Selling love in the USSR: Because of what prosperous and wealthy Soviet women went to the "panel"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On the ruins of the bourgeois system they dreamed of creating a new society, where vices like venal love would have no place. They tried to eradicate the phenomenon by terror, harsh punishments and even re-education in the spirit of loyalty to the ideas of communism. In all cases, the fighters for morality faced failure, prostitution in one form or another still existed. The honest labor alternative did not appeal to women who were accustomed to receiving benefits for much less effort.

Communism - the grave of prostitution

In the twenties, the leaders of the revolution set the task of eliminating venal love while creating new relationships between the sexes. In 1917 there were tens of thousands of prostitutes in Russia. According to Lenin and Dzerzhinsky, they should have been mass shot for the decomposition of the revolutionary workers and the spread of bad diseases. From Lenin's telegram: "Shoot hundreds of prostitutes who drink soldiers … Not a minute of delay!" Inhabitants of brothels became victims of terror.

But the demand for sex did not disappear; instead of priestesses of venal love, it was proposed to use ideological and class close Komsomol members. At regular meetings, evenings, after reading and discussing the classics of Marxism and the works of Lenin, they routinely engaged in public sex. Girlfriends in the youth organization successfully replaced prostitutes, at the same time completely free of charge. At the same time, the opinion and age of the girls themselves did not interest anyone - they are not some kind of bourgeois bourgeois prejudices!

In practice, this resulted in permissiveness, rampant debauchery, cruel attitude towards women as an object of satisfying physiological needs. For the refusal of "free love", at best, they were expelled from the Komsomol, but there were beatings and even murders. Rape has become widespread. The lawlessness had to be stopped by the police and the military. The sexual revolution was brutally suppressed. Free proletarian sex as an alternative to selling love has failed shamefully.

The fight against prostitution, which was "destroyed", continued with humane methods

Trotsky and Lunacharsky considered prostitutes to be an exploited group under tsarism, capable of becoming socially close to the proletariat. It was only necessary to convince them of this and educate them in moral communist ideals. To solve such an important task, a Central Council was even created, which oversaw all areas of work: the creation of vendispensaries, registration - including through requests for treatment - of former corrupt women, the establishment of medical and labor dispensaries, to which they came voluntarily - they fed here and gave housing, and the time was hungry. After the rehabilitation course, women were placed in factories - the labor and agitation of the leading workers had to complete the process of correction. In fact, it often turned out the other way around - the girls wanted more money in return for their services, which seemed easier to work in the shops.

During the NEP, the number of women of easy virtue increased greatly - effective demand increased. Even the wives of prosperous Soviet employees were involved in brothels. Pimps thrived - cruel punishments did not diminish their numbers. It was not possible to destroy the priestesses of love - then the word prostitution was abolished, which was declared an exclusively bourgeois vice.

Debauchery flourished during the cruel Stalinist times

Prostitution never disappeared from Soviet reality, but the police reports featured phrases: "women of easy virtue", "asocial elements." Corrupt women of the lower category were looking for clients at train stations, transport stops, in popular city parks. They all worked for pimps, who took most of the proceeds from their charges. The girls' "owners" distributed the "working" areas, monitored their safety.

Higher ranked sex workers served clients in restaurant offices and in the back rooms of expensive shops. The Torgsin network, which appeared during the period of industrialization, with scarce goods and products for foreigners, offered "girls" for foreign currency in specially equipped rooms.

For some women, prostitution was the main source of income, while others worked part-time after their main job or on weekends. There were also agents of the OGPU among the workers of the sexual sphere.

NKVD workers often supervised "high-class" brothels for officials of different levels. These establishments masqueraded as executive clubs. Holders of high positions arranged for themselves a vacation with booze and women for comfort, as they considered themselves unpunished. The main economic manager of the Kremlin, Abel Yenukidze, set an example of the most unbridled debauchery: a team of assistants selected and brought him girls. The caretaker was the curator of the Bolshoi Theater, was fond of young ballerinas and actresses. In 1937, Yenukidze was shot for a combination of sins before the party, among other things he was charged with patronizing female terrorists from among his "girlfriends". But "party members" like Abel were never translated.

"Public apartments" and brothels for the party elite

In the 1970-1980s, a group of wealthy elite prostitutes was formed, serving wealthy clients with a decent position in society - party leaders, high-ranking officials, and the military of the highest echelon. They did not ignore the "ladies of the half world" and thieves in law.

Expensive foreign exchange prostitutes were also often well-arranged: they had a decent job, a family. But I wanted a lot of money, of which "there is never enough", scarce material goods, inaccessible to mere mortals for rubles in any quantities.

For the high party and Komsomol leadership, there was also a group of specially selected Komsomol members. Violations of Soviet morality at all levels of leadership existed not only in the capitals. Here positions, special monetary awards, living space in houses of the best category, vouchers to elite sanatoriums and abroad, places in prestigious universities were distributed. The benefits went to leaders of different levels, members of their families, heartfelt friends and serving girls-Komsomol members. Career advancement was also included in the “service” fee. Komsomol bosses were more popular with girls - young people, nevertheless, but those who once embarked on this path did not have to choose.

In the late 80s, books, articles in the media and other revelations appeared. Films were also shot, the most popular of which was Todorovsky's Intergirl. The disclosures of high officials did not, of course, reach the press and screens. For all workers of the party apparatus there was an unspoken subscription not to disclose any information, and there were no mobile phones with video cameras at that time.

Brothels also worked in the Russian Empire. Their rules and internal etiquette were very curious.