Red Closet

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEOPLE’S BOOK PRIZE 2023‘As President Putin ramps up his anti-queer attacks, this book is particularly timely and important. Alexander has done a superb job of telling the history of homosexuality in Russia since the Revolution, and his book deserves to be widely read.’Dennis Altman, author of Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation and Global Sex‘At a time when President Putin’s regime is viciously repressing Russia’s LGBTQ community and criminalizing anyone who speaks up about lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans lives, the appearance of this book is an important act of resistance. Red Closet brings to life stories of gay oppression in the Soviet Union and traces some of the roots of contemporary Russia’s homophobia.’Dan Healey, author of Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi ‘Rustam Alexander has undertaken rigorous archival research with great passion to produce a superb book. His narrative is refreshingly free of academic jargon and theory but Red Closet can be appreciated by a wide readership.’Stephen Bourne, author of Fighting Proud: The Untold Story of the Gay Men Who Served in Two World Wars‘In the world of academic writing in Slavic Studies, Alexander’s book is a fresh take on storytelling for all.(This) new book is a queer socialist historical thriller and a page-turner. It serves the drama (of which Soviet queer history has more than plenty) and does it in a way that makes the readers keep wanting more. And I cannot help but want to see more from this author.’The Russian Review‘A crucially important and highly readable account of the oppression of gay men and lesbians in the Soviet Union.’Siobhán Hearne, CEU Review of Books

Rustam Alexander is a historian and independent scholar who obtained his PhD from University of Melbourne. He is the author of Regulating homosexuality in Soviet Russia: A different history, 1956-91.