Pavel Golubev is a pioneering researcher of sexuality in Russian art from the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. Golubev published the multivolume edition of the intimate diaries of the artist Konstantin Somov (1869–1939), who was a collaborator of the curator and ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev as well as a founder of the art association Mir Iskusstva (World of Art). Somov’s diaries are a valuable source of insight into the cultural homosexual milieu in the final years of the Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and the diaspora in the US and France. Since 2016, Golubev has served as the founder and head of the Somov Society, a research network promoting Russian LGBTQI+ studies. He played a vital role in the global exhibition project The First Homosexuals curated by Jonathan D. Katz, for which he authored the first-ever review of the development of homosexual art in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Golubev is also a member of the project’s advisory board. Pavel Golubev is a unique figure in the field of Russian art history, as he was the only Russian art historian to curate and work permanently in Ukraine—at the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum—until its evacuation following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.