Tag Archives: CP

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

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

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

Shardov to Sheleg

Red Scare Deportees, , , ,

Zachary Shardov (Захарий Шардов; Sharkoff)

Born Minsk Province, Russia (present-day Belarus) c.1896. Migrated to US 1912. Machinist. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut in 1917 or 1918. Arrested January 1920. When interrogated declared, “where there is Government there is no freedom.” Deported to Russia, January 21, 1921.

INS file 54861/83

Nicholas Shattovaloff (Shapovaloff; aka Nich Shap)

Born c.1880, Russia. Migrated to the US in 1907. Machinist (missing part of a finger on his right hand). Lived in Seattle and San Francisco, then Honolulu, HI 1908-1917, then Seattle again. In Hawaii met his companion, a Russian widow named Tina Selznoff, “with whom he lived as man and wife in Honolulu,” and she came back with him to the continental US. During his interrogation, he was asked:

  • Q. Do you believe in polygamy?
  • A. No, one is enough…[S]ince we have no children, I hold this woman as a free woman to act as she pleases…I am single but I have got a wife.

Member of the International Association of Machinists (AFL). Arrested in Seattle. Denied URW membership, but said he believed in the principles of the organization and attended URW meetings. “I believe but I don’t belong. I have been to the meetings lots of times.” “Voluntary departure” to Russia, January 27, 1922.

INS file 54861/49

Stepan Shatuka (Степан Шатука; Stephen)

Born 1888, Mogilev region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. 1918 joined the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. When asked what the URW stood for, replied, “To destroy to the power of the capitalists…By a world wide revolution.” Original warrant for deportation listed Poland as his destination; he successfully petitioned to have it changed to Russia. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/28

John Sheehan

Sheehan’s IWW organizer credentials

Born 1863, Roscommon, Ireland. Construction worker; lumber worker. Migrated to US 1904. 1917 joined the IWW; became an organizer and delegate. Arrested January 1918 in Yakima, Washington. Denied British citizenship, declaring, “I never owed allegiance to England; I was a native of Great Britain in my boyhood, but when I came here I…no longer belonged to that.” Deported February 27, 1919.

INS file 54379/54

Gordei Sheika (George Schaiko, Гордей Шейка)

Born 1883, Streli, Russia (present-day Belarus). Metalworker. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and three children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Also a member of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers and participated in the 1919 steel strike as an employee at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Deported on the Buford.

INS files 54709/546 and 54616/116; FBI file OG 378918

Mikail Sheleg (Микаил Шелег; Shelef)

Born 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Printer. Year of migration to US unknown. Joined the Communist Party of America in Bayonne, New Jersey, 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported December 23, 1920.

See: Morning Post (Camden NJ), December 23, 1920; Ancestry.com

Nestor Mikhailovich Sheleg (Нестор Михайлович Шелег; Nasto; Michaelovich)

Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Employed at Singer Sewing Machine Company. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/393

Shepelov to Shveykus

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Efrem Shepelov (Ефрем Шепелов; Ephraim)

Member of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported December 23, 1920.

Included in lists of deported radicals in FBI file BS 202600-33 and INS file 54325/36G

See also: Butte Daily Bulletin, December 29, 1920

Anton Sheroff (Antone)

Born 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1914. Factory worker. January 1919 joined the Socialist Party; tensferred into Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 4, 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/369; FBI file OG 8000-132475

Walter Sherwen (Wherwan; Wladylaw Czerwonajcio)

Born 1892, Suwałki, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Migrated to US 1913. Carpenter. Member of Detroit’s Polish Branch No. 37 of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/785

Mikhail A. Shinkarenko (Михаил А. Шинкаренко; Misha, Michael; Shinkaroff; Shinkerenko)

Shinkarenko

Born c.1888, Stetsovka, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Involved in Russian Revolution of 1905; sentenced to Siberia with his brother; both escaped 1907 to Canada, then biefly migrated to the US. Returned to the US in 1914. Machinist. Attended the founding convention of the Communist Party of America; became secretary of the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Rockford, Illinois. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 3, 1920. “Voluntarily departed” to Russia, October 30, 1920.

His sister-in-law prevented his letters from Russia from ever reaching his American-born wife; both subsequently remarried. Died 1957.

INS file 54809/94; FBI files OG 370620 and BS 202600-154-1

See also: interview with John Cunningham, April 26, 2021

Trofin Shipuk (Трофин Шипук; Trofim Chepuk)

Born c.1896, Petrograd, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Tailor. Belonged to the Socialist Party of America for about three years before joining the Communist Party. Arrested January 6, 1920 at the New York offices of the Communist magazine Novy Mir; testified that he was beaten by a Justice Department agent prior to his initial examination. Deported December 23, 1920.

INS file 54860/328; FBI file OG 386641

Alexander Shkilnyuk (Александр Шкильнюк; Shkilnuk; Szkilniuk)

Born 1895, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1912 with father; from there migrated to US 1916. Unaffiliated socialist. Registered for draft in Detroit June 1917, but arrested March 1918 in Elgin, Illinois for not carrying his registration card. Returned to Detroit to claim exemption from the draft as an unnaturalized alien, but was detained and (illegally) conscripted; sent to Camp Custer, Michigan, where arrested by military police June 22, 1918 for “disobedience of orders” and (illegally) court-martialed; sentenced to life imprisonment, subsequently reduced to ten years in Fort Leavenworth disciplinary barracks, then released July 1, 1919 but immediately detained for deportation. His admitted belief in socialism did not meet the legal standard for deportation; instead a warrant was issued on the grounds that he was “likely to become a public charge” at the time of his entry to the US—despite the fact that he claimed to have been carrying $400 at the time—because he had subsequently become a military prisoner, regardless of the illegality of his incarceration. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54616/239

See also: Detroit Free Press, June 27, 1918; Kenyon Zimmer, “The Voyage of the Buford: Political Deportations and the Making and Unmaking of America’s First Red Scare,” in Deportation in the Americas: Histories of Exclusion and Resistance

Andrey Shkuraki (Андрей Шкураки; Andrew Schkuraki; Schkruski)

Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

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

Lukoz Shohidko (Lukcz Shoidko; Louis Sedlko; Zhohidko)

Shohidko’s URW membership card

Born 1886, Antosia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1916. Wife and two children in Russia. Joined Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/381

Fred Sholuh

Born 1897, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania). To US 1914. Machinist; chauffeur. Member of the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/654

John Shumavich

Born 1889, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to Canada around 1910, then to US 1915. Laborer. Member of the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party and then of the Communist Party. Arrested in Detroit October 1, 1919; deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54709/83

Mikhail Shveykus (Михаил Швейкус; Mike Shweikus)

Born 1894, Grodno region, Russia (probably in present-day Belarus). Metalworker. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Ansonia, Connecticut. Participated in 1919 strike at American Brass Company in Ansonia. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/324

Siluch to Sokolovsky

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

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

Stalzer to Stechishin

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Franz Stalzer (Frank)

Born 1896, Reinthal, Austria. Machinist. Migrated to US 1913. Worked as a lathe operator in Cleveland; engaged to a domestic worker named Lena Schmuck. Circa 1917 joined the Socialist Party of America. Drafted into the US Army (despite the fact that as an unnaturalized alien he was not eligible for conscription, and had claimed exemption on his registration card, though he cited “no reason”). Trained at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio; arrested by military police February 1918 after it was reported that “he said that if he were sent to the Mexican border [to fight Pancho Villa] he would fire on his own officers and that he otherwise appeared antagonistic to the war,” and that he had two brothers “in the Austrian Army” who he did not wish to shoot (and later stated had been killed by the French). However, he also “expressed his dislike for Germany” and “says he wants the allies to win.” He was interned in the stockades until the end of the war. After his release he transferred into the Communist Party of America. September 1919 took out a declaration of intent to naturalize. Arrested in Cleveland, January 1920, as an alien “anarchist.” Deported to Yugoslavia, January 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI file OG 146923

See also: Chillicothe Gazette, February 28, 1918; Ancestry.com

John Stanger (Ivan Shtanger)

Born 1891, Bohatikiwei, Austria-Hungary (present-day Poland). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1911. Janitor. Caretaker of of the Ukrainian Home in Hamtramck, Michigan that housed Branch No. 56 of the Ukrainian Federation of Communist Party. Member of Branch No. 8 of the Ukrainian Federation of the Communist Party, for which he was a “delegate to the local committee” of the Ukrainian Federation. Wife and four US-born children in Detroit. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54861/191, FBI file OG 386410

Konstantin Stankevich (Константин Станкевич; Konstantine; Contanti; Stankewich; Stankevitz; aka Kostuk Clarensky)

Born 1894, Grodno region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Detroit in 1918. Arrested April 1919 for participating in “disturbance” during a talk by Catherina Breshovsky that was critical of the Bolsheviks. Declared that he “desires to return to Russia.” Contracted tuberculosis while detained on Ellis Island. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/172

See also: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society

Yevgeny Starikevich (Евгений Старикевич; Eugei; Evgenu)

Born 1890, Demenichi, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919, while on strike. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/542

Simon Starovotenko (Симон Старовотенко; Skarowojyuko)

Born 1880, Morozovka, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there to US 1914. Wife and two children in Russia. 1918 joined a Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America in Philadelphia, as well as the Philadelphia branch of the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives). 1919 transferred into a Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54859/904

Feofan Stavishuk (Stauisuski; Alfrance Staveshuke, Alfonso Stavinsky, Jack Stavinsky)

Born c.1892, Katalinka, Volhynia, Russia. Migrated to the US in 1913. Electrician, laborer. Joined the IWW, but quit it in 1917. Member and financial secretary of Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party in Pittsburgh. On February 1, 1917, at Jones and Laughlin iron yard, he was “struck by a sixteen-foot iron bar, on my face and chest,” and hospitalized more than nineteen months and left “crippled” and deformed. According to his own attorney, he was “a man of small stature, thin, yellow, emaciated, with a countenance partially torn away and ‘rubbed off’ as it were by a great iron bar in an accident that occurred some four years prior to the arrest; but a stub of a former nose remains on his fact and two red blotches of skin protrude in the middle of his face and take the place of former lips. He makes a horrible appearance. One’s first impulse, when looking at the man, is to recoil and shudder.” Afterward, he resumed work at same company, but suffered repeated periods of unemployment due to “sickness” resulting from injuries to chest that made hard labor impossible. Arrested in Cleveland in 1920; deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/381

Nikolai Stechishin (Николай Стечишин; Nicholas; Stichishin; Stecsysyn)

Born 1888, Hlesczawa, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (present-day Ukraine). Ruthenian. Miner. Migrated to North America 1908 and became naturalized Canadian citizen. Migrated from Kaslo, British Columbia, to Spokane, Washington in 1913; returned Kaslo and migrated to Spokane again in 1916. Joined the IWW at an unknown date. Arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in March 1920 as part of local authorities’ “attempt to break up the I.W.W. element in the district”; indicted for criminal syndicalism. Deported to Canada September 28, 1920. However, in 1926 he managed to migrate to Alaska from Steward, British Columbia. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS 54325/36G

See also: Ancestry.com; The Spokesman-Review (Spokane WA), March 21 and 24, 1920

Stepanuk to Sulavka

Red Scare Deportees, , , ,

Naum Stepanuk (Наум Степанюк; Nahum; Nailm; Nick; Stepanick)

Mid-Week Pictorial, January 1, 1920

Born 1882, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Brest, Belarus). Miner, laborer. Migrated to US 1909. 1917 became secretary of the Akron, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested November 20, 1917, for leading an effort to organize a strike of Russian rubber workers, but released on bail. Relocated to New York, where he helped edit the URW’s newspaper Khleb i Volia. Arrested again January 1919 and detained on Ellis Island. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54248/20; FBI file OG 372181

Jacob Stl_______uk [last name partially illegible]

His name as it appears in the documents

Deported to Russia, December 11, 1920. No further information found.

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

Gordey Stolatchuk (Gordic)

Born 1890, Volhynia, Russia (probably in present-day Poland). Steelworker. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1916. Wife and child in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Youngstown, Ohio, early 1919. Arrested August 19, 1919; released on bail. Arrested again during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/181; FBI file OG 377413

Tony Stolke

German IWW member. Interned at Fort Douglas, Utah, as an “enemy alien.” Deported September 25, 1919.

One Big Union Monthly, December 1919 and March 1920; Ancestry.com

Karl Strelchuk (Карл Стрелчук; Carl; Strelchuck; Strailchuk)

Born 1897, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Lived in Forth Worth, Texas, Peublo, Colorado, and Chicago before settling in Milwaukee. Secretary of Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party in Milwaukee. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 2, 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54809/203, FBI file OG 378457

Nick Sudnick (Zudnik)

Born Voloka, Vilnius region, Russia (present-day Belarus or Lithuania), 1900. Polish. Migrated to US 1909. Laborer. Joined the Communist Party of America in September 1919. Arrested in Detroit January 1920. Detained at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/733

David Sukhov (Давид Сухов; Suchov; Suhov)

Born 1873, Volynskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. August 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers. Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/394

Estafy Sulavka (Эстафий Сулавка; Istafy; Sulawka; aka E. Dstafy)

Born 1895, Bereza, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to the US 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Ansonia, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/322

Tadzizieg to Targony

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , ,

Yefin Tadzizieg (Tadsixieg; aka Podziziej)

Born 1892, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Brest, Belarus). Belarusian. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Circa 1918 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore, then transferred into Branch No. 4; became the brach treasurer. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/328

Hussein Tagiev (Хусейн Тагиев; Kussin; Gusein; Tagieff; aka Alexander Carson; Hussein Caucasian)

Born 1881, Nakhichevan, Russia (present-day Nakhichevan, Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic). Persian. Laborer; carpenter. Migrated to US 1914. Wife and two children in Russia. He was once hospitalized for six weeks in Newport, Kentucky, after he “fell down in some hot water in the Andrew Steel Co.” 1916 moved to Detroit, where employed as an autoworker and briefly opened a soft drink stand at River View Park. September 1917 joined the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested October 14, 1918 for distributing radical literature at an Armenian coffeehouse. The local U.S. Attorney took a special interest in his case; he ordered all of the confiscated literature destroyed, and paroled Tagiev on the condition that he purchase $100 in Liberty Bonds and cease patronizing Detroit’s “Turkish” coffeehouses—although he was told that since he could not speak Greek, he was free to “go to the Greek coffee houses.” Despite Tagieff’s compliance (which required him to borrow $50 from a friend), he was detained again in February 1919 as an alien anarchist and a person “likely to become a public charge” (after being forced to spend $100!). He was held incommunicado for a week, and immigration agents confiscated “a book in Persian that was 500 years old that he had prized” (likely a Quran or other family heirloom). Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/82

See also: Agnes Inglis Papers, Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan

George Talas

Deported to Hungary, May 8, 1920. No further information found.

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

William Tanner (Karl William Tanner)

Born 1884, Kuopio, Finland. Mechanic. Migrated to Canada 1911; from there migrated to US in 1912 (though he later mistakenly claimed 1914). Became prominent Finnish member of the IWW; wrote for and edited Finnish-language IWW newspaper. Defendant at the federal IWW trial 1917-18; sentenced to five years in prison. An enthusiastic supporter of the Bolshevik Revolution, he apparently joined the Communist Party of America while in Leavenworth Penitentiary, and by 1919 promoted what he called “Bolshevism-IWWism,” or “industrial communism.” July 1922 his sentence was commuted on the condition of deportation. Because the “Government of Finland may raise objections to receiving this man and might refuse to issue a passport,” he was deported to Russia on the grounds that Finland had been a Russian territory at the time of his birth, and because Russia was willing to issue him a passport. Deported October 31, 1922. Upon his departure Tanner declared: “Deported to Soviet Russia, I will continue fighting under the red flag of the workers’ republic for the crushing of world imperialism and for the building of the republic of work. Long live the class solidarity of the proletariat and the red Internationals.” 1923 migrated to Finland. 1925 became a speaker for the Communist-affiliated Suomen Ammattijärjestö (Finnish Trade Union Confederation) and an organizer for the Communists’ Sosialistinen työväen ja pienviljelijöiden vaalijärjestö (Socialist Electoral Organization of Workers and Smallholders ). 1927-1930 a member of the Finnish Parliament, where he “manifested communist orthodoxy.” In late 1930 he returned to the Soviet Union, where he worked for the Comintern. In 1935 he was a lecturer at the International Lenin School and director of a Moscow watch factory; that same year he was arrested as part of Stalin’s purges and sentenced to five years in the gulag at the White Sea-Baltic Canal for “counter-revolutionary activity”; 1937 transferred to the Ukhta-Izhemsk Camp. Released 1940 and died that same year.

INS file 54616/153

See also: Ancestry.com; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Auvo Kostiainen, The Forging of Finnish-American Communism, 1917-1924: A Study in Ethnic Radicalism; Tommi Kippola, “Transnationell syndikalism i ett lokalt rum: Industrial Workers of the World och finländarna i Duluth 1915–1921” https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/169623; https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tanner

Vasiliy Ivanovich Tarasyuk (Василий Иванович Тарасюк; Wasily; Tarasiuk; Tarasiak)

Photo of Tarasyuk and two friends

Born 1891, Kobrinsky Uyezd, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers circa early 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/525

Alex Targony (таргони)

Born 1896, Volhynia region, Russia. Polish. Driver. Migrated to US 1913. Worked as driver for a milk delivery company in Youngstown, Ohio. Political affiliation unknown, but in 1917 he claimed exemption on his draft registration card on the grounds that he would “not fight against brother.” Arrested sometime prior to January 9, 1920. Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.

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

See also: Ancestry.com

Tataranovich to Tori

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , ,

Victor Tataranovich (Виктор Татаранович)

Born 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer; machinist. Migrated to Argentina 1909, then Panama 1912, then to the US 1913. Employed by the Ford Motor Company. 1918 joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America, which in September 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” via Canada, October 16, 1920.

INS file 54859/973, FBI files OG 386338 and BS 202600-710-1

Josef Teichman (Joe; Feichman)

Born 1890, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (present-day Poland). Miner. Migrated to US 1912. Worked in a mine in Vestaburg, Pennsylvania. Joined the Socialist Party of America branch in Vestaburg in 1918; 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Pittsburgh. December 1919 became branch secretary. According to Immigration Inspector in Charge W. W. Sibray, “He is a nice clean-cut appearing fellow and does not impress me as being one who would be implicated in a project against the interest of this government. He does, however, belong to the Communist Party of America and is its secretary, and if it is the policy of the Department [of Labor] to deport persons who belong to that organization, then this man should be deported to the country whence he came.” “Voluntarily departed” to Poland, October 20, 1920.

INS file 54809/281; FBI file OG 386882

Nik Telatitski

Telatitski’s URW membership card

Born 1893, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Brest, Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Union of Russian Workers. Youngstown, Ohio. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/541; FBI file OG 8000-379688

Afanasy Timonatnko

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

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

Jacob Tiomny

Born c. 1892, Minsk Governorate, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Reamer. 1918 joined Socialist Party of America in Baltimore; transferred into Communist Party of America in 1919. Wife and three US-born children in Baltimore. Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921.

INS file 54809/704

Konrad Tkach (Конрад Ткач; Kondrat; Conrad Kachur)

Born c.1888, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Poland). Migrated to the US 1913. Member of the Communist Party of America in Bayonne, New Jersey. Deported to Russia December 23, 1920.

INS file 54810/946

See also: The Morning Post (Camden NJ), December 12, 1920.

Mike Tkach

Born c.1894, Russia. Migrated to US 1914. Steelworker. Member and financial secretary of Pittsburgh local the Communist Party of America. Arrested February 20, 1920. Married after his arrest and petitioned for his new wife to accompany him to Russia. Deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

FBI file OG 8000-193906; INS file 54861/186

Gerasim Tkachuk (Harry; aka Levchenko)

Tkachuk and his family

Born 1893 in Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Laborer; autoworker. Married wife Maria 1913, had three US-born children. Contracted rheumatism as a tunnel worker. Employed at Ford Motor Company and family lived in Hamtramck. Arrested November 7, 1919 in Detroit. Denied being a member of the Union of Russian Workers, but admitted to attending “over 100” radical meetings in Detroit and “lecturing on socialism.” Deported March 18, 1921.

1922 reported to be in New York, having secretly returned as a representative of the Communist International.

INS files 54709/289 and 54709/447

Benjamin (“Benny”) Tobak (Toback; Tabak; aka Benjamin Pasweg)

Born 1898, Austria-Hungary. Printer. Date of migration to the US unknown. Member of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested December 8, 1919, and again in January 1920 and charged with “criminal anarchy.” Refused to answer questions during his immigration hearing. Deported to Austria June 19, 1920.

Illegally returned to the US via Mexico; arrested and in February 1926 sentenced to five months imprisonment in El Paso County Jail. May 1948 the FBI reported that he had been seen in New York City. Further investigation revealed no further information.

INS file 54860/999; FBI file OG 377698

See also: New York Herald, November 3, 1919

Spas Todorov (Спас Тодоров; Sam; Todoroff)

Born 1898, Bulgaria. Construction worker. Migrated to US 1917. 1918 lived in Toledo, Ohio. 1919 joined the Communist Party of America in Buffalo. Arrested December 28, 1919 in Lusk Committee raid on Buffalo’s CP headquarters. Initially indicted for “criminal anarchy,” but then turned over to Immigration authorities for deportation. Deported September 8, 1920.

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

See also: Ancestry.com; Buffalo Courier, December 30, 1919; Buffalo Evening News, January 10, 1920

Nicholas Torbiak (Nick)

Born 1895, Galicia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to the US 1909. Miner. Wife Martha and infant son in Coal Run, Pennsylvania. Member, along with wife, of the Ukrainian Federation Branch No. 59 of the Communist Party, in Coal Run. Involved in 1919 miners’ strike. Martha, pregnant, died in custody along with newborn child. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54885/74; FBI file OG 8000-385816

Iacopo Tori (Jacopo; Jacob; aka Louis Tori)

Born 1892, Montecarlo, Lucca, Italy. Laborer. Migrated to US with his father circa 1907; both returned to Italy circa 1908; Tori again migrated to the US 1909. 1913 became an organizer for the IWW and an active member of its Latin Branch in San Francisco. Arrested September 19, 1916 for “disturbing the peace” while protesting the conviction of Warren Billings. Active in anti-conscription agitation during World War I; in 1917 he hand-wrote a placard displayed at the IWW’s headquarters in South San Francisco reading: ” The clergy and the capitalists want war but they are not going to war. Imitate them!” December 20, 1917 arrested in San Francisco for avoiding the draft (for which he was not legally eligible!); he was in possession of a false passport and allegedly planning to make is way to Tijuana. 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. Sentenced to ten years in Leavenworth Penitentiary. In Leavenworth he was repeatedly disciplined for refusing to do work. August 1919 authorities at Leavenworth confiscated a letter from Tori to his older brother in Italy, reading: “The penal institutions of this rotten bawdy-house, American democracy, will never succeed in keeping in chains within the walls of shame the spirit of good men; this rises above the walls and goes where it will. I am sorry to hear that you are still a solider. I understand very well, though I have not tried it myself, that being a soldier in a monarchy is a dog’s life. Military life is a dog’s life anyway.” Sentence commuted December 1923 on condition of deportation. On eve of their deportations, Tori and two other IWW members “asserted that they will carry on the work of the Industrial Workers of the World when they are released, whether it be in this country or in a foreign land.”

Deported March 29, 1924. Imprisoned in Italy upon arrival for avoiding Italian military service and conscripted into the 79th Infantry Regiment until October 1925. Returned to Montecarlo, where authorities in 1936 reported his “good conduct in general, without giving rise to any kind of political remarks”; he was removed from the Italian government’s list of “subversives” that same year. On August 12, 1944, during the German occupation of Italy, he was seized by Nazis and executed for illegal possession of a handgun.

FBI file OG 110181; CPC busta 5160

See also: Kenyon Zimmer, Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America; Iacopo Tori, Il processo muto di Sacramento, Cal. (1919); St. Joseph Gazette (St. Joseph MI), December 27, 1923; Vasco Ferretti, La Resistenza nel pistoiese e nell’area Tosco-Emiliana (1943-1945): rivisitazione e compendio di una terribile guerra di liberazione, guerra civile e guerra ai civili.

Tranets to Urgel

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Stefan Tranets (Стефан Транец; Tranetz; aka Tronick; S. Trahety)

Born c.1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Member of Philadelphia’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party; previously a member of the Socialist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920. Deported to Russia, February 2, 1921.

INS file 54811/953

Stepan Tretyakov (Степан Третьяков; Stephen Tretiakoff)

Born 1896, Russia. Migrated to US 1914. 1919 joined the Communist Party of America in Passaic. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54810/948; FBI file OG 8000-306384

Nestor Masarev Trubey (Нестор Масарев Трубей)

Born 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1912. Mechanic. Wife in Russia. Member of the Union of Russian Workers; distributed URW newspapers and volunteered as a teacher of Russian, arithmetic, and geography for a Communist-Party-run night school. Arrested in Rockford, Illinois during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920, after being reported to authorities by his suspicious landlady for remarking of the first Palmer Raids, “This is a Hell of a free country.” A large amount of correspondence and URW literature confiscated from his apartment. “Voluntary departure” to Russia via Canada, October 16, 1920.

INS file 54809/111; FBI file OG 8000-320960

Wasili Truchan (Wasilia; William)

Born 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1912. Autoworker. 1918 joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/977; FBI file OG 386370

Vincent George Tryzno

Born 1880, Wojstom, Russia (present-day Belarus). Polish. Tailor. Migrated to US 1899. Joined in Baltimore by his younger sisters Annie and Amelia in 1904 an 1908. 1906 submitted a Declaration of Intent to Naturalize in Baltimore. Onetime IWW member, then member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. 1917 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Baltimore, served as its treasurer. Wife and son (Mary and Vincent) in Baltimore. Deported February 26, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/105; FBI file OG 8000-364025

See also: Ancestry.com

Anton Trzpiot

Born 1888, Zarechye, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Served three years in the Russian Army. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated US 1915 (entered without inspection). 1917 joined the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party of America in Cleveland. Also a member of the Ukrainian Dramatic Club. May 1, 1919, participated in a May Day parade in which he was carrying “a little red flag”; became a “riot” when police dispersed the marchers. Arrested with 27 other Russian radicals identified by Cleveland police and members of the Loyal American League on baseless suspicion of involvement in June 2, 1919 bombing of Mayor Harry L. Davis’s home. Answering immigration inspectors in broken English, he admitted to being a member of the Socialist Party and the “Russian Workers of the World,” which immigration authorities “presumed,” without any supporting evidence, to be the same as the Union of Russian Workers. His first deportation warrant was canceled for insufficient evidence, but he was arrested again November 28, 1919, in possession of copies of the Socialist papers Novy Mir and The Ohio Socialist were confiscated. Although Trzpiot was almost certainly not a member of the URW, this alleged affiliation became the basis for his deportation. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/222

Ortiub Tsubrick

Born 1893, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus). Steelworker. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. 1919 joined and was a “passive member” of the Union of Russian Workers in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Employee of the Pittsburgh Steel Company; participating in the 1919 steel strike when arrested in Greensburg, Pennsylvania during the first Palmer Raids, November 21, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/476

Foma Turka (Фома Турка; aka Tom; Tommie)

Born 1885, Białowieża, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there to US 1914. Wife and daughter in Russia. First joined the Union of Russian Workers in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1916. Rejoined the URW in Newark in 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 11, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/341; FBI file OG 379689

Mike Tymoschavic

Born c.1873, Russia. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and four children in Russia. Laborer. Joined Socialist Party 1919; transferred into Communist Party of America. Arrested Pittsburgh. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

INS file 54861/187

Stanley Ull

Born 1893, Lublin, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1909. Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party of America, then the Communist Party. Arrested in Detroit, January 1920. Declared: “We was arrested for nothing. I was believe before that his country is a good Democracy and I was arrested for nothing. I don’t know I going to believe more or not it is a free and Democratic county.” Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/697

Peter Urgel (Pete; Urgell)

Urgel’s URW membership card

Born 1895, Obrub, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Circa 1917 briefly joined the Socialist Party of America. 1918 joined Branch No 1. of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 11, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Wife, Hedwig/Gadwiga, in Newark.

INS file 54709/351