Description

The lives of five socialist women and their legacy for modernday feminists

Red Valkyries explores the history of socialist feminism in Eastern Europe Through the revolutionary careers of five prominent socialist women active in the nineteenth and twentieth centuriesthe aristocratic Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai the radical pedagogue Nadezhda Krupskaya the polyamorous firebrand Inessa Armand the deadly sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko and the partisan scientist and global womens activist Elena LagadinovaKristen Ghodsee tells the story of the personal challenges faced by earlier generations of radicals

None of these women was a perfect leftist Their lives were filled with inner conflicts contradictions and sometimes outrageous privilege But they managed to fight for their own political projects with perseverance and dedication Always walking a fine line between the need for class solidarity and the desire to force their sometimes callous male colleagues to take womens issues seriously these women pursued novel solutions with many lessons for those who might follow in their footsteps