Homosexual the word/concept was only invented in 1868 in Germany.
Prior to that pederasty/pédérastie (or any other regional variant of) was the word that Europe used since it was 'related' in their understanding of same sex sexual dynamics.
Bro, for one thing, most of the big names of the revolutionaries were chilling around reading Marx in the original German, for another you're talking about a fifty year gap between the two events.
The point isn't "the communists should have been woke" it's that the timeline you brought up proves that culturally they could have adapted the language, they just didn't, because they didn't want to.
Bro, that doesn't mean shit. Just because they're reading Marx or Engels does not mean that they're also reading about sexology or any other field of science.
Fuck the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft was promoting trans rights, contraception, STD prevention, etc over a hundred years ago and half of America can''t even wrap their heads around these basics concepts today. And don't even go looking into contemporary Russian laws on LGBT issues.
Social change is not guaranteed with the passage of time, nor does it happen fast.
I don't know why you're trying so hard to argue against the understanding that the USSR was backwards as shit in regards to LGBT issues, maybe you're under the impression that this law only referred to paedophilic acts and that they didn't oppress gay men. If that is so, let me dispel such a notion by quoting the rest of Article 121 which covers that aspect as separate from normal gay sex.
Pederasty when committed with physical violence, a threat, or with respect to a minor, or when taking advantage of the dependent position of the injured party shall be punishable by deprivation of freedom for a period not to exceed eight years.
A man loving a man got you 5 years in prison, a paedo abusing a male child or raping a man got you 8 in the Soviet Union.
I'm not arguing against that, genius, I'm saying "the term was only invented in 1868" is fucking meaningless to the discussion of laws invented half a century later.
Also, btw? Homosexuality, specifically, was decriminalized in 1917. Because, as extremely well read leftist nerds, they knew and agreed with the distinction.
