Brothel. Spicy details of history: How brothels worked in the Russian Empire Russian brothels

It is often said that prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. And even though it is illegal in most parts of the world, there are still many options in many places for those looking for professional service. In fact, almost all of these places offer not only sex for money, but also a unique sensual experience that is a must-try!

This unique brothel is for voyeurs. In this unusual brothel located in the Czech Republic, Czech and Slovak girls will serve their clients for free... in exchange for their consent to video recording of their sexual acts and broadcast to willing viewers near and far abroad. The sex reality show is available online and on satellite and cable channels in Europe, and there are rumors that it will soon be coming to the US.

Denis Hof, the creator of the famous brothel Moonlite Bunny Ranch (the home of the reality show "Cathouse"), plans to create a new brothel that promises a truly out-of-this-world sexual experience for sci-fi fans, located 145 kilometers from Las Vegas. and according to Hof, this Area 51-themed “Alien Brothel” will be served by women dressed in any alien costume of the guest's choosing.

If there is a heart of debauchery in Bangkok, this is it! Nana Entertainment Plaza in Thailand is a four-story building housing 40 bars. Most of these establishments are strip bars where girls dance striptease. But they differ from the usual brothels in that the clients negotiate with the girls on their own, without any intermediaries in the person of a pimp or the owner of the brothel.

There are many legal brothels in Australia, but if you're looking for a 'certain' type of woman, The Site in Sydney is just the place! They offer everything from a “wild, lustful brunette” to a “hot, cheeky blonde.”

The newly opened Bordello Club in Los Angeles is a nightclub and brothel with late-night music, burlesque dancers and, oddly enough... regular stripteases featuring Star Wars characters. Moreover, performer Courtney Cruise's performance of the Imperial Stormtrooper in a hot strip number will not leave any fan (and fangirl) in the universe indifferent!

This legal brothel near Reno, Nevada aims to be the most expensive of brothels. Mustang Ranch looks more like a luxury hotel than a brothel, and what's most interesting is that stopping here costs visitors absolutely nothing. However, each guest must pay for one of the girls to accompany him at all times, regardless of whether he came alone or with a friend.

Stiletto calls itself "the ultimate boutique hotel for a short stay." In fact, the luxurious interior with 2-story waterfalls and luxurious rooms makes this place stand out from the rest. Choose a room with any theme: James Bond, Betty Boob, Kama Sutra or Roman orgy, then choose the perfect date to realize your fantasy.

Although prostitution is legal in France, sex networks are still illegal. And this fact forces prostitutes in Lyon to be more creative. White vans line the streets of the city and suburbs; and their open doors indicate openness to business, while closed doors (and a swaying van) mean you'll have to wait your turn.

Maison d'envie

This Berlin brothel has responded to the recent economic crisis in a very unusual way. They offer a discount to customers who arrive by bicycle or by public transport. At the same time they care about environment, and want to ease heavy traffic with overcrowded parking lots near the brothel. The owners claim that the discount brings in an average of 3-4 new customers per week.

Pascha is a 12-story brothel in Cologne, covering an area of ​​almost 9 square kilometers! About 120 prostitutes serve more than 1000 clients every day in this largest brothel in Europe!

IN Russian Empire was initially banned. On the initiative of Emperor Nicholas I, in view of the futility of punishment and other punitive measures, as well as the increasing growth of venereological diseases, prostitution in Russia was legalized by a special decree of the emperor, with the establishment of strict medical and police control over it.

To be fair, it is worth noting that prostitution in Russia was legalized not at all because of special perversity or unexpected liberalism of the authorities. It’s just that Emperor Nicholas I realized that it was completely useless to fight the second oldest profession with punishments and prohibitive measures. The first to begin to fight prostitution was Emperor Peter the Great himself, who, upon returning from Amsterdam, immediately banned the opening of brothels near regimental barracks - in order to avoid mass cases of infection with “bad” infections (syphilis is the main enemy of the Russian soldier!). The emperor called on the walking girls caught with the soldiers to be mercilessly sent to forced labor. Catherine II, in her “Charter on Deanery,” adopted in 1782, decided to punish pimps and brothel operators with imprisonment in a strait house for a period of two weeks to six months. Her son Paul I ordered the exile of prostitutes from Moscow and St. Petersburg to Irkutsk and obliges public women to wear yellow dresses “to distinguish themselves from other ladies.”

But all the cruelties were useless: prostitution still flourished in Russia, and venereal diseases were the main concern of all military doctors. And then Nicholas I, by a special decree, legalized prostitution, establishing strict medical and police supervision over it. Prostitutes, women over 16 years of age, were registered with medical and police committees, their passports were taken away, and in return they were issued special certificates - “yellow tickets.”

The “Rules for brothel keepers” established age restrictions both for prostitutes themselves - only from 16 years old, and for brothel keepers - from 35 years old, and also regulated the location of brothels - no closer than 150 fathoms - that is, about 300 meters - from churches, colleges and schools.

At the end of the "Passport" there were notes about visiting a doctor.

Another version of the "yellow ticket"

And another version of the "yellow ticket" - with a special stamp on the payment of the fee.

The development of the institute of prostitution in Russia went according to the classical scheme. There was a layer of elite prostitutes from the upper class of society - in everyday life these women in St. Petersburg were called “camellias” in association with the novel by A. Dumas the son of “The Lady of the Camellias”. It is known that the “camellias” led the same life as the aristocrats in whose company these ladies moved. “They get up late,” noted the anonymous author of “Essay on Prostitution in St. Petersburg” in 1868, “ride along Nevsky in carriages and finally expose themselves in the French theater.”

There was an institution of women from brothels - according to statistics. in 1901, 2,400 brothels were registered in Russia, in which over 15,000 women worked.

Price list of one of the brothels.

Finally, there were single "priestesses of love" - ​​the so-called. "ticket prostitutes" - the most numerous contingent of corrupt women. in 1901, according to various estimates, there were from 20 to 40 thousand people. Most of them were concentrated in large cities: for example, there were more than 3 prostitutes per 1000 residents of St. Petersburg, and there were already 15 prostitutes per 1000 Muscovites.

Who were these women? In Russia, these are mainly women from peasant women (about 48%) and bourgeois women (about 36%). But in St. Petersburg, the composition of the “priestesses of love” is already different: domestic servants (33%), workers in various sewing workshops (24%) and factory workers (14%).

Photos of “ticket” Russian prostitutes from the police archives of Nizhny Novgorod.

In addition, there was also amateur - "ticketless" - prostitution. First of all, fashionable cabarets and cafés with gypsy ensembles created competition for expensive brothels - for example, the famous “Yar” in St. Petersburg. Everyone knew that for a certain amount of money, artists could be engaged for the evening.

According to several studies of prostitution in Russia, among the reasons that pushed a woman on this path, social motives were most often cited: need, scarcity of funds, fatigue from hard physical work. Gorky, Kuprin, Andreev and many other writers more than once reflected their lives, sometimes not without romanticism (especially Gorky).

There were amateurs who sold themselves through advertisements in newspapers. Finally, the “ticket” girls had enormous competition from ordinary village peasant women who did not want to register with the police. For example, the police in Nizhny Novgorod every year caught up to a thousand unregistered courtesans of peasant origin who came specifically to the Nizhny Novgorod fair to serve wealthy merchants.

"Stowaway" prostitutes caught by Nizhny Novgorod police at the famous fair. All these "night fairies" turned out to be peasant women from neighboring villages.

It is often said that prostitution is the oldest profession in the world, despite the fact that it is illegal in many countries. In fact, there are relatively few places where professionals do this.

1. Big Sister.
This is the best place in the world for voyeurs. This unique brothel is located in the Czech Republic, where all visitors are served free of charge in exchange for agreeing to record the sexual act on video for later broadcast. This is a kind of reality TV, available both via the Internet and via satellite TV.

2. Alien Cathouse.
Dennis Hof, creator of the famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch, has decided to create a new brothel based on an extraterrestrial theme specifically for science fiction fans. It will be located 90 miles from Las Vegas and, judging by Hof’s words, will be a kind of “Area 51”, where clients will be served by women dressed as aliens.

3. Nana Entertainment Plaza.
If there is a center of debauchery in Bangkok, then it is here. Nana Entertainment Plaza is a four-story building housing over 40 bars. Most of them are strip bars. It differs from most brothels in that the clients themselves negotiate with the girls they are interested in directly, without any intermediaries.

4. The Site.
There are quite a few legalized brothels in Australia, but if you're looking for a "certain" type of woman, then Sydney is definitely the place to be. Here you can choose any type of woman, from the “Wild Lustful Brunette” to the “Hot and Brazen Blonde”.

5. Star Wars Bordello.
Los Angeles recently opened both a nightclub and brothel themed Star Wars. Here you can find burlesque dancers and regular strippers donning the heavy uniforms of Imperial Stormtroopers.

6. Mustang Ranch Resort
This brothel is located in Nevada and is more like a luxury hotel than a brothel where you can live for free. The only thing you have to pay for is one of the women on the staff. It is her responsibility to accompany you wherever you go, regardless of whether you are alone or with a friend.

7. Stiletto.
According to the owners of this establishment, Stiletto is “the best boutique hotel for a short visit.” Indeed, the luxury of the rooms is simply amazing; here you can find themed rooms in the style of James Bond, Betty Bub, as well as Roman orgies.

8. Mobile Sex.
Despite the fact that prostitution is not prohibited by law in France, sexual harassment is severely punished here. This forces local prostitutes to be more creative than others. There is an interesting mobile brothel in Lyon: white vans stand in a row, open doors mean you can try your luck, and closed and, as a result, swaying vans mean you should come back later.

9. Maison d'envie.
The owners of this German brothel, in response to the recent economic crisis, went to meet their clients and announced discounts for those who arrive here by bicycle or by public transport. Another goal of such an action is a PR campaign to show their concern for the environment. According to the owners, this promotion brings them 3-4 new clients a week.

10. Pascha.
Pascha is a 12-story brothel with an area of ​​10,000 square meters. It is located in Cologne. About 120 prostitutes here serve more than a thousand clients per day. This brothel is the largest in Europe.

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The other day, the entire sports world was shocked by the news that two-time National Basketball Association champion Lamar Odom was found unconscious in a brothel in Nevada.

It turned out that this establishment is very popular with stars and millionaires. LoveRanch is not an ordinary brothel, and one of, so to speak, the most fashionable in the USA. His everyday life is in the photo gallery.

Prostitution in Nevada is illegal only in a few cities, including Las Vegas and the state capital, Carson City. Completely legal brothels are located not too far from the gambling capital, including a brothel LoveRanch.

This is where Odom was found in a comatose state. Arriving at a country ranch, the basketball player rested in a villa with the girls for four days. The villa, like the entire LoveRanch complex, belongs to the famous pimp Dennis Hof.

Dennis Hof owns 7 of the 19 legal brothels in Nevada. They look like ranches and are named accordingly.

The most famous are LoveRanch and BunnyRanch. In an interview for the TV show, Hof admitted that his main clients are celebrities.

Amber, ex-soldier, waiting for a client

One day a rock band came to the ranch and had a blast there whole month. Hof said that they could "rock" with 50 girls at the same time.

“If you spent enough time here, you would meet everyone,” says Hof. Many celebrities have actually visited here, including top-flight politicians.

That's why his brothel has separate secret entrances, a helipad and limos with heavily tinted windows. Such cars can secretly pick up the client and take him back - for a fee, of course.

A girl is waiting for her weekly doctor's appointment

Dennis Hof himself became famous after appearing on HBO in the series Cat House."), which showed the behind-the-scenes life of brothels, including the famous BunnyRanch, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Workers gathered for their weekly tea party

Dennis Hof was once asked how he dealt with paparazzi who might take photos of brothel patrons as they entered and exited.

It turns out that there is no way. “They are all my friends,” the businessman replied. Hof himself decides who can be photographed and who is better not to be photographed. The photographers listen. To quarrel with the main pimp of Nevada is more expensive for yourself.

In his book The Art of the Pimp, Hof describes the covert operation Cloak and Dagger. It was necessary to comfortably accommodate a well-known conservative politician in a brothel, but so that a mosquito would not erode his nose.

“We sent a limousine to the airport to meet the senior official. He was wearing a mask. They took him through a secret entrance that we keep especially for such cases,” Hof said in the book. The incognito arrival wanted to turn one of the rooms into a kind of prison cell and asked for services in the “sado-maso” style.

Loudspeakers in the hallways announce the arrival of new clients so the girls can line up in hopes of being chosen

The ranch's website states, "Anonymity is not a problem." According to Hof, there is no room for information leakage in his business, and moreover, this is impossible because the brothel does not store customer information, including credit card data.

Recordings from video cameras are deleted after 48 hours - they are only needed in emergency situations. As for security, the ranch has automatic gates and security guards. "If a customer is drunk or suspicious, we just don't let him in," says Hof.

A girl named Princess Rio is waiting for a client in her room where she permanently resides

Brothel website offers more than 500 girls for “booking”; from 40 to 50 priestesses of love are available for simultaneous ordering. Dennis Hof noted that, at his last count, he had 600 girls working for him.

For lovers of the exotic, in August 2015, the brothel hired its own “Caitlyn Jenner” (American transsexual TV star) - Madisson Montag, an adult film star.

A girl named Scarlett Angel is waiting for a client in the room where she lives and works.

There are no fixed prices at love ranches. Each girl, in fact, is an independent contractor with her own range of services and her own prices.

Brothels are part of Nevada's historical heritage. During the gold rush, mining companies invited girls to work where the precious metal was mined, which meant money was being made.

“There were miners and prostitutes here and they had children who grew up and became native Nevadans,” Hof says.

Amber is one of the most popular girls in the brothel.

On Thanksgiving Day, brothels buy turkeys for the poor. In addition, money is donated to the Food Bank, a charitable organization that collects and distributes food to those in need.

“One of the brothels donated money to purchase life jackets, and last year there were no drownings in the nearby lake. Someone used to drown all the time,” Dennis Hof said proudly.

The origin of this social phenomenon in Russia initially gave it the character of an illegal occupation. The first regular mentions of organized prostitution go back to the prohibitions of Peter I, who, for example, introduced the following decree in relation to St. Petersburg in 1718: “On all suspicious houses, namely: taverns, zeri, card games and other obscenities, submit reports or appearances and order everything to be inspected, so that all such abominations, which is why all evil and evil things happen, are eliminated.” Thus, Peter’s state bureaucracy sought to gain control over the sphere of the “most ancient female profession.” At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, secret prostitution became a source of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially in large cities and among the military, which means that the need to legalize this area of ​​activity began to be felt more and more urgently, because it was necessary, first of all, to control sick women in order to provide provide them with medical care and prevent further epidemics. The subsequent popular “license” for the right to engage in prostitution legally—the so-called “yellow ticket”—was nothing more than a special medical book that confirmed the health of the girls.

The founder of one of the first brothels in St. Petersburg was the German Anna Felker, nicknamed Dresdensha. She came to Russia forcibly when a certain Major Biron ordered her to live with him. Soon, having gone to the service, he left his wife without a livelihood, and the economic German did not find anything better than to take up the craft of a matchmaker. Having accumulated a small initial capital, Velker went to her homeland to find girls suitable for her “gesheft”. Returning to St. Petersburg, she rented a house on the Voznesenskaya prospect - her reputation and location played a decisive role in the commercial success of the enterprise. In addition to traditional services, in the Dresdenshi house it was possible to rent a room for the night unmarried, and some privileged officers had the right to hire girls into their service for several days at once - an enterprising German woman even created a semblance of a subscription system for the services provided. Dresdensch's employees were mostly foreign women, who, on the one hand, were considered more clean, and on the other hand, the girl was deprived of a certain amount of independence - a lonely foreigner in Russia, without a specific place of residence and occupation, was doomed to inevitable degradation and death. The system of “kickbacks” in the field of prostitution worked flawlessly in the 18th century, and therefore Anna Felker regularly paid bribes and gave expensive gifts to St. Petersburg officials for the informal legalization of her income. However, the fashionista on the throne, the first woman of the empire, Elizaveta Petrovna, ordered the expulsion of all brothel keepers from the country - Felker was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, her foreign kept women were sent abroad, and Russian girls were exiled to Siberia. However, prostitution as a social phenomenon has already taken root in Russian society.

In the middle of the 19th century, the desire of Nicholas I to bureaucratize and subordinate all aspects of public life to the state hierarchy was also manifested in the desire to regulate the existence of brothels. In 1844, “Rules for the keepers of brothels” were approved, which legalized and regulated the organized form of prostitution, presenting it in “an abundance of councils with ... all kinds of hygienic requirements...”. According to official statistics, as of August 1, 1889, in the Russian Empire, not counting the Principality of Finland, 1,216 brothels and dating houses were opened for the services of consumers with a total number of 7,840 prostitutes - i.e., approximately 6 women per establishment. There were 9,763 single prostitutes - 55.5%. A total of 17,603 women were under medical and police supervision.

The most famous brothels were located in St. Petersburg on Ligovsky Prospect, in Moscow in Sobolevsky, Pilnikov, Golovinsky lanes, and in Odessa on Deribasovskaya Street. Traditionally, brothels were divided into three categories depending on the client's budget. The lower price threshold in cheap establishments was 1.50 kopecks per night - this type of establishment, serving mainly the poor, is well described in the story “The Pit” by Alexander Kuprin. " Middle class» - poor officials, merchants mediocre and junior officers - paid up to 5 rubles per night for services. And the wealthiest visitors could count on a “private” and individual approach, which cost them 10 rubles per night.

Naturally, this semi-shadow industry gave rise to many funny and very tragic stories. In the dissolute capital of the empire, St. Petersburg, in one of the elite brothels, a “mirror bedroom” was set up - an ascetic room with a huge bed, lit by 50 candles, which gave love pleasures a baroque touch of decay. Such “decor” cost up to 25 rubles per night per visitor and 7 rubles for its arrangement from the owner. In such houses, girls from exotic countries with bronze skin color were especially valued. Another example shows that in the middle of the 19th century, technical innovations were already available that were integrated even into such a specific sphere of human existence. In one such establishment, the bed was equipped with a clever musical device, which began to play music at the moment the love affair began. Such innovations attracted mainly people who were either gradually losing sexual desire or had non-standard needs. One of these characters was a decrepit old man (legends about him became part of a kind of “folklore” of prostitutes late XIX century), who resorted to a very unusual method of arousal - he came, settled down among several prostitutes, and they, in turn, began to whip him as best they could in his private parts until he achieved the highest result. For this, the satisfied client rewarded each girl with 25 rubles.

They provided their services in the prostitution market extremely young girls: at the age of 16-17 years - 15.9 percent, 16-21 years - 77-80.5 percent and only a quarter of all women of “easy virtue” began their professional activities after achieving full civil capacity. The girls were perceived practically as serfs, which was based on the sometimes unbearable debt obligations of the prostitute in relation to the owner of the brothel. The life of a woman in a brothel without debt is a rather rare occurrence, and debt, sometimes reaching 300 rubles or more, was commonplace: “It’s all nothing, we’ll pay it off just to avoid ending up in the hospital” - this was the soul-saving saying of many inmates of Russian brothels . The lion's share of the accumulating debt was clothing costs. There was a special dress code here, bordering on a professional uniform, which must certainly be bright, provocative, even vulgar. Depending on the status of the establishment, housewives could teach girls special skills to attract guests, be it playing musical instruments- guitar, mandolin or balalaika, or even elements of theatrical play behavior. The essential tools of a public lady included the ability to “hold a pose,” smoke a cigarette in a cigarette holder, recite poetry, provoke guests into expensive drinks, the ability to role-play and change names in the manner of French cocottes.

Elements of theatrical behavior served as an excellent way to attract clients not only to brothel dwellers, but also to single colleagues. A typical seduction scheme could look like this: “An officer was riding on a horse-drawn horse, and a beautiful, young, modestly dressed lady was sitting opposite him. The officer, without hesitation, looked at his fellow traveler point-blank, and she blushed and lowered her eyes in embarrassment. When the lady left the carriage, the officer followed her. The lady quickly dashed into the entrance and immediately dropped her handkerchief. The officer picked up his handkerchief and rushed up the stairs to catch up with the stranger. Accepting the loss from him with gratitude, the lady again became pretentious. But the officer, with pure military courage, took advantage of the opportunity, entered into a conversation with her, escorted her to the door, and then, showing a certain persistence, found himself in the stranger’s apartment. As a result, a “pantonym of love” played out, which, to the surprise of the officer, who was counting on disinterested passion, was paid for in the morning by a bill from the dressmaker. But what’s saddest of all is that there was another unpleasant plus in the form of a serious illness. The modest stranger specialized in throwing a handkerchief, and used this bait to catch gullible clients.” There was even a special type of “ladies in mourning”, described in Guy de Maupassant’s novella “The Mourners” - they looked for and found trusting clients who could believe their grief and bring comfort.

The daily life of a Russian brothel was extremely monotonous, even routine: getting up late, hygiene procedures, hearty, plentiful food, a little makeup in the late afternoon, dressing and receiving visitors - this is the typical daily scenario of average public institutions. In cheap houses the routine was approximately the same, with the difference that visitors were also received during the day. Brothel mistresses often behaved no better than the famous landowner Saltychikha, mercilessly torturing their “wards”, so that according to statistics, in 7-8 months there were up to 6 deaths per brothel from consumption, hangings or poisoning. Let us note that natural death overtook girls of “easy virtue” just as quickly and inevitably, regardless of the status of the institution in which the woman worked. In expensive brothels, there was a strict rotation of “workers” based on age - as a result, older ladies had to move down the professional ladder, going to work in a cheaper brothel, or use the services of a pimp or pimp, which meant a drop in social status. The majority of women - 72.8% - were engaged in prostitution for no more than 5 years, a fifth - 19.9% ​​- lasted up to ten years, and only 5.2% - up to fifteen years.