Kollontay (English name) Александра Михайловна Коллонтай / Aleksandra Mihaylovna Kollontay

Russian feminist, writer, and diplomat. Born as the daughter of a general in the Imperial Russian Army, she became interested in the revolutionary movement, divorced her husband, and studied in Switzerland. After graduating from the University of Zurich, she joined the Social Democratic Party and played an active role, switching to the Bolshevik faction (Communist Party) in 1915. After the revolution, she held important positions such as People's Commissar for Welfare and Head of the Party's Women's Department, and from 1923 she was stationed in Norway, Mexico, and Sweden as the world's first female ambassador. She gained popularity as an orator fluent in several languages, and published many books that left her mark on the ideals and practice of the women's liberation movement. Through her novel collections "Worker Bee Love" (1923), consisting of "Red Love" (original title "Vasilisa Maluigina"), "Three Generations of Love," and "Sisters," and her full-length novel "Great Love" (1927), her "water-glass theory," which advocates sexual freedom by saying that "sexual desire and satisfaction in love are like drinking a glass of water," became known worldwide as "Colontism." As is known from Nogami Yaeko's Machiko, the phrase "red love" was popular among the left-wing movement in Japan in the early Showa period.

[Nobuyuki Nakamoto]

"The Love of the Worker Bees" translated by Akira Takayama (1969, Gendai Shichosha)" ▽ "Revolutionary, Orator, and Diplomat: Kollontai in the Russian Revolution" by A.M. Itkina, translated by Ichiro Nakayama (1971, Otsuki Shoten)" ▽ "Kollontai and Japan" by Hideko Sugiyama (2001, Shinjusha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ロシアの女性運動家、作家、外交官。ロシア帝国陸軍の将軍の娘として生まれるが、革命運動に関心を寄せ、離婚してスイスに留学。チューリヒ大学卒業後、社会民主党に入って活躍し、1915年ボリシェビキ派（共産党）に転じ、革命後、福祉人民委員、党婦人部長などの要職につき、1923年から世界最初の女性大使としてノルウェー、メキシコ、スウェーデンに駐在した。数か国語に精通した雄弁家として人気を博し、多くの著作を発表して女性解放運動の理念と実践に足跡を残している。「赤い恋」（原題「ワシリーサ・マルイギナ」）「三代の恋」「姉妹」からなる小説集『働き蜂(ばち)の恋』（1923）や、長編小説『偉大な恋』（1927）を通して、「性的欲望や恋愛の満足は、一杯の水を飲むようなものだ」といって性の自由を説く「水一杯理論」が、俗に「コロンタイズム」とよばれて世界に広まった。野上弥生子(やえこ)の『真知子(まちこ)』で知られるように、日本でも昭和初期の左翼運動のなかで「赤い恋」のことばが流行した。

［中本信幸］

『高山旭訳『働き蜂の恋』（1969・現代思潮社）』▽『A・M・イトキナ著、中山一郎訳『革命家・雄弁家・外交官　ロシア革命に生きたコロンタイ』（1971・大月書店）』▽『杉山秀子著『コロンタイと日本』（2001・新樹社）』

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