Introduction

Gender identity, sexuality, ethnicity, social class provide analytical tools for a better understanding of culture. Human identity — always determined in specific places at specific times — can only be the object of study within a historical perspective. The chapters in this volume consider gender and sexuality as phenomena informing the post-Petrine, “modern” phase of Russian civilisation. Peter, who more than any other historical figure steered Russia towards the West and changed irreversibly his country's sense of identity, also forcefully impacted the consciousnesses of gender and sexuality; study of these in Russia has, however, been woefully neglected.