"Glass of Water Theory" Alexandra Kollontai

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

It is believed that the promotion of disorderly intimate relationships, polygamy, promiscuity and other types of debauchery came to us from the West along with the sexual revolution that thundered in the second half of the sixties. It is possible that the “flower children” played a certain role in shaping modern views on the family all over the world, but one should not belittle the importance of Marxism in this process. The most striking manifestation of agitation for free relations between men and women was Alexandra Kollontai's "Theory of a glass of water", which was very popular among the youth of the twenties, and now almost forgotten.

Prerequisites for occurrence

Marx defined the family as a way to preserve hereditary rights to acquired property. She, in her bourgeois manifestation, was stigmatized and called a tool for enslaving a woman. The non-communist emancipators saw marriage in much the same way. Progressive theorists of various persuasions who preached universal equality converged in the 19th century on the fact that soonthe concepts of "husband" and "wife" will die out as unnecessary. Under communism, property as such will disappear, and therefore there will be nothing to inherit, and fathers will not need to worry about whether their children look like them. In addition, families educate selfish people, and the new society will need a new type of people, free from outdated views. The pedagogical function should ideally be socialized, like everything else. A woman will work on a par with a man and will not yield to him in anything. The task of creating a new man received a completely concretized direction. A new woman will give birth to him, and society will educate him. Enlightened by the idea of equality, workers will not prepare home-cooked meals, they will eat (not eat) in factory-kitchens, where they will be fed deliciously and fully three times a day.

These are the theoretical foundations of the "Theory of a glass of water". But the main thing that arouses the curiosity of the layman concerns another issue. How will "this" happen under communism?

Working bees

Wonderful satirical writers Ilf and Petrov, talking about the "big and small worlds", compared people's achievements in terms of great construction projects and industrial development of the country with trifling foxtrots, philistine claims for elegance and petty-bourgeois ideas about life. Among the attributes of backward thinking, they, along with chest of drawers, called the ladies' armpits made of cork, obviously then produced, called "Love of labor bees." Nevertheless, to compare Soviet women with these hard-workingit was the Bolshevik Kollontai who invented insects. The "Glass of Water Theory" is directly related to the concept of "labor bees", which have no time to be puzzled by finding a suitable drone for mating - they are busy with work.

The bearer of the idea and its personification

Alexandra Mikhailovna Domontovich was born in St. Petersburg in 1872. She received a very good education, albeit at home, but versatile. In 1893, by her own choice, rebelling against the will of her parents, she married V. Kollontai, a poor officer, but five years later she left him, leaving him a son. Her further biography is connected with the revolutionary movement. According to the memoirs of Ivan Bunin, who knew A. Kollontai, set forth in "Cursed Days", this woman had a two-faced nature, which was expressed in a penchant for dressing up. Here she is in a working scarf at the rally, and it ended, right there - a bath, a box of chocolates and heartfelt conversations with a friend.

Alexandra's romance with the Bolshevik Dybenko was stormy, and each of the partners did not bind themselves with a vow of allegiance.

The Bolshevik showed remarkable diplomatic talents, although not without some curious incidents. She escaped Stalin's repressions and died safely a year before the death of the "father of peoples." The "glass of water theory" was her most famous achievement, although there were many others.

Meaning of the theory

Now about the essence of Alexandra Mikhailovna's views on matrimonial issues. So "love beeslabor" is not directly related to the high feeling that bears this name. The concept of "Theory of a glass of water" fits into two words: "want - drank." And there is no thirst, and it is not necessary. The intimate needs of the people of the future should be satisfied without wasting time and emotions, without interrupting production activities if possible. Of course, these views were not presented so primitively, the style was more refined, and the theoretical justification was simply impeccable, but the essence is something like this. Man was likened not even to an animal, but to a winged insect, for which the reproductive instinct served as the main motivating factor. The reproduction of similar individuals is also a socially useful, necessary and even necessary matter. The new woman, free from prejudices and conventions, was supposed to conceive children in this way. All people are equal, therefore, the choice of a father for future offspring does not matter. The youth of the twenties, in essence, differed little from today. Is it any wonder that The Glass of Water Theory was a huge success?

Opponents

Oddly enough, Kollontai's views on the sexual issue were not shared by many leaders of the Bolshevik Party, including Lenin. The proletarian leader himself did not deny the existence of thirst, but considered it impossible to quench it from any source available at the moment, for example, from a dirty puddle, and he made some demands on the cleanliness of the glass. “The theory of a glass of water” also raised objections from Lunacharsky, who even wrote a critical article “On everyday life …”,dedicated to youth issues. Kollontai's views were not fully recognized as Marxist, although they were not called absolutely hostile and harmful either. The brave Bolshevik was simply pointed out a certain difference between freedom and debauchery.

Supporters and abstentions

As already mentioned, the target social base of Alexandra Mikhailovna's views was mainly immature youth. It was somehow embarrassing for Komsomol members to refuse intimacy to their male comrades, which they willingly used. But it was not only among the young members of the Communist Youth International that the "Glass of Water Theory" gained fame. Mayakovsky, the great proletarian futurist poet, for example, had a difficult life. And although he urged in the windows of ROSTA “not to imitate the bourgeoisie” and to take a wife “his own, and not someone else’s” to the theater, he allowed himself some liberties. Other Soviet artists, sometimes middle-aged, did not lag behind the poet.

The use of theory by the enemies of Soviet power

The overwhelming majority of the population of the former Russian Empire turned out to be unprepared to accept the idea that seemed to Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai so progressive and attractive. The "glass of water theory" found, of course, its adherents, but their enthusiasm for it was selective. Supporters of "quenching thirst", going "to the left", usually did not grant the right to use it to their wives and husbands, narrow-mindedly keeping their own family nest clean. This psychological featureThe Russian people were repeatedly used by the opponents of Bolshevism, attributing to the communists even vices that they did not possess. For example, a certain Uvarov, being a member of the nationalist "Union of the Russian People", published a decree composed by him, allegedly issued by the Saratov Provincial Council of People's Commissars, which declared the general socialization of women and the right to use them by anyone. The same document was used for anti-communist propaganda by the Germans during the Great Patriotic War.

"Glass of Water Theory" Alexandra Kollontai today

In Gorbachev's times a lot of laughter was caused by the remark of one Soviet woman who declared the absence of sex in the Soviet Union. Of course, she did not mean reproduction by direct division (compared to bees, amoebas increase the population even more easily), but this phrase reflected the whole attitude towards sexual problems in our then country. The fact that the upbringing of children (and adults too) was puritanical in nature is undeniable. However, most people were mostly satisfied with this situation. The "glass of water theory" in the USSR turned out to be unpopular, perhaps due to the people's subconscious attraction to Orthodox and family values, laid down by our glorious ancestors.