Hmmm. I have that Tsar Nicky abdicated on March 15, 1917 (NS). That would be (I think) March first, Old Style. Feb 23 OS/Mar 8 NS would have been a Thursday, not a Sunday. Oh well.

No, the actual origin of the holiday by Zetkin and proclaimed by her in Finland in 1910 is very well established. I had communicated with Mr Chase concerning the difference between his account and that of the typical story in "women's studies" texts. He declared that he had actually held in his hand and read a copy of her declaration. My communication with two authors & teachers of history, specializing in "women's studies" produced the admission that they didn't really know where it all came from and had never seen any real documentation. (That didn't stop them from printing the story as "history." This is one of the reasons I prefer folklore and the "history" contained in ballads over the "facts" contained in History.)

The only open question, I believe, is just what it commemorates in reality. (This is a minor point - it commorates working women - it's just the mythology & rationale I've researched.)

I searched pretty widely for Zetkin's cited 1857 strike and couldn't find any reference to it anywhere. There were some strikes that year but nothing related even vaguely to women garment workers in NYC. Of course there was considerable activity among women's garment factory workers from the "Great Strike" of 1908 onwards into 1910. (The "Bread & Roses" strike was different.) This would have been sufficient to encourage her, the other attendees and possibly the world to acknowledge the day. I suggest she invented the 1857 origin an a "legitimizing" origin myth and used her own birth year as a subtle joke.