In this episode, Kristen R. Ghodsee's reads the fifth and final part of her selections from Alexandra Kollontai's 1909 book, The Social Basis of the Woman Question. This manuscript was written while Alexandra Kolllontai was in exile from Tsarist Russia and affiliated with the German Social Democratic party. This is a key text in the history of socialist feminism, and is seen by many as a foundational document in distinguishing the "bourgeois feminists" from the socialists. In this essay, Kollontai is clearly a social democrat and an advocate for reformist social democratic politics, although by the end of the essay she begins to display a more strident allegiance to the total transformation of society demanded by the socialists. 

This is Part V of a multi episode series, and here Ghodsee discusses the problem of "free love" under capitalism. Here Ghodsee discusses the most interesting questions raised in this part of Kollontai's book: whether or not you can build a collective society on the base of individualistic family relations, or whether the socialization of the family should proceed the socialization of the means of production.

Mentioned in this essay is the Swedish writer and feminist, Ellen Key. 

The intro music is a Russian version of The Internationale

More info about the host can be found at: www.kristenghodsee.com

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Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

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Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work at: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and a professor and chair of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.