A.K. 47 - Selections from the Works of Alexandra Kollontai
KoulutusHistoria

A.K. 47 - Selections from the Works of Alexandra Kollontai

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads and discusses 47 selections from the works of Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952), a socialist women's activist who had radical ideas about the intersections of socialism and women's emancipation. Born into aristocratic privilege, the Ukrainian-Finnish Kollontai was initially a member of the Mensheviks before she joined Lenin and the Bolsheviks and became an important revolutionary figure during the 1917 Russian Revolution. Kollontai was a socialist theorist of women’s emancipation and a strident proponent of sexual relations freed from all economic considerations. After the October Revolution, Kollontai became the Commissar of Social Welfare and helped to found the Zhenotdel (the women's section of the Party). She oversaw a wide variety of legal reforms and public policies to help liberate working women and to create the basis of a new socialist sexual morality. But Russians were not ready for her vision of emancipation, and she was sent away to Norway to serve as the first Russian female ambassador (and only the third female ambassador in the world). In this podcast, Kristen R. Ghodsee – a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence (Bold Type Books 2018) – selects excerpts from the essays, speeches, and fiction of Alexandra Kollontai and puts them in context. Each episode provides an introduction to the abridged reading with some relevant background on Kollontai and the historical moment in which she was writing.

Jaksot(150)

150 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Capitalism, Socialism, and Esteem with Prof. Scott Sehon

150 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Capitalism, Socialism, and Esteem with Prof. Scott Sehon

Kristen Ghodsee revisits her discussion about arguments for socialism with Bowdoin College professor of philosophy, Scott R. Sehon. This conversation focuses on the role of esteem and how it is increasingly commodified in a capitalist society. Mentioned in this podcast: Article in the Wall Street Journal: "$1 Trillion of Wealth Was Created for the 19 Richest U.S. Households Last Year"Interview in Jacobin Magazine: "Tradwives are the harbinger of systemic breakdown"Book by Scott R. Sehon...

29 Huhti 29min

149 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Embrace your political despair

149 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Embrace your political despair

Kristen Ghodsee shares a conservation with a previous guest from March 2022, a self-described anarchist activist, about the value of feeling one’s political despair and using it to generate political creativity. Mentioned in this episode: I Want a Better Catastrophe Also this article: "Kollontai: Leaving behind Menshevik pacifism" Send us a text Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. ...

21 Huhti 17min

148 - A.K. 47 - The New Morals

148 - A.K. 47 - The New Morals

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads a 1930 interview with Alexandra Kollontai about the new morality around love and marriage in the Soviet Union. Kollontai argues that romantic love and relationships will no longer be the most important thing in women’s lives because they will have the support of the socialist state in reducing their responsibilities for domestic work and will have a wider community of citizens helping them to raise up the next generation. One version and the archival references ...

5 Huhti 21min

147 - A.K. 47 - March 8, 1947

147 - A.K. 47 - March 8, 1947

Kristen Ghodsee reads Aleksandra Kollontai’s March 8, 1947 International Women’s Day address, taken from the book: Alexandra Kollontai: The Plight, Struggle, and Liberation of Women Send us a text Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following l...

8 Maalis 20min

146 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Sally Rooney's Intermezzo (with spoilers)

146 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Sally Rooney's Intermezzo (with spoilers)

In this special bonus episode, recorded on Valentine's Day 2025 in Dublin, Kristen Ghodsee and her daughter discuss the book Intermezzo, the latest by the Irish novelist, Sally Rooney. Rooney identifies herself as a Marxist and often mixes politics and social commentary into her stories. Kollontai's ideas about "comradely-love" and of troubling the confines of the nuclear family find interesting resonances in this 2024 novel. The episode has many SPOILERS for Intermezzo. Send us a...

16 Helmi 26min

145 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 6

145 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 6

Kristen Ghodsee reads the final section of Alexandra Kollontai's 1915/1916 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day. This is especially salient today because the United States is on the eve of a trade war with Mexico and Canada. This translation is from a 1984 collection of Kollontai's writing published by Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union, which claims that the essay was written while Kollontai was in exile in Norway. She sent it...

2 Helmi 20min

144 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 5

144 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 5

Kristen Ghodsee reads the fifth section of Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day. This is especially salient today because of the narrow confirmation of the new U.S. Secretary of Defense under the Trump Administration, and the emergence of the reinvigorated oligarchy in the United States. This translation is from a 1984 collection of Kollontai's writing published by Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union, ...

26 Tammi 21min

143 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 4

143 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 4

Kristen Ghodsee reads the fourth section of Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day. This translation is from a 1984 collection of Kollontai's writing published by Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union, which claims that the essay was written while Kollontai was in exile in Norway. She sent it to Vladimir Lenin (then in exile in Switzerland) who also edited it before publication. The final pamphlet was fir...

3 Joulu 202418min