Zetkin, Klara

Zetkin, Klara (klä`rä tsĕt`kĭn), 1857–1933, German Communist leader and feminist. A teacher, she early joined the Social Democratic party and together with Rosa Luxemburg, became prominent in its radical wing. She was a founder and theoretician of the Socialist woman's movement, and established the party's paper for women, Gleichheit, which she edited until 1916. A member of the Spartacus party, in 1919 she was one of the chief founders of the German Communist party. She was a leader of the right-wing, Russophile element of the party, and was (1920–32) a Communist member of the Reichstag. During that period she spent much of her time in Russia. Zetkin was a profound student of Marxist thought; she wrote several works on socialism and on women's rights. Her Reminiscences of Lenin was translated in 1929.