Alexandra Kollontai was a revolutionary socialist who devoted her life to the fight for women’s liberation and human freedom. She played a prominent role in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Kollontai placed the women’s struggle at the centre of the fight for socialism.

She was one of a number of socialist women who launched International Working Women’s Day on 8 March 1910 to celebrate and unite women workers across the globe.

Kollontai was a leading member of the Bolshevik party, taking on the role of Commissar of Social Welfare in the first revolutionary workers’ government in 1918.

This short introduction to Kollontai’s life argues that her revolutionary ideas and activism contain vital lessons for the struggle for socialism and women’s liberation today.