May Strikes ("Maevki").

Categories / Social Life
MAY STRIKES ("Maevki"), secret gatherings of workers in the suburbs during pre-revolutionary Russia, in honour of the international workers solidarity celebration on 1 May, called May Day. The first Maevka in Russia, in which up to 100 workers participated, was organized by members of the Brusnev group on Sunday 5 May 1891 on the seashore near the Ekateringofka River, in the district of the Putilovskaya Dockyard (a commemorative obelisk was erected at 1 Korabelnaya Street). In 1892, the Maevka was repeated and soon became a traditional part of the workers' movement. From the middle of 1890s, St. Petersburg workers often went on strike on May Day, and from the beginning of the 20th century they also attended political demonstrations (see Obukhovskaya Defence, 1901). Especially large groups of workers gathered in the years of the Revolution of 1905-07, and also in 1912-14, when up to 25,000 St. Petersburg workers participated in demonstrations and strikes. After the February Revolution of 1917, May Day was for the first time celebrated legally. After October 1917, May Day became an official holiday. In honour of May Day, streets were renamed at the locations where Maevkis were held, including Shuvalovo, Ozerki, Olgino, Pargolovo, Lisy Nos, Krasnoe Selo, Peterhof, Pavlovsk, Sestroretsk, Shushary and Rybatskoe, as well as the Pervomaiskaya (First of May) thermoelectric power station located near the spot of the first Maevka.

Z. P. Solovyeva. Korabelnaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Pervogo Maya St./Pargolovo, village
Pervogo Maya St./Sestroretsk, town
Pervogo Maya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Pervogo Maya Street/Pavlovsk, town
Pervogo Maya Street/Peterhoff, town
Pervomaiskaya Street/Shushary, village
Obukhovskaya Defence (1901)
Revolution of 1905-07
February Revolution of 1917
1891