Why the surprise? The Russian CP are basically unreformed Stalinists. Under Lenin in early years of revolutionary socialism, homosexuality was decriminalised. Of course under the Stalinist Thermador it was fully recriminalised in 1933.
This is a common myth, and while technically true in some ways the overall gist of what you’re saying is totally bs. Being gay was “decriminalized” because the abolished the entirety of the tsarist legal code. This idea that lenin was some firebrand social liberal who was as progressive as socialists 100 years later is just not true, just as the idea that Stalin was this right wing conservative was bs.
Lenin was extremely progressive overall for his time as was Stalin, women’s liberation and empowerment was no joke in the USSR for it’s time for example. But when Marxists in the 2020s talk like Lenin was some warrior for gay Folk I have to cringe a little bit. It’s almost like many western leftists see Lenin as a “pure” socialist and project their moderm values and knowledge onto him, while stalin was the antithesis to that and he was just a strong man of sorts. The main difference in reality was the material conditions they were working with. Yes, under Stalin for a period abortion was made illegal with some exceptions, but I’d bet the same would happen under Lenin if 20%+ of the population was killed in a Nazi invasion.
Why the surprise? The Russian CP are basically unreformed Stalinists. Under Lenin in early years of revolutionary socialism, homosexuality was decriminalised. Of course under the Stalinist Thermador it was fully recriminalised in 1933.
This is a common myth, and while technically true in some ways the overall gist of what you’re saying is totally bs. Being gay was “decriminalized” because the abolished the entirety of the tsarist legal code. This idea that lenin was some firebrand social liberal who was as progressive as socialists 100 years later is just not true, just as the idea that Stalin was this right wing conservative was bs.
Lenin was extremely progressive overall for his time as was Stalin, women’s liberation and empowerment was no joke in the USSR for it’s time for example. But when Marxists in the 2020s talk like Lenin was some warrior for gay Folk I have to cringe a little bit. It’s almost like many western leftists see Lenin as a “pure” socialist and project their moderm values and knowledge onto him, while stalin was the antithesis to that and he was just a strong man of sorts. The main difference in reality was the material conditions they were working with. Yes, under Stalin for a period abortion was made illegal with some exceptions, but I’d bet the same would happen under Lenin if 20%+ of the population was killed in a Nazi invasion.