In the history of Russian diplomacy and the Russian revolutionary movement, a unique woman, Alexandra Kollontai, has entered in many ways (photos are presented in the article). Over her long life, she had the opportunity to go to the forefront of the fight against tsarism, to join the Bolshevik government, and during the years of World War II to head the Soviet embassy in Sweden. One of the stages of her career was the post of People's Commissar of State Charity, occupying which Alexandra Mikhailovna became the first woman minister in world history.
General's daughter
From the biography of Alexandra Kollontai it is known that she was born on March 19 (31), 1872 in St. Petersburg, in a wealthy noble family of General Mikhail Alexandrovich Domontovich. Her father went down in the history of Russia as one of the heroes of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, who in the last years of his life became the governor of the Bulgarian city of Tarnovo. The girl’s mother was the daughter and sole heiress of a wealthy Baltic timber merchant, which greatly contributed to the material prosperity of the family. Alexandra’s uterine sister, Evgenia Mravinskaya, later became a famous opera singer. By nationality, Alexandra Kollontai was Russian, but with a fair amount of Finnish and Bulgarian blood. A number of biographers also point to the remote German roots of her ancestors.
Like many people from wealthy families, Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (she will take this surname in marriage) received her primary education at home, under the guidance of teachers specially hired for her. From an early age, she showed an extraordinary ability to learn foreign languages, due to which, even at a very young age, she easily mastered the main European languages: French, German, English, as well as several Scandinavian - Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and some others. She showed extraordinary abilities in drawing.
In accordance with the traditions of the circle to which her family belonged, Sasha was introduced to the high society of the capital from a young age, which later allowed her to become her own person in the most elite aristocratic salons. Her second cousin Igor, who wrote poetry and published them under the pseudonym Severyanin, was very popular in the circle of St. Petersburg "golden youth". Subsequently, he was destined to occupy a prominent place among the Russian poets of the Silver Age.
The conqueror of male hearts
About the personal life of Alexandra Kollontai already at that time there were numerous gossip in the circles of the capital's society. Deprived of bright beauty, but endowed by nature with extraordinary charm and femininity, which is also very attractive, she has been a success from men since her youth.
Knowing her worth, the young aristocrat then broke the hearts of many high-profile admirers, and brought two of them, the general’s son Ivan Drogomirov and Prince M. Bukovsky, to cold suicide (a documented fact). Rejecting also the offer made by the adjutant of the emperor himself, she unexpectedly presented her heart to a modest and unremarkable officer - Vladimir Kollontai, whom she soon married.
The constant success that Alexander Kollontai had among men, and her rather unconventional views on the role and rights of women in society, which will be discussed below, created a halo of piquancy around her, which she herself indulged in every way. So, in her memoirs, published only many years after her death, she wrote that she soon married the young officer Alexander Stankevich, and did not hide this connection from anyone, including her husband. Moreover, with all sincerity, she assured both of her ardent love.
From the same memoirs it is known that soon the place of officer Stankevich in her hospitable heart was taken by the editor of the Moscow newspaper Pyotr Maslov, who was successively replaced by many seekers of fleeting love. Of course, such inclinations of the young woman did not contribute to the creation of a strong family.
The beginning of revolutionary activity
Having given birth to a son and having lived with her husband for a little less than five years, Alexandra Mikhailovna again showed her unpredictability - leaving both of them, she suddenly joined the participants of the rapidly growing strength of the revolutionary movement. Since that time, yesterday’s aristocrat directed all her strength to the struggle against the class to which she belonged from birth and among whose representatives she enjoyed constant success.
Most publications devoted to the biography of Alexandra Kollontai indicate that she was involved in revolutionary activity by another advanced woman of the time - Elena Dmitrievna Stasova, who became a prominent figure in the international communist and anti-fascist movement in the Soviet period.
Her role in shaping the future revolutionary is undeniable, however, it is known that for the first time she heard about the struggle for social justice as a child from her home teacher M.I. Strakhova, who was very sympathetic to such ideas. It is possible that it was her words that became the seed that, having fallen on fertile soil, gave such abundant seedlings. They also name the names of some other contemporaries of Alexandra Mikhailovna, who had a significant influence on her.
As mentioned above, in 1898, having left her husband and son, Alexandra Kollontai went abroad, where she learned the science of rearrangement of the world, first within the walls of the University of Zurich, and then in London under the leadership of a prominent political figure of the time, socialist Sydney Web and his wife Beatrice . In 1901, in Geneva, she met G.V. Plekhanov, whose authority at that time reached its highest point.
In the fire of revolutionary events
Having returned to Petersburg at the end of 1904, she fell into the crucible of the First Russian Revolution, and even turned out to be a witness to the events of Bloody Sunday, which made an indelible impression on her. From the biography of Alexandra Kollontai, it is known that, as the initiator of the creation of the “Society for Mutual Assistance to Workers,” an organization whose goal was to help families who had lost their breadwinners, she at the same time conducted extensive propaganda work. As a result, after the defeat of the First Russian Revolution, one of her pamphlets, entitled “Finland and Socialism”, led to accusations of calling for the violent overthrow of power. Without waiting for her arrest, she hastily left Russia. There is no reliable information about the personal life of Alexandra Kollontai during this period.
Joining the Bolshevik Party
Once again abroad, Kollontai met V.I. Lenin, whose ideas were then very restrained. It is enough to say that since the split between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks at the Second Congress of the RSDLP (1903), it supported the latter, which was joined by G.V. Plekhanov, who at that time was the idol of all revolutionary-minded youth.
A cardinal turn in her views occurred only after the outbreak of the First World War. In 1915, while in Sweden, Alexandra Mikhailovna openly declared her break with the Mensheviks who supported Russia's participation in hostilities, and supported the position taken by the Bolsheviks.
Soon after, she became a member of the RSDLP (b). Her anti-militarist articles, published on the pages of several Swedish newspapers, aroused extreme dissatisfaction with King Gustav V and led to expulsion from the country. After moving to Copenhagen, Kollontai made contact with Lenin and was engaged in various tasks, including two trips to the United States to conduct Bolshevik propaganda among workers.
At party work
After the February Revolution, Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai returned to her homeland and immediately became actively involved in the political life of the capital, joining the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of the Party. By this time, she had already irrevocably taken Lenin’s side and was among those few deputies of the 7th conference of the RSDLP (b) who fully supported his April Theses.
In June 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, Alexander Mikhailovna was arrested and placed in the Vyborg Women's Prison, from where she was released only thanks to the bail made for her by writer Maxim Gorky and a prominent revolutionary - engineer Leonid Krasin.
At a historic meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), held on October 10 (23) of the same year, she, along with other deputies, voted to start an armed uprising, and after his victory, by personal order of Lenin, she took the post of People's Commissar of public charity. As mentioned above, this appointment made her the first woman minister in world history.
Note that not all episodes of the biography of Alexandra Kollontai characterize her as an unquestioning executor of the will of the highest party leadership. So, in March 1918, supporting the position of N. I. Bukharin, she criticized the conclusion of the Brest Peace, and not finding sympathy for her views among the members of the Central Committee, she defiantly left it.
The stain on the bright image of Kollontai was her attempt to requisition all movable and immovable property belonging to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where she appeared on January 13 (21), 1918, at the head of a detachment of armed sailors. This clearly ill-conceived action, accompanied by the murder of priest Pyotr Skipetrov, provoked mass protests of believers and discredited the new government in their eyes. The result was an anathema imposed by Patriarch Tikhon on all its participants.
In 1921, a sharp deterioration in relations between Alexandra Mikhailovna and Lenin, which was then the head of the government, was indicated. The reason for this was the position taken by her in the discussion that unfolded at the Tenth Congress of the RCP (B.) Regarding the rights of trade unions. Supporting Leonid Trotsky, who advocated the transfer of the management of the entire national economy to the hands of the workers, Kollontai incurred the anger of the Central Committee members and even received a “last warning”, accompanied by the threat of parting with the party ticket.
At the diplomatic service
In 1922, Alexandra Kollontai (the photo of a woman in those years is given above in the article) was transferred to diplomatic work. The basis for this appointment was its close ties with the leaders of the world socialist movement, experience in the Comintern, as well as fluency in many foreign languages. She began her activities in Norway, having stayed there until 1930 with a short break to fulfill a number of government tasks in Mexico.
The personal life of Alexandra Mikhailovna at that time was little studied, but nevertheless it is known that a prominent French communist Marcel Bodie took a place in her heart for a long time. She met him in 1925 at a banquet held at the Soviet embassy on the occasion of the next anniversary of the October Revolution. Their relationship could not have a serious prospect for many reasons, the main one being the age difference - Kollontai was almost 20 years older. In addition, the citizenship of different states and the large family awaiting Marcel Bodie in Paris served as an obstacle.
In 1930, Alexandra Mikhailovna was transferred to Sweden, where for the next 15 years she headed the Soviet embassy and at the same time was a permanent member of the delegation to the League of Nations. It was this period of activity that brought her unfading glory thanks to the fulfillment of the most difficult task set by the Soviet government - neutralizing the influence of Nazi Germany in the countries of Scandinavia.
During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. Thanks to the efforts of Kollontai, Sweden was avoided, which was already preparing for the transfer of two volunteer battalions to the front. Moreover, having achieved a softening of the position of the Swedes in relation to the Stalinist government, she managed to mediate them in peace negotiations. In 1944, as the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Soviet Union, Alexandra Kollontai personally negotiated with the Finnish authorities on their country's withdrawal from World War II.
last years of life
As a diplomat, Alexandra Kollontai was forced to interrupt her activities in 1945, but the reason for this was not an advanced age, but a severe and prolonged illness that confined her to a wheelchair. Upon returning to Moscow, she continued to be listed as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the best of her ability, she performed official duties and engaged in literary activities, checking paper on the memories of past years. Alexandra Mikhailovna passed away on March 9, 1952 and was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery of the capital. Alexandra Kollontai’s son, Mikhail, was buried there, as was his mother, who became an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked a lot in the diplomatic field.
"Ideologist of free love"
About the personal life of Alexandra Kollontai in biographies published after her death, she spoke very sparingly. Until 1956, when the cult of Stalin’s personality was debunked at the 20th party congress, not even the name of her second husband, the Baltic sailor, and subsequently Navy Commissar Pavel Efimovich Dybenko, who was repressed in 1938 and shot on false charges of anti-Soviet activity, was not mentioned. Moreover, it is not known for certain whether Alexandra Kollontai had children, except for her son Mikhail, who was born to her from his first husband, Vladimir. On this occasion, a variety of assumptions were made.
The personal life of Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai attracts attention not only because of its richness - as mentioned above, she was successful with men and willingly opened her heart to them - but also because she relied on principles openly expressed by the woman that went against established moral standards. Among contemporaries, she even gained a reputation as an “ideologist of free love.”
For the first time, she expressed her views in an article published in 1913 on the pages of one of the newspapers and containing a list of basic principles that, according to the author, should be guided by a modern woman. These included the assertion that her role could not be reduced only to worries about raising children, housework and maintaining peace in the family. Being a free person, a woman herself has the right to determine the sphere of her own interests.
In addition, not trying to suppress the natural sexuality in herself, she has the right at her own discretion to choose partners, but at the same time submit not to love feelings, but to reason. At the same time, a woman should treat men without philistine jealousy, requiring them not to be faithful, but only respect for their own personality. To top it all, she needs to develop the self-discipline and ability to deal with emotions.
This article, which appeared during the upsurge of the feminist movement in Russia, gave widespread fame to the name of Alexandra Kollontai. Quotes from it were reprinted by other newspapers and largely determined the mood of the advanced society of those years. Later, already a member of the Bolshevik government, Alexandra Mikhailovna submitted for its consideration draft decrees on the replacement of church marriage by civil marriage, on the legal equality of spouses and the full rights of children born out of wedlock.
The new form of marital union
An example of a new approach to family issues was her relationship with P. Dybenko. Despite the absence of civil registration books in those years, the couple refused to marry, but at the same time demanded that their marriage be recognized as legal, which was announced in the newspapers.
In the autobiographical books of Alexandra Kollontai, written by her in the last years of her life, she repeatedly mentions the extremely negative reaction from party leaders to her disregard for many established traditions and the promotion of women's sexual emancipation. Often very unintelligible in their relationships, they nonetheless looked askance at the open declaration of sexual freedom.
The article mentioned above, written by Alexandra Mikhailovna in 1913 and dedicated to the principles that, in her opinion, should guide a free woman, among other things, refers to the ability to subordinate one’s emotions to the mind. A striking example of his embodiment in his own life can serve as the completion of her relationship with her civil husband - Pavel Dybenko.
When the fervor in them began to fade, the difference in age was clearly evident - Alexandra Mikhailovna was 17 years older than her husband, and he secretly made a young lover from her. Over time, this was revealed, and Kollontai announced to her his departure. A stormy scene followed, accompanied by an attempt to shoot herself, but ended very peacefully: the unfaithful husband, having packed his things, moved to his young passion - an empty girl with an extremely doubtful past, and Alexandra Mikhailovna, despite her overwhelming feelings, forced herself to be quite friendly with her for some time correspondence. In this way, she defeated her own emotions and took a step on the path to the ideal of a new woman outlined by her.
Literary activity of Alexandra Kollontai
It is known that she expressed her views on the relationship between the sexes and the so-called women's issue at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries with particular acuteness in literary works, the work on which did not interrupt for many years. It is characteristic that in the novels and stories she created, the topic of sexual relations is always combined with the problem of class inequality and the struggle for social justice. Personal in her work is always inextricably linked with the life of society.
Today, most of the literary works of Alexandra Kollontai, periodically published on the pages of the magazine “Young Guard”, may seem naive and partly far-fetched, but at one time they were a resounding success. It is enough to say that, having become acquainted with them, members of the British Society for Sexual Psychology elected Alexandra Mikhailovna their honorary member.