Red Venus: Alexandra Kollontai’s Red Love and Women in Soviet Art

Abstract

Alexandra Kollontai’s (1872–1952) responsibilities as People’s Commissar of Social Welfare (immediately following the 1917 Revolution) included the care of mothers, infants, and orphans. One of her projects envisaged setting up free day care centers and maternity homes, but her efforts were met with hostility. Kollontai’s Prenatal Care Palace, with day care and other services for young mothers, was burnt down. She resigned from her position in March 1918, disagreeing with the direction the government was taking. As she explained in The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman, “I resigned from my post as People’s Commissar on the ground of total disagreement with the current policy. Little by little I was also relieved of all my other tasks.”¹ Kollontai publicly objected to the growing dictatorship of the Party and the diminishing importance of Workers’ Councils (“Soviets” in Russian), a concern that she voiced during the debate over the Workers’ Opposition.