Alexandra Kollontai A Biography

Product DescriptionAlexandra Kollontai was a key leader of the Russian Socialist movement, the only woman in the early Soviet government, and one of the most famous women in Russian history. She worked tirelessly all her life as a speaker, writer, and organizer for women's emancipation. This compelling biography recounts her life for an emerging generation of fighters for women's liberation.Cathy Porter is a translator, teacher, and researcher on Russian history. She is the author of Fathers and Daughters: Russian Women in Revolution and translator of Alexandra Kollontai's Love of Worker Bees.Review"A very detailed life-story of this extraordinary woman . . . Cathy Porter has written a sad, serious, and very readable book . . ." —Tamara Deutscher, Marxism Today (first edition)"Alexandra Kollontai has the potential to be a true delight for the connoisseur by providing an alternative historical account of Russia and the socialist movement. However, what makes it transcend time is Kollontai's chief belief that women should be at the centre of the economy, not the periphery" —Spokeman"an interesting and detailed account of some of the most exciting years in working class history" —Socialist Review --Socialist ReviewAbout the AuthorCathy Porter was born in Oxford in 1947, and grew up there. She spent a year in Poland before studying Russian and Czech at London University. Since then she has become deeply involved in the political life and intellectual ideas of the nineteenth - and twentieth-century Russia. She is the author ofFathers and Daughters: Russian Women in Revolution, and translator of Kollontai's fictionLove of Worker Bees. Porter lives in London and divides her time between translating, teaching literacy and researching Russian history.