Greetings from Berlin!

Инструменты шантажа и провокаций. "Однополые ловушки" КГБ Историк Ирина Ролдугина исследует спецоперации КГБ, шантажировавшего иностранцев, которые вступали с советскими гражданами (как правило, агентами спецслужб) в однополые связи. Статья, посвященная подо...

My interview for Radio Liberty about my piece on same-sex entrapment and Soviet queer history in general.

muse.jhu.edu/pub/28/artic...

My other article is out in @kritikajournal.bsky.social. In it, I show how, after Stalin’s death, leftist queer people in the West forged and demonstrated forms of queer kinship with their counterparts in the USSR. It is a new lens on the study of Soviet queer life, moving beyond national narrative⬇️

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow @mozzgi.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social talks about her recent article in this podcast. Tune in 👇

Read here: direct.mit.edu/jcws/article...

KGB Same-Sex Honey Traps

KGB, Cold War, Same-Sex Entrapment. Also available on Spotify.

KGB Same-Sex Honey Traps | The Eurasian Knot Get more from The Eurasian Knot on Patreon

I spoke at The Eurasian Knot about my piece on same-sex entrapment.

A book cover with a poster at center showing a woman in a purple skirt, orange top, and black boots waving to a distant crowd, opposite a taller looming woman in white. At bottom is the book title, Circulating Subjects, in black and at top is the author's name, Philippa Hetherington, in orange type.

An incredible cover has landed for an incredible book - Philippa Hetherington's "Circulating Subjects: Sex Work and Migration in Russia, 1885–1935."

More on how to pre-order a copy of her "riveting" and "radical" @cornellupress.bsky.social book here: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

He knew that even if he avoided prosecution in Russia, his life would turn into hell if the KGB shared the photos with the UK press or the authorities.
direct.mit.edu/jcws/article...

John Vassall did have diplomatic immunity when he was approached by the KGB in Moscow in 1955 and shown photos of him having sex with a Soviet man. He could have left, but he did not.

good question ) I don’t know

Indeed.

The Cold War and the Soviet KGB's Same-Sex Entrapment Operations in the 1950s and 1960s: The Perpetrator in Focus In August 1963, The New York Times informed its readers that a U.S. citizen had been arrested in the USSR.1 According to the newspaper, the Soviet travel agency Intourist had announced that Bernard L....

I have authored quite a few scholarly articles, but this was the most exciting and the most gruelling piece I have ever written. I think I left part of my soul in it when I submitted it a year ago. And my only wish is that people, regardless of their specialisation, read it.

Thank you for noticing it. For me, footnotes have never been just a technical feature but another way to complement the story with tiny details that would be superfluous in the main body.

The Cold War and the Soviet KGB's Same-Sex Entrapment Operations in the 1950s and 1960s: The Perpetrator in Focus In August 1963, The New York Times informed its readers that a U.S. citizen had been arrested in the USSR.1 According to the newspaper, the Soviet travel agency Intourist had announced that Bernard L....

In the story I tell, there were two Soviet homosexual men whom the KGB blackmailed into working with them under the threat of arrest for a same-sex offence. They were a couple. Read the piece to learn more direct.mit.edu/jcws/article...?

Yes, I prefer top secrets only.

This is a photo of a couple: a Soviet electrician, Tolya, and his partner, one of the Cambridge Five, Guy Burgess, in Moscow. They lived together until Burgess’s death in 1963. If you want to learn more about the KGB, the Cold War and homophobia, read my new piece.
direct.mit.edu/jcws/article...

The Cold War and the Soviet KGB's Same-Sex Entrapment Operations in the 1950s and 1960s: The Perpetrator in Focus In August 1963, The New York Times informed its readers that a U.S. citizen had been arrested in the USSR.1 According to the newspaper, the Soviet travel agency Intourist had announced that Bernard L....

One section of the article unfolds in Kyiv. There the KGB officer was working over an American slavic scholar, showing him compromising photos and trying to persuade to cooperate. During the breaks he walked with scholar on excursions to Saint Sophia Cathedral and to the grave of Taras Shevchenko.

Congrats on your new published piece as well! I downloaded it yesterday and look forward to reading it. You made me interested in WW1 and the Red Army.

This research is funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk

The Cold War and the Soviet KGB's Same-Sex Entrapment Operations in the 1950s and 1960s: The Perpetrator in Focus In August 1963, The New York Times informed its readers that a U.S. citizen had been arrested in the USSR.1 According to the newspaper, the Soviet travel agency Intourist had announced that Bernard L....

This is my first article on Soviet history relied exclusively on declassified American and British archives. It is also my first piece to be reviewed by five peer reviewers. The story of the Cold War, the KGB, and same-sex entrapment that no one has ever written about.
direct.mit.edu/jcws/article...

#ICYMI: Dr Irina Roldugina (Russian Dept) returned to Arts Matter to tell us about a fascinating late Cold War encounter between Western queer individuals and the Soviet Union

Read more 👉 brnw.ch/21wZwbk

@lgbthm.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk @mozzgi.bsky.social
#LGBTplusHM

Did you know that the largest model of Tatlin’s Tower, the symbol of the new communist present and future, is in Norwich, UK? I didn’t. Interestingly, I learned this while attending a conference dedicated to 1917 in Norwich.

Wooow! Congrats🙌

Published in the October 2025 issue!
“The Recriminalization of Homosexuality under Stalin: New Sources, New Answers”
Irina Roldugina
*Open Access*
doi.org/10.1111/russ...

I’ve submitted a few pieces for publication recently, but one stands out—it’s truly mind-blowing in terms of sources, argument, and public significance. A tough topic, but what a joy for historian to make something truly important.

I can’t help but post one more—such harmony in every detail.

Working in the Bodleian for the first time since graduation! Nothing has changed. My favourite thing, apart from the vast collection, is the scent of books and the smell of aged wood used throughout the interior. Cannot be found elsewhere.

I miss working with 18th-century Russian archival stuff.