Letter to the Editor "Boston Globe" in support at legalizing brothels.

Dear Editor!

I think that it is necessary to legalize brothels. I have consulted the advantages indicated in Levon Chorbajan's article: "A smart way to deal with prostitution: Legalize it, because"under such a system, prostitutes would be examined for disease and treated; their customers would be required to wear condoms; prostitutes and their customers would be free of violence that befalls them in the streets; an important source of police corruption would be eliminated; and police could be redeployed to fight serious neighborhood crime, it could generate much-needed revenue by imposing a tax on services rendered."

I have had no experience in the problem of prostitution in the USA but I am more familiar with prostitution in the former Soviet Union. How could the Soviet experience be used in America?

The words "prostitution", "homosexual" and also "Jews" were not used in the newspapers, the TV (censor eliminated those words.)

The communist ideology told us that prostitution is "a hard holdover" from capitalism, which forced women to sell themselves. Under socialism prostitution couldn't exist, because there were not the right conditions.

As prostitution under Socialism was absent, the penal codes had no articles against it. They were penalized in other articles, "They disgraced the dignity and honor of the Soviet person." They were punished by a small monetary penalty or prison for 15 days.

The Soviet ideology wasn't logical. Prostitution wasn't penalized by the law, but the "homosexuals" had a penalty of prison for 7 years (may be "homosexuality" wasn't "a hard holdover")

Female human nature is not compatible with communist ideology. There were two types of prostitutes: cheap and expensive.

Cheap prostitutes worked for the ruble. In Leningrad they operated near the Moscow train terminal and in other places.

Expensive prostitutes worked for dollars. They operated near a hotel for foreigners. Those women knew a little English enough for their profession. The expensive prostitutes often got into hot water, when they exchanged dollars for rubles. The exchange of dollars resulted in a 5-7 year jail sentence. (The official exchange rate was lower, but on the black market the rate was 10 times more rubles for dollars)

Prostitution was restrained by overcrowded apartments, and the absence of private car (maybe in the Soviet Union there was 1/50 of the private cars in the USA), and it was impossible to take a room in a hotel (that could happen only on a trip with business document). As a result of these conditions men could best meet prostitutes through the porter of a building, or in parks, etc.

The question for the legislature of the advantages and drawbacks of brothels did not arise because under socialism prostitution was officially absent.

In America it would be necessary to reproduce the Soviet conditions such as overcrowded apartments, reduction of the quantity and size of cars, giving rooms in hotels only with business trip documents and opening brothels.

Then all thirsty men will be running to the brothels.

Sincerely Ilya Magid
11/13/94

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