The Presence of Political Philosophy in Feminist Discourse: Alexandra Kollontai as a Model

Abstract

This research explores the political philosophy of Alexandra Kollontai, one of the most prominent radical feminist voices in Russian Marxist thought at the beginning of the twentieth century. Kollontai’s ideas stem from a critical historical awareness that connects class oppression with gender marginalization, rejecting any reduction of the woman’s question to moral or social dimensions, and affirming that any liberation project remains incomplete without dismantling the economic structure of capitalism. Kollontai’s thought emerged as an intellectual response to the profound tensions in pre-revolutionary Russia, where personal experience intersected with historical transformation to produce a philosophical vision that viewed feminist emancipation as a natural extension of class struggle. For her, feminist struggle was not parallel to the revolution but one of its essential dimensions. The research also examines Kollontai’s views on family, motherhood, and love, and her radical attempt to reconstruct them within a new socialist horizon that frees human relations from the domination of possession. She did not seek to destroy the family but to transform it into a space of human equality. Kollontai thus developed a critical vision that regarded women as historical agents in building a new society where concepts of justice and equality are redefined.