Born 1872, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Jewish. Sailor; carpenter. 1914 migrated to England; 1916 migrated to Canada then back to England. Migrated to US 1917 (jumped ship). Wife and four children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in July 1919. Also a member of the Workers’ International Industrial Union. Arrested in first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/144; FBI file OG 8000-378509
Joseph Kish (Kiz; Kis; Kiss; Kism)
Born 1889, Aranyosgyéres, Hungary (present-day Câmpia Turzii, Romania). Laborer. Migrated to US 1911. Widower, three children living with his mother in Hungary. Joined Hungarian Federation of the Socialist Party of America circa 1912. Also joined IWW in 1919. Arrested in Cleveland and sentenced to thirty days in workhouse for disturbing the peace at 1919 “May Day riot.” Arrested again July 1919. Immigration Inspector in Charge in Cleveland wrote: “this alien has been confined in the County Jail at Cleveland for nearly nine months under conditions which are highly undesirable. The Cuyahoga County Jail is very old and unsanitary, and is so badly crowded that persons are lucky if they do not have to remain in their cells at least twenty-two (22) hours out of the twenty-four (24) of the day.” Deported March 21, 1920.
INS file 54616/236
Nikolai Kizer (Николай Кизер; Nick)
Born 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1915. Alleged to be secretary of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919, as was his cousin, Peter Kizer. According to the Bureau of Immigration, “In some manner Peter Kizer was taken to Ellis Island rather than Nick Kizer, for whom a warrant of deportation had been issued. Nick was left in the city jail in Hartford.” The error was discovered at Ellis Island and Peter Kizer was apparently eventually released (although one source claims he was mistakenly deported). Nikolai was deported January 22, 1921.
INS files 54709/160 and 54709/265
See also: Bruce B. Sherbert, “The Palmer Raids in Connecticut, 1919-1920,” Connecticut Review 5, no. 1 (1971)
Nikolai Klemiatov (Николай Клемятов; Nicholas Klemiatoff; Kleminatoff)
Born 1891, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Pittsburgh and in 1919 transferred to the Communist Party of America. Arrested October 1920. Deported February 1, 1921.
INS file 54885/48
Efim Kochovetz (aka M. Berisoff)
Born 1888, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1907. Joined Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1914; later became secretary of New London, Connecticut branch and taught arithmetic classes in its school. Arrested in Hartford, Connecticut during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/161
Efim Kolesnikov (Ефим Колесников; John Kolesnikoff; Joachim)
Kolesnikov (center, standing) with other URW members arrested in New York, November 7, 1919
Born 1880, Kursk, Russia. Ship reamer. Widower. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1919. Arrested and beaten during first Palmer Raids, November 7, 1919, the Russian People’s House in New York. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/454
Jim Komar (or Jonar)
Born 1879, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and two children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested Youngstown, Ohio during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/544; FBI file OG 378979
Pavel Konavalchuk (Paul)
Born 1894, Russia. Migrated to US 1911. Machinist. A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark until it was broken up in November 1919. Wife and American-born child in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Arrested Newark January 3, 1920. Avowed anarchist, “but as an anarchist I am opposed to all force or violence of any kind.” Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
Member of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested Seattle, December 1919. Deported February 1, 1921. No further information found.
FBI file OG 389407
Gregory Koroviansky (aka George Karoff)
Born 1891, Russia. Laborer. 1912 migrated to Argentina; 1914 migrated to US. Wife and child in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/145
Anton Korshikov (Антон Коршиков; Tony Korscheikoff; Korschikoff)
Born 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Described himself as “a fugitive from Czarism.” Arrested and beaten while attending arithmetic class at the Union of Russian Workers’ People’s House in New York during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/455
Wacław Kosiorek
Born 1894, Russian Poland. Polish. Laborer. 1914 joined Detroit’s Polish Branch No. 8 of the Socialist Party, which transferred into the Communist Party. Arrested December 29, 1919. “Voluntary departure” to Russia via Canada and England, 1920. No further information found.
INS file 54709/860
Mike Koslick
Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Logvin Kostevich (Логвин Костевич; Lenohon; aka Louis Kostevich)
Born 1894, Povusk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the “Russian Workmen’s Organization” in Baltimore, 1917; 1919 transferred into Branch No. 2 if the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/420
Gabriel Kosticovitch (Kosticowitsc)
Born 1882, Russia. Migrated to US 1916. Member of Russian Branch No. 3, Communist Party of America, in Detroit. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntary departure” via Canada, October 16, 1920. No further information found.
FBI file 202600-1380-1
Konstantin Koszko
Born c.1897, Zasieki, Russia (in present-day Poland). Anarchist. Migrated to US 1913. Butcher; meatpacker. Became an anarchist c. 1917. Joined the Anarchist-Communist Groups of the United States and Canada. Arrested in Cleveland, February 1921. When asked to define what an anarchist is, answered: “An Anarchist is a man who understands the ‘Blood-suckers’ of the world and its parasites, who are a menace to society, and understanding that, no man can be anything else but an Anarchist.” Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 55009/23
Anton Kotiak (Антон Котяк)
Kotiak’s URW membership card
Born 1895, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Drafted into US Army November 1918 but honorably discharged March 1919 at his request as an unnaturalized alien. Joined the Bridgeport, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers circa September 1919. Arrested Hartford, Connecticut during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/386; FBI file OG 389393
Maxwell Kotick (Максвелл Котик; Kotik; Kutick)
Kotick’s Communist Party membership card
Born c. 1890, Russia. Jewish. Widower. Migrated to US 1910. Clerk. Literate in English, Yiddish, Russian, and German. Joined the Socialist Party in 1912, then October 1919 transferred to Philadelphia’s Russian Brach of the Communist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920. Deported to Russia February 1, 1921.
INS file 54810/820; FBI file OG 389320
Dionisiy Ivanovich Koval (Дионисий Иванович Коваль; Daniel Kowal; Danny Cowas)
Born 1884, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; migrated to US 1914. Wife and two children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1919; escaped arrest during Palmer Raids on Russian People’s House in November 1919; relocated to Waterbury, Connecticut, where he joined the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives). Arrested March 1920. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
FBI file OG 384417
Foma Koval (Фома Коваль; Tom; Coval)
Koval’s Communist Party card
Born 1891, Russia. Belarusian (Ruthenian). Migrated to US 1913. Blacksmith. Joined Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Socialist Party, then joined the Communist Party in September 1919. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 554809/438
Fedor Kovalchuk (Федор Ковальчук; Kowalchuk)
Member of the Communist Party of America in Philadelphia. Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
See also: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921
Evgraf Kovalenko (Евграф Коваленко; Efgram; Kovaleko; aka E. Koval)
Born 1885, Russia. Migrated to England 1906, then Germany; 1912 migrated to Canada; from there migrated to US 1917. Wife and two children in Russia. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh, where he was “known by the police department and officers of the Bureau of Investigation as one of the worst radicals in the city.” Arrested May, 1919. Deported on the Buford. At unknown date, sentenced to internal exile (with wife and children) in Omsk region of Siberia.
Born 1892, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1911; then to US 1915. Joined the Union of Russian Workers Branch No. 2 in Detroit in February 1918; distributor of Russian anarchist and IWW publications. Arrested May 1919. Deported January 22, 1921. Appears to have illegally returned to the US, as he was an active member of Detroit’s Dielo Truda Group in 1939, and at that time was considered a “comrade…capable of doing great work of the organizational-educational type in the movement.”
FBI file OG 369234
See also: Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America
Stanislovas Kubinskis (Станисловас Кубинскис; Kubinskas; aka Stanley Kubinsky)
Born 1897, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Carpenter; miner; laborer. In Russia, belonged to the Russian Social Democratic Party. Migrated to US 1914. Worked as a coal miner; former member of the United Mine Workers. In Detroit, worked for Ford Motor Company and in 1915 joined the Lithuanian Branch of the Socialist Party of America, which was transferred into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested April 22, 1919, “while distributing radical literature on a Michigan Avenue street car.” Declared his belief in “the soviet form of government.” Deported February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/165
Michael Kucher
Recording secretary of the Jersey City branch of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to “Galicia” (Poland?) March 30, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G; FBI file OG 380877
Efrem Kucher (Ефрем Кучер; Evsey; Evesey)
Arrested in Brooklyn during the second Palmer Raids, January 1919. Deported to Russia December 23, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
See also: The Standard Union (Brooklyn), December 23, 1920
Alek Kuchinsky (Алек Кучинский)
Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Mikal Kudreyko (Микал Кудрейко; aka Peter Kravchuk, Петр Кравчук; aka Michael Kravchuk; Krawchuk)
Mid-Week Pictorial, January 1, 1920
Born 1883, Pruzhany, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and child in Russia. Became secretary of a Detroit branch of the URW. Arrested July 1918 at a radical picnic; admitted he was “an anarchist, and proud of it.” Moved to New York; became secretary of the Housewreckers’ Union and coeditor of URW paper Khlieb i Volia. August 1919 arrested with editorial team and indicted for “criminal anarchy.” Falsely claimed that he had left the URW in 1918 “Because I thought this organization is not radical enough.” Deported on the Buford. Reportedly died soon thereafter.
INS file 54554/23
See also: Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America
Simon Kuish (Sam)
Born 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Rubber worker. Migrated to the US in 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio, 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/193
Ivan Kulak (Иван Кулак; John)
Deported to Russia November 27, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Roman Kulich (Kovalevich)
Born Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus), 1895. Migrated to US 1913. Machinist. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; deported February 26, 1921.
INS file 54859/722
Mark Kulish (Марк Кулиш; Kulesch; Kulesh)
Born 1890, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Laborer; factory inspector. Migrated to the US 1913. Wife and child in Russia. During the First World War, a factory worker and then a US arms factory inspector for the Russian Commission. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut circa 1916; became secretary of the URW branch in South Manchester, Connecticut 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919; falsely suspected of being a “bomb-maker.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1890, Rokitnica, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Longshoreman. Migrated to US 1910. Joined the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/345
Tony Kurson (Kirsion; Kirson)
Born 1884, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to the US 1909. Joined the Luch Society in Ansonia, Connecticut, circa 1917, which federal authorities maintained was a branch of the Union of Russian Workers (though Kurson denied this). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/326; FBI file OG 382937
Michael Kusbit
Deported to Austria, May 8, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in 54325/36G
Fedor Kushnarev (Федор Кушнарев; Theodore Kushnareff; Kushnirov; Kushneroff; aka Theodore Alexander Casher; aka Alexander Dalny or Dalney)
Born 1898, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Student; laborer. Migrated with parents and five younger siblings in 1913; father died less than a year later. Graduated high school in New Haven, Connecticut; became student at New York University. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917 or 1918. Organized a URW branch in New Haven; in 1919, he was financial secretary of the URW branch in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Arrested there March 1919 (under his pen name Alexander Dalney), but case against him dismissed. In New York, a coeditor of Khlieb i Volia. Arrested several more times (under different names), for the last time during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Asked for permission to have his “wife” (his companion, the anarchist and labor organizer Rose Pesotta) accompany him if deported. Deported on the Buford. 1920 arrested in Crimea and sentenced to five years in a prison camp “for propaganda of libertarian ideas” and allegedly taking up arms against the Soviet government. Later released after authorities deemed his incarceration an “error.” In 1920 and again 1924 hoped to leave Russia and go to US or Cuba. Although he did not join the Communist Party or call himself a Communist, he no longer considered himself an anarchist and concluded that “to support the Revolution means to support Lenin and Trotsky.” Briefly attended the Moscow Institute of Journalism. Worked with the American Relief Administration as interpreter and secretary for US Colonel Walter Bell in Ufa during the famine; contracted typhus. Some sources claim he died in 1925, but in 1934 his mother petitioned the US government to allow him and his family to enter the country.
INS file 54709/522
See also: Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Elaine J. Leeder, The Gentle General: Rose Pesotta, Anarchist and Labor Organizer; Groupe des anarchistes russes exilés en Allemagne, Répression de l’anarchisme en Russie Soviétique; Rose Pesotta Papers, New York Public Library
Steve K______ (last name illegible)
His partially illegible name as it appears in the records
Deported to Yugoslavia, September 1, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in 54325/36G
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.
Born 1881, Volyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine).Ukrainian. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and five children in Russia. Union of Russian Workers. Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/603; FBI file OG 380968
Mike Libeszky
Deported to Austria May 8, 1920. No further information found.
Including on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Tito Ligi (aka Augusto Vitaletti)
Born 1894, Sassoferrato, Italy. Miner. Migrated to US 1912. Already an anarchist, along with his brother Adolfo, before both migrated; in the US associated with Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. November 1920 arrested in Scranton, Pennsylvania, for evading the draft (having taken out a declaration of intent to naturalize, he was eligible for service). After his arrest he briefly became the lead suspect (almost certainly falsely) in the Wall Street bombing of 1920. Deported August 1922. Moved to Rome 1925 with wife Bianchi Angela, where they opened a small shop. Under government surveillance until 1940; although he maintained his anarchist ideas, officials recorded no political activity of note. Meanwhile his brother Angelo, living in Jessup, Pennsylvania, adopted Tito’s name (causing some confusion) and married fellow anarchist Maria Giaconi, who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
FBI file BS 25-63-12-1; CPC busta 2786
See also: The Nation, May 18, 1921; Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror; Charles H. McCormick, Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers
Amedeo Lilli (Lillie)
Born 1894, Acqualagna, Italy. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Anarchist; member, Circolo Studi Sociali of Milwaukee and subscriber to Cronaca Sovversiva. Arrested September 1917 after Italian anarchist “riot,” during which he was shot in the shoulder by an undercover policeman. Sentenced to 25 years for assault in Wisconsin State Prison; pardoned in 1922 on condition of deportation. Deported February 16, 1922. After return to Italy he became a tailor and, according to government surveillance that lasted into 1932, took no part in radical activities.
INS file 54235/67; CPC busta 2787
See also: Robert Tanzilo, The Milwaukee Police Station Bomb of 1917; Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror
Peter Linecky (Pete; Linieski)
Born 1885, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1916. Laborer. Wife and two children in Russia. Joined the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 1920; deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/713
Dora Lipkin (Дора Липкин)
Born 1894, Russia. Jewish. Migrated to US 1910. Anarchist and member of the Union of Russian Workers; common-law wife of URW leader Hyman Perkus. Lived in New York with family of Boris Shatz, another URW member and fellow deportee. Arrested October 1919 for “disturbing the peace”; arrested again during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Refused to answer questions while detained. Helped lead hunger strike on Ellis Island to protest conditions. Deported, along with Perkus, on the Buford. 1925 estranged from Perkus and described by Fedor Kushnarev as “a poor broken-hearted woman” who was hoping to leave Russia for Mexico. No further information found.
INS file 54709/275
See also: New York Tribune, November 30, 1919; Rose Pesotta Papers, New York Public Library
Samuel Lipman (Самуил Липман; Lippman; aka Schaie Lipzcuk)
Born 1888, Pinsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Furrier. Jewish. Migrated to US 1913. Belonged to New York’s Frayhayt Group, but considered himself a socialist rather than an anarchist; a pacifist and vegetarian strongly influenced by Leo Tolstoy. Common-law husband of anarchist Ethel Bernstein (who was deported on the Buford). Arrested with other group members in 1918 for writing and distributing fliers opposing US intervention in Russian Civil War. Sentenced to 20 years under the Espionage Act. In prison, became disillusioned with Tolstoy, but (falsely) claimed to have become an anarchist (so that he could be deported). Deported November 23, 1921 after losing landmark Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States. In Russia, reunited with and married Ethel Bernstein and studied agronomy and became chairman of the Department of Economic Geography at a university in Moscow. “After a period of doubts, struggle with my own self & debating,” applied to join the Communist Party in 1928. In the 1930s, however, he was executed in Stalin’s purges.
INS file 54517/72
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; Senya Fléchine Papers, International Institute for Social History, The Netherlands
Anton Lipsky (Антон Липский)
Born 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Presser. Migrated to the US 1913. “I came to the United States to learn some profession.” Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. New York. Arrested in the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/456
Demian Lisiuk (Демьян Лисюк; Jim; Lisuk)
Born 1894, Russia. Migrated to Canada 1913, then to US 1914. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party 1919, transferred into Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54859/772
Nikolai Lisiuk (Николай Лисюк; Nicholas; Nick)
Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Anton Lishkevich (Антон Личкевич; Lichkevitch; aka Anto Cotie)
Born 1887, Kamieniec, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1912; migrated to the US February 1919. “I have been an Anarchist since 1905.” Arrested January 1920 in Detroit. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921, but refused entry on the basis of his anarchism at Libau, along with several other deportees. Coauthored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Lenin” in response. Returned to US. Subsequent activities unknown.
FBI file OG 367316
See also: Free Society (New York), October-November 1921
Aftanasy Litvakoff
Born c.1884, Lopatni, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Lived in Homestead, Pennsylvania for six years. 1917 joined the URW; arrested for handing out radical handbills and spent twenty days in jail. Moved to Cleveland. Arrested February 21, 1921. Claimed, “I do recognize Anarchism, but I feel that I am not worthy enough to be called such, owing to the fat that I do not understand Anarchy enough to be honored by being called an Anarchist.” Apparently a member of the Anarchist Groups of the United States and Canada, although it is not entirely clear. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 55009/22
Anna Loban
Born c.1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Housewife. Married Konstantin Loban in Akron, 1916. Member of the Union of Russian Workers. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 55009/24
Konstantin Loban (aka Peter Dedka or Dutka)
Born Slutsk, Russia (present-day Belarus), 1893. Migrated to US 1913. Rubber worker at BF Goodrich in Akron. Married Anna Loban in Akron, 1916. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1915, in 1919 became secretary of its Lansing, Michigan branch. Later a member of the Anarchist-Communist Groups of the United States and Canada. When asked why he “became antagonistic to this government,” replied: “Because I have been working here for eight years and am still doing hard laboring work and have not enough money to return to Russia, whereas the Americans all have much better jobs, have money and have privileges that I do not have and this country does not belong to Americans any more than it belongs to any one…as it was originally owned by the Indians.” Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 55009/24
Michael Lojan (Mike)
Born 1897, Austria-Hungary. Migrated to US 1913. Barber. Joined the Communist Party. Arrested in Milwaukee; deported to Yugoslavia 1923.
Ivan Nabagez (Иван Набагез; John; Nabajix; Nabagiz)
Born 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut in August 1919. Arrested in the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/397
Alexander Nagula (Александр Нагула)
Member of Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntary departure” to Russia via Canada, October 16, 1920.
FBI file BS 202600-1377-1
Pasquale Nardini
Pasquale Nardini with wife Maria, c. 1917. Social War Bulletin, April 1918.
Born 1882, Fano, Italy. Migrated to US 1910 with wife, Maria (née Frattesi) and five-year-old son. Member, along with Maria, of anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali of Milwaukee. Both arrested 1917 after Italian anarchist “riot.” Both convicted of “assault with the intent to kill and murder,” but had convictions overturned by the court. Immediately then detained for deportation. Pasquale deported July 15, 1920; deportation warrant against Maria cancelled June 8, 1920 (Note: some sources incorrectly conclude that Maria was deported with Pasquale, but see INS file 54235-70).
Migrated to Canada 1921; Maria and their son joined him there. Maria and son returned to US 1925; Pasquale followed, illegally, likely shortly thereafter. From the family’s new home in New Haven, Connecticut, he donated funds to New York’s anarchist paper L’Adunata dei Refrattari from 1925 until at least 1937. 1941 the family was living in Harlem and running a grocery store; 1945 Maria became US citizen. Pasquale died 1951.
INS file 54235/72 (file missing)
See also: Robert Tanzilo, The Milwaukee Police Station Bomb of 1917; Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror; L’Adunata dei Refrattari
Born 1892, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine or Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Member of the Socialist Party of America in Bristol, Connecticut. Also allegedly a member of the Union of Russian Workers, but based on flimsy evidence. Arrested June, 1918 for distributing radical literature; arrested again in the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/164; FBI file OG 8000-373183
Andrei Nazaruk (Андрей Назарук; Andrew; Mazaruk; aka Prisoophick)
Born 1894, Zabawa, Russia (present-day Poland). Belarussian. Steelworker. Migrated to US 1914. Alleged member of the Union of Russian Workers, although based on flimsy evidence. Arrested in Newark, December 3, 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/627
Gavril Nechiporenko (Гаврил Нечипоренко; Gabriel)
Born 1889, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Worked in a foundry at Ford Motor Company. Member of Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Born 1892, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Jewish. Hatmaker; chiropractor; pharmacist. Migrated to US 1914. Anarchist and alleged IWW organizer in Cleveland. February 1919 convicted of violating the Espionage Act for anti-war speech and sentenced to 19 years. At sentencing the judge declared: “I presume that the Russian Bolshevists would welcome you, and Lenine and Trotzky would be glad to see you back in the event that the government should deport you…in the event that the Government does not send you back to Russia I am going to protect America from your activities by sending you the Atlanta penitentiary for 19 years at hard labor.” Sentence commuted on condition of deportation; deported February 26, 1921.
However, refused entry on the basis of his anarchism at Libau, along with several other deportees. Coauthored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Lenin” in response. Returned to US. Apparently ceased radical activities. Belatedly received an unconditional presidential pardon September 1930; 1935 applied for US citizenship and denied for “Lack of attachment to the principles of the constitution of the United States and not [being] well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same,” but upon appeal this decision was reversed.
INS file 54616/23 (file missing); INS file 121/2
See also: Pittsburgh Daily Post, February 23, 1919; Freedom (London), May 1921; Free Society (New York), October-November 1921; U.S. Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995, Ancenstry.com
Pavel Nestoruk (Павел Несторук; Paul Nestoruck; aka Piole Nestium; Prole Nestruk; Nestrum)
Born 1888, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913 (via Canada). Wife and children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/395
Ivan Nevar (Иван Невар; John Newar)
Born 1885, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark in September 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/338; FBI file OG 381446
Carl William Newlander (Karl Wilhelm Nylander)
Born 1890, Boo, Sweden. Laborer; bookseller. Migrated to US 1906 to evade military service. Lived in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York. Became anarchist and close friend of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman; collaborated on Mother Earth, The Blast, and the Mother Earth Bulletin; ran the Mother Earth Book Shop in New York. Arrested June 29, 1918 for draft evasion and January 1919 sentenced to 60 days under the Selective Service Act. Upon his release detained for deportation; deported April 24, 1919.
In Sweden settled in Hjortkvarn, but blacklisted in 1920 after conflict with an employer. Visited Goldman and Berkman in Stockholm in early 1921, and corresponded extensively with Goldman. 1922 migrated to Canada with companion and child. Reunited with and aided Goldman after she migrated there in 1927; became secretary of Toronto’s Libertarian Group.
INS file 54517/1
See also: Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University; Freedom (New York), April-May 1919; Emma Goldman Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam; Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich, Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman
Born 1892, Veliki Bečkerek (present-day Zrenjanin), Austria-Hungary (present-day Serbia). Serbian. Migrated to US 1912. Autoworker. Employee of the Fisher Body Corporation in Detroit. 1913 joined Branch No. 61 (later Branch No. 17) of the South Slavic Federation of the Socialist Party of America; 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to Yugoslavia, April 14, 1920.
INS file 54860/374; FBI file OG 388055
Jacob Plajek
Deported to Poland, August 1, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Mike Podalak
Deported to Austria, June 19, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Mathew Podlipsky (Матвей Подлипский)
Podlipsky’s URW membership card
Born 1887, Rakitnitsa, Russia (present-day Belarus). Polish-Belarusian. Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. A member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Newark. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/356; FBI file OG 381187
Marko Podner
Born 1892, Okrug, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Croatian. Laborer; miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Croatia-Slavonia. June 1919 joined Branch No. 62 of Communist Party of America in West Winfield, Pennsylvania; became its secretary. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to Yugoslavia, June 19, 1920.
FBI file OG 8000-382563
Wolf Pohl (aka Pawlowicz; Pavlovich)
Pohl’s Communist Party membership card
Born c.1896, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Migrated to US 1912. Housepainter. Joined the Socialist Party in 1913, then the Communist Party. Communist speaker and literature distributor in Buffalo. December 1920 joined the IWW as well. August 1919 arrested for distributing radical literature, but released. Arrrested again January 1920. Confined at Erie County Jail, where contracted pneumonia that required transfer to hospital for treatment. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54859/912
George Polevoy (Полевой)
Born 1883, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Miner. Migrated to US 1907. Joined the IWW circa 1914 in Moundsville, West Virginia; also a member of the United Mine Workers (UMW). Participated in a miners’ strike protesting the conviction of Tom Mooney, and another in protest of the imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs. Arrested June 1918 for disturbing the peace during a dispute with UMW leaders; sentenced to $50 fine and ten days in jail (UMW member William Bursey later testified against Polevoy as a leader “of the foreign element [in the union]…they have made all kinds of trouble.” Arrested August, 1919. Described by immigration agent as “exceptionally shrewd and astute.” Deported February 1, 1921. Wife and child in US.
INS file 54709/49
Josef Polulech (Йозеф Полулех; Joseph; aka Joseph Balluch)
Born 1892, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Arrested during raid on the Union of Russian Workers’ “Russian People’s House” in New York during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Denied membership in the URW (and no evidence of membership was produced); claimed he was only there to attend arithmetic and Russian classes. He had, however, been an active member of New York Methodist Episcopal Church of All Nations since 1913, and several church leaders attempted to intervene on his behalf. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/449; FBI file OG 8000-382493
See also: The Churchman, January 24 and February 21, 1920; Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920
Jacob Popich
Born 1892, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Laborer. Member of the South Slavic Branch of the Communist Party of America in Omaha. Arrested in St. Paul, Nebraska, January 8, 1920. Deported to Yugoslavia, July 15, 1920.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
See also: Omaha Daily Bee, January 9, 1920
Serjy Porchunoff (Sergy; Sergey)
Born 1888, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Served in Russian Army for two years. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Employed by Standard Oil. Joined the Russian Branch of the Whiting, Indiana branch of the Socialist Party in 1914, then the Communist Party; secretary of both branches. Arrested Chicago, January 7, 1920; deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 54809/82
Andrew Postaruk (Pestaruk?)
Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Born 1897, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Steelworker. Attended meetings of the Union of Russian Workers in Monessen, Pennsylvania, but denied being a member and no evidence of membership produced. Arrested in Greensburg, Pennsylvania during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Immigration Inspector in Charge recommended cancelation of the deportation warrant for lack of evidence, but overruled by Commissioner General A. Caminetti. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/519
See also: Kate Holladay Claghorn, The Immigrant’s Day in Court
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.
Bernard Lazarevich Sernaker (Бернард Лазаревич Сернакер; aka Adolph/Adolff Benet Sernaker)
Born 1884, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Jewish. Machinist. Raised in Orthodox family. Early 1900s joined the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna) and supported Polish independence; 1905 arrested in Warsaw for protesting the Russo-Japanese War and imprisoned for two months. Migrated to Argentina working as a ship’s fireman; studied engineering there. Spoke Polish, Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Spanish, German, and English, as well as some Italian and Chinese. Circa 1907-8 migrated to England; active in anarchist circles in London and Leeds, where me met an unofficially married Jenny/Jennie Cohen, a participant in the 1905 Russian Revolution. 1909 daughter Germain (“Germinal”) born in London; that same year Bernard migrated to US, followed by Jenny and Germaine. Became estranged from Jenny; lived with daughters at the anarchist Stelton colony near New York City; active in anarchist movement in New York. Deeply influenced by Tolstoy and became a pacifist advocate of “nonresistance” as well as a vegetarian. Daughter Harmony born 1912. 1917 joined the Yiddish-speaking anarchist Der Shturem Group as well as the Conscientious Objectors League. Questioned by federal agents November 1918 after making a speech in which he allegedly hailed “a world-wide revolution that will knock in the gates of Ellis Island.” Moved to San Francisco, where arrested pending deportation; while out on bail, an active member of the “San Francisco Soviet of Russian Workers.” Removed to Ellis Island, where he became a leader of protests of detained radicals and was placed in a separate cell after allegedly “endeavoring to incite the other men to violence,” leading other detainees to threaten a hunger strike. Appealed to conservative congressman Albert Johnson, “Would you be so kind as to order my immediate deportation, and get rid of another RED, which I certainly acknowledge to be.” “Voluntarily departed” as a ship’s fireman September 16, 1920. Wife and children remained in US.
In Russia, worked as an engineer at the Moscow Tool Plant (Московского инструментального завода) and an automobile factory; remarried to Sophia Finkelstein and had two more daughters. Not active politically, but known among his coworkers to be an anarchist and privately remained one. 1949, at age 65, sent to the prison camp in Abez for six year for having “subversive” foreign connections. Upon his release in 1956 he reestablished contact with his adult American-born daughters. In Moscow he and his family were treated as pariahs until his death in 1971.
INS file 54517/81; FBI file OG 325661
See also: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, University of Wisconsin, Madison; interviews with Ralph Coppola and Janet Goldner; personal collection of Janet Goldner; https://bessmertnybarak.ru/books/person/1807049/
Kondrate Serovatka (Кондратэ Сероватка; Conrad)
Born 1895, Grodno area, Russia (present-day Belarus). Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1913. 1918 joined the Russian Branch of the Socialist Party of America in Rockford, Illinois; 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Chicago during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Released on bail; joined the breakaway United Communist Party; arrested again August 1920 while posting UCP fliers calling for a general strike against US aid to Poland in the Polish-Soviet War. “Voluntarily departed,” October 16, 1920.
INS file 54859/506; FBI files BS 202600-151-1 and OG 386686
Stanislav Servatka (Станислав Серватка; Stanislaus; Stanley; Serwatka)
Born 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and five children in Russia. Joined the Communist Party of America branch in Passaic, New Jersey. Deported December 23, 1920.
INS file 54810/701; FBI file OG 380377
Vladimir Sestrensky (Владимир Сестренский)
Deported to Russia October 16, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Born 1892, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. Laborer. Financial secretary of the Seattle branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Deported January 22, 1921.
INS file 54860/474; FBI file OG 386685
Afanasy Severny (Афанасий Северный; Alfamasy; aka Frank Sergin)
Born 1895, Uman, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1918. 1919 secretary of the Philadelphia branch of the Union of Russian Workers. February 1920 arrested in Chester, Pennsylvania “for endeavoring to make a speech advocating the overthrow of this government and all capitalism.” Deported February 26, 1921
Refused entry on the basis of his anarchism at Libau, along with several other deportees. Coauthored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Lenin” in response. Transported to the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland); illegally crossed into Poland, where arrested June 2, 1921, and deported to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. He “expressed his indignation” at the conditions in his hometown and was arrested by the Cheka August 24, 1921, and not released until January 6, 1922. Migrated to the Netherlands; from there stowed away on a ship to Canada but discovered and detained for deportation. While out on bail, illegally crossed the border into Detroit, where arrested. Quoted from jail as saying, “If the anarchists, communists and bolshevists in the United States would spend just one week in Russia they would be cured.” 1928 he was living in Ontario, Canada, where he worked as a papermaker and married Annie Areshenkoff. Died June 11, 1960, in Vancouver.
FBI file OG 383729
See also: Free Society (New York), October-November 1921; Detroit Free Press, September 27, 1923; Billings Gazette (Billings MO), October 14 1923; Ancestry.com
Edward Shainfine (Эдвард Шейнфайн)
Born 1896, Russia. Jewish. Salesman. Migrated to US 1913. August 1919 joined the Socialist Party of America in Philadelphia; November 1919 transferred into the First Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America; became branch secretary December 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported February 1, 1921.
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.
