Nikolai Ochrimuk (Ochrymuk)
Born 1896, Rakitnica, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/337
Julius Ohsis (Юлий Осис; Osis)
Born 1890, Riga, Russia (present-day Latvia). Latvian. Carpenter. Migrated to US 1911. 1917 married fellow radical Katie Namin in Chicago. Former member of the Socialist Party of America; 1919 became member of Communist Party of America; told authorities he was the financial secretary of the Lettish Branch in Baltimore, but historian Vernon L. Pedersen describes him as the the “Latvian branch head.” Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54859/541; FBI file OG 8000-385964
See also: Vernon L. Pedersen, The Communist Party in Maryland, 1919-57
Kate Ohsis (Екатерина Осис; Katie; Osis; née Namin)
Born 1896, Russia (somewhere in present-day Lithuania). Latvian. Migrated to US 1915. 1917 married fellow radical Julius Ohsis in Chicago. Member of the Lettish Branch of the Communist Party of America in Baltimore. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54859/542; FBI file OG 8000-385963
See also: Vernon L. Pedersen, The Communist Party in Maryland, 1919-57
Erofey Okoletenko (Ерофей околетенко; Erofly; Grofey; Okoletenco)
Born 1895, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Member of the Communist Party of America. Deported to Russia, February 1921. May 21, 1923 migrated to Mexico; from there returned to the US at El Paso, where arrested and sentenced to sixty days for illegal entry. June 1924 deported again, under a passport the US government obtained from the “Ukrainian Diplomatic Mission,” an anti-Soviet self-proclaimed government in exile not recognized by the United States or Ukraine. Routed via Switzerland, we was turned away at the Russian border and returned to the US in July 21, 1924. August 23, 1924 deported once more, and returned to US again in September 1924 after being not being permitted to enter Switzerland. Finally “paroled in his own custody” (i.e. set free). No further information found.
See: Kansas State News, August 29, 1924; The American Flint, November 1924
Adolf Olehnovich (Adam; Olahucvicz; Alechnovitz)
Laborer. Anarchist. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Isidor Oleynik (Исидор Олейник; Sidor; Sergiej; Uleynik)
Laborer. Anarchist. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921, but refused entry on the basis of his anarchism at Libau, along with several other deportees. Coauthored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Lenin” in response. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
See also: Free Society (New York), October-November 1921
Nikolai Omelianchuk (Николай Омельянчук; Nicholas)
Born 1892, Tułowice, Russia (present-day Poland?). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913, from there to US in April 1919 (without inspection). Arrested two days later in Detroit as part of a group of Russian radicals who disrupted a talk by the visiting Socialist Revolutionary (and anti-Bolshevik) Catherine Breshkovsky and threw rotten eggs. Denied any radical affiliations; instead charged with entering the country without inspection and being “likely to become a public charge” (due to the fact that he was suffering from influenza at the time). Deported January 22, 1921.
INS file 54616/172
Wong Tai On (Ong Wu Tai; aka Lee Tai Cen)
Chinese. Student; restaurant worker. Attended Columbia University and worked as a waiter in New York’s Chinatown. 1918 joined the United Chinese Association, an anarchist-led union for Chinatown’s restaurant workers that was chartered as a general recruiting union of the IWW. Helped lead strike of Chinatown’s waiters in December 1918-January 1919. Arrested January 16, 1919 on charges unfounded charge of felonious assault that were immediately dropped; then charges with illegal possession of firearms, which was also dropped; then held for deportation on unspecified grounds (not related to radicalism). Deported to China March 1, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54490/2 (file missing); see also file 54519/2
See also: New York Call, February 9, 1919; Rebel Worker (New York), February 15 and May 15, 1919
Fred Onischuk (Онищук)
Born 1894, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Autoworker. Lived in Detroit. “Voluntarily departed” to Russia some time between December 20, 1919 and February 2, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Porfiry Onishchenko (Порфирий Онищенко; Porfiery Onishsenko)
Born 1886, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Steelworker. Migrated to Canada 1913, and from there to the US 1915. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in July 1918 in Buffalo; served as secretary and on various committees of his branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/327
Aleksandr Opotsky (Александр Опоцкий; aka Aleksandr Antonov; Александр Антонов)
Born 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer; migrated to US 1913. Joined Union of Russian Workers in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania in 1917; also a delegate for IWW General Recruiting Union; took “a very active part in the meetings of the Russian radicals” in the region. Arrested Pittsburgh April 1919. At interrogation, declared, “I believe in no government of any kind,” and instead “I favor the system of [Peter] Kropatkin [sic].” When asked if he believed in God—a question with no bearing on his case—he answered, “I do not believe in a God painted on wood, but I believe in the God that gives freedom to the people.” Deported on the Buford. Reportedly imprisoned in 17 different Soviet prisons. By 1931 he had emigrated to Argentina with aid of comrades abroad.
INS file 54616/135; FBI file OG 367935
See also: Delo Truda, December 1937-February 1938 (with thanks to Malcolm Archibald)
Markus Naumovich Oradovsky (Маркус Наумович Орадовский; Marcus)
Born 1895, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Sailor; laborer. 1912 migrated Austria and Germany; circa 1913 migrated Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru; migrated to the US 1916 (without inspection). Could speak Russian, English, French, and Portuguese. Common-law marriage to fellow anarchist and deportee Rosa Oradovsky. 1917 worked as a spring maker and helped organize the Mechanical Spring Works Union, affiliated with the United Hebrew Trades, and helped lead a strike in Brooklyn, after which the union dissolved. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1918; served as secretary and editor of URW newspaper Khleb i Volia; elected secretary of the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies of the United States and Canada (an umbrella organization of Russian immigrant radicals). Arrested July 2, 1919 in New York. Told authorities, “I consider myself a citizen of the whole world.” Deported on the Buford. 1920 joined Union of Russian Anarchist Workers Repatriated from America, formed by Hyman Perkus, which critically supported the Bolshevik dictatorship as a temporary necessity. Later that year reportedly imprisoned for his anarchist views. January 1921, Alexander Berkman reported that Oradovsky “Says they [i.e. the Bolsheviks] won’t let him work.” His name is included on lists of victims of Soviet repression, but no further details have been found.
INS file 54616/115-A
See also: Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Victor Serge, Anarchists Never Surrender: Essays, Polemics, and Correspondence on Anarchism, 1908–1938; Alexander Berkman Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam; https://ru.openlist.wiki/%D0%9E%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%81_%D0%9D%D0%B0%D1%83%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87_(1894); http://visz.nlr.ru/person/book/vi/16/40
Rosa Oradovsky (Роза Орадовская; Rose)
Born 1894, Smolensk, Russia. Jewish. Migrated to US 1910 with mother and siblings. Became anarchist circa 1911; joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York either 1914 or 1918. Common-law wife of Markus Oradovsky. Following Markus’s deportation, she petitioned to be deported as well; swore out affidavit affirming that she was a member of URW, and “I am still a member of that organization and believe in its principles. I am an anarchist and believe in the abolition of all forms of law and government. I believe in the overthrow of the government of the United States by means of forcible revolution.” Deported February 2, 1921. On the voyage aboard the SS Estonia, elected to a five-person committee of deportees elected to negotiate for better accommodations on the ship. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/115A
See also: Boston Post, March 6, 1921; New York Times, April 2, 1921
