Alexandra Kollontai

Alexandra Kollontai
Alexandra Kollontai
Александра Коллонтай
	Kollontai, c. 1900
Soviet Ambassador to Sweden
	In office; 1943 – 27 July 1945
Premier	Joseph Stalin
Preceded by	herself in the rank of "minister plenipotentiary"
Succeeded by	Ilya Chernyshev
Soviet Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden
	In office; 20 July 1930 – 1943
Premier	Alexei Rykov; Vyacheslav Molotov; Joseph Stalin
Preceded by	Viktor Kopp
Succeeded by	Office raised in rank
Soviet Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico
	In office; 17 September 1926 – 25 October 1927
Premier	Alexei Rykov
Preceded by	Stanisław Pestkowski
Succeeded by	Alexander Makar
Soviet Minister Plenipotentiary to Norway
	In office; 25 October 1927 – 20 July 1930
Premier	Alexei Rykov
Preceded by	Alexander Makar
Succeeded by	Alexander Bekzadyan
	In office; 18 August 1924 – 4 March 1926
Premier	Alexei Rykov
Preceded by	herself in the rank of "chargé d'affaires"
Succeeded by	Alexander Makar
Soviet Chargé d'Affaires to Norway
	In office; 15 February 1924 – 17 August 1924
Premier	Alexei Rykov
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office raised in rank
People's Commissar of Social Welfare; of the Russian SFSR
	In office; 11 November 1917 – 23 February 1918
Premier	Vladimir Lenin
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Alexander Vinokurov
People's Commissar of Propaganda and Agitation of the Crimean SSR
	In office; 1 June 1919 – 26 June 1919
Premier	Dmitri Ulyanov
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Member of the; Russian Constituent Assembly
	In office; 25 November 1917 – 20 January 1918
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Constituency	Yaroslavl
Personal details
Born	Alexandra Mikhailovna Domontovich; 31 March 1872; Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	9 March 1952 (aged 79); Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
Political party	VKP(b)
Other political; affiliations	RSDLP (1899–1906) ; RSDLP (Mensheviks); (1906–1915) ; RSDLP (Bolsheviks); (1915–1918); RKP(b) (1918–1925)
Spouse(s)	Vladimir Ludvigovich Kollontai; Pavel Efimovich Dybenko
Children	Mikhail Vladimirovich Kollontai
Occupation	professional revolutionary, writer, diplomat
Signature

Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (Russian: Александра Михайловна Коллонтай; née Domontovich, Домонтович; 31 March [O.S. 19 March] 1872 – 9 March 1952) was a Russian revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Marxist theoretician. Serving as the People's Commissar for Welfare in Vladimir Lenin's government in 1917–1918, she was a highly prominent woman within the Bolshevik party. She was the first woman in history to be a cabinet minister, and the first woman ambassador.^[4]^[5]

The daughter of an Imperial Russian Army general, Kollontai embraced radical politics in the 1890s and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1899. During the RSDLP ideological split, she sided with Julius Martov's Mensheviks against Lenin's Bolsheviks. Exiled from Russia in 1908, Kollontai toured Western Europe and the United States and campaigned against participation in the First World War. In 1915, she broke with the Mensheviks and became a member of the Bolsheviks.

Following the 1917 February Revolution which ousted the tsar, Kollontai returned to Russia. She supported Lenin's radical proposals and, as a member of the party's Central Committee, voted for the policy of armed uprising which led to the October Revolution and the fall of Alexander Kerensky's Provisional Government. She was appointed People's Commissar for Social Welfare in the first Soviet government, but soon resigned due to her opposition to the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk in the ranks of the Left Communists.

In 1919, Kollontai was a leading figure in the foundation of the Zhenotdel, the then-new women's department of the Central Committee that was aimed at improving the status of women in the Soviet Union. She was a champion of women's liberation, and later came to be recognized as a key figure in Marxist feminism.

Kollontai was outspoken against bureaucratic influences over the Communist Party and its undemocratic internal practices. To that end, she sided with the left-wing Workers' Opposition in 1920, but was eventually defeated and sidelined, narrowly avoiding her own expulsion from the party altogether. From 1922 on, she was appointed to various diplomatic posts abroad, serving in Norway, Mexico and Sweden. In 1943, she was promoted to the title of ambassador to Sweden. Kollontai retired from diplomatic service in 1945 and died in Moscow in 1952.

^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference Fetscher was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Autobiography was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Porter, Cathy (1980). Alexandra Kollontai: The Lonely Struggle of the Woman Who Defied Lenin. New York: Dial Press. pp. 340–341. ISBN 0803701292. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
^ Zukas, Alex (20 April 2009), "Kollontai, Alexandra (1872-1952)", in Ness, Immanuel (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest, Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 1–2, doi:10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0858, ISBN 978-1-4051-9807-3, retrieved 2 May 2023, Alexandra Kollontai, nee Domontovich, who held the distinctions of being the first woman cabinet minister and the first woman ambassador
^ Boynton, Victoria; Malin, Jo, eds. (2005). "Aleksandra Kollontai". Encyclopedia of Women's Autobiography. p. 326. ISBN 978-0-313-32739-1. In the first Soviet government, formed in the fall of 1917, Kollontai was appointed people's commissar (minister) for social welfare. She was the only woman in the cabinet but also the first woman in history who became a member of the government.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[Fetscher-1] Cite error: The named reference Fetscher was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Autobiography-3] Cite error: The named reference Autobiography was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[7] Porter, Cathy (1980). Alexandra Kollontai: The Lonely Struggle of the Woman Who Defied Lenin. New York: Dial Press. pp. 340–341. ISBN 0803701292. Retrieved 14 January 2025.

[10] Zukas, Alex (20 April 2009), "Kollontai, Alexandra (1872-1952)", in Ness, Immanuel (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest, Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 1–2, doi:10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0858, ISBN 978-1-4051-9807-3, retrieved 2 May 2023, Alexandra Kollontai, nee Domontovich, who held the distinctions of being the first woman cabinet minister and the first woman ambassador

[Encyclopedia-11] Boynton, Victoria; Malin, Jo, eds. (2005). "Aleksandra Kollontai". Encyclopedia of Women's Autobiography. p. 326. ISBN 978-0-313-32739-1. In the first Soviet government, formed in the fall of 1917, Kollontai was appointed people's commissar (minister) for social welfare. She was the only woman in the cabinet but also the first woman in history who became a member of the government.

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