I have been reading the memoirs of Dora Russell, a pioneering British feminist and educationist. These were published in three volumes, of which I have just finished the first. This covers her upbringing in Edwardian England, her education at Cambridge, the development of her views on gender equality, an experimental school she established, and the years of her marriage to the brilliant and controversial philosopher, Bertrand Russell.
Like others of her generation, Dora Russell was profoundly influenced by the Bolshevik Revolution, which occurred when she was in her early twenties. Shortly after the Revolution broke out, she travelled through Russia to study its impact first-hand. Speaking to ardent Bolsheviks in Russia in 1918-’19, Dora was reminded of medieval Christian theologians who had dreamt of the Perfect Universe that they hoped god would create.
Like those religious utopians, “these men [in Russia] were emulating the Great Clockmaker, the Architect of the…