Arthur Katzes (or Katses; Kestes)

Born: 1897, Podolia, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Printer
Migration: Entered the United States without inspection in 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; anarchist

Had been a student in Russia and was apprenticing as a pressman before working as a sailor to finance his passage to the United States in 1914. Around 1917, he joined the Union of Russian Workers and became a member of the editorial board of its newspaper, Khleb i Volia. He was arrested in New York in March 1919 and released on bail. While at liberty, he collaborated in producing the illegal Anarchist Soviet Bulletin. In September 1919, he was arrested again, together with Ethel Bernstein, for distributing copies of that publication. He was deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/115; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech.

Joe Kaunas (or Kavnas; a.k.a. Bogdonas; Boglonas)

Born: 1885, Russian Lithuania
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation: Coal miner; student
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Entered the US without inspection in 1913. Worked as a coal miner in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and later attended Valparaiso University. He became a member of Valparaiso Branch No. 20 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested on January 14, 1920. Although he claimed Lithuanian citizenship, immigration authorities deported him to Russia on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/713.

Teleso Kavalianskas (or Kavalionskas, Kavalauskas; Talespor Kavalanchas; a.k.a. Stanley)

Born: 1881, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became secretary of Branch No. 43 of the Lithuanian Federation of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” for Rissia via Canada on October 20, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54709/954; FBI file BS 202600-155-1.

Joseph Kennedy

Born: 1885, Belfast, Ireland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Irish
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1905
Affiliation: Industrial Workers of the World

Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917 and became secretary of Metal Mine Workers’ Industrial Union No. 800 in Butte, Montana. He worked closely with IWW organizer Frank Little before Little was lynched during the Butte copper strike in 1917. Kennedy was arrested multiple times for IWW activity and was also described by authorities as “active…in the cause of Irish independence.” Arrested again in February 1919 in the aftermath of a miners’ strike and deported on June 21, 1919.

After his return to Britain, Kennedy joined the Merseyside branch of the IWW in Liverpool and involved in underground activities on behalf of the Irish Republican Army, including as an accessory to a botched robbery. In 1924, he was reported to be planning an illegal return to the United States, and emigrated to Canada. Settled in Timmins, Ontario, where he became secretary of the local branch of the IWW’s Metal and Coal Mine Workers Industrial Union. In 1928, after a fire in the Hollinger Gold Mine killed thirty-nine people, Kennedy led a protest meeting of 600 miners “to demand action on the part of those responsible for the murder of our fellow workers.”

Sources: INS file 54616/74; Butte Daily Bulletin, June 13, 1919; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959; Ancestry.com; Windsor Star, February 15, 1928.

Ilya Kerczuk (a.k.a. Ellis Kerchuk; Navul Kerchuk)

Born: c. 1898, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer; longshoreman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Unknown

Worked as a laborer and longshoreman in Camden, New Jersey, and New York. In May 1919, he was arrested in Philadelphia by company guards from the Pusey and Jones Shipbuilding Company of Gloucester City, New Jersey, for distributing what authorities described as “Bolshevik circulars” on company property. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54616/173.

Boris Keretchuk

Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/358.

Nuval Kerget (or Nabul)

Born: 1875, Minsk Governorate, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Lumber worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

First arrived in the United States through Honolulu in 1910 and later settled in Seattle in 1918. Worked as a lumber worker and became a member of the Union of Russian Workers as well as the Industrial Workers of the World in 1919. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/569; FBI file OG 389514.

Ivan Kesevich

Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Deported as a radical to Yugoslavia on September 1, 1920. No further biographical information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Olan Killen

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

Included on a list of deported members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and deported on October 31, 1919. No further biographical information has been found.

Sources: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920.

William Kircher

Born: 1892, Hesse, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: IWW

Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917. He was arrested in Seattle in May 1918 and interned as an “alien enemy” at Fort Douglas, Utah. Released on condition of “voluntary departure” and left the United States on September 25, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54408/512; FBI file OG 193587.