There is
an old joke that goes, СWhatТs the most destructive shot in history? Ц ItТs a
shot of the Russian cruiser Aurora that marked the beginning of the October
Revolution: the entire country lay in ruins for 80 yearsТ. The Russian
revolution and the history of all human civilization remember another Сaccurate
shot' Ц one from a pistol. It
changed our heroineТs destiny and she changed ours, indeed.
A
sensitive boy
A young man
lay on the floor still holding his father's revolver. A note nearby said, СShe enjoys humiliating me. Let her get what she
wants'.
The scandal
was the talk of the Empire. It was not just someone who decided to put such a
melodramatic end to his life but a son of General Dragomilov, Russia's adored
military commander in the Turkish war of 1878.
The object of VolodiaТs unfortunate affection was the daughter of his fatherТs companion in arms - Colonel Domontovich. She had all the obstinacy and temperament of her mother who left her husband, taking their three children with her, for AlexandraТs father.
When
Volodia declared his love to her she, driven by a womanТs ancient instinct, simply
wanted to test him. аShe laughed in his face. She scoffed at
whatever he did and enjoyed his awkwardness that only grew.
The dreadful
news shocked her. She was a murderer.
The
unloving one
In
principle, a modern psychoanalyst at the time would have been able to predict
the future of a woman who suffered such a severe moral trauma. She truly tries to Уwash the blood off" by
blessing a man with her love but subconsciously she is afraid of a relationship
and therefore she cannot fall in love and starts making up for the lack of
feelings with Уgross figures"Е AlexandraТs strong nature prompted her that
no man, weakened by the poison of civilization, will be strong enough to be her
equal. She is languishing with lack of
happiness and craving for the entire world to be happy and at the same time
arduously trying to prove to everyone and to herself that the Сsignificance of
personal happiness is clearly overrated".
The family
further exacerbated the situation by hurriedly trying to find a spouse for
Alexandra, which, according to the morals of
the time, would leave the grave incident behind. General Tutomlin, personal aide-de-camp to Alexander III, proposes to
her. аShe is 17, he is 40 Ц it would seem a perfect match. Her reaction to the dictate is an extravagant
escapade: she falls in love withЕ her half-cousin. Not a renowned poet Igor Severyanin but an officer Vladimir Kollontai.
Her family
is horrified but she is obsessed with freedom. She is a keen supporter of socialist Marxist ideas that grew
increasingly popular back then. аThey interpret freedom as liberation of the
oppressed class, for her it is the freedom of women from the dictates of the
family, society and men.
Along
the path of Revolution
The family
yields under vehement pressure, she marries Kollontai. He is happy, their son Misha is bornЕ and she feels locked in a cage. Her husband is a much calmer and milder person
than she is. As it usually happens in such
situations, she feels sorry for and despises him wholeheartedly.
And she
draws a global conclusion: the family is a
trap for a woman; it deprives her of great deeds. And motherhood is even worse.
At the same
time she falls in love with her husband's friend Satkevich, also an officer, who
is staying at their house. аFor the men the next three years turned into a
painful Уtango for threeФ. And then, Уany
woman becomes like her mother as she grows older", Alexandra takes her
child and leaves with her lover. а
When the
scandalous affair was over SatkevichТs littleness of mind suddenly caught her
attention. And she chose a renowned specialist,
Maslov. He was married and Alexandra tried
to explain it to his wife time and again that one should respect the freedom
and feelings of others.
When
MaslovТs wife left, Sasha discovered that his personality lacked integrity. And she fell in love with a proletarian Bolshevik,
Shlyapnikov. аThen followed American socialists Haywood and Debs (one after another).
аMagic days
1917 was
her moment of glory. She is the only woman among the high-ranking
Bolsheviks. Her noble erudition and, above all,
infinite energy played a role. There was also
a pathologic lack of fear accompanied by looseness. That summer few Bolsheviks would dare to campaign in Kronstadt among
sailors who expelled (or simply executed) their officers from the ships and
plunged into debauchery.
Politically they leaned
towards anarchists and socialist-revolutionaries. And if the agitator was not to their liking they could well shove him
overboard.
It was
Kollontai who went to Kronstadt. аA neatly dressed and well-groomed СMadameТ on
the ladder had a striking effect on the mariners. аAnd a moment later they were
mesmerized by her eloquence that could in more accurate terms be described as
Уcontrolled hysteriaФ. That is to the role of personality
in history: Aurora was anchored near the Winter
Palace thanks to Kollontai.
One of the
listeners at those meetings on the decks was hypnotized by Alexandra more than
others. Chairman of Tsentrobalt (Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet) Pavel
Dybenko fell madly in love with her. And she
responded with the same feelings. At last it was
not an illusion of love but a genuine feeling that came into her life. It was easy to understand her: his very name
personified a vigorous and insuperable force and he was her match. A ferocious beast, seven feet tall big-bodied
fellow with a spade beard, always carrying his huge Mauser pistol and absolutely illiterate. A Rasputin in a sailorТs striped vest.ааа
Lenin and
Trotsky appoint her a peopleТs commissar for state charity Ц social security
nowadays. аThat's how she became the first female minister in the world. She gets down to business with zest and
creativity. The task is to establish a House of
Disabled Veterans of Imperialist War, but where? Ah, there is a nice spacious building of Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Kollontai goes to confiscate it personally. Believers of the entire Petrograd come running
to defend the holy place; they are prepared to tear the godless woman apart. Lucky for her a detachment of seamen arrives
and disperses the crowed with bursts of a machine-gun.
Churches
pronounce a personal anathema upon her. People in the street grow numb when at the meetings they see an elegant
woman laughing among the sailors. A childhood
friend recognizes her and shoots himself.
Then clouds
start piling up - the Germans advance to St. Pete. Kollontai and Dybenko hurriedly load an armoured train full of exquisite
food and alcohol and criss-cross the country for several months without any
particular route. аThey feel good together, thatТs it. He, blessed with an insatiable libido, drove her to exhaustion, she
drove the unsophisticated muzhik crazy with all the delicate tricks that
are impossible to describe within a short journalistic article.
Oh, yes. Kollontai was 46 at that time.
Feminism
footsteps of steel
She
continues to push forward the Сwomen's issueТ; her fellow party members donТt
have time to consider them so they give her freedom to act. And why not, they like everything that breaks
the former order they hate.
Kollontai
dumps the age-old Mystery of Marriage: now for a couple to marry it is enough
to publish an announcement in the newspaper. Divorces are made as easy. Children born
out of wedlock have equal status with the СofficialТ ones. СBaby
belongs to the society where it was born and not to the parentsТ, she
proclaims. Kindergartens develop not only
because they allow a woman to dedicate herself to work; the idea was that
professionals can raise a child better than mothers who knew nothing of
pedagogy.
But her
forte is a theory of free relationships. аHer pre-Revolutionary articles are
an enthusiastic propaganda of Сerotic friendship'. And now she gets the working young people; revolutionary, proletarian love, uniting the companion-in-arms, which is
above all formalities, above jealousy and proprietary interests. A title of one of the articles demonstrates it
well, СMaking Way for Winged
Eros!Та Its cloudy and incoherent style was spellbinding for the barely literate
youth from the factory outskirts. Most
importantly they rejoiced at the conclusion: what they wanted for so long is
now permitted. And it was next to impossible to
resist the furious energy of a woman craving for the world to entwine in a
single lace of physical love.
Ambassador
of the Country of Soviets
Her public
and personal life existed in unison. Revolution and
Dybenko entered her life at the same time and left accordingly. Five years later, the life of the country
started to return to a normal track as if a force field that drove people crazy was switched off. аThey plunged happily into the
routine of sluggishness and bureaucracy. аShe was no longer an ideal woman for
Pavel who got into the clingy paws of an 18 year old Valya Stafilevskaya.
Feeling
desperate, Kollontai writes to Stalin asking him to find a post for her
somewhere abroad. He agrees since there were not so
many reliable comrades of good manners, who knew foreign languages and had
connections with the socialists abroad. Kollontai becomes an ambassador in Norway, Mexico and Sweden. She is as enthusiastic at her new position but
her work sometimes goes over the limit. She impresses the guests during receptions with her manners, trills of
laughter and the fact that caviar is served in barrels and there are spoons to
eat it with. аScandinavian women are absorbed by her articles on the СwomenТs issueТ. She is a bright part of the USSR frontside that
made practically all western intellectuals fall in love with the Country of
Soviets. аBut the facade hid a life full of everyday horror. аShe realizes it perfectly that tomorrow there might be Сa resolution
adoptedТ concerning her.
ItТs a game in which
you never know what will put an end to everything. аAnd so it happened.
In 1946 a
campaign was raging in Sweden to find the diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who rescued Jews in Budapest when Soviet
troops entered the city. He disappeared without leaving trace. The Soviet government unanimously asserts it
knows nothing. аKollontai knows Raoul's family very well. Those in Moscow panicked that she might understand something and fail to
hide the uncertainty in front of the Swedes. аOne morning she finds out that she
is severely ill and a plane has already arrived from Moscow to take her to the
MotherlandТs best hospitals.
No, they
did not touch her; they just never let her leave the country again. She lived for six more years barely leaving her
lonely apartment.аааааааааа
Victory
She lived
for 80 years which seem an eternity Ц so much the world has changed. аShe died only shortly before her triumph. Feminism prevailed in the 1960s with a sweeping victory in Scandinavian
countries were she worked for over ten years and most certainly this is not a
mere coincidence. At the same time the world is shaken
by the sexual revolution - the entire ideology of which was laid down by
Kollontai and her contemporaries.
Alas, it
did not work with freedom this time again. Before there was no way a woman could get into business, make a career
or be a public figure; from now on it is a quiet family harmony that becomes
increasingly unreachable. аIt is a common story with revolutionaries: they burn with a desire to make people happy yet
fail to realize that their recipes of happiness cannot match everyone.
