Communism And The Family Essay

In her 1920 essay “Communism and the Family,” Alexandra Kollontai argues that “[t]he family is ceasing to be necessary either to its members or to the nation as a whole.” Continuing, she contends that a modern woman “no longer depends on her husband but on her work,” and subsequently predicts that the twentieth century will see a radical redefinition of the family in Western capitalist nations. To see the accuracy of this prediction we need only note how legal separation, “no longer a luxury that only the rich can afford,” is now accessible to many more women than it was in 1920. Likewise, we must admit that this redefinition of kinship has altered our collective treatment of non-traditional families. Consider, for example, another of Kollontai’s accurate predictions: in many western countries, “the state” now “aims to support every mother, married or unmarried.” Despite the acuity of these supporting arguments, however, Kollontai’s overarching theme misses the mark—she consistently frames such changes as benefitting only “[t]he woman in communist society.” With the advantage of historical hindsight, we know that Kollontai’s claims for the incompatibility of capitalism and the family do not hold: these changes have occurred in democratic, capitalist nations just as they have in communist ones. …show more content…
After the First World War, many in combatant countries agonised over what the future would hold for their families and their nations; meanwhile, following the Russian Revolution, communism suddenly seemed to many to be a viable model upon which to build both the state and the family. This way, as communist ideology increasingly influenced the thinking of its new devotees, so too did it drastically alter the families they would begin amidst their political