French Feminist Press’ Reactions to Alexandra Kollontai’s ‘Sexual Morality’, 1920s

ABSTRACT After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russian sexual moralities underwent several changes. Alexandra Kollontai, the Soviet People’s Commissar for State Welfare wrote series of articles on the New Woman’s idea and on free love. Women’s economic empowerment should, according to Kollontai, go hand in hand with their sexual emancipation. Being criticized both inside her own party and internationally, this new perception on intimacy has appealed the curiosity of numerous feminists around the world. The purpose of this Master thesis is to understand the reactions of the French feminists regarding the sexual morality proposed by Alexandra Kollontai through the French women’s press in the 1920s. By analyzing the journeys’ narrative from two French feminists to Moscow, I differentiate the perceptions shared between the various feminist movements in France. This dissertation outlines the French liberal and radical feminist perception of love, marriage and sexuality in the 1920s towards feminist press. Keywords: Gender History, Soviet Women, Free Love, French Feminism, Sexual Moralities, Radical Feminism, Liberal Feminism.