Medieval Russian Sexuality

This week I decided to read a Russian History blog that is supported by History professors from throughout the country. I went pretty far back into the blogs history because much of it is discussion between the authors about research topics much like H-Net but there is also a large amount of content that is strictly historical analysis. I decided to read a few posts that caught my interest titled "Policing Sexuality in Medieval Russia. The posts are written by a modern Russian historian who is working on a presentation regarding the topic of Medieval Russia and she draws parallels between the way that sexuality was handled in Medieval Russia versus the past 200 years. She talks about her research and says that it was common in Medieval Russia to use religion to police sexuality. Most commonly public humiliation was used to keep people away from promiscuity  Later this responsibility turned over to the state and then to the local government. This study "links cultural code with state governance". The author also suggests that this transition from religious to state rule over sexuality was due to Peter the Greats push to build the state. I found the historical content on this blog to be expansive and impressive. It is extremely helpful to know that blogs such as these exist for specific fields of history and that there are academic professionals who keep online accounts of their work.

http://russianhistoryblog.org/2012/03/policing-sexuality-in-medieval-russia/#more-2235