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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Episoder(166)

142 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 3 (and a special message for election eve)

Kristen Ghodsee reads the third 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 198...

4 Nov 202426min

141 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Is Internationalism possible?

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee discusses Alexandra Kollontai, nationalism, internationalism, and supranationalism with her daughter, just home from Ireland for fall break. Trigger warning: lots of I...

24 Okt 202431min

140 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 2

Kristen Ghodsee reads 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 Kollo...

13 Okt 202421min

139 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 1

23 Sep 202420min

138 - Bonus Episode – Socialism: A Logical Introduction with Professor Scott Sehon

Kristen Ghodsee speaks to Scott R. Sehon, a professor of philosophy, about his new book, Socialism: A Logical Introduction, and why we should use arguments to make a case for socialism and against cap...

25 Mar 202423min

137 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Claudia Jones's 8 March 1950 International Women's Day Speech

For International Women's Day, Kristen Ghodsee reads the Black Trinidadian activist and journalist Claudia Jones's speech for International Women's Day in 1950. This speech, (and the published version...

8 Mar 202422min

136 - A.K. 47 - "Diplomat, Novelist, Leader - Versatile Mme. Kollontay"

Kristen Ghodsee reads a profile of Alexandra Kollontai which appeared in the Washington Post on May 15, 1927 when Kollontai was serving as the Soviet ambassador to Mexico. Mentioned in this episode:...

17 Feb 202420min

135 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - 5th Anniversary Conversation about Parenthood

Kristen Ghodsee and her daughter share a conversation about Kollontai's pro-natalism and the current discourse about the BirthStrike. Are the relevant moral imperatives about having or not having chil...

8 Jan 202432min