ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI AND THE POLITICAL MEANING OF LOVE

Abstract

In the given article I analyze the contribution of the prominent socialist feminist thinker and politician Alexandra Kollontai to the development of conceptual vision of a just society, that would be based on the equality of the sexes, and to the formation of contemporary views onto the problem of the of the political, intellectual and emotional autonomy of women . In my view, the rethinking of Kollontai's views in regards to the issues of love, sexuality and the role of emotional life under socialism and capitalism may be helpful for better understanding of the complex relationship between gender and class identities, collisions of public and private lives, and the emancipation of women (politically, economically, emotionally and symbolically). I also argue that Kollontai's legacy is relevant for the contemporary scholarship on political , gender-specific aspects of emotional life as well as the affective dimension of the politics.My analysis is based on three types of sources: theoretical works and literary texts by Alexandra Kollontai, in which she developed her views on love relationships and women's autonomy; selected works of other Marxist and feminist thinkers of the early XX century (V.I. Lenin, I. Armand) that dealt with the questions of free love and sexual mores; the works by contemporary gender scholars and feminist thinkers, that engage with the texts of Kollontai and debates on love and sexuality in the Soviet 1920s.