Moscow
A Russian writer was charged with peddling pornography last week because one of his novels contains a scene in which Stalin and Krushchev have sex. Postmodernist writer Vladimir Sorokin’s 1999 novel, Blue Lard—in Russian, “blue” is slang for “gay”—was languishing on bookstore shelves until Moscow city prosecutors brought the charge. The resulting outcry against censorship has already generated record sales, and literary critics who don’t like Sorokin’s raunchy humor claim that the author engineered the controversy just to promote himself. It’s unlikely the case will go to trial, as the Russian government has called the city’s charges “erroneous and baseless.”
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