Mercury treatment, drunkenness and luxury: how women lived in brothels in Russia in the 19th century

Brothels in the Russian Empire in the 19th century were quite legal. In 1889, there were 111 brothels in Moscow alone. In fact, there were more of them, just not everyone wanted to pay taxes. How did the girls live in Russian houses of tolerance?

Most of the girls who found themselves in brothels got there by deception. They were lured by "warm", well-paid jobs as maids, barmaids and nannies. Vladimir Okorokov, a connoisseur of prostitution, who wrote a book about this phenomenon in the 19th century, offers a simple example.

The researcher gives an example of a provincial 15-year-old girl Varvara from Vologda. Having lost her job in her hometown, she came to Moscow on the advice of a friend. The girl found an ad in the newspaper about the vacancy of a nanny and went for an interview. As you may have guessed, it turned out to be a brothel ad.

The young provincial, who had no money to rent a house and a return ticket, was in despair. But the hostess of the establishment, an experienced and cynical lady, quickly took it into circulation. She showed the girl expensive dresses and jewelry, promising that she would have the same. The cunning brothel keeper added that if the job does not fit, she will buy a ticket to Vologda herself.

The inexperienced girl succumbed to persuasion and became a prostitute. I must say that nothing depended on her consent. Russian laws forbade keeping only virgins by force in brothels. But even innocent girls had almost no chance to escape. The brothels employed corrupt midwives who had no problems confirming the loss of innocence for some reward.

So Varvara ended up in a Moscow brothel. At the same time, ironically, she was employed as a nanny - the law forbade minors to work as prostitutes. A young resident of the province herself came into the hands of the brothel keepers, but not everyone went this way.

Many women got into brothels through suppliers. It was a developed semi-criminal network of recruiters who did not disdain any methods. The women who were looking for candidates were called nannies, and the men were called Maccabees. They worked both on ads and just on the streets.

These merchants of live goods were on duty at the shops where the servants went shopping. Noticing a pretty girl, they offered her a "good place". The suppliers were very observant and well versed in psychology. They easily figured out those who were particularly in need of money or were dissatisfied with their work.

Some of these people wandered through the factory villages, looking for girls left without parents. It was not difficult to seduce orphans with money, beautiful trinkets, food, or just to get them drunk with wine. There were specialists who managed to kidnap girls by force - usually these unfortunate people were taken from Poland.

In the brothel, the supplier was paid from 20 to 300 rubles for each girl. The price was influenced by age, appearance, dexterity and complaisance. The least appreciated were those who had to be forced to work by beatings. Uncooperative ladies were locked in basements and beaten with wet towels twisted into bundles. So it was impossible to cause serious injuries, but the body easily turned into a solid bruise.

Obstinate prostitutes were kept locked up, and if there was a need to get out, they were given an escort. Often girls were sold to brothels by relatives and even parents themselves. This often happened on the principle of rent – the brothel paid them a certain amount every month. It was a kind of bribe, because relatives could take the minor home at any time.

The brothel keepers coaxed the parents of young people in every possible way. They were given used clothes, given vodka and treated with special respect. For this, unscrupulous fathers and mothers persuaded their daughters to work "while there is beauty and youth."

At the end of the 19th century, respectable brothels were located in Sobolevsky Lane. These were real palaces with luxurious interiors and expensive furniture. Girls in such establishments went out to customers in luxurious toilets, hung with jewelry.

Competition among the brothels was very serious, so customers were lured as best they could. For example, in one of the brothels there was a bed that played music during sex. In the other there was a room, the walls and ceiling of which were completely covered with mirrors.

Prices in fashionable brothels in Moscow "bit". For an hour spent with a prostitute, they paid starting from 1 ruble, and for a night – from 2. But no one was happy with customers who just came, did their job and left. One of the weighty items of income of any brothel was booze. Clients spent a lot of money on feasts with girls of easy virtue.

It was customary to leave "tips", which the girls called "lipstick". It was believed that a grateful client gives this amount to a prostitute for cosmetics and various ladies' trifles. But in fact, this money went to the brothel keepers and the girls themselves got pennies from them.

It is quite clear that the mores in brothels were specific. Prostitutes were instructed to get guests drunk and drink themselves so that they would order more. Alcohol prices were greatly inflated and often a bottle of wine cost more than a night with a girl. At first, the visitor was offered high-quality drinks, but then, when he got drunk, they gave him frank filth.

The brothel workers were fed well, otherwise the girls would not have withstood the loads. It happened that a prostitute had to deal with 20 clients per night! In order for the girls to "unwind", they were taken out for walks accompanied by vigilant thugs. This was done not only for the entertainment of prostitutes, but also to advertise the institution. A large company of elegant girls has always attracted attention.

Despite the external brilliance, the life of the inhabitants of brothels was not bright. Women woke up around 10 o'clock in the morning, after which they hungover, took a bath and drank coffee. After that, they were bored until lunch-playing cards, gossiping or drinking. They read very rarely in brothels and mostly love and adventure novels.

After lunch, the preparation for work began. Ladies' masters came to the brothels, who did the girls' hairstyles and applied makeup. Abroad, prostitutes went out to clients in underwear, and in Russia - in expensive toilets. And the higher the rank of the institution, the more expensive the outfits were.

Prostitutes were almost never called by their real names. Among them, loud foreign pseudonyms were in fashion: Rose, Colette, Fanny. The main work began in the evening with the arrival of customers. Their girls were divided into three categories. The first included those who did not run in for a long time, "to sit". The second is the men who filmed the girl for an hour. The third group included "overnight guests" who stayed overnight.

Some clients took the girls with them. This was not welcomed, as it was dangerous, and also brought losses to the institution. There were many originals and outright perverts among the brothel visitors. There were people who paid for being whipped with rods. Some demanded group sex or lesbian games.

In expensive brothels, girls earned very well. They could raise a good amount of capital, but it was still not easy to "tie up". As soon as the owners found out about the prostitute's desire to leave, they immediately "drew" a huge debt to her. They remembered everything, from doctors' services and dresses, to trips in a carriage. Therefore, most women were forced to stay in a brothel until they lost their attractiveness.

After that, the women had no choice but to "lower the price tag." They went to cheap brothels on Derbenevka, where customers paid 50 kopecks per night. Publicist Ivan Priklonsky described the contingent of brothels of this type as follows:

Morals on Derbenevka were simpler. Clients were often drugged with vodka and robbed to the skin. There have also been cases of poisoning. To do this, strong wine was insisted on tobacco. The potion was guaranteed to "turn off" the client, who was immediately stripped and left in a back alley.

Very often, cheap prostitutes themselves went in search of clients. Sometimes they brought a whole group of men at once, who were served "wholesale". This was often the sin of young men who filmed a corrupt woman in a fold. These were the most unpleasant clients who humiliated unhappy women.

"Bad diseases" were a real scourge of big cities. Therefore, doctors' examinations were usually not neglected – it was an obligatory part of professional life. Revolutionary Ekaterina Breshko-Breshkovskaya, who was watching the queue for a "professional examination" from the window of a prison cell, wrote:

Until 1910, syphilis was treated by injection of mercury solutions and arsenic powders. Patients who were being treated in clinics suffered terribly from such therapy. In order to at least suspend the disease, it was necessary to survive 25-30 sessions of the introduction of poison into the body. Despite the examinations and "treatment", a third of the brothel workers suffered from various sexually transmitted ailments.