What is Zhenotdel?

And why haven’t I heard of it before?

Zhenotdel translated from Russian to English means “women’s department.” It was the women’s political division of the of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, then still known as the Bolsheviks. It was established in 1919 and led by Alexandra Kollontai and Inessa Armand. After the untimely death of Armand, it was continued by Kollontai and combated forms of women’s political oppression, the markings of previous modes of production. It lasted till 1930, due to the mistaken decision to abolish it.

We are a decolonial feminist communist publishing press that seeks to republish radical texts that have been forgotten and out of print. Our mission is to republish as many of these as possible, and to make them accessible, free, and easy to distribute.

All the texts are free to download, print, distribute, modify, etc — there is no copyrighted material. We have the option to self-print them through a third party service, but this would not be necessary.