Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952)

Aleksandra Kollontaj became interested in Marxism as a young woman and joined the Russian revolutionary movement in the 1890s. Although she split with Lenin and the Bolsheviks, Kollontaj became Commissar for Social Welfare after the October 1917 Revolution. She was later appointed Soviet ambassador to Mexico, Norway, and Sweden. She was an advocate of free love and believed that the family unit would wither away under Communism.