David Maksimovich Elak-Berman (David Ilak; David Eelak; aka A. Emelianoff)

Born 1891, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1908 or 1909. Joined Union of Russian Workers branch in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania; became branch’s treasurer. Deported on the Buford.

Settled in Petrograd, but then fled to Poland. 1923 migrated to Montevideo, Uruguay; joined anarchist Delo Truda Group there and active anarchist until his death in 1941.

INS file 54616/221; FBI file OG 368087

See also: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4f4rz9

Roberto Elia

Born 1871, Catanzaro, Italy. Laborer; printer. A socialist in Italy beginning 1898, for which arrested numerous times. Migrated to US 1906. became “fanatic anarchist and propagandist” in US. New York. Worked as typesetter for Carlo Tresca’s La Plebe in Pittsburgh, then 1910 worked on Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva in Barre, Vermont, before moving to Boston and then New York in 1914. Member of anarchist Gruppo Gaetano Bresci in East Harlem. Published anarchist magazines Domani (1919) and L’Ordine (1919-1920). Arrested February 1920 under suspicion of printing leaflets left at the sites of 1919 anarchist bombings throughout US. Held incommunicado, along with friend and coworker Andrea Salsedo, in twelfth-floor Manhattan offices of Bureau of Investigation, where the pair admitted to printing the leaflets and supplied testimony implicating alleged members of the bomb plot. Salsedo was, according to Elia, beaten while interrogated, and was distressed at informing on his comrades; on night of May 1 Salsedo jumped (or some claimed was thrown) to his death from the window. Elia deported August 1920.

Active in Italian anarchist movement, though this went largely unnoticed by Italian government surveillance. Selected at January 1921 conference to co-edit a proposed new anarchist newspaper, but the project was delayed and Elia died of tuberculosis before the new publication appeared in 1924.

INS file 54861/280 (file missing); CPC busta 1879

See also: Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Charles Howard McCormick, Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers; Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani; Aldo G. Ventrici, Roberto Elia. L’anarchismo antiorganizzatore negli Stati Uniti di primo ‘900; http://www.calabriaonweb.it/index.php/news3/primo-piano/6391-vita-e-morte-di-roberto-elia-l-anarchico-catanzarese-compagno-di-sacco-e-vanzetti

Nikolai Elkevich (Николай Элькевич; Nicholas; Mike)

Born Vilna, Russia, c. 1891. Polish. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Member of Socialist Party, then of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54709/710

Ivan Elko (Evan; Velko)

Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Miner. Migrated to US 1914. Worked at Dakota Mines in Fairmont, West Virginia. Joined both the Union of Russian Workers and the United Mine Workers; elected secretary of Farmington, West Virginia URW branch. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Stated, “I don’t want to be deported. I want to remain here. I want to work here and I might stay here throughout my life.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/602

Robert Elstin (aka Robert Kisten)

Born 1884, Russia. Latvian. Carpenter. Migrated to Canada in 1913 as the “man servant” of Russian Consul General Basek, then to US in 1914. Former member of the Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America, transferred to Baltimore’s Lettish Branch of the Communist Party of America in 1919. Wife, Evelyn, in the US. Arrested in Baltimore during second Palmer Raids, January 2, 1920. Deported February 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54859/535; FBI file OG 388790

Ivan Ermola (John Yarmola, Ivan Yermola, Иван Ермола)

Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Joined Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1918. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/350

Adolph Ersson

Born 1890, Karlskrona, Sweden. Sailor; laborer. Migrated to Australia 1905, where involved in union and strike activity. Migrated to US 1912. Joined IWW 1914 in Denver. Survivor of 1916 Everett Massacre, for which he was arrested until charges dropped in 1917. Arrested Seattle, October 1918, and again in Los Angeles May 1919; deported June 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI file OG 315813

See also: Industrial Worker, March 3, 1916

Jakim Eschuk (Jack Esczuk; Escuk)

Born c.1891, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wane. Deported to Russia, March 3, 1921.

INS file 54860/362

Nikita Eskimashko (aka Nikita Ikmasko)

Born 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Carpenter. Migrated to US 1913. Member of Philadelphia branch no. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/331

Fred Evanow (Theo; Evanov; Evanof)

Born 1896, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Plumber. Illiterate. Member of the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 2, 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/5

Angelo Faggi

Born 1885, Brozzi, Italy. Laborer; journalist. Anarcho-syndicalist; IWW member. Socialist parents; joined Italian Socialist Party at age 15; active in Genoa’s Chamber of Labor (Camera del Lavoro). Journalist for socialist and syndicalist newspapers. By 1907 he was a revolutionary syndicalist, and left the PSI. 1909 moved to Piacenza, where secretary of the Chamber and Labor. Arrested several times for labor and anti-war activism. 1912 migrated to Lugano, Switzerland to avoid prison; expelled 1914 and migrated to Paris, and 1915 migrated to US. In Barre, Vermont, published local labor paper Lo Scalpellino. Joined IWW as lecturer and in 1916 became editor of IWW newspaper Il Proletario, while drawing closer to the anarchists. Arrested multiple times for IWW agitation; final arrest in Chicago in May 1919; deported August 1919.

In Piacenza again elected secretary of the Chamber and Labor and formed the local branch of the paramilitary anti-fascist organization Arditi del Popolo. 1920 helped lead factory takeovers in Sestri Ponente, and became acting secretary of the anarcho-syndicalist Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI). Arrested 1921 in on suspicion of involvement with bombing of the Teatro Diana, intended to pressure authorities to release Errico Malatesta and other imprisoned anarchists, prompting a general strike of workers in Piacenza. While in prison, elected to parliament as a protest candidate for the Italian Socialist Party (prompting heated debate among anarchist comrades). Released from prison but repeatedly assaulted by fascists; migrated to Nice, France with his family in 1923. Involved in antifascist exile organizations and advocated a Popular Front with Communists. By 1937 he had joined the Partito Socialista Unitario. When WWII broke out, he joined the French military. After the war he returned to Piacenza and participated in socialist politics, and in 1956 elected mayor of Piacenza as a member of the Italian Social Democratic Party; died 1957.

INS file 53895/198; CPC busta 1925

See also: Vincenzo Mantovani, Anarchici alla sbarra: la strage del Diana tra primo dopoguerra e fascismo; Sandro Antonini, Storia della Liguria durante il fascismo; http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/angelo-virgilio-faggi_(Dizionario-Biografico)