Reevaluating Inessa Armand

Armand is remembered through the prism of her relationship with Lenin. She is portrayed as his mistress and in political interventions she is 'Lenin's Cudgel' or 'Lenin's Girl Friday'. Armand is never shown as an autonomous political agent. The language used to describe her is highly gendered. This paper will focus on Armand's political development from feminist to Bolshevik. Armand left a body of work including a PhD thesis on free love from 1915, her articles in Rabotnitsa (in both 1914 and again after 1917), and her writings in Kommunista. The context of socialist attitudes to The Woman Question and the perceived dangers of feminist separatism will be discussed. Armand's role in the creation of Zhenotdel will be examined. Armand's views on feminism, the class basis of women's oppression and sexual liberation can usefully be compared to Kollontai's. Both took important roles in debates about transforming the family, developing sexual freedom and creating the New Woman. There are only two English language biographies of Armand in publication, but there is a wealth of new material now available that can illuminate Armand's contribution to the revolutionary socialist understanding of women's oppression.