Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press; 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020 - Tuesday, November 18, 1997; 5:43 a.m. EST
Anna Dolgov, Associated Press Writer
At a news conference Monday, psychologists, lawmakers and political activists lashed out at attempts to institute sex education, saying such programs would foster an undesirable interest in sex among teen-agers.
"(Sex) education will lead not only to sexual looseness and sexual excesses, but it will also lead to a tremendous growth of psychological pathologies and spur drug addiction and alcoholism," children's psychiatrist Boris Drapkin said.
"When they need to know, they will learn anyway," added sexologist Vyacheslav Maslov.
Their concern might seem odd in a country where neighborhood stores stock hard-core pornography, soft-core porn is shown on television and prostitution flourishes on city streets.
But while Russia has opened the way for sex books and films since it lifted the Soviet-era ban from the subject a decade ago, the nation has been remarkably timid about sex education in school.
An experimental sex education program, sponsored by the United Nations, was launched last year, but quickly suspended following an uproar of protests over its explicit texts.
The course, covering a wide range of topics, was taught to children aged 12-14 in 16 schools throughout Russia. Text books offered precise biological information, stressed health risks of teen-age pregnancies and abortion, called for "tolerance for sexual minorities" and advocated the use of contraceptives.
The course began with a questionnaire, designed to assess students' knowledge of the subject.
"Even we adults sometimes cannot answer these questions that are put to children," said Drapkin, a children's psychiatrist.
Many Russian and foreign experts have stressed the need for sex education in Russia, which last year recorded a sharp rise in the number of people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV is spread through body fluids, often during sex.
Contraceptives have long been unpopular in Russia, and abortion is a favored method of birth control. The practice has continued since the collapse of the Soviet Union, despite the availability of affordable Western contraceptives.
But speakers at Monday's news conference were adamant that sex education would only compound the problems.
"Men and women must have their own separate mysteries," said sexologist Margarita Shushunova.
Others attacked sex education as a Western notion that has no place in Russia.
"The introduction into our mentality of ... American views is a violation of the ecology of the soul -- and the dangers of mindless intervention into ecology are well known," psychiatrist Yuri Shevchenko said.
Copyright 1997/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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