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Cracks in the Iron Closet

Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia

David Tuller provides the first look into the emotional and sexual lives of Russian lesbians and gays and the pervasive influence of the state on gay life. Part travelogue, part social history, and part journalistic inquiry, the book challenges our assumptions about what it means to be gay. The book also explores key issues in Russia and Soviet life, including concepts of friendship, community, gender, love, fate, and the relationship between the public and private spheres.

"Tuller’s observant reporting and personal experiences make for absorbing reading: the human comedy rendered in unexpected ways."—New Yorker

"Anyone who thinks San Francisco is the world capital of sexual polymorphism should read this book."—Adam Goodheart, Washington Post

"[This book is] is profoundly moving."—Jim Van Buskirk, San Francisco Chronicle

328 pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 | © 1997

Gay and Lesbian Studies

Gender and Sexuality

Table of Contents

Forward by Frank Browning
Acknowledgments
Prologue: "Sex ... Is Freedom"
1.Broken Romance
2.A Moscow Frame of Mind
3.Adventures of a Dacha Sex Spy
4.Fate and Scandals, Drink and Democracy
5.A Little Bit of History
6.Paranoia and Community
7.Prisoners of Love
8.Sex Spy in the Suburbs
9.Transexual Nation
10.Adventures of a Dacha Sex Spy (II)
11.East and West and Zhirinovsky
12.AIDS of the Russion Soul
13.Theories, Theories, Theories
14.Travels in Gay and Lesbian Siberia
15.Public Faces, Private Lives
16.Adventures of a Dacha Sex Spy (III)
Epilogue: Photo at Peredelkino
Notes
Bibliography

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