As part of the ongoing research for my book on the global history of immigrant radicals who were deported during America’s First Red Scare, I have posted brief profiles of 835 (and counting) individual deportees I have identified. This list is a work in progress, and entries are being added and updated as I obtain additional information.
Who is included:
This list includes radicals and suspected radicals who were deported between 1917 (following America’s entrance into the First World War) and 1925, when the last of the foreign-born radicals arrested between 1917 and 1920 were expelled, some after serving prison sentences or being interned as “enemy aliens.” It includes both those who were deported by government order and those who were ordered deported but “voluntarily departed” at their own expense with the government’s consent (both categories were included in US government deportation statistics). It does not include those who fled the country to avoid arrest or deportation. It includes both individuals deported for belonging to legally-defined “anarchistic classes,” and others who were suspected of radicalism but deported on other grounds (most commonly for entering the country without inspection or being retroactively deemed “likely to become a public charge” at the time of their entry).
This is not a complete list. In the fiscal years (June-July) 1918-1926, the United States deported 979 aliens as “anarchists,” and an unknown number of additional radical immigrants under other statutes. The largest single group of deportees, composed of 242 alleged radicals (as well as seven unrelated deportees) departed on the USAT Buford on December 21, 1919. However, it appears that no complete list of Red Scare deportees was produced by either the Bureau of Immigration or the Bureau of Investigation. I have instead had to rely on partial lists and mentions of individual cases included in these organizations’ files, congressional testimony, radical publications, newspaper reports, and other sources.
How to use this site:
Profiles have been posted in small batches. They are organized in alphabetical order by last name, followed by alternate spellings and pseudonyms in parentheses. (The Cyrillic spellings of Russian names are generally my best guess; American sources from the era were wildly inconsistent in their spellings of such names. The same is true of the transliteration of Chinese names in the Roman alphabet.) You can also browse the Index of Names.
Birth years are often approximate, usually having been calculated from an individual’s age at the time of their examination by immigration authorities, and some may therefore be off by a year.
You can search by individuals’ nationalities (country of birth and, in some cases, ethnicity [i.e. Jewish, Lithuanian, etc.]) by using the tags above.
Occupations describe the individuals’ employment in the US, not necessarily the work they engaged in before arrival or after their deportation.
Political affiliations represented include the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the anarcho-syndicalist Union of Russian Workers of the United States and Canada (URW); the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM); anarchists unaffiliated with larger organizations; the Communist Party of America (CP); the Communist Labor Party (CLP); the Socialist Party of America (SP); the Socialist Labor Party (SLP); and unaffiliated socialists. You can search by political affiliation by using the tags above.
You may also use the “Search” box at the top of the page to look for individual names, locations, etc.
The main sources used for compiling these profiles are case files from the Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Record Group 85, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC; the Old German Files (OG) and Bureau Section Files (BS) of the Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Record Group 65, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (as digitized at fold3.com); and (for Italians) the Casellario Politico Centrale (CPC), Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome, Italy.
A special thanks to Molly Thacker, Brooke Thompson, and Nargis Azaryun, who photographed hundreds of INS files for me; Malcolm Archibald, who has translated a number of Russian-language sources; D.J. Alperovitz, who has provided sources on IWW members; and the dozens of other archivists, translators, activists, and colleagues who have helped me locate, acquire, and read material from across the globe while undertaking this research.
Finally, if you have additional information about any of the deportees, or spot an error, please contact me!
Born: 1897, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; Socialist Party of America
Migrated to the United States around 1914 and settled in Detroit, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1916. By 1919 he had relocated to Passaic, New Jersey, and briefly joined the Socialist Party while maintaining URW membership. Arrested in Passaic and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54810/845.
Frederick Baker
Born: 1881, Surrey, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Laborer; clerk Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: IWW
Before immigrating, Baker suffered a significant head injury in 1912 that reportedly affected his behavior. Drafted into the British Army in 1915, he received an honorable discharge following a “nervous breakdown.” After immigrating to the United States, he was arrested in Chicago in 1917 for stealing $80 from a neighbor and spent three months in prison. Arrested in October 1918 as an alleged member of the IWW, a charge he denied but is confirmed by other evidence. Immigration authorities deemed him “mentally defective” but not insane. Although he received a pension from the British Post Office, he was nevertheless deported on March 1, 1919 as “likely to become a public charge.”
Sources: INS file 54552/33; Klasen Kampf (New York), April 1919.
Andrei Balash (or Andrew Balucz)
Born: 1886, Vilna region, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1919. Arrested that November in Ansonia, Connecticut, a substantial collection of Russian-language anarchist literature was found in his room. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/320.
Giovanni Baldazzi
Giovanni Baldazzi, 1918. National Archives.
Born: 1883, Imola, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Printer; electrician; labor organizer; editor Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
Active in Italian anarchist circles by 1903, he wrote for several anarchist papers and advocated the general strike. Repeatedly arrested for labor activism, he shifted in 1906 toward individualist anarchism and spent 1907–1910 moving between England, France, and Italy as a sales representative. Expelled from France in 1912, he again engaged in labor struggles in Italy. In 1914 he collaborated on Utopia, a pro-war, syndicalist-leaning newspaper edited by then-socialist Benito Mussolini.
Migrating to the United States later that year, he joined the IWW, became an organizer for its Bakers’ Union in New York, and contributed to (and later edited) the IWW’s Italian-language newspaper Il Proletario. Arrested in Pennsylvania in 1917 for “pernicious activities” and opposition to conscription, he was a defendant in the 1918 federal IWW trial and received a sentence of ten years and a $30,000 fine. His sentence was commuted in 1922 on condition of deportation on February 21, 1922.
Back in Italy, Baldazzi gravitated to Fascist institutions—working for the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro and later the fascist newspaper La Stirpe—though he never joined the National Fascist Party. 1931–1936 employed as a translator for the Italian National Olympic Committee and the Federazione Internazionale dei Tecnici Agricoli. In 1935, however, he was placed under government surveillance as a suspected antifascist. He began advocating for a liberal-democratic renewal in Europe and petitioned unsuccessfully to emigrate to France in 1936. Died in 1940.
Born: 1895, Zvenyhorodka, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Bookkeeper; salesman; journalist Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW; Communist Labor Party
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark in 1915; joined the IWW in 1919; and later joined the Syracuse branch of the Communist Labor Party. Active as an IWW organizer and URW literary agent, he was arrested in 1920. While held in the Cortland County jail, he led a hunger strike of Russian radicals demanding expedited deportation. He was deported to Soviet Russia on February 1, 1921.
Born: c. 1875, Saratov Oblast, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1909 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated. In the U.S. he joined the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Seattle in December 1919 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/526; FBI file OG 389407.
Gregory Koroviansky (a.k.a. George Karoff)
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Argentina 1912; then to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife and child remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54709/145.
Anton Korshikov (a.k.a. Tony Korschikoff)
Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Described himself as “a fugitive from Czarism.” He was arrested and beaten while attending an arithmetic class at the Union of Russian Workers’ People’s House in New York during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/455.
Wacław Kosiorek
Born: 1894, Russian Poland Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined Detroit’s Polish Branch No. 8 of the Socialist Party in 1914, which later transferred into the Communist Party. Arrested December 29, 1919 and “voluntarily departed” on October 16, 1920, traveling to Russia via Canada and England.
Sources: INS file 54709/860.
Mike Koslick
Born: c. 1889, Pyatigorsk, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Weaver Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party in Philadelphia in 1918 and then the city’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party in 1919. Arrested in January 1920, he declared, “I am willing to go back to Russia if the Government will deport me.” Seported on February 1, 1921 aboard the SS Estonia. He was married, though records are unclear whether his wife resided in Russia or the United States.
Sources: INS file 54811/936.
Logvin Kostevich (a.k.a. Lenohon or Louis Kostevich)
Born: 1894, Povusk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the “Russian Workmen’s Organization” in Baltimore in 1917 and transferred in 1919 into Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/420.
Gabriel Kosticovitch (pr Kosticowitsc)
Born: 1882, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he “voluntarily departed” the United States via Canada on October 16, 1920.
Sources: FBI file 202600-1380-1.
Konstantin Koszko
Born: c. 1897, Zasieki, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Butcher; meatpacker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist around 1917 and joined the Anarchist-Communist Groups of the United States and Canada. Arrested in Cleveland in February 1921, he defined anarchism by stating: “An Anarchist is a man who understands the ‘Blood-suckers’ of the world and its parasites, who are a menace to society, and understanding that, no man can be anything else but an Anarchist.” Deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 55009/23.
Anton Kotiak
Anton Kotiak’s URW membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1895, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Drafted into the US Army in November 1918 but honorably discharged in March 1919 at his request as an unnaturalized alien. Around September 1919 he joined the Bridgeport, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Hartford during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/386; FBI file OG 389393.
Maxwell Kotick (a.k.a. Kotik; Kutick)
Maxwell Kotick’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives
Born: c. 1890, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Clerk Migration: Immigrated to US 1910 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A widower who was literate in English, Yiddish, Russian, and German. He joined the Socialist Party in 1912 and transferred in October 1919 to the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Philadelphia. Arrested January 2, 1920, he was deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54810/820; FBI file OG 389320.
Dionisiy Ivanovich Koval (a.k.a. Daniel Kowal; Danny Cowas)
Born: 1884, Lutsk Raion, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1919 and escaped arrest during the Palmer Raids on the Russian People’s House in November of that year. He relocated to Waterbury, Connecticut, where he joined the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives). Arrested in March 1920, he was deported on January 22, 1921. His wife and two children remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54861/332; FBI file OG 384417.
Foma Koval (a.k.a. Tom Coval)
Koval’s Communist Party card. National Archives.
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Blacksmith Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Socialist Party of America, then the Communist Party of America in September 1919. Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Born: 1900, Lachka, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Autoworker Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the Communist Party of America in Philadelphia. He was deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54811/967; Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921.
Evgraf Kovalenko (a.k.a. Efgram; Kovaleko; E. Koval)
Born: 1885, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Migrated to England 1906; then to Germany; then Canada 1912; and finally to US 1917 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and two children remained in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh and was described by local authorities as “one of the worst radicals in the city.” Arrested in May 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21 of that year.
At an unknown later date, he and his family were sentenced to internal Russian exile in the Omsk region of Siberia.
Born: 1892, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1911; then to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Detroit in February 1918 and distributed Russian anarchist and IWW publications. Arrested in May 1919, he was deported January 22, 1921.
He appears to have illegally returned to the United States, where in 1939 he was active in Detroit’s Dielo Truda Group and described as a comrade “capable of doing great work of the organizational-educational type in the movement.”
Sources: INS file 54616/187; FBI file OG 369234; Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America.
Unidentified newspaper clipping, Paul Avrich Collection, Library of Congress.
Born: 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Bookbinder Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: Anarchist
In 1917 Lachowsky joined New York’s militant Jewish anarchist Shturem Group, which became the Frayhayt Group in 1918. On August 23, 1918, he was arrested with Molly Steimer while distributing leaflets protesting US intervention in the Russian Civil War. Beaten during interrogation, he was convicted with other group members under the Espionage Act and sentenced to twenty years in prison and a $1,000 fine. In October 1919 he declared to immigration agents, “I am an alien and an anarchist…I am opposed to all organized government. Not only the Government of the United States but any government…I’m an anarchist and proud of it.” By 1921, however, he had become disillusioned and renounced anarchism. After losing the Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States, he was deported November 23, 1921.
Disillusioned with radicalism, he returned to Minsk, started a family, and stayed out of politics. He reportedly died of natural causes sometime before the Second World War.
Sources: INS file 54517/74; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Charles Lindsay Lambert
Charles Lambert, 1918. National Archives.
Born: 1881, Arbroath, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Baker; oil worker; labor organizer Migration: Immigrated to US 1901 or 1902 Affiliation: IWW
Joined the IWW in 1911 and served as secretary of Local No. 453 of the Oil Workers’ Industrial Union in Taft, California, in 1913, and later as secretary of mixed IWW locals in Sacramento from 1914 to 1917. As Secretary-Treasurer of the Wheatland Defense Committee (1914–1915), he advocated sabotage on behalf of the campaign to free the Wheatland prisoners. Elected to the IWW’s General Executive Board in 1916, he played a key role in the controversial decertification of the IWW’s Domestic Workers’ Industrial Union in Denver. A defendant in the federal IWW trial of 1917–1918, where his writings were used against the union by the prosecution, and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. In 1922 his sentence was commuted in exchange for “voluntary departure” to Britain, and he sailed March 31, 1923.
In Britain he attended trade-union meetings and encouraged protests against the imprisonment of IWW members in the United States. He may have worked in the Tampico oil fields during the 1920s, appears to have illegally reentered the US, then returned to Scotland via New York in 1926. During the 1930s he worked as an oil worker in the Caribbean, returned to the UK in 1933, and later left radical politics, becoming a diamond prospector in British Guiana and then a bookie’s runner (i.e. enforcer) in London, where he died circa 1961.
Sources: INS file 54616/59; FBI file OG 8000-160053; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Jane Little Botkin, The Girl Who Dared to Defy: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver; Richard Brazier, “The Mass I.W.W. Trial of 1918: A Retrospect,” Labor History 7, no. 2 (1966); Eric Thomas Chester, The Wobblies in Their Heyday: The Rise and Destruction of the Industrial Workers of the World during the World War I Era; Eric Thomas Chester, Yours for Industrial Freedom: The Industrial Workers of the World from the Inside; Ancestry.com.
Manya Lansky
Born: 1898, Pieski, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Garment worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Migrated to the United States for work and soon became an anarchist in New York. She distributed the Union of Russian Workers’ paper Golos Truda. Arrested July 4, 1920 en route to a radical picnic in Cleveland, she was described by an immigration inspector as “the most typical of the usual conception of the anarchistic type that one may have occasion to observe.” She stated, “I am not in sympathy with the leaders of the Soviets, but am in sympathy with the Russian people.” Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54885/2.
Ivan Lapitsky (a.k.a. John; Lapinsky; Lapitzky)
Born: 1893, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Dye worker Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1917 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Belonged to Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920, he initially denied Communist Party membership but admitted it after authorities produced documentary proof. Deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/491.
Ivan Laposanko (or Lapczanko; a.k.a. John Lapko)
Born: 1890, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; coal miner; steel worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh in 1914 and served as a delegate to its New York convention in January 1919. Arrested in Erie, Pennsylvania during May Day disturbances on May 1, 1919, and again on December 12, 1919, he testified: “Yes, I am an anarchist; but I am not the violent anarchist that is pictured… I am studying the question of Anarchy.” Deported January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/642.
James Larkin (a.k.a. Jim; “Big Jim”)
James Larkin, 1919. Wikimedia Commons.
Born: 1876, Liverpool, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: Irish Occupation: Laborer; lecturer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Labor Party
Raised in poverty in Ireland, Larkin joined the Independent Labour Party in 1893 and became a full-time organizer for the National Union of Dock Labourers in 1905 before being expelled in 1908. He founded the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, cofounded the Irish Labour Party in 1912, and helped lead the 1913 Dublin Lockout with James Connolly while also founding the Irish Citizen Army.
In the United States he joined the Socialist Party of America, aligned with its pro-Bolshevik Left Wing, and lectured widely, often in conjunction with the IWW. Expelled from the SPA in 1919, he cofounded the Communist Labor Party. Arrested under New York’s criminal anarchy law, sentenced to five to ten years, pardoned by Governor Al Smith in 1923, and deported to England in April 1923, after repeated passport denials by British authorities.
Returning to Ireland he founded the Irish Worker League as the country’s official Communist Party and became head of the Communist-aligned Worker’s Union of Ireland. Attended the Fifth Congress of the Comintern in 1924 and appointed to the Comintern’s Executive Committee.In 1927 he was elected to the Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann) on behalf of the IWL , but unable to take his seat due to an unpaid award for libel against him. He resigned from the Comintern in 1929 and broke with Communism completely in 1932. In 1936 he was elected to the Dublin city government; 1937 elected to the Dáil Éireann as an independent candidate, but lost reelection the following year. In 1941 he rejoined the Irish Labour Party and served in the Dáil Éireann from 1943 to 1944. He died in 1947.
Sources: Emmet O’Connor, “James Larkin in the United States, 1914-23,” Journal of Contemporary History 37, no. 2 (April 2002); Emmet O’Connor, Big Jim Larkin: Hero or Wrecker?
Carl Larson (born Carl Johan Fredrik Larson)
Born: 1885, Upsala, Sweden Nationality: Swedish Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; shoemaker Migration: Migrated to US via Canada 1911 Affiliation: IWW; Communist Labor Party
Joined the IWW in 1912 and the Scandinavian section of the Socialist Party of America in 1917. Arrested May 3, 1918 after denouncing the US government, he was convicted under the Espionage Act in February 1919 and sentenced to one year and a day in Leavenworth. While imprisoned he joined the Communist Labor Party. After his release he served as literature agent for Salt Lake City’s Scandinavian Socialist Club. Arrested again in August 1920, he was deported June 9, 1921.
He reportedly left Sweden in 1924 as a seaman and jumped ship in Canada, returning to the US. On January 7, 1925, the Swedish Communist paper Folkets Dagblad Politiken printed a letter from him about Communist activity in America. In 1932 he was believed to be living in Seattle, and in 1933 authorities received confidential reports that he was in San Francisco under an assumed name and active in the Communist Party.
Sources: INS file 54861/408; FBI file OG 196909; The Toiler, April 2, 1920; One Big Union Monthly, May 1920.
Ludwig Lau
Born: Nationality: Polish Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Poland on September 1, 1920. No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Stefan Lavrichuk (a.k.a. Lawrichuk; Steve Liunsky)
Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Mechanic Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party in Rockford, Illinois, later transferring into the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920, he “voluntarily departed” to Russia via Canada on October 20, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54860/671.
Mikail Lavrinuk (a.k.a. Michael Lawrinuk)
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Hotel worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York around 1918 and the IWW in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/489.
Giacomo Lavrio (a.k.a. James Lavrio)
Giacomo Lavrio, c. 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1884, Turin, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1901 Affiliation: Anarchist
Worked in mines across the United States and became an anarchist there, supporting Cronaca Sovversiva and corresponding extensively with Italian-American anarchists. Briefly returned to Italy from 1905 to 1907. Arrested in St. Charles, Michigan, in May 1919 while participating in a miners’ strike. He married widow Maria Perocchetti while out on bail and promised to abandon radicalism for her. Deported December 20, 1919.
Upon arrival in Italy he was detained for possible draft evasion, after which authorities lost track of him. He died on October 17, 1923 in Turin of unknown causes.
Sources: INS file 54616/206; CPC busta 2781.
William Lawna (or Launa; Lauva; a.k.a. Alfred Schmidt)
Born: 1886, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Locksmith Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and was alleged to have served as secretary of its Elizabeth, New Jersey branch and to have hosted Leon Trotsky in his home, though he denied this claim. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife remained in the United States.
Sources: INS file 54709/103.
Andrey Lazarevich (a.k.a. Andrew Lazarewich or Lazarowitz)
Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, though the only evidence authorities had against him was a membership card for the Executive Committee of the Second Russian All-Colonial Convention of the United States and Canada (a meeting of various leftwing Russian groups held in New York in January 1919). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife Maria and their newborn child were left behind in the US.
Sources: INS file 54709/347.
Maria Lazarevich (née Kott; a.k.a. Mary Lazarewich)
Born: 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
An anarchist since 1917 and member of the URW, Maria Lazarevich was the wife of Buford deportee Andrey Lazarevich. After actively campaigning to be expelled to rejoin her husband, she was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921 along with the couple’s fourteen-month-old child.
Sources: INS file 55009/14.
Simeon Lebed (a.k.a. Sam Lebed)
Born: 1893, Novovolynsk, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party and later Detroit’s Communist Party Branch No. 22. Arrested January 1920, he was deported March 18, 1921.
Born: 1893, Leeds, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: Englsih Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to US 1906 Affiliation: IWW
Migrated to U.S. with his family in 1906, at age thirteen. Became a “hobo” laborer, telling authorities, “I had a thousand different jobs” in the US and Canada. Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1916 in Salina, Kansas. He served a year in Pierce County Jail for refusing draft registration, which he described as “an employers’ edict.” Arrested in Tacoma in February 1919 while posting IWW stickers, he was deported June 21, 1919.
After arrival in England he said he would continue IWW propaganda if conditions were similar to America’s, but later observed there was little outlet for such activity. He became an admirer of George Lansbury and worked as a docker in Liverpool.
Sources: INS file 54517/88; FBI file OG 8000-382412.
Nicholas Michels
Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown Nationality: Hungarian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation: Communist Labor Party
A member of the Communist Labor Party deported to Hungary in 1921. No further information has been found.
Sources: FBI file OG 381688.
Feodor Michkov (a.k.a. Fred Mechcoff; Michcov; Mihaitch)
Born: c. 1888, Moscow, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Previously arrested in Russia for a political offense, Michkov joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York. Arrested February 1920, he admitted anarchist beliefs and opposition to organized government. Deported to Russia January 22, 1921.
Source: INS file 54861/131.
Kalenik Migura (a.k.a. Kalymnyk)
Born: 1885, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the URW branch in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, became its secretary, and was arrested February 1920. Deported January 22, 1921. His wife and child remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54861/75; FBI file OG 381865.
Nikolai Mikhaelov (a.k.a. Nicholas Mihaeloff; Mikeloff; Michaelov; Peter Lund; Fritiak)
Born: 1893, Petrograd, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Sailor; machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1917 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
After fighting in France for the British and Russian armies during the First World War, Mikhaelov migrated across several countries before reaching the US in 1917. (According to another source, however, he was leader of an anarchist gang that took part in “expropriations” in Petrograd in 1916 and fled to the U.S. after two members were killed and he was injured in the hand.) He joined the URW in Newark and also the IWW. Arrested March 1919 and released on bail, he was expelled from the URW after his partner allegedly approached police as an informant. He nonetheless declared his desire to return to Russia to overthrow Lenin and establish “pure anarchy.” Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife and child remained in the US.
Born: Russia, year unknown Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Member of Russian Branch No. 6 of the Communist Party of America in New York. Deported December 23, 1920. No further information has been found.
Source: INS file 54859/199.
Gavril Mikhnevich (a.k.a. Hawril Michnewitz; Michniewich; Harry Grigory)
Mikhnevich’s URW membership card. National Archives.
Gavril Mikhnevich, c. 1920s. B. Ratner, Istoriia Moskovskogo instrumental’nogo zavoda.
Born: 1886, Kremno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Factory worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated. Joined the URW in Hartford in August 1919 and was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
After arrival in Soviet Russia he was one of six deportees who met Lenin seeking financial support. He later worked at the Russian-American Tool Plant and helped form a factory committee there, and appears to have joined the Russian Communist Party.
Source: INS file 54709/421; B. Ratner, Istoriia Moskovskogo instrumental’nogo zavoda.
Julius Miller
Julius Miller, c. 1920. National Archives.
Born: 1894, Dvinsk, Russia (present-day Latvia) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: IWW
An IWW member and delegate, Miller was arrested in Detroit in January 1920. After his release on bail he was arrested again in Cleveland for distributing IWW literature and held for over a year in the county jail, where an immigration inspector reported his health was deteriorating badly. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Source: INS file 54860/32.
Samuel Miller (a.k.a. Sholem Melamed; Schulim)
Born: 1897, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
An employee of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Chicago, as well as an IWW member and anarchist, Miller was arrested in July 1917. When asked his nationality, he replied: “I am international.” His attorney, Clarence Darrow, unsuccessfully argued that as a pacifist “philosophical anarchist” Miller should not fall under the anarchist exclusion laws. Deported December 23, 1920.
Born 1889, Saxony, Germany. Knitter. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and in 1916 elected secretary of the Party’s German Federation. 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America; Indiana State Secretary of the Communist Party beginning November 1919. Deported January 12, 1921. Sent his wife Martha and two US-born daughters to Germany ahead of him. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54859/123; FBI file OG 8000-383588
See also: Fort Wayne Sentinel, January 5, 1920; Garrett Clipper, December 23, 1920
Henry William Watts (Willy; H. W. Watts)
Journalist. Migrated to US from Canada in 1914. Immediately joined the Socialist Party of America in Everett, Washington. January 1915 began writing for the Washington Socialist; February 1915 became its business manager. Continued that role for the paper’s successor, the Northwest Worker, of which he became editor in April 1916. He wrote in support of the IWW and of “collective ownership” (by workers) rather than “state socialism” (i.e. government ownership). Arrested August 1916 for protesting police repression of IWW speakers in Everett. Arrested again April 6, 1917 for libel of local military recruiters; charges dismissed. Arrested once more October 25, 1917 as an alien “anarchist”; released on bail after seven weeks. While in jail, continued as editor of the Northwest Worker and its successor, The Co-operative News. Eventually deported solely on the dubious grounds that he had been “likely to become a public charge” at the time of his entry into the US. Deported to Canada, February 27, 1918–making him the first known deportee of the Red Scare.
INS file 54235/57 (file missing); FBI file OG 52458
Born 1880, Vilna, Russia (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania). Jewish. Statistician; editor. In Russia, “a public school teacher in a Jewish school.” Involved in socialist movement since 1900 (in both the General Jewish Labour Bund and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party); participated in 1905 revolution and befriended Leon Trotsky. December 1905 arrested at Brest-Litovsk and imprisoned, then in 1916 sentenced to four years in Siberia; escaped after ten days and went to France. 1907 migrated from there to Switzerland, where he graduated from the University of Geneva in 1912 with degrees in law and social science. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party of America in New York; 1914 became an editor of the socialist newspaper Novy Mir; employed Trotsky as a writer January-March 1917. 1919 cofounded the Communist Labor Party and became general office manager of the (unrecognized) Russian Soviet Government Bureau. Also became an editor of the CLP’s Class Struggle and its short-lived Russian-language paper Pravda. Ordered deported; “voluntarily departed” January 22, 1921. 1922 employed by the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which in 1923 became the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs); served as a Soviet diplomatic representative to Canada, a diplomatic agent in Leningrad, and in 1926-28 worked at the Soviet Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey. 1930s in Moscow became head of the Second Western Department of the USSR People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. August 1939 arrested in Stalin’s purges; executed 1940.
INS file 54810/500 (file missing) and 54810/500A (Exhibits)
Deported to England, June 19, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Albert Whitehead
Born 1867, Leicester, England. Sailor. Migrated to US 1907. 1911 joined the IWW; became a charter member of Sacramento Council of the IWW. Defendant along with 45 other IWW members in federal trail in Sacramento for violating the Espionage Act; engaged with most of the other defendants in a “silent defense” by refusing to participate in the proceedings. Accused of “arson and destruction of property” in connection with fires that had occurred near Fresno. Sentenced to a year in San Francisco County Jail; caught tuberculosis while imprisoned. Deported December 24, 1919. Upon his arrival in Liverpool, he “gave all his cash to poor children,” and apparently joined the Merseyside IWW branch.
INS file 54616/36; FBI file OG 8000-237893
See also: Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959
Bell Wicenski
Born 1899, Hampovica, Croatia, Austria. Listed by immigration athorities as “Croatian, Jugo-Slav,” and gave his “race” as “Croatian.” Immigrated to the US in 1913. Laborer. Unmarried. Empoyed by the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. Joined the Socialist Party c.1918, then Local No. 8 of the Communist Labor Party in Youngstown. Arrested January 1920 and deported on the SS Calabria, September 1, 1920, bound for Yugoslavia via Greece.
