ABSTRACT
In Russia, there are two basic themes running through history when it comes to the issue of sex. On the one hand, there is Church, authorities, intelligentsiia, and their supporters, who each display degree of prudishness, albeit in different ways and for different reasons. On the other side, there are the narod who seem are alleged to be more open to sexuality. The conflict between these two forces is what this chapter will introduce. The attitude that caused a Soviet woman on a 1986 telebridge to exclaim to American and Soviet audiences that "There is no sex in the Soviet Union!" is same behavior that prevents Russian teenagers from considering untraditional living arrangements and that leads parents to condemn sex education in the schools. In the Russian folkloric tradition, there are many songs, spells, riddles, and chastushki with erotic content. The Russian Orthodox Church, for its part, took a dim view of the licentiousness that it associated with evil women.
