Tag Archives: Polish

Faces of the First Red Scare

As part of the ongoing research for my book on the global history of immigrant radicals who were deported during America’s First Red Scare, I have posted brief profiles of 764 (and counting) individual deportees I have identified. This list is a work in progress, and some entries will be updated as I obtain additional sources.

Who is included:

This list includes radicals and suspected radicals who were deported between 1918 (following America’s entrance into the First World War) and 1925, when the last of the foreign-born radicals arrested between 1917 and 1920 were expelled, some after serving prison sentences. It includes both those who were deported by government order and those who were ordered deported but “voluntarily departed” at their own expense with the government’s consent (both categories were included together in US government deportation statistics). It does not include those who fled the country to avoid arrest or deportation. It includes both individuals deported for belonging to legally-defined “anarchistic classes,” and others who were suspected of radicalism but deported on other grounds (most commonly for entering the country without inspection or being retroactively deemed “likely to become a public charge” at the time of their entry).

This is not a complete list. In the fiscal years (June-July) 1918-1926, the United States deported 979 aliens as “anarchists,” and an unknown number of additional radical immigrants under other statutes. The largest single group of deportees, composed of 242 alleged radicals (as well as seven unrelated deportees) departed on the USAT Buford on December 21, 1919. However, it appears that no complete list of Red Scare deportees was produced by either the Bureau of Immigration or the Bureau of Investigation. I have instead had to rely on partial lists and mentions of individual cases included in these organizations’ files, congressional testimony, radical publications, newspaper reports, and other sources.

How to use this site:

Profiles have been posted in small batches. They are organized in alphabetical order by last name, followed by alternate spellings and pseudonyms in parentheses. (The Cyrillic spellings of Russian names are generally my best guess; American sources from the era were wildly inconsistent in their spellings of such names. The same is true of the transliteration of Chinese names in the Roman alphabet.) You can also browse the Index of Names.

Birth years are often approximate, usually having been calculated from an individual’s age at the time of their examination by immigration authorities, and some may therefore be off by a year.

You can search by individuals’ nationalities (country of birth and, in some cases, ethnicity [i.e. Jewish, Lithuanian, etc.]) by using the tags above.

Occupations describe the individuals’ employment in the US, not necessarily the work they engaged in before arrival or after their deportation.

Political affiliations represented include the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the anarcho-syndicalist Union of Russian Workers of the United States and Canada (URW); the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM); anarchists unaffiliated with larger organizations; the Communist Party of America (CP); the Communist Labor Party (CLP); the Socialist Party of America (SP); the Socialist Labor Party (SLP); and unaffiliated socialists. You can search by political affiliation by using the tags above.

You may also use the “Search” box at the top of the page to look for individual names, locations, etc.

The main sources used for compiling these profiles are case files from the Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Record Group 85, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC; the Old German Files (OG) and Bureau Section Files (BS) of the Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Record Group 65, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (as digitized at fold3.com); and (for Italians) the Casellario Politico Centrale (CPC), Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome, Italy.

A special thanks to Molly Thacker, who photographed dozens of INS files for me; Malcolm Archibald, who has translated a number of Russian-language sources; D.J. Alperovitz, who has provided photographs of several IWW members; and the dozens of other archivists, translators, activists, and colleagues who have helped me locate, acquire, and read material from across the globe while undertaking this research.

Finally, if you have additional information about any of the deportees, or spot an error, please contact me!

Balick to Baritz

Vasiliy Balik (Василий Балик, Wasily Balick or Bilicki)

Born 1896, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer; migrated to US 1913. Employee of Remington Arms Union Metallic Cartridge Company, Bridgeport, CT. Joined of Union of Russian Workers August 1919; arrested September 1919, Hartford, CT. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/389

Ugo Balzano

Born 1882, Castel di Sangro, Aquila, Italy. Typographer; migrated to US 1903; employed by mainstream Italian-American Cleveland newspaper, La Voce del Popolo Italiano. Anarchist; member Circolo Studi Sociali di Cleveland; distributor of Cronaca Sovversiva; publisher of anarchist paper L’Appello (1916-1917). Deported 1919. Arrested immediately upon return to Italy for avoiding the draft. Died Castel di Sangro, 1926.

INS file 54616/348; CPC busta 298

See also: http://bibliotecaborghi.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Cicolani-La-presenza-anarchica.pdf

Walter Banaczyk

Born 1901, Russia (likely in present-day Poland). Auto worker. Migrated to US with parents 1909; employee at Fischer Body. December 1919 joined Branch 37, Polish Section of the Communist Party of America. Arrested Detroit January 1920. Claimed Polish citizenship, but “voluntarily departed” to Russia 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI files OG 382042 and BS 202600-768-1

Peter P. Banaitis

Born 1899, Lithuania. Miner, laborer, toolmaker. Migrated to US 1911. Member International Union of Tool, Die, and Mold Makers; member Branch 37, Lithuanian Section of the Communist Party of America. Arrested January 1920, Chicago. Deported 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI file OG 382041

Daniel Bardaio

Born Russia, year unknown. Member Communist Party of America. Deported February, 1921. No further information.

Included in list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Moses Baritz

Moses Baritz, center

Born 1884, Manchester, England. Musician, journalist. Member Socialist Party of Great Britain; renowned (and feared) agitator and debater, able to quote Marx extemporaneously. He “made more than one journey to America,” and in Canada in 1911 helped found the tiny, “impossibilist” Socialist Party of North America. Migrated to US 1915 to avoid conscription; joined Socialist Party of America, then in 1916 in Detroit cofounded the small and more radical breakaway “Socialist Party of the United States” (which later became the Socialist Educational Society, the Workers’ Socialist Party, and finally the World Socialist Party of the United States). Arrested for anti-war speeches Seattle, 1918. “Voluntary departure” September 1918 to Australia, where debated IWW members, then expelled. Went to New Zealand, from which he was the first person expelled under the Undesirable Immigrants Exclusion Act. From there went to South Africa, then returned to England 1920, where resumed SPGB membership and became music critic for the Manchester Guardian; in 1924 also became “Britain’s first radio disc jockey.” Died 1938.

See: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/09/death-of-moses-baritz.html; https://www.solidarityforeverbook.com/book/solidarityforever.pdf; Ian Angus, Canadian Bolsheviks: The Early Years of the Communist Party of Canada (2004); Karla Doris Rab, Role-Modeling Socialist Behavior: The Life and Letters of Isaac Rab (2010)

Kubinskis to K_____

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)

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)

Machinist. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

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.

INS file 54709/256

See also: Hartford Courant, December 22, 1919; https://connecticuthistory.org/the-red-scare-in-connecticut/

Nikolai Kuropato (Николай Куропато; Koroptko)

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 Casher; aka Alexander Dalny or Dalney; aka Gregory Melnikoff)

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

MacDonald to Makarevich

John Alex MacDonald (J. A. MacDonald; McDonald)

IWW, J. A. MacDonald, 13133 Leavenworth, Sept 7 or 8, 1918

Editor of the IWW’s newspaper The Industrial Worker in Seattle from June 1916 to July 1918; active in defense of IWW members on trial following the Everett Massacre. Defendant at federal IWW trial 1917-1918; sentenced to ten years. His wife Kate edited the Industrial Worker, for which she had been the bookkeeper, during the trial. 1923 his sentence commuted on the condition of his deportation to Canada. In Canada, continued organizing for the IWW and writing for American IWW publications until at least 1926; led 1925 effort to organize Canadian agricultural workers, along with fellow deported IWW member Sam Scarlett. He should not be confused with the Communist Party of Canada organizer of the same name; MacDonald believed “a political revolution had occurred in Russia, but that any industrial revolution other than from feudalism to capitalism was unthinkable…[I]ndustrial communism must not come from the top but from the bottom, changing the foundations of society and consequently its superstructure, and destroying the state, of necessity an instrument of class rule.” Or, as he put it elsewhere, “a proletarian revolution is possible in a nation of smokestacks but it can not occur in a nation of haystacks” (see Industrial Pioneer, May 1925 and May 1926).

FBI file OG 8000-41990

See also: Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts; Heather Mayer, Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924; James Sullivan, “Reviewing the 1925 Harvest Drive,” Industrial Pioneer November 1925; J. A. McDonald [sic], “Training for Freedom,” Industrial Pioneer, March 1926; J. A. MacDonald, “The Reforging of Russia,” Industrial Pioneer, May 1925.

Samuel Mackway

Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Victor Macur

Born Vilna, Russia, 1887 (present-day Lithuania). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. 1919 joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America in August 1919, which subsequently transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” to Poland via Canada, October 16, 1920.

INS file 54859/984; FBI file OG 387500

Nils Madsen (Nels; Madison)

Born 1886, Drammen, Norway. Laborer; union organizer. Migrated to US 1904. 1912 joined IWW; became General Organizer for the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500 circa 1916; arrested multiple times in connection with IWW organizing. Arrested March 26, 1918, in St. Maries, Idaho under state “criminal syndicalism” law. Deported November 4, 1918. 1918-1919 lectured throughout Norway on conditions in the US and cofounded the “Norwegian-American Defense Committee” to raise money for imprisoned IWW members. May be the same Nels Madsen who, by 1922, had become an organizer for the Norske Arbeiderpartiet (Norwegian Labour Party) and led its Norges Røde Speiderforbund (Norwegian Red Scout Federation, NRS), an attempt to create a radical alternative to the international Scout movement, but in the Labour Party’s 1925 split sided with the expelled pro-Communist faction connected to the publication Mot Dag and most of the NRS organizations followed him, only to collapse in 1926.

INS file 54379/199

See also: “Norwegian Workers Come to the Aid of the I. W. W.,” One Big Union Monthly, March 1, 1919; Terje Halvorsen, Partiets salt : AUFs historie; Sondre Ljoså, “‘Etter beste evne at alltid være en god kamerat’: Speiderarbeid i arbeiderbevegelsen på 1920-tallet,” Arbeiderhistorie (2007)

Piotr Mager (Петр Магер; Peter Magyar)

Born 1891, Russia. Metalworker. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio circa 1915. Arrested August 1919, then again during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/498

Ivan Maiboroda (Иван Майборода; John)

Deported to Russia January 22, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Vinko Majetic

Deported to Croatia, September 1, 1920. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Lavrenti Makarevich (Лаврентий Макаревич; Lawrence Makarvitch)

Born 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). 1914 migrated to Canada; 1915 migrated from there to US. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. According to INS file, he was deported January 22, 1921; however, a Department of Justice agent reported that Makarevich attended a June 4, 1922 conference of the URW in New Haven as a delegate of that city’s Russian Progressive Organization. His wife, Sophie Babitz, was living with her parents in Connecticut “and does not desire to have anything more to do with him.” Unclear if he was deported and returned, was never deported, or was deported and the DoJ report was in error.

INS file 54709/399

Pivarsky to Potenkin

Steve Pivarsky

Born 1892, Veliki Bečkerek (present-day Zrenjanin), Austria-Hungary (present-day Serbia). Autoworker. Migrated to US 1912. 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. Subsequent activities unknown.

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. Subsequent activities unknown.

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. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI file OG 8000-382563

Wolf Pohl (aka Pawlowicz; Pavlovich)

Housepainter. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

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. Subsequent activities unknown.

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. Subsequent activities unknown.

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

Andrew Postaruk (Pestaruk?)

Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Efrim Potenkin (Ефрим Потемкин; Efrem; Efreem; Potemkin)

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. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/519

See also: Kate Holladay Claghorn, The Immigrant’s Day in Court

Proshkovich to Ravavio

Fedor Proshkovich (Федор Прошкович; Theodor)

Proshkovich’s URW membership card

Born 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Machine operator. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York circa 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/364

Tomas Prosk (Томас Проск; Thomas; Drosk; Rosk)

Born 1893, Kaluga, Russia. Metalworker. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the New Haven branch of Union of Russian Workers circa 1918. Employed at Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, Connecticut, but fired for organizing for IWW; he denied being an IWW member, but evidence showed he paid IWW dues and received IWW literature. At work, when given instructions for paying his income tax, he also remarked, “F— the Government.” Arrested April 1919 after his employer reported him to the authorities. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/156

Anton Prushchuk (Антон Прущук; Anthony Pruschuk; Tony)

Born 1898, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913 (to avoid military service). Worked in Detroit and probably a member of the Union of Russian Workers there, although he denied it. Avowed pacifist. Arrested 1918 for not registering for the draft, and illegally inducted in the US Army. June 1918 court-martialed for refusing orders; sentenced to five years in military prison; imprisoned at the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks and then Fort Douglas, Utah, until August 1919, when he was dishonorably discharged from the Army. Arrested again during the second Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported to Poland, January 22, 1921. May be the anarchist “Prushtshuk” who participated in an hunger strike in Petrograd’s House of Preliminary Detention (“Splareka”) in November 1922.

INS file 54709/510; FBI file OG 363519

See also: International Committee for Political Prisoners, Letters from Russian Prisons

Demian Pruss (Демиан Прусс; Bruss)

Agricultural worker. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Osip Ptrosttzek

Polish; “voluntarily departed” to Russia, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Louis Purtikowsky (Purtik; Pyrtek)

Born Biata, Russia (present-day Poland). Barber; laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Reported to authorities by three US Army recruiters in Indianapolis who claimed he had stated his opposition to the US government and the war, his support revolution and the red flag, and “said he would throw bombs before he would assist this Government.” Arrested September 1919; denied all charges but wished to return to Poland. Explained his desire to return by saying, “Here was colored people and I don’t want to mix people. They don’t speak good government. They don’t speak Black man fighting with white man.” Deported to Poland, May 14, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/55

Kazimir Radkovits (Казимир Радковиц; Kazimer Radkowicz)

Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Pavel Rak (Павел Рак; Paul; Rakand)

Born 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Longshoreman. Migrated to US 1914. July, 1918 illegally drafted into US Army; sentenced to 18 months imprisonment at Fort Douglas, Utah, as a conscientious objector. After his release, joined the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” sometime before February 1921.

FBI file OG 379972; included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Michael Ransc

Deported to Yugoslavia, June 19, 1920. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Yakim Ravavio (Ravavoi)

Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Siluch to Sokolovsky

Ludwig Siluch (Siluh; Siluk)

Born 1897, Dubica, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1914; from there migrated to US 1918. March 1919 joined Branch 37 of the Polish Section of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit; then branch transferred into the Communist Party of America. Detroit. Hamtramck. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” via Canada and Germany, October 14, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54859/644; FBI files OG 384187 and BS 202600-772-1

Giuseppe Simone (Joe; Simeone)

Born 1888, Caserta, Italy. Tailor. Claimed, “In Italy I was a republican.” Migrated to US circa 1903. Lived with a cousin in Sommerville, Massachusetts, where he became an anarchist and supporter of Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva (from which he won a bicycle in a 1906 raffle!). Returned to Italy circa 1907 due to illness; served in Italian military. Again migrated to US in 1913. Member of the anarchists Circoli di Studi Sociali in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and continued to support the Cronaca Sovversiva. Also a member and one-time local secretary of a garment workers’ union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Arrested in Boston May, 1918, after his correspondence with Cronaca Sovversiva was confiscated in a federal raid on that newspaper in February 1918. Admitted he was “a socialist anarchist,” but claimed to have only become a radical in 1916. Deported to Italy May 24, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54379/316

See also: Cronaca Sovversiva, November 3, 1906

Peter Sinavski (Pete)

Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Yakov Sinov (Яков Синов; Jacob Sinoff; Synov; Synoff; Finoff; Zinoff; aka Smith)

Born 1894, Russia. Carpenter. Already a “revolutionist” in Russia. Migrated to US 1915. Member of the Union fo Russian Workers branch in Trenton, New Jersey. Roommate of Buford deportee Roman Mosichuk. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54861/255; FBI file OG 379221

Onasin Sivicky

Arrested in Rockford, Illinois. Deported to Russia, October 16, 1920. No further information found.

Grigori “Harry” Skochuk (Tkachuk; Thachuk; Zjuk; aka Levchenko)

Born 1893, Grondo region, Russia (probably in present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1912. 1917 joined the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives) in Waterbury, Connecticut; circa 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/447

Matfey Skorina (Матфей Скорина; Mike Skorena)

“Voluntarily departed” to Russia. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Konstantin Skorokod (Константин Скорокод)

Born 1885, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Worked at Jamieson No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 3, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/588

Grigori Ivanovich Skrobat (Григорий Иванович Скробат; Gregory; Skrobet)

Born 1895, Osęka, Russia (present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1914. Union of Russian Workers. Waterbury, Connecticut. Arrested March 1920. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54861/374; FBI file OG 385383

Nikolai Slyvka (Николай Сливка; Nickoli)

Deported to Austria, May 8, 1919. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Andrey Smal (Андрей Смаль; Andy)

Born 1893, Volhynia region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/512

Arthur J. Smith

Born 1885, Liverpool, England. Carpenter. Migrated to US 1910. Member of the IWW. Arrested in Seattle during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54235/36C

See also: Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, Communist and Anarchist Deportation Cases

Abram Snikarenko (Абрам Сникаренко; Snicarenko; Sniewrenko)

Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Malakhiya Sokolovsky (Malachia; Sokolofski; Sokolowski)

Born 1892, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. Wife and two children in US. Secretary of Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Denied being an anarchist; admitted to being a communist. Deportation initially deferred because of his family in the US. Deported February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/110

Solari to Spisak

Giuseppe Solari

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)

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

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)

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.

INS file 54809/601; FBI file BS 202600-1897

See also: Daily Worker, November 15, 1924

Supino to Tabenko

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.

See: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920

Mikhail Szerba (Михаил Щерба; Mike; Shcherba; Szcerba; Szerbo)

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.

INS file 54709/305; FBI file OG 366771

Parfem Tabenko (Парфем Табенко; aka Porify Silkuko; Proify Silnko)

Tabenko’s URW membership card

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.

INS file 54709/606

Tadzizieg to Targony

Yefin Tadzizieg (Tadsixieg; aka Podziziej)

Born 1892, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Brest, Belarus). Belarusian. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Circa 1918 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore, then transferred into Branch No. 4; became the brach treasurer. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/328

Hussein Tagiev (Хусейн Тагиев; Kussin; Gusein; Tagieff; aka Alexander Carson; Hussein Caucasian)

Born 1881, Nakhichevan, Russia (present-day Nakhichevan, Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic). Persian. Laborer; carpenter. Migrated to US 1914. Wife and two children in Russia. He was once hospitalized for six weeks in Newport, Kentucky, after he “fell down in some hot water in the Andrew Steel Co.” 1916 moved to Detroit, where employed as an autoworker and briefly opened a soft drink stand at River View Park. September 1917 joined the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested October 14, 1918 for distributing radical literature at an Armenian coffeehouse. The local U.S. Attorney took a special interest in his case; he ordered all of the confiscated literature destroyed, and paroled Tagiev on the condition that he purchase $100 in Liberty Bonds and cease patronizing Detroit’s “Turkish” coffeehouses—although he was told that since he could not speak Greek, he was free to “go to the Greek coffee houses.” Despite Tagieff’s compliance (which required him to borrow $50 from a friend), he was detained again in February 1919 as an alien anarchist and a person “likely to become a public charge” (after being forced to spend $100!). He was held incommunicado for a week, and immigration agents confiscated “a book in Persian that was 500 years old that he had prized” (likely a Quran or other family heirloom). Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/82

See also: Agnes Inglis Papers, Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan

George Talas

Deported to Hungary, May 8, 1920. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

William Tanner (Karl William Tanner)

Born 1884, Kuopio, Finland. Mechanic. Migrated to Canada 1911; from there migrated to US in 1912 (though he later mistakenly claimed 1914). Became prominent Finnish member of the IWW; wrote for and edited Finnish-language IWW newspaper. Defendant at the federal IWW trial 1917-18; sentenced to five years in prison. An enthusiastic supporter of the Bolshevik Revolution, he apparently joined the Communist Party of America while in Leavenworth Penitentiary, and by 1919 promoted what he called “Bolshevism-IWWism,” or “industrial communism.” July 1922 his sentence was commuted on the condition of deportation. Because the “Government of Finland may raise objections to receiving this man and might refuse to issue a passport,” he was deported to Russia on the grounds that Finland had been a Russian territory at the time of his birth, and because Russia was willing to issue him a passport. Deported October 31, 1922. Upon his departure Tanner declared: “Deported to Soviet Russia, I will continue fighting under the red flag of the workers’ republic for the crushing of world imperialism and for the building of the republic of work. Long live the class solidarity of the proletariat and the red Internationals.” 1923 migrated to Finland. 1925 became a speaker for the Communist-affiliated Suomen Ammattijärjestö (Finnish Trade Union Confederation) and an organizer for the Communists’ Sosialistinen työväen ja pienviljelijöiden vaalijärjestö (Socialist Electoral Organization of Workers and Smallholders ). 1927-1930 a member of the Finnish Parliament, where he “manifested communist orthodoxy.” In late 1930 he returned to the Soviet Union, where he worked for the Comintern. In 1935 he was a lecturer at the International Lenin School and director of a Moscow watch factory; that same year he was arrested as part of Stalin’s purges and sentenced to five years in the gulag at the White Sea-Baltic Canal for “counter-revolutionary activity”; 1937 transferred to the Ukhta-Izhemsk Camp. Released 1940 and died that same year.

INS file 54616/153

See also: Ancestry.com; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Auvo Kostiainen, The Forging of Finnish-American Communism, 1917-1924: A Study in Ethnic Radicalism; 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; https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tanner

Vasiliy Ivanovich Tarasyuk (Василий Иванович Тарасюк; Wasily; Tarasiuk; Tarasiak)

Photo of Tarasyuk and two friends

Born 1891, Kobrinsky Uyezd, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers circa early 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/525

Alex Targony (таргони)

Born 1896, Volhynia region, Russia. Polish. Driver. Migrated to US 1913. Worked as driver for a milk delivery company in Youngstown, Ohio. Political affiliation unknown, but in 1917 he claimed exemption on his draft registration card on the grounds that he would “not fight against brother.” Arrested sometime prior to January 9, 1920. Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

See also: Ancestry.com