Prostitution

Categories / Population/Professional Groups
PROSTITUTION, the rendering of sexual services in return for money. In the 18th to the early 19th century, prostitution in St. Petersburg existed illegally; owners of brothels were foreigners. After its legalisation in 1843, prostitution came under the authority of the Medical-Police Committee attached to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1844, rules were established for brothel owners and prostitutes, which in 1861 were changed and added to (in part, defining their locations, where it was forbidden for prostitutes to appear: Nevsky Prospect , the Passage, Liteiny Avenue and a few other streets in the centre of St. Petersburg). In 1852, 152 public houses were working in St. Petersburg with 884 women, in 1909 - 32 public houses and 322 women. In different years brothels were located on Suvorovsky Avenue (formerly Slonovaya Street), in the area of Sennaya Square, in the 1860s-80s the so-called Vyazemskie slums (located at 4 and 6 Moskovsky Avenue were famous, this fame declined in the 1890s). Many prostitutes worked individually, in 1883 there were approximately 3,500, in 1909 - 2,500. From the 1860s in St. Petersburg there were the "Houses of Meetings" (in 1910 only two remained). After October 1917 prostitution became subject to legislation concerning criminal activity. In the period of the Civil War the police made raids on prostitutes, evicting those arrested from the city. Nonetheless in 1927, there were 3,800 prostitutes in St. Petersburg, in 1935-36 - 2,300 (taking into account only professionals and convicted prostitutes). In 1929, following the publication of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Assembly of Peoples' Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federation Socialist Republic "On measures for the struggle with Prostitution", measures were taken for its liquidation. In Leningrad it was suggested to organise quarters and work with a special regime for unemployed women. In the 1970s-80s in connection with the growing number of foreign tourists to Leningrad and the growth of "currency" prostitution, brought to prostitutes significant financial income. In contemporary St. Petersburg prostitution remains illegal. In the mid 1990s there were approximately 5,000 professional prostitutes (individuals whose primary form of income was prostitution in the course of a five year period).

References: Афанасьев В. С., Скоробогатов С. В. Проституция в современном Санкт-Петербурге // Петербург начала 90-х: Безумный, холодный, жестокий... СПб., 1994. С. 105-110; Лебина Н. Б., Шкаровский М. В. Проституция в Петербурге (40-е гг. XIX в.-40-е гг. ХХ в.). М., 1994.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Liteiny Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Moskovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 6
Moskovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 4
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city
Sennaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Suvorovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Шкаровский М. В., Лебина Н. Б. Проституция в Петербурге (40-е гг. XIX в. - 40-е гг. ХХ в.). М., 1994
Афанасьев В. С., Скоробогатов С. В. Проституция в современном Санкт-Петербурге // Петербург начала 90-х: Безумный, холодный, жестокий... СПб., 1994 Ministry of Internal Affairs
Passage, department store