“All she wanted was to stand between him and the world, relieve him of his worries, help him bear his cross.” This week we're collaborating with our comrades from The Tolerant Left podcast to bring the first of two episodes covering 'A Great Love' by Alexandra Kollontai. In our first time discussing a work of fiction we found no lack of important subject matter to be gleaned from the text. Considered by many to be a representation of a relationship between Inessa Armand and Vladimir Lenin, this essential and heart-breaking text gives us a deep insight into the physical and emotional reality of women revolutionaries before the October revolution and the harmful and misogynistic behaviour of men which remains unchanged to the present day. This book, set in the world of revolutionaries exiled following the 1905 revolution, tells us the story of Natasha, an intelligent and dedicated party organiser, and her relationship with Semyon Semyonovich, a highly respected but deeply abusive of...