Alexandra Kollontai and the Fate of Bolshevik Feminism

Abstract

Alexandra kollontai is one of the most fascinating and least understood figures of the Bolshevik revolution. A feminist and a socialist, Kollontai defended a vision of emancipation premised on equality, comradeship, and personal autonomy, where society would take responsibility for domestic labour while enabling in dividuals freely to express their sexuality. In the wake of the collapse of Soviet communism, Kollontai and her creed may seem a subject best consigned to Marx's dustbin of history. But Kollontai's story must be told if we are to understand the failure of the Soviet project. For it is unclear whether she should be viewed as an innovative and visionary radical or just another compromised participant in the official order. Our assessment of Kollontai will help us to determine the extent to which an anti-authoritarian vision of socialism was ever a possibility in the former USSR. As we ponder today whether the October Revolution itself was a brilliant dream gone wrong, or bankrupt in its very origins, so too must we address these questions to Kollontai's contribution. In this spirit of reflection on the Russia that might have been, two attractive recent editions of Kollontai's fiction, translated and introduced by Cathy Porter, provide a welcome opportunity to learn of the Utopian aspirations and ominous difficulties that characterized the early struggles of the October Revolution.1