ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI

In context of the Bolshevik Revolution, Alexandra Kollontai (1873-1952) was a committed feminist
and socialist. She ‘defended a vision of emancipation premised on equality, comradeship, and
personal autonomy where society would take responsibility for domestic labour while enabling
individuals freely to express their sexuality.’ (Sypnowich, 1993:287).

According to Marxist communism, industrial capitalism and the boon of technology would liberate
men from drudgery and bring an end to the problems of scarcity. However, in contrast with their
European counterparts, the Russian revolutionaries did not witness a successful communist
revolution. And within its purview, the ‘Woman Question’ was also met with a lack of resources to
liberate women; As Engels, Bebel and Zetkin argued ‘women in communist society would be freed
from domestic toil, but the provision of adequate public facilities was a luxury unattainable in a
society fighting for its very survival.’ (Bryson 114).

["The woman question" is a phrase usually used in connection with a social change in the latter
half of the 19th century, which questioned the fundamental roles of women in Western
industrialized countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, and
Russia.]

And because a significant number of women were involved in revolutionary activities, the issue was
not set aside in the aftermath. As Bryson dictates, it resulted in social dislocation and the
questioning of traditional arrangements; and values that existed between men and women were
debated and attempts were made to put Marxist theory in practice. And though the Soviet Union
was unable to solve the ‘woman question’, the ideas and experiences of the early years still hold
relevance for contemporary feminists.

Early Russian Feminism

The earlier history of feminism in Russia is similar to Western Europe in that the mid-19th century
middle class women were increasingly demanding the right to education, career, full legal equality
and the vote. Though unlike the social political milieu of Germany, in Russia the parliamentary road
to socialism was closed and thus a great number of women were involved in more radical and
revolutionary political movements which ranged from outright terrorism [it was a woman who
assassinated the tsar in 1881] to the mass populist movement in the 1870s [thousands of young
people attempted to bring ideas of socialist revolution to the peasants.] In fact, by the early
twentieth century, the increasing female involvement even resulted in the construction of a new
women’s prison.
CONCLUSION
A central tenet of all forms of Marxist and socialist feminism is the belief that women’s situation cannot be understood in
isolation from its socio-economic context, and that any meaningful improvement in the lives of women requires that this
context be changed. This approach goes back at least as far as the early nineteenth century, and socialist feminist ideas are
to be found in all periods; Marxism adds to this basic position the idea that society will not be changed by appeals to reason
and justice, but by collective class struggle that can only succeed at a particular stage of economic and social development.
This means that women’s oppression is given a history and that it can only be ended in the context of a socialist revolution
that is itself the product of a specific historical situation. In the hands of later Marxists such as Engels, Bebel and Zetkin, this
idea was in danger of being reduced to a crude economic determinism; although Alexandra Kollontai attempted to produce
a more radical and sophisticated analysis, her ideas too were soon forgotten.