Red Valkyries
Feminist Lessons From Five Revolutionary Women

One of the downsides of the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago was the denigration of an important strand of historical understanding – the one focused on revolutionary transformations. With the benefit of hindsight it is almost as if there was a collective conclusion that the Soviet programm......more

Pavlichenko, Kollontai, Krupskaya, Armand, and Lagadinova are just 5 examples of millions of women that have fought for and actualized effective women’s liberation and communism. From sniping nazis, to press tours, to legislation, to founding Leninist thought, they all contributed something material......more

Ms. Ghodsee has an interesting and valid point that feminism in socialist countries has had a different flavor from Western European and American feminism. The women in this book were more accepting of traditional gender roles and were focused on bringing about changes that could benefit poorer wome......more

i love a good biography, and many of these women are very interesting - especially kollontai and armand, in my opinion - but it would be very difficult for me to think of a red army sniper as a socialist inspiration and #redvalkyria girlboss. in general, even though ghodsee says she doesnt glorify u......more

Five tiny (but very well written) biographies of women that we, if we call ourselves feminists, should all have heard of already, but probably haven't. My only complaint about the book is the shortness of it - I would have loved to read a lot more about every single one of its subjects.......more