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At the time of the split in the Russian Social Democratic Labour PartyThe Russian Social Democratic Labour Party or RSDLP was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organisations into one party. The RSDLP later split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions, into the MensheviksThe Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1903 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. At the second congress of the RSDLP, Lenin argue under Julius MartovJulius Martov real name Zederbaum ) was born in Constantinople in 1873. The son of Jewish middle class parents, he became the leader of the Mensheviks in early twentieth century Russia. Forced to leave Russia and with other radical political figures livin and the Bolsheviks under Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: ), original name Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( Russian: ) ( April 10 ( April 22, New Style), 1870 January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union and the in 19031903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasn't had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. Events January 1 Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India, Kollontai did not side with either faction. However, she came to dislike aspects of Bolshevism and opted to join the Mensheviks.
In 1914, Kollontai joined the Bolsheviks and returned to RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With, after a period of exile for her earlier political activities. After the Bolshevik revolution in October 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti-, she became People's Commissar for Social Welfare. She was the most prominent woman in the Soviet administration and was best known for founding the Zhenodtel or "Women's Department" in 1919. This organization worked to improve the conditions of women's lives in the Soviet Union, fighting illiteracy and educating women about the new marriage, education, and working laws put in place by the Revolution. She was well recognized later for socialist feminism. The Zhenodtel was eventually closed by Stalin in 1930.
In the government, Kollontai increasingly became an internal critic of the Communist Party and joined with her friend, Alexander Shlyapnikov, to form a left-wing faction of the party that became known as the Workers' Opposition. However, Lenin managed to dissolve the Workers' Opposition, after which Kollontai was more or less totally politically sidelined.
When Joseph Stalin gained power, he sent Kollontai abroad as a diplomat. In 1923, she became the world's first woman ambassador, serving in Norway, and later in Mexico and Sweden; she was also a member of the Soviet delegation to the League of Nations. She died in 1952.
Alexandra Kollontai is an unusual figure in the history of the Soviet Union, as she was an "Old Bolshevik" and a major public critic of the Communist Party who was neither purged nor executed by the Stalin regime, though as a diplomat serving abroad, she had little or no influence in government policy or operations and so was effectively exiled.