116 - A.K. 47 - Kollontai Seizes the Alexander Nevsky Monastery for War Veterans

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee speaks with professor Page Herrlinger at Bowdoin College about the political ramifications of Alexandra Kollontai's untimely seizure of the Alexandra Nesky monastery on January 19, 1918. As Commissar of Social Welfare, it was Kollontai's responsibility to find a place for the wounded soldiers returning from the front after the armistice of December 1917. She did not expect the fierce resistance she encountered. Herrlinger is an historian of Russia, and argues ...