September 13th, 2017, 11:50hrs [UTC +2]
Budynok Uryadu 'Government Building'
Kiev, Ukraine SSR, USSR
For the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the past nine months had been particularly reminiscent of the 'good old days'. Ever since Khristofor Alexandrovich Zharkov rose from the position of KGB Chairman to the lofty heights of both Premier and General Secretary of the CPSU, the Soviet people had rediscovered their sense of national pride as the youngest leader in their history had thrown out the former Premier's policy of 'non-interference' and heartily embraced a policy of 'advantageous interference'. This policy had seen the Soviet invasion of the short-lived Republic of Marmara which straddled the Turkish Straits, resulting in the fulfilment of the long-held Russian and Soviet ambition to control the sole avenue of access between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Months of stage-managed negotiations between the Soviet government and the puppet regime installed in Constantinople had finally resulted in the creation of the Marmara SSR on August 4th 2017, meaning that Constantinople was now the capital of the Soviet Union's seventh member republic alongside the Ukraine SSR, Russian SFSR, Moldovan SSR, Georgian SSR, Armenian SSR, and Azerbaijan SSR. Premier Zharkov had also presided over the first of five planned expansion phases of the Soviet Armed Forces with 300,000 new personnel recruited and nearing the end of their training, putting the Soviet military at a current total of 3,300,000 personnel, as well as cutting the vastly expensive modernization program for the Akula-class SSBN in favour of constructing greater numbers of the newer and more cost-effective Borey-class SSBN to replace the aging Akula-class. It had become abundantly clear to the other nations of the world that when Premier Zharkov had talked about the "awakening of the Red Bear", he had not been making some idle threat. Of course this Soviet resurgence had not gone unanswered. The member states of the October Alliance had increased their military presence in strategic locations and stepped up monitoring of Soviet activities, but rather than respond with threats of military action Zharkov preferred to act as though nothing had changed. His hope was that the October Alliance would continue to build up and act in an attempt to gain a response, thus allowing him to portray the USSR as an innocent nation which was being 'bullied' simply because they had a different ideology.
As it was a Wednesday, the members of the Politburo had arrived at the rather Stalinist-style Budynok Uryadu building for their weekly meeting. While the majority of Politburo members had to navigate Kiev's late morning traffic in order to reach the administrative building, Premier Zharkov had no such issues as the Premierial residence, Mariyinsky Palace, was located a mere 940ft from Budynok Uryadu, just across Mykhailo Hrushevskyi Street. Due to the paranoid nature of certain previous Soviet leaders, Zharkov had the option of either being driven the short distance to Budynok Uryadu or using the underground tunnel network which connected Mariyinsky Palace to Budynok Uryadu and the Palace of the Supreme Soviet; on this particular September day it was proving to be rather warm so the Soviet Premier decided to take a stroll through the well-appointed and air-conditioned tunnels, passing various brightly painted murals before emerging in the KGB's monitoring room inside Budynok Uryadu. It was a testament to the professionalism of the KGB personnel on duty that none of them so much as batted an eyelid at the Premier's appearance as a bookcase swung open to reveal him and his ever-present aide, Stepan Krylenko. As they made their way to the Politburo's meeting chambers the pair encountered several members of the building's clerical staff, all of whom nodded respectfully and subsequently received a polite greeting from Zharkov. Upon reaching the Politburo's conference room Krylenko pushed the double doors open and then stood aside as Zharkov entered to be greeted by the rest of the Politburo; Zharkov took his seat at the head of the expansive oak table while Krylenko closed the doors, although the meeting itself did not get underway until Krylenko had prepared Zharkov's trademark glass of tea and placed it in front of the Soviet leader.
After the Politburo membership had presented reports on their individual areas of responsibility and various administrative issues had been discussed, the time came for 'any new business'. At this point Zharkov cleared his throat to address the rest of the Soviet leadership.
"Comrades, it has been almost nine months since I assumed the position of Premier and I think you will all agree that the Soviet Union has achieved a great deal during that time. I think it is safe to say that I have passed any probationary period that any of you had in mind, so I would like to move forward with my vision for the Union and the Soviet people. I suppose you could call it my 'grand design'."
There were various murmurs of assent from the gathered Politburo membership before Marshal Andrey Dvornikov, the Defense Minister, spoke up. "Comrade Premier, you have indeed proven yourself to be far more capable than many of your predecessors. You have been an unsurpassable success as Premier and I speak for all of us when I say that we are most intrigued to hear your vision."
Zharkov smirked slightly. "Easy for you to say, Comrade Marshal, as you already know what this is about."
He paused to sip at his tea while Dvornikov grinned at the rest of the Politburo, loving the fact that he was the only one who knew what was coming. Zharkov then set his tea down and clasped his hands on the table before him.
"Comrades, the USSR has always prided herself on being a forward-thinking and visionary nation, we are the epitome of revolutionary success. However...there are areas where we have allowed ourselves to fall behind the rest of the world, and this must be rectified. My grand design sees the Soviet Union truly becoming a beacon for the other socialists, communists, and other leftists throughout the world, and we shall start with one issue in particular. Homosexuality.
"I do not believe that any of you require a history lesson, but the old Tsarist regime criminalised same-sex activity on grounds of what they called 'morality', undoubtedly guided by the Orthodox Church in the process. When the Tsarists were overthrown and the Bolsheviks took control, same-sex activity was decriminalised. In fact, Georgy Chicherin, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs at the time, was openly gay. His hard work kept the rest of the world from assaulting us at a time when we needed to stabilise, but then in 1933 Stalin recriminalised homosexuality. This was after Soviet science had turned on its head, mostly due to Comrade Stalin's influence, switching from the idea of homosexuality as a natural part of human sexuality to the idea that homosexuality is a mental or physical illness. The recriminalisation proved most useful for Comrade Stalin as it gave him and the NKVD yet another charge to direct towards potential enemies, and no subsequent Soviet leader has bothered to change anything. I believe that it is well past time for us to do away with such an archaic piece of legislation."
Zharkov paused and quickly evaluated the facial expressions of the Politburo members before continuing.
"There has not been an evaluation of homosexuality by our scientific community for quite some time. So we shall say that one has been conducted and that it's been ongoing since January. The finding shall be that same-sex attraction is indeed a natural part of human sexuality, and therefore we shall decriminalise same-sex relations between men and set their age of consent at 16, the same as heterosexual relations. Thanks to the rather unique findings of previous evaluations we do not need to decriminalise same-sex relations between women because lesbianism was deemed not to exist, even though it quite obviously does, so we shall formally equalise that as well as there is currently no legislation concerning lesbianism at all. We will then follow up on that by legalising same-sex marriage but only in civic ceremonies; I do not intend to force this upon the Orthodox Church, not yet anyway.
"In my opinion this is an acutely needed reform. We no longer require 'homosexuality' as a reason for arresting dissidents or other enemies of the state because we can easily apply a myriad of other charges. There is little need for us to police the bedroom activities of the Soviet people as long as they are not harming anyone; obviously pedophilia will continue to be ruthlessly purged from our society. The current legislation seems to confuse homosexuality with pedophilia, and that means that there is a distinction which we must legally identify. By implementing this reform we shall be returning to how things were under Lenin and expanding upon that, but obviously if you believe that Lenin was wrong then you can state your opposition to this idea."
There was silence as Zharkov sipped at his tea once again.
"This reform will also offer assistance to our overseas supporters. At present it is far too easy for left-leaning intellectuals and our political brethren to be ridiculed for supporting the USSR because the criminalisation of homosexuality flies in the face of the ideology of equality. By decriminalising same-sex relations, we are demonstrating that the Soviet people have abandoned discrimination on grounds of ethnicity and sexuality, thus proving that the USSR is indeed a nation to be emulated. We would of course be revising and strengthening legislation against hate crimes, rape, and the like to take account of this change as well. So as you can all see, it would not only benefit individual Soviet citizens who would be free to love and marry who they wish, it will also benefit the Soviet Union as a whole by removing a valid criticism from the arsenal of our enemies and providing a new weapon for the arsenal of our proponents.
"Now, I am aware that the Islamic Front of Ichkeria may try to use this as another reason to attack us for our 'Godlessness', so I want the KGB and the MVD to step up their monitoring of potential terror suspects. Religious doctrine is far more harmful to Soviet society than consensual sex ever could be, when was the last time a gay man bombed a block of flats in the USSR? Precisely, never. Besides, without sounding too crass, from my time as KGB Chairman I know that at least one of you at this table might well appreciate this change in the law."
A wry smile flickered across Zharkov's features after that comment, and he pulled his spectacles to perch on the end of his nose before continuing, gazing at the rest of the Politburo like a teacher inspecting his students.
"Let's put it to the vote. Can I assume that the decriminalisation of same-sex activity and the subsequent legalisation of same-sex marriage is approved?"
As the Politburo tended to operate on the principle of 'unanimous consent', the idea was that members were asked if a proposal was approved, and if no-one spoke up then the proposal passed. The continued silence from the Politburo members over the next few seconds evidently impressed Zharkov, who nodded his head approvingly.
"Then by unanimous decision, we shall proceed with the proposal. Incidentally, I do not intend to rush this all into law immediately. We shall publish the findings of the evaluation, the state media will discuss it and remind everyone of the fact that Lenin decriminalised same-sex relations, then we can announce the decriminalisation on November 12th, which would be the 145th anniversary of Chicherin's birth...so state media will also make sure to remind the Soviet people of his contributions ahead of that occasion. We will also rename the town of Kirsanov in Tambov Oblast to 'Chicherinov' as that is as close to his birthplace as possible."
