Do you want even more shocking and scandalous history?

Like why the ancient Greek statues had such small manhoods?

Or what went on behind closed doors in the Georgian era?

We'll sign up to History Hit,

where you can see me discover the scandalous side of history,

as well as hundreds of hours of original documentaries,

plus new releases every week,

covering everything from prehistoric Scotland to the Treaty of Versailles.

Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past.

Just visit history hit.com forward slash subscribe.

Hello my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. I'm me, you're you, and this is Bertwixter Sheets. Hello and welcome back. Thanks for dropping by. But before we can go any further, I do have to tell you. Once again, I think you know what's coming. Yep. This is an adult podcast, spoken by adults to other adults, about adulty things and an adulty way of covering arranged, all subjects to be an adult too. Right on

with the show. It's the 1850s betwixters and we are in St. Petersburg, Imperial Russia's

window to the west. It's a fascinating time to be in Haymarket Square listeners,

walking amongst the dusty streets and the crowded taverns,

because this was the epicentre of sex work at a time when it had just been legalised by Nicholas I.

But who was he legalising it for? Whose interests did that serve? What does it really like for the women who were working in this system? What were the living conditions like? Where did they live? And why were they being asked to carry yellow tickets about with them? Well, I'm ready to find out if you are. Let's do it. Hello and welcome back to Betwit Sashid's history of sex scandal and society with me, Kate Lister.

If there are two words which can conjure images of absolute power and ruling with an iron fist,

it's imperial and Russia. And with great power comes even greater poverty, it seems. And with poverty, you will

always find people selling sex. So how did Imperial Russia and Sex Work sit together? Was the

Tsar's move to legalise sex work progressive, or was it something more sinister?

I bet we probably know the answer to that one before we even start, don't we?

And how did elite society react to sex workers being in their midst?

...