Description
Book SynopsisIn an effort to modernize criminal and civil investigations, early Bolsheviks gave forensic doctorsmost of whom had been trained under the tsarist regimenew authority over issues of sexuality. Revolutionaries believed that forensic medicine could provide scientific and objective solutions to sexual disorder in the new society. Bolshevik Sexual Forensics explores the institutional history of Russian and Soviet forensic medicine and examines the effects of its authority when confronting sexual disorder. Healey compares sex crime investigations from Petrograd and Sverdlovsk in the 1920s to the numerous publications by forensic doctors and psychiatrists of the prerevolutionary and early Soviet periods to illustrate the role that these specialists played. In addition, Healey presents a fascinating look at how doctors diagnosed and treated hermaphroditism, showing how Soviet physicians revolutionized the standard scientific view in these cases by taking into account individu
Trade Review
Healey's book contains much that will be of interest to historians of sexuality.
* American Historical Review *
In this fascinating study Dan Healey goes beyond the 'axiomatic' view that Russia experienced a liberating 'sexual revolution' in 1917, to be followed by retrenchment and reaction under Stalin. Healey presents a much richer and more nuanced picture of how sexual questions were really affected by the revolution and its aftermath.
* European History Quarterly *
In this fine book, Dan Healey provides the first historical examination of Soviet forensic medicine's entanglement in matters concerning sexual maturity, violence, and identity, exposes a range of scientific practices surrounding human sexuality, and offers glimpses of ordinary people who had to navigate the medico-legal terrain being mapped out by the experts.
* Bulletin of the History of Medicine *
With its clear arguments and excellent sections providing context for both Russia and the world, this book is a must for those interested in the revolutionary era and would be a superb addition to undergraduate and graduate courses in gender, medical, and Soviet history.
* Slavic Review *
The story that emerges is a compelling one, made more engaging by Healey's clean, crisp prose and his excellent preparatory digest of the institutional and ideological factors which shaped the operative discourses of the revolutionary environment.
* European Historical Review *
Table of ContentsTable of Contents
Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Bolshevik Medicine and Russia's "Sexual Revolution"
Chapter 1: Soviet Doctors and Bolshevik Justice
Chapter 2: Sexual Maturity and the Threshold of Sexual Citizenship
Chapter 3: Soviet Medicine and Rape as a Crime of Everyday Life
Chapter 4: Doctors of the Mind and Sex Crime
Chapter 5: Bodies in Search of a Sex
Conclusion: Reflections on the Fate of a Sexual Revolution
Notes
Bibliography
Index
