Gay Lives and 'Aversion Therapy' in Brezhnev's Russia, 1964-1982

This book examines the autobiographies and diaries of Soviet homosexual men who underwent psychotherapy during the period from 1970 to 1980 under the guidance of Yan Goland, a psychiatrist-sexopathologist from Gorky. The examination of these unique and little known documents contributes to our scant knowledge about the practices that many would call a Soviet proto-type of 'aversion therapy'. It also helps us understand the way homosexual people faced 'queer dilemmas' of the self and how they sought to reconcile their queer desire with being Soviet.

Rustam Alexander is a historian, specializing in Russia and the USSR, who received his PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Red Closet: The Hidden History of Gay Oppression in the USSR (2023) and Regulating Homosexuality in Soviet Russia, 1956-91: A Different History (2021). His work on the history of Soviet homosexuality has been published in Slavic Review, Russian History, Europe-Asia Studies and other academic journals.