Caucasian May Day

Author: Georgi Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi, exclusively to VK

May Day was celebrated in the Caucasus in different ways. Residents of the North Caucasus celebrated the Spring and Labor Day almost apolitically. May 1 was celebrated in Chechnya in the grandest style, where the festivities were attended by a quarter of the population.

About 2,000 representatives of the "United Russia" party and the trade unions came to the rally in the center of Vladikavkaz under the slogan "Sustainable development." In addition, gathering of bikers was held in the city and was attended by 120 motorcyclists from Russia and other countries.

More than a thousand Makhachkala residents gathered in the Dagestani capital at the Rhodope Boulevard for a rally organized by trade unions and the regional branch of "United Russia" under the slogan "A decent salary for decent work"; there was a concert featuring pop stars of Dagestan, and in the lobby of the Avarsky theater a chess tournament for the prizes of the trade unions of Dagestan took place.

In the capital of North Caucasus Federal District, Pyatigorsk, there were no rallies and marches, but a few charity actions were held. About 50 bikers rode through the city with flags of Pyatigorsk and Russia, and the people gathered at the performance with fireworks and comedy entertainment show.

In Stavropol, the season of fountains and dancing season were opened. In the cinemas of the city free showings of Soviet films were held.

In Ingushetia, May 1 traditionally opens the tourist season. In the mountains of the Jeirakh district the season of exploring the hiking trails, horse riding, quad biking, riding the cable car and archery began.



May 1 was quite different for the residents of Tbilisi.

For more than 20 years of independence of Georgia the opposition to the political tradition of social activism was formed there. To many it seems quite natural that the country which has recently separated from the USSR with its communist ideology, fear of "leftism" is manifested in the unpopularity of any groups or political parties of the appropriate orientation. Georgia is not the only one former Soviet republic, but in other post-Soviet countries, including Russia, there is a strong left-wing movement, structured as influential political parties. In Georgia there is still nothing like that: Shalva Natelashvili’s Labor Party, not to mention marginalized Communists and Stalinists, sometimes barely overcame the entrance barrier to the parliament, but mostly remained beyond the political process.

The main reason is a feature of social consciousness: in Georgia it is not accepted to express social demands. In any case, it was considered as a feature of "rednecks". There are a great number of rallies, demonstrations, pickets for independence, or for political changes, compliance with classical democracy, against the violation of human rights, for fair elections, against the "dictatorship" of authoritarianism and so on. But there are almost no system performances with the social demands – not protests of, let us say, workers of some particular factory, but political actions with a clear "value orientation" and the desire of systematic changes, including legislative ones, in the direction of greater social orientation of the state.

Therefore, Labour Day on May 1 in Georgia has never been celebrated since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the socialist camp. There has never been a single demonstration. But May 1, 2013 broke this tradition. "Labor Day" in Georgia was finally celebrated in such a way that an event will be remembered for a long time. The initiator of the breakthrough was the most passionate part of the community – left-winged students.

In the morning the members of the youth organization "Lab 1918" gathered near the building of Tbilisi State University with posters of "left-bohemian" read: "Down with capitalism", "Factories for workers," "Viva socialism", "We demand social justice". At first, everything went peacefully: several hundred demonstrators marched toward the central Rustaveli Avenue. Very few people paid attention to them; pedestrians and passengers of public transport indifferently watched another manifestation, albeit with somewhat unusual slogans. Everything could end "routinely", but the students blocked the avenue in a few places, started kicking up a row and bickering with drivers who did not like the delay. Clashes soon escalated into a fight, students with obvious pleasure broke the glass of the most luxurious cars, and when the police intervened, resisted the guards. They began to push the demonstrators into the patrol cars, a brawl began, someone fell on the pavement, someone was injured...

Finally, the police managed to push the protesters, but organizers have achieved the main goal – for the first time everyone talked about the left manifestation. There were large plots on the central television channels, the most respected experts commented on the event in talk shows, and politicians of the opposing camps of "Georgian Dream" and the United National Movement began to accuse each other of failing to "hear the voice of the working people" or "take into account the social demands of the working people" .

We should immediately note that the vast majority of students who participated in the unusual action are young people from wealthy families. This has led observers to draw a parallel with the movement in Europe (especially in France) in 1960s. Then, many right-wing intellectuals also said that "youth is too well off", and left slogans are only "fashion", "new trend" for the bohemian youth. But if those ideas were not "smoldering" in the depths of society, elite youth would be unlikely to be able to update them, giving more meaning to the left values.

Tbilisi students knew that they irritated not as much power as the laymen tired of disasters of last quarter of the century and longing for a quiet life without turmoil. In the social networks stormy debates began - what if the protest faces the indifference "of the narrow-minded" society, especially given that in Georgia it is a clear majority because of the fatigue of the endless turmoil? Anyway May 1 marked the beginning of an important process in the modern history of Georgia, dividing it into "before" and "after" violent student protests under purely left (and not nationalist) slogans. Maybe it was worth a few broken windows at the prestigious cars, wasn’t it?