Going on a yellow ticket: what rules did Russian escorts have to follow

Initially, the provision of intimate services in the Russian Empire was strictly prohibited. And yet, in 1843, Emperor Nicholas I started the process of legalizing “brothels”.

As the saying goes, if you can’t prevent ugliness, you have to direct it. The authorization of an escort helped to control the spread of venereal diseases in the country. And above all, it allowed doctors of the time to study these ailments and develop drugs against them.

Every “public woman” had to surrender her passport to the police and get a yellow ticket – and always carry it with her. It was called yellow only because of its appearance: after all, it was printed on the cheapest paper that had a yellow tint.

Age requirements were also imposed on brothel owners. It can be women from 35 to 60 years old. And brothels could be located within 300 meters of churches, colleges and schools.

On the last page of the yellow ticket was a list of rules that “public women” must follow. Here are a few :

The yellow tickets ceased to exist in 1917, after the revolution. For many years escort classes were poorly regulated by law – but girls were still detained under other articles. And in 1987, escorts in the USSR were officially banned.