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’A Proletarian From A Novel’: Politics, Identity, And Emotion In The Relationship Between Alexander Shliapnikov And Alexandra Kollontai, 1911-1935, Barbara Allen
History Faculty Work
The love affair between the aristocratic socialist feminist Aleksandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (1872-1952) and metalworker Bolshevik Aleksandr Gavrilovich Shliapnikov (1885-1937) intrigued both their contemporaries and historians of the Russian Revolution. Both were prominent leaders of the Workers' Opposition, yet Kollontai survived Stalin's purges while Shliapnikov perished. Their relationship, which began in 1911, encompassed romantic partnership, political collaboration and friendship. Shliapnikov and Kollontai ceased being lovers in 1916, but remained political allies and friends for much longer. Their relationship offers interesting material for considering the interplay between politics, identity, and emotions in history. Kollontai’s construction of her femininity and Shliapnikov’s identity as …
Early Dissent Within The Party: Alexander Shliapnikov And The Letter Of The Twenty-Two, Barbara Allen
Early Dissent Within The Party: Alexander Shliapnikov And The Letter Of The Twenty-Two, Barbara Allen
History Faculty Work
In February 1922, twenty-two Russian Communist Party members, led by former Worker Oppositionist Alexander Shliapnikov, appealed to the Communist International (Comintern) to "heal the rift" they thought had emerged in the Russian Communist Party. They complained that party leaders had suppressed dissent among Communists of proletarian origins. They protested the suppression of participatory democracy within trade unions and the trend toward unilateral decision-making by the "party and trade union bureaucracy." Russian party leaders condemned their appeal and undertook to expel key figures from the Twenty-Two from the party at the Eleventh Party Congress in March 1922. Debates at the congress …