REFLEKTOR / SPOTLIGHT
Aleksandra Kolontaj ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI
Born 31 st March 1872 into an aristocratic family in Saint Petersburg, her father was a general in the impe- rial army and her mother was an educated Finnish no- blewoman. Alexandra was privileged, but she devel- oped a sense very early on that the society in which she lived was built on foundations of injustice. She received a good education, spoke foreign languages and had ac- cess to European culture, but during her childhood she came to feel increasingly distant from the world in which she grew up. She married her cousin, Vladimir Kollontai, and had a son, but the marriage didn’t last. Alexandra would later state openly that she had been held back by family life in the traditional sense. She left her husband and devoted herself to poli- tics – an almost unthinkable decision for a woman of her background at the time. She joined the revolution- ary movement and became one of the most prominent socialist speakers and organisers, particularly among female workers. Kollontai was unique for having man- aged to push feminist issues to the very centre of the political agenda: she spoke about women’s labour rights, but also about familial relations, marriage, sexu- ality and economic independence. Her ideas were radi- cal and left many people of the time feeling uncomfort- able, even within the revolutionary movement. Following the October Revolution of 1917, she served as the People’s Commissar for Social Welfare — thus becoming one of the first women in modern his- tory to serve as a government minister. She later par- ticipated in the creation of Zhenotdel, the section of the Russian Communist Party devoted to women’s af- fairs and intended to include women in public life and provide them with education, work and political par- ticipation. Unlike many female revolutionaries of the time, Kollontai didn’t face a tragic end in the purges. She be- came a diplomat and served as the Soviet ambassa- dor to Norway, and later to Sweden — becoming one of the world’s first female ambassadors. She died in Moscow on 9 th March 1952, having reached a ripe old age, but also having witnessed how many revolution- ary ideas were changed or repressed under the pres- sure of the state.
Aleksandra na Sovjetu narodnih komesara sa Lenjinom i Staljinom Alexandra on Council of People’s Commissars with Lenin and Stalin
Rođena je 31. marta 1872. godine u Sankt Peterburgu, u aristokratskoj porodici. Otac joj je bio general u carskoj vojsci, a majka obrazovana žena iz finskog plemstva. Alek- sandra je imala privilegije, ali je vrlo rano razvila osećaj da društvo u kojem živi počiva na nepravdi. Dobila je dobro ob- razovanje, govorila strane jezike i imala pristup evropskoj kulturi, ali se u mladosti sve više udaljavala od sveta u ko- jem je odrasla. Udala se za svog rođaka Vladimira Kolonta- ja i dobila sina, ali brak nije potrajao. Aleksandra je kasnije otvoreno govorila da ju je porodični život u tradicionalnom smislu sputavao. Napustila je muža i posvetila se politici, što je tada bi- la gotovo nezamisliva odluka za ženu njenog porekla. Pri- družila se revolucionarnom pokretu i postala jedna od naj- poznatijih socijalističkih govornica i organizatorki, posebno među radnicama. Kolontaj je bila jedinstvena po tome što je feministička pitanja gurala u sam centar političke agende: govorila je o radnim pravima žena, ali i o porodičnim odno- sima, braku, seksualnosti i ekonomskoj nezavisnosti. Njene ideje bile su radikalne i nelagodne mnogima, čak i unutar re- volucionarnog pokreta. Posle Oktobarske revolucije 1917. godine postala je na- rodna komesarka za socijalnu zaštitu – jedna od prvih žena u modernoj istoriji koja je bila član vlade. Kasnije je učestvo- vala u stvaranju Ženotdela, ženskog odeljenja unutar Komu- nističke partije, čiji je cilj bio da uključi žene u javni život i omogući im obrazovanje, rad i političko učešće. Za razliku od mnogih revolucionarki tog vremena, Ko- lontaj nije završila tragično u čistkama. Postala je diplomat- kinja i bila sovjetska ambasadorka u Norveškoj, a zatim i u Švedskoj – jedna od prvih žena ambasadora u svetu. Umr- la je 9. marta 1952. godine u Moskvi, dočekavši duboku sta- rost, ali i posmatrajući kako se mnoge revolucionarne ideje menjaju ili gase pod pritiskom države.
78 | Dan žena » Women’s Day
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator