Born 1890, Ułęż, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to the US 1916. Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1885, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Shoemaker. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and child in Russia. Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1918; then joined the Bridgeport, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in August 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/377
Mikal Leshchuk (Микал Лещук; Michael Lestchuk; Listchuk)
Born 1891, Russia. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers Branch No. 1 in Philadelphia early 1919; became its secretary. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/210; FBI file OG 380953
Arthur Lesiga (Артур Лесига; Lessiga)
Born 1889, Petrograd, Russia. Sailor. Migrated to US 1913. Member of the International Seamen’s Union (AFL). Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1918. According to the Deptment of Justice agent, he was the treasurer of URW paper Rabochii i Krest’ianin. Common-law marriage to widow Jennie Garnitz, “a Russian Pole” with a nine-year-old son (in 1919). Arrested Pittsburgh, July 1919, as a “notorious anarchist”; released on bail. Arrested December 3, 1919. Deported on the Buford. 1920 joined Union of Russian Anarchist Workers Repatriated from America, formed by Hyman Perkus, which critically supported the Bolshevik dictatorship as a temporary necessity. At some point arrested. No further information found.
Born 1894, Hamburg, Germany. Sailor. Left Germany at age fourteen. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Sailor’s Union of the Pacific. Joined the IWW in San Francisco, 1916; became IWW delegate. Arrested in San Francisco, February, 1919, and initially held as “likely to become a public charge,” but released on bail; arrested again in Arcata, California, November 1919 for violation of state “criminal syndicalism” law. Sentenced to 1-14 years for “criminal syndicalism”; imprisoned at San Quentin January 1920 to May 1922. Deported 1922. Became an organizer for the International Seaman’s Union and an agent for the Comintern in Europe and China in the 1930s and 1940s.
INS file 54616/17
See also: Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts; Brigitte Studer, Travellers of the World Revolution: A Global History of the Communist International
Daniil Levchuk (Даниил Левчук; Daniel Levozuk)
Born 1874, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Polish. Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915. Wife and seven children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in 1918; sent as delegate to URW conference in New York, January 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1887, Chernihiv Oblast, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Steelworker. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio, circa 1919. Employed at Republic Iron and Steel; on strike at time of arrest. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/186
Axel Rudolph
IWW member. Deported October 31, 1919. No further information found.
See: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920
John C. Ruggieri (aka John C. Rogers)
Born 1892, Rosario, Argentina. Italian parents. Bootblack; laborer. Migrated to US 1906 (age 14). 1915 visited Canada for two weeks and reentered the US without inspection. Arrested in raid on San Francisco IWW hall; denied membership but admitted agreeing the the IWW’s “philosophy”; denied being an anarchist. Allowed to “reship foreign” as a sailor to Chile, August 21, 1918.
INS file 54235/58
Boris Trofinov Rusak (Борис Трофинов Русак; Russak; aka John Rusak; Boris Tropinav)
Born Kryvičy, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Married wife Efrosnia in 1914; daughter Nadia born 1917. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Norwich, Connecticut February 1919. Arrested February, 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.
INS file 54861/278
Giuseppe Russo (Joe Russo; aka L’Unico; Augustus Antonio Leon)
Born 1873, allegedly on a ship on the Atlantic, but some sources say in Chiaravelle, Italy. Miner, metalworker. An “anarchist without adjectives,” he was strongly influenced by both Max Stirner and Luigi Galleani and wrote for Cronaca Sovversiva. Lived in Tunisia and imprisoned there before migrating to the US in 1896. 1911 joined the PLM’s forces in Tijuana, but quickly became disillusioned with the Mexican Revolution. Arrested in Lovelock, Nevada and deported August 1921.
Arrested 1923 in Bressanone and sentenced to seven months for threatening police. Then lived in Turin where in 1926 he was sentenced to five years of forced confinement in Favignana and Lipari for antifascist activities. After his release Russo was involved in an anarchist group in Turin that helped smuggle antifascists out of Italy and recruited volunteers for the Spanish Civil War. 1937 arrested and again sent to confinement in Ponza and Tremiti. Freed in 1943 and distributed underground anarchist newspaper Era Nuova. Died 1957.
Rustemann, _________
IWW member; interned as an “enemy alien” at Fort Douglas in Utah and then “voluntarily departed” to Germany. No further information found.
See: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920
Ryoukov/Ryzhukov, _________
Russian-born anarchist. 1912 married fellow anarchist Anastasia Ryzhukova (maiden name unknown) in Newark. Deported to Russia.
1920 joined Union of Russian Anarchist Workers Repatriated from America, formed by Hyman Perkus, which critically supported the Bolshevik dictatorship as a temporary necessity. Back in the US Anastasia became severely ill and died in 1924. No further information found.
See: Amerikanskiye Izvestiya, August 6, 1924 (thanks to Malcolm Archibald); Victor Serge, Anarchists Never Surrender: Essays, Polemics, and Correspondence on Anarchism, 1908–1938
Ivan Sabshuk (Иван Сабшук)
Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Cesare Saccaro (Caesar; aka Frank Saccaro)
Born 1885, Arsiè, Italy. Miner. In Italy displayed “good moral conduct,” and from ages 11-18 enrolled in “a school in Verona to prepare for a monastic life.” Migrated to US 1903. Joined his father, Antonio, in Spring Valley, Illinois to work in the mines. Became anarchist circa 1910; sent money to anarchist newspapers in Italy. Returned to Italy 1913 to marry Giovanna (Jennie/Jeanne) Faoro. Couple returned to Spring Valley, where they had threes sons and one daughter. Deported March 1, 1921.
September 1923 migrated to Windsor, Canada, where joined by family. Repeatedly crossed US border into Canada without difficulty. 1933 helped organize antifascist Circolo Operaio di Cultura in Windsor. May 24, 1936 published an antifascist article in the Windsor Daily Star; wrote for the Toronto antifascist paper Il Lavoratore. 1945 still described by Italian authorities as engaging in antifascist and radical propaganda in Windsor. Later resettled in the US; died Dearborn, Michigan, May 27, 1979.
INS file 54885/17; FBI file OG 379633; CPC busta 4513
Born 1883, Kilmarnock, Scotland. Machinist; union organizer. Migrated Canada 1903; from there migrated to US 1904. A member of the International Association of Machinists before being radicalized and joining the IWW in 1911. Became prominent IWW speaker and organizer; reportedly arrested around 160 times for his activism, including his arrest with other IWW organizers during 1916 Mesabi Iron Range strike on specious charges of murder, but charges dropped. Defendant in federal IWW trial 1917-18; sentenced to 20 years and $20,000 fine. 1923 sentence commuted on condition of deportation; deported April 1923. August 1923 migrated to Canada, where he resumed organizing for the IWW in the Vancouver area, especially among miners. 1924 the Canadian government attempted to deport him, with the aid of evidence supplied by the US Bureau of Immigration, but eventually dropped the case. 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Canada, claiming that the “IWW underestimated the role of the proletarian dictatorship, and maintained our anarcho-syndicalist opposition to all forms of government, capitalist or proletarian…The political line of the Communist Party is correct.” Became an organizer for the CPC’s Mine Workers’ Union of Canada; arrested October 1931 in connection with violent Estevan Strike and sentenced to a year in prison, during which his health suffered. Circa 1938 became chairman of the CPC in Toronto, and of its newspaper The Clarion. When the CPC was outlawed in 1940, Scarlett lived underground to avoid arrest and clandestinely crossed border into the US, where he lived illegally until his death in 1941.
INS file 54616/49
See also: Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Daily Worker, October 2, 1931; Donald H. Avery, “British-Born ‘Radicals’ in North America, 1900-1941: The Case of Sam Scarlett,” Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes Ethniques Au Canada 10, no. 2 (1978); Barbara Ann Roberts, Whence They Came: Deportation from Canada, 1900-1935
Boris Schatz (Борис Шац or Шатц; Shatz)
Born 1894, Russia (probably in present-day Ukraine). Photographer. Migrated to US 1911. 1917 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in New York. Brother of fellow URW member and deportee Alexander Schatz; on the editorial board of URW newspaper Khleb i Volia. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. His wife, Elsie, miscarried after his arrest. Deported on the Buford. Elsie left behind in New York. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/278; FBI file OG 378924
See also: Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920
Harry Schatz (Гарри Шац or Шатц; Alexander; Alex; Shatz)
Born 1884, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Printer. Migrated to US 1909. Circa 1917 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in New York. Brother of fellow URW member and deportee Boris Schatz; member of the editorial board of URW newspaper Khleb i Volia. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Told authorities, “I consider myself a citizen and a laborer wherever I work and wherever I live.” Deported on the Buford. Wife and step-child left in New York. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/128
John Carl Schedel (Schadel)
Source: Fort Wayne Sentinel, January 5, 1920
Born 1885, Munich, Germany. Piano polisher. Migrated to US 1903. August 1914 reportedly registered with German consulate in Cincinnati to join the German Army. However, he also joined the Socialist Party of America in Fort Wayne, Indiana, becoming its country secretary; and circa 1919 joined Communist Party of America. He was “known to be a very radical socialist and during the war caused considerable trouble at the Packard Piano Company where he his employed” Arrested 1920 for stating, “I would rather live in Russia, where all is freedom, than in the United States.” Deported May 22, 1920. Pregnant wife and four US-born children left behind in the US. Shortly after, their newborn child died and his wife was temporarily declared “insane.” In Germany, he reportedly joined the German merchant marine and then made his way to Russia here he “joined the Red Army of Russia and is basking in the inner circles of the soviet government as interpreter.” After “about a year” in Russia he made his way to Germany and “expressed his disgust with the Soviet form of government.” May 1921 he stowed away on ship from Rotterdam to New York; upon arrival ordered deported; disembarked in England, where he was arrested and sentenced to a month in prison, where he engaged in a hunger strike. Attempted to return to the US multiple times; finally did so 1924 via Mexico. Arrested 1924 in Chicago for unlawful entry; defended by the American Civil Liberties Union and undertook a number of legal appeals. Eventually his deportation warrant was dropped. Died November 1968 in Chicago.
FBI file OG 341493
See also: Fort Wayne Sentinel, September 1, 1920; Garrett Clipper (Garrett, IN), July 4, 1921; American Civil Liberties Union, Annual Report, 1924; Indianapolis Star, January 21, 1925; Chicago Tribune, November 7, 1968
Nathan Schechter (Shechter; Shacter)
Born 1884, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Jewish. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. September 1919 joined Russian Branch No. 5 of the Communist Party of America in New York. December 1919 arrested fo r”criminal anarchy”; released on bail. Arrested again during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Told immigration inspector, “I consider the entire capitalist system to be rotten, and it ought to be abolished.” Also stated, “I wish to say that I protest against being deported as a criminal. I do not wish to obtain free passage. If I should have to go to Russia I should like to go as a free man on my own expense. I am an honest workingman, and I can earn enough money to pay my expense.” After four months of detention on Ellis Island he became a leader of protests of detained radicals and was placed in a separate cell, leading other detainees to threaten a hunger strike. Deported February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54811/424
Raffaele Schiavina (aka Max Sartin; Melchior Steele; Bruno)
Born 1895, San Carlo, Ferrara, Italy. Bookkeeper. Attended school in Italy until age 19; became a socialist in Italy. Migrated to US 1913. 1914 became anarchist; 1916 became bookkeeper for Luigi Galleani’s paper Cronaca Sovversiva in Lynn, Massachusetts; close friend of Galleani and contributor to CronacaSovversiva. 1916 arrested for inciting to riot but acquitted. 1918 arrested for refusing to register for the draft; sentenced to one year in Middlesex County House of Correction. Detained for deportation upon his release in March 1919. He was “regarded by Judge Morton of the local U. S. District Court as being one of the most dangerous men with whom he has had to deal.” Deported June 24, 1919, along with Galleani and other close associates. Arrested in Italy in 1919 for draft evasion, but soon released. Lived in Turin where collaborated with Galleani on reviving Cronaca Sovversiva (January-October 1920), thousands of copies of which were sent to the US, until it was suppressed by the Italian government. Schiavina was also involved in an anarchist paramilitary antifascist group that coordinated with, but was separate from, the organization Arditi dle Popolo. 1921 arrested and tried alongside seven Communists accused of leading Turin’s Arditi sections; all acquitted by a sympathetic jury. March 1923 illegally migrated to France. In Paris produced the anarchist newspaper Il Monito (1925-1928) and another dedicated to publicizing the Sacco-Vanzetti case, La Difesa per Sacco e Vanzett (1923). 1928 illegally returned to US; used the pseudonyms “Max Sartin,” “Melchior Steele,” and “Bruno,” among others. In New York and New Jersey, edited the anarchist newspaper L’Adunata dei Refrattari from 1928 until 1971. Died 1987 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
INS file 54391/81; CPC busta 4690
See also: Max Sartin, “Breve autobiografia,” Bollettino Archivio G. Pinelli, no. 13 (August 1999); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Maurizion Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani; Roberto Gremmo, “La ‘Cronaca Sovversiva’ di Galleani, le ‘bande armate’ di Raffaele Schiavina e la bomba del giovane anarchico Musso,” Storia Ribelle, no. 18 (2005)
Andrew Schkurski (Андрей Шкураки; N. Schkurski/Schkursky; Shkursky)
Born 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. Crane operator. Member of Milwaukee’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party, and delegate of Russian Branch No. 1 to the City Central Committee of party. Deported February 26, 1921.
INS file 54809/196
Adolph Ivanovich Schnabel (Адольф Иванович Шнабель; Adolf; Schnabel-Delass; Sznabel; Schnabel)
Born 1882, Kharkov, Russia (present-day Ukraine), to German parents. Machinist; sailor. During the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, involved in socialist organizations in Ukraine. Migrated to US 1907. 1913 married Helena Ring in Philadelphia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers at least as early as 1913. Edited multiple URW newspapers; national secretary of the URW before Peter Bianki. Arrested Chicago June 1917 for “circulating literature opposing the draft,” dismissed for lack of evidence. Arrested in Duquesne, Pennsylvania for holding a street meeting without a permit. Caught and recovered from influenza in 1919. Arrested February 1919 in New York for deportation. Released on bail and reported to be “wandering around over the states of New York and New Jersey organizing anarchistic clubs.” Back on s Island, took part in hunger strike to protest conditions. Deported on the Buford. Wife, Helena (Helen), petitioned to be deported to Russia as well as an anarchist; unclear if she was. In Russia, Adolph was active in anarchist organizations in Ukraine, then left the anarchist movement; 1931 joined the Communist Party. 1937 arrested in Moscow as an alleged German spy and shot in mass execution.
George Schwartzwalder (Schwartz; Schwartzwaldez; Schwartzwalden)
Born 1882, Baden, Germany. Laborer. Circa 1897 migrated to Austria, then Russia and Italy; returned to Germany and served three years in the German Army; became sailor between Germany and Argentina. Migrated to US 1910. Migrant worker. Joined IWW December 1918 in Kansas City, Missouri, but a sympathizer since 1915. Personal friend of IWW songwriter Joe Hill. 1918 registered as an “enemy alien.” Arrested February, 1919 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and interrogated by Bureau of Investigation agent for five hours, then released; March 1919 in Muskogee, Oklahoma; lost 30-40 pounds in unsanitary conditions of the Muskogee City Prison. “He stated he hated the Kaiser for the reason that he represented the capitalist class in Germany and that he would not fight for the Kaiser, that he would not fight for any country, that he felt no patriotism for any country.” Deported January 7, 1920.
INS file 54616/107; FBI files OG 211405 and 346328
Stepan Schwetz (Shoetz)
Deported to Russia February 1, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
George Sechke (Георгий Сечке; Sechko)
Member of the Communist Party of America in New York. Deported to Russia, December 23, 1920.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
See also: Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920
Vasily Sedov (Василий Седов; Vasil Sedoff)
Born 1885, Russia. Already a radical in Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and child in Russia. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle, Washington. Deported to Russia January 22, 1921.
INS file 54860/408; FBI file OG 386687
Mike Seegan (Semon; Michael Seegunoff)
Born Orlovo, Russia, 1889. Carpenter; machinist; upholsterer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/113
Mike Ivanovich Selovieve
Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Feodor Semenchuk (Frank)
Born 1895, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Factory worker. Secretary of Russian Branch No. 6 of the Communist Party in Argo, Illinois. Arrested Chicago, January 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54860/596; FBI file OG 375725
Andy Sereck (Andrew; Sirik; Savick)
Born 1885, Vilna Governorate, Russia. Metelworker. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1916. Wife and child in Russia. Allegedly admitted to joining the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in August 1919, but later denied this. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the basis of his admitted belief in “sabotage.” Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/185
Alexander Serevetnik (Александр Сереветник)
Born 1892, “Village of Rodzehov,” Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/411
Ivan Sergeyenko (Иван Сергеенко; John)
Born 1888, Russia. Laborer. Member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Donora, Pennsylvania. Allegedly betrayed by former URW member Stefan Zhuk, after Zhuk was arrested in Donora for stealing chickens. Arrested and reportedly “beaten half to death” by police. Deported February 26, 1921.
FBI file OG 389087
See also: Volna (New York), May 1921 (with thanks to Malcolm Archibald)
Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Salvatore Sergi
Born 1890, Melito di Porto Salvo, Italy. Tailor; barber. Migrated to US 1912. Anarchist; subscriber to Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. Opened his own barbershop in Trenton, New Jersey. Arrested May, 1918. Described himself as a “philosophical anarchist” and insisted “I do not think I am a dangerous man. I do not believe in violation. I believe in educating the people by teaching, preaching and by schools but not by violence…I have a natural instinct against violence.” Deported June 14, 1919.
Italian government noted no political activity up through 1936. In 1937 he was jailed for alleged involvement in the murder of one Vincenzo Mallamo. In 1968 he contributed funds to the anarchist magazine Volontà.
Born 1884, Genoa, Italy. Laborer; carpenter. Migrated to US 1905. Joined brother Giovanni in the US, who paid for his passage and his mother’s. Worked his way up from a pick-and-shovel worker to cabinetmaker; financially supported his mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law, and thirteen nieces and nephews. A close associate of Luigi Galleani, a distributor of anarchist literature, and and the secretary and treasurer of the anarchist Gruppo Autonomo in East Boston. Described by the US government as “one of the leading anarchists in New England” and by Italian authorities as “the deus ex machina of many meetings and conferences held among the subversives” of East Boston. Arrested May 17, 1918, for agitating against the military draft; “it required two automobiles to transport to the Federal Building the immense amount of literature and correspondence that was found in the premises” of his home. Deported June 24, 1919, with Galleani and others. Under surveillance by the Italian government, which noted that he maintained his anarchist ideas but recorded no radical activities on his part. Died 1937 in Genoa.
INS file 54241/22; CPC busta 4857
Peter Solocha (Penataley; Solocho)
Born 1893, Chernigov, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Autoworker. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in early 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54707/243
Fedor Solenki (Федор Соленки; Fred; Solonika)
Born 1896, Volodymyr-Volynsky, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to US circa 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New London, Connecticut circa 1917. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Claims to be illiterate, but in possession of radical literature. According to the Immigration Inspector, “even though his illiteracy or stupidity [should] be taken into consideration, I believe he is very dangerous, because his evidence shows he is easily led, as he admits attempting to secure members for the Union of Russian Workers.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/241; FBI file OG 374549
Karl W. Sonntag (aka John Fensky)
Song lyrics written by Sonntag during an IWW strike at Potlatch Lumber Company in Potlatch, Idaho, 1917 Cartoon drawn by Sonntag
Born 1886, Breslau, Germany (present-day Wrocław, Poland). Polish. Served three years in the German navy. Laborer; machinist. Migrated to US 1908 (deserted ship in Galvaston, Texas). Sonntag was a skilled metalworker who patented a “tire-testing machine” (US patent no. 1068180) in 1913. Joined the IWW in Kansas City, Missouri, 1914; found work as a lumber worker and active in IWW strikes, for which he wrote radical songs. 1917 imprisoned for three months in Idaho for “criminal syndicalism” following his participation in a lumber strike at the Potlatch Lumber Company. Arrested in Walla Walla, Washington, February 8, 1918, after reported by the “Minute Men of Seattle” for unlawfully working within a federally-mandated “prohibited zone” along the waterfront from which Germans and other “enemy aliens” were barred. (Sonntag had secured employment by using the name “John Fesky” and claiming to be Austrian.) Upon discovery of his IWW membership, he was also charged with advocating the unlawful destruction of property, but then interned at Fort Douglas in Utah as an “enemy alien.” There he spent eight months in the disciplinary barracks for singing IWW songs, on what he described as a diet of “bread and water, and finally two leaden bullets in the leg.” Released on the condition that he “voluntarily depart” to German, which he did on June 23, 1919. He expected “to be busy in the so-called German revolution” upon his return, but he “found that I again got badly fooled,” and he subsequently made his way to Soviet Russia. There he found employment at the Felser & Co. factory in Nizhny Novgorod, where his workday was “sixteen hours and more.” After IWW leader William D. Haywood jumped his bail and fled to Russia in 1921, Sonntag, who had known Haywood in the United States, wrote him a letter of welcome, advising, “if this country needs anything it’s organizers and I think you’ll have a hell of a lot of work to do here…Let’s all do your best to make a paradise for workers out of this country.” No further information found.
INS file 54379/116
See also: Lewis S. Gannett, “Americans in Russia,” The Nation, August 17, 1921
Emilio Souto
Deported IWW member.
Charles Spangberg
Spangberg’s IWW membership card
Born 1887, Sweden. Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1905. Joined the IWW in February 1917. Arrested in Spokane, Washington, April 6, 1918. Deported November 4, 1918. January 1919 wrote to Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson inquiring why he had been deported and when he could be allowed to return to the US; there is no record of a reply being sent. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54379/235
Andrew Jacob Spisak (aka A.J. Smith)
May Day flier Spisak was posting when arrested
Born 1886, Rozgony, Austria-Hungary (present-day Rozhanovce, Slovakia). Metalworker; sign painter. Migrated to US 1904. 1912 lost his left eye and suffered a skull fracture from a workplace accident. Communist Party of America. Braddock, Pennsylvania. Arrested April 29, 1921 by members of the Edgar Thomson Steel Company’s private police force for posting radical May Day leaflets published by the United Communist Party; convicted of violating Pennsylvania’s sedition law, then turned over to immigration authorities. Released November 1922; detained again June 1923 and held on Ellis Island for seventeen months while awaiting a passport from Czechoslovakia, which was initially denied on the grounds that he had resided outside of Czechoslovakian territory for more than ten years and therefore lost his citizenship. Deported to Czechoslovakia, October 24, 1924. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1882, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Brest, Belarus). Miner, laborer. Migrated to US 1909. 1917 became secretary of the Akron, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested November 20, 1917, for leading an effort to organize a strike of Russian rubber workers, but released on bail. Relocated to New York, where he helped edit the URW’s newspaper Khleb i Volia. Arrested again January 1919 and detained on Ellis Island. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54248/20; FBI file OG 372181
Charles Stern (aka George Angulis)
Carpenter. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54811/4
Jacob Stlmaszcsuk [last name partially illegible]
His name as it appears in the documents
Deported to Russia, December 11, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Gordey Stolatchuk (Gordic)
Born 1890, Volhynia, Russia (probably in present-day Poland). Steelworker. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1916. Wife and child in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Youngstown, Ohio, early 1919. Arrested August 19, 1919; released on bail. Arrested again during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/181; FBI file OG 377413
Tony Stolke
German IWW member. Interned at Fort Douglas, Utah, as an “enemy alien.” Deported September 25, 1919. No further information found.
One Big Union Monthly, December 1919 and March 1920; Ancestry.com
Karl Strelchuk (Карл Стрелчук; Carl; Strelchuck; Strailchuk)
Born 1897, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Lived in Forth Worth, Texas, Peublo, Colorado, and Chicago before settling in Milwaukee. Secretary of Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party in Milwaukee. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 2, 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.
INS file 54809/203, FBI file OG 378457
Nick Sudnick (Zudnik)
Arrested in Detroit; deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 54860/733
David Sukhov (Давид Сухов; Suchov; Suhov)
Born 1873, Volynskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. August 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers. Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/394
Estafy Sulavka (Эстафий Сулавка; Istafy; Sulawka; aka E. Dstafy)
Born 1895, Bereza, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to the US 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Ansonia, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Giuseppantonio Supino (Giuseppe Supino; aka Joe Spino)
Born 1892, Provvidenti, Italy. Laborer. Migrated to US 1908; frequently moved between US and Canada as migrant worker. 1915 joined the IWW in North Dakota. Arrested August 2, 1919 in Seattle. Deported December 20, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54700/28
Michael Surigatanoff (last name partially illegible)
His name as it appears in the document
Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Adam Susnowics
Deported to Poland, July 31, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Carl Swelgin (Karl)
Born 1884, Germany. Laborer; plumber; rancher; union organizer. Migrated to US 1896. By 1908 he had become a socialist and participated in a public debate on the question of whether “Capitalists be Recompensed for Industries Taken Over By Socialism” in Marshfield, Oregon (he argued in the negative). Joined the IWW in 1911. 1913 became a naturalized US citizen. That same year, illegally “deported” from Coos Bay, Oregon along with other IWW members organizing lumber workers there. 1914 started a 160-acre ranch in Bandon, Oregon, under the Homestead Act, but forced to abandon it. 1917 sentenced to 6 months in prison and $100 fine for “vagrancy” after being arrested while hopping a train to Klamath Falls, Oregon to organize lumber workers. May 23, 1918, denaturalized by the District Court of Oregon for having fraudulently sworn allegiance to the US Constitution while a member of the IWW–the first such denaturalization of the First Red Scare. He then became the first (formerly) naturalized US citizen to be interned as an “enemy alien” during the war, at Fort Douglas, Utah. “Voluntarily departed” June 25, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54379/525
See also: The World (Coos Bay, OR), February 3, 1908 and August 7, 1917; Evening Herald (Klamath Falls, OR), July 31, 1917; Ancestry.com; Zachary W. Jones, “‘There is No Law Here’: Vigilantism, Militarism, and Metropolitanism in Coos County, Oregon, 1912-1913” (Honors Thesis, Western Oregon University, 2014), https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=honors_theses; Patrick Weil, The Sovereign Citizen: Denaturalization and the Origins of the American Republic
Yustif Svenko (Юстиф Свенко; Estife Swenko)
Born 1895, Chmielewo, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Employed at Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. Active member of the Akron branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested September 30, 1918, but released on bail; arrested again during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/225
Alrik Swenson
IWW member. Deported (to Sweden?), October 31, 1919. No further information found.
Born 1894, Szczerby, Russia (present-day Poland). Auto mechanic. Migrated to US 1915. Wife in Russia. Joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore in early 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1886, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1912. Organizer and “president” of the Union of Russian Workers branch at the Dakota Mine in Fairmont, West Virginia, formed 1919. Arrested December 1, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1881, Grodno Governorate, Russia (in present-day Belarus). Machinist. Served in Russian Army circa 1908. Migrated to US 1911. Wife and two children in Russia; she died in 1914. Joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore in 1917. Deportation warrant issued November 7, 1919, but he left Baltimore to avoid arrest; relocated to Cleveland, then returned to Baltimore after several months. Active in the Workers Red Cross/Workers Relief Society, a local organization composed largely of URW members to aid imprisoned comrades (but which federal agents mistakenly believed to be affiliated with the Communist Party). Arrested July 26, 1920. Deported February 1, 1921. Common-law wife and US-born daughter in Baltimore. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/304; FBI file OG 370100
Issay Volkov (Иссай Волков; George; Wolkoff)
Born 1890, Kovno, Russia (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania). Painter. In Russia had belonged to the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Migrated to US 1908. 1916 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Waterbury, Connecticut until it dissolved in 1917; March 1919 joined the IWW local there. 1919 a member of the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization of Russian progressives). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 21, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/171
George Voloh (Георгий Волох?)
Voloh’s URW membership card
Born 1897, Chernigov, Russia (present-day Chernihiv, Ukraine). Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Fairmont, West Virginia in 1919. Arrested December 1, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/589
Peter Voloshin (Петр Волошин; Pete; Woloshim)
Born 1895, Russia. Widower. Migrated to US 1914. Machinist. 1917 joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54859/695
Nikolai Volosyuk (Николай Волосук; Nicolai; Nikolaj; Volosuk; aka Mike Walker)
Born 1888, Stołpie, Russia (present-day Poland). Steelworker. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Elected as a URW delegate to the Soviet of Workers Deputies of South Bethlehem, composed of members of the URW and local Lithuanian and Polish socialist groups, and for which he served as the recording secretary and a member of the executive committee. Arrested March 4, 1919; released on bail. Arrested again December 12, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/696
Carl Voss (Carl Heinrich Frederick Voss)
Born 1891, Hamburg, Germany. Sailor; laborer. Migrated to US 1910 (deserted ship). Joined the IWW 1913; 1918 became organizer for the IWW’s Metal Mine Workers’ Industrial Union No. 800. Also a member of the International Seamen’s Union. Arrested Tucson, Arizona, September 8, 1918 for failing to register for the draft; January 1919 sentenced a year in the Yavapai County Jail; reported by the sherif to have “caused him more trouble than any other prisoner he as had in jail…on account of attempting to incite riots on several occasions, and attempting to effect a jail delivery.” Arrested upon his release in January 1920 and held for deportation. Deported May 22, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54860/699
See also: Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University
Niilo Wälläri (Nillo; Nullo; Nulo)
Wälläri in 1926Wälläri in 1955
Born 1897, Lieto, Finland. Sailor; union organizer. Migrated to US 1916 (jumped ship). Joined the IWW in 1917. Attended the Finnish IWW’s Work People’s College in Duluth, Minnesota. Became prominent Finnish-speaking IWW orator and organizer. February 1919 arrested in Erie, Pennsylvania, for allegedly crossing state lines for “immoral purposes” with his seventeen-year-old common-law wife, Lyylie (Lillian) Jaaskelainen, after she was arrested for shoplifting and IWW materials were found in his possession. The couple officially married August 20, 1920 in Pittsburgh. Niilo was deported 1920 for entering the country without inspection. The Pennsylvania Board of Appeals denied his petition to have his wife’s sentence commuted so that she could travel to Finland with him. (Lillian Wallari remained in the US and became a chiropractor.) Following his deportation, Niilo traveled to Russia where he attended political education courses conducted by the outlawed and exiled Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue (Finnish Communist Party). Returned to Finland and in February 1921 became district secretary for the Suomen Sosialistinen Työväenpuolue (Finnish Socialist Workers’ Party) in Uusimaa. May 1923 became secretary of the SKP. Arrested that August and convicted of treason. While in prison wrote in opposition to the SKP’s conception of a small revolutionary vanguard, its focus on underground organizations, and its adherence to directives from exiled leaders in Russia, and in favor of mass organizations, a popular front with social democrats, national Communist autonomy from the Comintern, and neighborhood, rather than workplace, organizations. 1926 released from prison and became editor of the Communist Työväenjärjestöjen Tiedonantaja (Labor Union Informer); 1929 he cofounded the breakaway Suomen työväen vasemmistoryhmä (Left Group of Finnish Workers). In the 1930s he advocated a united front against fascism, joined the Social Democratic Party, and continued to contribute articles to the IWW’s Finnish-language newspaper Industrialisti. 1938 became head of the militant Finnish Seamen’s Union (Suomen Merimies-Unioni), the most powerful union in the country. Under his leadership the union helped run arms to the antifascists in the Spanish Civil War, aided Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, won Finnish seamen the eight-hour day in 1946, and organized a union boycott of apartheid South Africa in the 1960s. In 1946 Wälläri was allowed to visit the US for two months as a delegate to the International Maritime Conference. After the Second World War he joined the Finnish People’s Democratic League and the ruling Socialist Unity Party (Sosialistinen Yhtenäisyyspuolue), and remained the head of the Seamen’s Union until his death in 1967.
INS file 54648/26 (file missing); FBI file OG 350179
See also: Evening News (Harrisburg PA), January 21 and 22, 1920; Pittsburgh Press, April 19, 1934; Ancestry.com; Tommi Kippola, “Transnationell syndikalism i ett lokalt rum: Industrial Workers of the World och finländarna i Duluth 1915–1921” https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/169623; Keijo Virtanen, Settlement or Return: Finnish Emigrants (1860-1930) in the International Overseas Return Migration Movement; John H. Hodgson, Communism in Finland: A History and Interpretation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967); Tauno Saarela, “American Impact on Finnish Communism in the 1920s,” in Labouring Finns: Transnational Politics in Finland, Canada, and the United States; Jukka Paastela, Finnish Communism Under Soviet Totalitarianism: Oppositions Within the Finnish Communist Party in Soviet Russia 1918-1935; Erkki Savolainen, Niilo Wälläri: legenda jo eläessään
Born 1889, Saxony, Germany. Knitter. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and in 1916 elected secretary of the Party’s German Federation. 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America; Indiana State Secretary of the Communist Party beginning November 1919. Deported January 12, 1921. Sent his wife Martha and two US-born daughters to Germany ahead of him. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54859/123; FBI file OG 8000-383588
See also: Fort Wayne Sentinel, January 5, 1920; Garrett Clipper, December 23, 1920
Henry William Watts (Willy; H. W. Watts)
Born 1883, London, England. Journalist. Migrated to Canada 1906. Appears to have been involved in socialist politics and journalism in Canada. From there, migrated to US 1914. Immediately joined the Socialist Party of America in Everett, Washington. January 1915 began writing for the Washington Socialist; February 1915 became its business manager. Continued that role for the paper’s successor, the Northwest Worker, of which he became editor in April 1916. He wrote in support of the IWW and of “collective ownership” (by workers) rather than “state socialism” (i.e. government ownership). Arrested August 1916 for protesting police repression of IWW speakers in Everett. Arrested again April 6, 1917 for libel of local military recruiters; charges dismissed. Arrested once more October 25, 1917 as an alien “anarchist”; released on bail after seven weeks. While in jail, continued as editor of the Northwest Worker and its successor, The Co-operative News. Eventually deported solely on the dubious grounds that he had been “likely to become a public charge” at the time of his entry into the US. Deported to Canada, February 27, 1918–making him the first known deportee of the Red Scare.
Settled in Vancouver, where he joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 213, and in 1921 he became the editor of the B.C. Labour News (1921-22), the official organ of the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council (VTLC), and now opposed the syndicalist One Big Union movement, writing that the labor movement “must not be carried away by dogma” and “lose its power of resistance to organized capital by adopting visionary, idealistic schemes which only end up in the division of the workers.” 1924 editor of the VTLC’s new newspaper The Labour Statesman, which he edited until his death in 1953. He supported the VTLC’s position opposing Asian immigration and political enfranchisement, and also took a strong anti-Communist (but social-democratic) position. 1928 resigned as Local 213’s delegate to the Canadian Labour Party due to increasing Communist influence within it. Ran unsuccessfully as candidate for British Columbia’s social-democratic Independent Labour Party in 1928, 1930, and 1932. Briefly visited the US in 1928 and 1941 on union business, but was debarred from visiting in 1936 due to his former deportation. Elected business agent of the Vancouver Building Trades Council in 1947. Died February 15, 1953.
INS file 54235/57 (file missing); FBI file OG 52458
Born 1880, Vilna, Russia (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania). Jewish. Statistician; editor. In Russia, “a public school teacher in a Jewish school.” Involved in socialist movement since 1900 (in both the General Jewish Labour Bund and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party); participated in 1905 revolution and befriended Leon Trotsky. December 1905 arrested at Brest-Litovsk and imprisoned, then in 1916 sentenced to four years in Siberia; escaped after ten days and went to France. 1907 migrated from there to Switzerland, where he graduated from the University of Geneva in 1912 with degrees in law and social science. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party of America in New York; 1914 became an editor of the socialist newspaper Novy Mir; employed Trotsky as a writer January-March 1917. 1919 cofounded the Communist Labor Party and became general office manager of the (unrecognized) Russian Soviet Government Bureau. Also became an editor of the CLP’s Class Struggle and its short-lived Russian-language paper Pravda. Ordered deported; “voluntarily departed” January 22, 1921. 1922 employed by the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which in 1923 became the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs); served as a Soviet diplomatic representative to Canada, a diplomatic agent in Leningrad, and in 1926-28 worked at the Soviet Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey. 1930s in Moscow became head of the Second Western Department of the USSR People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. August 1939 arrested in Stalin’s purges; executed 1940.
INS file 54810/500 (file missing) and 54810/500A (Exhibits)
Deported to England, June 19, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Albert Whitehead
Born 1867, Leicester, England. Sailor. Migrated to US 1907. 1911 joined the IWW; became a charter member of Sacramento Council of the IWW. Defendant along with 45 other IWW members in federal trail in Sacramento for violating the Espionage Act; engaged with most of the other defendants in a “silent defense” by refusing to participate in the proceedings. Accused of “arson and destruction of property” in connection with fires that had occurred near Fresno. Sentenced to a year in San Francisco County Jail; caught tuberculosis while imprisoned. Deported December 24, 1919. Upon his arrival in Liverpool, he “gave all his cash to poor children,” and apparently joined the Merseyside IWW branch.
INS file 54616/36; FBI file OG 8000-237893
See also: Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959
Kurt Gustav Wilckens (aka Chris Jensen; Gus Jansen)
Born 1886, Bramstedt, Germany. Miner. Migrated to US 1910. 1914 enlisted in the US Army; deserted after six months due to “mis-treatment.” Following several unsuccessful attempts to enter Canada, surrendered to military authorities at St. Louis and was court-martialed; sentenced to a year in military detention at Fort Leavenworth; dishonorably discharged upon his release in November 1916. Around this time he discovered the writings of Leo Tolstoy, became a pacifist and an anarchist, and joined the IWW. June 1917 participated in IWW miners’ strike in Bisbee, Arizona; was one of the 2,000 miners rounded up by vigilantes and “deported” to the New Mexico desert. August 1917 arrested as an “enemy alien” and interned at Fort Douglas, Utah. After several unsuccessful attempts, escaped with a fellow detainee December 24, 1917. Organized for the IWW in Seattle and Colorado (under the name “Chris Jensen”). November 1919 arrested in Silverton, Colorado as an IWW member who “had been making disloyal remarks against the United States Government. Deported to Germany, March 27, 1920. Circa 1921 migrated to Argentina and worked as a dispatcher at port of Buenos Aires. He roomed with Spanish anarchist Diego Abad de Santillán and wrote as correspondent for German anarchist newspapers Alarm and Der Syndikalist. Outraged at the execution of hundreds of striking workers during the Patagonia Rebellion, on January 23, 1923 he assassinated the Colonel responsible, Héctor Benigno Varela, outside of his home. On June 15, 1923, Wilckens was murdered in prison by one of Valera’s former troops; his death led to widespread strikes and protests in Argentina, and his killer was in turn murdered two years later in retaliation.
INS file 54709/612
See also: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Diego Abad de Santillán Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam; Osvaldo Bayer, Rebellion in Patagonia
Harry Wodner (Wadner; Wardner)
Born 1894, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Jewish. Machinist. Migrated to US 1913. Arrested during raid on the Union of Russian Workers’ People’s House in New York during the first Palmer Raids, November 15, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/461
Kronagi Workolf
Born 1896, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus). Steelworker. Migrated to US 1913. February 1919 he helped organize the Monessen, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers, of which he became secretary. Arrested March 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/133; FBI file OG 224794
Maxim Worobey
Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Machinist. Migrated to US 1914. 1919 joined Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested November 28, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/369
Ignac Worobien (Ignace)
Born 1884, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. April 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested November 18, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/403; FBI file OG 380406
Pavel Yakimov (Павел Якимов; Paul; Jacimoff; Jakimov)
Born 1887, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Wife and son in Russia. 1919 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on lists of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G and FBI file BS 202600-33
Mikhail Yanish (Михаил Яниш; Mike)
Born 1889, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and child in Russia. Member of the Monessen, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested November 26, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
