Presidential Library explains history of May First holiday

In July 1889, the Paris Congress of the Second International, in memory of the workers in Chicago who had organised a strike on 1 May 1886 demanding an eight-hour working day, decided to establish a Day of International Workers' Solidarity.

The resolution of the congress stated: "A great international manifestation is appointed on a once and for all fixed date, so that once and for all, in all countries and cities, workers made demands to the authorities to limit the working day to 8 hours, as well as the implementation of all other resolutions of the International Congress in Paris ... Workers of different nations will organise this manifestation as it will be prompted by the conditions of their country".

For the first time in the Russian Empire, International Workers' Solidarity Day was marked 135 years ago, in 1890, in Warsaw (Warsaw province was part of the Russian Empire), by a strike of 10,000 workers. Two years after the Paris Congress, in St. Petersburg, on 1 May 1891, the first illegal workers' strike took place, in which 200 people took part.

In 1895, Rosa Luxemburg wrote in her pamphlet The May Day Holiday that a shorter working day would improve the life of the worker: "It will give us health, a longer life, secure work. It will give us more pay and the unemployed more work. It will give us education, unity, and therefore the opportunity to achieve more and more. The full text of the brochure is available on the Presidential Library portal.

In the publication May 1st - a proletarian holiday (1921) R. Arsky (literary pseudonym of the political figure Andrei Radzishevsky), tells about the history of May Day celebrations in Russia. In 1896, the first proclamation was published in St Petersburg, which "clarified the significance of this day and called workers to struggle". The proclamation then had meaning only for the workers of St. Petersburg, but in 1898 it was printed for all the workers of Russia. This proclamation "got into all even bearish corners and awakened the thought and desire for struggle among the workers". Even the most remote places learnt that "there is a day in the year - the first of May - when the workers of the whole world stop work and establish their own holiday, testifying to solidarity and the desire for struggle". In 1905, the May Day holiday was held as a grand demonstration of workers. Throughout Russia, "red banners were flying and bold speeches were heard". The holiday was already celebrated in 177 cities and industrial centres of Russia.

In 1912 400 thousand workers took part in May Day strikes and demonstrations, in 1913 their number increased to 420 thousand, in 1914 to 500 thousand. Demands were made for an eight-hour working day, confiscation of landed estates, overthrow of the autocracy. Subsequently, the number of participants in the May Day demonstrations increased annually; besides workers, peasants, soldiers and sailors took part in them.

After the victory of the February Revolution in 1917, May Day was celebrated freely for the first time with the slogans: "All Power to the Soviets!", "Down with the imperialist war!".

After the October Revolution, May Day became a public holiday. Labour demonstrations and military parades were held on this day. The motto of the holiday was the words: "Peace, Labour, May!"

The last official May Day demonstration was held on 1 May 1990. In 1992, the International Day of Solidarity of Workers was renamed the Spring and Labour Holiday. You can learn more about it on the Presidential Library's portal in the On this day section.

Also on the institution's portal there are numerous visual materials - photographs, posters and postcards telling about how the holiday was celebrated in different years. The selection Celebrating the 1st of May, which is part of the collection "1917", contains rare photographs of the celebration of this day in different districts of Petrograd. How the holiday was celebrated in the city centre is shown in the photographs Celebrating May 1. Field of Mars, 1st May (18 April) 1917, On St Isaac's Square. Petrograd, People's holiday on 1 May 1917, Celebrating May 1. Trinity Bridge. 

Among the documents of the Soviet time, devoted to the holiday, the most striking is the collection May 1st with the Pioneers, published by the Novosibirsk (Novonikolaevsk) department of the Komsomol organisation as a guide for the celebration of the holiday at the pioneers in 1925.

During the Great Patriotic War the visual materials for the celebration of the First of May were connected with the front theme. For example, the posters of Alexander Chechnyov May Day present: from a machine-gunner and a machine gunner - death to the German invader!, Viktor Govorov Long Live May 1! Everything for the front, everything for victory over the enemy! These and other images are available on the Presidential Library's portal in the Posters section of the electronic collection Memory of the Great Victory.

A digital copy of the Order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief J. Stalin of 1 May 1945 No. 20, where he congratulates the people on the Perception of the Great Victory "in honour of the historic victories of the Red Army at the front and the great successes of workers, collective farmers and intellectuals in the rear, in commemoration of the international holiday of workers" orders in the capitals of the Union republics and in the hero-cities of Leningrad, Stalingrad, Sevastopol and Odessa to make a salute of twenty artillery salvos.

More interesting materials about the history of May Day celebrations are available on the Presidential Library's portal, as well as in the electronic reading rooms of the institution opened in the Russian Federation and abroad.