A.K. 47 - Selections from the Works of Alexandra Kollontai

158 episodes

158 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - The Political Economy of Love in Capitalism
15/12/2025 | 35 mins.
Kristen Ghodsee reads her own December 2025 essay "The Political Economy of Love in Capitalism”This text appeared as the featured essay in the Winter 2025 special issue of Jacobin.de on “Love.” Below are the links to the original essay in English, German, and Spanish. You can also watch the Jacobin Germany issue launch discussion on Youtube here“The Political Economy of Love in Capitalism” "Der Gebrauchswert der Liebe”"La economía política del amor en el capitalismo”Send us a textThanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you'd like to support the work being done here, please spread the word with your networks.Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books: Everyday Utopia Red Valkyries Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism Second World, Second Sex Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.comLearn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com or request to follow her on Instagram @prof_kristen
157 - A.K. 47 - The Communist Valkyrie - Part 4
10/12/2025 | 21 mins.
Kristen Ghodsee reads the final part of her biographical chapter on Alexandra Kollontai from Ghodsee's 2022 book, Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.Mentioned in this episode are these new Jacobin articles:“The Political Economy of Love in Capitalism” "Der Gebrauchswert der Liebe”"La economía política del amor en el capitalismo”You can also watch the Jacobin Germany issue launch discussion hereSend us a textThanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you'd like to support the work being done here, please spread the word with your networks.Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books: Everyday Utopia Red Valkyries Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism Second World, Second Sex Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.comLearn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com or request to follow her on Instagram @prof_kristen
156 - A. K. 47 - The Communist Valkyrie - Part 3
01/12/2025 | 27 mins.
Kristen Ghodsee reads the third part of her biographical chapter on Alexandra Kollontai from Ghodsee's 2022 book, Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.Mentioned in this episode:Event - December 2, 2025 in Berlin: Book Discussion of Everyday Utopia with the Frei Universität Event - December 4, 2025 in Vienna: “What has socialism done for women?”Event - December 5, 2025 in Berlin: Jacobin.de special issue launch partyAlso, please see these new Jacobin articles:“The Political Economy of Love in Capitalism” "Der Gebrauchswert der Liebe”"La economía política del amor en el capitalismo”You can also watch the Jacobin Germany issue launch discussion on Youtube hereSend us a textThanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you'd like to support the work being done here, please spread the word with your networks.Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books: Everyday Utopia Red Valkyries Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism Second World, Second Sex Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.comLearn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com or request to follow her on Instagram @prof_kristen
155 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - Kristen Ghodsee and Astrid Zimmerman in Berlin (6 November 2025)
25/11/2025 | 46 mins.
A special extended, bonus episode for those of you traveling for the long weekend. Kristen Ghodsee shared a conversation with Astrid Zimmerman for the Shakespeare and Sons bookstore in Berlin, Germany on 6 November 2025. In this less-than-perfect-phone-recording of the live event, they discuss motherhood, tradwives, socialism, and feminism among a variety of topics with a lively audience in attendance. Send us a textThanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you'd like to support the work being done here, please spread the word with your networks.Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books: Everyday Utopia Red Valkyries Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism Second World, Second Sex Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.comLearn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com or request to follow her on Instagram @prof_kristen
154 - A.K. 47 - The Communist Valkyrie - Part 2
13/11/2025 | 26 mins.
Kristen Ghodsee reads the second part of her biographical chapter on Alexandra Kollontai from Ghodsee's 2022 book, Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.Mentioned in this episode: "My Daughter’s Abandoned Prom Dress” from Ms. Magazine, May 16, 2020Click Here for a full curated list of the podcasts with Kristen Ghodsee and her daughter from February 2019 to February 2025. Send us a textThanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you'd like to support the work being done here, please spread the word with your networks.Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books: Everyday Utopia Red Valkyries Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism Second World, Second Sex Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.comLearn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com or request to follow her on Instagram @prof_kristen

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About A.K. 47 - Selections from the Works of Alexandra Kollontai

Kristen R. Ghodsee reads and discusses 47 selections from the works of Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952), a socialist women's activist who had radical ideas about the intersections of socialism and women's emancipation. Born into aristocratic privilege, the Ukrainian-Finnish Kollontai was initially a member of the Mensheviks before she joined Lenin and the Bolsheviks and became an important revolutionary figure during the 1917 Russian Revolution. Kollontai was a socialist theorist of women’s emancipation and a strident proponent of sexual relations freed from all economic considerations. After the October Revolution, Kollontai became the Commissar of Social Welfare and helped to found the Zhenotdel (the women's section of the Party). She oversaw a wide variety of legal reforms and public policies to help liberate working women and to create the basis of a new socialist sexual morality. But Russians were not ready for her vision of emancipation, and she was sent away to Norway to serve as the first Russian female ambassador (and only the third female ambassador in the world). In this podcast, Kristen R. Ghodsee – a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence (Bold Type Books 2018) – selects excerpts from the essays, speeches, and fiction of Alexandra Kollontai and puts them in context. Each episode provides an introduction to the abridged reading with some relevant background on Kollontai and the historical moment in which she was writing.

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