“When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in.”

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

In his novel Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera explores the intricate relationships between characters' love lives against a historical backdrop following the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia to suppress reformists in Prague. The author’s characters are educated individuals who struggle with love, extramarital affairs, and infidelity. Throughout the novel, Kundera delves into these characters' inner conflicts and desires, using their relationships to explore themes of identity, freedom, and the existential burden of choice. The novel's narrative intertwines their stories with philosophical reflections on life's fleeting nature and the search for meaning amidst personal and political upheavals in Eastern Europe. From the readers' perspective, it appears that frustrated individuals turn to sex as a means to escape from political disappointments.

In a 1977 article in The New York Times, it was shown that there was a gender revolution and a prevalence of extramarital affairs in the mid-20th century in the Soviet Union. The article highlights that these relationships were widespread, and despite the availability of contraceptives, the number of children born from such affairs was significant.1

It has been proposed that catastrophes and disasters have both positive and negative effects on sexuality and fertility. Some studies have reported that natural crises like earthquakes or the COVID-19 pandemic may have a negative influence on sexual functioning. However, most of these findings focus on social distance and hygiene problems following these crises and do not reveal the net effect of crises on........

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