Maria Babikova's project documents the underground drag community in Novosibirsk. Image gallery: Systems of Order by Maria Babikova.
When I was a child, I fell in love with drag without realising it. In fact, many Russians did as we all kept singing along with a man in a shiny dress, who was wearing red lipstick, fake breasts and a huge crystal-encrusted star headpiece. Dancing on our TV screens back in the 2000s was Verka Serduchka, the drag persona of Ukrainian artist Andrey Danilko and an icon in post-Soviet Russia.
Since 1998, Verka Serduchka has released 12 albums, hosted her own TV show and even performed at Eurovision in 2007. However, when the anti-gay propaganda law was passed in Russia in 2013, and the relations between Russia and Ukraine fell apart a year after, the flamboyant drag queen has stopped appearing on mainstream media. It was the last time I saw the triumph of something so fiercely innovative and queer on a state-controlled TV.
Drag has a rich cultural history in the West, providing safe spaces for LGBTQ communities. By comparison, the world knows little about Russian drag queens who face discrimination and violence in their country plagued by homophobia. The cultural gap couldn’t be filled with Katya, Ru Paul’s Drag Racestar, who ultimately represents a stereotypical Western view of a slutty Russian drag queen.
But Russian underground drag culture exists across the country, including its less glamorous parts. Drawn by the darker reality where fear and joy have become inextricably intertwined, photographer Maria Babikova has documented the drag scene in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
Russian drag is far from the polished Western version, mainly because its art tells stories of hundreds of unknown drag queens who fight for social change in their country. Despite state conservatism, anti-LGBTQ laws and the looming threat of physical violence, Russian drag perseveres and inspires a new generation of drag artists with an authentic vision.
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