Kathleen’s Reviews > Alexandra Kollontai: A Biography > Status Update

“All my life I’ve had this childlike capacity to dream. I not only saw what was, but how life could be if it was changed… I have lived life intensely, and was greedy for new experiences. And by nature I was very active, and my imagination made it more interesting.” 🥹🤩

Still so engrossed, but these are tragic chapters. Kollontai is ostracized and ridiculed for transparently representing her constituents and criticizing the Party’s growing centralization. As a woman she is particularly subject to personal attacks by her former colleagues. At least the men who loved her refuse to leave her 💔

So many congresses and conferences! I don’t blame the workers for still being pissed they don’t have food after so much paperwork

Sad and debilitating at how hard revolution was once the long fought for goal finally arrived. Not sure I’m comfortable with Kollontai’s continued role as propaganda artist; giving rousing speeches on the front was once something she criticized before she did it for the Red Army

Learning to both loath and love Kollontai’s fierce independence as well as her unceasing radicalism

Kollontai writes for a bright future for modern women as she continues to struggle to find consistent balance between her passion for work and her own personal needs

Yea, I was crying. Socialist paper praised Kollontai’s prewar speaking tours and described her as a passionate and energetic speaker (in 3 languages!) who brought the house to its feet. What a wonderful reward for someone who chose to walk such a solitary path

Unexpected similarity I’m noting between family arrangements of the Kollontais and the Marstons (of Secret Life of Wonder Woman). In both cases, the “first wife” ultimately needed the support of a second woman to take on her duties as wife and mother in order to meaningfully pursue professional ambitions. 😕

Good listening for a long manicure 😅 interesting to revisit pre-industrial Russian family culture and appreciate how rigid the social structure was, almost caste-like. Revisiting again the same periods as the worldwide feminist movements again, 1850-1890, early 1920s