Category Archives: Red Scare Deportees

Pivarsky to Potenkin

April 10, 2020Red Scare DeporteesAustrian, Belarusian, CP, Croatian, IWW, Jewish, Polish, Serbian, URWadmin

Steve Pivarsky

Born: 1892, Veliki Bečkerek, Austria-Hungary (present-day Serbia)
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity: Serbian
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Employed by the Fisher Body Corporation in Detroit. In 1913 he joined Branch No. 61 (later Branch No. 17) of the Socialist Party’s South Slavic Federation, transferring into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he was deported to Yugoslavia on April 14, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54860/374; FBI file OG 388055.

Jacob K. Platek (or Platat)

Born: 1889, Podolovka, Russia
Nationality: Polish
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Laborer; foundry worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife and child remained in Russia when he emigrated. He joined the Socialist Party and in 1919 became a member and financial secretary of Polish Branch No. 80 of the Communist Party in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Arrested January 2, 1920, he was deported to Poland August 4, 1920.

Sources: File 54859/527.

Mike Podalak

Born: Austria-Hungary, year unkown
Nationality: Austrian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Austria as a radical on, June 19, 1920. No further information has been identified.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Mathew Podlipsky

Matthew Podlipsky’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1887, Rakitnitsa, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish-Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1909
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Newark. Arrested during the Palmer Raids and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/356; FBI file OG 381187.

Marko Podner

Born: 1892, Okrug, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia)
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity: Croatian
Occupation: Laborer; miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife remained in Croatia-Slavonia while he emigrated. In June 1919 he joined Branch No. 62 of the Communist Party in West Winfield, Pennsylvania, becoming its secretary. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he was deported to Yugoslavia June 19, 1920.

Sources: FBI file OG 8000-382563.

Wolf Pohl (a.k.a. Pawlowicz; Pavlovich)

Wolf Pohl’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: c. 1896, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Housepainter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America; IWW

Joined the Socialist Party in 1913 and later the Communist Party, becoming a speaker and distributor of literature in Buffalo. Arrested August 1919 for distributing radical material but released; arrested again January 1920. While confined in Erie County Jail he contracted pneumonia and required hospitalization. December 1920 he joined the IWW. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/912.

George Polevoy

Born: 1883, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: IWW

Married with a child in the United States, he joined the IWW around 1914 in Moundsville, West Virginia, and also belonged to the United Mine Workers. Participated in miners’ strikes protesting the conviction of Tom Mooney and the imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs. Arrested June 1918 for disturbing the peace during a dispute with UMW leaders and sentenced to a $50 fine and ten days in jail; a union witness described him as a leader “of the foreign element…they have made all kinds of trouble.” Arrested again August 1919 and described by an immigration agent as “exceptionally shrewd and astute.” Deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54709/49.

Osip Polulechka (a.k.a.Josef Polulech; Joseph Balluch)

Born: 1892, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers (alleged)

Arrested during the November 1919 raid on the Union of Russian Workers’ Russian People’s House in New York. He denied URW membership and said he had only attended arithmetic and Russian classes; no evidence of membership was produced. He had, however, been active since 1913 in the Methodist Episcopal Church of All Nations, whose leaders attempted to intervene on his behalf. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/449; FBI file OG 8000-382493; 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)
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the South Slavic Branch of the Communist Party of America in Omaha. Arrested in St. Paul, Nebraska, January 8, 1920 and deported to Yugoslavia July 15, 1920. No further information has been identified.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; Omaha Daily Bee, January 9, 1920.

Sergey Porchunoff (a.k.a. Sergy; Serjy)

Born: 1888, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Served two years in the Russian Army.

In the United States, employed by Standard Oil. Joined the Russian Branch of the Whiting, Indiana Socialist Party in 1914 and later the Communist Party, serving as secretary of both branches. Arrested in Chicago January 7, 1920, and deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54809/82.

Andrew Postaruk

Born: 1881, Kiev Governorate, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: .
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Previously emigrated to and worked in Austria and Germany. His wife and two children remained in Russia.

In 1918 he joined the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle. He told authorities, “I don’t believe in any government,” but also “stated believe in change through the ballot as a I fear that bloodshed would ensue by bringing a revolution through force of arms.” Arrested January 1920 and deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/542.

Efrim Potenkin (or Potemkin)

Born: 1897, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russia
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Steelworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers (alleged)

He attended meetings of the Union of Russian Workers in Monessen, Pennsylvania, but denied membership and no evidence of such was produced. Arrested in Greensburg during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. The Immigration Inspector in Charge recommended cancellation of his deportation warrant for lack of evidence, but was overruled by Commissioner General A. Caminetti. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/519; Kate Holladay Claghorn, The Immigrant’s Day in Court.

Povff to Prokuda

April 12, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, CP, IWW, Russian, Spanish, URW, Yugoslavianadmin

Sam Povff (a.k.a. Henry Lang; Sam Brokr; Otto Schwarz; Harry Wulf)

Born: 1878, Poltava, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russia
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Sailor; thief
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Anarchist

An anarchist since age 17. Arrested in 1899 for revolutionary activities but released. Later claimed he participated in a mutiny at the Kronstadt naval base and was sentenced to 13 years’ internal exile in Siberia, from which he escaped.

In the United States he briefly belonged to an anarchist organization in New York, then moved to the West Coast where he used numerous aliases and supported himself through apparently politically motivated theft. Arrested 1911 in Huntington, Oregon for larceny (receiving a two-year sentence); circa 1912 in Stockton for burglary (two years in San Quentin State Prison); and 1914 in Los Angeles for highway robbery (a six-year sentence, of which he served four years and two months). Arrested again in Portland in 1919 for attempted robbery of moonshine sellers, explaining “They had no right to poison the working class people. I think I had a right to rob them.” Immigration authorities called him “a most reprehensible and undesirable character.” Deported to Russia December 17, 1922.

Sources: INS file 54859/184.

Ivan Povlycic

Born:
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Yugoslavia as a radical, May 8, 1920. No further information has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Pearl Powell (a.k.a. Perl; Powel; Podell; Polia Pawlockaya)

Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Member of the Communist Party in Brooklyn. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and released on bail. Married fellow Brooklyn Communist David Sova, who had also been arrested in January 1920, in Philadelphia; he soon returned to Russia of his own accord. She “voluntarily departed” to Russia on December 23, 1920.

Sources: FBI file BS 40-2476-1; Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920.

Andrei Pranka (a.k.a. Andy; Prauka)

Born: 1890, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and child remained in Russia. Joined the Monessen, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 while participating in a miners’ strike. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/475.

Ivan Pravoslavnov (a.k.a. John)

Born: 1898, Saratov, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Worked for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Radicalized in the United States and joined the Elizabethport, New Jersey branch of the Union of Russian Workers around 1917. Had a wife and American-born child in the US. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/74; FBI file OG 8000-382507.

Francisco Prego (a.k.a. Frank)

Born: Galicia, Spain, year unknown
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity: Galician
Occupation: Sailor
Migration:
Affiliation: IWW

Brother of CNT leader and Solidaridad editor José Prego Veira of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo. Involved in a maritime strike in New Orleans in 1913 and arrested for allegedly “shooting to kill” a policeman; sentenced to twelve years in prison. Deported in 1918.

Sources: 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 (a.k.a. Gregory; George)

Born: 1884, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined Russian Branch No. 5 of the Communist Party in Detroit in 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” October 14, 1920 via Canada.

Sources: INS file 54860/30; FBI file OG 388025.

Stepan Prokopovich (a.k.a. Steve Prokopowich; Prakspoduch)

Born: 1884, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers (alleged)

His wife and two children remained in Russia. Worked at a wire mill in Ansonia, Connecticut. Attended the Union of Russian Workers’ automobile school in Bridgeport but denied membership and no evidence of such was produced. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/371; FBI file OG 213357.

Platon Prokuda (a.k.a. Plaron; A. Proncudo)

Born: 1893, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Socialist Party and later the Union of Russian Workers in Detroit. After authorities broke up the URW in November 1919 he attended Communist Party events but did not join, stating he 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 and held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Refused entry at Libau with several other deportees because of his anarchism. Co-authored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Vladimir Lenin” in response. Last known to be stranded in Danzig.

Sources: INS file 54860/4; Free Society, October–November 1921.

Proshkovich to Ravavio

April 13, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, CP, IWW, Polish, Russian, URW, Yugoslavianadmin

Fedor Proshkovich (a.k.a. Theodor)

Fedor Proshkovich’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machine operator
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York around 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/364.

Tomas Prosk

Born: 1893, Kaluga, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Metalworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

Joined the New Haven branch of the Union of Russian Workers around 1918. Employed at the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, he was fired for organizing for the IWW; although he denied IWW membership, evidence showed he paid dues and received 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 authorities, and deported on the Buford December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/156.

Anton Prushchuk (or Prushtshuk; a.k.a. Anthony Pruschuk; Tony)

Born: 1898, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers (alleged)

Immigrated to the United States in 1913 to avoid military service. Worked in Detroit and was probably a member of the Union of Russian Workers, though he denied it. An avowed pacifist, he was arrested in 1918 for failing to register for the draft and illegally inducted into the US Army. Court-martialed in June 1918 for refusing orders, he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and confined at the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks and later Fort Douglas, Utah, until August 1919, when he was dishonorably discharged. Arrested again during the second Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Poland January 22, 1921.

Arrested by the Soviet government due to his anarchism, he participated in a hunger strike in Petrograd’s House of Preliminary Detention in November 1922 and was force-fed through a catheter.

Sources: INS file 54709/510; FBI file OG 363519; International Committee for Political Prisoners, Letters from Russian Prisons.

Demian Pruss (or Bruss)

Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Agricultural worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became a member of Philadelphia’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54811/959.

Louis Purtikowsky (a.k.a. Purtik; Pyrtek)

Born: Biata, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Polish
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Barber; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation:

Reported to authorities by three US Army recruiters in Indianapolis who claimed he had voiced opposition to the US government and the war, expressed support for revolution, and allegedly said he would throw bombs rather than assist the government. Arrested September 1919. He denied all charges but stated he wished to return to Poland. Deported to Poland May 14, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54709/55.

Kazimir Radkovits (or Radkowicz; Radkovich; Radowiz; a.k.a. John Baron)

Born: c. 1884, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party around 1910 and later Detroit’s Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920 and deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/659.

Pavel Rak (a.k.a. Paul; Rakand)

Born: 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Longshoreman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

In July 1918 he was illegally drafted into the US Army and, as a conscientious objector, sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment at Fort Douglas, Utah. After his release he joined the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and “voluntarily departed” sometime before February 1921.

Sources: FBI file OG 379972; INS file 54325/36G.

Ignaty Ramoroff (a.k.a. Tony Paros)

Born: 1899, Novozybkov, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Hotel housekeeper
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist

An individualist anarchist and Tolstoyan who did not belong to any organization. Arrested in Cleveland February 23, 1920 and deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 55009/20.

Michael Ransc

Born:
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Yugoslavia as a radical June 19, 1920. No further information has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Albert Rasimavicius (a.k.a. Rasimo)

Born: 1899, Vabalninkas, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner; student
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Worked as a coal miner from 1913 to 1918 and then attended Valparaiso University. A member of both the United Mine Workers and the Valparaiso branch of the Communist Party, he was arrested January 10, 1920, when a large quantity of revolutionary literature was found in his room. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/712.

Yakim Ravavio (or Ravavoi)

Born: c.1885, Russia
Nationality: .
Ethnicity: .
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1919. Arrested December 12, 1919 and deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/600.

Reid to Rivera

April 16, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, Englsih, Irish, Italian, IWW, Lithuanian, Mexican, PLM, Russian, Spanish, URWadmin

Patrick Reid (a.k.a. Larry; Jimmy; Billy; Matt)

Born: 1871, Derry, Ireland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Ulster-Scots
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1890s
Affiliation: IWW

Worked as an itinerant laborer throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Arrested in Centralia, Washington, in November 1919, he stated he was “ashamed to say” that he was not a dues-paying member of the IWW due to lack of funds, though he supported its ideology and declared that the only government he supported was that of Soviet Russia. Deported April 2, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54709/581; FBI file OG 378240.

Dimitry Remar

Born: 1896, Podolsk, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1915; then to US 1918
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became a member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 5 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920 and deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/796.

Benjamin Repsys (or Repshys)

Born: 1894, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Worked for the Ford Motor Company and in 1918 joined Detroit’s Branch No. 116 of the Lithuanian Socialist Federation, later transferring into the Communist Party. Arrested November 15, 1919, for receiving radical literature but released. Arrested again in January 1920 and deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/658.

Manuel Rey y García (a.k.a. Louis G. Raymond)

Manuel Rey y García, 1918. National Archives.

Born: 1888, Castrofoya, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity: Galician
Occupation: Sailor; union organizer; house painter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: IWW

His father was killed in the Cuban War of Independence. Emigrated to Cuba in 1905; from 1909 to 1914 he worked as sailor throughout Atlantic.

Entered the United States without inspection in 1914. An anarchist, he joined the IWW around that same year and became secretary of its Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union in Philadelphia; in April 1917 he moved to Niagara Falls, New York, where he was elected secretary of the local IWW organization. Arrested three times within six months for failure to register for the draft and for antiwar speeches, he was a defendant in the 1917–1918 mass IWW trial in Chicago and was sentenced to twenty years and a $20,000 fine. While imprisoned he corresponded with anarchist Lilly Sarnoff, who became his lifelong companion. His sentence was commuted in December 1922 on condition of deportation, and he was deported to Spain March 22, 1923.

He illegally returned to the United States, was deported again in 1926, and returned once more under the name “Louis G. Raymond.” He continued to be active in the anarchist movemint, living in the Stelton, New Jersey anarchist community and coediting the newspaper Freedom (1933–1934). He died in New York in 1990 at age 101.

Sources: INS file 54297/18; FBI file OG 8000-160053′ Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Peter Cole, Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia; Bieito Alonso, “Spanish Anarchists and Maritime Workers in the IWW,” in Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW; Bieito Alonso, Anarquistas galegos en América; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.

Federico Ricci

Born: 1887, Cesenatico, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Shoemaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1905
Affiliation: Anarchist

Originally a socialist in Italy, he became an anarchist in the U.S. around 1910. Returned to Italy from 1911 to 1913. Arrested in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in January 1918 for failure to register for the draft, he was sentenced to a year in prison and declared, “I do not believe in any form of government, because the people have no liberty.” Deported May 22, 1919.

In 1920 he was arrested in Naples for desertion but released on probation. He returned to Cesenatico, where authorities reported he lived a solitary life. Emigrated to France in 1925 and returned to Italy in 1929, remaining under surveillance until 1941, though no further radical activity was noted.

Sources: INS files 54379/2 and 54379/3; CPC busta 4302.

Augusto Rigoni

Born: 1893, Afiago (Vicenza), Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration:
Affiliation: Anarchist

Not politically radical in Italy, in the United States he joined the anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali in Kensington, Illinois, and supported Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. He was deported December 20, 1919.

After returning to Italy, authorities reported he initially showed sympathy with socialism but withdrew from politics, married, had children, and devoted himself to farming with his brothers. In 1932 he developed symptoms described as “mental alienation” and was confined to a provincial psychiatric hospital in Vicenza, where he died that same year.

Sources: CPC busta 4329; Cronaca Sovversiva, July 15, 1916.

Thomas Rimmer

Born: 1886, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Sailor; miner
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1912; then to US 1914
Affiliation: IWW

Emigrated to Canada in 1912, and from there entered the United States in 1914 without inspection. Radicalized in the U.S., he joined the Socialist Party of America and the Western Federation of Miners, then became an IWW member around. Helped organize the 1917 miners’ strike in Butte, Montana, served on the strikers’ publicity committee, and spoke at the funeral of organizer Frank Little. In 1918 he became an IWW delegate. Arrested May 6, 1918, during a police raid on an IWW hall in Seattle, he befriended fellow deportee Moses Baritz, beginning a lifelong political and personal friendship. Deported February 27, 1919, as a person deemed likely to become a public charge.

In Liverpool he joined the Merseyside IWW branch. In 1921 he joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain, and that was believed to travel frequently between England and Canada. After a lapse he rejoined the SPGB in 1933. He died in 1952.

Sources: INS file 54379/417; The Butte Miner, July 11 and July 29, 1917; San Francisco Examiner, August 6, 1917; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959; http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/09/death-of-moses-baritz.html.

Louis Ristick

Born: 1896, Volynia, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Worked for the Singer Sewing Machine Company in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested in New York during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/457.

Librado Rivera

Born: 1864, Rayón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1905
Affiliation: Partido Liberal Mexicano

In Mexico, became a teacher in 1888 and in 1900 cofounded a liberal political group in San Luis Potosí opposing Catholic influence on the government. Arrested in 1902 for political activities, he served a year in prison. In 1903 he collaborated with Ricardo Flores Magón and others on El hijo del Ahuizote and was arrested for “ridiculing public officials.”

After migrating to the United States in 1905, he cofounded the Partido Liberal Mexicano and soon adopted anarchism. Arrested in St. Louis in 1906, the US government attempted unsuccessfully to extradite him to Mexico. In 1907 he moved to Los Angeles, where he and other PLM leaders were arrested without warrants by private detectives acting for the Mexican government and convicted of violating US neutrality laws, though later released. In 1910 he became a founding editor of Regeneración. Arrested again in 1911 for neutrality violations related to organizing PLM fighters for the Mexican Revolution, he was imprisoned until 1914. In 1918 he was convicted under the Espionage Act for material published in Regeneración and sentenced to fifteen years. In 1920 he was transferred from McNeil Island to Leavenworth Penitentiary. His sentence was commuted in 1923 on condition of deportation to Mexico.

Back in Mexico he declined government posts offered in San Luis Potosí and continued publishing anarchist newspapers and supporting anarcho-syndicalist unionxsin Tampico, for which he was arrested repeatedly. He died in 1932 after being struck by a car in Mexico City.

Sources: Librado Rivera, ¡Viva Tierra y Libertad!; Alicia Perez Salazar, Librado Rivera, un soñador en llamas; Aurora Mónica Alcayaga Sasso, “Librado Rivera y los hermanos rojos en el movimiento social y cultural anarquista en Villa Cecilia y Tampico, Tamaulipas, 1915-1931” (PhD diss., Universidad Iberoamericano); http://www.libradorivera.com/; http://www.antorcha.net/biblioteca_virtual/politica/viva_tierra/libradoindice.html.

Roberts to Roy

April 18, 2020Red Scare DeporteesCP, English, IWW, Mexico, PLM, Romanian, Russian, Scottish, SP, Spanish, URWadmin

Vasily Roberts (a.k.a. Wasily Robetz)

Roberts’ Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: c. 1882, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1915; then to US 1917
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Socialist Party of America before joining Philadelphia’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party. He was arrested January 7, 1920, and deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54811/947; FBI file OG 382735.

Jack Robey

Born:
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: IWW

An IWW member arrested in Sand Point, Idaho, in 1918. He was released, then rearrested and deported to an unknown country October 28, 1919. No further information has been located.

Sources: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920.

Alfred Robinson

Born: 1893, Chislehurst, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1905
Affiliation: IWW

Worked throughout the United States and Canada. In July 1919 he joined the IWW’s Metal and Machinery Workers’ Industrial Union No. 300. Arrested in Detroit during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported March 27, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54709/578; FBI file OG 8000-385119.

Abraham Rodríguez (a.k.a. Abram Rodríguez)

Abraham Rodríguez, by Ralph Chaplin. Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan.

Born: Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner; labor organizer; poet
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Partido Liberal Mexicano; IWW

In 1911 he formed a PLM group in Del Valle, Texas, and reportedly “a colonel in the rebel army that overthrew the dictatorship in Mexico.” After returning to mining work in Arizona, he belonged to IWW Local 800 and chaired its grievance committee. Indicted in the federal IWW trial of 1917, he was arrested in New Mexico after an armed standoff with authorities. Charges were dropped in exchange for deportation to Mexico.

In Cananea, he continued organizing on behalf of the IWW.

Sources: FBI file Misc 18346.

Juan Rodríguez

Born: 1885, Asturias, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cook; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: IWW

His father died in Spain before he was born.

In 1916 he jumped ship in the United States and was arrested in Philadelphia in February 1919 as a suspected radical, though authorities could not prove it. (However, his is listed as an IWW member in IWW publications.) A deportation warrant was instead issued based on illiteracy, illegal entry, and likelihood of becoming a public charge. He requested voluntary departure to Cuba, which was granted, and departed August 22, 1919, aboard the SS Moro Castle.

Sources: INS file 54648/27.

Konstantin Romanchuk

Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immgrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, around July 1919 and became its secretary. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/396; FBI file OG 376791.

Gavril Romanovich (a.k.a. Gabriel; G.R.D.)

Romanovich’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1896, Kozhevniki, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: immigrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party of America, then in 1919 transferred to the Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America, becoming secretary of its Waterbury, Connecticut branch. Arrested during a raid on headquarters in March 1920, he was deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54709/462; FBI file OG 379909.

Jesus Romo

Born: c. 1884, Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: IWW; anarchist

Joined the IWW in Los Angeles in February 1919 and quickly became a delegate for its General Recruiting Union; he was probably previously a member in Morenci, Arizona, where his father and brothers were also activists. Arrested June 9, 1919 for distributing literature outside an employment agency, he declared he “was born an anarchist.” Deported August 18, 1919.

Continued organizing for the IWW in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Sources: INS file 54616/232; FBI file OG 363737.

Angel Roncal

Born: 1896, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Sailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: IWW

He reportedly spent time in South America before immigrating to the U.S. in 1916.

A member of the Niagara Falls IWW branch, he was arrested in September 1918 for failing to register for the draft, with IWW literature found in his possession. After five months in jail without trial he was released in February 1919 but immediately detained for deportation. He was deported to Spain around July 1, 1920.

Sources: Buffalo Commercial, February 1 and 3, 1919; Buffalo Times, February 20, 1919; Cattaraucus Republican, March 27, 1919; Buffalo Express, April 30, 1919; Illustrated Buffalo Express, June 22, 1919.

Maxim Rosak (a.k.a. Max; Roosak)

Maxim Rosak’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: c.1887, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Driller
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Formerly a member of the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party in Philadelphia, he transferred into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested January 7, 1920, he was deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54811/948; FBI file OG 379897.

Savely Roshkov (a.k.a. Charles Roshko)

Savely Roshkov holding a copy of the URW newspaper *Khleb i Volia*. National Archives.

Born: 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Employed by Singer Manufacturing Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he belonged to the International Association of Machinists’ Local No. 30 and took part in a 1919 wildcat strike. He was also a member of the Union of Russian Workers branch there. Arrested February 12, 1920, he was deported to Russia January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/143; FBI file OG 382709.

Mikail Rosnak (a.k.a.Michael Rosnack; Bosnack)

Born: 1897, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (present-day Romania)
Nationality: Romanian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Blacksmith’s helper
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1917
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Expelled from Canada during World War I as an “enemy alien,” he moved to the United States and in 1919 joined URW Branch No. 6 in Detroit. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he testified that the detective who arrested him called him “worse than a nigger,” and gave him “a smash in the face.” He was deported to Romania March 17, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54739/469.

Janet Johnstone Roy (Janet Johnstone MacKay)

*Seattle Union Record*, February 14, 1919.

Born: 1895, Milmathort, Scotland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Scottish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; IWW

Supported the Independent Labour Party before emigrating.

In Lawrence, Massachusetts, she joined the Socialist Party and the IWW’s Textile Workers Industrial Union No. 1000. After moving to Chicago and then Seattle, she was arrested with her sister in a police raid on an IWW hall in October 1918. She married Ian V. MacKay, a naturalized U.S. citizen, in January 1919. Deported July 23, 1919.

She later reunited with her husband in British Columbia, where she died in 1972.

Sources: INS files 54379/532 and 54379/532A; Frances H. Early, A World Without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I; Heather Mayer, Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924; Ancestry.com.

Margaret Roy (Margaret Ray)

Born: 1893, Milmathort, Scotland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Scottish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; IWW

Emigrated to Canada in 1913, then returned to Scotland in 1916 to retrieve her sister Janet.

In Lawrence, Massachusetts, she and Janet joined the Socialist Party and the IWW’s Textile Workers Industrial Union No. 1000. After moving to Chicago and then Seattle, she was arrested with her sister during a raid on an IWW hall in October 1918. She married U.S. citizen Alonzo Ray in January 1919, but was deported July 23, 1919.

Roznuk to Saccaro

April 19, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, German, Italian, IWW, Russian, URWadmin

Demian Roznuk (a.k.a. Rozenok; Demetri Rosicok; Demyan Rogeanok)

Born: 1887, Chernihiv Oblast, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Steelworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated. Worked for Republic Iron and Steel and was on strike at the time of his arrest. Around 1919 he joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/186.

Axel Rudolph

Born:
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: IWW

An IWW member deported October 31, 1919. No further information has been found.

Sources: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920.

John C. Ruggieri (a.k.a. John C. Rogers)

Born: 1892, Rosario, Argentina
Nationality: Argentine
Ethnicity: Italian
Occupation: Bootblack; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: IWW

Born in Argentina to Italian parents.

Immigrated to the U.S. in 1906 at the age of 14. Arrested in a raid on a San Francisco IWW hall in 1918, he denied IWW membership but acknowledged agreeing with the organization’s philosophy. On August 21, 1918, he was permitted to “reship foreign” as a sailor to Chile rather be formally deported.

Sources: INS file 54235/58.

Boris Trofinov Rusak (a.k.a. Boris Tropinav or Tropinow)

Born: c. 1895, Kryvičy, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Married his wife Efrosnia in 1914 after arriving in the U.S. the previous year, and their daughter Nadia was born in 1917. In February 1919 he joined the Union of Russian Workers in Norwich, Connecticut. Arrested February 1920, he was deported to Russia January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/278.

Ivan Kalenikov Rusak (a.k.a. John Rusak)

Born: c. 1891, Kryvičy, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Textile worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

He was employed at Yantic Woolen Mills and belonged to the Norwich, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested January 20, 1920, in Yantic, he was deported January 22, 1921, aboard the SS Stockholm.

Sources: INS file 54861/56.

Giuseppe Russo (a.k.a. Joe Russo; L’Unico; Augustus Antonio Leon)

Joe Russo, 1921. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1873, either on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean or in Chiaravelle, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner; metalworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1897
Affiliation: Anarchist

An “anarchist without adjectives” who claimed to have been born at sea and therefore nationless, he was influenced by Max Stirner and Luigi Galleani and contributed to Cronaca Sovversiva. He lived in Tunisia, where he was imprisoned, and reportedly traveled to Asia Minor and the Balkans.

Immigrating to the United States in 1896. In 1911 he briefly joined the military forces of the Partido Liberal Mexicano in Tijuana but soon became disillusioned with the Mexican Revolution and returned to the U.S. Arrested in Lovelock, Nevada, he was deported to Italy October 1921.

He remained active in radical politics in Italy, where he was repeatedly arrested for antifascist activity. He helped smuggle antifascists out of Italy and recruited volunteers for the Spanish Civil War. Arrested again in 1937, he was confined to Ponza and Tremiti. Freed in 1943, he distributed the underground anarchist paper Era Nuova in Turin. He died in 1957.

Sources: CPC busta 4499; Maurizio Antonioli et al., eds., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani.

Rustemann (first name unknown)

Born:
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: IWW

An IWW member who was interned as an “aline enemy” at Fort Douglas, Utah, and later “voluntarily departed” to Germany. No further information has been found.

Sources: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920.

Daniel Ryzhukov (or Ryzoukov; Ryoukov; a.k.a. Rice; Reisch)

Born: 1885, Tolkova (Grodno), Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1909
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

In 1912 he married fellow anarchist Anastasia Ryzhukova in Newark. He joined the Union of Russian Workers there in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he declared his distrust of all governments, including that of the United States. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919, while his wife and child remained in Newark.

In 1921 he signed a manifesto of the Union of Russian Anarchist Workers Repatriated from America, which critically supported the Bolshevik regime as a temporary necessity. His wife meanwhile became severely ill and died in Newark in 1924.

Sources: INS file 54709/340; Amerikanskiye Izvestiya, August 6, 1924 (thanks to Malcolm Archibald); Victor Serge, Anarchists Never Surrender: Essays, Polemics, and Correspondence on Anarchism, 1908–1938.

Ivan Sabshuk

Born:
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Russia as a radical on February 1, 1921. No further information has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Cesare Saccaro (a.k.a. Caesar; Frank)

Cesare Saccaro, 1937. *Border Cities Star*, April 5, 1937.

Born: 1885, Arsiè, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Anarchist

In Italy he displayed “good moral conduct,” according to the Italian government, and from ages 11-18 enrolled in “a school in Verona to prepare for a monastic life.”

In 1903 he joined his father Antonio in Spring Valley, Illinois, to work in the mines and became an anarchist around 1910, sending money to anarchist newspapers in Italy. He returned to Italy in 1913 to marry Giovanna Faoro; the couple then settled again in Spring Valley, where they had a daughter in 1915. He was deported to Italy March 16, 1921.

Givoanna rejoined him in Italy, where she gave birth a son in Arsiè. In 1923 Cesare emigrated to Canada, “under threatening fascist persecutions.” His family rejoined him in Windsor, where another son was born around 1927. There he helped organize the antifascist Circolo di Coltura Operaia in 1933 and wrote for the Toronto antifascist paper Il Lavoratore. In 1936 he also published an antifascist letter in the Border Cities Star. Italian authorities still considered him an active antifascist and radical in 1945. He later illegally resettled with his family in the United States and died in Dearborn, Michigan, on May 27, 1979.

Sources: INS file 54885/17; FBI file OG 379633; CPC busta 4513; Ancestry.com.

Sachar to Sánchez

April 21, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, CP, cuban, IWW, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, URWadmin

Andrey Sachar (a.k.a. Andrej; Andrew; Henry Sugar)

Born: 1898, Minsk oblast, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation:

Employed by the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. In 1918 he became secretary of the Russian National Home (also called the Russian People’s Home), described by authorities as “an alleged Bolshevik organization” that hosted speakers from the Union of Russian Workers and the Communist Party of America. He admitted supporting the Bolshevik government and revolution in the United States, but later claimed his testimony had been mistranslated. Arrested April 1919 after three members of Detroit’s Russian community accused him of advocating overthrow of the US government—possibly tied to a dispute within Detroit’s Russian Orthodox All Saints Church. He “voluntarily departed” September 25, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54709/557; FBI file BS 202600-353-1; Aram G. Sarkisian, “Their Daily Dread: Russian Orthodox Christians in Red Scare Detroit, 1918–1920,” Journal of American Ethnic History 41, no. 4 (2022).

Andrei Sacharchuk

Born: c. 1895, Wołyń, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party in Atlantic City. Arrested November 19, 1919; later rearrested in Welch, West Virginia for distributing radical literature. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/359.

Mike Sachco

Born: c. 1897, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Steamfitters’ helper
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Member of Milwaukee’s Russian Branch No. 2 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859-158.

Nikita Safroniev (a.k.a. Necita; Safronieff; Zafronia)

Born: 1883, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remaine din Russia when he emigrated. Arrested November 9, 1919 during the first Palmer Raids. A member of the Maspeth, Queens branch of the Union of Russian Workers. He testified: “I lived long enough in Russia under the Czar. I have seen enough brutality committed there, but I have never seen the brutality that was committed upon the Russian people here in my case…When I was arrested…I was travelling in the automobile, they were beating me in the sides with their handcuffs; and this continued all the way until they brought me to the Park Row Building in New York.” Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/284; FBI file OG 379106; Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920.

Orteof Sahtabnog (a.k.a. Ortiof; Ortiob Shtabnoy)

Born: 1891, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined hte Union of Russian Workers branch at the Jamieson No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia in September 1919, and became its secretary. Arrested November 1919; he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/586.

Nikofor Salabay

Born: c. 1890, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1916
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife and two children remained in Russia. He joined the Communist Party in Pittsburgh in September 1919. Arrested January 1920, he was deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/644.

Marcelo Salinas y López (a.k.a. Marcelino Menéndez; Jorge Gallart; George Gallart; Pedro Martín; Pedro Martín Sánchez; Palomero)

Born: 1889, Batabanó, Cuba
Nationality: Cuban
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cigarworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist IWW

Became an anarchist around 1908 and collaborated on Havana’s anarchist newspaper ¡Tierra!.

Migrated to the U.S. in 1911 to work in the cigar industry in Tampa, Florida. Active in anarchist groups there affiliated with the Partido Liberal Mexicano, and also joined and organized for the IWW. He was briefly the roommate of Spanish anarchist Manuel Pardiñas, who in 1912 returned to Spain and assassinated Spanish Prime Minister José Canalejas; wrongly suspected of involvement in the assassination, Salinas was also accused by the Mexican government of being part of plot to kill Mexico’s President Madero. Arrested and deported to Cuba February 7, 1913. He illegally returned to the U.S. in June of that year under the name “Marcelino Menendez” and participated in an IWW maritime strike in New Orleans; he then moved to New York where he frequented the Francisco Ferrer Center and collaborated on the newspaper Cultura Obrera under the name “Jorge Gallart.” In 1914 he migrated to Spain, where he was part of an influential group of “americanos” (Spanish-speaking anarchists who had lived in the US) and collaborated on anarchist newspapers and joined and organized on behalf of the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo; he was imprisoned numerous times for these activities. Around 1918 he returned to New York where, under the name “Pedro Martín,” he was a member of the Los Corsarios Group and became editor its newspaper El Corsario. One of fourteen group members arrested in February 1919 by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson; although all charges were dropped, he and several others were held for deportation as anarchists. Salinas claimed to have been born in Cartagena, Spain, and was deported to Spain May 4, 1919 as “Pedro Martín.”

Arrested during a propaganda tour in Andalusia (for possession false identity documents under the name Pedro Martín); he was sentenced to two months in prison in Cádiz and then deported to Cuba August 1, 1919. In Cuba he took an active part in the general strikes of 1919; for which he was arrested multiple times and sentenced to death along with several other leading anarchists, but released in 1921. While in prison he sent a letter to the Comintern to apply for the creation of a Cuban Communist Party, but soon became disillusioned with Soviet Communism. In the 1920-1940s he became nationally recognized as radical poet, novelist, and playwright. In 1944 he helped found the Asociacíon Libertaria de Cuba (ALC); in 1948 he was appointed its Secretary of Culture. Edited a succession of Cuban anarchist newspapers. In 1956-1959 he served on the secretariat of the Confederacíon de Trabajadores de Cuba. Refused to support Castro’s seizure of power. In 1967 he was allowed to enter the United States as an anti-Castro refugee. He settled in Miami, Florida, where he continued to be an active member of the Movimiento Libertario Cubano en el Exilio and write for anarchist publications. He died in 1976.

Sources: INS files 53572/12 (1913 deportation) and 54616/79 (1919 deportation [under name “Pedro Martin aka Pedro Martin Sanchez”]); Marcelo Salinas: Un ideal sublime y elevado; Kirwin R. Shaffer, Anarchists of the Caribbean: Countercultural Politics and Transnational Networks in the Age of US Expansion; Frank Fernández, Cuban Anarchism: The History of a Movement; Manuel Buenacas, El movimiento obrero español, 1886-1926; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.

Nikolai Salov (a.k.a. Nick Saloff)

Born: 1891, Alagir, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party of America in Seattle. Deported on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/31.

Nikolai Saluk (or Celiuk)

Born: 1892, Bobry, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; punch press operator
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party, he was deported February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/24.

Roland S. Samuelson (a.k.a. Roy)

Born: 1884, Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW

Joined IWW Mixed Local No. 382 in Seattle in April 1917, and became and IWW delegate. Arrested January 1920 in Everett, Washington, for “criminal syndicalism” after the Great Northern Railway fired him for organizing his fellow workers and reported him to the police. Deported to Sweden August 13, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54861/371; FBI file OG 386735.

Ivan Samuylov (a.k.a. John; Samuyloff; Somaurloff; Samuyilof)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1919 and deported to Russia December 23, 1920. No further information has been located.

Sources: 54325/36G and FBI file BS 202600-33; Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920.

Vladimir Samuylov (a.k.a. Samuyloff; Samoileff; Pavel Wolkoff)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America in New York City. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1919; deported to Russian December 23, 1920 with his teenage son and daughter.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file BS 202600-33; Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920; New-York Tribune, December 19, 1920.

Ramón Sánchez

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-2.png — Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including Sánchez, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1886, Santa Cruz, Canary Islands, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cigarmaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Anarchist

His family emigrated to Cuba in 1898, and in 1916 he migrated to Mexico and then the United States.

A member of New York’s anarchist Los Corsarios Group, and one of fourteen members arrested in February 1919 by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson. All charges were dropped, but Sánchez and several other members were held for deportation as anarchists. Deported to Spain May 4, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/79.

Ramón L. Sánchez

Born: Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: IWW

Arrested June 21, 1921 in Sacramento on criminal syndicalism charges after distributing IWW literature. Sentenced to 1–14 years in San Quentin Penitentiary, where he contracted tuberculosis. Deported to Spain on August 1, 1924.

Sources: Sacramento Star, June 22, October 21, 1921; Daily Worker, February 29 and June 2, 1924; Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts.

Sanchini to Sarvas

April 22, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, Italian, Russian, SP, Spanish, URWadmin

Giobbe Sanchini

Born: 1887, Sant’Angelo in Lizzola, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Mason
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist in his youth and migrated to Switzerland in 1902, returning to Italy in 1906.

In 1911 he emigrated to New Britain, Connecticut, where he joined the circle around Galleani and distributed the paper Cronaca Sovversiva. In 1913 he married fellow anarchist Irma Cassolino. First arrested on September 8, 1917, after organizing a defense fund for Galleani; although that warrant was canceled, he was rearrested May 16, 1918. When asked why he should not be deported, he responded: “My reasons are as follows: That every person has the right to live wherever he desires without being molested in a state that is called [a] democracy and, when a state ceases to be democratic it then embodies the term ‘tyranny’ and in that case we no longer enjoy liberty.” Deported June 24, 1919, together with his pregnant wife and their American-born children.

Upon return to Italy he was immediately imprisoned for evading military service, though the charges were dropped in 1922. He joined an anarchist group in Pesaro and published the anarchist newspaper La Frusta there and later in Fano, from 1919 to 1922. After Irma died in childbirth in 1925, he sent their children back to the United States in 1926 but was never able to reunite with them. He remained under police surveillance until 1942. During the 1930s he reportedly worked as a pasta-factory supervisor, bricklayer, and public-works supervisor, and he remarried in 1933. Fascist authorities reported no subversive activity on his part and even claimed he showed “a favorable attitude towards the regime,” though other reports and family testimony stated that he always remained committed to anarchism. After the fall of Fascism he attempted to revive La Frusta in 1946 and he stayed in contact with Italian anarchists in America until his death in Pesaro in December 1951.

Sources: INS file 54235/52; CPC busta 4562; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Richard Lenzi, Facing Toward the Dawn: The Italian Anarchists of New London; La Frusta; Edoardo Puglielli, Il movimento anarchico abruzzese 1907–1957; Il Fondo L’Adunata Collection, Boston Public Library; Ugo Fedeli Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.

Irma Sanchini (née Cassolino)

https://www.estelnegre.org/documents/sanchini/sanchini.html

Born: 1895, Tonco, Piedmont, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Anarchist

Migrated to the United States with her father and settled in New Britain, Connecticut, where she became associated with Luigi Galleani’s anarchist circle and distributed Cronaca Sovversiva. Married Giobbe Sanchini in 1913. Arrested September 8, 1917 for helping to organize a defense fund for Galleani, she was released when the warrant was canceled but rearrested May 16, 1918. Some newspapers dubbed her the “Queen of the Anarchists,” and the district attorney hyperbolically claimed she “accomplished untold mischief in the period that she has resided in Connecticut. She is highly intelligent, very resourceful, and is considered to be much more dangerous than her husband.” Asked by an immigration agent what she thought an anarchist was, she replied, “a good man.” Deported June 24, 1919 with her husband and children.

Reportedly suffering from tuberculosis at the time of her deportation, she died in childbirth in 1925.

Sources: INS file 54235/52; Boston Globe, June 20, 1919; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Richard Lenzi, Facing Toward the Dawn: The Italian Anarchists of New London.

Ivan Sanko (a.k.a. Iwan; Evan; Sinko; Sankio)

Born: 1896, Minsk region, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

In January 1918 he joined the Youngstown, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers, soon becoming its secretary. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he explained to authorities, “I read a great many Anarchistic books which put me in the notion of joining this Union,” and he did “not care for the Bolsheviks.” He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/184.

Plácido Santamaría

Born: 1890, Burgos, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Gunsmith; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Anarchist

A foundling raised in an orphanage, he helped found Los Desamparados, a youth anarchist group in Eibar, Spain, in 1912. Emigrating to Scotland and Wales in 1914.

After immigrating to the U.S. 1916 he joined the anarchist Los Corsarios Group in New York. In February 1919 he was among fourteen members arrested by the United States Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate Woodrow Wilson. Although all charges were dropped, he was one of several members held for deportation as anarchists and he was deported to England (his port of departure to the U.S.) on July 5, 1919.

In 1931 he donated money to the Mexican anarchist paper ¡Paso! published by Librado Rivera.

Sources: INS file 54616/79; Tierra y Libertad (Barcelona), December 11, 1912; ¡Paso! (Mexico City), July 1, 1931.

Turibbio Santarelli (a.k.a. Giuseppe or Joseph Santarelli; Joseph Galligari)

Born: 1899, Fano, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Mechanic; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Immigrated to the United States with his parents and joined the Socialist Party of America in Buffalo in 1916. That same year, after coworkers insulted him with anti-socialist and ethnic slurs, he allegedly replied that President Wilson “should be shot,” or “Somebody ought to kill him.” Arrested at age sixteen and interrogated by the Secret Service, he was released on bail. Rearrested in 1919 under new immigration laws for “advocating or teaching the assassination of public officials.” Confidential informants also accused him—implausibly and inconsistently—of being secretary of an anarchist group called the Roma Club, praising the Kaiser, plotting sabotage with a German agent, making or receiving a bomb, and having ties to the Black Hand. Deported to Italy December 14, 1919.

He migrated to Canada in 1920 and for years petitioned unsuccessfully to return to the United States. In 1926 he married Constance Yuraities in York, Ontario. In the 1930s, after his parents died, he subscribed to the American anarchist newspaper L’Adunata dei Refrattari.

Sources: INS file 54235/91; CPC busta 4582; L’Adunata dei Refrattari (New York).

Alex Sarchkoff (a.k.a. Savcakoff)

Born: 1886, Mogliev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Lived in Detroit with his wife Catherine. In November 1919 he joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested in January 1920 during the second round of Palmer Raids, he “voluntarily departed” for Russia via Canada on October 30, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54859/671.

Ivan Sarvas (a.k.a. John)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Russia as a radical on November 17, 1920. No further information has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Sastre y García to Scali

April 23, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, CP, Hungarian, Italian, IWW, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian, URWadmin

Manuel Sastre y García

Born: c. 1881, Pozaldez, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; union organizer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910.
Affiliation: IWW

Emigrated first to the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone in 1908 and then to the United States in 1910. After joining the Industrial Workers of the World in California in 1911, he organized Spanish-speaking workers across Southern California and led a major citrus workers’ strike in Covina from January to February 1919. Arrested and sentenced to thirty days in jail for assault during the strike. Arrested again in February 1919 for allegedly violating the Espionage Act, he was never brought to trial but was deported later that year.

In 1932 he was living in Málaga and subscribing to the anarchist magazine Estudios published in Valencia.

Sources: FBI file OG 8000-96994; Nelson Van Valen, “The Bolsheviki and the Orange Growers,” Pacific Historical Review 22, no. 1 (1953); David M. Struthers, The World in a City: Multiethnic Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles; Estudios: Generación Consciente, October 1932.

Prokofen Savach (a.k.a. Peter Sawich, Savitch)

Born: 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1918
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated to Canada in 1914, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers, and then entered the United States in 1918, later residing in Seattle. Questioned about his citizenship, he replied “I don’t see any reason why I should change my nationality. Being an American citizen, I would have to work just as hard as if I was a Russian.” He was deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/412.

Sergei Savchuk (or Savshuk)

Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Longshoreman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore in 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the transport Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/583; FBI file OG 376569.

Mieczyslaw Savitsky (a.k.a. Michael; Savitzky; Sawicki)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-21.png — Savitsky’s URW membership card. National Archives

Born: 1887, Lesnoy, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Likely involved in anarchist activity in Russia before emigrating.

In the United States he worked for Gould & Eberhardt in Irvington, New Jersey. He served on the organizing committee of the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he participated in a hunger strike at Ellis Island protesting a wire screen separating detainees from visitors and was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In Petrograd he was arrested in June 1923 during Soviet raids on anarchists, imprisoned for seven weeks, and joined fourteen others in a hunger strike before being sentenced to two years’ internal exile in Pyatigorsk.

Sources: INS file 54709/348; FBI file OG 378917; Behind the Bars (New York), January 1924; International Committee for Political Prisoners, Letters from Russian Prisons; G.P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents).

Petr Stepanovich Savko (a.k.a. Sawka)

Born: c. 1893, Zagorie region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: .
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became a member and secretary of the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Waterbury, Connecticut. Deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/328.

Andrey Savruk (a.k.a. Andrew Sawruk)

Born: 1892, Austria-Hungary (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Typesetter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Around 1917 he joined the Socialist Party of America and in 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America while living in Detroit. Deported to Hungary on May 8, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file OG 385566.

Timofey Saychenko

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Russia as a radical on December 12, 1920. No further information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Giuseppe Scali

Born: 1874, Pisa, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Anarchist

By 1900 he was already active in distributing anarchist publications. After briefly relocating to Corsica in 1901, he settled in Carrara, Italy, where he became the first editor of the anarchist newspaper Combattiamo! (1902–1904). In 1903 he moved to Lucerne to avoid arrest for defamation charges, and in 1906 emigrated to the United States.

By 1907 he was living in San Francisco, collaborating on the individualist anarchist paper Nihil and joining the Gruppo Iconoclasti, later reorganized as the Gruppo Anarchico Volontà aligned with Luigi Galleani. Arrested in October 1916 with other Italian radicals for disturbing the peace, he received a ninety-day sentence. Arrested again in May 1918 during raids targeting Galleani’s associates, he was released on bail. Asked whether he had ever advocated anarchy, he replied, “Yes, whenever I had a chance.” Detained again after posting bail for fellow anarchist Michele Centrone, after a month he wrote to conservative Congressman Albert Johnson requesting that his deportation be expedited. Deported to Italy June 19, 1920.

Back in Italy he remained under government surveillance until 1929 and was reportedly still an anarchist, though no longer politically active.

Sources: INS file 54379/313; CPC busta 4652; Cronaca Sovversica; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani.

Scarlett to Schnabel

April 25, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, CP, German, Italian, IWW, Jewish, Russian, Scottishadmin

Sam Scarlett (Samuel)

Born: 1883, Kilmarnock, Scotland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Scottish
Occupation: Machinist; union organizer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1903; then to US 1904
Affiliation: IWW

Originally a member of the International Association of Machinists, he was radicalized and joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911, becoming a prominent speaker and organizer reportedly arrested about 160 times. Among these arrests was his detention during the 1916 strike on the Mesabi Iron Range on murder charges that were later dropped. A defendant in the federal IWW trial of 1917–1918, he was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment and a $20,000 fine. His sentence was commuted in 1923 on condition of deportation, and he was deported to England in April of that year.

That August he emigrated to Canada and resumed organizing for the IWW in the Vancouver area, especially among miners. Canadian authorities attempted to deport him in 1924 using evidence supplied by US immigration officials, but the case was dropped. In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Canada. He became an organizer for the party’s Mine Workers’ Union of Canada and was arrested in connection with the violent Estevan strike of October 1931, receiving a one-year sentence that damaged his health. Around 1938 he became chairman of the party in Toronto and of its newspaper The Clarion. When the party was outlawed in 1940, Scarlett lived underground and clandestinely entered the United States, where he remained illegally until his death in 1941.

Sources: INS file 54616/49; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Daily Worker, October 2, 1931; Donald H. Avery, “British-Born ‘Radicals’ in North America, 1900-1941: The Case of Sam Scarlett,” Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes Ethniques Au Canada 10, no. 2 (1978); Barbara Ann Roberts, Whence They Came: Deportation from Canada, 1900-1935.

Alexander Schatz (or Shatz; a.k.a. Harry)

Born: 1884, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Printer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1909
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Around 1917 he joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in New York. A member of the editorial board of Khleb i Volia and brother of fellow URW member Boris Schatz, he was arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. During questioning he declared, “I consider myself a citizen and a laborer wherever I work and wherever I live.” He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919, leaving behind his wife and stepchild in the U.S.

Sources: INS file 54709/128.

Boris Schatz (or Shatz)

Born: 1894, Russia (probably in present-day Ukraine)
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Photographer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

In 1917 he joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. He served on the editorial board of the organization’s newspaper Khleb i Volia and was the brother of fellow member and deportee Alexander Schatz. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, the stress of his detention reportedly caused his wife Elsie to miscarry. He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919, while Elsie remained in New York.

Sources: INS file 54709/278; FBI file OG 378924; Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920.

John Carl Schedel

Born: 1885, Munich, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Piano polisher
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

In August 1914 he reportedly registered with the German consulate in Cincinnati to join the German Army, yet he simultaneously became active in American radical politics, serving as county secretary of the Socialist Party of America in Fort Wayne, Indiana and later joining the Communist Party of America. Described as “a very radical socialist ” who “and “during the war caused considerable trouble at the Packard Piano Company where he his employed,” he was arrested in 1920 for declaring he would rather live in Russia “where all is freedom” than in the United States. Deported May 22, 1920, leaving behind a pregnant wife and four American-born children; shortly afterward their newborn died and his wife was temporarily declared insane.

In Germany he reportedly joined the merchant marine and then traveled to Russia, where he claimed to have joined the Red Army and worked as an interpreter near Soviet leaders. After about a year he returned to Germany disillusioned with Soviet rule. In May 1921 he stowed away from Rotterdam to New York but was ordered deported again; disembarking in England, he was jailed for a month and undertook a hunger strike. After several failed attempts he reentered the United States in 1924 via Mexico. Arrested in Chicago for unlawful entry, he was defended by the American Civil Liberties Union and pursued multiple appeals until his deportation warrant was dropped. He died in Chicago in November 1968.

Sources: FBI file OG 341493; Fort Wayne Sentinel, September 1, 1920; Garrett Clipper (Garrett, IN), July 4, 1921; American Civil Liberties Union, Annual Report, 1924; Indianapolis Star, January 21, 1925; Chicago Tribune, November 7, 1968.

Nathan Schechter (or Shechter; Shacter)

Born: 1884, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated to the United States in 1913. In September 1919 he joined Russian Branch No. 5 of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested in December 1919 for “criminal anarchy” and released on bail, he was arrested again during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920. He told an immigration inspector “I consider the entire capitalist system to be rotten, and it ought to be abolished,” and protested being deported as a criminal, insisting he could pay his own passage if forced to leave. After four months’ detention on Ellis Island he became a leader of protests among detained radicals and was placed in a separate cell, prompting others to threaten a hunger strike. He was deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54811/424.

Raffaele Schiavina (a.k.a. Max Sartin; Melchior Steele; Bruno)

Raffaele Schiavina, 1920s. Archives Nationales, France.

Born: 1895, San Carlo, Ferrara, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Bookkeeper
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist

Attended an Italian business school until age nineteen and initially a socialist.

Emigrated to the United States in 1913 and became an anarchist the following year. In 1916 he became bookkeeper for Luigi Galleani’s newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva in Lynn, becoming a close associate and contributor. Arrested in 1916 for inciting to riot but acquitted, he was arrested again in 1918 for refusing draft registration and sentenced to one year in the Middlesex County House of Correction. Upon release in March 1919 he was detained for deportation and described by a federal judge as “one of the most dangerous men with whom he has had to deal.” Deported to Italy June 24, 1919, with Galleani and other associates.

Back in Italy he was briefly jailed for draft evasion, then settled in Turin, where he helped revive Cronaca Sovversiva (January–October 1920) until it was suppressed. Arrested in 1921 alongside several Communists and falsely accused of leading Turin’s paramilitary Arditi del Popolo sections, but all defendants were acquitted. In March 1923 he emigrated illegally to France; in Paris he published the anarchist newspapers Il Monito and La Difesa per Sacco e Vanzetti.

He returned clandestinely to the United States in 1928 under various pseudonyms and edited the anarchist paper L’Adunata dei Refrattari in New York and New Jersey from 1928 until 1971. He died in Salt Lake City in 1987.

Sources: INS file 54391/81; CPC busta 4690; Max Sartin, “Breve autobiografia,” Bollettino Archivio G. Pinelli, no. 13 (August 1999); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani.

Andrew Schkurski (or Schkursky; Shkursky)

Born: 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Crane operator
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became a member of the Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party in Milwaukee, serving as its delegate to the party’s City Central Committee. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54809/196.

Adolph Schnabel

Born: 1882, Kharkiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: German
Occupation: Machinist; sailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

The child of German immigrants to Russia, he participated in socialist organizations in Ukraine during the Russian Revolution of 1905–1907 before emigrating to the United States in 1907.

Married Helena Ring in Philadelphia in 1913 and cofounded the Union of Russian Workers the following year, editing several of its newspapers and serving as national secretary prior to Peter Bianki. Arrested in Chicago in June 1917 for allegedly circulating anti-draft literature, the charge was dismissed for lack of evidence. He was later arrested in Duquesne, Pennsylvania for holding a street meeting without a permit. After recovering from influenza in 1919 he was arrested again in New York for deportation; released on bail, he reportedly traveled through New York and New Jersey organizing anarchist clubs. Returned to detention on Ellis Island, he participated in a hunger strike protesting conditions and was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

His wife petitioned to be deported as well, though whether she was is unclear. In Russia Schnabel was active in anarchist organizations in Ukraine before leaving the movement; in 1931 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Arrested in Moscow during the purges in 1937 as an alleged German spy, he was shot in a mass execution.

Sources: INS file 54616/29; Freedom (New York), October–November, 1919; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; https://anarhia.club/forum/viewtopic.php?p=363546; https://ru.openlist.wiki/%D0%A8%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C_%D0%90%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%84_%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87_(1882)