Александра Михайловна Коллонтай цитаты

„Известно, что Советский Союз достиг исключительных успехов в деле вовлечения женщин в активное строительство государства. Этой общепризнанной истины не оспаривают даже наши враги. Советская женщина — полноправная гражданка своей страны. Открыв доступ женщине во все области творческой деятельности, наше государство одновременно обеспечило все необходимые условия для того, чтобы она могла выполнять свой естественный долг — быть матерью, воспитательницей своих детей, хозяйкой своего дома.“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„Как я работаю… Как полпред. Порядок вокруг. Добросовестность в исполнении дел. Сбывать мелкие дела ежедневно, не откладывая. Не залёживать, не откладывать, отвечать, встречаться… Всегда помнить… Более стратегии (в дипломатии), чем тактики… Задачи любила большие, трудные, иначе завядала и скучала. Но никогда не пренебрегала мелочами. Слово «разносить», слово «напыщенность» — не мои. Разносторонность интересов мешала иногда, отвлекала от текущих дел, но и служила отдыхом.“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„Храм старинный, московский, полный благолепия, ярко, по-праздничному освещён! На священнике и причте — самые дорогие, тоже праздничные, одежды. Учитывают „батюшки“, что сейчас надо „товар лицом показывать“: сейчас рядом со старинным храмом — клуб коммунистов, там лекции, просветительные беседы; дальше — Совет с его деловыми политическими заседаниями, партийный район, союзное правление… Всё это оттягивает народ от церкви. Батюшкам не нравится такая конкуренция. Немудрено, что приходится надевать и в простую субботу праздничные одежды и зажигать даже среднюю церковную люстру, как под пасхальную ночь!“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„Скажут: занять монастыри под санатории, под здравницы! Кощунство! Ничуть. Разве лозунг Коммунистической России не гласит: кто не трудится — да не ест? А для кого ещё тайна, что монастыри — гнёзда тунеядцев?“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„Задача пролетарской идеологии не изгнать Эрос из социального общения, а лишь перевооружить его колчан на стрелы новой формации, воспитать чувство любви между полами в духе величайшей новой психической силы — товарищеской солидарности“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„Люди без фантазии — сухи и скучны, они живут только наполовину. Человек с фантазией живет сто жизней сразу. Он умеет жить за себя и за других, в прошлом и будущем.“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„Советские женщины оправдали доверие и заботу своего государства. Они проявили высокий героизм и в мирном, творческом труде до войны, и в годы вооружённой борьбы с фашистскими захватчиками, и сейчас, в работе над разрешением грандиозных задач новой пятилетки. Многие отрасли промышленности, в которых преобладает женский труд, являются передовыми по выполнению планов. Огромны заслуги советской крестьянки, вынесшей на своих плечах основную тяжесть сельскохозяйственного труда в годы войны.“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„Само чувство любви сопряжено с внутренними обязательствами к тому, кого любишь. «Обязательства» эти — чуткость и бережливость.“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„При современном капиталистическом строе наиболее страдающим, наиболее приниженным классом является пролетариат. Ему, как классу угнетенному современной формой производства, вполне естественно выставлять на своем знамени: уничтожение современного экономического режима и замену его новым, не оставляющим более места для классовой розни и эксплуатации человека человеком. Таким образом выходит, что пролетариат, преследуя не абстрактную, а чисто классовую цель, вместе с тем служит и интересам человечества в его целом, так как, борясь за свое социальное освобождение, за изменение в свою пользу экономических отношений, пролетариат ведет за собою и все человечество в новый, более совершенный социально-экономический фазис. В настоящее время нет и не может быть другого класса, чей социально-экономический идеал отвечал бы потребностям всего человечества в той мере, как это делает идеал, созревший в умах и сердцах рабочих.“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„Изменилась Россия — теперь черёд за другими странами. Дрожите, грабители! Ваш час пробил. На смену миру угнетения, рабства и слёз идёт светлый мир международного братства рабочих!“

—  Александра Михайловна Коллонтай

„If I have attained something in this world, it was not my personal qualities that originally brought this about. Rather my achievements are only a symbol of the fact that woman, after all, is already on the march to general recognition.“

—  Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
Контексте: If I have attained something in this world, it was not my personal qualities that originally brought this about. Rather my achievements are only a symbol of the fact that woman, after all, is already on the march to general recognition. It is the drawing of millions of women into productive work, which was swiftly effected especially during the war and which thrust into the realm of possibility the fact that a woman could be advanced to the highest political and diplomatic positions. Nevertheless it is obvious that only a country of the future, such as the Soviet Union, can dare to confront woman without any prejudice, to appraise her only from the standpoint of her skills and talents, and, accordingly, to entrust her with responsible tasks. Only the fresh revolutionary storms were strong enough to sweep away hoary prejudices against woman and only the productive-working people is able to effect the complete equalization and liberation of woman by building a new society.

„I always believed that the time inevitably must come when woman will be judged by the same moral standards applied to man. For it is not her specific virtue that gives her a place of honor in human society, but the worth of the useful mission accomplished by her, the worth of her personality as human being, as citizen, as thinker, as fighter.“

—  Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
Контексте: By looking back while prying, simultaneously, into the future, I will also be presenting to myself the most crucial turning points of my being and accomplishments. In this way I may succeed in setting into bold relief that which concerns the women's liberation struggle and, further, the social significance which it has. That I ought not to shape my life according to the given model, that I would have to grow beyond myself in order to be able to discern my life's true line of vision was an awareness that was mine already in my youngest years. At the same time I was also aware that in this way I could help my sisters to shape their lives, in accordance not with the given traditions but with their own free choice to the extent, of course, that social and economic circumstances permit. I always believed that the time inevitably must come when woman will be judged by the same moral standards applied to man. For it is not her specific virtue that gives her a place of honor in human society, but the worth of the useful mission accomplished by her, the worth of her personality as human being, as citizen, as thinker, as fighter. Subconsciously this motive was the leading force of my whole life and activity. To go my way, to work, to struggle, to create side by side with men, and to strive for the attainment of a universal human goal (for nearly thirty years, indeed, I have belonged to the Communists) but, at the same time, to shape my personal, intimate life as a woman according to my own will and according to the given laws of my nature. It was this that conditioned my line of vision.

„Nothing is more difficult than writing an autobiography.“

—  Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
Контексте: Nothing is more difficult than writing an autobiography. What should be emphasized? Just what is of general interest? It is advisable, above all, to write honestly and dispense with any of the conventional introductory protestations of modesty. For if one is called upon to tell about one's life so as to make the events that made it what it became useful to the general public, it can mean only that one must have already wrought something positive in life, accomplished a task that people recognize. Accordingly it is a matter of forgetting that one is writing about oneself, of making an effort to abjure one's ego so as to give an account, as objectively as possible, of one's life in the making and of one's accomplishments.

„Only the fresh revolutionary storms were strong enough to sweep away hoary prejudices against woman and only the productive-working people is able to effect the complete equalization and liberation of woman by building a new society.“

—  Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
Контексте: If I have attained something in this world, it was not my personal qualities that originally brought this about. Rather my achievements are only a symbol of the fact that woman, after all, is already on the march to general recognition. It is the drawing of millions of women into productive work, which was swiftly effected especially during the war and which thrust into the realm of possibility the fact that a woman could be advanced to the highest political and diplomatic positions. Nevertheless it is obvious that only a country of the future, such as the Soviet Union, can dare to confront woman without any prejudice, to appraise her only from the standpoint of her skills and talents, and, accordingly, to entrust her with responsible tasks. Only the fresh revolutionary storms were strong enough to sweep away hoary prejudices against woman and only the productive-working people is able to effect the complete equalization and liberation of woman by building a new society.

„My Marxist outlook pointed out to me with an illuminating clarity that women's liberation could take place only as the result of the victory of a new social order and a different economic system.“

—  Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

„I never gave a thought to any kind of danger, being all too engrossed in matters of an utterly different character.“

—  Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

„I managed to become a member of a government cabinet, of the first Bolshevik cabinet in the years 1917/18. I am also the first woman ever to have been appointed ambassadress, a post which I occupied for three years and from which I resigned of my own free will. This may serve to prove that woman certainly can stand above the conventional conditions of the age. The World War, the stormy, revolutionary spirit now prevalent in the world in all areas has greatly contributed to blunting the edge of the unhealthy, overheated double standard of morality. We are already accustomed not to make overly taxing demands, for example, on actresses and women belonging to the free professions in matters relating to their married life. Diplomacy, however, is a caste which more than any other maintains its old customs, usages, traditions, and, above all, its strict ceremonial. The fact that a woman, a "free," a single woman was recognized in this position without opposition shows that the time has come when all human beings will be equally appraised according to their activity and their general human dignity.“

—  Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

„The question rises whether in the middle of all these manifold, exciting labors and Party-assignments I could still find rime for intimate experiences, for the pangs and joys of love. Unfortunately, yes! I say unfortunately because ordinarily these experiences entailed all too many cares, disappointments, and pain, and because all too many energies were pointlessly consumed through them. Yet the longing to be understood by a man down to the deepest, most secret recesses of one's soul, to be recognized by him as a striving human being, repeatedly decided matters. And repeatedly disappointment ensued all too swiftly, since the friend saw in me only the feminine element which he tried to mold into a willing sounding board to his own ego. So repeatedly the moment inevitably arrived in which I had to shake off the chains of community with an aching heart but with a sovereign, uninfluenced will. Then I was again alone. But the greater the demands life made upon me, the more the responsible work waiting to be tackled, the greater grew the longing to be enveloped by love, warmth, understanding. All the easier, consequently, began the old story of disappointment in love, the old story of Titania in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."“

—  Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

„It must be admitted that, although I possessed a certain degree of ambition, like every other active human being, I was never animated by the desire to obtain "a post." For me "what I am" was always of less importance than "what I can," that is to say, what I was in a position to accomplish. In this way I, too, had my ambition and it was especially noticeable there where I stood with my whole heart and soul in the struggle, where the issue was the abolition of the slavery of working women.“

—  Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)