Hyman Lachowsky (Chaim)
Born 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Jewish. Bookbinder. Migrated to US 1907. 1917 a member of New York’s militant Jewish anarchist Shturem Group, which in 1918 became the Frayhayt Group. Arrested, with Molly Steimer, while distributing radical leaflets protesting US intervention in the Russian Civil War on August 23, 1918. Beaten while interrogated and convicted, with other members of the group, for violation of the Espionage Act; sentenced to 20 years in prison and a $1,000 fine. October 1919 told immigration agents: “I am an alien and an anarchist…I am opposed to all organized government. Not only the Government of the United States but any government…I’m an anarchist and proud of it.” By 1921, however, he had become disillusioned in prison and no longer believed in anarchism. Deported November 23, 1921 after losing landmark Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States. Returned to Minsk, where he started a family and stayed out of politics. Reportedly died of natural causes.
INS file 54517/74
See also: Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America
Charles Lindsay Lambert
Born 1881, Arbroath, Scotland. Baker; oil worker. Migrated to US 1901 or 1902. Joined the IWW in 1911; secretary of Local No. 453 of the Oil Workers’ Industrial Union in Taft, California, 1913, then of IWW mixed locals in Sacramento, 1914-1917. Secretary-Treasurer of the Wheatland Defense Committee 1914-1915, in which role he advocated sabotage; elected to IWW’s General Executive Board 1916. Defendant at federal IWW trial 1917-1918; sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. 1922 sentence commuted in exchange for “voluntary departure” to Scotland; sailed March 31, 1923. Upon arrival he began “attending meetings of various trade unions…persuading them to send protests to President Harding, the Ambassador and the Consul General against the imprisonment of the I.W.W.’s in the United States.” May have traveled to Tampico, Mexico to work in the oil fields in the 1920s; appears to have illegally returned to the US undetected, then returned to Scotland via New York in 1926. 1930s employed as oil worker in the Caribbean; returned to UK 1933. Appears to have dropped out of radical politics; later a diamond prospector in British Guiana and then worked as a runner for a bookmaker in London, where he died circa 1961.
INS file 54616/59; FBI file OG 8000-160053
See also: Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Richard Brazier, “The Mass I.W.W. Trial of 1918: A Retrospect,” Labor History 7, no. 2 (1966); Eric Thomas Chester, The Wobblies in Their Heyday: The Rise and Destruction of the Industrial Workers of the World during the World War I Era; Eric Thomas Chester, Yours for Industrial Freedom: The Industrial Workers of the World from the Inside; https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=1518&h=13557765&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=SAX498&_phstart=successSource
Manya Lansky
Born 1898, Pieski, Russia (present-day Belarus). Jewish. Garment worker. Orthodox Jewish parents. Migrated to US 1915 for work. Became an anarchist in New York shortly thereafter. A distributor of the Union of Russian Workers’ paper Golos Truda. Arrested July 4, 1920 en route to a radical picnic in Cleveland. According to the Immigration Inspector in Charge in Cleveland, “she is the most typical of the usual conception of the anarchistic type that one may have occasion to observe.” Regarding Russia, she declared, “I am not in sympathy with the leaders of the Soviets, but am in sympathy with the Russian people.” Deported to Russia February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54885/2
Ivan Lapitsky (John; Lapinsky; Lapitzky)
Born 1893, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to Canada 1913, then US 1917. Dye worker. Member of Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920; denied party membership but then admitted it after shown documents confirming it. Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54809/491
Ivan Laposanko (Lapczanko; aka John Lapko)
Born 1890, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer, coal miner, steel worker. Wife in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh in 1914. Delegate to URW convention in New York, January 1919. Arrested in Erie, PA during “May Day Riots” on May 1, 1919. Arrested in Erie again December 12, 1919. Testified: “Yes, I am an anarchist; but I am not the violent anarchist that is pictured in different forms. I am studying the question of Anarchy, as it is something I would like to know, although I am not very much versed in it now.” Deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.
INS file 54709/642
James Larkin (Jim; “Big Jim”)
Born 1876, Liverpool, England. Irish. Laborer; union organizer. Grew up in poverty in Ireland. 1893 joined the Independent Labour Party; 1905 began working as a labor organizer full time for the National Union of Dock Labourers, but expelled 1908; founded Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, influenced by the American IWW; 1912 cofounded the Irish Labour Party and elected to the Dublin city government (but removed after one month). 1913 co-led the dockers’ strike that resulted in the Dublin Lockout with James Connolly, and cofounded the paramilitary Irish Citizen Army. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Socialist Party of America and associated closely with (but did not join) the IWW; lectured across the country and arrested repeatedly. He played a leading role in the SPA’s pro-Bolshevik Left Wing; 1919 expelled from the SPA and joined the new Communist Labor Party. Wished to return to the United Kingdom in 1919, but the British consulate denied his requests for a passport eleven times. Arrested and sentenced to five to ten years under New York’s “criminal anarchy” law; pardoned by Governor Al Smith in 1923; deported April 1923. In Ireland, he formed the Irish Worker League (a Communist Party officially recognized by the Comintern) and became head of the Communist-aligned Worker’s Union of Ireland, a breakaway from the ITGWU. In 1924 he attended Fifth Congress of the Communist International, where he was elected to its executive committee. Soon, however, Larkin and the Soviets fell out with each other. 1927 he was elected to the Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann), but unable to take his seat; 1936 again elected to the Dublin city government; 1937 elected to the Dáil Éireann, but lost reelection the following year. 1941 rejoined the Irish Labour Party; served in the Dáil Éireann 1943-1944. Died 1947.
See: Emmet O’Connor, “James Larkin in the United States, 1914-23,” Journal of Contemporary History 37, no. 2 (April 2002); Emmet O’Connor, Big Jim Larkin: Hero or Wrecker?
Ludwig Lau
Deported to Poland September 1, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Stefan Lavrichuk (Стефан Лавричук; Lawrichuk; aka Steve Liunsky)
Deported to Russia, October 20, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Mikal Lavrinuk (Микал Лавринюк; Michael Lawrinuk; Michail)
Born 1891, Russia. Hotel worker. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York circa 1918; also joined IWW 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/489
Giacamo Lavrio (James; Laverio; Lavero)
Born 1884, Turin, Italy. Miner. Migrated to US 1901 (returned to Italy 1905-1907). Worked in mines throughout the country. Became anarchist in US; supported Cronaca Sovversiva and carried out extensive correspondence with several fellow Italian American anarchists. Arrested in St. Charles, Michigan, May 1919, while on strike. Married widow Maria Perocchetti while on bail; promised to give up his radicalism for her. Deported December 20, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/206
William Lawna (Launa; Lauwa; Lauva; aka Alfred Schmidt)
Born 1886, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia). Locksmith. Migrated to US 1906. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919; allegedly became secretary of its Elizabeth, New Jersey branch and hosted Leon Trotsky in his home during Trotsky’s time in the US, but denied this. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Wife in the US. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/103
Andrey Lazarevich (Андрей Лазаревич; Andrew Lazarewich; Lazarowitz)
Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Alleged member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, although the only evidence against him was a membership card for the Executive Committee of the Second Russian All-Colonial Convention of the United States and Canada (a meeting of various leftwing groups held in New York in January 1919). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Wife Mary in US. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/347
Maria Lazarevich (Мария Лазаревич; Mary Lazarewich, née Kott)
Born 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Housewife. Anarchist since 1917; member of URW. Wife of fellow deportee Andrey Lazarewich. Fourteen-month-old child in February 1921. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 55009/14
Simeon Lebed (Sam)
Born 1893, Novovolynsk, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian (“Little Russian”). Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Communist Party Branch No. 22. Arrested January 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/614
