A.k. 47 - Selections From The Works Of Alexandra Kollontai

Kristen Ghodsee reads two news items about Alexandra Kollontai from December 25, 1926 and April 21, 1927, during the time that Kollontai served as the Soviet ambassador to Mexico.  Ghodsee also shares some exciting news about her forthcoming book.Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon account and receives no funding. If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word and share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links:Pre-order Kristen Ghodsee's new book now: Everyday UtopiaSubscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work at: www.kristenghodsee.comFollow Kristen Ghodsee's account on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristenghodsee

Kristen Ghodsee reads and discusses Alexandra Kollontai's 1918 essay, "The First Steps Towards the Protection of Motherhood." Kollontai saw motherhood as a "obligation" and "sacred duty" of women, and was very pro-natalist in her politics. But many of the policies she implemented between 1917 and 1918 reflected the desires of working women who attended the conferences Kollontai organized in Petrograd. In many ways, Kollontai may be the reason that policies and programs like daycare, parental leaves, and child allowances (or tax credits) exist in the present day. Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon account and receives no funding. If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word and share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links:Pre-order Kristen Ghodsee's new book now: Everyday UtopiaSubscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee&

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee speaks with professor Page Herrlinger at Bowdoin College about the political ramifications of Alexandra Kollontai's untimely seizure of the Alexandra Nesky monastery on January 19, 1918. As Commissar of Social Welfare, it was Kollontai's responsibility to find a place for the wounded soldiers returning from the front after the armistice of December 1917. She did not expect the fierce resistance she encountered. Herrlinger is an historian of Russia, and argues that Kollontai fundamentally misunderstood the important role that faith played in the lives of the Russian women Kollontai was trying to emancipate. Herrlinger's forthcoming book, Holy Sobriety in Modern Russia: A Faith Healer and His Followers, will be out in August 2023. Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon account and receives no funding. If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word and share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee and her daughter discuss the "value" of our relationships. Why is it an achievement to have a hundred thousand followers on social media (most of whom you will never know), but not an achievement to have ten really close friends?Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon account and receives no funding. If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word and share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links:Pre-order Kristen Ghodsee's new book now: Everyday UtopiaSubscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work at: www.kristenghodsee.comFollow Kristen Ghodsee's account on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristenghodsee

Kristen Ghodsee and her daughter discuss the what's in and out for the new year, including Kollontai, Kir Royale cocktails, and community care. Mentioned in the episode are Rebecca Amsellem's podcast, "The Method;" the Palgrave Handbook of Communist Women's Activists around the World, Sophie Lewis's new book, Abolish the Family, Liza Featherstone's forthcoming book, Comrade Kollontai; the socialist feminist glossy Lux Magazine; and Kristen Ghodsee's forthcoming book Everyday Utopia.Praise for Everyday Utopia:“Utopia is back! And it ought to be taken seriously, as history is made by the dreamers. If you want to open up new futures for our private lives, please have a look at this refreshing book. A must-read.” —THOMAS PIKETTY, New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Equality “My god, this book is what I need right now! Exhilarating, good humored, and forward looking, it’s blown open my brain. What a powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not

Kristen Ghodsee reads a 21 January 1923 piece from the New York Times.  A labor leader from Seattle gives his impressions of women in Russia, including his attendance at the World Congress of Women held in Moscow. Discussed in this episode are the current protests against mandatory headscarves for women in Iran in the context of the Soviet campaign to "emancipate" Central Asian and Caucasian women in the 1920s.The audio book of Red Valkyries is now available on Audible and Spotify or wherever you get your audiobooks. Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months. You can also learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work at: www.kristenghodsee.comYou can also find Kristen on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristenghodseeThanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon account and receives no funding, so if you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word and share with your friends and

In this episode Kristen Ghodsee reads a newspaper article from the periodical Current Opinion from 18 January 1918, just months after the Russian Revolution. The article, "Madame Kollontay: Heroine of the Bolsheviki Upheaval In Petrograd," is a profile of Kollontai by an American newspaper using Swiss  sources. Much of the information is incorrect, and the article draws on many negative stereotypes about women in positions of power.This is the first episode of Season 5 as the podcast prepares to celebrate its fourth anniversary in January. Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months. You can also learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work at: www.kristenghodsee.comYou can also find Kristen on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristenghodseeThanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon account and receives no funding, so if you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word and shar

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee finally finishes the second essay in the 1919 pamphlet, "Women Worker's Struggle for Their Rights," where Kollontai implicitly acknowledges the important work of bourgeois feminists in ensuring that socialist men took women's issues seriously. 

After a three-month hiatus while she dealt with the aftermath of a nasty bout of COVID-19,  Kristen Ghodsee returns for a two-part conversation with her daughter, who is now a junior at her university. These episodes explore questions of contemporary sexual politics on college campuses and whether Kollontai's work on "winged" and "wingless" eros can help to make better sense of the role that "hook-up" culture may or may not play in perpetuating the interests of capital.Mentioned in these episodes is an infamous 2014 column by a Princeton University mother and the responses it elicited. Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

After a three-month hiatus while she dealt with the aftermath of a nasty bout of COVID-19,  Kristen Ghodsee returns for a two-part conversation with her daughter, who is now a junior at her university. These episodes explore questions of contemporary sexual politics on college campuses and whether Kollontai's work on "winged" and "wingless" eros can help to make better sense of the role that "hook-up" culture may or may not play in perpetuating the interests of capital.Mentioned in these episodes is an infamous 2014 column by a Princeton University mother and the responses it elicited. Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Kristen Ghodsee (now dealing with long Covid) reads the second part of the essay, "Forms of Organization of Women Workers in the West ," which is the second essay in the pamphlet, "Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1919. Mentioned in this episode is a 50% discount code for the new book from Verso: Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.You can also subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Kristen Ghodsee (recovering from Covid) reads the first part of the essay, "Forms of Organization of Women Workers in the West ," which is the second essay in the pamphlet, "Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1919. Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.Also, here is a 50% discount code for the new book from Verso: Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.

Kristen Ghodsee (with Covid) reads the fourth part of the essay, "The Socialist Movement of Women Workers in Different Countries," part of the pamphlet, "Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1918. Mentioned in this episode is the run-off election for the French National Assembly. President Emmanuel Macron's coalition did lose their parliamentary majority.  The left coalition NUPES (New Ecological and Social Popular Union), led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, will now be the second largest power in the National Assembly. Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Kristen Ghodsee reads the third part of the essay, "The Socialist Movement of Women Workers in Different Countries," part of the pamphlet, "Women Worker's Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1918. Mentioned in this episode is the article about August Bebel, "Socialists Have Long Fought for Women’s Liberation," in Jacobin Magazine.Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

In response to a leaked Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that guaranteed all American women autonomy over their own bodies, Kristen Ghodsee reflects on the Romanian experience as well as a 1936 interview with Kollontai on the reversal of the 1920 Soviet law that made the Soviet Union the first country in the world to grant women access to abortion. In this interview Kollontai explains: "As long as women or men live under the pressure of unemployment, as long as the level of wages is not sufficient for a family, as long as housing conditions are unfavourable, and as long as the state does not make motherhood easier for every woman in various ways and does not provide social services for mother and child, it is clear that the women must stand up for free abortions."Also mentioned in this article are:Gail Kligman, The Politics of Duplicity: Controlling Reproduction in Ceausescu's Romania. Berkeley: UC Press, 1998Maria Bucur and Kristen Ghodsee, "How

Kristen Ghodsee reads the first part of the essay, "The Socialist Movement of Women Workers in Different Countries," part of the pamphlet, "Women Worker's Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1918. Mentioned in this episode is Jodi Dean's great book, Comrade. Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai's 1918 pamphlet: "Women Workers Struggle for their Rights."Mentioned in this episode are the blurbs for Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women, forthcoming with Verso Books in July.“Written with clarity and zest, Red Valkyries is an illuminating introduction to the extraordinary lives of prominent socialist women in the Soviet Union and Bulgaria.”—Sheila Rowbotham, author of Daring to Hope“In our historical moment, quotas of women in power positions and correct manners or expressions are obfuscating the long historical link between feminism and radical politics. Ghodsee’s Red Valkyries is exactly the book needed to correct this misperception and help feminism to rejoin its radical past. The five figures analyzed were fighters who pursued the feminist cause through their full engagement in revolutionary political struggle.”—Slavoj Žižek, author of Pandemic! 2“We’ve needed this book longer than we know: celebrating and learning from

In this bonus episode, Kristen Ghodsee speaks with an anarchist activist recently returned from a pipeline resistance camp (who wished to remain anonymous). They discuss theories of organizing for successful social movements, and the lingering fears of the vanguard party that haunt the left.Mentioned in this episode are the books:Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity Through This Crisis (and the Next), by Dean SpadeNeither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization, by Rodrigo Nunes

For the 100th episode of A.K. 47, Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 speech, "The Third International," which she delivered in the United States while rallying Americans against World War I. 

Kristen Ghodsee reads a 1912 speech which Alexandra Kollontai delivered on May 1st in Stockholm, Sweden. She talks about the intersections of war and capitalism. Mentioned in this episode is former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry's Book, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink where he discusses his opposition to the eastward expansion of NATO.For this episode, the Internationale is in Ukrainian.