Archangelsk Gay Information Pool

Archangelsk Gay Information Pool

Archangelsk is situated on the North West part of RUSSIA. It´s population is 400.000 people. The history of this area is more than 400 years. Archangelsk was the first Russian seaport.

Our town is famous for pulp and paper industry, wooden industry and shipping business. It´s more close to the Scandinavian countries than to big cities of Russia. Compared with bigger cities the northern people are more conservative and traditional.

Gay Archangelsk

HISTORY:

Gay Archangelsk has a long history. Before the revolution there were a few special places for sailors where they were able to find boys. After the revolution in 1917, when the law forbid homosexual acts, a lot of gays and lesbians were in the camps (from 1927 till 1956 Archangelsk region was a "prison" region).

There were a few places were gays met each other before the article 121 of the criminal code was repealed. One of them is Petrovsky Park in the centre of the city.

Homosexuality is legal in Russia from 1993. Society attitude becomes better (in 1994 about 40% of the people answered that gay life is not a crime, in 1998 about 80 % answered that gay life is not a crime).

The sexual revolution came with Gorbachov and the changes have led to results: more and more young people are free in their mind. It is very important in a region where traditional Russian orthodox church have a strong position.

TODAY:

Nowadays Gay Archangelsk has a newspaper called "Gubernia" with free advertisements and announcements where letters from gays and lesbians are not so rare.

In august 1997 three Archangelsk boys tried to organize a gay party in the discoteque "Music Hammer" (ex-cafe "Neptun"). This party never happened, but it was nevertheless the start.

In 1998 two groups tried to start regular gay parties. And in October the 30th 1998 in the disco bar "Snezhok"" the first gay party in Archangelsk´s history was arranged. The organizers under the leadership of famous local DJ and a local journalist hope to arrange gay parties regular in the future.

The second project is to arrange youth gay club in the discoteque "Fruct".

We need money for information and contacts. We hope to start a gay organization to educate people and to develop our site in the internet.

For contact please use e-mail to RFSL Nord in Sweden: polarstar@ilga.org

Russki

Goluboi Arhangelsk vihodit na svyaz!

Nas mnogo i mi vesde. Mi ochen dolgo zhdali, a teper vishli is ... na.... Menya sovut Leonid, ya okasalsya v Shvecii i reshil sayavit vsemu miru o golubom Arhangelske. Poca chto eta stranichka sushstvuet na serevere RFSL Nord, no kogda ya vernus...

Vam budet interesno usnat, kto zhe my? V osnovnom studenti, hotya est i drugie rasnovidnosti typa DJ-ev, jurnalistov, disainerov, tancorov, programmistov i balbesov. Nam po 17-25 let, mi lubim Komputeri, musicu i literaturu. Pishite nam, a mi vam rasskazhem o nas.

Chto kasayetsya menya lichno, to ya hochu zavernut v Arhangelske gay klub. Esche ya rad novim ludyam, hotya mne s vami ne trahatsya (SEICHAS YA V BOLSHOI LUBVI)... Hochu ya, naconec, chtobi nashi mestnye pediki priobshalis k kulture i nahodili bi sebe pari...

Povtoryau; menya sovut Leonid!

Some gay and lesbian links:

Archangelsk Gay Message board

Murmansk Organization "the CIRCLE"

Circle´s link page to Russian Gay world

Some non gay links to Archangelsk:

http://www.beafc.com/beafc-rus/link3.archangel.html

http://www.beafc.com/beafc-rus/Link5.archangel.loc.beafc.html

Archangelsk city (above) - World war II monument in Archangelsk (below)