I often write about entrepreneurial identity in my academic work, challenging the idea of the ‘entrepreneur hero’ stereotype. I was amused to read on the back cover of Alexandra Kollontais’s Love of Worker Bees (Virago Modern Classics, 1999), that “Offering a graphic and rare portrayal of Russian life in the 1920s it unfolds against a backdrop of the ‘ordinary’ Russian people of the time – the party workers, entrepreneurs, prostitutes, manipulators and idealists.’ An interesting mix!
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The early 1920′s was the period of Lenin’s “New Economic Policy” – the entrepreneurs presumably are the so-called “NEP Men”, who got shafted the moment that Stalin took over: they made money while they could. Furthermore, Russia had just been through a shattering civil war and the First World War: everyone was on edge at that point, everyone had dagger’s drawn. Not a fun time.
yes, you’re right it was the NEP Men. More on this when I’ve finished reading – not a fun time as you say – feminist perspective on the times an important part of the book too.
Lenin wasn’t exactly a progressive when it came to sexual liberation; he was personally prudish in many respects. The Soviet feminist Alexandra Kollentai once said that sex should be as uncontroversial as drinking a glass of water. If I recall correctly, Lenin’s reply was, “Maybe for her.”
She is the author of this book so it will be interesting to see how that unfolds