Two decades after the Soviet modesty, the Russians still feel ashamed to adopt European-style sexual morality

After the half-naked woman who danced in a cage and perched on the heels transvestite eight inches, Ksenia Borisova was trying to attract the attention of passersby. Its products were positioned perfectly, with colorful instruction manuals, but after five years in the business, she still had difficulty attracting much interest. As always, sex toys are a tough sell in Russia.

"We must try to clarify the customers," said Ksenia, owner of Erotic Fantasy, an equipment supplier in Russia close. "Nobody knows anything: what is a lubricant, a vibrator that is necessary, how to use vaginal balls."

Other vendors in a recent convention for fri shop owners in Moscow were equally incensed.

Two decades after the puritanism imposed by the government ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russians are still shy away from embracing the sexual mores of Europe. Despite an explosion of lawlessness in the early 1990s, when pornography and prostitution have increased throughout the country, the sexual revolution never really happened on Russian soil.

Of course, the sexual innuendo is common in television and magazines as well as the provocative clothing worn by women on the streets. Advertisements with models of breast fed long replaced the posters of square-jawed women cutting wheat. But when they go into the bedroom, Borisova and others said, tastes tend toward neutral taste. "There is simply no sexual culture, no," said Nadezhda Dovgal, one of the organizers of the convention fri shops, called X'Show. "People are still ashamed."

This is partly a legacy of the Soviet era, said. The Soviet government tried to direct any conversation about sex under the covers, leaving public life effectively neutralized. The lack of private space, especially in communal apartments in big cities, further limiting the possibility of sexual encounters. "There's no sex in the USSR" was a satirical slogan adopted at the time of perestroika.

"We always had sex, but the information on this topic was practically nonexistent," said Yelena Khanga, who presented the first program of the Russian TV about sex in the 1990s, tentatively named "About That." In general, said, "was not acceptable to talk about sex."

She said that when he began his program, who first spoke on topics such as AIDS, homosexuality and sexual harassment in the workplace, "was like a bomb went off."

Although such issues are less provocative today, the annual X'Show, which is in its ninth edition, is still extravagant, even for the most part well below the standards of such events in the West. Besides strippers in cages - and the brotherhood of men drooling over them - were models dressed in latex whipping demonstrating proper techniques.

Dovgal, the organizer of X'Show, fits the convention as a project of social welfare for a country where sex education is virtually nonexistent. "We know we are needed to help people preserve their families," he said. "It is important to us if your partner is a man or a woman," he said. "The important thing is that there is harmony in the relationship."

Although the recipe for marital happiness Dovgal not for everyone, it is clear that Russian families are in crisis. In 2008, the statistics agency of the country recorded three divorces for every five marriages.

Russia is also suffering from a demographic crisis. The population declined by 6.6 million people between 1993 and 2008, according to a 2008 report by the UN. The emigration and a high mortality rate among middle-aged men are the main causes of this, but there is also a low birth rate.

To make couples maintain relationships, some Russian officials have created projects that Dovgal and his colleagues certainly support fri shop. For several years the government of the region of Ulyanovsk has reserved a special day when couples can take time off to help reverse the population decline. Awards are given to mothers whose children are born in June 12, National Day of Russia.

However, despite all the concern Dovgal with families ("Unfortunately, we are not allowed to admit anyone under 18 years," she said), demographics do not seem to be the main concern of visitors in X'Show. "I especially like fetish - beautiful clothes, corsets, collars, whips, things like that," said psychologist Olga Podolskaya, 41.

Although the show did not have the extravagance of similar events which have already participated in Berlin, she said that things are improving. Before, she said, "the products fri shop was limited to plastic penises." "Now, in addition to a greater option, there are several extra services: seminars, photo shoots and books."

In fact, the outlook for the toys of the sex industry in Russia are not necessarily as bad as some vendors say. In the last ten years the number of fri shop in Moscow grew from about 5 to 150, said Dovgal, and there are more Internet-based companies.

Sergei Agarkov, a prominent Russian sexologist, framed the change as sexual evolution and not revolution. He said he believes the Russians are slowly becoming more comfortable with sex as the post-Soviet generation reaches adulthood.

"These are the bearers of a new culture," said Agarkov. "They are completely different and relatively free. They do not have the prejudices that their parents had. And along with them, attitudes toward sex are changing. "

This seems to be the attitude of Dmitri Karablin, a student of 20 years, with his girlfriend visited the kiosks X'Show in search of vibrators and other paraphernalia. "People have less shame," he said. "I am a young mother can talk to her about these things. She stopped short of recommending a store I should visit once. "

* By Michael Schwirtz

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