“Florinsky’s Ghost”: The Soviet “Pervert Purge” as Prelude to Stalin’s Terror

In 1934, Dmitri Florinsky, the Soviet Chief of Protocol was arrested and sent to a gulag, part of a purge of homosexuals from the Soviet regime. Well-liked by foreign diplomats in Moscow, Florinsky suffered from observers who criticized his effeminate and fawning mannerisms as a ghostly caricature of a morally bankrupt system, yet he resisted cultural biases and survived longer than one might expect. The “cleaning” of homosexual officials followed a similar purge in Nazi Germany, after mutual accusations about homosexual spies, and served as a precursor to the “Great Purge.” 15 years later, the fear of homosexual blackmail led some members of the US Congress to fear an assault on national security. Paralleling its reaction to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of communists in the State Department, the US government initiated what the press dubbed the “pervert purge.” Each nation’s “pervert purges” responded to fears of espionage and paralleled the headline-grabbing political “witch hunts.” Whether in Stalin’s 1930s purges or in Cold-War America, the homosexual purges were a vital, cultural pillar to a full understanding of “security” issues. Russian institutionalization of homophobia proved a clear, early stage in cementing repressive leadership both under Stalin in the 1930s as well as under Putin in the 2010s. Florinsky’s story illustrates how gender/sexuality analysis is vital to any “political” study and compels historians to reexamine both the history of Russia’s 1930s purges and the role of institutionalized homophobia as a key pillar in the architecture of authoritarian rule.