Portrait of a Bolshevik Feminist

Aleksandra Kollontai, the first woman to be a member of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist party at the start of the Revolution, was one of the few Bolshevik leaders who survived the purges of the ’30s. In earlier years she had been independent in her actions and ideas on politics and women, fighting the party bureaucracy at every step. Yet in the end she capitulated completely, agreeing to make changes in her previous writings that would indict former colleagues, and acquie...