Gerasim Konikh (a.k.a. John Konik)
Born: Grodnia, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
After his return to Russia, he was sentenced around 1925 to five years in the Solovki prison camp as an anarchist. In 1930, reportedly “entirely in broken health,” he was sentenced to an additional three years of internal exile in Arkhangelsk.
Sources: INS file 54709/545; FBI file OG 378976; Bulletin of the Relief Fund of the International Working Men’s Association for Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists Imprisoned or Exiled in Russia, November–December 1930.
Aleksandr Konon (or Kornen; Konol)
Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member of the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/352.
Pavel Konon (or Konen; a.k.a. Paul)
Born: Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the Communist Party of America arrested in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921. His wife and four children remained in Russia.
Sources: FBI file OG 389419.
John Konopatsky (a.k.a. Anton Konopatsky)
Born: 1895, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Initially a member of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America and later joined the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Bayonne, New Jersey. Arrested in Newark during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on January 22, 1921. Had a wife and three children in the United States.
Sources: INS file 54860/163; FBI file OG 384085.
Ignatz Konoval (or Ignance Konowal)
Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the Polish Branch of the Communist Party of America in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on December 23, 1920.
Sources: The Courier-News (Bridgewater, New Jersey), December 22, 1920.
Benjamin Kontrowitz (or Kontorovich; a.k.a. Berl Kanterowicz; B. Kanter)
Born: 1882, Ekaterinoslav, Russia (present-day Dnipro, Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Silk weaver
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Communist Party of America; IWW
A former member of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America and joined the Russian Federation of the Communist Party of America in 1919. He served as recording secretary, an executive board member, and a lecturer for its Paterson, New Jersey branch, and was a delegate to the First Convention of the Jewish Communist Federation in October 1919. Also a member of the IWW’s Textile Workers’ Industrial Union. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he was deported on November 23, 1920. He was married and had a son living in Paterson.
Sources: INS file 54810/67; FBI file OG 380782.
Vasily Mitin Konyakin (or Vasil Koniakin; a.k.a. Vasil Mitin)
Born: 1873, Saratov, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Rubber worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917 and became an officer in its Akron, Ohio branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/227.
Feodor Korini (a.k.a. Frank; Korano; Karoni; Butzki)
Born: c. 1888, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Served as financial secretary of Russian Branch No. 2 of the Communist Party in Philadelphia under the pseudonym “Butzki.” Arrested in January 1920, he denied the identity, but multiple witnesses identified him as such. An immigration inspector characterized his testimony as “shifting, evasive, and evidently untruthful in material particulars.” He was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/873.
Zys Korostyshevsky (or Zusil; a.k.a. Joe Kraus)
Born: 1897, Radomyshl, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Garment worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist
Became a Tolstoyan anarchist in the US, embracing pacifism and agrarian ideals. Arrested in Chicago in June 1917, but the deportation warrant was canceled for lack of evidence. Arrested again in January 1919, he was ultimately deported on March 12, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54235/35.
