Ethel Bernstein

Born: 1898, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Garment worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist; Union of Russian Workers

Became an anarchist around 1917 and joined the Jewish anarchist Frayhayt Group along with her partner, Samuel Lipman. Arrested in New York in 1919 for distributing The Anarchist Soviet Bulletin. She admitted to being an anarchist but denied belonging to the Union of Russian Workers and refused to answer additional questions. In November 1919 she led a hunger strike on Ellis Island to protest conditions. Deported on December 21, 1919 on the Buford.

In Russia, she began working for the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in 1920. Reunited in 1921 with Samuel Lipman (who was deported with Jacob Abrams and others). Lipman was killed in Stalin’s purges in the 1930s; their son was killed in the Second World War. Bernstein herself was sentenced to ten years of hard labor in a Soviet prison camp. Reportedly still alive in Moscow in 1983, “alone and impoverished.”

Sources: INS file 54616/115; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Abe Bluestein, ed., Fighters for Anarchism: Mollie Steimer and Senya Fleshin.

Yakov Berov (or Jacob Berov; a.k.a. Jocob Byra)

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

Had a wife and son in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and served as secretary of the URW branch in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Arrested later that year and deported on December 21, 1919 on the Buford.

Sources: INS file 54709/479.

Isidoro Bertazzon (a.k.a. Isidoro Bertason)

Born: 1891, Treviso, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Anarchist

Active in radical circles in Italy before emigrating to the United States. Affiliated with Seattle’s Italian anarchist Circolo di Studi Sociali and distributor of Cronaca Sovversiva. Narrowly escaped arrest on November 25, 1917. “Voluntarily returned” to Italy via Canada in early 1921.

In 1922 he migrated to Australia, where in Melbourne he became a significant figure in the Italian anarchist and antifascist press, editing the newspapers Il Risveglio (1927) and L’Avanguardia Libertaria (1930–32). Cofounded the Anti-Fascist League and Matteotti Club. Died in 1940.

Sources: CPC busta 551; Gianfranco Cresciani, Fascism, Anti-Fascism, and Italians in Australia, 1922–1945; Gianfranco Cresciani, “Exploitation, Emigration and Anarchism: The Case of Isidoro Alessandro Bertazzon,” Altreitalie, no. 46 (June 2013).

Fedor Biacharsky (or Frank Biacharski)

Born: 1895, Kupyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 (via Canada)
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia. Joined the Youngstown, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested in the Palmer Raids of November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/208; FBI file OG 380612.

Pietro Bianchi

Born: 1882, Isola Fano, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Mason; laborer; fish peddler; co-op manager
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Anarchist

Worked as a mason until he lost an eye in a workplace accident. Married and a member of the Italian anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali in Milwaukee. Arrested in 1917 following a “riot” against a pro-war speech from a Protestant minister. Deported in December 20, 1919.

In Italy he became a baker and remained under police surveillance until 1940, but no political activity was recorded after his return.

Sources: INS file 54235/64; CPC busta 621; Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror

Nadia Bianki (née Nikiforovna)

Born: 1895, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist; Union of Russian Workers

An anarchist since 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1918. Wife of deportee Peter Bianki; their son, Peter, was born in New York in 1917. Deported to Soviet Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 55009/15.

Peter Bianki (or Bianchi)

Born: 1891, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Italian
Occupation: Laborer; metal worker; printer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Born to Italian immigrant parents to Russia. Hoined the Union of Russian Workers shortly after its founding in 1914. Quickly became one of its prominent leaders. Elected URW Secretary in January 1919 and later editor of its newspaper Khleb i Volia. Married to Nadia Bianki. Arrested in New York in February 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In Russia, quickly joined the Communist Party and held multiple Soviet government posts. During the Kronstadt mutiny, however, he shot himself in the arm to avoid being conscripted into military action against it. In 1928 transferred to Siberia to direct a grain-requisitioning detachment; killed in March 1930 during an armed peasant uprising, and was afterward celebrated as a Communist martyr.

Sources: INS file 54616/115; Malcolm Archibald, “Peter Bianki: The Soviet Years,” Kate Sharpley Library, http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/pnvzh1; Alexander Berkman diary, Alexander Berkman Papers, International Institute of Social History.