Written: 1922; Source: Alexandra Kollontai Selected Writings, Lawerence Hill & Co. 1977. Translated: by Alex Holt; Transcribed: by Marc Luzietti.
7 January 1970. It’s warm and bright, and there is a lively and festive atmosphere in the “House of Rest” where the veterans of the “Great Years” of the world revolution spend their days.
The veterans decided that on the day that had once been Christmas Day they would recall their childhood and youth by decorating a tree. A real fir tree just like in the years before the world upheavals. The young children and the older girls and boys were enthusiastic about the idea. Especially when they heard that “red grandmother” was going to tell stories abou... (From: Marxists.org.)
I have never wanted anything more than the wild creatures have,—a broad waft of clean air, a day to lie on the grass at times, with nothing to do but slip the blades through my fingers, and look as long as I pleased at the whole blue arch, and the screens of green and white between; leave for a month to float and float along the salt crests and among the foam, or roll with my naked skin over a clean long stretch of sunshiny sand; food that I liked, straight from the cool ground, and time to taste its sweetness, and time to rest after tasting; sleep when it came, and stillness, that the sleep might leave me when it would, not sooner—Air, room, light rest, nakedness when I would not be clothed, and when I would be clothed, garment... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Across South America, the class struggle is raging at an intensity that Australia has rarely seen. Both Right and Left are on the offensive in different countries and it is the political center which is falling away.
Bolivia has just experienced a military coup with clear participation of Fascists and with at least a degree of orchestration from within the United States. The coup regime has issued an arrest warrant for former President Evo Morales, under the pretext of terrorism and sedition, but transparently for the real reason of being Evo Morales. In Brazil, the Fascist Jair Bolsonaro was elected by technically democratic means, but is engaged in murderous repression and is attacking the institutions of capitalist democracy from within... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Never since the days of the Spartan Helots has history recorded such brutality as has been ever since the war and as is now being perpetrated upon the Negro in the South. How easy for us to go to Russia and drop a tear of sympathy over the persecuted Jew. But a step across Mason’s and Dixon’s line will bring us upon a scene of horrors before which those of Russia, bad as they are, pale into insignificance! No irresponsible, blood-thirsty mobs prowl over Russian territory, lashing and lynching its citizens. Even the sex which civilization and custom have shielded from rude assaults are treated as brutally as the men.
Women are stripped to the skin in the presence of leering, white-skinned, black-hearted brutes and lashed i... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
On behalf of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, a Society whose
objects are explained by the circular enclosed herewith, I beg most respectfully to
address you with regard to the works proposed to be done to the Collegiate Church
of Southwell Minster.
The Society recognizes with satisfaction that since the building has been under the
control of the Commissioners thesecurity of the fabric has been considered and its
condition as regards stability improved, but at the same time many alterations have
been made which in the view of the Society have been destructive of its artistic
and historical character.
The removal of the modern fittings ... (From: Marxists.org.)
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings has had under consideration
your architect's observations in reply to the letter addressed you in April last.
The Society is glad to find that the building is in charge of an architect so
careful and conservative as Mr. Christian, though it disagrees with the opinions
expressed in his letter. Bearing in mind the objects of the Society, this letter is
neither satisfactory nor reassuring. Believing that your architect concurs in its
estimation of the responsibility which attaches to the custodians of a national
record such as Southwell Minster, and of their obligation to preserve it from
change, the Society brings the follow... (From: Marxists.org.)
Many people, especially left-wing politicians, have a tendency to regard "soviet" power as a State power different from all the rest, to be sure, but painting that difference in the rosiest of hues:
"Soviet power," they tell us,
"is a worker and peasant power and, as such, has a great future ahead of
it."
There can be no more absurd assertion. "Soviet" power is a power no better and no worse than any other. Currently, it is every bit as wobbly and absurd as any State power in general. In certain respects, it is even more absurd than the rest. Having achieved total political domination over the country, it has become the unchallenged master of its economic resources and, not content with that crassly exploitative situation, it has s... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)
Perhaps the reader thinks he has found a flaw in the above title and that the soviet system and the dictatorship of the proletariat are one and the same thing? No. They are two radically different ideas which, far from being mutually complementary, are mutually opposed. Only an unhealthy party logic could accept a fusion when what really exists is an irreconcilable opposition.
The idea of “soviets” is a well defined expression of what we take to be social revolution, being an element belonging entirely to the constructive side of socialism. The origin of the notion of dictatorship is wholly bourgeois and as such, has nothing to do with socialism. It is possible to harness the two terms together artificially, if it is so d... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
When the world’s two great propaganda systems agree on some doctrine, it requires some intellectual effort to escape its shackles. One such doctrine is that the society created by Lenin and Trotsky and molded further by Stalin and his successors has some relation to socialism in some meaningful or historically accurate sense of this concept. In fact, if there is a relation, it is the relation of contradiction.
It is clear enough why both major propaganda systems insist upon this fantasy. Since its origins, the Soviet State has attempted to harness the energies of its own population and oppressed people elsewhere in the service of the men who took advantage of the popular ferment in Russia in 1917 to seize State power. One major... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Source: Alexandra Kollontai: Selected Articles and Speeches, Progress Publishers, 1984; First Published: Sovetskaya zhenshchina,(Soviet Woman), No. 5, September-October, 1946, pp. 3-4, abridged. Transcribed: Sally Ryan for marxists.org, 2000; Proofed: and corrected by Chris Clayton 2006.
It is a well-known fact that the Soviet Union has achieved exceptional successes in drawing women into the active construction of the state. This generally accepted truth is not disputed even by our enemies. The Soviet woman is a full and equal citizen of her country. In opening up to women access to every sphere of creative activity, our state has simultaneously ensured all the conditions necessary for her to fulfill her natural obligation – that... (From: Marxists.org.)
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