Women's Liberation Movements

Subsequently, Engels represented one of the first thinkers to describe and criticize the institution of the family under the Marxist vision. According to Engels, society rests on the supremacy of man, who must hasten to make children to ensure his paternal role.. Engels, L'Origine de la famille, de la proprieìteì priveìe et de l'Eìtat, chapter 4. This paternity is implored so that the man can maintain a property on the family and his children. The history of the monogamous family thus coincides with the oppression of women in capitalist society. In other words, the monogamous family demonstrates an antagonism between women and men, hence relating to male supremacy. Marriage was a convenience agreement for Engels, because the partners find themselves facing a kind of prostitution.. Ibid. Women had a reproductive charge towards men and men had monetary dues towards women.

Finally, Engels proposed a proletarian family, where monogamy would no longer have its place literally, but would be replaced by a partnership. Therefore he suggested a renewal of ancient forms of marriage. The monogamous marriage would lose its meaning, civil arrangements could be taken into account. Adultery would not be a crime for neither side of the partners. Engel was arguing that it was necessary to introduce women into the production of labor in order to secure their enfranchisement. The society had to be reorganized, so that the family had no longer to have an economic function related to private property. Children had to be cared by the community, so women could take part in the laborious masses. Referring to Engels' theories, evolution would occur naturally in the new proletarian society. Finally, men and women would no longer be subject to the yoke of capitalism and will no longer have to fill that social power that the monogamous family provides.. Ibid.

1.2 Kollontai, the New Woman and the Sexual Morality

Decades later, in Russia, as in many other European countries in the beginning of the 20th century, the question of sexual freedom became more and more important for socialist women. Kollontai was known to be an outstanding public orator, well-educated and born as a privileged woman.. Bailes Kendall E., and Marie Josée Imbert, “Alexandra Kollontai et la Nouvelle Morale,” Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique 6, no. 4 (1965): 480. She did not work alone in this rise to the transformation of society facing the rejection of bourgeois morality in the face of family and marriage. She collaborated with many figures of Soviet socialism, such as Inessa Armand, with whom she led the newspaper Rabotnitsa until the death of the latter; or Nadezda Krupskaja, Lenin's wife, with whom Kollontai led the Zhenotdel project from 1921 onwards Russia at the head of the Women's section of the Central Committee of the Party where they set up the Zhenotdel, Central Party Department which took direct action with women between 1919 and 1930.

Kollontai firstly published in 1898, in Russian press, about the principles of education after Dobroljubov. Her first rapprochement with the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party took place between 1903 and 1905, when it became involved in the 1905 revolution with a women's workers' club in St. Petersburg.. Ibid, 482-483. The questions around sexuality and love were Kollontai's favorite subjects. Kendall E. Bailes considered Kollontai as a synthesis of feminism and Marxism, because she perceived the best chance of emancipation for women in socialism: the idealism of a freedom that was not individual, but common.. Ibid, 484.

The criticism of monogamy as a form of union in capitalist society was as much discussed by Kollontai in her writings as early as 1909 in the Social Basis of the Woman Question. Kollontai, The Social Basis of the Woman Question, 1909.. Alexandra Kollontai was indeed influenced by Engels' theories about raising the level of awareness of a wide audience on the issue of women's emancipation.. Ibid, 58. Socialist sexual morality as explained above would take the place of the monogamous family, by calling the psychological revolution of the community.. Alexandra Kollontai, “Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle,” 1921, trans. Alix Holt (New York: Allison & Busby, 1977). Under these new ideological imperatives, marriage could still exist between comrades who desired it. These new unions however, would not subsist with the purpose of reproducing the old patriarchal model of the nuclear family, but instead would simply be an expression of love between two individuals. Thus, the ideology of sexual morality wanted to transform the intrinsic organization of social and biological reproduction modes by revolutionizing the daily life, which turned towards the collective life and the salaried work.. Renault, “Alexandra Kollontai et le dépérissement de la famille… Les deux verres d'eau de Lénine,” 59. The relations between men and women would therefore, according to Kollontai, be egalitarian.

I refer here to the individual's elevation of consciousness towards the transformation of popular thoughts in regards to traditional values on family and love. In 1909, in the Social Basis of the Woman Question, Kollontai wrote about those psychological transformations:

“Before these formulas of “free relationships” and “free love” can become practice, it is above all necessary that a fundamental reform of all social relationships between people take place; furthermore, the moral and sexual norms and the whole psychology of mankind would have to undergo a thorough evolution, is the contemporary person psychologically able to cope with “free love"?” . Kollontai, Social Basis of the Woman Question, 1909.

Through this psychological transformation, Kollontai portrayed the women's question as a political, economic and social matter. As Beatrice Brodsky Farnsworth is arguing, “Kollontai insisted that only socialists could create the conditions which in turn could free the New Woman.”. Farnsworth, “Bolshevism, the Woman Question, and Aleksandra Kollontai,” 294. Subsequently, in Sexual Relationship and the Class Struggle 1921, she exposed the answers to the questions she raised on the sexual level in 1909.

In Sexual Relationship and the Class Struggle as well as in Love and the New Morality, Kollontai examines the most private and personal relationship - love and sexuality.. Kollontai, Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle, 1921, 17. She was also particularly influenced by German writer Grete Meisel Hess for this booklet in pertaining to her essays on the sexual crisis in Europe.. In the book Die sexuelle Krise. Eine sozialpsychologische Untersuchung, 1909. Human history, as quoted by Kollontai, “represented a continuity of battles between groups and sexes that oppose goals and interests”.. Alexandra Kollontai, “Place aÌ Eìros aileì !,” 1923, in Marxisme et reìvolution sexuelle, trans. Judith Stora- Sandor, (Paris: Maspero, 1973) 181-203. On the other hand, the problem of the sex itself was much broader according to her: it represented a vicious circle. To this extent, Kollontai enlightened that the patriarchal power under the capitalist society demonstrated that the sexual morality was based on individualistic principles.. Ibid. In other words, under capitalism, the ethics of competition was one of the most triumphant principles, which destroyed all that remained of the idea of a collective community. Kollontai emphasized that proletarians must therefore change these moral bases imposed by the bourgeoisie.. Kollontai, “Theses on Communist Morality in the Sphere of Marital Relations,” 1921 It was necessary for her to refine the individual psyche. The cult of the ego must disappear to make room for the great rules of love. Among those the recognition of reciprocal rights and the art of respecting the people's individuality, were significant for Kollontai.. Kollontai, “Place aÌ Eìros aileì !,” 181-188. Essentially, strong mutual support and the desire for collective aspirations, was the ideal of the love-fellowship that forged the proletarian ideology of Kollontai on sexual morality.

However, in the Central committee, she was not very well welcomed neither, especially from Trotsky, with whom she already had conflicts through the Workers' Opposition in 1921.. A leftist organization aiming to resist to the centralization of the Soviet politics. Few supported her ideas, even her feminist, anarchist and socialist sisters abroad, as we will see in the next chapter. Kollontai rejected alliances with Western feminists as she perceived their ideological framework as inherently liberal and thus, incapable of producing any real emancipation.. Farnsworth, “Bolshevism, the Woman Question, and Aleksandra Kollontai,” 295. That is, for instance, at the The Socialist International Women conference in Bern, in 1915, Kollontai strongly criticized the liberal feminist movement in wartime recounting their pacifism facing the imperialist war.. Gabriel, “L'internationale Des Femmes Socialistes,” 36. She was vigorously emphasizing, alongside with Zetkin that women's emancipation must absolutely go through the class struggle.

Private Relationship - Love and Sexuality

Kollontai had a considerable challenge when she was promoted to People's Commissar for State Welfare. She had to consider transforming the political and economical order by bringing the new social order. The Orthodox Church had lost its educational role and the families had been weakened by the revolution, the First World War and the civil war that was still taking place in the USSR.. Atwood, “Creating the New Soviet Woman: Women's Magazines as Engineers of Female Identity, 1922-53,” 23. It must be understood that there was no single position on the social subject of family and sexual relations, so Kollontai had always been tested in the Congress, where her comrades were not always in favor of her ideas.

After 1917, Kollontai's activities and involvement in women's struggles generally were no longer deceptive as propaganda activities, but her ideas were not in symbiosis with the country's mentality. She still had the freedom to express herself on the subject of free love and until Stalin's authority, she was almost never censored. Essentially, the Party leaders saw in her a good capacity to bring the working masses of women together: alongside with her implications within the Zhenotdel. In her social and political actions, the establishment of a secular society and the recruitment of women for production came fast, since women in the socialist society would become a worker equal to men.. Christine Fauré, “L'utopie de la femme nouvelle dans l'oeuvre d'Alexandra Kollontaï,”

In Stratégies des femmes. (Paris: Ed. Tierces, 1984) 495. Being a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee, Kollontai was nonetheless able to write decrees that radically changed the conditions of the family and marriage. In the family code of 1918, on which she worked closely, Kollontai asked the party for abortion be to done freely, a motion that would be adopted in 1920, making the USSR the first country to legalize this practice. However, the right to abortion was abolished in 1936, when the family unit was once again the basic element of Soviet life under Stalin. Only two years later, the USSR saw its birth rate climb by 7%.. Hélène Yvert-Jalu, “L'avortement en Union Soviétique,” In: Annales de démographie historique, Démographie des villes et des campagnes, 1990, 432.

Nevertheless, the situation in Russia was unstable; the Bolsheviks had just taken power. In 1919, the women's empowerment in the midst of Civil War could seem like a disjointed idea for several members of the central committee, but Kollontai addressed personal relationships as a central question in people's lives. The breakdown of bourgeois morality was to be done in all sections of society, including in the private lives of people. The first years after the Russian Revolution represented enormous changes in society; women's lives were changing, they were now more and more included in public and political life, they had the right to vote and could speak publicly.. Stephen Kotkin, “Introduction: A Future for Labor under Communism?,” 6. Women have not only performed an important role in the revolution, but they have also worked for the development in their living and working conditions. Rose Glickman explained that women's role in the working conditions' improvements in Russia was crucial.. Glickman, “Women and the Peasant Commune,” 331. With the growing industrialization, these became a capital issue in the class struggle. Thus, improving their living conditions was imperative. The disintegration of the old family forms was to be done as quickly as possible according to Kollontai.. Alexandra Kollontai, La Famille et l'Eìtat communiste, trans. Judith Stora Sandor in Marxisme et reìvolution sexuelle, (Paris: Franc?ois Maspero, 1973) 208.

In 1921, Kollontai led the Workers' Opposition with Shliapnikov, taking a stand against the idea of a united front in the civil war and demanding the control of the industry by the unions, wishing to create favorable conditions for the formation of workers masses.. Alexandra Kollontai, “L'Opposition ouvrieÌre,” 1921 (Paris: Eìditions du Seuil, ed 1974), 46. To this end, the Workers' Opposition was defeated, she was excluded from the Party in 1922 and therefore exiled as a diplomat in Oslo. From this moment, Kollontai devoted herself to the writing of several pamphlets. Porter, Alexandra Kollontai, The Lonely Struggle of the Woman Who Defied Lenin, 15., newspapers and articles on love, sexuality, family, prostitution and the New Woman.

The Soviet `New Woman'

With the evolution of production relations in the USSR, women gradually integrated the labor force and therefore took part in the wage-earning world.. Alpern, “Engendering Russias History” 550. Consequently, I wish to highlight that the idea of the New Woman, independent economical worker, came into conflict with the traditional domestic roles, often occupied by mothers. In fact, when women had to realize themselves as workers, they had to face the following problem: they had to fulfill both their roles as mothers and at the same time contribute to the labor force. They were in conflicts with their traditional domestic role and their new role as worker. As women were entering the labor force, how was the working woman to care for the children, particularly young babies who needed to be breastfed? Bobroff would argue that that there should be an intimate relationship between the party and the working mass as a whole.. Bobroff, “The Bolsheviks and Working Women, 1905-20,” 541.

Kollontai enlightened the necessity for a women section in the Party, at the 8th congress, in 1919. The aim of this demand was to include women from both peasantry and working class, struggling for communism.. Ibid, 562. The Zhenotdel's intentions were not to encourage independent women activity, but rather to attract women to the party in large numbers by having organizations designed especially for them.. Ibid, 548. As Barbara Alpern Engel highlighted in her article, the Women's Bureau promoted through a revolutionary process, women's equality in public and private life.. Alpern, “Engendering Russias History,” 549. Zhenotdel became particularly prevalent in Russia after Kollontai took over the administration. In fact, in 1922, nearly 95 000 delegates took part in this organization : 24% were working class women, 58% were peasant women, 9% were office workers, and 8% were housewives.. Natalia Kozlova, “Solving the `woman question': the case of Zhenotdel in Tver province,” in Women and Transformation in Russia, New York: Routledge, 2014), 139. Women played a very important economic role in the new soviet society, so therefore, they needed to obtain a better political representation. When working women began to demonstrate their own independent power, they consequently represented a new source of energy for the party, prevent the alliance with bourgeois feminism. Zhenotdel was important in establishing educational programs through pamphlets and newspapers, so that women, both peasants and women workers, could raise their consciousness to the socialist revolution and the improvement of their living conditions.. Barbara Evans Clements, Bolshevik Women (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 215. In addition, the special programs surrounding “proletarian consciousness” were intended to create a mobilization of women for a “perfect modern subject project, the New Soviet Person”.. Alissa Klots, “The Kitchen Maid That Will Rule the State: Domestic Service and the Soviet Revolutionary Project, 1917-1941,” (PhD diss., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2017), 15. I wish to emphasize here that for the first time, the Bolsheviks officially considered women's issue publicly. The primary function of the periodical was to fight against the bourgeois feminism.. Alpern, “Engendering Russias History,” 546.

Nevertheless, an additional reason for the need of a new sexual morality, which was much more practical, according to Frances Bernstein, was to fight the sexual crisis.. Frances L. Bernstein, The Dictatorship of Sex. Lifestyle Advice for the Soviet Masses (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007). Essentially, some issues surrounding sexuality began to threaten public health in Russia, but also threatened efforts to build the new generation of socialist society. To this extent a sexual morality had to be established in order to inform people, but also to transform people's sexual habit.

Sexual emancipation was problematized in the early soviet society. To do so, it was projected to several mediums, such as in the press, but also through art, literature and cinema. Indeed, the concept of illegitimacy and domestic confusion, for example, has been put forward in some Soviet films, such as in the film “Third Meschanskaya Str.”. Tret'ia Meshchanskaia, also called Bed and Sofa in English. , produced in 1927 by Abram Room. . See appendix 4. Part of the Soviet Realism, while progressive and free revolutionary ideas which was however. According to Rimgaila Salys, the movie brought in light the New Woman where the sexual liberation behavior where the main character emancipates from a love and sentimental alienation.. Rimgaila Salys, “LIFE INTO ART: Laying Bare the Theme in "Bed and Sofa",” Russian Language Journal 52, no. 171/173 (1998): 291-293. Rooms enlightened the forefront of the debate on marriage legislation, flaws and gender relations that preceded the release of the film.. P.E. Burns, “An NEP Moscow address: Abram rooms's third meshchanskaia (bed and sofa) in historical context,” Film & History 4, no. 12 (1983): 73. To this extent, the concept of women's independence was highlighted not only through the illegitimacy of the different affairs she had, but also on the abortion rights. The film was nevertheless badly received by the Soviet government, because the links between characters and the working force was not strong enough.. Banned in USSR from the 1930s until mid 1970s; Banned in Europe and USA until the 1970s. In analyzing this film, for instance, one can well understand this intention of a New Woman, but also where the future of the intimate relations were different and against fidelity put forward by Kollontai in her theory `of glass of water'.

This concept explained that making love would be as simple as drinking a glass of water. Kollontai enlightened that the sexual needs were therefore as primary as thirst or hunger. This theory typified in some ways the ideology of Kollontai in relation to her ideal facing sexual morality. For Lenin and many other socialists, this theory did not concur with the construction of the revolutionary ideal. Vladimir Lenin and Clara Zetkin had many close correspondences following the revolution. He often wrote to her about the social equality on women's question. In one of his letters to Zetkin, in 1920, he openly criticized this concept of `the glass of water' by clarifying that this ideology did not follow the Marxist philosophy in regards to relationships.

“You must be aware of the famous theory that in communist society the satisfaction of sexual desires, of love, will be as simple and unimportant as drinking a glass of water. This glass of water theory has made our young people mad, quite mad. It has proved fatal to many young boys and girls. Its adherents maintain that it is Marxist. But thanks for such Marxism which directly and immediately attributes all phenomena and changes in the ideological superstructure of society to its economic basis! Matters aren't quite as simple as that. (…) I think this glass of water theory is completely un-Marxist, and, moreover, anti-social. In sexual life there is not only simple nature to be considered, but also cultural characteristics, whether they are of a high or low order. (…) As a communist I have not the least sympathy for the glass of water theory, although it bears the fine title `satisfaction of love'. In any case, this liberation of love is neither new, nor communist.”

The ideology was also badly perceived by Clara Zetkin. Even though she thought that sex and marriage in the capitalist society involved several problems, and essentially a lot of suffering for women of all class, she agreed with Lenin that the theory on the glass of water didn't fit with the ambitions of the revolution.. Ibid. Subsequently, she argued that sexual relations were not as easy as drinking a glass of water and according to her, Kollontai forgetting the whole social sphere of such relations.

The New Woman and the Limits of Sexual Freedom

Revolutionary Russia, on the other hand, praised experiments. In this part, I set the foundations of how Kollontai didn't succeed to reach all the women who needed to improve their situation, by ignoring a large part of Russian population in the large territory of the new Bolshevik state. According to the egalitarian ideology of New Woman in Russia, Alexandra Kollontai fizzles out once the regimes are in place, when the economic and ideological imperatives of states become the only priorities.. Florence Rochefort, Histoire mondiale des feminismes (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2018). After many years of war, a very high unemployment rate and unparalleled food poverty, women's equality was hardly the first priority for the Bolsheviks.. Attwood, Creating the New Soviet Woman, 23. Barbara Evans Clement outlined that the Central Party was concentrated on the war effort, which left much more freedom to the Zhenotdel's leaders. . Clements, “The Utopianism of the Zhenotdel,” 486. Subsequently, once the Civil War ended, the NEP New Economic Policy. was set up in the early Soviet society. Consequently, according to Clements, the actions of the Women's Bureau began to be closely watched by the Central Party members.. Clements, “The Utopianism of the Zhenotdel,” 487-489. Even if Kollontai's perspective on sexual emancipation was published through various newspapers and pamphlets, it failed to effectively influence Bolshevik policy makers. Thus, the idea of free love was never officially consolidated in any form of legislation or other legal framework in post-revolutionary Russia.. Clements, Bolshevik Women, 211.

Nevertheless, despite its limitations, the Zhenotdel was still important in the progress of the liberation of women. This committee was placed with the central committee and local committees of the Russian Communist Party/Pan-Soviet Communist Party in charge of the action of the party of women in the 1920s. However, as Richard Stites analyzed women's movement in Russia, many measures were poorly received by many women.. Stites, The women's liberation movement in Russia, xvii. Certainly, the liberation of women became problematic in many ways, since women were generally fond of the orthodox religion. Ibid.: the Zhenotdel's proposals were not at all related to any religious values, which represented a social clash at the beginning of the 1920s. Peasant women were also at the center of the Zhenotdel's attention. Women in the rural regions had a quality of life very different from women workers. Isolated from urban radicalism, isolated from collective work, they were all the more oppressed. Women have seen their lives change dramatically with the creation of nurseries, and the possibility for them to be able to integrate certain positions outside the domestic sphere.. Ibid, 27.

On the other hand, it must be remembered that this huge soviet republic was still very young. It was difficult to reach women from all regions, especially ethnic and religious minorities who had great difficulty adapting to these new living conditions. The women who came from the city were considered the most progressive. On the other hand, Central Asian women, for example, were not well represented in congresses as well as in the party. Moreover, in the Rabotnitsa and Kommunistka journals, these women had no platform.. Clements, Bolshevik Women, 202. It was even more difficult for them to be able to integrate these new visions of the woman and the family. A few years later, the Zhenotdel set up cooperation measures between urban women and men.. Stites, The women's liberation movement in Russia, 30. Cooperation was established as a patronage work, so that urban women could assist those who came from the countryside in the factories and gave them advice on how to apply certain measures surrounding the idea of the New Woman.. Ibid. On the other hand, there was no increase in the visibility of Central Asian women in magazines, which resulted in a huge social divide formed over time. . Attwood, “Creating the New Soviet Woman,” 25.

1.3 Conclusions

To summarize, by analyzing the works of Marx and Engels, the ideology of collectivization of the family for economic purposes remains the basis of Marxist analysis of family relations and the starting point of female emancipation of the 19th century. It was important for this chapter to highlight the main outlines of Marxist theories towards marriage and family to better understand the vanguards and guidelines of sexual morality presented by Kollontai in the 1910s. As they must change the balance of power, women had to go through drastic changes pertaining to the Sovietization of social relations.. Stites, The women's liberation movement in Russia, (preface).

Essentially, this chapter contribute to the interpretation of sexual morality in the new Soviet Russia. According to my research, it is possible to observe that the first years after the revolution indicated several changes regarding women's place in the private sphere. By providing an analysis of the socialist visions of the monogamous family it is possible to outline the importance for Kollontai of changing the fundamental bases of gender roles in the family. Moreover, by pointing out the different measures taken by the women of the party in relation to the emancipation of the New Woman in the Bolshevik society, I demonstrate that there was a lack in the representation of the minorities at the breadth from the country. Kollontai was what could be called the elite of socialism: she was part of the party intelligentsia, which could make it rather utopian to convey her ideology of the non-monogamous family.

Chapter 2. Two French Feminists in Moscow, Dialogues with Alexandra Kollontai

In this chapter, I analyze the feminist media's reactions to the revolutionary Russian socialist ideals. I argue that the reactions differed from the feminist movement they referred to. Therefore, I outline two types of French feminisms in the 1920s: the socialist feminist Madeleine Pelletier as well as the liberal feminist Louise Weiss, by analyzing their reports published in two French journal and newspapers. Radical feminism was mostly inspired by a Marxism philosophy, and it asserted that violence (physical, psychological and economical) against women was the main means used by patriarchy to control them. To this extent, radical feminism targeted the socio-economic system, to denounce sexual division of labor.. Ellen Willis, “Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism,” Social Text 10, no. 9 (1984): 93. It is possible to distinguish liberal feminism from radical feminism by its focus on the individual freedom of women and its desire to have equal rights.. Ruth E. Groenhout, “Essentialist Challenges to Liberal Feminism,” Social Theory and Practice 28, no.1 (2002): 51. To this extent, it aimed to improve the social system raising women's right, but it does not attack directly the political system itself.. Florence Rochefort, “Les feministes”, in Histoire des gauches en France, ed Jean-Jacques Becker, La Découverte 2, 2005, 109. With a comparing method, I highlight that Pelletier and Weiss adopted two very different journalistic approaches which reflected their political agendas.

2.1 Free Love, French Publications and Opinions

It seems significant to mention that the principles of successive monogamy were being read and heard in France at that time, and not only in reaction to Kollontai's publications. As mentioned before, the early soviet society was a source of fascination for many reporters in order to understand the revolutionary actions in Russia. To this end, numerous international correspondents travelled to Russia to report the new information pertaining to women's place. To this extent, French women were easily able to access translated documentation on Kollontai's theories as well as to be informed about the news by the press. These French women were mostly leftist movements like the SFIO or participated in the women's sections of the Worker's International. While France was legislating against birth control. Thébaud, Histoire des femmes en Occident, 141., it was still possible to observe that the themes of free marriage/union, as well as sexual emancipation, were recurrent in specific French feminist periodicals between 1910 and 1925. Several theorists of the concept of free love, such as Madeleine Vernet, Nelly Roussel, Hélène Brion and Madeleine Pelletier, were writing in various left-wing newspapers, such as La Voix des femmes, La Revue Socialiste and L'Ouvrière.

In the newspaper La Voix des Femmes, it was possible to read open letters and articles about domestic matters, as well as subjects related to New Woman, Free love and sexuality. This newspapers was created in 1848 by Eugénie Niboyet and targeted the questions of women suffrage, as well as the public space women were attributed. However, they had to close the periodic in 1852 for a lack of financial support. It was then re-founded by Colette Reynaud and Louise Bodin in October 1917 and was published weekly. It brought together several great figures of French female socialism, most were mentioned in the previous paragraph. Addressing mainly women. All terms are feminized in French., this newspaper claimed to be feminist, pacifist, socialist and internationalist. pluralism feminism sexual freedom

Many radical feminists started writing about free love, such as Nelly Roussel, Madeleine Pelletier, Arria Ly or Madeleine Vernet. In the September 15th, 1921 edition of La Voix des Femmes, the article Doit-on se marier?(Should we get married?), written by Madeleine Pelletier, questioned the necessity for women to get married in order to remain independent.. Madeleine Pelletier, “Doit-on se marier ?,” La Voix des Femmes 5, no. 175 (September 15^th 1921): 3. In Pelletier's perspective, the future socialist society would have to suppress marriage in order to help women's sexual emancipation. The differences between Pelletier and Kollontai's pertained to sexuality. According to Pelletier, in the best of all worlds, sexual intercourses would become a question of individual freedom which would only occupy the interested parties.. Ibid. Thus, I consider that, unlike Kollontai, Pelletier did not see sexual freedom as a collectivization of love, but rather a freedom that will emancipate everyone.

2.2 Russian Journeys and Narratives

Only a few French women made the trip to Moscow in the 1920s; Madeleine Paz, Madeleine Pelletier, Helene Brion and Louise Weiss wanted to see and perceive for themselves how communist Russia was orchestrated since the Revolution. For this paper, I chose to concentrate on two different case studies: Pelletier and Weiss. I have selected those two women, because they wrote a very detailed diary during their journeys in Russia and contemporary scholars reviewed and studied their writings. Both reported their experiences in two distinct newspapers in France, letting readers know what they were facing in Russia as well as their opinions on political subjects. Furthermore, I preferred these journalists because they had two very opposite feminist positions and they saw the emancipation of women differently. Madeleine Pelletier, while visiting Russia, was associated with socialist feminism, while Louise Weiss has always been associated with liberal feminism.. Hirsch, “Louise Weiss, l'« aristo-prolo »,” 34. Thus, their approaches to Kollontai stemmed from two distinctive ideologies when they met her. In addition, these two journalists had ideas, occasionally in common and sometimes very unrelated from those of Kollontai. These journeys were made independently from one another and were in no way connected. No literature showed that they met in Russia or that they planned even a small part of their voyage together.

2.3 Madeleine Pelletier, the Radical Feminist

Born in 1874, she was known as the first female psychiatrist in France. She was involved in politics as well as in left-wing newspapers at the same time as practicing her doctor's profession. Her career was shaped by several French leftist parties. As Kollontai, she devoted a great part of her career to women's empowerment in the domestic space as well as in the political and public sphere. In 1935, she was arrested for doubtful behaviors towards two of her patients: she was accused of practicing abortions. She is considered by many scholars as one of the pioneers who split with nineteenth-century feminism by introducing a cultural theory of sexual difference.. Mitchell, “Madeleine Pelletier (1874-1939): The Politics of Sexual Oppression,” 72.According to the ideas of Claudine Mitchell, the first feminist wave “had extolled the social value of women's traditional roles and celebrated feminine virtues against masculine vices.”. Ibid. As Mitchell pointed out in her article, Pelletier's major contribution to feminist thinking was her analysis of agencies, which regimented sexuality and made it the locus of women's oppression.. Ibid, 78.

Joan W. Scott defined Pelletier's feminism as not being a means to enhance the social status of women, but rather a way of dissolving the category entirely; “it offers not only an escape from the demanding passivity of most women's lives, but an alternative to avowing the identity of a woman.”. Scott, La Citoyenne paradoxale, 126. Pelletier argued that in absolute feminism, the woman would be an individual before being a sex.. Madeleine Pelletier, “Les femmes et le féminisme,” La revue socialiste, (January 1906): 44. As maintained by Pelletier, the idea of celebrating femininity was rather wrong because it was valuing the proper traditional roles of women.. Madeleine Pelletier, L'Emancipation sexuelle de la femme (Paris: Giard et Brière, 1911). She deplored the valuing of femininity and was made the `apostle' of the virilization of women. Michelle Perrot, Les Femmes ou les silences de l'Histoire (Paris: Flammarion, 1998), 400., by her refusal of the female clothing, which, according to her, over-sexualized women's bodies. Pelletier was practicing conscious and active abstinence, which means that she refused motherhood and certainly sexual intercourses. Peers of women's solidarity groups were even scared by her activism.. Sowerwine, “Militantisme Et Identité Sexuelle,” 22. She led the groups where women were uncomfortable with their sexual identity. She herself refused to identify with a common sexual identity. She was always perceived as a woman among her relations with her peers.

Madeleine Pelletier explained that the inequality among the treatment that children receive from their parents was appalling and stemmed from a sexist mentality: she called this theory “the psychological sex”. According to her, because men monopolized the active, social and political life, women thus became the lower sex.. Pelletier, L'Emancipation sexuelle de la femme, 29. Madeleine Pelletier undertook the task to write L'Émancipation Sexuelle de la Femme (The Sexual Emancipation of Women), published in 1911, in order to provide French feminists with a program or a course of action. She outlined that the restoration of the patriarchal order went hand in hand with the marginalization of militant women.. Thébaud, Histoire des femmes en Occident, 141. To this extent, the power of patriarchy didn't embed the possibility of an actual sexual emancipation. In this pamphlet, she stated from the beginning that there should be an official morality for mutual sexes, both sexually and socially, but also in conjugal life. Pelletier denounced the unequal treatment between women and men when they committed adultery: women were, according to her, “treated as a guilty person, when the man was not”.. Pelletier, L'Emancipation sexuelle de la femme, 6. She used various Engels' theories about the destruction of the family and the return to savagery of the early ages.. Ibid, 13. Children, she said, should be supported by the state to relieve mothers.. Ibid, 43. Pelletier had a positive opinion for voluntary birth control, as for abortion: she became a great defender of this practice.

Like Kollontai, Pelletier was often criticized among her comrades in the party for being too radical. Indeed, she was often accused of undertaking `too radical' positions on sexual matters.. Ibid, 27. In the feminist circles, she was often convicted for not being feminine enough. I want to underline that her socialist approach didn't follow Marxist theories about the economy and politics. Scott, La Citoyenne paradoxale, 127.: as Scott often raised, she distrusted anything that subordinated individuals to social regulation.. Ibid, 128. According to Pelletier's French entourage, it would have been better not to spread these ideas in France, since it would have been too extravagant as an idea for the women's movement.. Ibid. The predominantly liberal attitude in feminist movements in the 1920s did not consider the struggle for women's sexual emancipation to be a priority. According to most notable liberal feminists, like Louise Weiss, it was all the more important to focus on the fight for women to be equally recognized before the law.. Michèle Riot-Sarcey, Histoire du féminisme, (Paris: La Découverte, 2008), 88. But for Madeleine Pelletier, it was the opposite. For instance, she believed that the ideology of abortion, the advocacy of absolute sexual freedom and state-rearing of children was entirely acceptable.

Pelletier's Voyage

Madeleine Pelletier's story was available in the form of a travel diary. Was published in 1922 as a novel, Mon aventureux voyage en Russie communiste, by Marcel Giard éditions., but it was first intended to appear as a weekly chronicle in the newspaper La Voix des Femmes from October 1921. It explained mainly her journey from Paris to Moscow and that everything was done illegally - without a passport and with the help of communist networks established throughout Europe. She did not depict Bolshevik Russia as paradise, she even found a real misery as soon as she arrived. Noticing the short hair and the rather rare coquetry of women in Moscow, Pelletier believed that Russians were much freer than anywhere else in the world. In Russia, Pelletier focused on the status of women and immediately realized that there was like in no other country in the world a freedom and security that reigned:

“As soon as one sets foot in the streets of Moscow, one immediately realizes that women have the most freedom of any country in the world. (...) They are free of pace, have felt that they acquired citizenship. Almost all the young people smoke outside without being embarrassed, I saw a woman approaching a man to ask him for fire: the man did the small service and passed simply.”. Madeleine Pelletier, “La condition des femmes dans la Russie communiste,” La Voix des femmes 5, no. 180, (October 27^th 1921): 1.

She made the comment with reference to how this scene could have happened in Paris where the young men would have followed them with bad intentions.. Ibid. To this end, she noticed an actual difference between France and the USSR in the attitude between genders in the everyday life.

She emphasized that the access to popular education was more and more available. On the other hand, she explained that, for example, the intellectual student population saw in the proletariat's dictatorship only the invasion of the barbarians.. Madeleine Pelletier, Mon voyage aventureux en Russie communiste (Paris, Ed. 1922, Éditions Giard), 71. In fact, she clarified that, according to them, many communists had little culture knowledge and therefore had no place in the university. She noted in her report that although there remained a lot to do on female's sexual emancipation, Soviet women had achieved a certain equality, especially on the matters surrounding marriage and divorce. . Sowerwine, “Militantisme Et Identité Sexuelle,” 27. For Pelletier, the Soviet family code created in 1918 marked a significant step forward for sexual equality in comparison with the rest of the world.

The meetings took consequently place between Pelletier and Kollontai: as Pelletier wrote in her article, they met several times. She had already repeatedly expressed her willingness to meet the Russian revolutionary, as she shared many ideas with her, especially in regards to sexuality. According to Madeleine Pelletier, Kollontai's work on women's sexual was very progressive.. Pelletier, Mon voyage aventureux en Russie communiste, 71. The only point where Pelletier did not agree with her Russian counterpart, was on the moral of the sexual act. Pelletier thought that a sexual morality obligation in a society, where the individual did not count, would be difficult to foresee.. Ibid, 143. On this point, Pelletier had a rather anarchist vision of the conception of sexual morality. She saw in the sexual act a prominent individual freedom. As a result, this aspect of the intimate life had to remain private and not the result of any state obligation.

She pointed out the path to an interesting equality between men and women, but there was still a process remaining for an integral feminism.. Ibid, 144-146. To give an example, Pelletier pointed out that Kollontai did not have the right to speak at the International Congress and that it was represented by men. She explained that in Russia, women for fortunate enough to be included in the public affairs, whereas in France, their place was more restraint in this field. However, I should emphasize that women were not particularly interested to take part in politics. Also, we must stress that regardless of this opportunity, women were never considered equal to men. Pelletier underscored a great progress against the bourgeois standards while reading the Bolshevik marriage code.

She criticized an excessive egalitarian spirit and emphasized that the USSR refused to recognize the social importance of intellectual work.. Ibid, 180. She later disapproved the bolshevization of the French left parties, especially when she left the French Communist Party in 1926. Referring to Pelletier's narrative, Alexandra Kollontai was a very notorious activist to emancipate women from the overwhelming burden of capitalist society.. Ibid, 150. The free love would therefore succeed to conjugal slavery. Pelletier referred to conjugal slavery as a reference to the economic dependence of women on men. I want to accentuate that both Kollontai and Pelletier wanted to protect the society from a women's status quo and therefore, they wanted to improve women's position as a worker as well their role as a mother.

Pelletier's journey was rather important for the women's socialist movement. Her articles were published and discussed in the left environments. Upon her return, she continued to publish on topics that were discussed in interviews with Kollontai, such as on jealousy.. Madeleine Pelletier, “De la jalousie.” l'Ouvrière, (1923). As Kollontai wrote in 1921 in the Theses on Communist Morality in the Sphere of Marital Relations:

“A jealous and proprietary attitude to the person loved must be replaced by a comradely understanding of the other and an acceptance of his or her freedom. jealousy is a destructive force of which communist morality cannot approve. The bonds between the members of the collective must be strengthened. The encouragement of the intellectual, and political interests of the younger generation assists the development of healthy and bright emotions in love.”. Alexandra Kollontai, “Theses on Communist Morality in the Sphere of Marital Relations,” 1921, Kommunistka 12, no. 12 (1921) trans. Alix Holt https://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1921/theses-morality.htm

Hence, Madeleine Pelletier had a similar point of view on this theme : she emphasized her views on what should be a sane relationship in the future socialist society.

“ The instinct of sexual property being torn off, the husband will admit that his wife can like himself have fleeting fantasies. He will not even ask to know or meet them. (…) Marriage will be established on the principle of absolute equality between the sexes; there will be no more, as today, a man of woman and a wife of her husband. Jealousy is a weak instinct; it confers the preponderance on the sexuality, thus confining it to animality.”. Pelletier, “De La Jalousie”.

Indeed, the idea of a union deprived of jealousy stemmed from a collectivization of love. Both women underlined precise similar visions about the emotional behaviors of relationships in a socialist society. Several articles were afterwards printed in La Voix des Femmes, in response to Kollontai's work.. R.S. “Amour Libre et liberté de l'amour.” La Voix des Femmes 2, no. 24 (April 10th, 1918): 3. Thence, in 1918, there were special editions on free love in La Voix des Femmes.. Madeleine Vernet “Amour Libre.” La Voix des Femmes 2, no. 28 (May 8th, 1918) : 1. These articles written by Madeleine Pelletier and Madeleine Vernet addressed the idea of establishing a form of love-comradeship to avoid jealousy.

While Pelletier was a correspondent in Moscow, I can argue that, in several of her publications, there was a desire to reform popular thoughts around the women's role, not only in society, but also in the private sphere. As a result, these ideas went alongside with Kollontai's ideology, although these claims did not come together in all respects. Pelletier had also addressed the idea of women's emancipation through sexual liberation.. Madeleine Pelletier, “Les femmes et le féminisme,” La Revue socialiste, (January 1906). For instance, on the perspective of women's virilization, the two feminists believed that the society's transformation would have to take place through private life.. Madeleine Pelletier, “Condition des femmes dans la russie communists,” La Voix des Femmes 5, no. 180 (October 27th, 1921). The children's care by the community was a priority for both women. Thus, by changing the women's role within the family, and thus with their husbands they can find their way to emancipation.

2.4 Louise Weiss, the Liberal Feminist

Louise Weiss also met Kollontai in 1921. She was born in 1893 in the North of France. Weiss is considered as an important woman in French history, and in European relations. She was best known for her pacifist stance on European links during the Second World War. This journal, noted French and international politics, was intended for the ruling elite of all countries. L'Europe Nouvelle mainly addressed the conditions of the political, economic and social life in Europe. The texts edited by Louise Weiss on women's emancipation in this journal were written in a liberal feminist perspective. This newspaper was read in majority by a bourgeois readership. . L'Europe Nouvelle. http://www.louise weiss.org/europe_ nouvelle.html. She created this `pacifist' journal in 1918. It was a weekly review of external issues, such as economics and literature, as well as an analysis of French and international politics.

For Weiss, the women's political incapacity and domestic problems were very important issues.. Hirsch, “Louise Weiss, l'« aristo-prolo »,” 39. Thus, according to Yaël Hirsch's, Weiss's feminism was in dialogue with communism. Hirsh explained that Weiss claimed herself as a “communist”, who was exploiting Marx's philosophy to adapt them to the needs of the reformist feminist society.. Ibid, 44-46. I would slightly disagree with Hirsch on that point. Although Weiss felt reasonably comfortable in Russia, she did not mention in her memoirs that she considered herself of any form of communism.