By Dr Irina Roldugina, Department of Russian, School of Modern Languages
As LGBT+ History Month approaches this February, Dr Irina Roldugina tells us about her project which examines how the HIV/AIDS epidemic influenced public perception of homo/sexuality, intimacy and public health in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia. The project received a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship and runs until April 2027.
One of the most thrilling aspects of being in the early stages of a research project is navigating the unknown. The questions we pose and the sources we uncover often take us in unexpected directions. When I first conceived my project, “Homo/sexuality, Intimacy, and Public Health: The HIV Epidemic in the Late Soviet Union,” it did not initially include transgender people as a central focus. However, as I delved deeper into the sources, I realised that my research extends beyond homosexual men and women. The open discussions of homosexuality during this period also brought to light issues related to previously silenced aspects of gender and sexual diversity.
Transgender Visibility in the late Soviet Media
My investigation has so far uncovered that not only homosexual men and women but also transgender individuals—who faced even greater marginalization in public awareness in the USSR — were well documented in both central and regional Soviet press in the 1980s. These records reveal that the discourse on trans rights was shaped within the broader issues raised by the perestroika (restructuring) policies initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, in 1985. Gorbachev’s ambition to build a more humane socialist society inspired journalists to focus on themes of individual rights and the fight against social marginalization.
Transgender Issues in the Context of Perestroika
Perestroika introduced a new openness in discussing transgender issues, particularly within the medical and journalistic spheres. These discussions often paralleled debates about homosexuality, helping to demystify both topics. One of the first articles in the Soviet press that featured the direct speech of a transgender person for a broad audience appeared in August 1989—though I remain open to the possibility of earlier publications. This article, featured above, titled “Turn Me into a Man” and published in Vecherniaia Moskva, is groundbreaking for several reasons. Firstly, it challenges prevailing attitudes. The author of the article begins by contesting the dominant Soviet view that trans people were psychologically impaired. Instead, the piece asserts, “Transsexuals are psychologically normal people.” Secondly, the piece conveys a humanizing approach to trans experience. The article references individuals from various professions, including scholars, and reframes the issue as one pertaining to the “soul” (dusha), rather than pathology. Thirdly, the piece amplifies trans voices by providing a platform for trans individuals to share their experiences firsthand.
‘The open discussions of homosexuality during this period also brought to light issues related to previously silenced aspects of gender and sexual diversity.’
I want to share the aspect that struck me the most. When Soviet journalists wrote about trans people and gave them a voice, they sometimes concluded the articles with very personal details of their heroes. For example: Elena is a trans woman. She is married to Stepan. They are a normal Soviet family. They adopted a boy and a girl from an orphanage. Reading this in 2025 is striking, as it is now illegal for trans people in Russia to adopt children. Gender transition was banned in Russia in 2023, and even openly acknowledging one’s transgender identity is now prohibited. The Russian authorities see it as propaganda of abnormality and extremism.
Perestroika significantly altered the perception of transgender people. First, they became visible, at least within the pages of the Soviet press. Journalists and doctors played a key role in destigmatizing and depathologizing trans individuals, advocating for their right to receive medical care and be recognized as ordinary Soviet citizens. Moreover, trans people were not just subjects of journalistic focus; they often had the opportunity to voice their own experiences. This shift was framed by perestroika’s broader concepts, such as “lichnost’” (personhood), “dusha” (soul), happiness, and an emphasis on personal well-being and a more humane approach to individual problems.
The increasing visibility of transgender people in the late Soviet Union is just one dimension of the significant and largely overlooked by historians social changes of that era, which also included growing self-advocacy among homosexuals and a heightened demand for information about sex and sexuality, particularly in the context of the emerging HIV epidemic.
Dr Irina Roldugina is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Russian with research interests in the history of homosexuality in the USSR, history of HIV perception, queer visibility and activism in the late Soviet Union. To find out more about Irina’s project, Homo/sexuality, Intimacy, and Public Health: The HIV Epidemic in the Late Soviet Union, please contact i.roldugina@bristol.ac.uk.