Venereal diseases in the military were extremely concerning for the Russian imperial authorities. This viewpoint examines responses to epidemic rates of venereal infection in one port of the Empire, the Port of Emperor Alexander III in Libava (now Karosta, near Liepāja in Latvia)

Brothels were everywhere in urban centres of the Russian Empire, and reactions to them were complicated and varied. This viewpoint focuses on one street in Vilnius in the early 1900s to examine the complex relationships between landlords, brothel madams, and the tsarist police.

The Russian imperial authorities struggled to regulate the bodies of its populace in the chaos, dislocation, and destruction of the First World War. This viewpoint explores this challenge using the case study of Evgeniia Trifonova, a woman who snuck into the military barracks at Krāslava disguised as a military nurse in order to sell sex.

What was a secret prostitute and why did the tsarist police deem them so concerning? This viewpoint answers these questions by examining an anonymous denunciation of a woman living at 25 Bol’shoi Prospekt in St Petersburg that was sent to the city police in 1905.