A.K. 47 - Selections from the Works of Alexandra Kollontai

Kristen Ghodsee reads the final part of her biographical chapter on Alexandra Kollontai from Ghodsee's 2022 book, Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.

Mentioned in this episode are these new Jacobin articles:

“The Political Economy of Love in Capitalism” 

"Der Gebrauchswert der Liebe”

"La economía política del amor en el capitalismo”

You can also watch the Jacobin Germany issue launch discussion ...

Kristen Ghodsee reads the third part of her biographical chapter on Alexandra Kollontai from Ghodsee's 2022 book, Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Event - December 2, 2025 in Berlin: Book Discussion of Everyday Utopia with the Frei Universität 
• Event - December 4, 2025 in Vienna: “What has socialism done for women?”
• Event - December 5, 2025 in Berlin: Jacobin.de special ...

A special extended, bonus episode for those of you traveling for the long weekend. Kristen Ghodsee shared a conversation with Astrid Zimmerman for the Shakespeare and Sons bookstore in Berlin, Germany on 6 November 2025. 

In this less-than-perfect-phone-recording of the live event, they discuss motherhood, tradwives, socialism, and feminism among a variety of topics with a lively audience in attendance. 

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Kristen Ghodsee reads the second part of her biographical chapter on Alexandra Kollontai from Ghodsee's 2022 book, Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.

Mentioned in this episode: "My Daughter’s Abandoned Prom Dress” from Ms. Magazine, May 16, 2020

Click Here for a full curated list of the podcasts with Kristen Ghodsee and her daughter from February 2019 to February 2025. 

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Kristen Ghodsee reads from her own chapter on Alexandra Kollontai from her 2022 book, Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women, available now in  Spanish, Italian, Slovak, Chinese, Turkish, and Korean, and also available as an audio book.

Mentioned in this episode:

“What we forgot about socialism: Lessons from The Red Riviera”

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Kristen Ghodsee reads the first English translation of Alexandra Kollontai’s “My Heart Belongs to the Finnish Poor,” originally published as "Suomen köyhälistölle kuuluu sydämeni" by the Finnish Trade Union Federation yearbook Työn Juhla: Suomen ammattijärjestön juhlajulkaisu in 1911. Translated from Finnish by MLH, edited and commented by Cathy Porter. 

New Spanish translation with Verso Libros: Valquirias rojas: Leccione...

Kristen Ghodsee reads Cathy Porter’s translation of an excerpt from Alexandra Kollontai’s autobiography. Reflecting on a visit to Narva, Estonia in March of 1896, when she was just 24-years-old, Kollontai describes the event that radicalized her forever. 

Recent Writings from Kristen Ghodsee:

“Clima y Utopía,” El País Semanal, October 17, 2025

“Materialists skewers the dating market – but stops too short,” Jacobin Magazine, July 12, 2...

Kristen Ghodsee revisits her discussion about arguments for socialism with Bowdoin College professor of philosophy, Scott R. Sehon. This conversation focuses on the role of esteem and how it is increasingly commodified in a capitalist society. 

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Book by Scott R. Sehon: Socialism: A Logical Introduction
• Article in the Wall Street Journal: "$1 Trillion of Wealth Was Created for the 19 Richest U.S. Hous...

Kristen Ghodsee shares a conservation with a previous guest from March 2022, a self-described anarchist activist, about the value of feeling one’s political despair and using it to generate political creativity. 

Mentioned in this episode: I Want a Better Catastrophe

Also this article: "Kollontai: Leaving behind Menshevik pacifism"

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Kristen R. Ghodsee reads a 1930 interview with Alexandra Kollontai about the new morality around love and marriage in the Soviet Union. Kollontai argues that romantic love and relationships will no longer be the most important thing in women’s lives because they will have the support of the socialist state in reducing their responsibilities for domestic work and will have a wider community of citizens helping them to raise up the n...

Kristen Ghodsee reads Aleksandra Kollontai’s March 8, 1947 International Women’s Day address, taken from the book: Alexandra Kollontai: The Plight, Struggle, and Liberation of Women

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In this special bonus episode, recorded on Valentine's Day 2025 in Dublin, Kristen Ghodsee and her daughter discuss the book Intermezzo, the latest by the Irish novelist, Sally Rooney. Rooney identifies herself as a Marxist and often mixes politics and social commentary into her stories. Kollontai's ideas about "comradely-love" and of troubling the confines of the nuclear family find interesting resonances in th...

Kristen Ghodsee reads the final section of Alexandra Kollontai's 1915/1916 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day. This is especially salient today because the United States is on the eve of a trade war with Mexico and Canada.

This translation is from a 1984 collection of Kollontai's writing published by Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union, w...

Kristen Ghodsee reads the fifth section of Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day. This is especially salient today because of the narrow confirmation of the new U.S. Secretary of Defense under the Trump Administration, and the emergence of the reinvigorated oligarchy in the United States.

This translation is from a 1984 col...

Kristen Ghodsee reads the fourth section of Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day.

This translation is from a 1984 collection of Kollontai's writing published by Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union, which claims that the essay was written while Kollontai was in exile in Norway. She sent it to Vladimir Lenin (then ...

Kristen Ghodsee reads the third section of Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day.

This translation is from a 1984 collection of Kollontai's writing published by Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union, which claims that the essay was written while Kollontai was in exile in Norway. She sent it to Vladimir Lenin (then i...

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee discusses Alexandra Kollontai, nationalism, internationalism, and supranationalism with her daughter, just home from Ireland for fall break. Trigger warning: lots of Irish history!

Mentioned in this episode:

"Imagine"

by John Lennon (and Yoko Ono)

"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only s...

Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day.

This translation is from a 1984 collection of Kollontai's writing published by Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union, which claims that the essay was written while Kollontai was in exile in Norway. She sent it to Vladimir Lenin (then in exile in Switzerlan...

Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 essay about World War I–"Who Needs the War?"–and looks for lessons applicable to the present day. 

This translation is from a 1984 collection of Kollontai's writing published by Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union, which claims that the essay was written while Kollontai was in exile in Norway. She sent it to Vladimir Lenin (then in exile in Switzerlan...