Tag Archives: Yugoslavian

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 836 (and counting) individual deportees I have identified. This list is a work in progress, and entries are being added updated as I obtain additional information.

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 or being interned as “enemy aliens.” 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 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 and Brooke Thompson, who photographed hundreds 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!

Bogush to Brezovic

______ Bogush (Богуш)

Born Russia (probably in present-day Ukraine). Member of the Union of Russian Workers. Multiple sources claim Bogush was deported on the Buford; however his name is not on the ship’s manifest (though it is possible that Bogush or the name he was deported under was a pseudonym). In Ukraine, joined anarchist Nabat Federation and observed Nestor Makhno’s partisan army. Arrested Kharkov circa November 1920 and executed by Checka circa March 1921 (Voline and Maximoff give slightly different dates).

See: Senya Fleshin Papers, International Institute for Social History; http://socialist.memo.ru/lists/bio/l3.htm#n814; Voline, The Unknown Revolution, 1917-1921; G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents)

Nikolai Bolsun (Bolson, Bolsum)

Member of the Communist Party of America in Plainfield, New Jersey. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to Russia December 23, 1920. Nor further information found.

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

See also: The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920

Vasiliy Bondarenko (Васи́лий Бондаренко, Wasiliy Bondarenko, aka William Bender/Bander)

Born 1897, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and two children in US. “Very active” member of Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and lectured for the URW nationally. Arrested Bridgeport, Connecticut November 9, 1919, again in Hartford, Connecticut, November 28, 1919, and then in New York during second the Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown, but likely the same Bondarenko mentioned by anarchist Clara Larsen as having been “killed by Stalin.”

INS file 54709/404; FBI file OG 382161

See also Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America

Samuel Bondarenko (Самуил Бондаренко; Sam Bondarenko)

Born Russia (present-day Ukraine), year unknown. Member, Communist Party of America, Philadelphia. Deported to Russia February 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G; see also FBI file OG 267034

Peter Bonko

Arrested in Brooklyn during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Probably Communist Party of America member. Deported to Russia December 23, 1920. No further information found.

Included on lists of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G and FBI file BS 202600-33

See also: The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920

Vasiliy Bootryn

Born 1888, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Molder. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and children in Russia. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Detroit, April 1919; transferred to Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party of America later that year. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Held at Fort Wayne. “Voluntarily departed” 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54859/998; FBI file OG 387334

Vladimir Borisyuk (Владимир Борисюк, Vladimir Borisiuk/Borisink, Walter Borisuk)

Vladimir Borisyuk’s Socialist Party membership card

Born 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November, 1919, Hartford, Connecticut. Member of the Socialist Party (not a deportable offense), but had paid one month’s dues to Communist Party, and authorities suspected he belonged to Union of Russian Workers. Also accused of making revolutionary statements. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/151

____ Borkhak

Polish IWW member deported February 20, 1921. No further information found.

See Golos Truzhenika, March 5, 1921.

Ivan Borovsky (Боровский; John; Borowsky)

Born 1878, Ventspils, Russia (present-day Latvia). Barber, railroad worker. Migrated to US 1908. Married; wife in Chicago. Member of IWW’s Russian Branch in Chicago; also suspected of belonging to URW. Arrested Chicago during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported March 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/267; FBI file OG 380320

Boris Borsuk (Борис Борсук, Boroes/Borores Borsuk)

Born 1896, Brest, Russia (present-day Belarus). Barber. Migrated to US 1912. Owned barbershop at 70 Robinson Rd., Youngstown, Ohio. Helped organize Youngstown branch of the Union of Russian Workers and distributed URW literature. Arrested Youngstown in August 1919. His brother, Dimitri, arrested after visiting him in jail and again in 1920 on suspicion of belonging to the URW, although he denied this and does not appear to have been deported. Boris meanwhile was deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/500

See also: FBI file OG 380628

Max Brazeliya (Макс Бразелия or Бразилия, Brazelia)

Born 1892, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Jewish; laborer. Migrated to US 1913 (via Canada). Unaffiliated socialist; subscribed to the Forverts. Arrested March 1919, St. Louis after employer at Nelson Pants Manufacturing Company reported him for “spreading Bolsheviki propaganda in the workroom.” His employer, not actually wanting to see him deported, later defended him as harmless and “a good workingman.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/25; FBI file OG 352388

See also: Kenyon Zimmer, “The Voyage of the Buford: Political Deportations and the Making and Unmaking of America’s First Red Scare,” in Deportation in the Americas: Histories of Exclusion and Resistance, edited by Kenyon Zimmer and Cristina Salinas

Josef Brencich

Born 1887, Fiume, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Sailor; painter. Italian-speaker, member of “the Slavish Race.” Migrated to US 1911. Anarchist, member of Philadelphia’s Union of Italian Workers. Arrested April, 1921, with Erasmo Abate and other members. Ordered deported to Hungary, but in 1921 Fiume had become an independent state, so allowed “voluntary departure” as a sailor “direct for Mediterranean ports,” January 1923. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 55009/82

Stefen Brezovic (Vrezovic; Steve)

Born 1886, Austro-Hungarian Empire (somewhere that later became part of Yugoslavia). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined Socialist Party of America 1916; September 1919 transferred to the South Slavic Branch No. 17 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested January 1920, Detroit. Deported May 1920 to Yugoslavia. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI file OG 387297

Hajduk to Hicke

Alfons Hajduk (Alfonso; Alfonse; Hajdak; Haiduk; Hieduk; Hyduk)

Hajduk’s URW membership card

Born 1886, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Polish. Window cleaner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and child in Russia. Joined Union of Russian Workers in Newark. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/357

Onofry Halevich

Communist Party of America member. Deported June 1920 to either Austria or Yugoslavia. No further information found.

Included on lists of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G and FBI file BS 202600-33

Vazil Haluszak (Basil; William Halussosek)

Communist Party of America member. Deported March 1920 to Galicia. No further information found.

Included on lists of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G and FBI file BS 202600-33

Peter Hancharuk

“Voluntarily departed” to Russia sometime between December 20, 1919 and February 2, 1921. No further information found.

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

Stanley Haranin (B. Haranin)

Born Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania), 1894. Migrated to US 1913. Tailor. Joined the Socialist Party, then Milwaukee’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54809/152

Vasil Haritouchik (William Hatrinuk; Wasil Haryntoczyk; Chartonchak)

Born 1888, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. 1918 joined Socialist Party of America, and in 1919 transferred to Russian Branch no. 1 of the Communist Party of America, Detroit. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” October 1920.

INS file 54859/735; FBI file OG 386253

Leo Haskevich (Leonti Hackwicz; Leonte Hackewicz; Leo Haskewich; aka Sittimikoff)

Born 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Not political in Russia; joined Union of Russian Workers in Akron, 1917. Involved in attempt to organize strike of Akron rubber workers; arrested December 1917. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54235/159

Ernest Emil Albert Heitmiller (E.A. Heitmiller)

Born 1887, Linden-Limmer, Germany. Sailor; lumber worker. Migrated to US 1914 (via Canada, without inspection). Joined IWW, for which he became a delegate and organizer. Arrested Seattle, February 1919. Deported January 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54645/435; FBI file OG 347306

Petr Herasevich (or Gerasevich)

Born 1892, Kobryn, Russia (present-day Belarus). Pipe inspector. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and son in Russia. Joined Youngstown, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers in January 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. On strike from Youngstown Sheet & Tube when arrested. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/513

Jacob Heroch (or Horoch)

Deported to Russia December 1920. No further information found.

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

Christopher Hetagureff

Deported to Russia January 1921. No further information found.

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

John Charles Hicke (John Kicke; aka Kurowsky)

Born 1882, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (present-day Romania). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913 (via Canada). No apparent political affiliation. Arrested April 1918, in Oxford, Mississippi and interned as an “enemy alien” for nearly two years at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, then detained by immigration authorities. Declared: “I am opposed to the Government of the United States and its peoples. I do not think its peoples are intelligent enough to govern themselves…I think the government should be overthrown and to accomplish this end every action would be justified.” However, later claimed this was simply a ploy to be deported as quickly as possible, as advised by Imre Guerry (Isso Gartner). Repeatedly wrote to US and Austrian officials to expedite his case. Deported to Romania June 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54861/404

Jankovich to Justkavich

Jerto Jankovich

Born 1896, Bosnia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina). Migrated to US 1913. Joined Socialist Party of America in Pittsburgh, and transferred into Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested March 1920. Deported to Yugoslavia, June 1920.

FBI file OG 387576

John Janson (Johnson; Jensen; aka Earnest/Ernest Laukivors/Laukivirs/Laukioirs)

Janson’s Socialist Party membership card, under the name Ernest Loukivirs

Born 1886, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia). Sailor; wrestler; model. Latvian. Migrated to US 1916. Joined Lettish Branch of the Socialist Party of America in Boston in March 1917 (not a deportable offense). 1918 left Boston to make his way to Russia via the West Coast. Arrested Denver for allegedly “advocating anarchy.” Arrested again in Wyoming June 1918. According to immigration authorities, “The alien is highly educated, having written considerable fiction, and is therefore, holding the views that he does, a dangerous person to have in the country.” Hoped to return to Latvia (“Lettland”) to fight for its independence. Deported on the Buford. Appears to be “the Boston deportee” (as he was the only Buford deportee from Boston) mentioned by Alexander Berkman, who Berkman described as a former sailor and former employee of a detective firm who in Russia quickly joined the Cheka.

INS file 54379/534

See also: Alexander Berkman, The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920-1922)

George Jerevich

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

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

Johan Johanson (John Johnson; real name Jonas Back)

Born 1874, Finland. Laborer. Migrated to US 1901. Wife and two children in Finland. Joined IWW circa 1917. Twice confined to an insane asylum in Idaho, in 1915 and 1918. Arrested September 1919 in Spokane, initially under state’s criminal syndicalism law. Deported August 14, 1920. September 1920 reported to have left for Soviet Russia. September 1921 rumored to to be en route to the US. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/81; FBI file BS 186701-200

Ragnar Johanson (Johannson)

Born 1887, Stockholm, Sweden. Painter; union organizer. Joined the syndicalist Young Socialist League circa 1900, also joined the painters union. 1910 participated in the founding congress of the syndicalist Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden, or SAC), for which he became an organizer and gifted speaker. Migrated to US 1912. Joined IWW and became one of its best-known Swedish organizers. Was aiding IWW organizer Frank Little in Butte copper strike in 1917 where Little was lynched; received identical threats against his own life. Defendant in federal IWW trial in 1917-18, where sentenced to ten years in prison and a $30,000 fine. Sentenced commuted in exchange for deportation; deported January 1, 1923. Immediately resumed activity on behalf of the SAC; became manager of the SAC’s publishing house, Federativs förlag, from 1929 to 1954. 1940 briefly imprisoned for writing a pamphlet condemning the Hitler-Stalin Pact. 1942-1954 served as treasurer of the anarcho-syndicalist International Working Men’s Association. Died 1959.

INS file 54616/58

See also: https://www.sac.se/Om-SAC/Historik/Biografier/Johanson,-Ragnar-1887-1959; Henry Bengston, On the Left in America: Memoirs of the Scandinavian-American Labor Movement

David E. Johnson

Born 1883, Sweden. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1900; migrated to US (from Canada) 1903; moved back and forth between US and Canada several times. Joined IWW 1916. Arrested March 1918, St. Maries, Idaho. Deported November 4, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54379/197

Oscar Johnson (aka Arthur Ludwig Holden)

Born 1893, Gottenburg, Sweden. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined IWW 1916. Survivor of 1916 Everett Massacre, for which he was arrested until charges dropped in 1917. Arrested Seattle, January 17, 1918. Described by immigration officials as “quite intelligent,” and “a very undesirable acquisition to the population of the United States.” Deported November 30, 1918. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54379/9

Mihail Jolnerovitz

Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 55009/26

Victor Jubkiavich

“Voluntary departure” to Russia, 1921. No further information found.

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

John Justkavich (aka Sam Ushkovich)

Member of the Communist Party of America in Bayonne, New Jersey. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to Russia on December 23, 1920. No further information found.

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

See also: The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920

Katzes to Kircher

Arthur Katzes (Katses; Kestes; Ketzus; Katz)

Born 1897, Podolia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Printer. Had been a student in Russia and apprenticing as a pressman; worked as a sailor to pay for passage to US in 1914 (entered without inspection). Worked as printer in US. Joined Union of Russian Workers circa 1917; member of the editorial board of URW newspaper Khleb i Volia. Arrested March 1919 in New York. Released on bail; collaborated on producing the illegal Anarchist Soviet Bulletin; arrested with Ethel Bernstein in September 1919 for distributing copies of that paper. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/115

See also: Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech

Joe Kaunas (Bogdanas)

Russian-born coal miner and Communist Party member in Indianapolis. Arrested January 9, 1920. Claimed Lithuanian citizenship, but deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/713

Teleso Kavalianskas (Stanley; Kavalionskas, Kavalauskas; Talespor Kavalanchas)

Born 1881, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Lithuanian. To US 1912. Secretary of Branch No. 43 of the Lithuanian Federation the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntary departure” October 20, 1920 via Canada.

INS file 54709/954; FBI file BS 202600-155-1

Joseph (“Joe”) Kennedy

Born 1885, Belfast, Ireland. Miner. Migrated to US 1905. Joined IWW 1917; became secretary of Metal Mine Workers’ Industrial Union No. 800 in Butte, Montana. Arrested multiple times for IWW activity. Worked with IWW organizer Frank Little before Little was lynched in Butte in 1917. Also “active…in the cause of Irish independence.” Arrested February 1919, in aftermath of miners’ strike. Deported June 1919. Joined Merseyside IWW branch in Liverpool. 1924 reportedly intended to return to US illegally. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/74

See also: Butte Daily Bulletin, June 13, 1919; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959

Ilya Kerczuk (Ellis Kerchuk; Navul Kerchuk)

Born c. 1898, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Deported to Russia February 1, 1921. No further information found. Laborer and longshoreman in Camden, New Jersey and New York. Arrested May 1919 in Philadelphia by company guards of Pusey and Jones Shipbuilding Company of Gloucester City, NJ, for distributing “Bolshevik circulars” on company grounds. Deported February 1, 1921.

INS file File 54616/173

Boris Keretchuk

Born 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1916. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Newark. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/358

Nuval Kerget (Nabul; Нувал Кергет)

Lumber worker. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle.Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54860/569; FBI file OG 389514

Ivan Kesevich

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

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

Olan Killen

IWW member. Deported October 31, 1919. No further information found.

Included on list of deported IWW members in One Big Union Monthly, March 1920

William Kircher

Born 1892, Hesse, Germany. Laborer. Migrated to US 1906. Joined IWW 1917. Arrested May 1918 in Seattle; interned as “enemy alien” at Fort Douglas, Utah. “Voluntary departure” 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54408/512; FBI file OG 193587

Kovalevich to Kozy

Fedor Kovalevich (Федор Ковалевич; Frank Kowalawich; Kowalowich)

Born 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Rubber worker. Migrated to US 1914. Spent almost a year in the US Army stationed at Camp Sheridan and Camp Jackson (Alabama). Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Akron, Ohio in April 1919. Employee of B. F. Goodrich. Explained to immigration agents: “By Internationalism I mean that there should not be different countries or different nations.” Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/534; FBI file OG 376750

Iakov Kovalevich (Иаков Ковалевич; Jacob Kowalewich; John)

Born 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Former member of the Socialist Party of America; joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut, September 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/402

Ilya Kovalsky (Louis Kowalsky; Kuznetz)

Kovalsky’s URW membership card

Member of the Union of Russian Workers arrested in Ansonia, Connecticut during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/496 (incomplete file)

Józef Kowalski (Joseph; Joe; aka A. Gorny; aka Jan Gómy)

Born 1890, Łódź, Russia (present-day Poland). Silk weaver; editor. A member of the Left faction of the Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (Polish Socialist Party); distributed illegal literature and. Arrested in Łódź in 1907 for assaulting a foreman; spent three years in a Russian prison. Under surveillance upon release. Migrated to US 1913. Worked as a silk weaver in Paterson, New Jersey. Joined the Polish Section of the Socialist Party of America; participated in strikes in Passaic, New Jersey and Philadelphia. By 1919 he was secretary of the Polish Federation of the SPA; on the executive board of the newspaper Głos Robotniczy (Workers’ Voice); and a delegate to the founding convention of the Communist Party of America in Chicago. A member of the CP’s central committee and secretary of its Polish Burea; arrested in Kansas City, Missouri, September 1919 for making a “disloyal and inflammatory speech” and imprisoned for “unlawful assembly,” and deported to Poland upon his release, March 17, 1921.

Wife and child joined him in Moscow, where he briefly became a “court investigator” for Butyrka Prison in Moscow (used for political prisoners). Participated in the Third Congress of the Comintern in July 1921 under the name “Jan Gómy.” Illegally returned to the US via Canada in 1922 to organize on behalf of the Comintern; arrested in New York August 1922 and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. However, after his release both the Polish and the Russian governments refused to issue passports for his deportation, so he remained free on bail. A member of the Executive Board of the CP, and administrator of Communist newspaper Glos Ludowy (The People’s Voice), founded 1923. Settled in Detroit. In the 1930s Kowalsky was a district manger for the CP’s Daily Worker and one of the section leaders of District No. 7 of the CP, and in 1936-1938 he coedited the monthly newspaper Trybuna. Participated in 1938 “sit-down” strikes. Returned to Poland in 1949; joined the Polish Communist party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza) and served in various administrative posts. One source claims he became a member of the Sejm (Polish parliament), but this appears to be false. Died 1960 in Łódź.

INS file 54709/486 (file missing); FBI file OG 8000-143411

See also: New York Herald, August 9, 1922; Don Binkowski Papers, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Jacob Spolansky, The Communist Trail in America; Don Binkowski, Poles Together: Leo Krzycki and Polish Americans in the American Labor Movement; Zygmunt Pietrzak, “Kowalski Józef (1890-1960),” Słownik biograficzny działaczy polskiego ruchu robotniczego, vol. 3

Matthew Kozario (Kosaric; Kosario; Kozaric)

Deported to Yugoslavia, April 14, 1920. No further information found.

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

Ivan Kozlik (Iwan; aka John Cozich; Gustko)

Born 1893, Kiev, Russia. Machinist. Migrated to US 1908. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1917. Arrested in New York during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/363

Vasil Kozlov (Василь Козлов; Kozlow)

Born 1893, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus). Miner. Migrated to US 1911. Like many URW members, had worked on a farm in Russia, but “There were many people in the village where I lived and they received letters telling that we could make more money in America, so I decided to come.” Worked as a hauler in Jamison no. 9 coal mine in Farmington, West Virginia. A member of the United Mine Workers, and joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested December 1, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/601; FBI file OG 8000-379018

Vasily Kozlovch (Wasily)

Born 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Machinist. Joined the Socialist Party, then a aember of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported February 26, 1921.

INS file 54860/379

Osip Kozorez (Осип Козорез; aka Joseph Koza; Joe Koza)

Born 1881, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. Wife and four children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark in January 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Participated in five-day hunger strike on Ellis Island to protest installation of a wire screen separating detainees from visitors. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/342; FBI file OG 379013

Ivan Kozy (Иван Козы; John)

Born 1894, Uman, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1914; crossed into the US at Niagara Falls in March 1919. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/332

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)

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.

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 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

Orlov to Pankov

Mikhail Orlov (Михаил Орлов; Mike; Orloff)

Born 1889, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Miner. Migrated to US 1909. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania in 1915. Also a member of the United Mine Workers. “It is suspected…that alien is one of the moving spirits of the branch of the Union of Russian Workers which is thought to exist in the Bertha mines” in Morgantown, West Virginia. Received anarchist and IWW literature from Max Maisel’s anarchist bookstore in New York. Arrested December 1, 1919 (during miners’ strike). Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/608

Samuel Orlov (Самуил Орлов; Sam; Orloff)

Born 1889, Mogliev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Miner. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Mosessen, Pennsylvania, circa 1915. Also a member of the United Mine Workers. Arrested December 1, 1919 (during miners’ strike). Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/609; FBI file OG 8000-248688

Albert Osborn

Born 1898, Førde, Norway. Sailor; laborer. Migrated to US 1909 with step-mother to rejoin father. 1915 went to England as a sailor; returned 1916 (without inspection). Joined the IWW in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota in 1915, but during his inspection claimed “I don’t care much about them…I had to join, because it was a matter of joining them or getting beaten up in going around the country in the harvest fields…they throw you from trains going sixty miles an hour.” 1917 arrested in Everett, Washington for no registering for the draft; served 13 days in jail. Arrested May 23, 1918 in Seattle as an IWW member. Diagnosed as “insane” June 6, 1918 due to “dementia praecox” resulting from a head injury as a child.Deported September 20, 1919 (as “likely to become a public charge,” entering without inspection, and suffering from “insanity”). According to Commissioner General of Immigration A. Caminetti, “the charge against him does not arise, even remotely, from his connection with the I.W.W.”

INS file 54414/81

Anton Ostopchuk

Born c. 1886 in present-day Ukraine. Migrated to US 1912. Metalworker. Wife and two children in Russia. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/719

Nick Ostreiko

Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/739

Osip Otrozttzek (Otroschyk, O’Troschy, aka Joe Trocki)

Born 1880, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Polish. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Employed at Fisher Body Company. Illiterate. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. “Voluntary departure” to Russia via Canada, January 24, 1921.

INS file 54859/989

Yakov Ozols (Яков Озолс; Jacob; Ozal; Ozols)

Born c.1887, Riga, Russia (present-day Latvia). Migrated to US 1917. Sailor, laborer. Joined the Socialist Party, then the Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America in Philadelphia. Arrested January 7, 1920. Deported February 1, 1921.

INS file 54811/944; FBI file OG 8000-276616

Peter Paich (Paick)

Born 1897, Požega, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Socialist Party of American in Detroit and 1915, and the Workers’ International Industrial Union in 1918 in Lorain, Ohio. Arrested August 1917 in Lorain for distributing socialist literature and spent four days in jail; arrested April, 1918, for distributing socialist and anti-conscription literature; then interned at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, as an “enemy alien”; detained for deportation upon his release in September 1919; Deported May 8, 1920 (on the charge of being “likely to become a public charge,” as SP and WIIU membership did not meet the legal definition of a deportable “anarchist”).

INS file 54379/474; FBI file OG 8000-203962

Alexandr Palukevich (Александр Палукевич; Alexander; Palukovich; Pavlukoich)

Communist Party of America member in Bayonne, New Jersey; deported to Russia December 23, 1920.

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

Pavel Panasuk (Павел Панасук; Paul; Panosik)

Member of the Communist Party of America in Chicago. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 2, 1920. “Voluntarily departed” to Russia October 10, 1920.

FBI file BS 202600-149-1

Joseph T. Pandack

Deported to Yugoslavia August 1, 1920. No further information found.

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

Dimitri Panko (Дмитрий Панко; Panco)

Born 1890, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Mechanic. Migrated to US 1914. Joined Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, for which he distributed literature. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/112

Pavel Pankov (Павел Панков; Pual Panko; Pankoff)

Born Mogliev, Russia (present-day Belarus), 1886. Migrated to US 1907. Moulder. Joined the Socialist Party 1914, then Detroit’s Russian Branch of the Communist Party in 1919. Bartender at Detroit’s House of the Masses. Arrested January 1920; deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/634

Povff to Prokuda

Sam Povff (Pavff; aka Henry Lang; Sam Brokr; Otto Schwarz; Harry Wulf)

Born 1878, Poltava, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Sailor; thief. Anarchist since age 17. Arrested 1899 for revolutionary activities but released; later (says 1901) participated in a mutiny at Kronstadt naval base and sentenced to 13 years internal exile in Siberia. Escaped and emigrated to US 1910 (jumped ship). Briefly belonged to “an anarchistic organization in New York.” Moved to the West Coast, where he used a dozen aliases and made his living through apparently politically-motivated theft. 1911 arrested in Huntington, Oregon, for larceny; sentenced to two years in prison. Circa 1912 arrested in Stockton, California for burglary; sentenced to two years in San Quentin. 1914 arrested in Los Angeles for “highway robbery”; sentenced to six years in San Quentin; served four years and two months. 1919 arrested in Portland, Oregon for attempted robbery of individuals selling “moonshine,” explaining, “They had no right to poison the working class people. I think I had a right to rob them.” Turned over to immigration authorities, who described him as “a most reprehensible and undesirable character.” He also stated, “Of course if I am deported I would maybe be better off, because I have had so much trouble in this country…I don’t see any difference between this country and the country where I came from. I see there are thousands and millions of poor people today, without work, without anything. At the same time it seems to me that there are banks and stores and things, and working people haven’t got any chance to use that.” Deported December 17, 1922.

INS file 54859/184

Ivan Povlycic

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

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

Pearl Powell (Perl; Powel; Podell; aka Polia Pawlockaya)

Born 1894, Russia. Migrated to US 1910. Member of the Communist Party of America in Brooklyn, New York. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920; released on bail. Married David Sova, a fellow Brooklyn Communist who had also been arrested in January 1920, in Philadelphia. Sova returned to Russia shortly thereafter. She “voluntarily departed” December 23, 1920.

FBI file BS 40-2476-1

See also: Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920

Andrei Pranka (Андрей Пранка; Andy; Prauka)

Born 1890, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and child in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919, while participating in a miners’ strike. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/475

Ivan Pravoslavnov (Иван Православнов; John Pravosleavanv)

Born 1898, Saratov, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Employee of Singer Sewing Machine Company. Radicalized in the US and joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Elizabethport, New Jersey (present-day Elizabeth) circa 1917. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.

FBI file OG 8000-382507

Frank Prego (aka Franciscal)

Born Galicia, Spain. Sailor. Brother of CNT leader and Solidaridad editor José Prego (José Prego Veira). IWW member. 1913 involved in maritime strike in New Orleans; arrested for allegedly “shooting to kill” a policeman; sentenced to twelve years in prison. Deported 1918.

See: The Voice of the People, July 31, 1913; Bieito Alonso, “Spanish Anarchists and Maritime Workers in the IWW,” in Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW

Grigori Prigozy (Григорий Пригози; Gregory; George)

Born 1884, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. 1919 joined Russian Branch No. 5 of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” October 14, 1920 (via Canada).

INS file 54860/30; FBI file OG 388025

Stepan Prokopovich (Степан Прокопович; Steve Prokopowich; Prakspoduch)

Born 1884, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and two children in Russia. Worked at a wire mill in Ansonia, Connecticut. Attended the Union of Russian Workers’ automobile school in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but denied URW membership and no evidence of it produced. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/371; FBI file OG 213357

Platon Prokuda (Платон Прокуда; Plaron; A. Proncudo)

Born 1893, Russia. Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party of America, then the Union of Russian of Workers in Detroit. After the government broke up the URW in November 1919, began attending Communist Party events but did not join; remained an anarchist “Because no matter what government it is, there is always scandal there, fraud, graft, and all that sort of stuff.” Arrested January 1920, held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia, 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.

INS file 54860/4

See also: Free Society, October-November 1921

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)

Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1912. Agricultural worker. Member of Philadelphia’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54811/959

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; Kozimer Radowiz; Kozumer Radkovich, aka John Baron)

Born c.1884, Russia. Migrated to Us 1903. Autoworker. Joined the Socialist Party around 1910, then Detroit’s Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

INS file 54859/659

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

Ignaty Ramoroff

Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 55009/20

Michael Ransc

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

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

Albert Rasimovicius (Rasimo)

Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/712

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