Maksim Rayevsky (russian: Максим Раевский) (died 1931 in
Moscow) was a
Russian-
Jewish
anarcho-syndicalist.
Early life and education
Rayevsky was born L. Fishelev in
Nizhyn,
Russia, into a wealthy Jewish family. He was educated at the
gymnasium in Nizhyn and attended university in Germany.
[Avrich, ''Russian Anarchists'', p. 137.]
Work
After university, Rayevsky became an anarcho-syndicalist and moved to
Paris, where he and
Nikolai Rogdaev
Nikolai Ignatievich Rogdaev (Shilkino, Klinsky Uyezd, Moscow, 1880 – Tashkent, 1934) was a leader of the Russian anarchist movement.
Biography
A Czech by nationality, he took part in the revolutionary movement from the late 1890s, at first b ...
founded ''
Burevestnik'' ("The Stormy Petrel"),
which was described by anarchist historian
Paul Avrich as "the most important anarchist journal of the postrevolutionary period" (''i.e.'', after the
Russian Revolution of 1905). They published it from 1906 to 1910. In its pages, Rayevsky criticized anti-syndicalists and anarchist practitioners of
propaganda of the deed.
When
World War I began, Rayevsky livied in
New York City, serving as editor of ''
Golos Truda'' ("The Voice of Labour"). ''Golos Truda'' was the official newspaper of the Union of Russian Workers in the United States and Canada, whose membership exceeded 10,000. Not long after the
February Revolution
The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...
in Russia, Rayevsky left New York and traveled to
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. He sailed on the same ship as
Trotsky in May 1917.
Two months later, he was joined by the rest of the ''Golos Truda'' staff, who had decided to move to Russia ''en masse''.
In Petrograd, Rayevsky edited the first issue of ''Golos Truda''. Shortly thereafter, he suddenly left the anarchist movement. Trotsky helped Rayevsky get a non-political job in the new Soviet government. In the late 1920s, Rayevsky is reported to have been arrested for printing a
Trotskyite publication.
Death
Rayevsky died of a heart attack in Moscow in 1931.
References
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rayevsky, Maksim
19th-century births
1931 deaths
People from Nizhyn
Ukrainian Jews
Anarchist theorists
Anarcho-syndicalists
Russian anarchists
Soviet anarchists