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
162 episodes
162 - A.K. 47 - “Formative Years” - Celebrating the 154th Anniversary of Kollontai’s Birth
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 Palgr...
161 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - 2026 International Women’s Day from the streets of Berlin
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:
160 - A.K. 47 - “Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg: Fighters, Martyrs, Heroes"
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, Re...
159 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - 7th Anniversary of the Podcast!
Kristen Ghodsee shares a conversation with her daughter in Berlin on the 7th anniversary of the podcast. This is their 17th shared episode.
158 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - The Political Economy of Love in Capitalism
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 i...
157 - A.K. 47 - The Communist Valkyrie - Part 4
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...
156 - A. K. 47 - The Communist Valkyrie - Part 3
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...
155 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Kristen Ghodsee and Astrid Zimmerman in Berlin (6 November 2025)
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 les...
154 - A.K. 47 - The Communist Valkyrie - Part 2
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 Wome...
153 - A.K. 47 - The Communist Valkyrie - Part 1
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&...
152 - A.K. 47 - My Heart Belongs to the Finnish Poor
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: S...
151 - A.K. 47 - Narva
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 he...
150 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Capitalism, Socialism, and Esteem with Prof. Scott Sehon
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.&...
149 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Embrace your political despair
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 ep...
148 - A.K. 47 - The New Morals
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 ...
147 - A.K. 47 - March 8, 1947
Kristen Ghodsee reads Aleksandra Kollontai’s March 8, 1947 International Women’s Day address, taken from the book: Alexandra Kollontai: The Plight, Stru...
146 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Sally Rooney's Intermezzo (with spoilers)
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 Roon...
145 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 6
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 ev...
144 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 5
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 n...
143 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 4
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 p...
142 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 3 (and a special message for election eve)
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 pu...
141 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Is Internationalism possible?
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 episo...
140 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 2
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 P...
139 - A.K. 47 - Who Needs the War? - Part 1
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 Progr...
