Emma Goldman

Born: 1869, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Garment worker; nurse; lecturer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1885
Affiliation: Anarchist

Immigrated to the United States in 1885 and became an anarchist in the wake of the Haymarket Affair. Goldman soon emerged as one of the most prominent anarchist propagandists in the country, known for her lectures, writings, and advocacy on issues including syndicalism, free speech, birth control, and antimilitarism. Over the course of her career, she was arrested at least thirteen times for her political activities. In 1906 she founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth, which she published until its suppression in 1917. That year, she co-founded the No-Conscription League and, together with Alexander Berkman, was arrested in June under the Espionage Act for interfering with the military draft. Both were convicted, sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and fined $10,000. Upon her release, Goldman was deported to Soviet Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In Russia, Goldman and Berkman initially collaborated on collecting materials for a Museum of the Revolution. Following the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion in 1921, both broke decisively with the Bolshevik regime. They left Russia in December 1921 and Goldman lived thereafter in Germany, France, England, and Canada, continuing anarchist activism and publicly condemning Soviet authoritarianism. In 1934 she was permitted to return briefly to the United States for a lecture tour. During the Spanish Civil War, she traveled to Barcelona in 1936 and undertook speaking and organizing tours across Europe on behalf of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT. She died in Toronto in February 1940.

Sources: INS file 52410/43; Emma Goldman, Living My Life; Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia; Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich, Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman.

Philip Golishko

Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers

Became a member of both the Industrial Workers of the World and the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Seattle in January 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/543; FBI file OG 381765.

José González (a.k.a. Rosendo García)

Born: c. 1896, A Coruña, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity: Galician
Occupation: Sailor; laborer
Migration: Entered US 1916
Affiliations: IWW

Entered the United States in 1916 by jumping ship from the SS Corunna, using a passport belonging to a sailor friend, Rosendo García. Worked as a sailor and laborer and laid track for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His father resided in Cuba, while his mother remained in Spain. Arrested in Philadelphia as one of eleven Spaniards and Mexicans suspected of radical activity. González admitted membership only in La Mancomunidad (The Commonwealth), a mutual aid society that raised funds for imprisoned Spanish radicals. He denied IWW membership, though he acknowledged attending two IWW meetings and having friends who belonged to the organization. Immigration authorities concluded, “A careful survey of the evidence fails to show his connection with the I.W.W. or that he is guilty of any anarchistic charges, although he admits that a number of his friends are anarchists, socialists or members of the I.W.W.” (González is nevertheless identified as an IWW member in at least one IWW publication.) A deportation warrant was issued on the basis that he was “likely to become a public charge” and “entered by water at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officials.” Deported to Spain on July 10, 1919, aboard the SS León XIII.

Sources: INS file 54648/30.

Grigory Varfolomeevich Gorbich

Born: 1896, Brest or Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Metalworker
Migration: Date unknown
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Became an anarchist in 1916 and joined the Union of Russian Workers. Deported to Poland on January 22, 1921.

In 1922 arrested for illegally crossing the Polish border into Soviet territory and subsequently settled in Petrograd. He was arrested again in July 1923 and sentenced to two years of internal exile away from major cities and border regions. In 1925 he was again arrested and sentenced to an additional three years of internal exile.

Sources: 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); http://visz.nlr.ru/person/book/vi/4/130.

Nikolai Gorin

Born: 1895, Tverskoy, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Union of Russian Workers

Worked as a machinist in Bridgeport, Connecticut where he joined the Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America and, in 1919, became a member and secretary of the local branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in February 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/145; FBI file OG 381756.

Ivan Gornovsky (a.k.a. John Gornovsky)

Born: 1886, Selets, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

Brother of Vasil Gornovsky; active in the radical movement in Russia before emigrating to the United States in 1913. Left behind a wife and child in Russia.

He became a member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World and served as secretary of the Seattle branch of the URW. Arrested on October 16, 1919, on charges of criminal syndicalism and arrested again in January 1920. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/407.

Vasil Gornovsky

Born: 1895, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

Emigrated to the United States in 1913, following his brother Ivan. Became a member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World. Arrested in Seattle in November 1919 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/427; FBI file OG 388242.

George Goroshkov (or Garoshkow; Gorshkov; a.k.a. Ivan Balui)

Born: 1880, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and child remained in Russia while he emigrated. He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Monessen, Pennsylvania, in early 1919. Deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/214; FBI file OG 383004.

Samuel Goz (a.k.a. Sam Gordon)

Born: 1903, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1918
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Migrated to the United States in 1918 with his mother and younger brother. Claimed that prior to emigration he had been affiliated with the Bolshevik Party in Russia, that Leon Trotsky personally read him the party’s manifesto and program, and that he tried to join the Red Army “but they would not take me because I was only fifteen years old.” Arrested in Buffalo in January 1920 as a member of the Communist Party of America, at the age of seventeen. Openly declared his belief in assassinating public officials who opposed the working class, stating: “In fact, I would kill them myself if I had a chance.” Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/906.

Ivan Gramatsky

Born: 1895, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in Newark, New Jersey in January 1920 and deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.

Sources: FBI file OG 384985.

Josep Grau i Jassans (a.k.a. José Grau Jassans; José Grau; Arnaldo Sopelana; Arnaldo Sopelano; Adolfo Apelle)

Born: 1899, Barcelona, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity: Catalan
Occupation: Marine fireman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: IWW; anarchist

Belonged to the anarcho-syndicalist CNT in Spain before emigrating in 1917. Immediately joined the Industrial Workers of the World in the U.S., becoming an organizer for its Martine Transport Workers Industrial Union. He also joined the Spanish-speaking anarchist Los Corsarios Group in New York and edited the first three issues of its paper El Corsario before leaving due to internal disagreements. In February 1919 he was among fourteen members of Los Corsarios arrested by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson; all charges were dropped. He was arrested again in May 1919 while serving as a delegate to a Marine Transport Workers convention in Philadelphia. Although he falsely denied being an anarchist, he admitted IWW membership and was deported on December 20, 1919.

After returning to Spain, Grau became a CNT organizer in Barcelona and involved in relaunching the CNT newspaper Solidaridad Obrera. He later joined the pro-Communist Comités Sindicalistas Revolucionarios and attended the Third Profintern Congress in Moscow in 1924. Following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, he joined the Catalan nationalist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and became private secretary to party leader Lluís Companys. Elected to the Spanish parliament in 1931 and re-elected in 1933 as an ERC candidate, he focused on labor rights and Catalan autonomy. Expelled from the ERC in 1934 amid internal disputes, he was rehabilitated in 1936. During the Spanish Civil War, he served as an inspector for the Rupublican state-run petroleum company and of municipal commissioners. After Franco’s victory, he fled to France in 1939 and emigrated to Mexico in 1942, where he worked as a salesman until his death in 1965.

Sources: INS file 5461/211; FBI file BS 40-9016-1; Arnaldo Sopelana [Josep Grau i Jassans], Lo que yo he visto en Norte-América; Arnau Gonzàlez i Vilalta, Els diputats catalans a les Corts constituents republicanes, 1931–1933; https://memoriaesquerra.cat/biografies/grau-jassans-josep.