’Kolontai’ seems certain to have been an alias. What was the real name ?

Some data I have seen in the Internet, etc., did not seem probable. Was this woman a scion of a respectable Russian family ? Seems unlikely.

If possible, please let me know. — (WPT).

From The elements of crime by Boris Brasol, 1927

Referring to the increase of prostitution in Soviet Russia, Mrs. Kollontay, one of the foremost propagandists of communism, stated as follows: “We know that prostitution is an evil ; we even understand that now, in this extremely difficult transition period, prostitution is assuming large and intolerably extensive proportions, but we simply wave it aside, we are silent on this phenomenon, partly through a remnant of hypocrisy that is still with us as the heritage of the bourgeois view of life, partly through inability to properly grasp and become conscious of the damage which a widely developed prostitution is inflicting upon the working society.” See “Soviet Russia,” August 1921, p. 42. Italics ours.

The elements of crime(psycho-social interpretation) by Boris Brasol
... with introductions by John H. Wigmore ... and William A. White ...
New York, London [etc.] Oxford University Press, 1927, note, p. 39.

From BORODIN : Stalin's Man in China, Dan N. Jacobs, 1981

To Lenin, now in Zurich, even more than usually isolated because of his position on the war, the reports of strong antiwar sentiment emanating from the United States made it appear a fertile ground for recruitment. Lenin sent at least one agent to the United States in 1915, for that purpose: . . . Alexandra Kollontai, who visited Chicago in October. Kollontai . . . was a rebel even within the socialist movement, jumping from one faction to another almost as quickly as she moved from one sleeping partner to another. When she was finally tamed, and then only ideologically, it was by age and the cohorts of Stalin. . . .  But during World War I she had ideologically moved closer to Lenin, and while she did not join the Bolsheviks until 1917, she was prepared to be his eyes, ears, and voice even before that date.

In the early fall of 1915 Kollontai arrived in New York, assigned by Lenin to raise funds, to have his brochure “Socialism and War” translated, published, and distributed, and to make contacts. Lenin instructed Kollontai ”everywhere to see local Bolsheviks (even if only for five minutes), ‘to refresh memories’ and to put them in contact with us.” Kollontai was in the United States for four and a half months, crossed the country twice, visited 80 cities and made 123 speeches, mostly against the war. She spent five days in Chicago during the second half of October 1915, where she met with Borodin and eventually informed Lenin, who had known where Borodin was for several years, of the fact. But the meeting apparently had no effect upon Borodin’s politics. It would be dramatic to be able to say that in 1915, having met Kollontai as she traveled through Chicago, Borodin reestablished close contact with Lenin . . .  But that is not the way it happened. The meting with Kollontai led to no exchange of messages between Borodin and Lenin. Borodin continued to pursue an independent path . . . 

Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England :
Cambridge University Press, 1981, pages 40-1.

Comment   The miss being described as “daughter of a tsarist general, descendant of Ukrainian aristocracy” leaves me somewhat incredulous. The picture of the woman I have seen in one of the early publications on the Bolshevik revolution would seem to put such accounts to the lie. But one does not know.

One has no doubts about authors who otherwise seem credible and who might have got false data from anterior sources. Nor does one have any doubts that the entire history of the Bolshevik revolution is ridden with falsehoods—the only thing which the Bolsheviks were really skilled at.

The picture I have seen may have been authentic or may have been planted by some Zinovieff or the like. It may have been authentic ; there was not anything appreciably Russian or Ruthenian or general Slav in the looks of the woman. So, I for one am incredulous. — (WPT)

From Soviet Union's Aggressions Against the World, Gen. Oleg Sarin & Col. Lev Dvoretsky, 1996

When the Red Army attacked Finland at eight A.M., November 30, 1939, the Soviet government did not officially declare war . . .

( page 26 )

 

Overtures for an armistice were being made by the Finnish ambassador to Sweden to the Soviet envoy there. On February 23rd the Soviet government through A. M. Kollontai provided . . . conditions to the Finns . . .  In short, the conditions were roughly the same as those demanded back in November. . . .

On March 12, 1940, peace accords between the USSR and Finland and a protocol to them were signed. The hostilities . . . were to cease at noon March 13 . . .⁹

---

    9. Soviet Foreign Policy Official Documents, Vol IV, pp. 494-96.

( page 32, note on p. 224 )

Alien wars : the Soviet Union's aggressions
against the world, 1919 to 1989 / Oleg Sarin, Lev Dvoretsky
Novato, CA : Presidio, 1996.

Sarin, O. L. (Oleg Leonidovich) Title Alien wars : the Soviet Union's aggressions against the world, 1919 to 1989 / Oleg Sarin, Lev Dvoretsky Publisher Novato, CA : Presidio, 1996 Description 243 p. ; ill. ; 23 cm Note Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-233) and index ISBN 0891414215 (hbk) Language English