“...sexuality is a human instinct as natural as hunger or thirst.”
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Alexandra Kollontai
Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai was a Russian revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Marxist theoretician. Serving as People's Commissar for Welfare in Vladimir Lenin's government in 1917–1918, she was a highly prominent woman within the Bolshevik party. She was the first woman in history to be a cabinet minister, and one of the first women to be appointed as a diplomatic representative of a mode…
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politics · Soviet politician and diplomat (1872–1952) · revolutionary · diplomat · women's rights activist · writer · political theorist · People's Commissar · sociologist · politician · feminist · also Alexandra Kollontai, Alexandra Mikhaylovna Kollontay, Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai, Kollontai
Born 31 March 1872 · Died 9 March 1952 · Q179558
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2026· 2 entries
“For this you should not only be excluded, but shot as well.”
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2025· 1 entry
Moviefone: A Wave of Passion: The Life of Alexandra Kollontai - Where to Watch
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2017· 1 entry
CounterPunch: A Historical Alternative to Pink Pussy Cat Hats: Alexandra Kollontai as a Model for Socialist Feminism
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2012· 1 entry
The American Conservative: Alexandra Kollontai & Pussy Riot
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1982· 1 entry
Rosa von Praunheim made the film Red Love based on the novella with the same title by Kollontai; the film was shown in the Museum of Modern Art
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1952· 1 entry
Died 1952-03-09.
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1946· 2 entries
Awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav (1946).
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And 1947 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Scandinavian political circles, including the Finnish president and erstwhile Envoy to Moscow, Juho Kusti Paasikivi, on the grounds of "her diplomatic efforts to en
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1944· 1 entry
Awarded Order of the Aztec Eagle (1944).
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1943· 2 entries
Career landmark: ambassador (1943–1945).
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Was promoted to the title of ambassador to Sweden
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1933· 1 entry
Awarded Order of Lenin (1933).
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1929· 1 entry
Give a suggestion of her attitude towards advancing Stalinism: "Everything's changed so much
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1926· 1 entry
When she was requested to write her own autobiography for a series on famous women by Munich publisher Helga Kern, she deemed it necessary to completely revise the first draft of her work she had handed over to the publi
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1924· 2 entries
Career landmark: minister plenipotentiary (1924–1943).
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Career landmark: chargé d'affaires (1924–1924).
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1922· 1 entry
Kollontai jokingly warned him not to believe any news of her being arrested for stealing Kremlin silverware, for such news could only mean that she was "not entirely in agreement with [Lenin] about some little problem of
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1920· 1 entry
But was eventually defeated and sidelined, narrowly avoiding her own expulsion from the party altogether
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1919· 1 entry
Kollontai was a leading figure in the foundation of the Zhenotdel, the then-new women's department of the Central Committee that was aimed at improving the status of women in the Soviet Union
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1918· 1 entry
Career landmark: Member of the Russian Constituent Assembly (1918–1918).
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1917· 2 entries
Career landmark: minister (1917–1918).
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Upon hearing of the February Revolution, Kollontai returned from Norway to Russia
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1916· 1 entry
Had arranged for him to avoid conscription by going to the United States to work on Russian orders from U
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1915· 1 entry
Broke with the Mensheviks and became a member of the Bolsheviks
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1914· 1 entry
Kollontai left Germany due to the German social democrats' support of the war
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1911· 1 entry
While abruptly breaking off her long-term relationship with her faction comrade Peter Maslov (1867–1946), an agrarian scientist, she started a love affair with another fellow exilee, Alexander Gavrilovich Shliapnikov
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1908· 2 entries
Kollontai toured Western Europe and the United States and campaigned against participation in the First World War
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After publishing "Finland and Socialism", which called on the Finnish people to rise up against oppression within the Russian Empire
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1906· 1 entry
However, disapproving of "the hostile position taken by the Bolsheviks towards the Duma" and despite her being generally a left-winger, she decided to join the Mensheviks
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1905· 1 entry
Kollontai was a witness to the series of events in Saint Petersburg, known as Bloody Sunday, where tsarist soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators in front of the Winter Palace causing hundreds of deaths and injuri
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1903· 1 entry
Kollontai did not side with either faction at first, and "offered her services to both factions"
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1899· 1 entry
At which time she met Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov, better known today as Vladimir Lenin
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1898· 1 entry
Left little Mikhail with her parents to study economics in Zürich, Switzerland, with Professor Heinrich Herkner
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1890· 1 entry
Or 1891, Alexandra, aged around 19, met her cousin and future husband, Vladimir Ludvigovich Kollontai (9 July 1867 – July/August 1917), an engineering student of modest means enrolled at a military institute
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1872· 1 entry
Born 1872-03-31.
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