Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (Алекса́ндра Миха́йловна Коллонта́й — born Domontovich, Домонто́вич) (March 31 [O.S. March 19] 1872 - March 9, 1952) was a Russian Communist revolutionary, first as a member of the Mensheviks, then from 1914 on as a Bolshevik. She was effectively exiled by Stalin, who sent her abroad as a diplomat, and was thus one of the very few "Old Bolsheviks" to escape death during the Great Purges of the 1930s. Alexandra Kollontai, public domain This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining, as the final day of March. ... In Britain and countries of the British Empire, Old Style or O.S. after a date means that the date is in the Julian calendar, in use in those countries until 1752; New Style or N.S. means that the date is in the Gregorian calendar, adopted on 14 September... 1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (69th in Leap years). ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... The Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1903 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Leaders of the Bolshevik Party and the Communist International, a painting by Malcolm McAllister on the Pathfinder Mural in New York City and on the cover of the book Lenin’s Final Fight published by Pathfinder. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ... An Old Bolshevik (старый большевик) was a member of the Bolsheviks before the Russian Revolution. ... The Great Purge is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s. ... // Events and trends The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ...

Kollantai was born in St. Petersburg to Mikhail Domontovich, a general in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and the head of the chancellery of the Russian administration in Bulgaria from 1878-1879, and Alexandra Masalin-Mravinsky, the daughter of a wealthy Finnish timber merchant. Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... Plevna Monument near the walls of Kitai-gorod. ... 1878 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1879 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

Revolutionary career

At the time of the split in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party into the Mensheviks under Julius Martov and the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin in 1903, Kollontai did not side with either faction. However, she came to dislike aspects of Bolshevism and opted to join the Mensheviks. |The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, or RSDLP (Росси́йская Социа́л-Демократи́ческая Рабо́чая Па́ртия = РСДРП), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party and the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party. ... The Mensheviks (Russian: Меньшевики) were a faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1903 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. ... Julius Martov or L. Martov (Ма́ртов, real name Yuli Osipovich Zederbaum (Ю́лий О́сипович Цедерба́ум)) (November 24, 1873-April 4, 1923) was born in Constantinople in 1873. ... Leaders of the Bolshevik Party and the Communist International, a painting by Malcolm McAllister on the Pathfinder Mural in New York City and on the cover of the book Lenin’s Final Fight published by Pathfinder. ... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин ▶ (help· info)), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) (April 22 (April 10 (O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Communist revolutionary of Russia, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the main theorist of Leninism, which he described as an adaptation... 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1914, Kollontai joined the Bolsheviks and returned to Russia, after a period of exile for her earlier political activities. After the Bolshevik revolution in October 1917, she became People's Commissar for Social Welfare. She was the most prominent woman in the Soviet administration and was best known for founding the Zhenotdel or "Women's Department" in 1919. This organization worked to improve the conditions of women's lives in the Soviet Union, fighting illiteracy and educating women about the new marriage, education, and working laws put in place by the Revolution. She was well recognized later for socialist feminism. The Zhenotdel was eventually closed in 1930. 1914 (MCMXIV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with: :Sovnarkom. ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Socialist feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses upon both the public and private spheres of a womans life and argues that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of womens oppression. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

In the government, Kollontai increasingly became an internal critic of the Communist Party and joined with her friend, Alexander Shlyapnikov, to form a left-wing faction of the party that became known as the Workers' Opposition. However, Lenin managed to dissolve the Workers' Opposition, after which Kollontai was more or less totally politically sidelined. Alexandra Kollantai (19th century photograph) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за = КПСС) was the name used by the successors of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party from 1952 to 1991, but the wording Communist Party was present in the partys name since 1918 when the Bolsheviks became the All... Alexander Gavrilovich Shlyapnikov (in Russian, Александр Гаврилович Шляпников) (1885-1937) was a Russian communist. ... The Workers Opposition was a faction of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that emerged in 1920 as a response to the perceived over-bureaucratisation that was occurring in the Soviet Union. ... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) ( April 22 (April 10 ( O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the founder of the ideology of Leninism. ...

Kollontai lacked political influence and was appointed by the Party to various diplomatic positions from the early 1920s, keeping her from playing a leading role in the politics of women's policy in the USSR. In 1923, she was appointed Soviet Ambassador to Norway, becoming the world's first female ambassador. She later served as Ambassador to Mexico and Sweden. During World War II, there were some Nazi discussions that her embassy in Stockholm could have potentially been a channel for German-Soviet negotiations, although they never came to pass. She was also a member of the Soviet delegation to the League of Nations. She died in 1952. 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as the largest and deadliest... The Old town in Stockholm from the air ▶(?) is the capital of Sweden, located on the east coast at the entrance of lake Mälaren. ... The League of Nations was an international organization founded after the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Alexandra Kollontai is an unusual figure in the history of the Soviet Union, as she was an "Old Bolshevik" and a major public critic of the Communist Party who was neither purged nor executed by the Stalin regime, though as a diplomat serving abroad, she had little or no influence in government policy or operations and so was effectively exiled. Exile is a form of punishment. ...

Kollontai also raised eyebrows with her strong promotion of free love. However, this does not mean that she advocated casual sexual encounters; indeed, she believed that due to the inequality between men and women that persisted under socialism, such encounters would lead to women being exploited, and being left to raise children alone. Instead she believed that true socialism could not be achieved without a radical change in attitudes to sexuality, so that it might be freed from the oppressive norms that she saw as a continuation of bourgeois ideas about property. It is a myth that she said that the satisfaction of one's sexual desires should be as simple as getting a glass of water; what she actually said is that sexuality was a human instinct as natural as thirst, but this was misunderstood by Lenin, who used it to discredit her. Free love is an ideology that love and sexual activities should be shared amongst many, and not be confined to long term relationships. ...

Films

Kollontai was the subject of the 1994 TV film, A Wave of Passion: The Life of Alexandra Kollontai," with Glenda Jackson as the voice of Kollontai. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Glenda Jackson Glenda May Jackson, CBE, (born May 9, 1936) is a British Oscar-winning actress and politician, currently Labour Member of Parliament for the constituency of Hampstead and Highgate in the London Borough of Camden. ...

A female Soviet diplomat in the 1930s with unconventional views on sexuality, played by Greta Garbo, appeared in the movie Ninotchka. State motto (Russian): Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Translated: Workers of the world, unite!) Capital Moscow Official language None; Russian (de facto) Government Federation of Socialist republics/ Communist state Area  - Total  - % water Largest on the planet 22,402,200 km² ?% Population  - Total  - Density 3rd before collapse 293,047,571 (July... // Events and trends The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ... Greta Garbo (September 18, 1905 – April 15, 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. ... Ninotchka is a 1939 American film by Ernst Lubitsch Garbos first comedy, launched with the tagline Garbo laughs! Storyline Three Russians, Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski, are sent to Paris to sell jewelry confiscated from the aristocracy during the Russian Revolution. ...

External links

• Alexandra Kollontai archive
• A Wave of Passion IMDB entry