122 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - the Anti-Sexist Kollontai Vodka of Italy

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. Send us a text Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share...

22 Helmi 202317min

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 ...

15 Helmi 202324min

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 argue...

5 Helmi 202324min

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? Send us a text Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the w...

29 Tammi 202323min

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 f...

8 Tammi 202324min

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...

4 Joulu 202222min

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 p...

21 Marras 202220min

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. Send us a text Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you would like to support the work being done here, p...

1 Marras 202219min