Alex Averbuch, Postdoctoral Fellow, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
Moderator: Daria Khitrova, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

In late December 2023, fifty years after the scandalous prosecution of the antisodomy case against Sergei Paradzhanov, one of the best-known Soviet-Ukrainian film producers, the Ukrainian authorities officially exonerated him. In this presentation, I will introduce hitherto unknown archival materials from his prosecution file. This talk will discuss how the Soviet Ukrainian authorities employed sexual dissent as a pretext for political purging. I will analyze how the Soviet Union inherited Russian imperial approaches to pathologizing queer people, and how the latter resisted oppression and managed to maintain queer life in Ukraine and the USSR at large.

Refreshments will be provided.

Co-sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

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