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Sovyet Kadını;Seçme Yazılar
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160 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2023
11 people are currently reading
194 people want to read
About the author
Alexandra Kollontai
113 books295 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 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 16, 2024
A fascinating and dedicated woman who truly believed in the new world she was helping to shape. I can’t decide to what extent I agree with her views on love and family but they are well written and thought provoking; I’d like to read one of her novels.
The last third is an autobiography. I always love reading biographies of old Bolsheviks and you realise how much travelling they done before the October Revolution, would’ve loved to have seen Kollontai speak in the USA on her tour.
Give this a read
The last third is an autobiography. I always love reading biographies of old Bolsheviks and you realise how much travelling they done before the October Revolution, would’ve loved to have seen Kollontai speak in the USA on her tour.
Give this a read
June 26, 2021
All through while reading 'The Soviet Woman', I kept wondering why we haven't heard much of Alexandra Kollontai, other than the rare references, unlike the constant citing of Rosa Luxemburg or Clara Zetkin, both of whom were contemporaries of Kollontai. Here was a woman who served as the People's Commissar for Welfare in Lenin's Government, formed right after the October Revolution and was also a member of the party's Central Committee, which took the key decisions that led to the uprising.
Journalist Parvathi Menon, who has written a long introduction to this book, says that the first biographies in English on Kollontai were published as late as the 1980s. One of the reasons perhaps for her own relative obscurity could be some of her opinions on sexuality and free love, which became controversial back then, especially books like 'Sexual Relations and Class Struggle' and her 'glass of water' theory on sexuality, as per which she said that the sexual act should not be morally judged, but be considered as natural as the other needs of healthy organism such as hunger and thirst'.
But then, those views are just one small part of her. She had played a key role in the drafting of early Soviet laws that legalised abortion, divorce, birth control and homosexuality. As Commissar, she put in place free maternity and infant health care, began collective kitchens and reorganised old age facilities. She always advocated for a stronger economic role for women and their independent involvement in production.
Her class and gender politics was always in opposition to what she classified as bourgeois. In an article on the First International Conference of Socialist Women at Stuttgart in 1907, she writes - "The struggle to achieve political equality for proletarian women is part and parcel of the overall class struggle of the proletariat; when it becomes an independent militant aim in itself it eclipses the class objectives of women workers. The inventive bourgeoisie, who love to hide their real desires behind a screen of splendid-sounding slogans, put the world of women and its objectives in opposition to the class cause of women workers. However, as soon as the women's cause is put above the proletarian cause, as soon as women workers allow themselves to be seduced by fine-sounding phrases about the community of women's interests regardless of class divisions, they lose their living link with their own class cause and thus betray their own particular interests. Bourgeois women, according to their own assertion, are generously demanding rights for 'all women', whereas women workers are only fighting for their class interests. However, in practice the situation is precisely the reverse: in winning political rights for themselves, women workers are also opening up the way to the voting booth for women of other classes. In resolutely and consistently defending the interests of the women of its own class, Social-Democracy is putting into practice the principles of the fullest form of democracy and promoting the success of the women's cause as a whole."
Elsewhere, she writes - "What is the aim of the feminists? Their aim is to achieve the same advantages, the same power, the same rights within capitalist society as those now possessed by their husbands, fathers and brothers. What is the aim of the women workers? Their aim is to abolish all privileges deriving from birth or wealth. For the women worker, it is a matter of indifference who is the 'master', a man or a woman. Together with the whole of her class, she can ease her position as a worker."
She writes extensively on the low participation of women in wage work, and an even lower participation of them in organised unions. Yet the First World War turned things around, with female labour being found everywhere. She points at how women workers were the first to raise the red banner in the days of the Russian Revolution, the first to go out onto the streets on Women's day.
The book is divided into three parts - her writings, her involvement in the Russian Revolution and her autobiography. The last part also talks about her diplomatic services, as Russia's ambassador to Norway, the first woman to take an ambassador position. She writes about how the conservative press, and especially the Russian 'white' press were outraged at her appointment and tried to make her a real monster of immorality and bloody bogey out of her. Amid all these busy duties, she kept on writing - powerful essays and works of fiction. Leftword publications has done a commendable job in reviving interest in Kollontai's revolutionary life.
Journalist Parvathi Menon, who has written a long introduction to this book, says that the first biographies in English on Kollontai were published as late as the 1980s. One of the reasons perhaps for her own relative obscurity could be some of her opinions on sexuality and free love, which became controversial back then, especially books like 'Sexual Relations and Class Struggle' and her 'glass of water' theory on sexuality, as per which she said that the sexual act should not be morally judged, but be considered as natural as the other needs of healthy organism such as hunger and thirst'.
But then, those views are just one small part of her. She had played a key role in the drafting of early Soviet laws that legalised abortion, divorce, birth control and homosexuality. As Commissar, she put in place free maternity and infant health care, began collective kitchens and reorganised old age facilities. She always advocated for a stronger economic role for women and their independent involvement in production.
Her class and gender politics was always in opposition to what she classified as bourgeois. In an article on the First International Conference of Socialist Women at Stuttgart in 1907, she writes - "The struggle to achieve political equality for proletarian women is part and parcel of the overall class struggle of the proletariat; when it becomes an independent militant aim in itself it eclipses the class objectives of women workers. The inventive bourgeoisie, who love to hide their real desires behind a screen of splendid-sounding slogans, put the world of women and its objectives in opposition to the class cause of women workers. However, as soon as the women's cause is put above the proletarian cause, as soon as women workers allow themselves to be seduced by fine-sounding phrases about the community of women's interests regardless of class divisions, they lose their living link with their own class cause and thus betray their own particular interests. Bourgeois women, according to their own assertion, are generously demanding rights for 'all women', whereas women workers are only fighting for their class interests. However, in practice the situation is precisely the reverse: in winning political rights for themselves, women workers are also opening up the way to the voting booth for women of other classes. In resolutely and consistently defending the interests of the women of its own class, Social-Democracy is putting into practice the principles of the fullest form of democracy and promoting the success of the women's cause as a whole."
Elsewhere, she writes - "What is the aim of the feminists? Their aim is to achieve the same advantages, the same power, the same rights within capitalist society as those now possessed by their husbands, fathers and brothers. What is the aim of the women workers? Their aim is to abolish all privileges deriving from birth or wealth. For the women worker, it is a matter of indifference who is the 'master', a man or a woman. Together with the whole of her class, she can ease her position as a worker."
She writes extensively on the low participation of women in wage work, and an even lower participation of them in organised unions. Yet the First World War turned things around, with female labour being found everywhere. She points at how women workers were the first to raise the red banner in the days of the Russian Revolution, the first to go out onto the streets on Women's day.
The book is divided into three parts - her writings, her involvement in the Russian Revolution and her autobiography. The last part also talks about her diplomatic services, as Russia's ambassador to Norway, the first woman to take an ambassador position. She writes about how the conservative press, and especially the Russian 'white' press were outraged at her appointment and tried to make her a real monster of immorality and bloody bogey out of her. Amid all these busy duties, she kept on writing - powerful essays and works of fiction. Leftword publications has done a commendable job in reviving interest in Kollontai's revolutionary life.
September 5, 2021
"(bourgeois) Feminists demand equal rights always and everywhere. Women workers reply: we demand rights for every citizen, man and woman, but we are not prepared to forget that we are not only workers and citizens, but also mothers!....... For bourgeois women, political rights are simply a means allowing them to make their way more conveniently and more securely in a world founded on the exploitation of the working people. For women workers, political rights are a step along the rocky and difficult path that leads to the desired Kingdom of labour."
October 14, 2025
I am really glad to read this book, covers her crusader and strong life from her own mouth. What I also appreciate next to her fight for socialism is her living her emotions and passions. Especially due to the fact that while she was under pressure due to her political life, she had to deal with that, too. I am going to learn more about Kollontai
December 21, 2024
Kollontais positions/thoughts on things like love, marriage, children, domestic labor, family, and feminism are extremely thought provoking and progressive even by todays standards. V fun read, particularly her notions of love, and of "bourgeois feminism" which both feel like topics of great discussion today
October 7, 2024
Alexandra Kollontai is what many of you think bell hooks was. And even that is a great disservice to the Marxist feminist tradition she carried into the Russian Revolution. Kollontai wrote on love, Marxist theory, and the women’s question and was chiefly responsible for the Bolshevik legislation on maternity protection, marriage laws (including divorce and homosexuality), birth control, and as the first country to legalize abortion.
For bourgeois feminism, political rights is a mean to obtain the same rights as capitalist men; to make life more convenient and secure for a world founded on the exploitation of workers. Kollontai, and the Marxist feminist tradition, is that working women receive political rights to abolish all privileges that derive from birth, gender, race, and wealth. That was always the goal, a working women’s liberation from work and abuse at home, for autonomy, and to no longer be seen as a man’s private personal or spiritual property.
I believe a lot of Kollontai’s theory on the realm of sex and family were beyond its time. Aligning closely with Marx and Engel’s theories on family and private property, but something that was hard to immediately comprehend with the older yoke of sexual norms. The nuclear family IS in contradiction to the collectivized worker state, Engels relates that the pre-capitalist (and only strengthened under capitalism. i.e. destruction of the commons, etc.) form of the family promotes inheritance, ownership, and private property. It is the first nucleas of undemocratic, patriarchal control and at some point in a collectivized and just society would be abolished in its current form.
What’s critical about this collection is that it is Kollontai’s personal account of the pre-, during, and post-revolution. Not afraid to call out the issues of the Revolution and Kollontai’s disinterest in some of its bloodiest aspects. And of course Kollontai’s ultimate goal of women’s liberation being achieved in theory but not always practice. I do think this collection misses a lot of her best and most theoretically engaging works.
For bourgeois feminism, political rights is a mean to obtain the same rights as capitalist men; to make life more convenient and secure for a world founded on the exploitation of workers. Kollontai, and the Marxist feminist tradition, is that working women receive political rights to abolish all privileges that derive from birth, gender, race, and wealth. That was always the goal, a working women’s liberation from work and abuse at home, for autonomy, and to no longer be seen as a man’s private personal or spiritual property.
I believe a lot of Kollontai’s theory on the realm of sex and family were beyond its time. Aligning closely with Marx and Engel’s theories on family and private property, but something that was hard to immediately comprehend with the older yoke of sexual norms. The nuclear family IS in contradiction to the collectivized worker state, Engels relates that the pre-capitalist (and only strengthened under capitalism. i.e. destruction of the commons, etc.) form of the family promotes inheritance, ownership, and private property. It is the first nucleas of undemocratic, patriarchal control and at some point in a collectivized and just society would be abolished in its current form.
What’s critical about this collection is that it is Kollontai’s personal account of the pre-, during, and post-revolution. Not afraid to call out the issues of the Revolution and Kollontai’s disinterest in some of its bloodiest aspects. And of course Kollontai’s ultimate goal of women’s liberation being achieved in theory but not always practice. I do think this collection misses a lot of her best and most theoretically engaging works.
April 2, 2025
I really enjoyed most of the book. I did not enjoy the two essay's entitled "sexual relations and class struggle 1921" and "theses on communist morality in the sphere of marital relations 1921" not only because i disagree with some of the content of the essays but because they remind me of max Horkheimer complaining in ~1942 about how the soviet union didn't go far enough in attempting to abolish the state. In other words there is a time and a place for those kind of articles and that time is not during a war.
Still a good intro to kollontai.
Still a good intro to kollontai.
February 5, 2024
Interesting insight into the women worker's movement but hard to follow without a sound understanding of Marxist theory.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews