Male Same-Sex Relations and the Court of Peter I - Turning Muscovite

This book explores Peter I s same-sex relations, men s sociability and male favoritism at the royal court in the context of the Petrine myth, scenarios of power, propaganda and othering. The first part is devoted to sources, historiography, the theory of the topic, and the question of why there is still no research on the male same-sex relations of Peter I. The second part explores early modern Russian discussion of male same-sex relations. The third part examines how the motif of Russian male same-sex relations was used during the Great Northern War, 1700 1721 as a tool of German-Swedish anti-Russian propaganda. This book brings a Russian perspective and Eastern European sources into the field of European queer studies and discusses the possibility of considering the topic of non-normative sexuality of the monarch and elites in Petrine Russia in a global context, which has not been done before.

List of contents

Chapter 1. Introduction. "Peter the Gay"?.- Chapter 2. Russian view.- Chapter 3. Western view.- Chapter 4. Fornication and phiia of Alexander Meshikov. Chapter 5. Conclusion.

About the author

Hanna Filipova is Postdoctoral Researcher and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research and teaching interests include political ideology in early modern Russia, propaganda during the Great Northern War, 1700–1721, queer and gender in early modern Russia, and othering traditions in early modernity.

Product details

• Authors: Hanna Filipova
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.08.2025
• EAN: 9783031954801
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3195480-1
• No. of pages: 134
• Dimensions: 148 mm x 12 mm x 210 mm
• Weight: 290 g
• Illustrations: XI, 134 p.
• Series: Genders and Sexualities in History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte, Europäische Geschichte, Geschichte allgemein und Weltgeschichte, Queer Studies, Gender Studies: Gruppen, Homosexuality, World History, Global and Transnational History, History of Early Modern Europe, Russian, Soviet, and East European History, Women's History / History of Gender, Peter the Great, Russian Empire, ca. 1500 bis zur Gegenwart, royal history, Great Northern War