Summer reading: Lenin's Mistress

So, I take exception with the title of this biography since it isn’t 100% clear that Lenin and Armand were actual lovers, and eve if it were true, Inessa Armand was way more than just an appendage to a great man. Despite the title, this book is more accurate than the R.C. Elwood one because it was published after the post-Soviet Russian archives finally declassified Lenin’s letters to Armand. Unfortunately, it seems all of her own letters to Lenin were destroyed (at his request). The author also used new sources from Armand’s descendants. Aside from her relationship with Lenin, Inessa Armand was a fascinating feminist and Bolshevik who lived an amazing and unconventional live until her untimely death of cholera in 1920.

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News item from June 1, 1942

I love this little dispatch from the New York Times in June of 1942 when the Soviet sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, was recognized for her 257 conformed Nazi kill. She accepted her award with only three words: “i’ll get more.” She kept her promise. After four injuries, she left the front lines later in the year with 309 confirmed kills in her sniper’s tally book.

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Slovak books

Today, I also received 8 copies of the Slovak translation of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence, seen here with my autographed photo of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova. I didn’t realize that this cover had a hole in it and inside was an image of a stamp in honor of Tereshkova.

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Coming soon in French →

The French translation of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence (POURQUOI LES FEMMES ONT UNE MEILLEURE VIE SEXUELLE SOUS LE SOCIALISME: Plaidoyer pour l’indépendance économique) is coming in October from Lux Éditeur. I wrote a special new preface for this book, reflecting on the pandemic and its impacts on women.

Oxford Cartographers World History Timeline Map

I wrote about this map in my book and I often use it as a teaching tool in my classrooms. It is hanging in my office and today I was meditating on it as I did yoga, thinking about the inevitability of change. I am always fascinated by the sheer size of the Roman Empire (the height represents the geographic territory it covered and the width represents the years of its existence). When I look at this I always imagine what it must have been like to be alive in the year that it collapsed. And then I look at the USA, a little purple rectangle in the lower right hand corner of the map. How small our history and influence is in comparison. And I wonder if we too will just end one day like so many other empires in human history. Having spent most of my adult life studying the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in the late 20th century, this seems more like a real possibility to me than to most other Americans who too often take our nation and its institutions for granted.

The full World History Timeline from Oxford Cartographers hanging on my office wall

The full World History Timeline from Oxford Cartographers hanging on my office wall

A detail of the Roman Empire, the large orange shape that dominates the whole map. It existed for centuries and then it just fell.

A detail of the Roman Empire, the large orange shape that dominates the whole map. It existed for centuries and then it just fell.

Here in the lower right had corner is a little purple rectangle for the USA. On this map it seems so insignificant.

Here in the lower right had corner is a little purple rectangle for the USA. On this map it seems so insignificant.

Quarantine Goals: BSG rewatch

So, when I remember the year 2020 one of the things I will add to my list of quarantine achievements is a full rewatch of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica (my third full time through the series!). I loved the original show when I was a kid in the late 1970s and the excellent reboot helped get me through my divorce starting in 2005 when I became absolutely obsessed with the adventures of the Galactica and its crew.

I’m not a huge watcher of TV , but I love good SciFi, and this series is one of my all time favorites (which is why we own all of the DVDs in both English and German). In fact, Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) is tied with Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) for my all time most loved fictional ship’s captain or commander.

So say we all!

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«Худшая форма рабства». Как капитализм испортил женщинам сексуальную жизнь

A review and excerpt of Почему у женщин при социализме секс лучше. Аргументы в пользу экономической независимости in Forbes Russia.