Russia's newest museum opened its doors on November 27. It may close them for good before the week is out.
The country's newly toughened legislation against so-called lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) "propaganda," which was passed by the State Duma -- the lower house of parliament -- in its final reading on November 24, is expected to become law by December 1, Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has said.
Under the law, Russia's first museum of LGBT culture would become illegal.
Visitors to the country's first museum of LGBT culture are greeted at the entrance by a portrait of composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, arguably the most prominent gay man of Russia's imperial period. It was during a visit to the Tchaikovsky house museum in Klin that LGBT activist and historian Pyotr Voskresensky got the idea of creating his own LGBT museum.
"The estate and the house interiors were completely scrubbed," Voskresensky recalled, noting that Russian authorities and social conservatives have long tried to deny Tchaikovsky's homosexuality. "There was no hint of the composer's personal life."
"The context of the opening of this museum is important," Voskresensky said, "because our country is in a period of its transformation into a total dictatorship, and it is being built on a new ideology in which history plays a key role. Our past is our future, according to the government. And this imaginary past contains only 'traditional values.' There were no LGBT people."
Voskresensky's small museum -- about three dozen artifacts including decorative items, jewelry, and books that he collected over many years -- aims to demonstrate that "there have been gays in Russia" for centuries. "Traditional values are more than just large, monogamous families," he said. "Queer people fit in there as well."
The new legislation would radically expand Russia's 2013 ban on LGBT "propaganda" to all audiences. It would further ban the spread of information "that might foster in minors the desire to change their gender." It would ban advertisements, films, books, art, and other materials that "propagandize nontraditional sexual relations or desires." Fines for violations would be significantly increased, reaching up to 800,000 rubles ($14,000) for individuals and, potentially, tens of millions of rubles for other legal entities.
According to Oleg Novikov, president of the Eksmo-AST publishing group, the vaguely written legislation could affect up to 50 percent of the books currently on the Russian market.
In addition, activists say, it could essentially legalize anti-gay speech and actions and potentially unleash vigilante violence just as the original 2013 law did.
SEE ALSO: 'Legalizing Homophobia': Russia's LGBT Community Braces For New Wave Of State-Sanctioned DiscriminationIn fact, Voskresensky says, it's a bit inaccurate to call his museum the country's first LGBT museum because a similar collection was displayed in St. Petersburg in the 19th century.
"What became of that collection is unknown," he said. "But we do know it was not unique and that there were several similar ones. People suppose they were destroyed by relatives who were trying to save the reputation of the collector or by the collectors themselves, who feared persecution by the authorities."
"Of course, we will survive any repression," Voskresensky told RFE/RL's North.Realities. "The museum itself is a monument to the fact that we have done so before. We survived the communists and [Soviet dictator Josef] Stalin. We survived the Nazis. We will survive all of them."
The museum's collection includes four cameos featuring portraits of Antinous, a Greek teenager who is widely believed to have been the lover of Roman Emperor Hadrian and whose image has become a symbol of male homosexuality. Two of the cameos, Voskresensky notes, were produced in the Soviet Union in the 1950s.
The collection includes a few contemporary art pieces, including a plaster portrait of Duma Deputy Vitaly Milonov, one of the proponents of the LGBT "propaganda" laws and an outspoken homophobe, wearing a bridal veil.
Vitaly Milonov with a bridal veil
If the law comes into effect, Voskresensky's museum will be closed, packed up, and hidden away. Most likely, he says, it will become a "museum in exile," a "refugee" in some more welcoming country until the exhibits can be shown again in Russia.
However, LGBT themes and figures will continue to be on display in St. Petersburg museums, including the renowned State Hermitage Museum, Voskresensky notes. Local activists have created an online guidebook to "queer art" in the Hermitage.
"Let them try to remove and ban it all," Voskresensky said. "They can't do it."