Frederick Harold Berger (Фредрик Харольд Бергер)

Born 1885, Russia. Laborer. Anarchist; belonged to “revolutionary groups in Russia” and participated in 1905 revolution; migrated to US 1913; joined IWW shortly thereafter. Arrested Fresno, California, September 1917 for public drunkenness; detained after IWW membership card found. Declared, “I hold allegiance to no country. The world is my country…I was a syndicalist since I was a lad of 13 or 14.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54407/17

Otto Berglind (Otto Bergleind; aka August Berdland)

Born 1880, Västmanland County, Sweden. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1908, then US 1913; joined IWW that same year. IWW members. Arrested January 1918 in Everett, Washington. Deported October 31, 1918. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54379/33

Alexander Berkman (Александр Беркман; Ovsei Osipovich Berkman)

Born 1870, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania), to well-off Jewish family. Drawn to Russian populist movement as a student. Migrated to US 1888; soon after became anarchist and lifelong collaborator of Emma Goldman. Laborer; typesetter; editor. 1892 attempted to assassinate steel manager Henry Clay Frick in retaliation for deaths of workers during Homestead Strike. Sentenced to 21 years; served 14. By his release in 1906 he was one of the most well-known anarchists in the US. Became editor of Goldman’s Mother Earth, then 1915 moved to San Francisco where published The Blast. Co-founded the No-Conscription League in 1917 and arrested that June under the Espionage Act. Sentenced to two years federal prison, then deported on the Buford. In Russia, he and Goldman collected materials for a Museum of the Revolution. Broke with Bolsheviks after 1921 Kronstadt Rebellion; left Russia December 1921 with Goldman. Lived illegally in Germany, France, and elsewhere in Europe until his death. Wrote numerous leftwing critiques of the Soviet regime, including The Bolshevik Myth (1925). Cofounder and secretary of the Joint Committee for the Defense of Revolutionists Imprisoned in Russia; member of Relief Fund of the International Working Men’s Association for Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists Imprisoned or Exiled in Russia. In ill health, committed suicide Nice, France, 1936.

INS file 52410/43

See also: Alexander Berkman, The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920–1922); Emma Goldman, Living My Life; Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich, The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman; Alexander Berkman Papers, International Institute for Social History

Grigoriy Berko (Григорий Берко; Gregory Berko; Berkoff, Bezko)

Born 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913; laborer. Member, Rockford, Illinois branch of the Communist Party. Arrested Chicago, January 1920; “voluntary departure” to Russia October 16, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54809/8; FBI file BS 202600-150-1

Charles Bernat (Бернат)

Born 1879, Russia (present-day Estonia). Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1902. Joined IWW around 1908; IWW delegate and organizer; in 1917 became Secretary of Lumber Workers Industrial Union Local No. 500, Seattle. Arrested Seattle, June 1918. Deported February 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54517/491