Alexandra Kollontaï citations

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
Contexte: If I have attained something in this world, it was not my personal qualities that originally brought this about. Rather my achievements are only a symbol of the fact that woman, after all, is already on the march to general recognition. It is the drawing of millions of women into productive work, which was swiftly effected especially during the war and which thrust into the realm of possibility the fact that a woman could be advanced to the highest political and diplomatic positions. Nevertheless it is obvious that only a country of the future, such as the Soviet Union, can dare to confront woman without any prejudice, to appraise her only from the standpoint of her skills and talents, and, accordingly, to entrust her with responsible tasks. Only the fresh revolutionary storms were strong enough to sweep away hoary prejudices against woman and only the productive-working people is able to effect the complete equalization and liberation of woman by building a new society.

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
Contexte: Nothing is more difficult than writing an autobiography. What should be emphasized? Just what is of general interest? It is advisable, above all, to write honestly and dispense with any of the conventional introductory protestations of modesty. For if one is called upon to tell about one's life so as to make the events that made it what it became useful to the general public, it can mean only that one must have already wrought something positive in life, accomplished a task that people recognize. Accordingly it is a matter of forgetting that one is writing about oneself, of making an effort to abjure one's ego so as to give an account, as objectively as possible, of one's life in the making and of one's accomplishments.

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
Contexte: If I have attained something in this world, it was not my personal qualities that originally brought this about. Rather my achievements are only a symbol of the fact that woman, after all, is already on the march to general recognition. It is the drawing of millions of women into productive work, which was swiftly effected especially during the war and which thrust into the realm of possibility the fact that a woman could be advanced to the highest political and diplomatic positions. Nevertheless it is obvious that only a country of the future, such as the Soviet Union, can dare to confront woman without any prejudice, to appraise her only from the standpoint of her skills and talents, and, accordingly, to entrust her with responsible tasks. Only the fresh revolutionary storms were strong enough to sweep away hoary prejudices against woman and only the productive-working people is able to effect the complete equalization and liberation of woman by building a new society.

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
Contexte: By looking back while prying, simultaneously, into the future, I will also be presenting to myself the most crucial turning points of my being and accomplishments. In this way I may succeed in setting into bold relief that which concerns the women's liberation struggle and, further, the social significance which it has. That I ought not to shape my life according to the given model, that I would have to grow beyond myself in order to be able to discern my life's true line of vision was an awareness that was mine already in my youngest years. At the same time I was also aware that in this way I could help my sisters to shape their lives, in accordance not with the given traditions but with their own free choice to the extent, of course, that social and economic circumstances permit. I always believed that the time inevitably must come when woman will be judged by the same moral standards applied to man. For it is not her specific virtue that gives her a place of honor in human society, but the worth of the useful mission accomplished by her, the worth of her personality as human being, as citizen, as thinker, as fighter. Subconsciously this motive was the leading force of my whole life and activity. To go my way, to work, to struggle, to create side by side with men, and to strive for the attainment of a universal human goal (for nearly thirty years, indeed, I have belonged to the Communists) but, at the same time, to shape my personal, intimate life as a woman according to my own will and according to the given laws of my nature. It was this that conditioned my line of vision.

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)