’, Janus, 2 (2013), 48-73. Available at Researchgate.net

Francisco Escudero y Perosso, Tipografía hispalense (Madrid, 1894). 11906.c.1.

Clive Griffin, ‘Literary Consequences of the Peripheral Nature of Spanish Printing in the Sixteenth Century’, in Literary cultures and the material book, edited by Simon Eliot, Andrew Nash and Ian Willison (London, 2007), pp. 207-14. YC.2008.a.8654

Begoña Ripoll, La novela barroca: catálogo bio-bibliográfico (1620-1700) (Salamanca, 1991). YA.2003.a.1512

Barry Taylor, ‘Exemplarity in and around the Novelas ejemplares’, Modern Language Review, 110 (2015), 456-72. P.P.4970.ca.

H. G. Whitehead, Eighteenth-century Spanish chapbooks in the British Library: a descriptive catalogue (London, 1997). YC.1997.a.2900

H. G. Whitehead, Short-title catalogue of eighteenth-century Spanish books in the British Library (London, 1994) 2725.e.2791