Tag Archives: CLP

Faces of the First Red Scare

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 836 (and counting) individual deportees I have identified. This list is a work in progress, and entries are being added updated as I obtain additional information.

Who is included:

This list includes radicals and suspected radicals who were deported between 1918 (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 and Brooke Thompson, 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 photographs of several 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!

Bahruk to Baldenkov

Dimitry Bahruk

Born Russia, 1897. Migrated at unknown date to Detroit. Deported to Russia January 22, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of radical deportees in INS file 54325/36G

Frederick Baker

Born 1881 in Surrey, England. Sustained head injury in 1912 that may have affected his behavior. Drafted into British Army in 1915 but honorably discharged due to “nervous breakdown.” Immigrated to US 1916. Laborer, clerk. Arrested Chicago 1917 for stealing $80 from a neighbor and spent three months in prison. Arrested October 6, 1918 as an IWW member, which he denied (but which is confirmed in other sources). The Bureau of Immigration concluded “this alien is mentally defective,” but “no evidence indicating that the defect is mental insanity.” Deported as “likely to become a public charge,” March 1, 1919 (despite receiving a pension from the British Post Office). Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54552/33

See also: Klasen Kampf, April 1919

Andrei Balash (Андрей Балаш, Andrew Balucz)

Born Vilna region, Russia, 1886. Migrated to US 1913. Joined URW in New Haven, CT, 1919. Arrested Ansonia, CT November 1919; trove of Russian-language anarchist literature found in his room. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/320

Giovanni Baldazzi (John Baldazzi; Baldazza)

Born 1883, Imola, Italy. Printer, electrician, labor organizer. Anarchist by 1903; wrote for several anarchist newspapers; proponent of general strike; arrested multiple times in Italy for strike activity. 1906 disillusioned with labor movement and turned to individualist anarchism. 1907-1910 migrated between England, France, and Italy as a sale representative. 1912 expelled from France to Italy, where again involved in labor and strike activity. 1914 collaborated on Utopia, a pro-war, syndicalist-leaning paper edited by Benito Mussolini. Migrated to US late 1914. Joined IWW upon arrival; organizer and lecturer for IWW’s Bakers’ Union (New York), editor and contributor to IWW paper Il Proletario. Arrested Old Forge, PA July 1917 for “pernicious activities” as labor organizer and opposing conscription; defendant at IWW federal trial, sentenced to ten years and $30,000 fine. Sentence commuted on condition of deportation; deported 1922. In Rome quickly gravitated toward Fascism; worked for Fascist Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro and newspaper La Stirpe, founded by fellow Wobbly-turned-Fascist Edmondo Rossoni. 1931-1936 employed as translator for Italian National Olympic Committee. 1935, however, placed under government surveillance and reported to privately be “intimately hostile to Fascism.” Died 1940.

INS file 54235/39; CPC busta 268

See also http://www.bfscollezionidigitali.org/entita/12935-baldazzi-giovanni/

Ivan G. Baldenkov (Baldenkoff)

Born 1895, Zvenyhorodka, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Bookkeeper, salesman, journalist. Migrated to US 1912. Joined URW in Newark, 1915; joined IWW 1919; also joined Syracuse, NY branch of Communist Labor Party. Organizer for IWW and literary agent for URW. Arrested 1920; led hunger strike of nine other detained Russian radicals in Cortland County jail demanding expedited deportation. Deported February 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54861/325

Korotkov to Kovalenko

Vasily Korotkov (Василий Коротков; Vasely Krotokoff; Koratkoff; Keratkoff)

Member of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested Seattle, December 1919. Deported February 1, 1921. No further information found.

FBI file OG 389407

Gregory Koroviansky (aka George Karoff)

Born 1891, Russia. Laborer. 1912 migrated to Argentina; 1914 migrated to US. Wife and child in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/145

Anton Korshikov (Антон Коршиков; Tony Korscheikoff; Korschikoff)

Born 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Described himself as “a fugitive from Czarism.” Arrested and beaten while attending arithmetic class at the Union of Russian Workers’ People’s House in New York during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/455

Wacław Kosiorek

Born 1894, Russian Poland. Polish. Laborer. 1914 joined Detroit’s Polish Branch No. 8 of the Socialist Party, which transferred into the Communist Party. Arrested December 29, 1919. “Voluntary departure” to Russia via Canada and England, 1920. No further information found.

INS file 54709/860

Mike Koslick

Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921. No further information found.

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

Logvin Kostevich (Логвин Костевич; Lenohon; aka Louis Kostevich)

Born 1894, Povusk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the “Russian Workmen’s Organization” in Baltimore, 1917; 1919 transferred into Branch No. 2 if the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/420

Gabriel Kosticovitch (Kosticowitsc)

Born 1882, Russia. Migrated to US 1916. Member of Russian Branch No. 3, Communist Party of America, in Detroit. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntary departure” via Canada, October 16, 1920. No further information found.

FBI file 202600-1380-1

Konstantin Koszko

Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 55009/23

Anton Kotiak (Антон Котяк)

Kotiak’s URW membership card

Born 1895, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Drafted into US Army November 1918 but honorably discharged March 1919 at his request as an unnaturalized alien. Joined the Bridgeport, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers circa September 1919. Arrested Hartford, Connecticut during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/386; FBI file OG 389393

Maxwell Kotick (Максвелл Котик; Kotik; Kutick)

Kotick’s Communist Party membership card

Born c. 1890, Russia. Jewish. Widower. Migrated to US 1910. Clerk. Literate in English, Yiddish, Russian, and German. Joined the Socialist Party in 1912, then October 1919 transferred to Philadelphia’s Russian Brach of the Communist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920. Deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

INS file 54810/820; FBI file OG 389320

Dionisiy Ivanovich Koval (Дионисий Иванович Коваль; Daniel Kowal; Danny Cowas)

Born 1884, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; migrated to US 1914. Wife and two children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1919; escaped arrest during Palmer Raids on Russian People’s House in November 1919; relocated to Waterbury, Connecticut, where he joined the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives). Arrested March 1920. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI file OG 384417

Foma Koval (Фома Коваль; Tom; Coval)

Koval’s Communist Party card

Born 1891, Russia. Belarusian (Ruthenian). Migrated to US 1913. Blacksmith. Joined Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Socialist Party, then joined the Communist Party in September 1919. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 554809/438

Fedor Kovalchuk (Федор Ковальчук; Kowalchuk)

Member of the Communist Party of America in Philadelphia. Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921. No further information found.

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

See also: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921

Evgraf Kovalenko (Евграф Коваленко; Efgram; Kovaleko; aka E. Koval)

Born 1885, Russia. Migrated to England 1906, then Germany; 1912 migrated to Canada; from there migrated to US 1917. Wife and two children in Russia. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh, where he was “known by the police department and officers of the Bureau of Investigation as one of the worst radicals in the city.” Arrested May, 1919. Deported on the Buford. At unknown date, sentenced to internal exile (with wife and children) in Omsk region of Siberia.

INS file 54616/176; FBI file OG 8000-360780

See also: https://ru.openlist.wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE_%D0%95%D0%B2%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%84_%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87

Feodosiy Kovalenko (Феодосий Коваленко; Fedisiw Kovalenko; Feodosew; Feodosy; aka Fred Konert)

Born 1892, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1911; then to US 1915. Joined the Union of Russian Workers Branch No. 2 in Detroit in February 1918; distributor of Russian anarchist and IWW publications. Arrested May 1919. Deported January 22, 1921. Appears to have illegally returned to the US, as he was an active member of Detroit’s Dielo Truda Group in 1939, and at that time was considered a “comrade…capable of doing great work of the organizational-educational type in the movement.”

FBI file OG 369234

See also: Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America

Lachowsky to Lebed

Hyman Lachowsky (Chaim)

Born 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Jewish. Bookbinder. Migrated to US 1907. 1917 a member of New York’s militant Jewish anarchist Shturem Group, which in 1918 became the Frayhayt Group. Arrested, with Molly Steimer, while distributing radical leaflets protesting US intervention in the Russian Civil War on August 23, 1918. Beaten while interrogated and convicted, with other members of the group, for violation of the Espionage Act; sentenced to 20 years in prison and a $1,000 fine. October 1919 told 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 in prison and no longer believed in anarchism. Deported November 23, 1921 after losing landmark Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States. Returned to Minsk, where he started a family and stayed out of politics. Reportedly died of natural causes.

INS file 54517/74

See also: 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

Born 1881, Arbroath, Scotland. Baker; oil worker. Migrated to US 1901 or 1902. Joined the IWW in 1911; secretary of Local No. 453 of the Oil Workers’ Industrial Union in Taft, California, 1913, then of IWW mixed locals in Sacramento, 1914-1917. Secretary-Treasurer of the Wheatland Defense Committee 1914-1915, in which role he advocated sabotage; elected to IWW’s General Executive Board 1916. Defendant at federal IWW trial 1917-1918; sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. 1922 sentence commuted in exchange for “voluntary departure” to Scotland; sailed March 31, 1923. Upon arrival he began “attending meetings of various trade unions…persuading them to send protests to President Harding, the Ambassador and the Consul General against the imprisonment of the I.W.W.’s in the United States.” May have traveled to Tampico, Mexico to work in the oil fields in the 1920s; appears to have illegally returned to the US undetected, then returned to Scotland via New York in 1926. 1930s employed as oil worker in the Caribbean; returned to UK 1933. Appears to have dropped out of radical politics; later a diamond prospector in British Guiana and then worked as a runner for a bookmaker in London, where he died circa 1961.

INS file 54616/59; FBI file OG 8000-160053

See also: Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; 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; https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=1518&h=13557765&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=SAX498&_phstart=successSource

Manya Lansky

Born 1898, Pieski, Russia (present-day Belarus). Jewish. Garment worker. Orthodox Jewish parents. Migrated to US 1915 for work. Became an anarchist in New York shortly thereafter. A distributor of the Union of Russian Workers’ paper Golos Truda. Arrested July 4, 1920 en route to a radical picnic in Cleveland. According to the Immigration Inspector in Charge in Cleveland, “she is the most typical of the usual conception of the anarchistic type that one may have occasion to observe.” Regarding Russia, she declared, “I am not in sympathy with the leaders of the Soviets, but am in sympathy with the Russian people.” Deported to Russia February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54885/2

Ivan Lapitsky (John; Lapinsky; Lapitzky)

Born 1893, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to Canada 1913, then US 1917. Dye worker. Member of Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920; denied party membership but then admitted it after shown documents confirming it. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54809/491

Ivan Laposanko (Lapczanko; aka John Lapko)

Born 1890, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer, coal miner, steel worker. Wife in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh in 1914. Delegate to URW convention in New York, January 1919. Arrested in Erie, PA during “May Day Riots” on May 1, 1919. Arrested in Erie again December 12, 1919. Testified: “Yes, I am an anarchist; but I am not the violent anarchist that is pictured in different forms. I am studying the question of Anarchy, as it is something I would like to know, although I am not very much versed in it now.” Deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.

INS file 54709/642

James Larkin (Jim; “Big Jim”)

Born 1876, Liverpool, England. Irish. Laborer; union organizer. Grew up in poverty in Ireland. 1893 joined the Independent Labour Party; 1905 began working as a labor organizer full time for the National Union of Dock Labourers, but expelled 1908; founded Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, influenced by the American IWW; 1912 cofounded the Irish Labour Party and elected to the Dublin city government (but removed after one month). 1913 co-led the dockers’ strike that resulted in the Dublin Lockout with James Connolly, and cofounded the paramilitary Irish Citizen Army. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Socialist Party of America and associated closely with (but did not join) the IWW; lectured across the country and arrested repeatedly. He played a leading role in the SPA’s pro-Bolshevik Left Wing; 1919 expelled from the SPA and joined the new Communist Labor Party. Wished to return to the United Kingdom in 1919, but the British consulate denied his requests for a passport eleven times. Arrested and sentenced to five to ten years under New York’s “criminal anarchy” law; pardoned by Governor Al Smith in 1923; deported April 1923. In Ireland, he formed the Irish Worker League (a Communist Party officially recognized by the Comintern) and became head of the Communist-aligned Worker’s Union of Ireland, a breakaway from the ITGWU. In 1924 he attended Fifth Congress of the Communist International, where he was elected to its executive committee. Soon, however, Larkin and the Soviets fell out with each other. 1927 he was elected to the Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann), but unable to take his seat; 1936 again elected to the Dublin city government; 1937 elected to the Dáil Éireann, but lost reelection the following year. 1941 rejoined the Irish Labour Party; served in the Dáil Éireann 1943-1944. Died 1947.

See: 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?

Ludwig Lau

Deported to Poland September 1, 1920. No further information found.

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

Stefan Lavrichuk (Стефан Лавричук; Lawrichuk; aka Steve Liunsky)

Deported to Russia, October 20, 1920. No further information found.

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

Mikal Lavrinuk (Микал Лавринюк; Michael Lawrinuk; Michail)

Born 1891, Russia. Hotel worker. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York circa 1918; also joined IWW 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/489

Giacamo Lavrio (James; Laverio; Lavero)

Born 1884, Turin, Italy. Miner. Migrated to US 1901 (returned to Italy 1905-1907). Worked in mines throughout the country. Became anarchist in US; supported Cronaca Sovversiva and carried out extensive correspondence with several fellow Italian American anarchists. Arrested in St. Charles, Michigan, May 1919, while on strike. Married widow Maria Perocchetti while on bail; promised to give up his radicalism for her. Deported December 20, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/206

William Lawna (Launa; Lauwa; Lauva; aka Alfred Schmidt)

Born 1886, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia). Locksmith. Migrated to US 1906. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919; allegedly became secretary of its Elizabeth, New Jersey branch and hosted Leon Trotsky in his home during Trotsky’s time in the US, but denied this. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Wife in the US. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/103

Andrey Lazarevich (Андрей Лазаревич; Andrew Lazarewich; Lazarowitz)

Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Alleged member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, although the only evidence 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 groups held in New York in January 1919). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Wife Mary in US. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/347

Maria Lazarevich (Мария Лазаревич; Mary Lazarewich)

Wife of fellow deportee Andrey Lazarewich. Housewife. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Simeon Lebed (Sam)

Born 1893, Novovolynsk, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian (“Little Russian”). Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Communist Party Branch No. 22. Arrested January 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/614

Metcalfe to Miller

Sidney Metcalfe (Sydney)

Born 1893, Leeds, England. Laborer. Migrated to US 1906 (age 13) with family. Became a “hobo” laborer; “I had a thousand different jobs” in the US and Canada. Joined the IWW in 1916 in Salina, Kansas. Served one year in Pierce County (Washington) Jail for refusing to register for the draft–“In my estimation it was just an employers’ edict to go and fight for them.” Arrested in Tacoma, Washington, February 1919 while posting IWW stickers along waterfront. Deported June 21, 1919.

Upon arrival asked if he intended “to carry on I.W.W. propaganda in England;” replied: “Yes, if conditions are no better than they were in America,” but later noted, “the real wobblies I have been deported with, seem to find no outlet for I.W.W. activities [in England].” Became admirer of socialist George Lansbury, and worked as a docker in Liverpool.

INS file 54517/88; FBI file OG 8000-382412

Nicholas Michels

Member of the Communist Labor Party. Deported to Hungary 1921. No further information found.

FBI file OG 381688

Frederik Michkov (Фредерик Мичков; Fred Mechcoff; Michcov; Mihaitch)

Deported to Russia January 22, 1921. No further information found.

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

Kalenik Migura (Kalymnyk)

Born 1885, Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Northampton Heights (present-day Bethlehem), Pennsylvania, and became its secretary. Arrested February 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.

FBI file OG 381865

Anton Mikelaychuk

Deported to Russia February 1, 1921. No further information found.

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

Nikolai Mikhaelov (Николай Михайлов; Nicholas Mihaeloff; Mikeloff; Michaelov; aka Peter Lund; Fritiak)

Born 1893, Petrograd, Russia. Sailor; machinist. 1914 enlisted in British Army; fought in France, where injured and discharged; returned to Russia 1915 and drafted into Russian Army; deserted 1916 and migrated to England, the US, Cuba, and then, in 1917, the US again. (According to another source, however, leader of an anarchist gang that took part in “expropriations” in Petrograd in 1916 and fled to US after two members killed and he was injured in the hand.) Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark; 1919 also joined the IWW. Arrested March 1919; released on bail; expelled from the URW after his common-law wife, Celia Fisher, “had made overtures to the Police of Newark to furnish information.” Nevertheless, he remained “anxious to return to Russia to take part in the over-throw of Lenine [sic] and putting in effect pure anarchy.” Deported on the Buford. Wife and seven-week-old child remained in US and requested to be allowed to leave for Russia.

INS file 54616/106

Grigory Mikhalevich (Григорий Михалевич; Gregory Michaelevitcz; Nicholavitch; Michailevich; Michalkovich)

Born 1886, Russia. Migrated to US 1910. Joined Russian Branch No. 6 of the Communist Party of America in New York. Deported December 23, 1920.

INS file 54859/199

Gavril Mikhnevich (Гаврил Михневич; Hawril Michnewitz; Michniewich; Gavrilo)

Mikhnevich’s URW membership card

Born 1886, Kremno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut in August 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/421

Julius Miller (Юлиус Миллер)

Born 1894, Dvinsk, Russia (present-day Latvia). Migrated to US 1915. Laborer. IWW member and delegate. Arrested Detroit, January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. While on bail moved to Cleveland, where arrested September 8, 1920 for distributing IWW literature. Held in the county jail for more than a year; immigration inspector reported he “has been in the county jail a long time and complains that his health is breaking down on account of the confinement and he looks very bad physically.” Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54860/32

Samuel Miller (Sholem Melamed; Schulim)

Born 1897, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. IWW; anarchist. Employee of Sears, Roebuck and Company. in Chicago. Arrested July 1917. When asked his nationality, replied: “Well, I am international. I don’t belong in any nationality. I am born of Jewish parentage in Russia.” Clarence Darrow acted as his attorney, and unsuccessfully argued that a “philosophical anarchist” and pacifist like Miller did not properly fall under anarchist exclusion laws. Deported December 23, 1920.

INS file 54235/36-A

Walter to Whitehead

Albert Wilhelm Walter (Walters)

Source: Fort Wayne Sentinel, January 5, 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)

Born 1883, London, England. Journalist. Migrated to Canada 1906. Appears to have been involved in socialist politics and journalism in Canada. From there, migrated to US 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 England, February 27, 1918–making him the first known deportee of the Red Scare. Migrated again to Canada, August 1919. Settled in Vancouver, where he joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 213, and in 1921 he became the editor of the B.C. Labour News (1921-22), the official organ of the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council (VTLC), and now opposed the syndicalist One Big Union movement, writing that the labor movement “must not be carried away by dogma” and “lose its power of resistance to organized capital by adopting visionary, idealistic schemes which only end up in the division of the workers.” 1924 editor of the VTLC’s new newspaper The Labour Statesman, which he edited until his death in 1953. He supported the VTLC’s position opposing Asian immigration and political enfranchisement, and also took a strong anti-Communist (but social-democratic) position. 1928 resigned as Local 213’s delegate to the Canadian Labour Party due to increasing Communist influence within it. Ran unsuccessfully as candidate for British Columbia’s social-democratic Independent Labour Party in 1928, 1930, and 1932. Briefly visited the US in 1928 and 1941 on union business, but was debarred from visiting in 1936 due to his former deportation. Elected business agent of the Vancouver Building Trades Council in 1947. Died February 15, 1953.

INS file 54235/57 (file missing); FBI file OG 52458

See also: https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/NWWorker.htm; https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/CoopNews.htm; The Co-operative News, February 21, 1918; Ancestry.com; Ian McDonald, “Class Conflict and Political Factionalism: A History of Local 213 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 1901-1961” (MA Thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1979); The Labour Gazette, March 15, 1953

Gregory Isaakovich Weinstein (Григорий Исаакович Вайнштейн; Grigoriy Isaakovich Vaynshteyn)

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)

See also: New York Tribune, June 22, 1919; Kenneth D. Ackerman, Trotsky in New York, 1917: A Radical on the Eve of Revolution; Todd J. Pfannestiel, Rethinking the Red Scare: The Lusk Committee and New York’s Crusade against Radicalism, 1919-1923; http://documentstalk.com/wp/weinstein-gregory-isaakovich/; http://www.knowbysight.info/VVV/03652.asp; http://theinfounderground.com/smf/index.php?topic=16678.0

Alfred Wesley (Westley)

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