sentences:  After declaring independence from the Russian Empire in 1918, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic did not have laws against homosexuality.When Azerbaijan became a part of the Soviet Union in 1920, it was subject to rarely enforced Soviet laws criminalizing the practice of sex between men.Despite Vladimir Lenin having decriminalized homosexuality in Soviet Russia (inexplicitly; the Tsarist legal system was absolished, thus decriminalising sodomy), sexual intercourse between men (incorrectly termed pederasty in the laws, rather than the technically accurate term sodomy) became a criminal offense in 1923 in Azerbaijan SSR, punishable by up to five years in prison for consenting adults, or up to eight years if it involved force or threat.