Alexandra Kollontai

Alexandra Kollontai was a key leader of the Russian Socialist movement, the only woman in the early Soviet government, and one of the most famous women in Russian history. She worked tirelessly all her life as a speaker, writer, and organizer for women's emancipation. This compelling biography recounts her life for an emerging generation of fighters for women's liberation.

Cathy Porter is a translator, teacher, and researcher on Russian history. She is the author of Fathers and Daughters: Russian Women in Revolution and translator of Alexandra Kollontai's Love of Worker Bees.

CONTENTS
Chronology xi
Introduction 1
Chapter One: Too Much Family Happiness 7
Chapter Two: Small Deeds 38
Chapter Three: Marxists and Revisionists 65
Chapter Four: What Is To Be Done? 85
Chapter Five: After Bloody Sunday 103
Chapter Six: Heckling the Feminists 121
Chapter Seven: Exiled in Workers’ Europe 141
Chapter Eight: The Collapse of Internationalism 164
Chapter Nine: War on War! 190
Chapter Ten: Agitating for Revolution 213
Chapter Eleven: Militant Spring 233
Chapter Twelve: Peace, Bread, Land and Justice 250
Chapter Thirteen: Cooks and Commissars 269
Chapter Fourteen: Civil War 293
Chapter Fifteen: The Crisis of the Revolution 323
Chapter Sixteen: Workers’ Opposition 347
Chapter Seventeen: Exiled in Diplomats’ Europe 372
Chapter Eighteen: Years of Uncertainty 390
Chapter Nineteen: The Purges, Fascism and War 412
Chapter Twenty: The Last Years 445
Notes 452
Bibliography 474
Organisations and Russian Terms 499
Index