Love Of Worker Bees [Paperback]

Alexandra Kollontai KOLLONTAI (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2005

A love story giving a rare portrait of Russian life in the 20s, by passionate revolutionary, Alexandra Viollontai.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers (August 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897330013
• ISBN-13: 978-0897330015
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #276,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Political and Feminist Allegory, February 11, 2000

By 

Mim Hughes - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love Of Worker Bees (Paperback)

Kollontai, author of Love of the Worker Bees wrote her book during a time of the greatest upheaval ever seen in Russia. The Revolution had turned Russia from a czarist regime to a communist state, and the ensuing changes made the ousting of bourgeoise ideology difficult at best. The economic and personal change in thinking is highlighted by the characterization of Vasilisa, her marriage to Vladimir used to illustrate the failure of traditional marriage and the difficulty in turning ones political idealism to reality within relationships.

As well, the relationship between the book's protagonists can be seen as as an illustration of capitalism/communism with the latter triumphing over the capitalist mentality and lifestyle. Vasilisa can get a bit tedious with her refusal to "see" Vladimir's infidelities no matter what the evidence she is presented with, but again this might be seen as a referral to the persuasive and deceptive appeal of capitalism, with its eventual unmasking.

An excellent text for women's studies or advanced english literature where an emphasis on gender and women's writings from a global and historical perspective is pursued.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Struggle, November 18, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Love Of Worker Bees (Paperback)

Reading this again it brings back many memories and insecurities from the time frame in which I originally read it. To me at the time, many years ago, the book was unusual in its approach to human relationships. However, I did not fully appreciate the complexities of what Kollontai wrote (either in the relatively simple form of her fiction-this book-or in some of her more "scholarly" writings (although I would never refer to her as "scholarly"). The issues highlighted in this collection bear a strong relevance to modern life, as women make choices between career and family/love and sometimes choose to balance both. A theme running through most of Kollontai's public speaking and writing is the idea that everything comes back to a question of economics. Relationships and families, aside from any emotional ties, are economically driven. The fabric of different societies unravels because of economic tensions and problems (and the official blame is often directed at ethnic problems, as in the former Yugoslavia. Economics and the condition of "having versus not having" led to the initial disintegration. Economics can also, as Kollontai illustrates, lead people together or break them apart. When economics is no longer a factor-as she envisioned would be the case in a proletarian-led society-the root of relationships, feelings and sexuality can be explored.)

Another overarching theme Kollontai addresses on all levels is the contradictory nature of life itself, that is the contradiction between theory and practice. If one were to read Worker Bees BEFORE reading Kollontai's more theoretical work, one could easily dismiss Worker Bees as a "fluff" piece of fiction, but the work does manage to touch upon so many of the contradictions Kollontai loved to expose and consider.

What is Kollontai's voice in this book? Who is she? As a woman, idealist, ideological-disappointed by what the USSR became. She survived the purges, but maybe only because she quickly learned to separate reality from ideology. She spent most of Stalin's "reign" outside of Russia, serving in the role of ambassador. Some perceive her appointment to these diplomatic offices as a surge forward for women in society and politics, while many others see her ambassadorial posts as pseudo-punishment/exile. She barely had the chance to use what was previously an active and passionate voice to express her disappointment and criticism at how the revolution had fallen into the hands of a bureaucratic party (power of the few) and stolen from the hands of the workers/masses (power of the many). The failure to fulfill the original dream of the revolution indeed could have informed some of these writings.

Kollontai's drive to make everything into a class struggle only limited her "vision". She firmly believed that the elimination of class would eradicate gender inequalities. Was this blind dedication to the party and the revolution and class struggle detrimental to some of her more important but sadly undeveloped and understudied ideas on family, sexuality and uniquely female issues? The conflict between the party/revolution and feminism may have hindered her thinking and writing on the subject and created a blinder against some of the more topical and pertinent realities she faced. Her ideas touch on difficult matters but don't resolve or even probe them: in these (Kollontai's) times, what is "Communist morality"? Where are the boundaries of intimacy/morality/sexual freedoms? In keeping with gender inequality, there is always the unresolved matter of double standards for the behavior of men and women. Even individuals who claim to have transcended old moral standards continue to judge using these outdated and unfair practices.

Kollontai does, in Worker Bees, illustrate the contradictions between real, daily life problems versus ideological life. The workers did not have the basic necessities while the splendor in which the main character's (Vasya) husband Vladimir was living was not remotely in line with Communist ideology. His lavish materialism, for him, seemed a natural extension of his position in society, and unfortunately illustrates that, despite grand efforts, class is almost an intrinsic "value". People may achieve greater things and it almost follows that a sense of entitlement and privilege follows the greater "position". Vladimir struggles with his relationship to the party. For as committed to its ideals as he originally seemed, he finds that living with the realities that accompany the ideology is much more difficult and is led more and more into bourgeois desire and a need for "ownership". Indeed Vladimir treats his wife, Vasya, as he treats the party-opportunistically. He needs her and/or the party only in a crisis and when he finds himself in trouble. He can only "love" Vasya as he knew her when he met her... fierce, strong, independent... but he still tries to press her down, criticize her and limit her when she does not conform to the "bourgeois ideals" that are now the basis for his lifestyle. Another contrast between reality and ideology and the difficulty of adopting every aspect of a "revolution" (naturally your former way of thinking still exists) is Vasya's approach to nature. She witnesses the beauty of nature around her and calls the parts of nature "God's creatures", swiftly reproaching herself since the party is officially atheist.

Although the story drones on redundantly lamenting love and jealousy, the issue of "double standards" (mentioned earlier) is an interesting one. Vladimir's self-serving, selfish behavior-always wanting to have everything and never making real choices-allows him a certain callousness. He can act as though he respects his wife (interestingly she is his common-law wife) and the fact that she had been a "sexually liberated woman" before he met her, but when he is pressed into a corner (being confronted, for example, by the fact that he has been keeping a mistress about whom Vasya knew nothing), he turns the tables and throws Vasya's "lack of virtue" in her face. Despite claiming to live in this "free and liberated" manner, Vasya still feels an enormous amount of guilt for her lack of "virginity", and Vladimir exerts a hold over Vasya by continually pointing out Vasya's impurity.

Vladimir though cannot truly be seen as a Communist. He sets different standards for the women in his life. His concubine, Nina, is a "lady" by bourgeois standards and therefore cannot work in a factory, unlike his proletarian wife. Although Vladimir's application of this double standard is more obvious, creating different standards for different women and generally conforming to "bourgeois society standards", less obvious is the divisive nature of women applying double standards to other women. Communist women are supposedly "free and liberated" but for "ladies" like Nina, their virtue is linked to their purity. Even the liberated Vasya, who are held up to this unjust "purity standard", criticize the "loose morals" of someone like Nina because she perceives that Nina uses her beauty and other favors for material gain. This may or may not be the case, but the snap judgment Vasya comes to is the same kind of snap judgment this double standard for men and women's behavior rests on and which Vasya herself, if she were outside the situation, would condemn. The irony of the situation is that Vasya cannot see the reality of her own situation clearly until she sees it mirrored in the situation of another. Finally she is able to see her own situation from all sides and from the point of view of an outsider.

In the short story "Generations", also included in this volume, other issues are raised... generational issues. Supposedly Kollontai wants to argue that there are fewer moral contradictions in people over the years by illustrating the stories of three generations of women. There is a generational progress toward the ideal, free Communist society. However, she does well in pointing out the pitfalls of this progress and generational understanding fails to bridge the gaps. As the contradictions lessen, it appears also that people's emotions and understanding of each other also erode (this seems to be a point that is made although Kollontai most likely did not intend it). Some of the contradictions in the story force the reader to ask questions like: can a person really have it both ways? (One character loves two men and wants to give up neither.) Does sharing something intimate with someone rob a third person of the intimacy s/he feels with one of the participants? (A woman in the story has a common-law husband who begins an affair with her daughter from a previous marriage. They do not hide this affair and in fact believe the woman should be happy they have taken such an interest in one another. The woman feels betrayed, as though her daughter sharing intimate relations with the step-father is somehow diminishing his feeling for the woman. In a sense the woman feels a form of shame as well because her own Marxist beliefs would not find it proper to stake ownership on someone's soul. Indeed: is monogamy a form of bourgeois oppression?) Finally, one wonders: have you really made a choice or decision if you have constant doubts and anxieties? If you have not really chosen but rather vacillate? The women in "Generations" struggle with these issues much as women in today's society continue to struggle with some of the "moral issues" prescribed by human relationships in a sociological context.