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.
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.