ED WAUGH introduces a special event to commemorate the centenary of the 1926 General Strike
Latest editorial
Alexandra Kollontai: Writings from the Struggle
Outstanding new book on the revolutionary communist who helped forge inextricable link between socialism and women's liberation
PIONEER: Alexandra Kollontai (centre, c1920) with female deputies at the Conference of Communist Women of the Peoples of the East
[Wikipedia]
PAUL DONOVAN recommends an energetic adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel, that emphasises how psychiatry is a tool in the hands of a racist agenda
IAN SINCLAIR draws our attention to a film, available for everyone to use, to stimulate community discussion and active engagement in the climate emergency
SIMON PARSONS recommends an outstanding revival of the musical based on Argentinian LGBT activist Manuel Puig’s groundbreaking novel
JAMES WALSH previews the smorgasbord of talent and hilarity on show at the Brighton Fringe
ALTHOUGH brought up and educated in what was for the period a middle class, liberal and progressive environment, from her early teens Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952) had no intention of becoming a dutiful bourgeois wife.
A thirst for social justice, knowledge and a profession quickly brought her into contact with Russian revolutionaries, more specifically Marxists, and it was there that she began a lifelong struggle for communism.
Extremely well read, well-travelled and a fluent speaker of at least five languages, Kollontai rapidly became a grassroots activist, prodigious writer, skilled educator and propagandist.
Similar stories
JOHN REES replies to Claudia Webbe
STEVE ANDREW is intrigued by a timely and well-researched book that demonstrates the conflicted history of the central Asian country
RONNIE KASRILS pays tribute to Ruth First, a fearless fighter against South African apartheid, in the centenary month of her birth
STEVEN ANDREW is ultimately disappointed by a memoir that is far from memorable