Maksim Rayevsky (died 1931 in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

) was a Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

-Jewish anarcho-syndicalist

Anarcho-syndicalism

Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...

.

Rayevsky was born L. Fishelev in Nizhyn

Nizhyn

Nizhyn is a city located in the Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine, along the Oster River, north-east of the nation's capital, Kiev. It is the administrative center of the Nizhynsky Raion, though the city itself is also designated as a district in the oblast...

, Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, into a well-to-do Jewish family. He was educated at the gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 in Nizhyn and attended university in Germany.

After university, Rayevsky became an anarcho-syndicalist and moved to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where he and Nikolay Rogdayev founded Burevestnik ("The Stormy Petrel"), which has been described by anarchist historian Paul Avrich

Paul Avrich

Paul Avrich was a professor and historian. He taught at Queens College, City University of New York, for most of his life and was vital in preserving the history of the anarchist movement in Russia and the United States....

 as "the most important anarchist journal of the postrevolutionary period" (i.e., the period after the Russian Revolution of 1905). The two men published Burevestnik from 1906 to 1910. In its pages, Rayevsky criticized anti-syndicalists and anarchist practitioners of propaganda of the deed

Propaganda of the deed

Propaganda of the deed is a concept that refers to specific political actions meant to be exemplary to others...

.

When World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 began, Rayevsky was living in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where he served as editor of Golos Truda

Golos Truda

Golos Truda was a Russian language anarcho-syndicalist newspaper. Founded by working-class Russian expatriates in New York in 1911, Golos Truda shifted to Petrograd during the Russian Revolution in 1917, when its editors took advantage of the general amnesty and right of return for political...

("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

February Revolution

The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...

 in Russia, Rayevsky left New York and traveled to Petrograd

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

. By chance, he sailed on the same ship as Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

 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.

Rayevsky died of a heart attack in Moscow in 1931.