Alexandra Kollontai - by Cathy Porter (Paperback)

About the Book

Kollotai was a brilliant and passionate defender of the ideals of the Russian revolution and women's liberation.

Book Synopsis

Kollotai was a brilliant and passionate defender of the ideals of the Russian revolution and women's liberation.

Review Quotes

"A very detailed life-story of this extraordinary woman . . . Cathy Porter has written a sad, serious, and very readable book . . ." -Tamara Deutscher, Marxism Today (first edition)

"Alexandra Kollontai has the potential to be a true delight for the connoisseur by providing an alternative historical account of Russia and the socialist movement. However, what makes it transcend time is Kollontai's chief belief that women should be at the centre of the economy, not the periphery" -Spokeman

"an interesting and detailed account of some of the most exciting years in working class history" -Socialist Review"Kollontai, a staunch opponent of the first world war, broke with moderates who supported the war and joined the Bolsheviks, becoming a vital figure in the women's liberation movement for which she struggled throughout her life. She was the first woman ever to be appointed an ambassador to Norway and wrote: "I realised that I had thereby achieved a victory not only for myself, but for women in general ... When on occasion I am told that it is truly remarkable that a woman has been appointed to such a responsible position, I always think to myself that in the final analysis ... what is of a wholly special significance here is that a woman, like myself, who has settled scores with the double standard and who has never concealed it, was accepted into a caste which to this very day staunchly upholds tradition and pseudo-morality."

--Tariq Ali

About the Author

Cathy Porter was born in Oxford in 1947, and grew up there. She spent a year in Poland before studying Russian and Czech at London University. Since then she has become deeply involved in the political life and intellectual ideas of the nineteenth - and twentieth-century Russia. She is the author of Fathers and Daughters: Russian Women in Revolution, and translator of Kollontai's fiction Love of Worker Bees. Porter lives in London and divides her time between translating, teaching literacy and researching Russian history.