Arkhip Libed (a.k.a. Arhip Lebed)
Born: 1881, Volyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Lived in Fairmont, West Virginia, and was arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/603; FBI file OG 380968.
Mike Libeszky
Born: Austria-Hungary
Nationality: Austrian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Austria on May 8, 1920. No additional information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Anton Lichkevich (or Lishkevitch; Litshkevitch; a.k.a. Anton Cotie)
Born: 1887, Kamieniec, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to Canada 1912; then to US April 1919
Affiliation: Anarchist
Declared, “I have been an Anarchist since 1905.” Arrested in Detroit in January 1920 while traveling to distribute anarchist newspapers, he openly affirmed his anarchism at his immigration hearing and “voluntarily departed” to Russia February 26, 1921.
Russian authorities at Libau refused him and several others entry because of their anarchism. He and other deportees coauthored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Lenin” in response.
Sources: INS file 54861/375; FBI file OG 367316; Free Society, October–November 1921.
Tito Ligi (a.k.a. Augusto Vitaletti)
Born: 1894, Sassoferrato, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Anarchist
Ligi and his brother Adolfo were already anarchists before emigrating together. In the United States he associated with Luigi Galleani’s circle. In November 1920 he was arrested in Scranton, Pennsylvania, for evading the draft after filing a declaration of intent to naturalize, and he briefly became a leading suspect—almost certainly falsely—in the 1920 Wall Street bombing. Deported on August 3, 1922.
In 1925 he moved to Rome with his wife, Bianchi Angela, where they opened a small shop. He remained under government surveillance until 1940; although he retained anarchist beliefs, authorities recorded no significant political activity. Meanwhile his brother Angelo, living in Jessup, Pennsylvania, adopted Tito’s name and married anarchist Maria Giaconi, who later fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Sources: FBI file BS 25-63-12-1; CPC busta 2786; The Nation, May 18, 1921; Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror; Charles H. McCormick, Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers; Kenyon Zimmer, “The Other Volunteers: American Anarchists and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939,” Journal for the Study of Radicalism 10, no. 2 (2016).
Amedeo Lilli
Born: 1894, Acqualagna, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; tailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist
Arrested in September 1917 after an Italian anarchist “riot” during which he was shot in the shoulder by an undercover policeman. Convicted of assault, he was sentenced to twenty-five years in Wisconsin State Prison. Pardoned in 1922 on condition of deportation, he was deported February 16, 1922.
After returning to Italy he became a tailor and, according to police surveillance extending to 1932, did not resume radical political activity.
Sources: INS file 54235/67; CPC busta 2787; Robert Tanzilo, The Milwaukee Police Station Bomb of 1917; Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror.
Peter Linecky (a.k.a. Pete; Linieski)
Born: 1885, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Linecky had a wife and two children in Russia. While living in Detroit he joined the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920, he was deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/713.
Dora Lipkin
Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
An anarchist and the common-law wife of URW leader and fellow deportee Hyman Perkus. She lived in New York with the family of fellow URW member Boris Shatz. Arrested in October 1919 for “disturbing the peace,” she was arrested again during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and refused to answer questions while detained. She helped lead a hunger strike on Ellis Island protesting detention conditions and was deported with Perkus aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
After plans to leave Russia in 1924 fell through, she married Hyman Perkus and by 1930 both had joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Sources: INS file 54709/275; New York Tribune, November 30, 1919; Elaine Leeder Collection of Rose Pesotta Papers, 1912–1961, Cornell University Library; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Samuel Lipman (a.k.a. Schaie Lipzcuk)
Born: 1888, Pinsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Furrier
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America
Lipman belonged to the Socialist Party of America as well as New York’s anarchist Frayhayt Group, and identified as a leftwing socialist and Marxist rather than an anarchist. A pacifist and vegetarian strongly influenced by Leo Tolstoy, he lived with anarchist Ethel Bernstein, his common-law wife. In 1918 he was arrested with others for distributing leaflets opposing US intervention in the Russian Civil War and sentenced to twenty years under the Espionage Act. While imprisoned he became disillusioned with Tolstoy and falsely claimed anarchist beliefs in hopes of deportation. After losing the landmark Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States, he was deported November 23, 1921.
In Russia he married Bernstein, studied agronomy, and became chairman of the Department of Economic Geography at the University of the Toilers of the East. In 1928 he applied to join the Communist Party. During Stalin’s purges in the 1930s he was executed.
Sources: INS file 54517/72; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Senya Fléchine Papers, International Institute for Social History, The Netherlands.
Anton Lipsky
Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Presser
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Lipsky stated that he came to the United States “to learn some profession.” Living in New York, he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/456.
Demian Lisiuk (a.k.a. Jim; Lisuk)
Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1919 and later transferred into Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920, he was deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/772.
Nikolai Lisiuk (a.k.a. Nicholas; Nick)
Born: 1887, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1911; then to US 1917
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Lisiuk had a wife and two children in Russia. Arrested in Pittsburgh on November 17, 1920, federal agents accused him of owning a trunk full of Communist Party literature. Indicted under the Sedition Act and jailed in Allegheny County, he denied radical affiliations, though a confidential informant identified him as a Communist Party literature agent. He was deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54885/71.
Aftanasy Litvakoff
Born: c. 1884, Lopatni, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Lived in Homestead, Pennsylvania for six years and joined the URW there in 1917. Arrested for distributing radical handbills, he served twenty days in jail. After moving to Cleveland he was arrested again February 21, 1921. He stated, “I do recognize Anarchism, but I feel that I am not worthy enough to be called such, owing to the fat that I do not understand Anarchy enough to be honored by being called an Anarchist.” Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 55009/22.
Anna Loban
Born: c. 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Married fellow anarchist Konstantin Loban in Akron in 1916 and became a member of the Union of Russian Workers. Deported to Russia with her husband on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 55009/24.
Konstantin Loban (a.k.a. Peter Dedka or Dutka)
Born: 1893, Slutsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Rubber worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Worked at the BF Goodrich plant in Akron and married Anna Loban there in 1916. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1915 and became secretary of its Lansing, Michigan branch in 1919. Asked why he had become antagonistic to the US government, he replied “Because I have been working here for eight years and am still doing hard laboring work and have not enough money to return to Russia, whereas the Americans all have much better jobs, have money and have privileges that I do not have and this country does not belong to Americans any more than it belongs to any one…as it was originally owned by the Indians.” Deported to Russia with his wife on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 55009/24.
Michael Lojan
Born: 1897, Austria-Hungary
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity: N
Occupation: Barber
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Communist Party while living in Milwaukee. Arrested there and deported to Yugoslavia in 1923.
Sources: FBI file OG 382806.
