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

In this sixth episode of Season Two, Kristen Ghodsee reads Part VI of Alexandra Kollontai's 1926 memoir: The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman.  In this portion of the memoir, Kollontai speaks about her work as Commissar of Social Welfare during the early years of the Soviet regime. She again mentions the many attacks against her: the threatening letters and all of the vitriol she dealt with as the only woman in the government. This memoir was written as Kollontai began her diplomatic career when she was 54-years-old and a veteran of the revolution. Lenin was already dead, Stalin was seizing power, and Kollontai was reflecting on the achievements of her life thus far. The initial publication of the memoir was heavily censored, particularly the passages where Kollontai speaks about her love life and her history of failed relationships with men. At the time, Kollontai was only the third woman to serve as ambassadress in the history of diplomatic service, but she was the first to do so