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Selected Writings of Alexandra Kollontai
Alexandra Kollontai―the only woman member of the Bolshevik central committee and the USSR’s first Minister of Social Welfare―is known today as a historic contributor to the international women’s movement, and as one of the first Bolshevik leaders to oppose the growth of the bureaucracy in the young socialist state. Her Selected Writings discuss the social democratic movement before the First World War, the history of the Russian women’s movement, and the debate between “feminist” and “socialist” women; the effects of the war on European socialism; the revolutions; the part played by women in the revolutionary events; the early manifestations of bureaucracy and Kollontai’s role as spokeswoman for the “workers’ opposition”; and morality, sexual politics, the family, and prostitution. It also includes writings from her later life as a Soviet official. Each section is introduced by a commentary in which Alix Holt explains the background and critically sets Kollontai’s unique lifework in its historical and biographical contexts, demonstrating both its necessary limitations and its extraordinary range.
335 pages, Hardcover
First published December 12, 1977
About the author
Alexandra Kollontai
92 books239 followersAlexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (Russian: Александра Михайловна Коллонтай — née Domontovich, Домонтович was a Russian Communist revolutionary, first as a member of the Mensheviks, then from 1914 on as a Bolshevik. In 1923, Kollontai was appointed Soviet Ambassador to Norway, one of the first women to hold such a post (Diana Abgar was earlier).
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 15, 2020
This one was a tough read that left me feeling conflicted in many places; contemplative is what I am feeling after finishing this book. For a number of reasons. Fortunately as a Marxist, I know that historical materialism can help me understand this better.
Alexandra Kollontai was far ahead of her time. That much I can assert. Her views on the women's liberation movement as being tantamount to the struggle for Communism, was not something that was readily explored in depth for many decades after she wrote on it, not until Mao in the 1940s. But what of women's liberation? What did that mean to Kollontai? It meant the freedom to self-assurance, self-determination, and freedom the capitalist constraints that included marriage, prostitution, and exploited labor.
She breaks down marriage and strips it to its core, in terms of the history of modrrn marriage; its origins in private property and accumulation, its origins in patriarchy and controlling women. She is perhaps one of the first major voices to say that marriage as we understand it must be abolished and replaced with the collective work of community. I couldn't agree more. Being a queer/transgender person opposed to all forms of marriage, I relate to this -- maybe from a different angle, but I do relate.
Kollontai, as early the early 1910s, before the Revolution even happened, did something that no woman was doing [or doing as vocally]; she took on the male chauvinism in the Bolshevik Party, and not only that, the male chauvinism of the working class and peasant men who retained old bourgeois methods of control over their wives. She is one of the driving forces behind Marxist feminism [though she herself dismisses 'feminism' as bourgeois and liberalism, instead calling her work women's liberation], and of the connection made between revolutionary socialism and women's liberation. Even all the way down to local community meetings, she criticizes the male-dominated boards and speeches, calls out men who refuse to let their wives join the Communist Party while they themselves are members, and calls on women to take up the struggle for self-determination. It was this struggle that has made Alexandra Kollontai one of the most forward figures of the Bolshevik Revolution, but unfortunately, it also caused her eventual downfall, as she focused less and less on mass and party work, did not elaborate enough on her views on marriage, the family, and other factors, and eventually stepped away from most of her diplomatic work.
Three things in here that really unsettled me and honestly, what made me take a star away on the rating system, because up to then,.this book was phenomenal:
• Kollontai was a revolutionary Communist, but even then, revolutionary to someone 100 years ago, meant something totally different than what it means now. In saying that, I feel comfortable enough to say that Kollontai was incredibly conservative and sometimes outright reactionary in her views. Unfortunately, the views she supported on certain things were the popular views of the day, even in Communism. History is important, because we can look back at it and know what NOT to do. Kollontai,.despite her views on free love, the abolition of marriage, and women's liberation, was still insistent that it was the /duty/ of every Soviet woman to birth children. To be a mother and housewife in the new, revolutionary form of marriage. She dismissed polyamory, open relationships, etc. as a hindrance to a new Soviet society. No doubt she was excited and determined to struggle for a world of Communism, but this doesnt mean at all that cisgender women should be obligated to reproduce. Nowadays we'd call this traditionalism, or first-wave feminism [I would, anyway].
• Kollontai was a supporter of eugenics. This seems to contradict my last point, but Kollontai makes it very clear she does not believe that women with "certain inheritable genetic disorders" need to reproduce, meaning she also does not view them as fully human. This was perhaps the most unsettling part of this book, as obviously, well, this is eugenics. There's no way I could elaborate more on that. People who want children deserve to be able to have children, regardless of health. I had to remind myself reading this that Helen Keller was also a supporter of eugenics,.and that even in the most revolutionary circles back then, this was seen as "groundbreaking" in science. Of course now, Communists don't support that shit. Or they better not.
• Kollontai has confusing and contradictory views on prostitution. At first, she states that it is something women are forced into or turn to prostitution because of a patriarchal, capitalist society. A strong point. But then she claims that in the USSR, women had no reason to continue engaging in prostitution since the revolution, and that that they should be viewed as "labor deserters" who were hindering the USSR from moving forward. But she also is aware that the capitalist-imperialist state is withering away slowly, and therefore old elements remain, such as the oppression of women -- Kollontai acknowledges this too. So she acknowledges that women are still oppressed, but not so oppressed that their wages may have to come from sex work. It doesn't make sense.
There are also 2 fictional short stories in here written by Kollontai. They're interesting, but eh.
Overall? A necessary read to understand women and socialism, Marxist feminism, the early Women's Liberation Movement, etc. But it's a bumpy ride for sure.
I myself can admire and appreciate Alexandra Kollontai for her contributions to Marxism,.to the revolution, to the Women's Liberation struggle, and I can acknowledge she held very backwards, reactionary views as well -- views we must criticize and move away from.
Alexandra Kollontai was far ahead of her time. That much I can assert. Her views on the women's liberation movement as being tantamount to the struggle for Communism, was not something that was readily explored in depth for many decades after she wrote on it, not until Mao in the 1940s. But what of women's liberation? What did that mean to Kollontai? It meant the freedom to self-assurance, self-determination, and freedom the capitalist constraints that included marriage, prostitution, and exploited labor.
She breaks down marriage and strips it to its core, in terms of the history of modrrn marriage; its origins in private property and accumulation, its origins in patriarchy and controlling women. She is perhaps one of the first major voices to say that marriage as we understand it must be abolished and replaced with the collective work of community. I couldn't agree more. Being a queer/transgender person opposed to all forms of marriage, I relate to this -- maybe from a different angle, but I do relate.
Kollontai, as early the early 1910s, before the Revolution even happened, did something that no woman was doing [or doing as vocally]; she took on the male chauvinism in the Bolshevik Party, and not only that, the male chauvinism of the working class and peasant men who retained old bourgeois methods of control over their wives. She is one of the driving forces behind Marxist feminism [though she herself dismisses 'feminism' as bourgeois and liberalism, instead calling her work women's liberation], and of the connection made between revolutionary socialism and women's liberation. Even all the way down to local community meetings, she criticizes the male-dominated boards and speeches, calls out men who refuse to let their wives join the Communist Party while they themselves are members, and calls on women to take up the struggle for self-determination. It was this struggle that has made Alexandra Kollontai one of the most forward figures of the Bolshevik Revolution, but unfortunately, it also caused her eventual downfall, as she focused less and less on mass and party work, did not elaborate enough on her views on marriage, the family, and other factors, and eventually stepped away from most of her diplomatic work.
Three things in here that really unsettled me and honestly, what made me take a star away on the rating system, because up to then,.this book was phenomenal:
• Kollontai was a revolutionary Communist, but even then, revolutionary to someone 100 years ago, meant something totally different than what it means now. In saying that, I feel comfortable enough to say that Kollontai was incredibly conservative and sometimes outright reactionary in her views. Unfortunately, the views she supported on certain things were the popular views of the day, even in Communism. History is important, because we can look back at it and know what NOT to do. Kollontai,.despite her views on free love, the abolition of marriage, and women's liberation, was still insistent that it was the /duty/ of every Soviet woman to birth children. To be a mother and housewife in the new, revolutionary form of marriage. She dismissed polyamory, open relationships, etc. as a hindrance to a new Soviet society. No doubt she was excited and determined to struggle for a world of Communism, but this doesnt mean at all that cisgender women should be obligated to reproduce. Nowadays we'd call this traditionalism, or first-wave feminism [I would, anyway].
• Kollontai was a supporter of eugenics. This seems to contradict my last point, but Kollontai makes it very clear she does not believe that women with "certain inheritable genetic disorders" need to reproduce, meaning she also does not view them as fully human. This was perhaps the most unsettling part of this book, as obviously, well, this is eugenics. There's no way I could elaborate more on that. People who want children deserve to be able to have children, regardless of health. I had to remind myself reading this that Helen Keller was also a supporter of eugenics,.and that even in the most revolutionary circles back then, this was seen as "groundbreaking" in science. Of course now, Communists don't support that shit. Or they better not.
• Kollontai has confusing and contradictory views on prostitution. At first, she states that it is something women are forced into or turn to prostitution because of a patriarchal, capitalist society. A strong point. But then she claims that in the USSR, women had no reason to continue engaging in prostitution since the revolution, and that that they should be viewed as "labor deserters" who were hindering the USSR from moving forward. But she also is aware that the capitalist-imperialist state is withering away slowly, and therefore old elements remain, such as the oppression of women -- Kollontai acknowledges this too. So she acknowledges that women are still oppressed, but not so oppressed that their wages may have to come from sex work. It doesn't make sense.
There are also 2 fictional short stories in here written by Kollontai. They're interesting, but eh.
Overall? A necessary read to understand women and socialism, Marxist feminism, the early Women's Liberation Movement, etc. But it's a bumpy ride for sure.
I myself can admire and appreciate Alexandra Kollontai for her contributions to Marxism,.to the revolution, to the Women's Liberation struggle, and I can acknowledge she held very backwards, reactionary views as well -- views we must criticize and move away from.
September 5, 2023
It's sad to see her slowly disappear from theorising under Stalin but also a good collection of texts overall.
March 22, 2021
Insightful writings on the oppression of women under capitalism and the beginnings of women's liberation under socialism. The collection also includes Kollontai's utopian views of establishing workers' control of production - in the midst of a civil war - suggesting that she believed socialism in one country was a possibility, even a country devastated by war. This might explain Kollontai's capitulation to Stalin and apolitical rejection of the Left (or United) Opposition, covered in the last section of the book. The sections on women's liberation remain relevant today and are worth reading.
February 28, 2021
Reading women like Kollontai’s is important, not only for historical perspectives, but for theoretical ones too. The things Kollontai writes about, family and marriage abolition most importantly, need to be taken in by communists. Unfortunately her writing can get a little dry sometimes. On the bright side, her two fiction pieces are quite riveting!
April 1, 2022
Some hits and misses, but mostly hits written by Kollontai throughout her life. I think Communism and the Family as well as her many criticisms of bourgeois feminism are some of her best works, but there's a lot of valuable writing in here. I feel like the editor was a bit harsh in her comments and that Kollontai was a visionary. I hope we can one day live in the world she envisioned.
May 15, 2014
Details clearly about an entirely different volume to this classic collection of writing by a true hero in the fight for a better different life for all of us ...
February 23, 2021
Only read 'Working Woman and Mother'
January 31, 2019
Well selected and presented writings of a thinker who seems to have been before her time.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews