Selected Writings Of Alexandra Kollontai

Alix Holt, in her careful, objective comments on the life and work of Miss Kollontai, has served her subject well. . . .She has given us this chance to become acquainted with the thought of a woman liberated before her time. New York Times Book Review"

A rare, graphic portrait of Russian life in 1917 immediately after the October Revolution. The heroine struggles with her passion for her husband, and the demands of the new world in which she lives.

Revisiting the ideas of a Russian revolutionary and feminist on such topics as sexual politics, free love, and motherhood. Alexandra Kollontai was a prominent Russian revolutionary, a commissar of Social Welfare after the October revolution in 1917, and a long-term Soviet ambassador to Sweden. As a cofounder of the Zhenotdel, the “Women's Department” in the communist party, she introduced abortion rights, secularized marriage, and provided paid maternity leave. Kollontai considered “comradely love” to be an important political force, elemental in shaping social bonds beyond the limitations of property relations. Red Love stems from a yearlong research by CuratorLab at Konstfack University together with Tensta konsthall, that led up to Dora García's exhibition Red Love and its related public programing. A number of artists and thinkers revisit Kollontai's ideas on the politics of love and their relation to current political, social, and feminist struggles. The publication also includes the biographical play Kollontai from 1977 by distinguished Swedish writer Agneta Pleijel. Part critical analysis and part artist book Red Love seeks to address the ongoing relevance of Kollontai's thought, and the increasingly complex sphere of love relations in advanced capitalism. Is there a place for Kollontai's vision of comradely love today and how could it be formed?

Selected Writings, focused on women's equality and peace, 1910-1952, with biographical essay.

Never-before translated writings of one of Russia's most important leaders in the struggle for women's liberation.

Alexandra Kollontai was a major figure in the Russian revolutionary movement, an activist from the 1890s, a pioneer of women's liberation and one of the founders of International Women's Day. This new collection is a wide-ranging selection of her writings from the revolutionary struggle, from her first discovery of Marx in her twenties, to her place in the first Bolshevik government, and her fight to defend Soviet power. Edited and translated by Cathy Porter, this collection includes articles translated for the first time into English.