Aleksandra Michajlovna Kollontaj Livres

This is the first time that the complete autobiography which Alexandra Kollontai wrote in 1926 has been published. "For it is not her specific feminine virtue that gives her a place of honor in human society, but the worth of the useful mission accomplished by her, the worth of her personality as human being, as citizen, as thinker, as fighter. Subconsciously this motive was the leading force of my whole life and activity. To go my way, to work, to struggle, to create side by side with men, and to strive for the attainment of a universal human goal (for nearly thirty years, indeed, I have belonged to the Communists) but, at the same time, to shape my personal, intimate life as a woman according to my own will and according to the given laws of my nature. It was this that conditioned my line of vision."

Focusing on the ideological struggle within the USSR's Communist Party, this manifesto presents the views of the Workers Opposition, which advocated for direct worker control, democratic socialism, and the rights of labor unions. It critiques Leninist centralization and Stalinist dictatorship, calling for free criticism of Party leaders and a return to a worker-organized Council-based state. The historical context reveals the peril faced by its proponents, many of whom perished in Stalin's prisons.

"Love of Worker Bees, which first appeared in 1923, consists of a remarkable novel and two striking short stories, written by the most famous and gifted Russian woman of the twentieth century. The novel is both a moving love story and a rare graphic portrait of Russian life after the October revolution in 1917. The heroine, Vasilia, struggles to come to terms with her passionate love for her husband and the new world that is coming into being around her. The two stories, "Three Generations" and "Sisters," provide more poignant and fascinating insights into the situation of women. The book includes an introduction by the translator with a biographical sketch of Alexandra Kollontai, an afterward by Sheila Rowbotham and a glossary.

Exploring the intersection of sexuality, motherhood, and social welfare, this collection presents the revolutionary ideas of Alexandra Kollontai, a pioneering advocate for women's rights and free love in early 20th-century Russia. As the first woman in a governing cabinet, Kollontai's insights remain relevant today, particularly in discussions surrounding socialism and feminism. Edited by Liza Featherstone, the book features rich illustrations and highlights Kollontai's enduring influence on contemporary issues like abortion rights and family support.

This groundbreaking work by Alexandra Kollontai offers a critical analysis of the bourgeois women's movement and emphasizes the importance of working-class women in the fight for gender equality. As the first full-length English translation of her 1909 text, it sheds light on revolutionary feminist ideas and the intersection of class and gender struggles, making it a significant contribution to feminist literature and Marxist theory.

"The author is a physicist who lives in Vancouver. She has had a really dramatic personal experience. Originally from Germany, she was married to a Palestinian who was very controlling. When she tried to leave him, he kidnapped their two children and moved them to a hut village in Jordan. She moved there and eventually escaped with them through Israel. The book is about the escape and gives a really good glimpse of life in a Moslem village It is also about living with him for a number of years after because she was afraid that by leaving him, he would hurt the children or kidnap them again."--

The revolutionary legacy of Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952) has slipped into relative obscurity. This is somewhat surprising, because she was a voluminous writer - on politics, Marxist theory, country-specific economic studies, and the women's question. She left letters, diaries, memoirs and pamphlets, theoretical tracts, articles, and creative literature. She authored two novels, The Love of Worker Bees and Red Love, which explored issues of love and socialist morality. Kollontai was resolutely opposed to bourgeois feminism, the term used to demarcate a form of feminism that was anti-Marxist and that drove an agenda of free love. She was, however, perhaps the only one amongst a small group of women and men communists in her time who engaged intellectually with issues of sexual morality in the context of women's liberation. She envisioned the many possibilities for women's freedom that lay locked in a socialist future, and set out the mechanisms by which women's subordination - political and economic of course, but equally in terms of ideas and attitudes - could and must be undone under socialism. This volume brings together some of her most important writings on gender, sexuality and women's liberation.

'Es gibt nichts Schwereres, als eine Selbstbiographie zu schreiben'. So beginnt Alexandra Kollontais Autobiographie. Dabei meistert die russische Revolutionärin dieses Genre eindrucksvoll, denn in ihrem ebenso einfühlsamen wie aufrüttelnden Text demonstriert sie der heutigen Leserschaft, dass Feminismus viel mehr ist als Frauenquoten in Vorstandsetagen. Barbara Kirchner, Professorin für Theoretische Chemie an der Universität Leipzig und (gemeinsam mit Dietmar Dath) Autorin des aufsehenerregenden Buches Der Implex, führt die LeserInnen in das Werk ein und stellt dabei prägnant heraus, wie wichtig auch heute noch die Auseinandersetzung mit diesem 'Urtext' der Frauenbewegung ist.