I keep seeing the argument that the USSR decriminalizing homosexuality as being a by-product of getting rid of the Tsarist legal system, and while I could very well be wrong, and that may have played a part, I don't buy it at face value. The USSR didn't get rid of every single Tsarist vestige for the sake of it, such as the reprisal of the Gulag system. I think decriminalizing homosexuality was a concerted effort.