Alexandra Kollontai: Selected Articles and Speeches [Hardcover]

Alexandra Kollontai (Author)

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Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: Intl Pub; 1st Ed. (U.S.) edition (July 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 071780609X
• ISBN-13: 978-0717806096
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,022,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars upon further analysis, November 18, 2004

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EriKa "E" (Iceland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alexandra Kollontai: Selected Articles and Speeches (Hardcover)

Whatever others may say or think, Alexandra Kollontai is still relevant. Perhaps some of her ideas on women's rights and fundamental equality of the sexes were not fleshed out with empirical research as much as they could have been. Her thoughts on family life and sex and child rearing were also revolutionary for the time in which she wrote about them, but again, she did not have the background to dig deeply into and analyze these issues as well as could be done (her knowledge of sociology and psychology being limited, for example). Kollontai did, though, raise controversial issues, and what makes them relevant today is that most of the issues she discussed in the early part of the 20th century are still just as relevant. The landscape has changed, the framework in which we deal with the issues she addressed is different, but there are still fundamental economic inequalities everywhere. Many issues are still daily concerns throughout the world. The part that is not as relevant, of course, is that Kollontai fervently believed that communism would eradicate these inequalities and sex/relationship/family problems. Because she perhaps naively believed so strongly in this system she did not examine reality as critically as she could have (not to mention that if she had tried to do so, she would have met opposition from within the Soviet government.)

Kollontai's views on gender and gender equality were of interest, but because the "class struggle" was more important to her (and indeed she believed the abolishment of "class" would free women from the boundaries imposed on them in society, she neglected some important underlying issues about feminism, women and society. She does, however, make it clear that women (as well as all people) need to be actively engaged in the politics of their country. The importance of this issue is still felt today, as many people turn against political involvement, feeling it is hopeless. If nothing else, people need to be informed. How, indeed, are women to have equal representation if they don't get involved, she argued? The same is true today, although it applies to all citizens of a democratic society. In the United States today, civil rights, for example, are violated freely by institutions "in the name of security", but this is diversionary and keeps people from really questioning what is happening in their society.

On a related matter, an issue Kollontai addressed with particularly fervent passion is World War I: is in fact the issue of nations lying to their people to garner support for unjust wars ethical or acceptable? Could that be irrelevant? No, in fact, reading Kollontai's words today (the book is largely a collection of her speeches), the passion and reason with which she argued against the war could just as well have been a modern speech about the current situation in Iraq. She writes (keep in mind this is all in translation), "People talk of the `right of each people to self-defence'. Each state naturally tries to present itself as having begun the war in order to preserve and defend its culture, and not in order to fill the purses of the capitalists." (We could perhaps substitute "preserve and defend its culture" to "preserve and defend `democracy' everywhere" to imitate what might be said in present day. Meanwhile, the real reasons are capitalist ones.)

"Culture! Yes, culture is indeed man's most precious possession. But is it not war that threatens the very existence of culture? Is it not because of war that magnificent old forests are ruthlessly destroyed? Is it not war that destroys the best historical monuments and works of art? Finally, are there any `cultural values' which are worth the cost of hundreds of thousands, even millions, of human lives?"

"Ask any soldier, be he Russian or German, what were they fighting for? For what did they shed the blood of their brothers, the workers and peasants of their neighboring country? For what did they cripple people? They will not tell you, they will not answer, because they themselves do not really know."

Kollontai points out the hypocrisies that lie at the heart of most wars, and her passion is evident. It is abundantly clear how she rose to such esteem in the Communist party and why she was so well respected as someone who could rouse the passions of the people. At the same time, her focus, so admired by her peers, was the same focus and passion that made her unable to form more sophisticated analyses and effect real change. Nevertheless, her ideas remain highly relevant and deserve further exploration from a modern audience. For all her ideas lacked, the passion with which she delivered her ideas, is ardent and even so apparent it virtually jumps off the pages.