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.

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Jaksot(166)

70 - A.K. 47 - Endnote to The Soviet Woman, A Full and Equal Citizen of Her Country

In this episode, Kristen R. Ghodsee reads an endnote included with the text of Kollontai's 1946 article The Soviet Woman - A Full and Equal Citizen of Her Country. This endnote was included in 1984 by...

19 Joulu 202018min

69 - A.K. 47 - The Soviet Woman, A Full and Equal Citizen of Her Country

Kristen Ghodsee discusses the later decades of Alexandra Kollontai's life and reads an abridged version of her 1946 essay, "The Soviet Woman, A Full and Equal Citizen of Her Country." This essay was w...

13 Joulu 202023min

68 - A.K. 47 - Red Love Burn Off and Thanksgiving Greetings

In this Thanksgiving Day episode, Kristen Ghodsee discusses why she is not going to finish reading Red Love on the podcast, but discusses the overall themes of the novella. Mentioned in this episode a...

26 Marras 202016min

67 - A.K. 47 - Red Love - Chapter 6.2

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads Part Two of Chapter Six of the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. Send us Fan Mail Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Pa...

22 Syys 202021min

66 - A.K. 47 - Red Love - Chapter 6.1

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads Part One of Chapter Six of the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. Send us Fan Mail Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Pa...

13 Syys 202022min

65 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Care Work and Coronavirus

In this bonus episode, Kristen Ghodsee speaks with her daughter about care work in the time of coronavirus lockdowns. As the school year begins in the United States, many children are learning remotel...

7 Syys 202021min

64 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Some Thoughts on Political Despair

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee takes a break from reading Red Love to reflect on the state of the world during the coronavirus pandemic and how to cope with political despair and what the Germans ap...

20 Elo 202020min

63 - A.K. 47 - Red Love - Chapter 5.2

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads Part Two of Chapter Five of the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. August Special: All E-books of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Soci...

6 Elo 202020min