Tag Archives: anarchist

Sanchini to Sarvas

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Giobbe Sanchini

Giobbe Sanchini. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1887, Sant’Angelo in Lizzola, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Mason
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist in his youth and migrated to Switzerland in 1902, returning to Italy in 1906.

In 1911 he emigrated to New Britain, Connecticut, where he joined the circle around Galleani and distributed the paper Cronaca Sovversiva. In 1913 he married fellow anarchist Irma Cassolino. First arrested on September 8, 1917, after organizing a defense fund for Galleani; although that warrant was canceled, he was rearrested May 16, 1918. When asked why he should not be deported, he responded: “My reasons are as follows: That every person has the right to live wherever he desires without being molested in a state that is called [a] democracy and, when a state ceases to be democratic it then embodies the term ‘tyranny’ and in that case we no longer enjoy liberty.” Deported June 24, 1919, together with his pregnant wife and their American-born children.

Upon return to Italy he was immediately imprisoned for evading military service, though the charges were dropped in 1922. He joined an anarchist group in Pesaro and published the anarchist newspaper La Frusta there and later in Fano, from 1919 to 1922. After Irma died in childbirth in 1925, he sent their children back to the United States in 1926 but was never able to reunite with them. He remained under police surveillance until 1942. During the 1930s he reportedly worked as a pasta-factory supervisor, bricklayer, and public-works supervisor, and he remarried in 1933. Fascist authorities reported no subversive activity on his part and even claimed he showed “a favorable attitude towards the regime,” though other reports and family testimony stated that he always remained committed to anarchism. After the fall of Fascism he attempted to revive La Frusta in 1946 and he stayed in contact with Italian anarchists in America until his death in Pesaro in December 1951.

Sources: INS file 54235/52; CPC busta 4562; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Richard Lenzi, Facing Toward the Dawn: The Italian Anarchists of New London; La Frusta; Edoardo Puglielli, Il movimento anarchico abruzzese 1907–1957; Il Fondo L’Adunata Collection, Boston Public Library; Ugo Fedeli Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.

Irma Sanchini (née Cassolino)

https://www.estelnegre.org/documents/sanchini/sanchini.html

Born: 1895, Tonco, Piedmont, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Anarchist

Migrated to the United States with her father and settled in New Britain, Connecticut, where she became associated with Luigi Galleani’s anarchist circle and distributed Cronaca Sovversiva. Married Giobbe Sanchini in 1913. Arrested September 8, 1917 for helping to organize a defense fund for Galleani, she was released when the warrant was canceled but rearrested May 16, 1918. Some newspapers dubbed her the “Queen of the Anarchists,” and the district attorney hyperbolically claimed she “accomplished untold mischief in the period that she has resided in Connecticut. She is highly intelligent, very resourceful, and is considered to be much more dangerous than her husband.” Asked by an immigration agent what she thought an anarchist was, she replied, “a good man.” Deported June 24, 1919 with her husband and children.

Reportedly suffering from tuberculosis at the time of her deportation, she died in childbirth in 1925.

Sources: INS file 54235/52; Boston Globe, June 20, 1919; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Richard Lenzi, Facing Toward the Dawn: The Italian Anarchists of New London.

Ivan Sanko (a.k.a. Iwan; Evan; Sinko; Sankio)

Born: 1896, Minsk region, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

In January 1918 he joined the Youngstown, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers, soon becoming its secretary. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he explained to authorities, “I read a great many Anarchistic books which put me in the notion of joining this Union,” and he did “not care for the Bolsheviks.” He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/184.

Plácido Santamaría

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

Born: 1890, Burgos, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Gunsmith; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Anarchist

A foundling raised in an orphanage, he helped found Los Desamparados, a youth anarchist group in Eibar, Spain, in 1912. Emigrating to Scotland and Wales in 1914.

After immigrating to the U.S. 1916 he joined the anarchist Los Corsarios Group in New York. In February 1919 he was among fourteen members arrested by the United States Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate Woodrow Wilson. Although all charges were dropped, he was one of several members held for deportation as anarchists and he was deported to England (his port of departure to the U.S.) on July 5, 1919.

In 1931 he donated money to the Mexican anarchist paper ¡Paso! published by Librado Rivera.

Sources: INS file 54616/79; Tierra y Libertad (Barcelona), December 11, 1912; ¡Paso! (Mexico City), July 1, 1931.

Turibbio Santarelli (a.k.a. Giuseppe or Joseph Santarelli; Joseph Galligari)

Born: 1899, Fano, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Mechanic; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Immigrated to the United States with his parents and joined the Socialist Party of America in Buffalo in 1916. That same year, after coworkers insulted him with anti-socialist and ethnic slurs, he allegedly replied that President Wilson “should be shot,” or “Somebody ought to kill him.” Arrested at age sixteen and interrogated by the Secret Service, he was released on bail. Rearrested in 1919 under new immigration laws for “advocating or teaching the assassination of public officials.” Confidential informants also accused him—implausibly and inconsistently—of being secretary of an anarchist group called the Roma Club, praising the Kaiser, plotting sabotage with a German agent, making or receiving a bomb, and having ties to the Black Hand. Deported to Italy December 14, 1919.

He migrated to Canada in 1920 and for years petitioned unsuccessfully to return to the United States. In 1926 he married Constance Yuraities in York, Ontario. In the 1930s, after his parents died, he subscribed to the American anarchist newspaper L’Adunata dei Refrattari.

Sources: INS file 54235/91; CPC busta 4582; L’Adunata dei Refrattari (New York).

Alex Sarchkoff (a.k.a. Savcakoff)

Born: 1886, Mogliev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Lived in Detroit with his wife Catherine. In November 1919 he joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested in January 1920 during the second round of Palmer Raids, he “voluntarily departed” for Russia via Canada on October 30, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54859/671.

Ivan Sarvas (a.k.a. John)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Russia as a radical on November 17, 1920. No further information has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Sastre y García to Scali

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Manuel Sastre y García

Los Angeles Times, February 23, 1919.

Born: c. 1881, Pozaldez, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; union organizer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910.
Affiliation: IWW

Emigrated first to the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone in 1908 and then to the United States in 1910. After joining the Industrial Workers of the World in California in 1911, he organized Spanish-speaking workers across Southern California and led a major citrus workers’ strike in Covina from January to February 1919. Arrested and sentenced to thirty days in jail for assault during the strike. Arrested again in February 1919 for allegedly violating the Espionage Act, he was never brought to trial but was deported later that year.

In 1932 he was living in Málaga and subscribing to the anarchist magazine Estudios published in Valencia.

Sources: FBI file OG 8000-96994; Nelson Van Valen, “The Bolsheviki and the Orange Growers,” Pacific Historical Review 22, no. 1 (1953); David M. Struthers, The World in a City: Multiethnic Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles; Estudios: Generación Consciente, October 1932.

Prokofen Savach (a.k.a. Peter Sawich, Savitch)

Born: 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1918
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated to Canada in 1914, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers, and then entered the United States in 1918, later residing in Seattle. Questioned about his citizenship, he replied “I don’t see any reason why I should change my nationality. Being an American citizen, I would have to work just as hard as if I was a Russian.” He was deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/412.

Sergei Savchuk (or Savshuk)

Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Longshoreman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore in 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the transport Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/583; FBI file OG 376569.

Mieczyslaw Savitsky (a.k.a. Michael; Savitzky; Sawicki)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-21.png
Savitsky’s URW membership card. National Archives

Born: 1887, Lesnoy, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Likely involved in anarchist activity in Russia before emigrating.

In the United States he worked for Gould & Eberhardt in Irvington, New Jersey. He served on the organizing committee of the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he participated in a hunger strike at Ellis Island protesting a wire screen separating detainees from visitors and was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In Petrograd he was arrested in June 1923 during Soviet raids on anarchists, imprisoned for seven weeks, and joined fourteen others in a hunger strike before being sentenced to two years’ internal exile in Pyatigorsk.

Sources: INS file 54709/348; FBI file OG 378917; Behind the Bars (New York), January 1924; 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).

Petr Stepanovich Savko (a.k.a. Sawka)

Born: c. 1893, Zagorie region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: .
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became a member and secretary of the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Waterbury, Connecticut. Deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/328.

Andrey Savruk (a.k.a. Andrew Sawruk)

Born: 1892, Austria-Hungary (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Typesetter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Around 1917 he joined the Socialist Party of America and in 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America while living in Detroit. Deported to Hungary on May 8, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file OG 385566.

Timofey Saychenko

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Russia as a radical on December 12, 1920. No further information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Giuseppe Scali

Giuseppe Scali, c. 1920. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1874, Pisa, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Anarchist

By 1900 he was already active in distributing anarchist publications. After briefly relocating to Corsica in 1901, he settled in Carrara, Italy, where he became the first editor of the anarchist newspaper Combattiamo! (1902–1904). In 1903 he moved to Lucerne to avoid arrest for defamation charges, and in 1906 emigrated to the United States.

By 1907 he was living in San Francisco, collaborating on the individualist anarchist paper Nihil and joining the Gruppo Iconoclasti, later reorganized as the Gruppo Anarchico Volontà aligned with Luigi Galleani. Arrested in October 1916 with other Italian radicals for disturbing the peace, he received a ninety-day sentence. Arrested again in May 1918 during raids targeting Galleani’s associates, he was released on bail. Asked whether he had ever advocated anarchy, he replied, “Yes, whenever I had a chance.” Detained again after posting bail for fellow anarchist Michele Centrone, after a month he wrote to conservative Congressman Albert Johnson requesting that his deportation be expedited. Deported to Italy June 19, 1920.

Back in Italy he remained under government surveillance until 1929 and was reportedly still an anarchist, though no longer politically active.

Sources: INS file 54379/313; CPC busta 4652; Cronaca Sovversica; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani.

Scarlett to Schnabel

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , ,

Sam Scarlett (Samuel)

Sam Scarlett, 1918. National Archives.

Born: 1883, Kilmarnock, Scotland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Scottish
Occupation: Machinist; union organizer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1903; then to US 1904
Affiliation: IWW

Originally a member of the International Association of Machinists, he was radicalized and joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911, becoming a prominent speaker and organizer reportedly arrested about 160 times. Among these arrests was his detention during the 1916 strike on the Mesabi Iron Range on murder charges that were later dropped. A defendant in the federal IWW trial of 1917–1918, he was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment and a $20,000 fine. His sentence was commuted in 1923 on condition of deportation, and he was deported to England in April of that year.

That August he emigrated to Canada and resumed organizing for the IWW in the Vancouver area, especially among miners. Canadian authorities attempted to deport him in 1924 using evidence supplied by US immigration officials, but the case was dropped. In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Canada. He became an organizer for the party’s Mine Workers’ Union of Canada and was arrested in connection with the violent Estevan strike of October 1931, receiving a one-year sentence that damaged his health. Around 1938 he became chairman of the party in Toronto and of its newspaper The Clarion. When the party was outlawed in 1940, Scarlett lived underground and clandestinely entered the United States, where he remained illegally until his death in 1941.

Sources: INS file 54616/49; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Daily Worker, October 2, 1931; Donald H. Avery, “British-Born ‘Radicals’ in North America, 1900-1941: The Case of Sam Scarlett,” Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes Ethniques Au Canada 10, no. 2 (1978); Barbara Ann Roberts, Whence They Came: Deportation from Canada, 1900-1935.

Alexander Schatz (or Shatz; a.k.a. Harry)

Born: 1884, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Printer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1909
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Around 1917 he joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in New York. A member of the editorial board of Khleb i Volia and brother of fellow URW member Boris Schatz, he was arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. During questioning he declared, “I consider myself a citizen and a laborer wherever I work and wherever I live.” He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919, leaving behind his wife and stepchild in the U.S.

Sources: INS file 54709/128.

Boris Schatz (or Shatz)

Born: 1894, Russia (probably in present-day Ukraine)
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Photographer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

In 1917 he joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. He served on the editorial board of the organization’s newspaper Khleb i Volia and was the brother of fellow member and deportee Alexander Schatz. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, the stress of his detention reportedly caused his wife Elsie to miscarry. He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919, while Elsie remained in New York.

Sources: INS file 54709/278; FBI file OG 378924; Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920.

John Carl Schedel

John Carl Schedel, 1920. Fort Wayne Sentinel, September 1, 1920.

Born: 1885, Munich, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Piano polisher
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

In August 1914 he reportedly registered with the German consulate in Cincinnati to join the German Army, yet he simultaneously became active in American radical politics, serving as county secretary of the Socialist Party of America in Fort Wayne, Indiana and later joining the Communist Party of America. Described as “a very radical socialist ” who “and “during the war caused considerable trouble at the Packard Piano Company where he his employed,” he was arrested in 1920 for declaring he would rather live in Russia “where all is freedom” than in the United States. Deported May 22, 1920, leaving behind a pregnant wife and four American-born children; shortly afterward their newborn died and his wife was temporarily declared insane.

In Germany he reportedly joined the merchant marine and then traveled to Russia, where he claimed to have joined the Red Army and worked as an interpreter near Soviet leaders. After about a year he returned to Germany disillusioned with Soviet rule. In May 1921 he stowed away from Rotterdam to New York but was ordered deported again; disembarking in England, he was jailed for a month and undertook a hunger strike. After several failed attempts he reentered the United States in 1924 via Mexico. Arrested in Chicago for unlawful entry, he was defended by the American Civil Liberties Union and pursued multiple appeals until his deportation warrant was dropped. He died in Chicago in November 1968.

Sources: FBI file OG 341493; Fort Wayne Sentinel, September 1, 1920; Garrett Clipper (Garrett, IN), July 4, 1921; American Civil Liberties Union, Annual Report, 1924; Indianapolis Star, January 21, 1925; Chicago Tribune, November 7, 1968.

Nathan Schechter (or Shechter; Shacter)

Born: 1884, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated to the United States in 1913. In September 1919 he joined Russian Branch No. 5 of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested in December 1919 for “criminal anarchy” and released on bail, he was arrested again during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920. He told an immigration inspector “I consider the entire capitalist system to be rotten, and it ought to be abolished,” and protested being deported as a criminal, insisting he could pay his own passage if forced to leave. After four months’ detention on Ellis Island he became a leader of protests among detained radicals and was placed in a separate cell, prompting others to threaten a hunger strike. He was deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54811/424.

Raffaele Schiavina (a.k.a. Max Sartin; Melchior Steele; Bruno)

Raffaele Schiavina, 1920s. Archives Nationales, France.

Born: 1895, San Carlo, Ferrara, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Bookkeeper
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist

Attended an Italian business school until age nineteen and initially a socialist.

Emigrated to the United States in 1913 and became an anarchist the following year. In 1916 he became bookkeeper for Luigi Galleani’s newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva in Lynn, becoming a close associate and contributor. Arrested in 1916 for inciting to riot but acquitted, he was arrested again in 1918 for refusing draft registration and sentenced to one year in the Middlesex County House of Correction. Upon release in March 1919 he was detained for deportation and described by a federal judge as “one of the most dangerous men with whom he has had to deal.” Deported to Italy June 24, 1919, with Galleani and other associates.

Back in Italy he was briefly jailed for draft evasion, then settled in Turin, where he helped revive Cronaca Sovversiva (January–October 1920) until it was suppressed. Arrested in 1921 alongside several Communists and falsely accused of leading Turin’s paramilitary Arditi del Popolo sections, but all defendants were acquitted. In March 1923 he emigrated illegally to France; in Paris he published the anarchist newspapers Il Monito and La Difesa per Sacco e Vanzetti.

He returned clandestinely to the United States in 1928 under various pseudonyms and edited the anarchist paper L’Adunata dei Refrattari in New York and New Jersey from 1928 until 1971. He died in Salt Lake City in 1987.

Sources: INS file 54391/81; CPC busta 4690; Max Sartin, “Breve autobiografia,” Bollettino Archivio G. Pinelli, no. 13 (August 1999); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani.

Andrew Schkurski (or Schkursky; Shkursky)

Born: 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Crane operator
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became a member of the Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party in Milwaukee, serving as its delegate to the party’s City Central Committee. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54809/196.

Adolph Schnabel

Adolph Schnabel, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1882, Kharkiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: German
Occupation: Machinist; sailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

The child of German immigrants to Russia, he participated in socialist organizations in Ukraine during the Russian Revolution of 1905–1907 before emigrating to the United States in 1907.

Married Helena Ring in Philadelphia in 1913 and cofounded the Union of Russian Workers the following year, editing several of its newspapers and serving as national secretary prior to Peter Bianki. Arrested in Chicago in June 1917 for allegedly circulating anti-draft literature, the charge was dismissed for lack of evidence. He was later arrested in Duquesne, Pennsylvania for holding a street meeting without a permit. After recovering from influenza in 1919 he was arrested again in New York for deportation; released on bail, he reportedly traveled through New York and New Jersey organizing anarchist clubs. Returned to detention on Ellis Island, he participated in a hunger strike protesting conditions and was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

His wife petitioned to be deported as well, though whether she was is unclear. In Russia Schnabel was active in anarchist organizations in Ukraine before leaving the movement; in 1931 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Arrested in Moscow during the purges in 1937 as an alleged German spy, he was shot in a mass execution.

Sources: INS file 54616/29; Freedom (New York), October–November, 1919; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; https://anarhia.club/forum/viewtopic.php?p=363546; https://ru.openlist.wiki/%D0%A8%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C_%D0%90%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%84_%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87_(1882)

Schwartzwalder to Sergi

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

George Schwartzwalder

Born: 1882, Baden, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; sailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: IWW

George Schwartzwalder migrated repeatedly across Europe in his youth, living in Austria, Russia, and Italy before returning to Germany, where he served three years in the army and later worked as a sailor between Germany and Argentina.

Immigrated to the United States in 1910 and lived as a migrant laborer. Although sympathetic to the Industrial Workers of the World since 1915, he formally joined the organization only in December 1918 in Kansas City. He was also a personal friend of Joe Hill. Classified as an “enemy alien” during World War I, he was arrested in Bartlesville in February 1919 and interrogated for five hours before being released, then arrested again the following month in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he lost thirty to forty pounds in unsanitary jail conditions. He told officials he hated the Kaiser because “he represented the capitalist class in Germany” and declared “he would not fight for any country, that he felt no patriotism for any country.” Deported to Germany January 7, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54616/107; FBI files OG 211405 and 346328.

Stepan Schwetz (a.k.a. Stephen; Shvets; Shoetz)

Schwetz’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: c. 1885, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: .
Occupation: Tailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Jumped ship in the United States in 1913 from the steamship Czar. Settling in Baltimore, he married and joined the Russian Branch of the Socialist Party before transferring into the Communist Party of America. Deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54810/337.

George Sechke (or Sechko)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America in New York City. He was deported to Russia December 23, 1920. No further information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920.

Vasily Sedov (a.k.a. Vasil Sedoff)

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

Already a radical in Russia before emigrating.

His wife and child remained in Russia when he emigrated. He became a member of the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle. Deported to Russia January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/408; FBI file OG 386687.

Mike Seegan (a.k.a. Semon; Michael Seegunoff)

Born: 1889, Orlovo, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Carpenter; machinist; upholsterer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York City in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/113.

Feodor Semenchuk (a.k.a. Frank)

Born: 1895, Grodno Governorate, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: .
Occupation: Factory worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became secretary of Russian Branch No. 6 of the Communist Party in Argo. Arrested in Chicago in January 1920, he was deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/596; FBI file OG 375725.

Andy Sereck (a.k.a. Andrew; Sirik; Savick)

Born: 1885, Vilna Governorate, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Metalworker
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1916
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers (alleged)

Emigrated first to Canada in 1913 and then to the United States in 1916, leaving a wife and child in Russia. Authorities claimed he admitted joining the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown in August 1919, though he later denied this. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the basis of his stated belief in “sabotage” abroad on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/185.

Alexander Serevetnik

Born: 1892, “Village of Rodzehov,” Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

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

Sources: INS file 54709/411.

Ivan Sergeyenko (a.k.a. John)

Born: 1888, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Donora, Pennsylvania. Allegedly betrayed by former URW member Stefan Zhuk, after Zhuk was arrested in Donora for stealing chickens. (Neither his INS file nor his FBI file confirm this, although he was identified by an undercover Bureau of Investigation agent, Michael Yankovitch.) Found in possession of URW literature when arrested, he was allegedly “beaten half to death” by police. Convicted under Pennsylvania’s sedition law, he was then deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54885/31; FBI file OG 389087; Volna (New York), May 1921 (with thanks to Malcolm Archibald).

Evdokin Sergeychik

Born: 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became a member, and later branch secretary, of the Socialist Party in Pittsburgh before transferring into the Communist Party of America. He was deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/301.

Salvatore Sergi

Born: 1890, Melito di Porto Salvo, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Tailor; barber
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist after immigrating to the U.S. in 1912, subscribing to Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. He opened his own barbershop in Trenton and was arrested in May 1918. Describing himself as a “philosophical anarchist,” he insisted he opposed violence and believed in “educating the people through teaching and preaching and by schools by not by violence.” Deported to Italy June 14, 1919.

Italian authorities recorded no political activity by him through 1936. In 1937 he was jailed for alleged involvement in the murder of a man named Vincenzo Mallamo. In 1968 he donated funds to the anarchist magazine Volontà.

Sources: INS file 54379/326; CPC busta 4759; https://books.google.com/books?id=twZbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22salvatore+Sergi%22+%2B+anarchico&dq=%22salvatore+Sergi%22+%2B+anarchico&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ98D27YHbAhVG-6wKHQJ-AVEQ6AEIKTAA.

Sernaker to Shakman

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Bernard Lazarevich Sernaker (Бернард Лазаревич Сернакер; aka Adolph/Adolff Benet Sernaker)

Born 1884, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Jewish. Machinist. Raised in Orthodox family. Early 1900s joined the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna) and supported Polish independence; 1905 arrested in Warsaw for protesting the Russo-Japanese War and imprisoned for two months. Migrated to Argentina working as a ship’s fireman; studied engineering there. Spoke Polish, Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Spanish, German, and English, as well as some Italian and Chinese. Circa 1907-8 migrated to England; active in anarchist circles in London and Leeds, where me met an unofficially married Jenny/Jennie Cohen, a participant in the 1905 Russian Revolution. 1909 daughter Germain (“Germinal”) born in London; that same year Bernard migrated to US, followed by Jenny and Germaine. Became estranged from Jenny; lived with daughters at the anarchist Stelton colony near New York City; active in anarchist movement in New York. Deeply influenced by Tolstoy and became a pacifist advocate of “nonresistance” as well as a vegetarian. Daughter Harmony born 1912. 1917 joined the Yiddish-speaking anarchist Der Shturem Group as well as the Conscientious Objectors League. Questioned by federal agents November 1918 after making a speech in which he allegedly hailed “a world-wide revolution that will knock in the gates of Ellis Island.” Moved to San Francisco, where arrested pending deportation; while out on bail, an active member of the “San Francisco Soviet of Russian Workers.” Removed to Ellis Island, where he became a leader of protests of detained radicals and was placed in a separate cell after allegedly “endeavoring to incite the other men to violence,” leading other detainees to threaten a hunger strike. Appealed to conservative congressman Albert Johnson, “Would you be so kind as to order my immediate deportation, and get rid of another RED, which I certainly acknowledge to be.” “Voluntarily departed” as a ship’s fireman September 16, 1920. Wife and children remained in US.

In Russia, worked as an engineer at the Moscow Tool Plant (Московского инструментального завода) and an automobile factory; remarried to Sophia Finkelstein and had two more daughters. Not active politically, but known among his coworkers to be an anarchist and privately remained one. 1949, at age 65, sent to the prison camp in Abez for six year for having “subversive” foreign connections. Upon his release in 1956 he reestablished contact with his adult American-born daughters. In Moscow he and his family were treated as pariahs until his death in 1971.

INS file 54517/81; FBI file OG 325661

See also: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, University of Wisconsin, Madison; interviews with Ralph Coppola and Janet Goldner; personal collection of Janet Goldner; https://bessmertnybarak.ru/books/person/1807049/

Kondrate Serovatka (Кондратэ Сероватка; Conrad)

Born 1895, Grodno area, Russia (present-day Belarus). Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1913. 1918 joined the Russian Branch of the Socialist Party of America in Rockford, Illinois; 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Chicago during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Released on bail; joined the breakaway United Communist Party; arrested again August 1920 while posting UCP fliers calling for a general strike against US aid to Poland in the Polish-Soviet War. “Voluntarily departed,” October 16, 1920.

INS file 54859/506; FBI files BS 202600-151-1 and OG 386686

Stanislav Servatka (Станислав Серватка; Stanislaus; Stanley; Serwatka)

Born 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and five children in Russia. Joined the Communist Party of America branch in Passaic, New Jersey. Deported December 23, 1920.

INS file 54810/701; FBI file OG 380377

Vladimir Sestrensky (Владимир Сестренский)

Deported to Russia October 16, 1920. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Nicholai Sevany (Николай Севаны; Nicoli; Savin; Sevin)

Born 1892, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. Laborer. Financial secretary of the Seattle branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54860/474; FBI file OG 386685

Afanasy Severny (Афанасий Северный; Alfamasy; aka Frank Sergin)

Born 1895, Uman, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1918. 1919 secretary of the Philadelphia branch of the Union of Russian Workers. February 1920 arrested in Chester, Pennsylvania “for endeavoring to make a speech advocating the overthrow of this government and all capitalism.” Deported February 26, 1921

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. Transported to the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland); illegally crossed into Poland, where arrested June 2, 1921, and deported to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. He “expressed his indignation” at the conditions in his hometown and was arrested by the Cheka August 24, 1921, and not released until January 6, 1922. Migrated to the Netherlands; from there stowed away on a ship to Canada but discovered and detained for deportation. While out on bail, illegally crossed the border into Detroit, where arrested. Quoted from jail as saying, “If the anarchists, communists and bolshevists in the United States would spend just one week in Russia they would be cured.” 1928 he was living in Ontario, Canada, where he worked as a papermaker and married Annie Areshenkoff. Died June 11, 1960, in Vancouver.

FBI file OG 383729

See also: Free Society (New York), October-November 1921; Detroit Free Press, September 27, 1923; Billings Gazette (Billings MO), October 14 1923; Ancestry.com

Edward Shainfine (Эдвард Шейнфайн)

Born 1896, Russia. Jewish. Salesman. Migrated to US 1913. August 1919 joined the Socialist Party of America in Philadelphia; November 1919 transferred into the First Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America; became branch secretary December 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported February 1, 1921.

INS file 54809/897; FBI file OG 8000-362520

Witte Moses Shakman

Born Odesa, Russia (present-day Ukraine), 1882. Jewish. Migrated to US 1915. Tailor. Former member of the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party in Chicago. Member of the Communist Party of America and then the United Communist Party. Also a member of the IWW and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. Arrested Chicago. Wife (Rachael) and seven-year-old daughter Lucy (born in Paris) in Chicago. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54885/47

Siluch to Sokolovsky

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Ludwig Siluch (Siluh; Siluk)

Born 1897, Dubica, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1914; from there migrated to US 1918. March 1919 joined Branch 37 of the Polish Section of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit; then branch transferred into the Communist Party of America. Detroit. Hamtramck. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” via Canada and Germany, October 14, 1920.

INS file 54859/644; FBI files OG 384187 and BS 202600-772-1

Giuseppe Simeone (Joe; Simone)

Born 1888, Caserta, Italy. Tailor. Claimed, “In Italy I was a republican.” Migrated to US circa 1903. Lived with a cousin in Sommerville, Massachusetts, where he became an anarchist and supporter of Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva (from which he won a bicycle in a 1906 raffle!). Returned to Italy circa 1907 due to illness; served in Italian military. Again migrated to US in 1913. Member of the anarchists Circoli di Studi Sociali in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and continued to support the Cronaca Sovversiva. Also a member and one-time local secretary of a garment workers’ union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Arrested in Boston May, 1918, after his correspondence with Cronaca Sovversiva was confiscated in a federal raid on that newspaper in February 1918. Admitted he was “a socialist anarchist,” but claimed to have only become a radical in 1916. Deported to Italy May 24, 1919.

Upon arrival in Naples June 6 sent to a military prison as a military deserter, then amnestied in 1920. Italian government reported in 1926 that he had “only local influence” in the anarchist movement in Naples, but he also corresponded with Errico Malatesta and subscribed to Malatesta’s Pensiero e Volontà, and visited Malatesta in Elena in July 1925. Placed under surveillance. 1926 emigrated to Canada. 1927-30 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and still active in anarchist movement. 1930s in Brooklyn, subscribing to L’Adunata dei Refrattari. 1935 reported to be living under the name “Gioacchino Simeone” (Gioachino was his middle name).

INS file 54379/316; CPC busta 4815

See also: Cronaca Sovversiva, November 3, 1906

Peter Siniavski (Pete; Siniavsky; Siniawsky)

Born 1897, Chernihiv Oblast, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1913. Steelworker. Member of the Communist Party of America in Pittsburgh. Arrested in Woodlawn, Pennsylvania, January 1920. Described by an immigration agent as being “of a morose, sullen disposition and is one, who, in my judgement, would be capable of doing harm to this country if the opportunity offered.” Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54860/768

Andrew Sinitza

Born 1895, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Factory worker. Employed as an inspector at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. 1917 joined the Socialist Party; 1919 transferred into Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 55009/25

Gabriel Siniza

Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/43

Yakov Sinov (Яков Синов; Jacob Sinoff; Synov; Synoff; Finoff; Zinoff; aka Smith)

Born 1894, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Already a “revolutionist” in Russia. Migrated to US 1915. Carpenter. Member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Trenton, New Jersey. Roommate of Buford deportee Roman Mosichuk. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/255; FBI file OG 379221

Onasin Sivicky (Onasim)

Born 1886, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Member of the Communist Party in Rockford, Illinois. “Voluntary departure” to Russia, October 16, 1920.

INS file 54709/942

Grigori “Harry” Skochuk (Zjuk)

Born 1893, Grondo region, Russia (probably in present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1912. 1917 joined the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives) in Waterbury, Connecticut; circa 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/447

Matfey Skorina (Матфей Скорина; Mike Skorena)

Born 1895 in Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. “Voluntarily departed” to Poland via Canada, October 30, 1920.

INS file 54859/704

Konstantin Skorokod (Константин Скорокод)

Born 1885, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Worked at Jamieson No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 3, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/588

Peter Skrigan

Born 1893, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Wife and child in Detroit. Arrested January 1920 while attending a geography class at a Communist-run night school. Denied Communist membership, but admitted to believing specific Communist doctrines. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/665

Grigori Ivanovich Skrobat (Григорий Иванович Скробат; Gregory; Skrobet)

Born 1895, Osęka, Russia (present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1914. Laborer. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Waterbury, Connecticut. Arrested March 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/374; FBI file OG 385383

Peter Skudney

Born 1891, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Machinist. Employed by Ford Motor Company at Highland Park. Joined the Socialist Party, then Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested Detroit January 1920. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/57

Nikolai Slyvka (Николай Сливка; Nickoli)

Deported to Austria, May 8, 1919.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Andrey Smal (Андрей Смаль; Andy)

Born 1893, Volhynia region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/512

Abram Snikarenko (Абрам Сникаренко; Snicarenko; Sniewrenko)

Born 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party, then September 1919 joined the Communist Party of America in Pittsburgh. Participated in 1919 steel strike. Arrested January 1920. Deported February 26, 1921.

INS file 54860/645

Malakhiya Sokolovsky (Malachia; Sokolofski; Sokolowski)

Born 1892, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. Wife and two children in US. Secretary of Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Denied being an anarchist; admitted to being a communist. Deportation initially deferred because of his family in the US. Deported February 1, 1921.

INS file 54709/110

Solari to Spisak

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Giuseppe Solari

Born 1884, Genoa, Italy. Laborer; carpenter. Migrated to US 1905. Joined brother Giovanni in the US, who paid for his passage and his mother’s. Worked his way up from a pick-and-shovel worker to cabinetmaker; financially supported his mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law, and thirteen nieces and nephews. A close associate of Luigi Galleani, a distributor of anarchist literature, and and the secretary and treasurer of the anarchist Gruppo Autonomo in East Boston. Described by the US government as “one of the leading anarchists in New England” and by Italian authorities as “the deus ex machina of many meetings and conferences held among the subversives” of East Boston. Arrested May 17, 1918, for agitating against the military draft; “it required two automobiles to transport to the Federal Building the immense amount of literature and correspondence that was found in the premises” of his home. Deported June 24, 1919, with Galleani and others.

Under surveillance by the Italian government, which noted that he maintained his anarchist ideas but recorded no radical activities on his part. Died 1937 in Genoa.

INS file 54241/22; CPC busta 4857

Rasmus Jacobson Solen (Robert Solen)

Born Manger, Norway in 1885. Migrated to US 1904. Lumber worker. IWW member since June 1917. December 1917 sentenced to one year and a day in McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary for alleged conspiracy “interfering with fire fighters on Government timber lands” while organizing a strike of timber workers in Clallam County, Washington in July 1917. Deported to Norway October 31, 1918 on charges of being “likely to become a public charge,” of entering the US without inspection, and of being convicted of a crime of “moral turpitude.”

INS file 54554/39

See also: Tacoma Daily Ledger, July 26, 1917; Spokesman-Review (Spokane), December 25, 1917

Peter Solocha (Penataley; Solocho)

Born 1893, Chernigov, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Autoworker. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in early 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54707/243

Fedor Solenki (Федор Соленки; Fred; Solonika)

Born 1896, Volodymyr-Volynsky, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to US circa 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New London, Connecticut circa 1917. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Claims to be illiterate, but in possession of radical literature. According to the Immigration Inspector, “even though his illiteracy or stupidity [should] be taken into consideration, I believe he is very dangerous, because his evidence shows he is easily led, as he admits attempting to secure members for the Union of Russian Workers.” Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/241; FBI file OG 374549

Mike Ivanovich Solovieve (Mike Solovev)

Born c.1890 Pinsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to Canada 1913, then to US December 1919. Wife in Russia. Laborer. Anarchist. Arrest in Toledo, Ohio, January 1920 after arguing with a Russian Communist speaker at a meeting. At his immigration hearing he declared: “I am a citizen of no country now. I have no country. Well, I am a citizen of Russia because I was born there.” Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921.

INS file 54860/926

Karl W. Sonntag (aka John Fensky)

Song lyrics written by Sonntag during an IWW strike at Potlatch Lumber Company in Potlatch, Idaho, 1917
Cartoon drawn by Sonntag

Born 1886, Breslau, Germany (present-day Wrocław, Poland). Polish. Served three years in the German navy. Laborer; machinist. Migrated to US 1908 (deserted ship in Galvaston, Texas). Sonntag was a skilled metalworker who patented a “tire-testing machine” (US patent no. 1068180) in 1913. Joined the IWW in Kansas City, Missouri, 1914; found work as a lumber worker and active in IWW strikes, for which he wrote radical songs. 1917 imprisoned for three months in Idaho for “criminal syndicalism” following his participation in a lumber strike at the Potlatch Lumber Company. Arrested in Walla Walla, Washington, February 8, 1918, after reported by the “Minute Men of Seattle” for unlawfully working within a federally-mandated “prohibited zone” along the waterfront from which Germans and other “enemy aliens” were barred. (Sonntag had secured employment by using the name “John Fesky” and claiming to be Austrian.) Upon discovery of his IWW membership, he was also charged with advocating the unlawful destruction of property, but then interned at Fort Douglas in Utah as an “enemy alien.” There he spent eight months in the disciplinary barracks for singing IWW songs, on what he described as a diet of “bread and water, and finally two leaden bullets in the leg.” Released on the condition that he “voluntarily depart” to Germany, which he did on June 23, 1919.

He expected “to be busy in the so-called German revolution” upon his return, but he “found that I again got badly fooled,” and he subsequently made his way to Soviet Russia. There he found employment at the Felser & Co. factory in Nizhny Novgorod, where his workday was “sixteen hours and more.” After IWW leader William D. Haywood jumped his bail and fled to Russia in 1921, Sonntag, who had known Haywood in the United States, wrote him a letter of welcome, advising, “if this country needs anything it’s organizers and I think you’ll have a hell of a lot of work to do here…Let’s all do your best to make a paradise for workers out of this country.” No further information found.

INS file 54379/116

See also: Lewis S. Gannett, “Americans in Russia,” The Nation, August 17, 1921

Emilio Souto García (Emilio Suoto)

Born Corunna, Spain in 1882. Sailor, carpenter, laborer. An “old time militant of the Spanish labor movement” and twice arrested during strikes in Spain and secretary of the Carpenter’s Union. Wife, Estrella Morales, and five children in Spain. Immigrated to the US in 1916 (jumped ship). Anarchist and IWW member. Arrested in Philadelphia on February 16, 1919 as “one of 11 Spaniards and Mexicans suspected of being radicals and one of 5 later arrested by immigration officials…While admitting that he has friends who are anarchists and socialists, a careful survey of the evidence fails to show that he has in any way been active as a propagandist. He is certified as being afflicted with gonorrhea, a loathsome contagious disease.” He appealed to expedite his deportation, “as my family is without any help in Spain and anxiously waiting for me.” Deportation warrant issued on the basis of being “likely to become a public charge” and entering without inspection. “Reshipped foreign” to Spain September 20, 1919, on the SS Leonora.

INS files 54648/28 and 54648/29

See: New Solidarity, February 14, 1920

Charles Spangberg

Spangberg’s IWW membership card

Born 1887, Sweden. Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1905. Joined the IWW in February 1917. Arrested in Spokane, Washington, April 6, 1918. Deported November 4, 1918. January 1919 wrote to Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson inquiring why he had been deported and when he could be allowed to return to the US; there is no record of a reply being sent.

INS file 54379/235

Andrew Jacob Spisak (aka A.J. Smith)

May Day flier Spisak was posting when arrested

Born 1886, Rozgony, Austria-Hungary (present-day Rozhanovce, Slovakia). Metalworker; sign painter. Migrated to US 1904. 1912 lost his left eye and suffered a skull fracture from a workplace accident. Communist Party of America. Braddock, Pennsylvania. Arrested April 29, 1921 by members of the Edgar Thomson Steel Company’s private police force for posting radical May Day leaflets published by the United Communist Party; convicted of violating Pennsylvania’s sedition law, then turned over to immigration authorities. Released November 1922; detained again June 1923 and held on Ellis Island for seventeen months while awaiting a passport from Czechoslovakia, which was initially denied on the grounds that he had resided outside of Czechoslovakian territory for more than ten years and therefore lost his citizenship. Deported to Czechoslovakia, October 24, 1924.

INS file 54809/601; FBI file BS 202600-1897

See also: Daily Worker, November 15, 1924

Steimer to Stepanov

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Mollie Steimer (Молли Штеймер)

Mollie Steimer, 1919 | Mollie Steimer (1897-1980) began her … | Flickr

Born 1897, Dunaivtsi, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Garment worker. Migrated to US 1912, with parents and four siblings. Began working immediately after arrival, at age 16. Became an anarchist after discovering the writings of Peter Kropotkin; 1917 became a member of New York’s militant Jewish anarchist Shturem Group, which in 1918 became the Frayhayt Group. Arrested, with Hyman Lachowsky, while distributing radical leaflets protesting US intervention in the Russian Civil War on August 23, 1918. While out on bail, arrested eleven more times over eight months, including during a raid on the Union of Russian Workers’ People’s House in New York during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Convicted, with other members of the Frayhayt Group, for violation of the Espionage Act, and sentenced to 15 years in prison; after losing landmark Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States, sentence commuted on the condition of deportation. While detained on Ellis Island awaiting deportation, led a hunger strike to protest her segregation from other detainees. According to a supervisor, “Certainly it would not be safe to put her in a room with other detained females, this by reason of her known activities in spreading the propaganda of anarchism among among women and girls. Most of those detained female aliens will probably be admitted to the United States in due course, and to permit Mollie Steimer to sow the seeds of anarchism among them while they are the wards of the Government would be highly improper.” Deported November 1, 1921.

In Russia, almost immediately involved in aid work for imprisoned anarchists; through this work she met her companion Senya Fleshin, an anarchist who had voluntarily returned from the US in 1917, and together they founded the Society to Help Anarchist Prisoners (with financial aid from comrades in the US). November 1922 both were arrested for this work and sentenced to two years internal exile in Siberia, but released after launching a hunger strike. Both arrested again July 9, 1923, for propagating anarchist ideas. Launched an eight-day hunger strike along with other political prisoners, including several other deportees from the US; Steimer and Fleshin given visas to Germany with the understanding that they would be executed if they returned to Russia, and left September 27, 1923. In Berlin, then after 1924 in Paris, the pair worked with Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and other exiled Russian anarchists to aid radicals imprisoned in Russia. Steimer corresponded with, and was regularly visited by, anarchists from the US and elsewhere. In 1939 Steimer organized aid for refugees from the Spanish Civil War who had been placed in French internment camps; in May 1940, with the Nazi occupation of Paris, Steimer was herself sent to the internment camp in Gurs for seven weeks. After her release, she and Fleshin fled to Mexico, where they were aided by fellow deportees Jacob and Mary Abrams. Active in radical and exile circles in Mexico City, where they befriended Diego Rivera and Spanish anarchist exiles, and Fleshin ran a photography studio. Remained in constant correspondence with anarchists abroad. Steimer died of heart attack July 23, 1980 in Cuernavaca.

INS file 54517/73

See also: Senya Fléchine Papers and Emma Goldman Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam; Rose Pesotta Papers, New York Public Library; International Committee for Political Prisoners, Letters from Russian Prisons; Mollie Steimer: Toda una vida de lucha; Abe Bluestein, ed., Fighters for Anarchism: Mollie Steimer and Senya Fleshin; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Portraits; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech

Sigfrid Stenberg (Siegfried)

Stenberg’s mugshot, 1918

Born 1892, Sweden. Painter; editor. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and daughter in Sweden. Joined the IWW and became business manager of its Swedish-language newspaper Allarm in Minneapolis. Defendant in federal IWW trial 1917-1918; convicted of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to ten years in prison and a $30,000 fine. Sentence commuted on condition of deportation; deported January 13, 1923.

Immediately joined the syndicalist Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC), which he viewed as a direct continuation of his activism on behalf of IWW and “the idea that cannot be downed.” In 1928 he became a journalist for the SAC’s daily newspaper Arbetaren, which he also edited from 1930 to 1940. In addition he served as chairman of Sweden’s Executive Committee of the Newspaper and Printing Federation from 1932 to 1942, and treasurer of the anarcho-syndicalist International Working Men’s Association from 1938 until his death in 1942.

INS file 54616/52

See also: Mark Wyman, Round-Trip to America: The Immigrants Return to Europe, 1880-1930; https://www.sac.se/Om-SAC/Historik/Biografier/Stenberg,-Sigfrid-1892-1942

Anton Stepanov (Антон Степанов; Stepanoff; aka Alex Porfenchuk; Perfenshuck)

Born 1887, Vitebsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Chauffer. Migrated to US 1913. A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo, New York; brother of fellow URW member and deportee Osip Stepanov. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Claimed to be another individual named Alex Porfenchuk, who was born in 1884, Vilna, Russia (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania), who migrated to the US in 1914 and had a wife and three children in Russia. However, witness testimony and documents seized during his arrest, including Anton Stepanov’s passport and a letter from Anton to Osip listing the former’s address under the name of Alex Porfenchuk, strongly indicate that this was a ruse. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/308

See also: Buffalo Courier, December 19, 1919; Buffalo Enquirer, November 22 and December 20, 1919

Osip Stepanov (Осип Степанов; Ossip; Stepanoff; aka Joseph; Joe)

Born 1882, Vitebsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Served in the Russian Army. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Buffalo branch of the Union of Russian Workers in August 1916; served at various times as its treasurer and on various committees. Brother of fellow URW member and deportee Anton Stepanov. Claimed to also belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, and to be illiterate (which is unlikely, given his work as treasurer and the amount of URW literature in his possession). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/309

Veremiuk to Volk

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Ivan Veremiuk (Иван Веремюк; Iwan; John; Vermenuk; Veramanuk; Veremink)

Born 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1911. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Maspeth, Long Island circa 1916; became branch secretary, but apparently left the organization circa 1918. Also a member of the independent Brotherhood of Metal Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 5, 1919, at his workplace in New York. Claimed he was “beaten up” and “treated barbarously.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/117

Juan Villanueva

Born 1889, Paso de Sotos (present-day Villa Hidalgo), Mexico. Train brakeman. Migrated repeatedly between Mexico and the US beginning at least as early at 1913. Wife and son in Mexico. A founding member of anarchist group “Los Errantes” (affiliated with the Partido Liberal Mexicano) in 1913 in Morenci, Arizona. Contributed funds to the PLM newspaper Regeneración. Arrested September 19, 1919, in Tucson. Told authorities: “I do not wish to be deported; I have committed no crime. I am obliged to work to support my family.” Deported December 3, 1919. Crossed back into the US at least twice (in October 1926 and June 1928) seemingly without incident. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/70

See also: Regeneración, April 5, 1913; Ancestry.com

Alexander Vinik (Александр Виник; Alex; Alec)

Born 1887, Udel, Russia. Laborer; miner. 1915 attempted to migrate to US but held at Ellis Island and returned to England due to an eye ailment; later that year migrated to Canada; from there migrated to US in 1916. Wife and child in Russia. Miner at the Bertha Coal Company mine near Morgantown, West Virginia. Joined the IWW there in 1919 and distributed IWW literature. Arrested December 1, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/584; FBI file OG 383880

Demian Vlasov (Демьян Власов; Vlasoff; Wlasof; aka John Vlasoff)

Born 1893, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1912. Machinist. Member of the International Association of Machinists. Organizer and “the moving spirit” of the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers, which he had joined in 1915. 1919 appointed to editorial board of the URW newspaper Rabochy i Krestyanin. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 8, 1919. J. Edgar Hoover described him as “beyond a doubt one of the most hostile, arrogant and pernicious members of the Union of Russian Workers.” He was supposed to have been deported on the Buford, but was not, due to an error. Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.

INS file 54709/104; FBI file OG 369065

Maysey Voleshynyuk

Born 1880, Russia. Ukrainian. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and children in Russia. Member of the United Mine Workers. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 3, 1919. Although the Immigration Inspector in Charge was “inclined to think that the case made out against the alien is somewhat weak,” he was deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/604

Georgiy Volk (Георгий Волк; George; Wolk; aka Wolf or Wolfe)

Born 1886, Grodno region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913 (via Canada). Self-admitted anarchist and proponent of armed revolution. Began attending meetings of the Union of Russian Workers in East Youngstown in January 1918, though he claimed to never have officially joined. Fired from the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company “because he got into a fight through upholding the Bolshevik Government of Russia.” 1919 arrested in East Youngstown for stealing “shirts and other wearing apparel” from a store; sentenced to 30 days and a $50 fine for petty larceny. Police discovered “quantities of radical and anarchist literature” while searching his house. Deported February 26, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI file OG 335403

Wilckens to Yanish

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Kurt Gustav Wilckens (aka Chris Jensen; Gus Jansen)

Born 1886, Bramstedt, Germany. Miner. Migrated to US 1910. 1914 enlisted in the US Army; deserted after six months due to “mis-treatment.” Following several unsuccessful attempts to enter Canada, surrendered to military authorities at St. Louis and was court-martialed; sentenced to a year in military detention at Fort Leavenworth; dishonorably discharged upon his release in November 1916. Around this time he discovered the writings of Leo Tolstoy, became a pacifist and an anarchist, and joined the IWW. June 1917 participated in IWW miners’ strike in Bisbee, Arizona; was one of the 2,000 miners rounded up by vigilantes and “deported” to the New Mexico desert. August 1917 arrested as an “enemy alien” and interned at Fort Douglas, Utah. After several unsuccessful attempts, escaped with a fellow detainee December 24, 1917. Organized for the IWW in Seattle and Colorado (under the name “Chris Jensen”). November 1919 arrested in Silverton, Colorado as an IWW member who “had been making disloyal remarks against the United States Government. Deported to Germany, March 27, 1920. Circa 1921 migrated to Argentina and worked as a dispatcher at port of Buenos Aires. He roomed with Spanish anarchist Diego Abad de Santillán and wrote as correspondent for German anarchist newspapers Alarm and Der Syndikalist. Outraged at the execution of hundreds of striking workers during the Patagonia Rebellion, on January 23, 1923 he assassinated the Colonel responsible, Héctor Benigno Varela, outside of his home. On June 15, 1923, Wilckens was murdered in prison by one of Valera’s former troops; his death led to widespread strikes and protests in Argentina, and his killer was in turn murdered two years later in retaliation.

INS file 54709/612

See also: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Diego Abad de Santillán Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam; Osvaldo Bayer, Rebellion in Patagonia

Harry Wodner (Wadner; Wardner)

Born 1894, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Jewish. Machinist. Migrated to US 1913. Arrested during raid on the Union of Russian Workers’ People’s House in New York during the first Palmer Raids, November 15, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/461

Kronagi Workolf

Born 1896, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus). Steelworker. Migrated to US 1913. February 1919 he helped organize the Monessen, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers, of which he became secretary. Arrested March 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/133; FBI file OG 224794

Maxim Worobey

Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Machinist. Migrated to US 1914. 1919 joined Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested November 28, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/369

Ignac Worobien (Ignace)

Born 1884, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. April 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested November 18, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/403; FBI file OG 380406

Pavel Yakimov (Павел Якимов; Paul; Jacimoff; Jakimov)

Born 1887, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Wife and son in Russia. 1919 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/329

Mikhail Yakovlev (Михаил Яковлев; Mike; Yakovleff)

Born c. 1899, Vologda, Russia. Migrated to US in 1916 (jumped ship from the SS Czar). Sailor. Joined the Russian Branch of the IWW in New York City, of which he became secretary, as well as the Socialist Party and then the Second Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 8, 1920. Declared: “I am a revolutionist…I believe in overthrowing all capitalistic forms of government…I have nothing against deportation to Russia. I love my motherland. I left my relatives there and I am quite willing to go there.” Deported January 22, 1921 on the SS Stockholm.

INS file 54860/597

Mikhail Yanish (Михаил Яниш; Mike)

Born 1889, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and child in Russia. Member of the Monessen, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested November 26, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/521; FBI file OG 378505