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

Kristen Ghodsee reads part two of Alexandra Kollontai's 1920 essay on the history of International Women's Day. Ghodsee also announces some upcoming lectures and events:7 March 2021 (15:00 GMT-5) A special event for the Democratic Socialists of America International Committee (co-sponsored by the socialist feminist working group and Lux Magazine): Love and Sex Behind the Iron Curtain: 20th Century State Socialism in Eastern Europe8 March 2021 (18:00 GMT-5) Jacobin Talks: The Socialist History of International Women's Day9 March 2021 (19:00 GMT-5) A keynote lecture for IWD at the University of Kansas: Women's History Month Lecture: Dr. Kristen R. Ghodsee on International Women's Day11 March 2021 (10:30 GMT-5) Guest Lecture: "State socialist women's organizations and their role during the U.N. Decade for Women (1975-1985)" Center for History, Sciences Po, Paris16 March 2021 (11:00 GMT-5) Discussion: "Socialism in the Age of AOC and Bernie Sanders: A Conversation with

Kristen Ghodsee reads part one of Alexandra Kollontai's 1920 essay on the history of International Women's Day. Ghodsee also announces some upcoming lectures and events.5 March 2021 (09:30 GMT-5) Conference Presentation: "Infrastructures of Solidarity: East-South Alliances During the United Nations Decade for Women, 1975-1985," Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London 7 March 2021 (15:00 GMT-5) A special event for the Democratic Socialists of America International Committee (co-sponsored by the socialist feminist working group and Lux Magazine): Love and Sex Behind the Iron Curtain: 20th Century State Socialism in Eastern Europe 9 March 2021 (19:00 GMT-5) A keynote lecture for IWD at the University of Kansas: Women's History Month Lecture: Dr. Kristen R. Ghodsee on International Women's Day 11 March 2021 (10:30 GMT-5) Guest Lecture: "State socialist women's organizations and their role during the U.N. Decade for Women (1975-1985)" Center for Hi

Kristen Ghodsee discusses the political economy of Valentine's Day and reads an excerpt from Alexandra Kollontai's 1911 book review of The Sexual Crisis by Grete Meisel-Hess.  In this section of "Love and the New Morality," Kollontai critiques the institution of bourgeois monogamous marriage as it existed in 1911. Ghodsee  also mentions several recent video appearances on Youtube:Youtube: Economic Update with Richard Wolff - Why Women Have Better Sex in SocialismYoutube: Capitalism Hits Home Podcast - Kristen Ghodsee on the Decommodification of Sex - Part 1Youtube: Capitalism Hits Home Podcast - Kristen Ghodsee on the Decommodification of Sex - Part 2See all upcoming events for women's history month and IWD

In this bonus episode, Kristen Ghodsee discusses the surprise hit series Bridgerton with her daughter and the University of Pennsylvania graduate student, Angelina Eimannsberger. According to a Netflix announcement on January 27th, 2021, 85 million households have streamed the series, making it the most streamed series on Netflix in its history. In this episode, Ghodsee and her guests ask whether Alexandra Kollontai would have loved or hated the show. This episode has SPOILERS for the series, so please do not listen if you have not completed the first season and you care about such things.  

Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai's 1917 article "Our Tasks," written in the immediate aftermath of the October Revolution. Ghodsee also celebrates the social media activism of the K-Pop stans who took over Twitter on January 22, 2021.FREE STICKERS IF YOU REVIEW THE PODCAST!A Note from Kristen Ghodsee:"January 2021 will be the two year anniversary of the A.K. 47 podcast. To honor this anniversary, my daughter designed the nice three-inch matte stickers seen here.She explained to me that podcasts are recommended by the algorithms based on the number of reviews they have. She thought it would be a good idea to encourage listeners to review the podcast in places like Apple Podcasts and Podcast Addict in order to increase its future visibility.So if you leave a review, you can send a screenshot of that review and your mailing address to this email address: Alexandra.Kollontai.Podcast@gmail.com. We will send one of each of the four stickers below to the first 200 listeners who send in t

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads Adrienne Rich’s 1983 poem, “North American Time,” in which Rich name-checks Alexandra Kollontai. Ghodsee reflects on the events of the January 2021 “Capitol Insurrection,” the influence of political correctness, and the responsibilities of “verbal privilege.” Rich also mentions the amazing Puerto Rican poet Julia de Borgos.You can watch Adrienne Rich read North American Time on YouTube.

Kristen Ghodsee reads a letter Kollontai wrote to the English suffragist and socialist, Dora Montefiore. It is an update of the work of the revolution, and Kollontai is remarkably candid about the struggles they were facing and the work remaining to be done. The letter is an interesting look at the status of socialist women's activism almost exactly one century ago.FREE STICKER OFFERA Note from Kristen Ghodsee:"January 2021 will be the two year anniversary of the A.K. 47 podcast. To honor this anniversary, my daughter designed the nice three-inch matte stickers seen here.She explained to me that podcasts are recommended by the algorithms based on the number of reviews they have. She thought it would be a good idea to encourage listeners to review the podcast in places like Apple Podcasts and Podcast Addict in order to increase its future visibility.So if you leave a review, you can send a screenshot of that review and your mailing address to this email address: Alexandra.Kollontai.Podcast@gmail.com.

Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai's 1946 essay, "Lenin thought of both great and small," which reflects on her memories of Christmas 1917. Nadezhda Konstantinovna refers to Lenin's wife and Maria Ilyinichna is Lenin's sister.  In this article, Kollontai reflects on the importance of small acts of kindness. FREE STICKERS IF YOU REVIEW THE PODCAST!A Note from Kristen Ghodsee:"January 2021 will be the two year anniversary of the A.K. 47 podcast. To honor this anniversary, my daughter designed the nice three-inch matte stickers seen here.She explained to me that podcasts are recommended by the algorithms based on the number of reviews they have. She thought it would be a good idea to encourage listeners to review the podcast in places like Apple Podcasts and Podcast Addict in order to increase its future visibility.So if you leave a review, you can send a screenshot of that review and your mailing address to this email address: Alexandra.Kollontai.Podcast@gmail.com. We will s

In this episode, Kristen R. Ghodsee reads an endnote included with the text of Kollontai's 1946 article The Soviet Woman - A Full and Equal Citizen of Her Country. This endnote was included in 1984 by the Soviet editors of the collection of Kollontai's writing to highlight the real strides the Soviet Union was attempting to make toward true women's equality. Ghodsee discusses the Cold War context for the endnote and whether or not the Eastern Bloc really did live up to its promises with regards to women's rights. FREE STICKERS IF YOU REVIEW THE PODCAST!A Note from Kristen Ghodsee:"January 2021 will be the two year anniversary of the A.K. 47 podcast. To honor this anniversary, my daughter designed the nice three-inch matte stickers seen here.She explained to me that podcasts are recommended by the algorithms based on the number of reviews they have. She thought it would be a good idea to encourage listeners to review the podcast in places like Apple Podcasts and Podcast Addict in order

Kristen Ghodsee discusses the later decades of Alexandra Kollontai's life and reads an abridged version of her 1946 essay, "The Soviet Woman, A Full and Equal Citizen of Her Country." This essay was written in the aftermath of World War II and was published in Soviet Woman. Its goal is to encourage Soviet women to have babies while also working to rebuild the Soviet economy.  Although Kollontai is undoubtedly pro-natalist and asserts that women have a social duty to become mothers, she is also trying to defend women's right to have careers. Unlike the United States or Western Germany which forced women back into the home in the aftermath of the War, Kollontai insisted that the state expand kindergartens and creches in order to allow women to better combine their productive and reproductive labor. 

In this Thanksgiving Day episode, Kristen Ghodsee discusses why she is not going to finish reading Red Love on the podcast, but discusses the overall themes of the novella. Mentioned in this episode are:Alexandra Kollontai, Love of Worker Bees (Translated by Cathy Porter). Cassandra Editions: 1977. The novella is published here as "Vasilisa Malygina."Kristen Ghodsee, The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015Revolutionary Left Radio

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads Part Two of Chapter Six of the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. 

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads Part One of Chapter Six of the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. 

In this bonus episode, Kristen Ghodsee speaks with her daughter about care work in the time of coronavirus lockdowns. As the school year begins in the United States, many children are learning remotely, creating an incredible burden on working parents. How can you socialize childcare and other forms of care work during a pandemic when institutional options are few and far between, and when state and local budgets are shrinking? How do we value emotional labor and care work without commodifying it? Mentioned in this episode are Paul Krugman's New York Times column on Gross Domestic Misery, a German idleness fellowship for doing nothing, and OnlyFans. 

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee takes a break from reading Red Love to reflect on the state of the world during the coronavirus pandemic and how to cope with political despair and what the Germans aptly call Weltschmerz. 

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads Part Two of Chapter Five of the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. August Special: All E-books of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence are only $2.99 for August 2020 in the United States.

Kristen R. Ghodsee discusses the ongoing protests in Portland, Oregon and reads Part One of Chapter Five of the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. Mentioned in this episode are: the Wall of Moms, the Mothers of the Disappeared, Women in Black, the women who marched in Russia in February 1917, and the women's march to Versailles in 1789. 

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads Chapter Four of the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. Mentioned in the episode are the Wobblies, the Industrial Workers of the World.

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads Chapter Three of the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. 

A brief meta-reflection on the 1927 English translation of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 novella, Red Love. Kristen R. Ghodsee pauses in her reading to discuss relationships, Hype Beasts, capitalism, and feminism with her 18-year-old daughter. Mentioned is this episode is this TikTok by Sally as well as this song by Lizzo.