'Male Same-Sex Relations and the Court of Peter I. Turning Muscovite': Research, Book, Actualization

• In Event: Early Eastern European Queer: Sources, Interpretation, Visibility

Abstract

This paper presents my book “Male Same-Sex Relations and the Court of Peter I. Turning Muscovite” (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2024), written as part of my project “Dialogues, disputes and battles: propaganda during the Great Northern War 1700–1721” (funded by MSCA4Ukraine and European Union). In the book, I examine how Peter I’s homosexual behavior and male favoritism at his court were portrayed in compared Western and Russian sources of the time, and how this relates to historical myths, propaganda, and early modern othering tradition. The research demonstrates that when we talk about the (homo)sexuality of the early modern monarch, we are rather dealing with the idea of it, constructed by monarch’s contemporaries. Presenting my book, I hope to discuss it in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian War and the violation of LGBTQ+ rights in modern Russia.

Author

• Hanna Filipova, U of Gothenburg (Sweden)