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.

The construction of the Trans-Siberian railway increased the visibility of prostitution in Siberia. This viewpoint explores the impact of transportation development and war on efforts to police prostitution in the Siberian region.

Pause on the Anichkov bridge to take in the distinctive architecture of Petersburg, and consider how the city itself could thematise looking.