Red closet

<p><b>A poignant and deeply researched history of gay oppression in the USSR.</b><br><br>In 1934 Joseph Stalin enacted sodomy laws unleashing a wave of brutal detentions of homosexual men in large Soviet cities.<br><br><i>Red closet </i>recounts the compelling stories of people whose lives were affected by those laws including a naïve Scottish journalist who dared to write to Stalin in an attempt to save his lover from prosecution and a homosexual theatre student who came to Moscow in pursuit of a career amid Stalin's harsh repressions and mass arrests. We also meet a fearless doctor in Siberia who provided medical treatment for gay men at his own peril and a much-loved Soviet singer who hid his homosexuality from the secret police.<br><br> Each story helps paint the hitherto unknown picture of how Soviet oppression of gay people originated and was perpetuated from Stalin's rule until the demise of the USSR.</p>