Tag Archives: anarchist

Coacci to Dardzinski

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Ferruccio Coacci

Ferruccio Coacci, 1930. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1892, Ancona, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity: 
Occupation: Shoemaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist

An anarchist militant associated with Luigi Galleani and the newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva. He lived in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children. Arrested in 1918 and subsequently became a suspect—though not regarded as such by most historians—in the robberies and murder for which Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were later arrested. Deported on April 18, 1920, and was joined by his family in Italy.

According to journalist Eugene Lyons, at his home in Italy Coacci possessed anarchist literature on bomb-making and described himself as “a terrorist of the Galleani school.” In October 1921, he migrated to Argentina, where he became involved in anarchist “expropriations” and bombings and was associated with Severino Di Giovanni. In 1930, he was arrested in Buenos Aires with two other Italian anarchists in connection with the robbery of a bus company, but released for lack of evidence.

Sources: INS file 54379/396; FBI file OG 387205; CPC busta 1382; Eugene Lyons, Assignment in Utopia; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background.

Umberto Colarossi

Born: 1894, Carpineto, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity: 
Occupation: Bookkeeper
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist shortly after arriving in the United States; associated with Luigi Galleani and Cronaca Sovversiva. From 1917 to 1919, he resided in Mexico in order to avoid the U.S. military draft. He was arrested in Chicago in May 1919 and deported on July 15, 1920.

In September 1921, he wrote a letter to an Italian government representative renouncing his previous radicalism. He was inducted into the Italian military in 1922 and later became a manager for the Singer Corporation in Italy. In 1929, the Fascist government reported that he demonstrated loyalty to the regime.

Sources: INS file 54616/214; CPC busta 1400; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background.

Sam Colbus

Born: 1879, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: 
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and two children remained in Russia when he emigrated to the US. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and was arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 in Fairmont, West Virginia. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/592.

Amy Colyer (née Withall)

Source: Richmond Palladium (IN), January 8, 1920.

Born: 1881, London, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Housewife
Migration: Immigrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A university-educated daughter of a dress manufacturer, she was active in the Independent Labour Party and married fellow ILP member William Thomas Colyer before the couple emigrated to the U.S. to escape the wartime British political atmosphere. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Boston in 1916 and became branch secretary in 1917. In 1919, she joined the Communist Party of America and served as secretary of its Boston branch. Arrested with her husband during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and detained at Deer Island Prison. During interrogation, she stated, “As a communist I am opposed to all capitalist governments,” and when asked “Do you understand the form of government that you are enjoying in the United States?” she replied “I am not enjoying it, but I think I understand it.” After losing an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, she and her husband were deported on April 11, 1922.

After returning to England, she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Labour Party, left for the CPGB in 1926, and later resumed activity in the Independent Labour Party. She anonymously collaborated on many of her husband’s writings.

Sources: INS file 54810/162; U.S. Congress, House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Deportation Cases of William T. and Amy Colyer (Government Printing Office, 1920).

William Thomas Colyer (a.k.a. Tom Colyer)

Born: 1883, London, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Writer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Opposed the First World War as a member of the Independent Labour Party. Immigrated to the United States in 1915 with his wife and fellow ILP member, Amy Colyer. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Boston in 1916 and became a leading figure in the Massachusetts organization, which he helped transfer into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Wrote for several radical publications and served on the editorial staff of The Communist. Although he declared his intention to naturalize in 1916, he later abandoned the effort, citing disillusionment with U.S. political institutions. Arrested with his wife during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 an detained at Deer Island Prison, where he helped organize a prisoners’ “soviet.” After losing their appeal, he and his wife were deported on April 11, 1922.

After returning to Britain, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Labour Party. Served as secretary of the Communist-affiliated Greater London Left-Wing Movement and the National Left-Wing Movement, but resigned amid conflicts with the CPGB in 1926. Published Americanism: A World Menace (1922) and The Worker’s Passport: A Study of the Legal Restrictions on Migrant Workers (1928). Ran unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1931 and 1935 as a Labour Party candidate. In 1942, he rejoined the Independent Labour Party and later served on its National Administrative Council. Died in 1956.

Sources: INS file 54810/209; U.S. Congress, House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Deportation Cases of William T. and Amy Colyer (Government Printing Office, 1920); Lawrence Parker, Communists and Labour: The National Left-Wing Movement, 1925–1929.

James Cully (a.k.a. Jimmy Cully)

Born: c. 1870, Ireland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Irish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: IWW

As a member of the Industrial Workers of the World during the First World War, led a group of approximately 200 draft resisters in Rockford, Illinois. All were arrested, and 112 were convicted. Sentenced to two years in prison for conspiracy to interfere with military conscription and deported to England on June 21, 1919.

After deportation, he continued to be active as a street speaker for the Merseyside branch of the IWW in Liverpool. Also implicated in illegal activities on behalf of the Irish Republican Army.

Sources: Gerald E. Shenk, “Work or Fight!”: Race, Gender, and the Draft in World War One; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959; Liverpool Echo, June 28, 1923.

George Cyzyk (a.k.a. Paul Gigalko; Paul Zygaloff)

Born: 1896, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A member and lecturer for the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Cleveland in February 1918 and again in New York during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Anarchist literature, including copies of The Anarchist Soviet Bulletin, was found in his home. Also suspected of involvement in a counterfeiting scheme. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54379/125; FBI file OG 375385.

Jan Dalkovksy (or Dalkowsky)

Born: 1896, Płock Governorate, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America; IWW

Joined Polish Local No. 28 of the Socialist Party of America in Erie, Pennsylvania, in January 1918, and transferred into the Communist Party in 1919. He was also a member of the IWW. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Poland on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54809/280.

Ivan Danilovich (a.k.a. John Danilovich)

Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated. Became a member of the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/390; FBI file OG 388677.

John Dardzinski

Born: c. 1905, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Shade maker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party, he was arrested in Hamtramck, Michigan, in January 1920 and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/574.

Daskevitch to Díaz Álvarez

Red Scare Deportees, , ,

Meron Daskevitch

Born: 1894, Grodno Governorate, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated. Became a member of the Communist Party of America in Detroit and was deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/965.

Vasiliy Daynega (or Wasily Denega; a.k.a. William)

Born: 1893, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Tire maker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party in Detroit in December 1919. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/576.

Andrey Dediushka (a.k.a. Andrew; Andy; Giguska; Diguska)

Born: 1899, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and two children remained in Russia while he emigrated. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1919 and was arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November of that year. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/203.

Mikhail Degtyarev (a.k.a. Michael Diaktarow)

Born: 1889, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Socialist Party of America in Pittsburgh before affiliating with the Union of Russian Workers in Universal, Pennsylvania, in 1917. Served as acting secretary of his URW branch and possessed a large quantity of anarchist literature. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. During interrogation, he expressed a desire to return to Russia because “The work is exceptionally hard here and we are not given the opportunity to learn the English language and customs and therefore I find myself very inconvenient in this country.” Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/217.

Kalistrat Demco (or Demes)

Born: 1892, Brest, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Waiter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/560.

Gerasim Demianoff (or Herasim Demianow)

Born: c. 1897, Branew, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Russian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Employed at Ford Hospital in Detroit. Joined the Socialist Party of America and later the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920, he was detained at Fort Wayne. Expressed a desire to return to Russia and was permitted to “voluntarily depart” aboard the SS Canada from Montreal on September 25, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54811/9.

Ivan Denczyk (a.k.a. John)

Born: 1884, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 (via Canada)
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and child remained in Russia when he emigrated. Joinedthe Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia and later in Ansonia, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/325; FBI file OG 8000-383591.

Yakim Denisyuk (or Denisuk; a.k.a. Jack Denison)

Born: 1896, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Toolmaker; weaver
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and three children remained in Russia. Joined the Chester, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1918. Appointed as the branch’s delegate to the Philadelphia “Soviet of Deputies.” Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. expressed a desire to remain in the United States, and said of Russian government, “before it was dominated by the Germans and now it is ruled by the Jews.” Provided information to authorities about other URW members in hopes of leniency but was nevertheless deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/451.

Alexander Derkach (or Derkatch)

Born: 1885, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Printer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

In Russia, arrested for membership in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and later became an anarchist in 1911. Migrated to Austria, where he was again arrested, and then immigrated to the United States in 1913.

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1915 and was arrested in 1918 for publishing the Russian-language anarchist newspaper Kolokol, edited by Adolf Schnabel. Although he left the URW in 1918, he remained an outspoken anarchist and was arrested again in New York in 1919. Stated to authorities “all governments are based on violence, and supported by an institution of slavery and bayonets.” Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In 1920, he signed a declaration of the Union of Russian Anarchist Workers Repatriated from America, which offered critical support for the Bolshevik regime as a temporary necessity.

Sources: INS file 54709/674; Victor Serge, Anarchists Never Surrender: Essays, Polemics, and Correspondence on Anarchism, 1908–1938.

Nello di Ciuccio (a.k.a. Nalia Desiuccio)

Born: 1892, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Tailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW

An anarchist and member of the IWW, he was arrested in San Francisco in 1919 and deported to Italy on May 5, 1920.

In 1941, Italian authorities reported that he had not engaged in political activity since his return.

Sources: INS file 54379/517; CPC busta 1778.

Vincenzo di Lecce (a.k.a. Ebreo Errante)

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Vincenzo di Lecce, c. 1937. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1881, Masera, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1905
Affiliation: Anarchist

Joined the American Federazione Socialista Italiana after its formation in 1906 and left it in 1911. Although he had only two years of formal schooling, he taught himself to read. By 1909, he was contributing funds to Cronaca Sovversiva and later became a founding member of the anarchist Gruppo Autonomo of East Boston, alongside Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Arrested at his home in Athol, Massachusetts, where authorities discovered stolen drills, ammunition, a copy of Luigi Galleani’s bomb-making manual La Salute è in voi!, and correspondence with leading Italian anarchists. He was deported with Galleani on June 24, 1919.

Upon returning to Italy, he was briefly arrested for military desertion but soon released. He married Paoletta Anna in Ancona in December 1919, and the couple emigrated to Buenos Aires in May 1922. There he worked as a mechanic in a textile factory and had three children. In June 1930, he was arrested in Argentina for allegedly harboring members of Severino Di Giovanni’s anarchist group but was released after denying continued involvement in the anarchist movement. In May 1933, Italian authorities classified him as an antifascist subject to surveillance upon return.

Sources: INS file 54379/403; FBI file OG 266288; CPC busta 1794; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background.

Frank Diarkovsky (a.k.a. Franz Dzerkovskie)

Born: Year unknown, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1904
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Active in the revolutionary movement in Russia before immigrating to the United States in 1904. He later moved to Canada in 1912 and returned to the United States around 1915. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle. When authorities asked his nationality, he replied: “I belong to the world. I deny all nationality.” He further declared: “Only ignorant people don’t believe in anarchy…I believe in taking a big cannon and busting up all governments. They are no good.” Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/406.

Joaquín Díaz Álvarez

Born: c. 1890, Ribadesella, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Restaurant worker
Migration: Immigrated to US unknown year
Affiliation: Anarchist

In 1914 employed as a restaurant worker in Havana, Cuba; affiliated with the Cuban anarcho-syndicalist movement and the newspaper El Dependiente. Subsequently migrated to the United States. Deported to Spain on October 31, 1919.

Sources: El Dipendiente, January 28, 1914; Ministerio de Estado, Spain.

Elak-Berman to Faggi

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

David Maksimovich Elak-Berman (a.k.a. A. Emelianoff)

David Elak-Berman, c. 1930s. Source: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4f4rz9.

Born: 1891, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian; Jewish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1908 or 1909
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, where he served as branch treasurer. Arrested during the Palmer Raids and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

After deportation, settled briefly in Petrograd but soon fled to Poland. In 1923, with aid from comrades in North America, migrated to Montevideo, Uruguay, where he joined the anarchist Delo Truda Group and remained an active anarchist until his death in 1941.

Sources: INS file 54616/221; FBI file OG 368087; https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4f4rz9.
See also: Kate Sharpley Library, “David Maksimovich Elak-Berman”

Roberto Elia

Roberto Elia, 1920. Source: https://www.calabriamagnifica.it/catanzaro/roberto-elia-lanarchico-legato-a-sacco-e-vanzetti/.

Born: 1871, Catanzaro, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; printer; journalist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Anarchist

Active as a socialist in Italy from 1898, repeatedly arrested for political activity. After migrating to the United States, became a committed anarchist and propagandist. Worked as a typesetter for Carlo Tresca’s La Plebe in Pittsburgh, then for Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva in Barre, Vermont, before relocating to Boston and later New York. Member of the anarchist Gruppo Gaetano Bresci in East Harlem. Published the anarchist journals Domani (1919) and L’Ordine (1919–1920). Arrested in February 1920 on suspicion of printing the anarchist leaflets left at the sites of 1919 radical bombings. Held incommunicado with Andrea Salsedo in the Bureau of Investigation’s Manhattan offices. According to Elia, Salsedo was beaten during interrogation and, on May 1, 1920, jumped—or was thrown—to his death from a twelfth-floor window. Elia was deported on August 7, 1920.

After deportation, remained active in the Italian anarchist movement, largely escaping police surveillance. Selected at a January 1921 conference to co-edit a new anarchist newspaper, but the project was delayed and Elia died of tuberculosis in 1924 before its publication.

Sources: INS file 54861/280 (missing); CPC busta 1879; aul 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.

Nikolai Elkevich (a.k.a. Mike Elkevich)

Elkevich’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: c. 1891, Vilna, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Former member of the Socialist Party, later joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party. Arrested during the January 1920 raids and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54709/710.

Ivan Elko

Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Employed at the Dakota Mines in Fairmont, West Virginia. Member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the United Mine Workers; elected secretary of the Farmington, West Virginia URW branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Stated to authorities: “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 aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/602.

Robert Elstin (a.k.a. Robert Kisten)

Elstin’s application and membership card for the Communist Party. National Archives.

Born: 1884, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Latvian
Occupation: Carpenter
Migration: Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Entered Canada in 1913 as the “man servant” of Russian Consul General Basek, then migrated to the United States. Former member of the Russian branch of the Socialist Party; transferred in 1919 to Baltimore’s Lettish Branch of the Communist Party. Married, with wife Evelyn residing in the US. Arrested in Baltimore during the second Palmer Raids on January 2, 1920. Deported on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/535; FBI file OG 388790.

Ivan Ermola (or Yarmola; Yermola)

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

Joined the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1918. Arrested during the Palmer Raids and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/350.

Adolph Ersson

Adolph Ersson, 1916. Everett Pubic Library.

Born: 1890, Karlskrona, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Sailor; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Australia 1905; then immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW

Active in union and strike activity in Australia after emigrating there. Then migrated to the U, where he joined the IWW in Denver in 1914. Survivor of the 1916 Everett Massacre; arrested in its aftermath and held until charges were dropped in 1917. Arrested again in Seattle in October 1918 and in Los Angeles in May 1919. Deported on June 26, 1919.

After deportation made his way to Norway, where gave speeches about the repression of the IWW in the US. Found work on a ship sailing from Kristiana to New York, where he jumped ship in December 1919. 1924 working as a laborer in Buffalo. At some point he returned to Sweden, where he died in 1967.

Sources: FBI file OG 315813; Industrial Worker, March 3, 1916; https://www.everettmassacre.com/biographies/adolph-ersson/; Ancestry.com.

Jakim Eschuk (a.k.a. Jack Esczuk or Escuk)

Born: c. 1891, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920, detained at Fort Wayne, and deported to Russia on March 3, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/362.

Nikita Eskimashko (a.k.a. Nikita Ikmasko)

Born: 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Member of Philadelphia URW Branch No. 1. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/331.

Fred Evanov (or Evanow; Evanoff)

Born: 1896, Russia
Nationality/Ethnicity: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Plumber
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Illiterate. Member of the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 2, 1920 and deported on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/5.

Angelo Faggi

Angelo Faggi, c. 1919. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1885, Brozzi, Italy
Nationality/Ethnicity: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; journalist
Migration: Migrated to Switzerland 1912; then to US 1915
Affiliation: IWW

Raised in a socialist family, joined the Italian Socialist Party at age 15. Active in Genoa’s Chamber of Labor and later a journalist for socialist and syndicalist newspapers. Became a revolutionary syndicalist by 1907 and left the PSI. Served as secretary of the Piacenza Chamber of Labor before fleeing to Switzerland to avoid imprisonment; expelled in 1914, moved to Paris, then immigrated to the US in 1915.

In Barre, Vermont, published Lo Scalpellino and joined the IWW, becoming a lecturer and later editor of the IWW newspaper Il Proletario. Arrested repeatedly for labor agitation; arrested in Chicago in May 1919 and “voluntarily departed” with his wife and two children to Italy on August 30, 1919.

After returning to Italy, again elected secretary of the Piacenza Chamber of Labor and helped found the local paramilitary antifacist Arditi del Popolo. Played a leading role in the 1920 factory occupations and became acting secretary of the Italian Syndicalist Union. Arrested in 1921 in connection with the Teatro Diana bombing; while imprisoned, elected to parliament as a protest Socialist candidate. After release, repeatedly assaulted by fascists and emigrated to Nice, France in 1923. Later joined socialist and antifascist exile organizations, served in the French military during WWII, returned to Italy after the war, and was elected mayor of Piacenza in 1956. Died in 1957.

Sources: INS file 53895/198; CPC busta 1925; 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).

Fagotti to Fengol

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Alfonso Fagotti

Born: 1894, Teramo, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist

An anarchist and subscriber to Cronaca Sovversiva. In December 1916, arrested in West Rutland, Massachusetts, for stabbing a police officer in the hand during a melee at an anarchist anti-preparedness event. In apparent retaliation, a bomb was detonated at the local police station, causing no injuries. After serving his sentence, he was held for deportation and deported on June 24, 1919.

Upon his return to Italy, he was arrested for avoiding military conscription during the war. He remained under state surveillance thereafter, but Italian authorities reported “good political conduct” from the time of his arrival through 1941.

Sources: INS file 54379/394; CPC busta 1928; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background

Anton Federako (a.k.a. Tony Federaco)

Born: 1891, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Harrison, New Jersey, in 1919. Arrested in Newark during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. When questioned, denied membership in the URW and claimed he had merely stopped by its offices for a glass of tea; however, an undercover federal informant identified him as a lecturer for the organization. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/339; FBI file OG 379806.

Nick Federov

Born: 1884, Samara, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A machinist residing in Milwaukee with his wife and daughter. Member of Milwaukee’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party; formerly a member of the Socialist Party. His wife, Titena Federov, as well as her mother Olga and stepfather Mike Kruk, were also Communist Party members. Arrested in January 1920. When informed of the possibility of deportation without his wife, he stated, “I can’t live without my wife; maybe I going to get crazy, or something like that.” Deported on March 18, 1921, accompanied by his wife and child.

Sources: INS file 54859/149.

Maxim Fedorash

Born: 1884, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America (non-member)

Injured while working on a railroad in Canada in 1915 and hospitalized for two months. Later attended a Communist Party-run night school in Detroit and expressed support for Communist ideas, though he never formally joined the Communist party. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/770.

Ivan Fedosky (a.k.a. John Fedosky; Iwan Fesosky)

Born: 1889, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to Canada 1914; to US 1916
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Entered the United States via Canada without inspection. Member of the Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit (which was not a deportable offense). In April 1919, turned over to Detroit police by his employer, the Great Lakes Engineering Company, for allegedly spreading Bolshevik propaganda among plant employees. Deported aboard the Buford as “likely to become a public charge” and for unlawful entry.

Sources: INS file 54616/170.

Kirio Fedyk

Fedyk’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1894, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 (via Canada)
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/379; FBI file OG 271860.

Ivan Felchuk (a.k.a John; Filchuk; Wilchuk; Nilchuk)

Born: 1893, Skobelka, Volyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party in the summer of 1919. Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/9.

Emil Feltman

Born: 1881 or 1882, Berlin, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner; union organizer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1882
Affiliation: IWW

Migrated to the United States as an infant with his father; orphaned by age six following his father’s death in a mining accident in Butte, Montana. Enlisted in the US Army in 1898 and served in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars; honorably discharged in 1900. Joined the IWW in 1913 and became an organizer in 1918. Married fellow IWW member Fannie Martini in Bisbee, Arizona, in 1916. Arrested in Jerome, Arizona, in February 1919 while organizing miners during a strike. According to the arresting officer, “he also said that it didn’t make any difference where he was deported to, whether it was Germany or China, he would continue his present agitation as organizer of the I.W.W.s.” His mental and physical health deteriorated while detained. Deported on May 22, 1920.

After deportation, worked briefly as a coal miner in Westphalia and later migrated to Soviet Russia, becoming one of the first Americans to join the Kuzbas Autonomous Industrial Colony in Siberia. Left Russia along with sixteen other disillusioned Kuzbas members in September 1922.

Sources: INS file 54616/140; FBI file OG 194288; Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University Library; J. P. Morray, Project Kuzbas: American Workers in Siberia (1921-1926).

Kiril Fengol ( a.k.a. Kirin Pinhol)

Fengol’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Dishwasher
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/526; FBI file OG 213090.

Fernández to Foli

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Josef Ramón Fernández (a.k.a. José Ramón Fernández)

Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including Fernández, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1898, Oviedo, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to Cuba c. 1914; then to US 917
Affiliation: Industrial Workers of the World; anarchist

Became an anarchist at approximately sixteen years of age. Around 1914 he migrated from Spain to Cuba, and in 1917 he entered the United States. Became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and joined the Spanish-speaking anarchist Los Corsarios group. In February 1919 arrested in New York City along with thirteen other members of Los Corsarios by the Secret Service. The group was accused, without evidence, of plotting to assassinate President Woodrow Wilson. All criminal charges were eventually dropped; nevertheless, several members of the group, including Fernández, were detained for deportation on the grounds of anarchism. Fernández was deported to Spain on May 5, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/79.

Ramón Fernández (a.k.a. Raymond Fernandez)

Born: Year unknown, Cuba
Nationality: Cuban
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US prior to 1918
Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW

After immigrating to the US became involved in anarchist activities and the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1918 he was arrested in Seattle and convicted under the state’s criminal syndicalism law. After serving three months, he was pardoned by the governor to allow for his deportation. Fernández was held at the Seattle immigration station until March 1920, after which he was transferred to Ellis Island. In November 1921 he was deported to Spain, but Spanish authorities refused him admission on the grounds that he was Cuban-born. He was returned to Ellis Island and, in March 1922, deported to Cuba, where authorities likewise denied him entry, claiming he had forfeited Cuban citizenship by avoiding military service during World War I. On July 22, 1922, Fernández was permitted to depart “voluntarily” at his own expense to Russia, traveling via Rotterdam.

In Russia he joined the Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Colony in Kemerovo, Siberia, where he remained until the colony’s dissolution in 1926. During this period he contributed occasional reports to the anarchist newspaper Cultura Obrera. Married a Russian woman with whom he had a son. Working on constructing tractor factories in Stalingrad and Kharkiv, then settled in the Urals in the town of Revda. On March 10, 1938, arrested during the Great Purge on charges of alleged counterrevolutionary sabotage and espionage; sentenced to ten years in the Vyatlav labor camp, where he died on January 27, 1940.

Sources: Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University Library; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Cultura Obrera; https://xn--80aah0car.xn--p1ai/?p=13556.

Egor Matveevich Feskov (a.k.a. Grigory Feskov; Harry Feskow)

Born: 1885, Stepok, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

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

In 1935, acting through the Russian consul in New York, Feskov retained attorney Aaron Banenson to recover personal bank savings he had been unable to access following his deportation. The amount sought totaled $2,404, consisting of $983.50 plus compound interest. In 1943, a judge ruled in Feskov’s favor and ordered the funds returned to him.

Sources: INS files 54709/524 and 56167/137; Hartford Courant, December 23, 1943.

William Fields

Born: 1880, London, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Lumber worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1905
Affiliation: IWW

Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917. In May 1918 he was arrested in Seattle, Washington, and subsequently ordered deported. Fields was deported on February 27, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54379/416 (missing); FBI file OG 194446.

Ivan Filisofov (a.k.a. John Philisoph)

Born: 1877, Volynia, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to Argentina c. 1914; then to US c. 1915
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and three children remained in Russia when he emigrated. Authorities alleged that he was a member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Thomaston, Connecticut, though Filisofov denied this and claimed membership only in the Union of Russian Citizens, a non-partisan umbrella organization for Russian progressives. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. A substantial quantity of anarchist, IWW, and Communist literature was seized from his room, some of which he claimed belonged to a roommate. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/166; FBI file OG 355772.

Olaf Finnestad

Flier protesting arrests of Finnestad and fellow IWW member Adolph Errson. National Archives.

Born: 1894, Stavanger, Norway
Nationality: Norwegian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: IWW

Joined the IWW in Los Angeles in 1916 and served as secretary of the Minneapolis IWW branch in 1918. Arrested in Seattle in October 1918 and deported on March 1, 1919.

Upon returning to Norway, Finnestad immediately joined the Norwegian Syndicalist Federation and the anarchist Norwegian Youth’s Socialist League, and gave lectures on conditions in the United States. Spearheaded a brief and unsuccessful campaign to spread the IWW to Scandinavia. In August 1920 he emigrated to Canada and married; in 1924 he illegally reentered the United States with his wife and ultimately obtained U.S. citizenship. Died in Portland, Oregon, in 1974.

Sources: INS file 54517/68; The Workers’ World (Kansas City), August 1, 1919; Fellow Worker, February 1, 1920; Ancestry.com.

Friedrich Fischer (a.k.a. Charles Williams; Charles William Fischer)

Born: 1877, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Sailor; lumber worker; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1896
Affiliation: IWW

Sailed extensively out of U.S. ports and joined the IWW in 1916. In December 1917 arrested as an “alien enemy” while working on the waterfront, but released. Arrested again in January 1918 in Walla Walla, Washington, for IWW membership. Despite his stated opposition to the German Kaiser and monarchy, Fischer was interned as an enemy alien at Fort Douglas, Utah. In June 1919 he was granted “voluntary departure” in exchange for his release from internment.

Sources: INS file 54379/61.

Enrique Flores Magón

Enrique Flores Magón (standing center left, without a hat) with family and supporters in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, March 4, 1923, following his deportation.

Born: 1877, Teotitlán del Camino, Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Millwright; journalist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Partido Liberal Mexicano; anarchist

Opposed the dictatorship of Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, along with his brother Ricardo Flores Magón, leading to their arrests in 1903. Later that year the brothers immigrated to the United States, where they founded the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) and its newspaper Regeneración.

Over time, the PLM became increasingly radical, embracing anarchism and supporting the IWW. Enrique was repeatedly arrested in the US for political activities. In 1917 he broke with the PLM over personal and political disagreements. In 1918 began serving a sentence for “mailing unmailable matter” and was released from Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1920. On March 4, 1923 he accepted “voluntary departure” to Mexico.

Remained active in Mexican anarchist circles and wrote for the international anarchist press through 1926, when he announced his “retirement” from the movement due to physical disability and poverty. In the 1930s accepted a government pension as a “precursor of the Mexican Revolution” and dedicated himself to rewriting the history of the PLM as part of the history of Mexican nationalism. Died in 1954.

Sources: INS file 54861/116.

Ignacz Fogler

Born:
Nationality: Austrian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported from the United States to Austria on May 8, 1920. Included on a government list of deported radicals, but no further documentation found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Virgilio Foli

Born: 1886, Fano, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner; farmer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1902
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist around 1916. In December 1920 arrested in Spring Valley, Illinois, and ordered deported. Deported on March 16, 1921.

After repatriation, briefly migrated to Belgium in 1923 in search of work, then returned to Italy, where he became a farmer. Italian authorities reported no further political activity and removed him from the list of subversives in 1937. However, following his death in 1969, comrades wrote in the anarchist newspaper L’Internazionale that his was “a life lived intensely for the affirmation of anarchist ideas, for which he suffered persecution and exile.”

Sources: INS file 54885/19; CPC busta 2101; True Republican (Sycamore, IL), March 30, 1921; Andrea Pirondini, Anarchici a Modena: Dizionario biografico; L’Internazionale, February 1, 1969.

Fraser to Furs

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Donald McPherson Fraser

Born: 1888, Edinburgh, Scotland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Scottish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to Canada 1908; then to US 1915
Affiliation: IWW

Spent time in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico before entering the US (via Canada, without inspection) in 1915. Joined the IWW in 1909 and later became secretary of the IWW local in Astoria, Washington. On his 1917 draft registration card, wrote: “Don’t believe [in] militarism.” Arrested in Portland, Oregon, in February 1919 and deported March 29, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54379/2; Ancestry.com.

Adolfo Frattesi (a.k.a. Adolph Fratese)

Born: 1893, Pergola, Italy
Nationality/Ethnicity: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Anarchist

A member of the anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali in Milwaukee, along with his brother Vincenzo Frattesi, sister Maria Nardini, and brother-in-law Pasquale Nardini. Arrested in 1917 following an Italian anarchist “riot” in Milwaukee and initially sentenced to twenty-five years in prison as an accessory to the attempted murder of a police officer. The conviction was later reversed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Following his release, rearrested for “teaching or advocating anarchy” and deported to Italy on July 15, 1920.

Italian authorities do not appear to have placed him under political surveillance after his return.

Sources: INS file 54235/70; 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.

Giuseppe Frattesi

Born: 1894, Pergola, Italy
Nationality/Ethnicity: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913

The brother of Adolfo and Vincenzo Frattesi and of Maria Nardini. While living in Racine, Wisconsin, became involved in the defense campaign for his siblings following the 1917 Milwaukee anarchist “riot,” during which he became radicalized and embraced anarchism. Later moved to Chicago, where he was arrested in May 1919 and again in August 1919. Deported on December 20, 1919. His trunk containing personal possessions was lost by immigration authorities.

In June 1920 migrated to France, where he briefly lived with his brother Teodolfo, before returning to Italy. Throughout the 1930s he remained under Italian government surveillance and was reported to continue holding anarchist and antifascist views, though he was not considered politically active.

Sources: INS file 54616/182; FBI file OG 8000-177156; CPC busta 2172.

Vincenzo Frattesi (a.k.a. Vincent Fratese)

Born: 1886, Pergola, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist

Emigrated to Avignon, France, where he was fined for assault in 1908, and was jailed for eight days in 1910 for the same offense. After immigrating to the United States in 1913, he became active in Milwaukee’s anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali, along with his siblings and brother-in-law. Following the 1917 Milwaukee anarchist “riot,” convicted as an accessory to the attempted murder of a police officer and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison, a conviction upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. While incarcerated, repeatedly disciplined for infractions and in 1920 was declared insane and transferred to a mental hospital. Pardoned in 1922 on condition of deportation and deported on February 25, 1922.

Upon arrival in Italy, institutionalized in Naples as “paranoid” and released in November 1924. Later settled in Fossombrone, where he remained under surveillance and continued to express anarchist beliefs. In July 1928 he was recommitted to a psychiatric hospital in Pesaro and diagnosed with “paranoid early dementia.” Remained institutionalized as of 1940.

Sources: INS file 54235/69; CPC busta 2172; 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.

Giovanni Fruzzetti (a.k.a. Giovanni Balloni; Gianni Lupo)

Giovanni Fruzzetti. Source: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/113565859/person/210112210983/facts?_phsrc=ezK144&_phstart=successSource

Born: 1865, Carrara, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Granite cutter; farmer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1892
Affiliation: Anarchist

Lived in Barre, Vermont, until 1905, where he was a friend of Luigi Galleani and helped found Cronaca Sovversiva. Later lived in Quincy, Massachusetts, before purchasing a sixty-acre farm in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1910. Married with ten children and also supported six nieces and nephews following the death of his sister-in-law. Suffered ongoing health problems stemming from an appendicitis operation. Arrested in May 1918, Fruzzetti stated his belief “in the overthrow of any government by force.” He also emphasized the hardship deportation would impose on his family, noting that his wife could not return to Italy because of their disabled American-born daughter. Despite this, he was deported on June 24, 1919.

Unable to make a living in Italy, he received financial assistance from comrades in the United States until his death in 1926.

Sources: INS file 54379/351; CPC busta 295; L’Adunata dei Refrattari, June 13 and October 3, 1925; Ancestry.com.

Timofey Furs (a.k.a. Thomas Furs)

Furs’ URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1896, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/365; FBI file OG 379709.

Galeotti to Gazeyog

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , , , ,

Alba Galeotti (born Giuseppina Genisio)

Alba Galeotti, postcard to her son Ferrer, c. 1930s. Courtesy of Gina Norsedt.

Born: 1867, Canischio, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1902
Affiliation: Anarchist

After immigrating to the United States around 1902, she married coal miner Killo Gotti in Lafayette, Missouri, later adopting the anarchist name “Alba,” meaning “Dawn.” She named her children Idea (i.e. “L’Idea” of anarchism) and Ravachol (after the French anarchist of the same name). By 1908 she was contributing funds and articles to the Italian-language anarchist newspapers Cronaca Sovversiva and La Questione Sociale and corresponded with anarchists in Italy. She also raised money for the antimilitarist anarchist paper Rompete le file! in Milan. Following her separation from Gotti, she married anarchist miner Guglielmo Galeotti in 1909. The couple lived in mining communities in Kansas and Illinois and named their children Ferrer and Germinal. Unconfirmed reports suggest she was deported in 1916 and illegally returned to the United States. Arrested in 1920 alongside Galeotti, she escaped custody while he was deported. She continued anarchist activity, including collecting funds for the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee in 1921. In 1923 arrested in Schulter, Oklahoma. While detained, she refused food for thirty-three days, was declared insane, and forcibly fed. Deported on January 10, 1924, leaving her two youngest children in the care of her eldest daughter, Ida (Idea) Gotti.

In Italy she did not reunite with Guglielmo Galeotti, and remained in correspondence with her children. Died in Turin in 1940.

Sources: Cronaca Sovversiva, May 31, 1913; Jennifer Guglielmo, Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1 and 2, 1924; Henryetta Standard (Henryetta OK), January 3 and January 7, 1924; Ancestry.com; additional information provided by Gina Norstedt.

Guglielmo Galeotti (a.k.a. William Galleoti)

Guglielmo Galeotti with his wife Alba and children, c. 1915. Courtesy of Gina Norsedt.

Born: 1871, Santa Sofia, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1902
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist in Italy during the late 1880s and was regarded by Italian authorities as a dangerous subversive. Repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for subversive activities between 1888 and 1902. Fled briefly to Switzerland in 1901, but was expelled and arrested on unfounded suspicion of complicity in the assassination of King Umberto I. Subsequently emigrated to and then expelled from Trieste. After immigrating to the United States, lived in mining communities in Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Illinois and became a leading figure in the Kansas anarchist Gruppo 11 Novembre. In 1909 married fellow anarchist Alba Genisio. In 1911 joined other group members in traveling to Mexico to assist the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano during the Mexican Revolution but soon became disillusioned and returned to the United States. Deported on February 19, 1920.

Although he remained under surveillance in Italy, authorities reported that by 1935 he had withdrawn from politics and allegedly showed sympathy toward the Fascist regime.

Sources: CPC busta 2236; Michele Presutto, La rivoluzione dietro l’angolo: Gli anarchici italiani e la Rivoluzione messicana, 1910-1914; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1, 1924; Ancestry.com; additional information provided by Gina Norstedt.

Luigi Galleani

Luigi Galleani, 1919. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1861, Vercelli, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Editor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1901
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist while studying law at the University of Turin. After fleeing police repression in Italy, he lived in France and Switzerland, working with anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus, before being arrested, expelled, and imprisoned in Italy. While confined to the island of Pantelleria, he met his wife Maria. He escaped in 1900 and fled to Egypt and England before immigrating to the United States in 1901.

In the United States, edited La Questione Sociale in Paterson, New Jersey, and led the 1902 silk workers’ strike, for which he was indicted for inciting riot and fled to Canada, then Barre, Vermont, where founded newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva in 1903. Later relocated the paper to Lynn, Massachusetts. Emerged as the leading Italian anarchist proponent of insurrectionary violence. Deported on June 24, 1919, leaving his wife and six children behind.

Upon arrival in Italy, briefly arrested and then relaunched Cronaca Sovversiva in Turin. Imprisoned for sedition in 1922, and again arrested in 1926, serving prison time followed by internal exile. He remained under surveillance until his death in 1931.

Sources: INS file 54235/33; CPC busta 2241; Ugo Fedeli, Luigi Galleani: quarant’anni di lotte rivoluzionarie (1891 –1931); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Antonio Senta, Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America.

Alexander Gallod (a.k.a. Golod; Gold)

Gallod’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1888, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America before becoming an active member of the Communist Party of American and then the United Communist Party in Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Arrested in Philadelphia on January 7, 1920, and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54811/973.

Laureano García

Born: Spain, year unknown
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW

An anarchist and IWW member, he was arrested in Jerome, Arizona, in February 1919 and deported later that year.

In 1931 he contributed funds from Spain to the New York anarchist newspaper Cultura Proletaria.

Sources: La Nueva Solidaridad, June 14, 1919; Cultura Proletaria, April 18, 1931.

Rogelo García (a.k.a. Regelio García; Roglio García)

Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including García, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1894, Quibicano, Cuba
Nationality: Cuban
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cigar maker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist around 1917 and joined the Los Corsarios Group, which published the anarchist paper El Corsario. Arrested in New York in February 1919 with thirteen other Spanish-speaking anarchists on unfounded allegations of plotting to assassinate President Woodrow Wilson. Although charges were dismissed, García was held for deportation. When questioned about his failure to naturalize, replied, “I do not even believe in my own country.” He was married to U.S.-born Blanca Fernandez and had an infant child at the time of his deportation on April 25, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/79.

Isso Gartner (a.k.a. Imre Geery or Geerry)

Born: 1895, Kassa, Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia)
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Jeweler
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America in Baltimore. A conscientious objector, he opposed military conscription during the First World War. Attempted to unionize Baltimore jewelry workers through the International Jewelry Workers Union (AFL). In May 1918 he was arrested on dubious theft charges, sentenced to six months in prison, and later interned as an “alien enemy” at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. There he contracted tuberculosis of the hip, forcing him to use crutches. Upon release, Gartner was deported on May 8, 1920 on the unsubstantiated charge that he believed in overthrowing the U.S. government by force.

Sources: INS file 54709/38; Baltimore Sun, May 23, 1918; Jewelers’ Circular-Weekly, July 10, 1918.

Jack Gaveel (a.k.a. Jakov Zukatansky; Jackotonsky; Jacknowsky)

Born: 1889, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Labor organizer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915
Affiliation: IWW

Migrated to England in 1905; returned to the Netherlands in 1910 and emigrated to Canada that same year. Joined the IWW in 1913 in Canada and became secretary of IWW Local no. 339 in Edmonton, Canada the following year. Migrated to the U.S. in 1915. Included in the federal indictment of IWW leaders in 1917, but dropped from the case before it went to trial. Acted as an IWW delegate in Los Angeles, where he was “active in organizing the Austrian and Croatian fishermen.” Arrested in April 1921 and sentenced to 1-4 years under California’s criminal syndicalism law. In San Quentin, refused to work in the prison jute mill, declaring: “I have never scabbed on my class outside of prison, and I won’t do it inside.” He was sent to solitary confinement, sparking a sympathy strike of thirteen other imprisoned IWW members. Deported to The Netherlands on August 1, 1924.

Remained active in labor and anarchist circles in The Netherlands. Into 1951 he resumed contact with the IWW and distributed IWW materials in Europe. In 1960, at age 71, he wrote: “I wish I were in America. I’d join you in the fight then.”

Sources: FBI file BS 186701-240; Industrial Worker, June 11, 1921; August 5, 1922; IWW Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library.

Fred Gazeyog (a.k.a. Gazeyek; Gazeycg)

Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to the United States in 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Employed by the B. F. Goodrich Company and joined the Union of Russian Workers in Akron, Ohio, in 1916, becoming secretary of the local branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/535.

Geray to Giusto

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Andrey Geray (a.k.a. Andrew Geray)

Born: 1879, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and two children remained in Russia when he migrated. He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in July 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Soviet Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/477; FBI file OG 388189.

Grigory Gerish (a.k.a. Harry Gerrish)

Grigory Gerish. https://ru.openlist.wiki/.

Born: 1897, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Student; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1908
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Immigrated to the United States with his family as a child and later attended the University of Pennsylvania for one year before financial necessity forced him into wage labor. In 1918 he married his childhood sweetheart, Tillie Karetsky. The couple became politically radicalized in Philadelphia, first joining the Socialist Party and later the United Communist Party. Gerish served as secretary-organizer of the Jewish Young Socialist Federation. Both he and his wife were arrested and deported to Soviet Russia on February 1, 1921.

In Russia, Gerish rose to prominence within the Communist movement and became a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. During the Stalinist purges, he was accused of Trotskyist sympathies, expelled from the Communist Party in 1937, arrested, and executed.

Sources: INS file 54810/821; Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921; Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, Harvey Klehr, and John Earl Haynes, Secret Cables of the Comintern, 1933-1943; Michael Buckmiller and Klaus Meschkat, eds., Biographisches Handbuch zur Geschichte der Kommunistischen Internationale: Ein deutsch-russisches Forschungsprojekt.

Tilly Gerish (née Karetsky; a.k.a. Tillie Gerrish)

Tilly Gerish, 1921. Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921.

Born: 1899, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Dressmaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Immigrated to the United States in 1913 to reunite with her childhood sweetheart, Grigory Gerish, whom she married in 1918. Active in the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union. Together with her husband, became politically radicalized in Philadelphia, first joining the Socialist Party and later the Communist Party. She was a member of the party’s Central Jewish Branch. Arrested in January 1920, she was deported with her husband to Soviet Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/126; Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921.

Mikhail Gernet

Born: 1898, Arkhangelsk, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Lathe operator
Migration: Migrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Entered the United States via Canada without inspection and worked as a lathe operator in Detroit. Became a member of Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America. Arrested in April 1919 for allegedly causing a disturbance during a lecture by Catherine Breshkovsky that was critical of the Bolsheviks. Later testified that police beat him unconscious during his arrest, leaving him unable to raise his arms or eat without pain. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919, under the pretext that he was “likely to become a public charge.”

Sources: INS file 54616/172.

Natale Girolimetti

Born: 1899, Ancona, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Migrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: Anarchist

An individualist anarchist described by Italian authorities “an individual of impulsive and violent character.” Deported to Italy sometime before 1921.

A “violent, irreducible” opponent of fascism, he was brutally beaten by Fascists upon his return to Italy. In 1921 he fled abroad, living successively in France, Luxembourg, Germany, and again in France, where he remained active in Italian exile radical circles. In 1926 he returned to Italy seeking medical treatment for head injuries sustained during earlier beatings and was immediately arrested for possession of antifascist literature. Released on parole, he was again assaulted by Fascists and arrested in 1927 while attempting to return to France. His mental condition deteriorated, and in 1928 he was confined to a psychiatric institution, where he died in 1932.

Sources: CPC busta 2446; Fabrizio Giulietti, Il movimento anarchico italiano nella lotta contro il fascismo, 1927–1945.

Bonaiuto Giusto

Bonauito Giusto, c. 1919. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1888, Castel di Casio, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Shoemaker; miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1909
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist in the United States and joined the Circolo dei Studi Sociali in Kensington, Illinois. Traveled to Mexico in 1917 to avoid registering for the U.S. military draft and returned to the United States without inspection in 1918. Arrested in May 1918 during a raid on the Circolo and later detained in Chicago on the grounds of unlawful entry. Deported on December 20, 1919.

After returning to Italy, continued his anarchist activities in Castel di Casio. Arrested in 1923 for opposing the Fascist government and again in 1926 for resisting conscription, but was acquitted both times. Remained under government surveillance until at least 1940.

Sources: INS file 54616/213; CPC busta 711.

Goldman to Grau i Jassans

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Emma Goldman

File:Emma Goldman's deportation photo, 1919.jpg
Emma Goldman, 1919. National Archives.

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

Nikolia Gorin, c. 1920. National Archives.

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)

Josep Grau, c. 1930s

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.

Graves to Gusko

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Thomas Graves

Born: c. 1895, Haverigg, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: IWW

Worked as a miner in Arizona. In July 1917 he was among the striking miners forcibly expelled from Bisbee, Arizona, and abandoned in the New Mexico desert during the “Bisbee Deportation.” In January 1918 he joined the IWW’s Metal Mine Workers Branch 65, Local No. 800, and soon became an organizer. Arrested in May 1918 on a charge of vagrancy, and again later that year in Globe, Arizona, for allegedly violating the Espionage Act, and again in Globe in April 1919. In a confiscated letter, Graves wrote to a friend, “I have been trying to figure our this democracy for a long time but the only answer that I can come to is if you don’t do as I tell you, you must go to the can, therefore I don’t want any more of it, and the sooner they send me back to the lands of the Kings the better.” Deported to England on June 21, 1919.

After deportation, resumed work as a miner in England and married. In 1930 he was recruited work in a copper mine in colonial Rhodesia (present-day Zambia), where he acquired a reputation as a union militant and became a founding member and shop steward of a whites-only Northern Rhodesia Mine Workers’ Union. He returned to England in 1939 after being dismissed from his job, and died in 1966.

Sources: INS file 54616/87; Duncan Money, White Mineworkers on Zambia’s Copperbelt, 1926–1974: In a Class of Their Own.

Pavel Grib (a.k.a. Paul Grib; Greb)

Born: 1887, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Machinist; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers

His wife and two children remained in Russia when he emigrated. In 1919 he joined both the Industrial Workers of the World and the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle, where he became the URW branch’s financial secretary. Arrested on February 7, 1920, at a lumber camp near Ashford, Washington, and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/444; FBI file OG 372555.

Seodor Grigoreko (or Grigorenko)

Born: 1895, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit in 1919, which later transferred en masse into the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Detroit during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/65; FBI file OG 385764.

Nikolai Grishko (a.k.a. Nicholas Hrishco)

Born: 1898, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Steel worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

In 1918 he joined Russian Branch No. 1 of the Socialist Party of America in Baltimore, which later became part of the Communist Party of America. Served as the branch’s recording secretary. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54809/655; FBI files OG 8000-383428 and 377436.

Alfred Groener

Born: 1898, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: IWW?

Arrested in Portland, Oregon, in January 1918 while in possession of two IWW pamphlets, though no evidence established that he was actually a member of the organization. Nevertheless, he was interned as an “alien enemy” during World War I and was released on the condition of his voluntary departure on June 29, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54379/80.

Adolph Gross (or Grosse)

Adolph Gross, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1860, Mainz, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Farmer; teamster; news vendor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1882
Affiliation: Anarchist

Immigrated to the United States in 1882, at the age of twenty-two. An anarchist, he and his wife and seven children lived at the anarchist Home Colony in Washington State from 1903 onward. Around 1918 he opened a newsstand in Tacoma, Washington. In late 1919 he was arrested and sentenced to twenty-eight months at McNeil Island federal prison under the Espionage Act for selling seditious literature, despite the fact that World War I had already ended. In December 1921 he was deported to Germany at age sixty-one, making him the oldest known deportee of the Red Scare (he had two grandchildren at the time). He was not permitted to contact his family prior to deportation and was denied the opportunity to take money or personal belongings with him.

Settled in Hamburg, and in 1922 his daughter reported “it is killing him to live in idleness over there and he says unless he has a few hundred dollars he cannot do anything.” Reportedly died sometime before 1930.

Sources: INS file 54861/406; FBI file OG 8000-381731; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society; The Nation, October 19, 1921.

Janos Grunzweig (a.k.a. John Grunzweig)

John Grunzweig
Janos Grunzweig, late 1920s. Ancestry.com.

Born: 1900, Schöndorf, Austria-Hungary (present-day Frumușeni, Romania)
Nationality: Disputed (formerly Austro-Hungarian)
Ethnicity: German
Occupation: Cabinetmaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliations: Communist Party of America

Emigrated to the United States in 1910 with his parents and siblings to rejoin his father, settling in Tonawanda, New York. Trained as a cabinetmaker and later joined the Communist Party of America, prompting his father to expel him from the family home. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on May 8, 1920.

Upon arrival in Athens, Greece, he was arrested and jailed for two weeks. Romanian authorities refused him entry because his birthplace was not part of Romania at the time of his birth, and Hungary likewise denied that he was a citizen. After his release, Grunzweig worked odd jobs in Greece for three months before stowing away on a ship bound for Canada.

He disembarked, traveled to Tonawanda, and was arrested again in May 1921. In March 1922 he was released on bail when the government proved unable to deport him. Dubbed “A Man Without a Country” by the American press, he eventually regularized his status and by 1940 had become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Died in Buffalo, New York, in 1984.

Sources: INS file 54811/755; FBI files OG 388225 and BS 202600-1932; Buffalo Times, December 13, 1922; Ancestry.com.

Ivan Gushchia (a.k.a. John Guschia)

Born: Russia, year unknown
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migration to US year unknown
Affiliation: Unknown

His name is included on a list of radicals deported to Soviet Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 55110/4.

Martin Gunderson

Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls), September 10, 1918.

Born: c. 1890, Norway
Nationality: Norwegian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: IWW

Became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In November 1918 he was indicted alongside fellow IWW member Stanley Brown on federal charges for allegedly mailing phosphorous intended for arson. At trial, Gunderson admitted to having burned down the barn of the Aberdeen chief of police. Convicted and sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment at Leavenworth. Deported to Norway on September 4, 1919.

Sources: Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls), November 15, 1917, September 10, 1918, and August 5, 1919; New Solidarity, September 20, 1919.

Ivan Gushchia (a.k.a. John Gushchia; Gushia; Gushchany)

Ivan Gushchia’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1897, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

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

Sources: INS file 54709/380.

William Gusko (or Jusko)

Born: 1894, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Punch press operator
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated. Worked as a punch press operator in Detroit and joined the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/968.