A.K. 47 - Selections from the Works of Alexandra Kollontai
Kristen R. Ghodsee reads and discusses 47 selections from the works of Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952), a socialist women's activist who had radical ideas about the intersections of socialism and women's emancipation. Born into aristocratic privilege, the Ukrainian-Finnish Kollontai was initially a member of the Mensheviks before she joined Lenin and the Bolsheviks and became an important revolutionary figure during the 1917 Russian Revolution. Kollontai was a socialist theorist of women’s emancipation and a strident proponent of sexual relations freed from all economic considerations. After the October Revolution, Kollontai became the Commissar of Social Welfare and helped to found the Zhenotdel (the women's section of the Party). She oversaw a wide variety of legal reforms and public policies to help liberate working women and to create the basis of a new socialist sexual morality. But Russians were not ready for her vision of emancipation, and she was sent away to Norway to serve as the first Russian female ambassador (and only the third female ambassador in the world). In this podcast, Kristen R. Ghodsee – a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence (Bold Type Books 2018) – selects excerpts from the essays, speeches, and fiction of Alexandra Kollontai and puts them in context. Each episode provides an introduction to the abridged reading with some relevant background on Kollontai and the historical moment in which she was writing.
Episodes
Kristen Ghodsee reads a 1906 essay of Alexandra Kollontai, which is weirdly prescient of the present day, 120 years later. This is the third and final installment of a multipart episode with reading, commentary, and analysis of "Who are the social democrats and what do they want?”
Mentioned in this episode:
- “There’s nothing wrong with being a ‘Subaru Socialist.’” The New Republic, A...
Kristen Ghodsee reads a 1906 essay of Alexandra Kollontai, which is weirdly prescient of the present day, 120 years later. This is the second installment of a multipart episode with reading, commentary, and analysis of "Who are the social democrats and what do they want?”
Mentioned in this episode:
Article: "No babies? Blame capitalism.”
Article: "Der Kapitalismus bestraft das Kinderkriegen"
Video: Kristen Ghodsee: An...
Kristen Ghodsee reads a 1906 essay of Alexandra Kollontai, which is weirdly prescient of the present day, 120 years later. This is the first installment of a multipart episode with reading, commentary, and analysis of "Who are the social democrats and what do they want?”
Please examine the paperback of Red Valkyries out on 26 May 2026 with Verso Books, featuring none other than Alexandra Kollontai!
In this extended episode, Kristen Ghodsee and her daughter enjoy a wide-ranging discussion with two special guests on the music and global influence of Taylor Swift, particularly in light of her recent engagement and rumors of her upcoming wedding in New York on 4 July 2026. Given Kollontai’s own very public romantic life, how could we read Taylor Swift through a Kollontanian lens? This is a deep dive into Taylor Swift’...
On the 154th Anniversary of Kollontai’s birth, Kristen Ghodsee reads a section from her chapter "Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952): Communism as the Only Way Toward Women’s Liberation," written with Natalia Novikova and published in The Palgrave Handbook of Communist Women Activists around the World in 2023.
Mentioned in this episode:
- The Arabic translation of “The Political Economy of Love in Cap...
Kristen Ghodsee reports from the streets of Berlin during the 2026 official 8 March demonstration and the march from Oranienplatz to the Rotes Rathaus.
Some links to articles about the history of International Women’s Day:
- NPR Morning Edition: “Women in some countries will mark International Women’s Day with protests”
- New York Times, “Have you wished your mother a Happy International Women&rsquo...
Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai’s February 1919 obituary for her murdered German comrades: Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.
An uncorrected proof of Ghodsee's chapter on the Luxemburg-Liebknecht Demo from her 2017 book, Red Hangover, is linked from this page (please scroll right beyond the cover image)
Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. The...
Kristen Ghodsee shares a conversation with her daughter in Berlin on the 7th anniversary of the podcast. This is their 17th shared episode.
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'd like to support the work being done here, please spread the word with your networks.
Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winn...
Kristen Ghodsee reads her own December 2025 essay "The Political Economy of Love in Capitalism”
This text appeared as the featured essay in the Winter 2025 special issue of Jacobin.de on “Love.” Below are the links to the original essay in English, German, and Spanish. You can also watch the Jacobin Germany issue launch discussion on Youtube here
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”
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...
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.
Tha...
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.
Than...
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”
Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patre...
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 ro...
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
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"
Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and re...
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...
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
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'd like to support the work being done here, please spread the word with your...
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