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Description of  Bolshevik Sexual Forensics: Diagnosing Disorder in the Clinic and Courtroom, 1917 1939 (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies)

In an effort to modernize criminal and civil investigations, early Bolsheviks gave forensic doctorsmost of whom had been trained under the tsarist regimenew authority over issues of sexuality. Revolutionaries believed that forensic medicine could provide scientific and objective solutions to sexual disorder in the new society. Bolshevik Sexual Forensics explores the institutional history of Russian and Soviet forensic medicine and examines the effects of its authority when confronting sexual disorder. Healey compares sex crime investigations from Petrograd and Sverdlovsk in the 1920s to the numerous publications by forensic doctors and psychiatrists of the prerevolutionary and early Soviet periods to illustrate the role that these specialists played. In addition, Healey presents a fascinating look at how doctors diagnosed and treated hermaphroditism, showing how Soviet physicians revolutionized the standard scientific view in these cases by taking into account individual desire. Read more