This is the third episode in a series of episodes that will feature Kristen R. Ghodsee's reading and discussion of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 essay: "Make Way for Winged Eros: A Letter to Working Youth." In this essay, Kollontai works out her theories of how love and sexuality will be superior under socialism as compared to the bourgeois capitalist past.  She provides a Marxist history of love and sex as ideals that change depending on how the ruling class uses them to promote their own economic interests. It is an essential essay in terms of thinking about the intersections of sexuality and political economy, and it was an important inspiration for Ghodsee's 2018 book: Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence.

Many thanks to the folks over at Revolutionary Left Radio for linking to this podcast in the program notes of their March 8, 2019 interview with Kristen Ghodsee.

FYI - the intro music is a Russian version of The Internationale.

More information about Kristen R. Ghodsee can be found at www.kristenghodsee.com

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.

This is the second episode in a series of episodes that will feature Kristen R. Ghodsee's reading and discussion of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 essay: "Make Way for Winged Eros: A Letter to Working Youth." In this essay, Kollontai works out her theories of how love and sexuality will be superior under socialism as compared to the bourgeois capitalist past.  She provides an essential Marxist history of love and sex as ideals that change depending on how the ruling class uses them to promote their own economic interests. It is an essential essay in terms of thinking about the intersections of sexuality and political economy, and it was an important inspiration for Ghodsee's 2018 book: Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence.

Many thanks to the folks over at Revolutionary Left Radio for linking to this podcast in the program notes of their March 8, 2019 interview with Kristen Ghodsee.

FYI - the intro music is a Russian version of The Internationale.

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.

Happy Spring!

This is the first episode in a series of episodes that will feature Kristen R. Ghodsee's reading and discussion of Alexandra Kollontai's 1923 essay: "Make Way for Winged Eros: A Letter to Working Youth." In this essay, Kollontai works out her theories of how love and sexuality will be superior under socialism as compared to the bourgeois capitalist past.  She provides an essential Marxist history of love and sex as ideals that change depending on how the ruling class uses them to promote their own economic interests. It is an essential essay in terms of thinking about the intersections of sexuality and political economy, and it was an important inspiration for Ghodsee's 2018 book: Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence.

Many thanks to the folks over at Revolutionary Left Radio for linking to this podcast in the program notes of their March 8, 2019 interview with Kristen Ghodsee.

FYI - the intro music is a Russian version of The Internationale.

More information about Kristen R. Ghodsee can be found at www.kristenghodsee.com

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.

Happy International Women's Day! This episode features an actual audio clip of Alexandra Kollontai speaking "to the workers." This undated audio clip was downloaded from the www.marxists.org website, and Alina Yakubova provided the translation from Russian to English. In the first part of the episode, Ghodsee reads the English translation between segments of Kollontai's speech. A bit of commentary is then followed by the entirety of Kollontai's speech without interruptions. 

The rough translation of the speech by Alina Yakubova is here:

Comrade [female] workers!

For long centuries, a woman had been oppressed and without rights. For long centuries, she had been a man’s appendix and his shadow. The husband fed the wife, and for that, the wife submitted to his will and humbly bore her lack of rights, and her domestic and family slavery. The October Revolution has liberated the woman. Now, a female peasant has the same rights as the male peasant, a female worker has the same rights as the male worker. A woman can make choices everywhere: she can be a member of a council and a Komissar, even a people’s Komissar. But if, according to the law, a woman is equal in rights, life has yet to free the woman. A female worker, a female peasant are still in the vice grip of household labor, she is still a slave in her own family. The task of a female worker is to make life such that the burden of childcare is taken off the woman’s shoulders, to lighten the domestic work’s grip on the female worker and a female peasant.  

The working class is interested in freeing a woman in those areas, a worker has to understand that a woman is the same kind of member of the proletarian family as he is, because the woman works equally with the man. One third of all riches on Earth have been created by women’s hands. In Europe and America, female workers are 70 million, and in the communist society, a woman and a man must be equal in rights. Without women’s equality, there is no communism. 

So to work, comrade [female] workers, start freeing yourselves, build daycares, mother’s homes, help with your advice to streamline public cafeterias, help the Communist Party to build a new, bright life. Your place is among those who fight to liberate the workers, to bring equality, freedom, and happiness to your children. Your place, female workers and peas

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.

On the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1927, Alexandra Kollontai published an essay titled, "What Has the October Revolution Done for Women in the West?" In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee reads selections of this essay and reflects on the claim that the Soviet attention to women's emancipation acted as a catalyst for Western countries to grant their own women greater rights and privileges. Mentioned in this episode is Ghodsee's new book, Second World, Second Sex: Socialist Women's Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War, 1968-1990, which is just out with Duke University Press.

More information about Kristen R. Ghodsee can be found at www.kristenghodsee.com

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.

In 1920, the Soviet Union became the first country in the world to legalize abortion.  In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee reads a few paragraphs from Alexandra Kollontai's 1921 essay: "The Labour of Women in the Evolution of the Economy," and then has a discussion with the feminist poet, Annie Finch (www.anniefinch.com), who is working on a literary anthology of writing about abortion, tentatively titled: A Womb of One's Own.

More information about Kristen R. Ghodsee can be found at www.kristenghodsee.com

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.

In this episode, Kristen R. Ghodsee reads selections from Alexandra Kollontai's 1921 essay, "Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle." Here, Kollontai describes the loneliness people feel when they think of sexual and romantic partners as forms of property to be owned and jealously protected.

More information about Kristen R. Ghodsee can be found at www.kristenghodsee.com

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee discusses the contemporary relevance of Alexandra Kollontai with her 17-year-old daughter. What does a socialist theorist writing over a century ago have to tell young people today?

More information about Kristen R. Ghodsee can be found at www.kristenghodsee.com

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.

In this second episode, Kristen Ghodsee takes a moment to introduce herself and to give some background on Alexandra Kollontai. Ghodsee then reads the first section of Kollontai's report from the First International Socialist Women's Conference held in Stuttgart, Germany in 1907. This was an historic meeting of socialist women from across Europe. It was attended by 58 delegates from 14 countries, and Kollontai represented Russia.  The congress of socialist women convened to discuss the issue of universal suffrage for the working class, including women, and the need for a special international movement to agitate among women. Kollontai argued that as long as the working class was divided by sex, the bourgeois owners of the means of production would rest easy because any strike by male workers could easily be broken by calling up the "army" of "submissive" female workers to replace them. But once women workers joined with their male comrades, the bourgeois would have no choice but to listen to proletarian demands.

Kristen R. Ghodsee is 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. More information about Kristen R. Ghodsee can be found at www.kristenghodsee.com

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.

In this first episode, Kristen Ghodsee provides and introduction and reads an abridged version of Alexandra Kollontai's 1913 article in Pravda. Published on March 8 (February 23 in Russia), this essay addresses concerns that celebrating an international women's day could be seen as a concession to the "bourgeois feminists."

Kristen R. Ghodsee is 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. More information about Kristen R. Ghodsee can be found at www.kristenghodsee.com

Send us a text

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 would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

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

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

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.