As part of the ongoing research for my book on the global history of immigrant radicals who were deported during America’s First Red Scare, I have posted brief profiles of 835 (and counting) individual deportees I have identified. This list is a work in progress, and entries are being added and updated as I obtain additional information.
Who is included:
This list includes radicals and suspected radicals who were deported between 1917 (following America’s entrance into the First World War) and 1925, when the last of the foreign-born radicals arrested between 1917 and 1920 were expelled, some after serving prison sentences or being interned as “enemy aliens.” It includes both those who were deported by government order and those who were ordered deported but “voluntarily departed” at their own expense with the government’s consent (both categories were included in US government deportation statistics). It does not include those who fled the country to avoid arrest or deportation. It includes both individuals deported for belonging to legally-defined “anarchistic classes,” and others who were suspected of radicalism but deported on other grounds (most commonly for entering the country without inspection or being retroactively deemed “likely to become a public charge” at the time of their entry).
This is not a complete list. In the fiscal years (June-July) 1918-1926, the United States deported 979 aliens as “anarchists,” and an unknown number of additional radical immigrants under other statutes. The largest single group of deportees, composed of 242 alleged radicals (as well as seven unrelated deportees) departed on the USAT Buford on December 21, 1919. However, it appears that no complete list of Red Scare deportees was produced by either the Bureau of Immigration or the Bureau of Investigation. I have instead had to rely on partial lists and mentions of individual cases included in these organizations’ files, congressional testimony, radical publications, newspaper reports, and other sources.
How to use this site:
Profiles have been posted in small batches. They are organized in alphabetical order by last name, followed by alternate spellings and pseudonyms in parentheses. (The Cyrillic spellings of Russian names are generally my best guess; American sources from the era were wildly inconsistent in their spellings of such names. The same is true of the transliteration of Chinese names in the Roman alphabet.) You can also browse the Index of Names.
Birth years are often approximate, usually having been calculated from an individual’s age at the time of their examination by immigration authorities, and some may therefore be off by a year.
You can search by individuals’ nationalities (country of birth and, in some cases, ethnicity [i.e. Jewish, Lithuanian, etc.]) by using the tags above.
Occupations describe the individuals’ employment in the US, not necessarily the work they engaged in before arrival or after their deportation.
Political affiliations represented include the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the anarcho-syndicalist Union of Russian Workers of the United States and Canada (URW); the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM); anarchists unaffiliated with larger organizations; the Communist Party of America (CP); the Communist Labor Party (CLP); the Socialist Party of America (SP); the Socialist Labor Party (SLP); and unaffiliated socialists. You can search by political affiliation by using the tags above.
You may also use the “Search” box at the top of the page to look for individual names, locations, etc.
The main sources used for compiling these profiles are case files from the Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Record Group 85, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC; the Old German Files (OG) and Bureau Section Files (BS) of the Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Record Group 65, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (as digitized at fold3.com); and (for Italians) the Casellario Politico Centrale (CPC), Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome, Italy.
A special thanks to Molly Thacker, Brooke Thompson, and Nargis Azaryun, who photographed hundreds of INS files for me; Malcolm Archibald, who has translated a number of Russian-language sources; D.J. Alperovitz, who has provided sources on IWW members; and the dozens of other archivists, translators, activists, and colleagues who have helped me locate, acquire, and read material from across the globe while undertaking this research.
Finally, if you have additional information about any of the deportees, or spot an error, please contact me!
Born: Year unknown, Germany Nationality: German Ethnicity: Occupation: Construction worker Migration: Year unknown Affiliation: IWW
Organizer and delegate for the IWW’s Local No. 573 of the Construction Workers’ Industrial Union in Seattle. He refused to register for the draft during the First World War and was arrested in February 1919 during a raid on the Seattle IWW headquarters. Charged with “criminal anarchy,” he declined to answer investigators’ questions. Because of his German nationality, he was interned as an “alien enemy” at Fort Douglas, Utah. He was released on condition of “voluntary repatriation” and deported on June 23, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54616/32; FBI file OG 347754
Charles Ashleigh
Charles Ashleigh, 1918. National Archives.
Born: 1889, London, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English; Jewish Occupation: Clerk; laborer; union organizer; journalist Migration: Immigrated to Argentina 1909; to US 1912 Affiliation: IWW; Communist Party of America
Raised in a middle-class environment, Ashleigh joined the Independent Labour Party at age fifteen, later affiliating with the Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation. He served as a secretary of the Fabian Society from 1908 and was active in the socialist Clarion Scouts. At the behest of the ILP, he organized among South Wales coal miners in 1908–9. In 1909 he moved to Buenos Aires to work as a clerk with the Central Argentine Railroad, founded a Socialist Club there, and wrote for the Buenos Aires Herald. After traveling on foot through Argentina, Chile, and Peru, he worked his way as a crew member to Portland in 1912, then regularized his legal status by crossing between Canada and the United States. He became a paid speaker for the Socialist Party of America, but soon aligned himself with the IWW and became a paid organizer. He traveled extensively as a journalist, wrote poetry, and participated in the Rangel-Cline and Everett defense campaigns. Openly gay, he maintained a romantic relationship with African American radical poet Claude McKay. Arrested in 1917, he was a defendant in the federal IWW trial and received a ten-year sentence and a $30,000 fine. He joined the Communist Party while incarcerated, and his sentence was commuted in 1921 on the condition of his voluntary departure on February 7, 1922.
In London, Ashleigh transferred to the Communist Party of Great Britain and worked for the Sunday Worker, Daily Worker, and TASS. In 1922 he was dispatched to India to deliver invitations to the Fourth Comintern Congress but was detained and expelled by British authorities, yet was able to complete his mission. Later that year, he worked as a translator at the Fourth Comintern Congress in Moscow and was asked to establish an American information section for the Red International of Labor Unions, and moved to Berlin in 1923 to work for the RILU. He was arrested and expelled from Germany shortly thereafter. Published his semi-autobiographical IWW novel The Rambling Kid in 1930. Sent to Moscow in 1931 to write for The Moscow News/Moscow Daily News, he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1934 after being denounced as homosexual by a roommate. He remained a member of the CPGB until his death in 1974, though largely marginalized within it.
Sources: INS file 54235/39-A; Steve Kellerman, “Introduction,” Charles Ashleigh, The Rambling Kid (2004); Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen, and Andrew Flynn, Communists and British Society, 1920-1991 (2007); Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, International Communism and the Spanish Civil War: Solidarity and Suspicion (2015).
Joseph Kyauskas Aukstuolis
Born: c. 1896, Bartninkai, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Deliveryman Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America
Joined the Lithuanian Federation of the Socialist Party of America in December 1913 and remained a member until September 1919, serving as secretary of its Cleveland branch for seven months. Although he claimed Russian citizenship, his deportation warrant was issued for Lithuania. Deported on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/795
Aurelio Vincente Azuara (or Vicente Azuara)
Born: 1884, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; miner Migration: Immigrated to Mexico 1907; to US 1912 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
Migrated to Mexico in 1907 and to the United States in 1912. Joined the IWW in 1913 and became an unofficial organizer. In Los Angeles he edited the unofficial Spanish-language IWW paper El Rebelde (1916–17). Arrested in September 1917, he was a defendant in the federal IWW trial and received a sentence of twenty years and a $10,000 fine. His sentence was commuted on condition of deportation to Spain on March 27, 1923.
Possibly the same Aurelio Vicente Azuara who from Paris requested a visa to visit England on behalf of Spain’s anarcho-syndicalist CNT in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War.
Born: 1864, Turin, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: Anarchist
An orphan and an anarchist, he was expelled from France in 1904 for unclear reasons. He migrated to the United States in 1907 and settled in Spring Valley, Illinois, where he lived with his wife Domenica Cariglio and their adopted son. A supporter of Cronaca Sovversiva, Umanità Nova (Milan), and Alleanza Libertaria (Rome), he was active in local mining strikes. According to Chicago immigration inspector George E. Schubert, Bagaglino was the “actual leader” and “most outspoken” of the Spring Valley anarchists, and “a forcible speaker.” Deported to Italy on March 16, 1921; his wife intended to sell their home and join him.
He continued to correspond with Italian anarchists in the United States. In 1926 he was arrested by fascist authorities for anti-fascist activities and sentenced to several years of mandato al confino (internal exile in a prison colony). He died in Turin in 1936.
Sources: INS file 54885/18; CPC busta 239; Un trentennio di attività anarchica (1915-1945); L’Adunata dei Refrattari, June 6, 1936.
Simon Bagatchuk (a.k.a. Sam Bush)
Born: 1888, Podolsk, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 (via Canada) Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Seattle branch of the Union of Russian Workers in April 1919. Arrested in Seattle on 17 January 1919, and again on 17 November 1919. Deported on February 1, 1921.
Born: 1896, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Employee of Remington Arms Union Metallic Cartridge Company, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In August 1919 he joined the Union of Russian Workers and was arrested the following month in Hartford. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/389.
Ugo Balzano
Born: 1882, Castel di Sangro, Aquila, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Typographer Migration: Immigrated to US 1903 Affiliation: Anarchist
Employed by Cleveland’s mainstream Italian-language newspaper La Voce del Popolo Italiano. Active in anarchist circles, he belonged to the Circolo Studi Sociali di Cleveland, distributed Cronaca Sovversiva, and published the anarchist paper L’Appello (1916–17). deported on July 28, 1919.
Upon his return to Italy he was immediately arrested for draft evasion during the war. Later subscribed to the paper La Frustra, published by fellow deportee Giobbe Sanchini. Balzano died in his hometown in 1926.
Walter Banaczyk’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1901, Słupia, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Automobile worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Migrated to the United States with his mother to rejoin his father. Employed at the Fisher Body plant in Detroit, he joined Branch 37 of the Polish Section of the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in January 1920 at the age of eighteen, he “voluntary departed” to Poland on October 16, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54859/569; FBI files OG 382042 and BS 202600-768-1.
Peter P. Banaitis
Born: 1899, Lithuania Nationality: Lithuanian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Miner; laborer; toolmaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined Branch 37 of the Lithuanian Section of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Chicago in January 1920, he remarked that “as people are thrown in jail here for their beliefs he thinks he will enjoy just as much liberty in his native country.” An immigration inspector described him as “a typical Bolshevik and…more or less intelligent…This individual should be deported by all means as he is manifestly and potentially a bad influence.” He was deported to Lithuania on December 9, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54811/563; FBI file OG 382041.
Daniel Bardaio (or Bardal)
Born: c. 1882, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
First migrated to the United States in 1906, then moved to Canada in 1908, and returned to the U.S. in 1915. Initially a member of the Socialist Party of America, he later joined the First Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America in Philadelphia. Bardaio was deported on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/124.
Moses Baritz
Moses Baritz, c. 1912. Wikimedia Commons.
Born: 1883, Manchester, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: Russian; Jewish Occupation: Musician; journalist Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Socialist Party of Great Britain; Socialist Party of the United States
Born in England to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. A musician and journalist, Baritz became a prominent member of the small and sectarian Socialist Party of Great Britain and gained notoriety as a skilled Marxist debater. He migrated to Canada in 1910, helping found the “impossibilist” Socialist Party of North America in 1911, before returning to Britain in 1914 and then moving to the United States in 1915 to avoid conscription. In Detroit he cofounded the small “impossibilist” Socialist Party of the United States (which eventually became the World Socialist Party of the United States). Arrested in Seattle in 1918 due to mistaken identity—he was erroneously alleged to be a Russian anarchist and IWW member—he was permitted to “reship foreign” as a sailor to Australia on September 10, 1918.
Baritz subsequently debated rival radicals in Australia, was the first person expelled from New Zealand in January 1920 under that country’s Undesirable Immigrants Exclusion Act, was barred from entry to Canada, returned to Australia, and was deported again in 1920. On the voyage to England he was barred from disembarking in Cape Town to deliver a speech, but was allowed to briefly go ashore in Durban. In England he resumed SPGB activities and became a noted music critic, and in 1924 he became Britain’s first radio disc jockey. He died in 1938.
Born: Born 1894, Fontán, A Coruña, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Galician Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
A former member of the IWW’s Marine Oilers, Firemen and Watertenders Union and an active participant in the Spanish anarchist group El Ariete in Niagara Falls, New York. In May 1919 he was arrested with two other members for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the United States government, based on a revolutionary manifesto they were distributing, but the case was dismissed by a judge. He was deported as an anarchist on August 8, 1920.
Reentered the United States on October 4, 1943 via Canada; attempted to gain US citizenship in 1949. June 1955 he returned to Spain, where he died in May 1970.
Sources: INS file 54709/16; FBI files OG 389193 and OG 8000-357909; familysearch.org; La Voz de Galicia, May 23, 1970 (with thanks to Eliseo Fernández Fernández).
Arthur Stanley Cattell (a.k.a. Arthur Kotel/Ketel)
Arthur Cattell’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: Born 1886, London, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Plumber Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A former member of the Socialist Party of America who later served as a member and treasurer of the West Philadelphia branch of the Communist Party of America. He was deported from the United States on September 30, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54811/490; FBI file OG 380747.
Michele Centrone
Michele Centrone, c. 1930s. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.
Born: Born 1879, Puglia, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Carpenter Migration: Immigrated to US 1903 Affiliation: Anarchist
Joined the Socialist Party of Italy in 1897 and gravitated toward anarchism by 1900. After migrating to the United States, he collaborated on anarchist publications in San Francisco, where he belonged to the anarchist Gruppo Volontá, distributed Cronaca Sovversiva, and served as secretary of the Latin Branch of Local 95 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners (AFL). Arrested in 1918, he was deported on March 27, 1920.
Following Mussolini’s rise to power, Centrone unsuccessfully attempted to reenter the United States under a false name in 1922 and was again deported. In 1924 fled Italy to France; arrested and expelled from France 1928. Then lived in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and illegally returned to France 1931. Remained active in antifascist exile networks, including the organization Giustizia e Libertà, and as a correspondent for US anarchist publications. In 1936 he volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War with the anarchist Ascaso Column and was killed in action on August 28, 1936.
Sources: INS file 54379/330; FBI file OG 321621; CPC busta 1243; Mario Gianfrate and Kenyon Zimmer, Michele Centrone, tra vecchio e nuovo mondo: Anarchici pugliesi in difesa della libertà spagnola.
Antonio Cesco (Chesco)
Antonio Cesco, c. 1920s. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.
Born: Born 1882, Bellano, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1904 Affiliation: Anarchist
Not politically radical before emigrating but later became a Socialist Party member and then an individualist anarchist, distributing Cronaca Sovversiva while working as a coal miner in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He was a member of the United Mine Workers and was arrested in May 1918 in Yorkville, Ohio, while hospitalized with a mining injury. Deported on February 7, 1920.
arrested upon arrival in Italy but later amnestied. Subsequently emigrated to Germany and France, settling in Lyon, where he was known for his antifascist views but was not publicly politically active.
Sources: INS file 54379/401; CPC busta 1274.
Boris Cevetsky (or Sckiwitsky)
Born: Born 1885, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanisn Occupation: Dishwasher Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America in early 1919, which subsequently transferred into the Communist Party of America. He was arrested in January 1920, held at Fort Wayne, and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/985.
Yakov Cewook (or Gewook/Tsiwuh)
Born: Born 1886, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and two children remained in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1918. He was deported to Soviet Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Born: Born 1896, Samara, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
A member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the IWW, and lectured for the URW. Arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut, in March 1919, he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for violating the Espionage Act. After his release he continued radical propaganda activity and was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54616/117; FBI file OG 8000-363703; Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America.
George Chernov (or Chernoff)
Born: Born 1893, Kherson, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Mechanic Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Detroit in 1917 and worked at the Ford Motor Company. Arrested at his workplace in November 1919 and deported on January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/285.
Ivan Chernyavsky (or John Cherniawsky)
Chernyavsky’s URW membership card (which he attempted to rip up during his arrest). National Archives.
Born: Born 1894, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Jackson, Michigan, and was arrested in Detroit in October 1918, during which he attempted to destroy his URW membership card. He was deported on January 22, 1921.
He may have been the anarchist Chernyavsky later arrested in Petrograd in 1923.
Sources: INS file 54709/465; FBI file OG 375427; Senya Fleshin Papers, International Institute of Social History.
Born: 1877, Sunderland, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Sailor; baker Migration: Immigrated to US 1897 Affiliation: IWW
Joined the Industrial Workers of the World circa 1909 and became an IWW delegate, organizer, and secretary of its Seattle branch. Arrested “at least five or six times” in connection with IWW activities. As a sailor, traveled to India, China, Japan, Singapore, Samoa, and the Philippines. Arrested in Seattle in July 1918 and deported on June 21, 1919.
Emigrated to Canada, arriving in Quebec on July 5, 1920. Organized on behalf of the IWW’s Martine Transport Workers Industrial Union in Vancouver.
Sources: INS file 54379/503; Ancestry.com; Industrial Worker, November 28, 1923.
Wincenty Dmowski (a.k.a. Vincenty Druowski)
Born: 1885, Russian Poland Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1924 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Arrested in Detroit during the January 1920 Palmer raids as a member of the Communist Party of America. Initially ordered deported to Poland, but later permitted “voluntary departure” to Soviet Russia. Departed October 16, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54709/836.
John W. Dobrinich
Born: 1889, Austria-Hungary (in present-day Croatia) Nationality: Austrian Ethnicity: Croatian Occupation: Coal miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Married with four children remaining in Croatia. Joined the South Slavic Branch of the Socialist Party in Staunton, Illinois in 1916, later becoming secretary of the Benld, Illinois branch. Transferred into the Communist Party. Arrested in Missouri on April 1, 1920. Appealed his case multiple times before being deported to Croatia on April 4, 1925.
Sources: INS file 54861/376; American Labor Year Book, 1926.
Peter Dolgay (or Dolgag; Dowhay)
Born: 1880, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russia Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Metal worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Wife and three children remained in Russia. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio. Arrested in August 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/543.
Victor Dombrowski (a.k.a. Douglas Dombrowski; Dombrivski)
Victor Dombrowski’s Socialist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1871, Telsha, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality/Ethnicity: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1900 Affiliation: IWW; Communist Party of America
Not politically active in Russia. Arrested in Chicago around 1914 and imprisoned for three years for assault with intent to kill. After his release, joined the Socialist Party of America and the IWW (leaving the latter in 1918), then the Communist Party in 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported to Lithuania on May 14, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54809/19; FBI files OG 385518 and OG 388575.
Gerasim Dorosh (a.k.a. Harry Dorosh; Mike Dorash; Mike Smith)
Born: 1893, near Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Wife and child remained in Russia. Joined the URW branch in Ansonia, Connecticut in March 1919 and became branch secretary. Arrested June 1919 and deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS folder 54616/252.
Konstantin Demyanovich Draco
Born: 1888, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Wife and son remained in Russia. Joined the New London, Connecticut URW branch in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/373; FBI file OG 388601.
Sidor Drankovich (a.k.a. Cedar Drankovich)
Born: 1880, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Autoworker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party
Resided in Hamtramck, Michigan. Joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party in 1919, which later became a Communist Party branch. Arrested in January 1920 and detained at Fort Wayne. Deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54589/983.
Dionisy Drichetz (a.k.a. Dennis Drichitz)
Born: Year unknown, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Unknown Migration: Immigration to US year unknown Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Member of the Communist Party of America in Bayonne, New Jersey. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.
Sources: INS folder 54325/36G; The Morning Post (Camden, NJ), December 23, 1920.
Sergey Drigov (or Drigoff)
Born: 1883, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Wife and children remained in Russia. Joined the Seattle URW in April 1919, becoming financial secretary, and joined the IWW in December 1919. Arrested in Seattle in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921 aboard the SS Estonia.
Sources: INS file 54860/473; FBI file OG 388594.
Alexandr Dubarev (or Dubareff)
Born: Year unknown, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigration to US year unknown Affiliation: Unknown
Name included on a government list of deported radicals; deported to Russia on January 27, 1921.
Sources: INS folder 54325/36G.
Ivan Dubov (a.k.a. John Duboff)
Ivan Dubov, 1919. The Globe (Worthington, MN), March 4, 1920.
Born: 1885, Fyodorovka, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Active in Union of Russian Worker branches in McKees Rocks (Pennsylvania), New York, and Detroit. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Declared to authorities: “Of course, I am an anarchist… I do not acknowledge any government.” Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/97; FBI file OG 381656.
Peter Dubovik
Born: c. 1880, Zadworna, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle. Deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/462.
Ivan Dudinsky (a.k.a. John Dudinsky)
Dudinsky’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A former member of the Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America who then joined the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Newark, New Jersey and detained for 101 days while suffering from tuberculosis. Refused to answer questions without legal counsel, which was not provided. Deported December 23, 1920.
Emigrated to from Russia to Canada in 1923 and settled in Quebec. In 1935 sought permission to reenter the US temporarily, which was denied.
Sources: INS file 54810/346; Investigation of Administration of Louis F. Post, Assistant Secretary of Labor: In the Matter of Deportation of Aliens, Hearings, Sixty-sixth Congress, Second Session; Constantine Maria Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920; Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror.
Anton Dudka (a.k.a. Antonio or Tony Dudka)
Born: 1894, Podolsk, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Blacksmith; handyman Migration: Migrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1918 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Chairman of Buffalo’s East Side Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 7, 1920. Denied all allegations. Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/443.
Serge Dukhane
Born: c. 1892, Chernigov, Russia (present-day Chernihiv, Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Tailor Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Socialist Labor Party
Wife and child remained in Russia. Member of the Socialist Labor Party. Arrested in Pittsburgh in January 1920. Affirmed his belief in Communism and Bolshevism but denied membership in the Communist Party. Deported to Russia in February 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/646.
Alex Dulchewski (or Dulchewsky; Dulchavsky)
Born: 1891, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1909 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Member of the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 1920 and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/808.
Michael Dunetz
Born: 1885, Vilensky, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Carpenter Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Carpenter for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, where he also belonged to Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920, detained at Fort Wayne, and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/988.
Wladyslaw Dwanowsky (a.k.a. Walter Jazonski)
Born: c. 1884, Lublin, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Bricklayer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Previously arrested in Russia for taking an unauthorized furlough (presumably from the Russian army). Arrested in Hamtramck, Michigan in January 1920 due to his Communist Party membership; previously detained for distributing radical May Day flyers. Deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/610.
Paul Dyachuk (a.k.a. Pavel Deonesieff)
Born: c. 1882, Kiev, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Boilermaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1903 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the URW in Seattle in 1919. Also a member of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders and Helpers of America. Arrested January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Born: c. 1895, Haverigg, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: IWW
Worked as a miner in Arizona. In July 1917 he was among the striking miners forcibly expelled from Bisbee, Arizona, and abandoned in the New Mexico desert during the “Bisbee Deportation.” In January 1918 he joined the IWW’s Metal Mine Workers Branch 65, Local No. 800, and soon became an organizer. Arrested in May 1918 on a charge of vagrancy, and again later that year in Globe, Arizona, for allegedly violating the Espionage Act, and again in Globe in April 1919. In a confiscated letter, Graves wrote to a friend, “I have been trying to figure our this democracy for a long time but the only answer that I can come to is if you don’t do as I tell you, you must go to the can, therefore I don’t want any more of it, and the sooner they send me back to the lands of the Kings the better.” Deported to England on June 21, 1919.
After deportation, resumed work as a miner in England and married. In 1930 he was recruited work in a copper mine in colonial Rhodesia (present-day Zambia), where he acquired a reputation as a union militant and became a founding member and shop steward of a whites-only Northern Rhodesia Mine Workers’ Union. He returned to England in 1939 after being dismissed from his job, and died in 1966.
Sources: INS file 54616/87; Duncan Money, White Mineworkers on Zambia’s Copperbelt, 1926–1974: In a Class of Their Own.
Pavel Grib (a.k.a. Paul Grib; Greb)
Born: 1887, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Machinist; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers
His wife and two children remained in Russia when he emigrated. In 1919 he joined both the Industrial Workers of the World and the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle, where he became the URW branch’s financial secretary. Arrested on February 7, 1920, at a lumber camp near Ashford, Washington, and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/444; FBI file OG 372555.
Seodor Grigoreko (or Grigorenko)
Born: 1895, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit in 1919, which later transferred en masse into the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Detroit during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/65; FBI file OG 385764.
Nikolai Grishko (a.k.a. Nicholas Hrishco)
Born: 1898, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Steel worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
In 1918 he joined Russian Branch No. 1 of the Socialist Party of America in Baltimore, which later became part of the Communist Party of America. Served as the branch’s recording secretary. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/655; FBI files OG 8000-383428 and 377436.
Alfred Groener
Born: 1898, Germany Nationality: German Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: IWW?
Arrested in Portland, Oregon, in January 1918 while in possession of two IWW pamphlets, though no evidence established that he was actually a member of the organization. Nevertheless, he was interned as an “alien enemy” during World War I and was released on the condition of his voluntary departure on June 29, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54379/80.
Adolph Gross (or Grosse)
Adolph Gross, 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1860, Mainz, Germany Nationality: German Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Farmer; teamster; news vendor Migration: Immigrated to US 1882 Affiliation: Anarchist
Immigrated to the United States in 1882, at the age of twenty-two. An anarchist, he and his wife and seven children lived at the anarchist Home Colony in Washington State from 1903 onward. Around 1918 he opened a newsstand in Tacoma, Washington. In late 1919 he was arrested and sentenced to twenty-eight months at McNeil Island federal prison under the Espionage Act for selling seditious literature, despite the fact that World War I had already ended. In December 1921 he was deported to Germany at age sixty-one, making him the oldest known deportee of the Red Scare (he had two grandchildren at the time). He was not permitted to contact his family prior to deportation and was denied the opportunity to take money or personal belongings with him.
Settled in Hamburg, and in 1922 his daughter reported “it is killing him to live in idleness over there and he says unless he has a few hundred dollars he cannot do anything.” Reportedly died sometime before 1930.
Sources: INS file 54861/406; FBI file OG 8000-381731; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society; The Nation, October 19, 1921.
Janos Grunzweig (a.k.a. John Grunzweig)
Janos Grunzweig, late 1920s. Ancestry.com.
Born: 1900, Schöndorf, Austria-Hungary (present-day Frumușeni, Romania) Nationality: Disputed (formerly Austro-Hungarian) Ethnicity: German Occupation: Cabinetmaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1910 Affiliations: Communist Party of America
Emigrated to the United States in 1910 with his parents and siblings to rejoin his father, settling in Tonawanda, New York. Trained as a cabinetmaker and later joined the Communist Party of America, prompting his father to expel him from the family home. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on May 8, 1920.
Upon arrival in Athens, Greece, he was arrested and jailed for two weeks. Romanian authorities refused him entry because his birthplace was not part of Romania at the time of his birth, and Hungary likewise denied that he was a citizen. After his release, Grunzweig worked odd jobs in Greece for three months before stowing away on a ship bound for Canada.
He disembarked, traveled to Tonawanda, and was arrested again in May 1921. In March 1922 he was released on bail when the government proved unable to deport him. Dubbed “A Man Without a Country” by the American press, he eventually regularized his status and by 1940 had become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Died in Buffalo, New York, in 1984.
Sources: INS file 54811/755; FBI files OG 388225 and BS 202600-1932; Buffalo Times, December 13, 1922; Ancestry.com.
Ivan Gushchia (a.k.a. John Guschia)
Born: Russia, year unknown Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migration to US year unknown Affiliation: Unknown
His name is included on a list of radicals deported to Soviet Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 55110/4.
Martin Gunderson
Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls), September 10, 1918.
Born: c. 1890, Norway Nationality: Norwegian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: IWW
Became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In November 1918 he was indicted alongside fellow IWW member Stanley Brown on federal charges for allegedly mailing phosphorous intended for arson. At trial, Gunderson admitted to having burned down the barn of the Aberdeen chief of police. Convicted and sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment at Leavenworth. Deported to Norway on September 4, 1919.
Sources: Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls), November 15, 1917, September 10, 1918, and August 5, 1919; New Solidarity, September 20, 1919.
Ivan Gushchia (a.k.a. John Gushchia; Gushia; Gushchany)
Ivan Gushchia’s URW membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1897, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Bridgeport, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in September 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/380.
William Gusko (or Jusko)
Born: 1894, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Punch press operator Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated. Worked as a punch press operator in Detroit and joined the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Born: 1895, Pinsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist in New York and was active in the Francisco Ferrer Center. Lived in a common-law marriage with fellow anarchist Jacob Isaacson. After Jacob was ordered deported in 1920, she submitted an affidavit declaring, “I am an anarchist, and a believer and advocate of anarchism,” in order to be deported alongside him. The couple “departed voluntarily” for England on June 20, 1922.
She and Jacob later illegally returned to the United States around 1924 under her maiden name, Denenberg, and she was naturalized in 1940. In interviews conducted in the 1970s, she stated, “Anarchism is a way of life, no matter what your view is of human nature. No authority over you, no slaves under you—that’s the anarchist life.” She died in 1983.
Sources: INS file 54616/202; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Jacob Isaacson (or Itzickson; Jack; a.k.a. Jacob Denenberg)
Born: 1896, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Laborer; locksmith Migration: Immigrated to US 1908 Affiliation: Anarchist
Migrated to the United States with his mother and sister and became active in New York anarchist circles, particularly the Francisco Ferrer Center, where he was known as “the Rabbi” due to his depth of reading knowledge. Helped publish the anarchist periodicals Revolt (1916) and Freedom (1919). Arrested in May 1919 for an antiwar article published in Freedom, which he accepted responsibility for even though he was not its author, and was indicted under the Espionage Act after the war had ended. In 1920 the case was dropped in exchange for a warrant of deportation. While on bail, he edited The Hotel Worker, organ of the syndicalist International Federation of Workers in the Hotel, Restaurant, Lunchroom, Club, and Catering Industry. Departed voluntarily to England in June 1922 with his partner Gussie Denenberg.
Returned to the United States in 1924 via Canada under Gussie’s maiden name and opened a grocery store in Washington, DC. When Gussie applied for naturalization in 1940, his true identity came to the attention of immigration authorities, who repeatedly threatened him with deportation. He died by suicide in 1946.
Sources: INS file 54616/202; FBI file OG 281175; Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: : An Oral History of Anarchism in America; interview with Helen McGee, July 25, 2022.
Andrew Iswashko
Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown Nationality: Austrian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation:
Included on an internal Bureau of Immigration list of radicals deported radicals. Deported to Austria on September 1, 1920. No further biographical information has been found.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
George Ivanov
Born: 1889, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Member of the Communist Party in Bayonne, New Jersey. Deported to Russia on December 23, 1920. No additional biographical information located.
One of the circulars Ivanyuk was distributing when arrested. National Archives.
Born: 1882, Brodna, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Unknown
His wife and child remained in Russia when he emigrated. Arrested in Camden, New Jersey in April 1919 for distributing radical circulars calling for a general strike on May Day to free political prisoners. Arrested again in Philadelphia in November 1919. His precise political affiliation remains unclear. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54616/173.
Dmytro Iwankiw
Born: 1884, Stańkowa, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Salesman; journalist; steelworker; labor spy Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
May have joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917 (he denied this after first attesting to it). Recruited in June 1919 by the Armesworthy and Cavitt Detective Agency on behalf of the Youngstown Sheet & Tool Company to inform on Russian radicals. Joined the Socialist Party and then cofounded East Youngstown Ukrainian Branch No. 32 of the Communist Party, serving as its financial secretary, while reporting to company detectives and federal authorities. Arrested during the November 1919 Palmer Raids but released once his informant role was revealed; arrested again January 1920. Although assured by Department of Justice agent J.F. Sawkin that he would be deported to Russia to allay suspicions and then be allowed to reenter the US, and his bail was paid by the Youngstown Sheet & Tool Company, he was arrested in Youngstown for operated an illegal alcohol still on March 26, 1920. Later claimed he was held in solitary confinement and “starved” for about two weeks to extract an incriminating confession. Spent more than a year in detention on Deer Island, and assaulted by other detainees for being an “agent provocateur” and placed in a separate cell for his own protection. Deported May 19, 1921 and not allowed to return.
Sources: INS file 54860/901; FBI file BS 212986; Sidney Howard and Robert Dunn, The Labor Spy.
Jacob Jackotonsky (a.k.a. Jacknowsky; Jakov Zukatansky)
Born: 1891, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Shoemaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Literate and widely read. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/201.
Herbert Harold Jackson
Born: 1900, Hull, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Sailor; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1917 Affiliation: IWW
Jumped ship to enter the United States and joined the IWW shortly thereafter. Arrested multiple times for IWW activities, including distribution of the IWW Defense Bulletin in Seattle in December 1918. Declared, “My reason for joining the I.W.W. was because I realized that I was not master of my own economic living and that I was opposed to being enslaved in the machine of production. I believe the worker is entitled to all he produces.” Deported on February 27, 1919.
Upon arrival in England, his IWW literature was confiscated and he was placed under surveillance and barred from public speaking. Migrated to Canada in May 1921 intending to return to the United States.
Sources: INS file 54547/15; FBI file OG 347558; Rebel Worker, April 15, 1919.
Born: c. 1898, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
An anarchist and URW member since 1918, Martzin was the wife of fellow deportee Vincent Martzin. She had two children—one aged two years and one six months old—when detained. She was deported to Russia February 26, 1921, taking the children with her.
Sources: INS file 55009/16.
Vincent Martzin
Born: 1893, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Martzin joined the URW in New York in 1916. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919. His pregnant common-law wife Mary and their infant child remained in the United States until Mary’s deportation in 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/276; FBI file OG 378318.
Pietro Marucco
Pietro Marucco, c. 1918. Il Domani, April 1919.
Born: c. 1885, Maggiora, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1905 Affiliation: Anarchist
Joined a brother in Pennsylvania’s coal mines. Both brothers joined the anarchist Demolizione Group in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and supported Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. Pietro was arrested May 20, 1918, and deported February 22, 1919.
Though reportedly in perfect health at departure, he died at sea March 8, 1919. The official cause was “pneumonia following influenza,” and he was buried at sea, though comrades believed he had been killed and vowed revenge.
Sources: INS file 54379/378; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives; Il Diritto, April 1919; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Antonio Senta, Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America.
Born: 1894, Kovno, Russia (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Lumber worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Maskalunas joined the URW in 1916 and the IWW in 1917. Arrested January 1918 in Seattle while inquiring at a US immigration office about a detained friend, he was held without hearing for three months and then transferred to jail in Ellensburg, Washington, where he was finally examined. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54379/101.
Bartolomeo Massullo
Bartolomeo Massullo, 1917. Knoxville Sentinel, December 12, 1917.
Born: 1881, Bagnoli, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Anarchist
Already an anarchist before emigrating, Massullo had a wife and three children in Italy. In Seattle he joined the Circolo di Studi Sociali, distributed Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva, and corresponded with the movement’s leading figures. Arrested November 1917, he provided names and addresses of Circolo members under interrogation. Deported July 10, 1919.
Italian authorities later reported no radical activity, though he secretly continued reading and fundraising for anarchist publications. In 1923 he emigrated to Canada, then illegally reentered the United States in 1929 and settled in Hayward, California, where he was no longer politically active.
Sources: INS file 54616/19; CPC busta 3143; Gianfranco Cresciani, “Exploitation, Emigration and Anarchism: the Case of Isidoro Alessandro Bertazzon,” Altreitalie no. 46 (January-June 2013); Giuseppe Galzerano, Andrea Salsedo: vita, galera e morte dell’editore anarchico “suicidato” dalla polizia americana; La Frusta, July 1, 1922; Ancestry.com.
Filimon Matera (a.k.a. William; Molorik)
Born: 1881, Chernihiv Oblast, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Active in revolutionary movements in Russia since 1905.
In the United States he joined both the URW and IWW in Seattle. His wife and children remained in Russia. Arrested January 1920, he was deported to Russia February 2, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/420.
Pavel Matesky (a.k.a. Paul)
Born: c. 1889, Mogiliev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Weaver Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Joined the URW in Waterbury, Connecticut in October 1917 and later became secretary of the Montville branch. Also an IWW member. He admitted being an anarchist and advocating the overthrow of governments by force and violence. Arrested January 19, 1920, he was deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54861/11.
Elia Matuska
Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Matuska joined the Socialist Party and later became a charter member of Chicago’s Karl Marx Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party, serving as branch librarian. He was deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/4.
James Maundeloe
Born: 1895, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; butcher Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Greensburg, Pennsylvania URW branch in 1919 but claimed he was expelled after briefly becoming a butcher-shop owner. He participated in the 1919 strike at the American Sheet and Tinplate Company. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/431.
Donald McPherson (a.k.a. Edgar Dunn)
Born: 1898, Leeds, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Sailor Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: IWW
McPherson joined the IWW around 1915. Arrested September 9, 1918 in Seattle, he stated when asked about the Soviet government: “It is all right.” At a later immigration hearing he refused to answer questions. He was deported July 12, 1919.
Born: 1893, Leeds, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: Englsih Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to US 1906 Affiliation: IWW
Migrated to U.S. with his family in 1906, at age thirteen. Became a “hobo” laborer, telling authorities, “I had a thousand different jobs” in the US and Canada. Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1916 in Salina, Kansas. He served a year in Pierce County Jail for refusing draft registration, which he described as “an employers’ edict.” Arrested in Tacoma in February 1919 while posting IWW stickers, he was deported June 21, 1919.
After arrival in England he said he would continue IWW propaganda if conditions were similar to America’s, but later observed there was little outlet for such activity. He became an admirer of George Lansbury and worked as a docker in Liverpool.
Sources: INS file 54517/88; FBI file OG 8000-382412.
Nicholas Michels
Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown Nationality: Hungarian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation: Communist Labor Party
A member of the Communist Labor Party deported to Hungary in 1921. No further information has been found.
Sources: FBI file OG 381688.
Feodor Michkov (a.k.a. Fred Mechcoff; Michcov; Mihaitch)
Born: c. 1888, Moscow, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Previously arrested in Russia for a political offense, Michkov joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York. Arrested February 1920, he admitted anarchist beliefs and opposition to organized government. Deported to Russia January 22, 1921.
Source: INS file 54861/131.
Kalenik Migura (a.k.a. Kalymnyk)
Born: 1885, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the URW branch in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, became its secretary, and was arrested February 1920. Deported January 22, 1921. His wife and child remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54861/75; FBI file OG 381865.
Nikolai Mikhaelov (a.k.a. Nicholas Mihaeloff; Mikeloff; Michaelov; Peter Lund; Fritiak)
Born: 1893, Petrograd, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Sailor; machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1917 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
After fighting in France for the British and Russian armies during the First World War, Mikhaelov migrated across several countries before reaching the US in 1917. (According to another source, however, he was leader of an anarchist gang that took part in “expropriations” in Petrograd in 1916 and fled to the U.S. after two members were killed and he was injured in the hand.) He joined the URW in Newark and also the IWW. Arrested March 1919 and released on bail, he was expelled from the URW after his partner allegedly approached police as an informant. He nonetheless declared his desire to return to Russia to overthrow Lenin and establish “pure anarchy.” Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife and child remained in the US.
Born: Russia, year unknown Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Member of Russian Branch No. 6 of the Communist Party of America in New York. Deported December 23, 1920. No further information has been found.
Source: INS file 54859/199.
Gavril Mikhnevich (a.k.a. Hawril Michnewitz; Michniewich; Harry Grigory)
Mikhnevich’s URW membership card. National Archives.
Gavril Mikhnevich, c. 1920s. B. Ratner, Istoriia Moskovskogo instrumental’nogo zavoda.
Born: 1886, Kremno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Factory worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated. Joined the URW in Hartford in August 1919 and was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
After arrival in Soviet Russia he was one of six deportees who met Lenin seeking financial support. He later worked at the Russian-American Tool Plant and helped form a factory committee there, and appears to have joined the Russian Communist Party.
Source: INS file 54709/421; B. Ratner, Istoriia Moskovskogo instrumental’nogo zavoda.
Julius Miller
Julius Miller, c. 1920. National Archives.
Born: 1894, Dvinsk, Russia (present-day Latvia) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: IWW
An IWW member and delegate, Miller was arrested in Detroit in January 1920. After his release on bail he was arrested again in Cleveland for distributing IWW literature and held for over a year in the county jail, where an immigration inspector reported his health was deteriorating badly. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Source: INS file 54860/32.
Samuel Miller (a.k.a. Sholem Melamed; Schulim)
Born: 1897, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
An employee of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Chicago, as well as an IWW member and anarchist, Miller was arrested in July 1917. When asked his nationality, he replied: “I am international.” His attorney, Clarence Darrow, unsuccessfully argued that as a pacifist “philosophical anarchist” Miller should not fall under the anarchist exclusion laws. Deported December 23, 1920.
Roberts’ Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: c. 1882, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1915; then to US 1917 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the Socialist Party of America before joining Philadelphia’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party. He was arrested January 7, 1920, and deported to Russia February 1, 1921.
An IWW member arrested in Sand Point, Idaho, in 1918. He was released, then rearrested and deported to an unknown country October 28, 1919. No further information has been located.
Sources: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920.
Alfred Robinson
Born: 1893, Chislehurst, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1905 Affiliation: IWW
Worked throughout the United States and Canada. In July 1919 he joined the IWW’s Metal and Machinery Workers’ Industrial Union No. 300. Arrested in Detroit during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported March 27, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54709/578; FBI file OG 8000-385119.
Abraham Rodríguez (a.k.a. Abram Rodríguez)
Abraham Rodríguez, by Ralph Chaplin. Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan.
Born: Mexico Nationality: Mexican Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner; labor organizer; poet Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Partido Liberal Mexicano; IWW
In 1911 he formed a PLM group in Del Valle, Texas, and reportedly “a colonel in the rebel army that overthrew the dictatorship in Mexico.” After returning to mining work in Arizona, he belonged to IWW Local 800 and chaired its grievance committee. Indicted in the federal IWW trial of 1917, he was arrested in New Mexico after an armed standoff with authorities. Charges were dropped in exchange for deportation to Mexico.
In Cananea, he continued organizing on behalf of the IWW.
Sources: FBI file Misc 18346.
Juan Rodríguez
Born: 1885, Asturias, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Occupation: Cook; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: IWW
His father died in Spain before he was born.
In 1916 he jumped ship in the United States and was arrested in Philadelphia in February 1919 as a suspected radical, though authorities could not prove it. (However, his is listed as an IWW member in IWW publications.) A deportation warrant was instead issued based on illiteracy, illegal entry, and likelihood of becoming a public charge. He requested voluntary departure to Cuba, which was granted, and departed August 22, 1919, aboard the SS Moro Castle.
Sources: INS file 54648/27.
Konstantin Romanchuk
Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immgrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, around July 1919 and became its secretary. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/396; FBI file OG 376791.
Gavril Romanovich (a.k.a. Gabriel; G.R.D.)
Romanovich’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1896, Kozhevniki, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party of America, then in 1919 transferred to the Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America, becoming secretary of its Waterbury, Connecticut branch. Arrested during a raid on headquarters in March 1920, he was deported to Russia February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/462; FBI file OG 379909.
Jesus Romo
Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1919.
Born: c. 1884, Mexico Nationality: Mexican Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
Joined the IWW in Los Angeles in February 1919 and quickly became a delegate for its General Recruiting Union; he was probably previously a member in Morenci, Arizona, where his father and brothers were also activists. Arrested June 9, 1919 for distributing literature outside an employment agency, he declared he “was born an anarchist.” Deported August 18, 1919.
Continued organizing for the IWW in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Sources: INS file 54616/232; FBI file OG 363737.
Angel Roncal
Born: 1896, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Occupation: Sailor Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: IWW
He reportedly spent time in South America before immigrating to the U.S. in 1916.
A member of the Niagara Falls IWW branch, he was arrested in September 1918 for failing to register for the draft, with IWW literature found in his possession. After five months in jail without trial he was released in February 1919 but immediately detained for deportation. He was deported to Spain around July 1, 1920.
Sources: Buffalo Commercial, February 1 and 3, 1919; Buffalo Times, February 20, 1919; Cattaraucus Republican, March 27, 1919; Buffalo Express, April 30, 1919; Illustrated Buffalo Express, June 22, 1919.
Maxim Rosak (a.k.a. Max; Roosak)
Maxim Rosak’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: c.1887, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Driller Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Formerly a member of the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party in Philadelphia, he transferred into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested January 7, 1920, he was deported to Russia February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54811/948; FBI file OG 379897.
Savely Roshkov (a.k.a. Charles Roshko)
Savely Roshkov holding a copy of the URW newspaper Khleb i Volia. National Archives.
Born: 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Employed by Singer Manufacturing Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he belonged to the International Association of Machinists’ Local No. 30 and took part in a 1919 wildcat strike. He was also a member of the Union of Russian Workers branch there. Arrested February 12, 1920, he was deported to Russia January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54861/143; FBI file OG 382709.
Mikail Rosnak (a.k.a.Michael Rosnack; Bosnack)
Born: 1897, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (present-day Romania) Nationality: Romanian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Blacksmith’s helper Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1917 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Expelled from Canada during World War I as an “enemy alien,” he moved to the United States and in 1919 joined URW Branch No. 6 in Detroit. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he testified that the detective who arrested him called him “worse than a nigger,” and gave him “a smash in the face.” He was deported to Romania March 17, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54739/469.
Janet Johnstone Roy (Janet Johnstone MacKay)
Seattle Union Record, February 14, 1919.
Born: 1895, Milmathort, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; IWW
Supported the Independent Labour Party before emigrating.
In Lawrence, Massachusetts, she joined the Socialist Party and the IWW’s Textile Workers Industrial Union No. 1000. After moving to Chicago and then Seattle, she was arrested with her sister in a police raid on an IWW hall in October 1918. She married Ian V. MacKay, a naturalized U.S. citizen, in January 1919. Deported July 23, 1919.
She later reunited with her husband in British Columbia, where she died in 1972.
Sources: INS files 54379/532 and 54379/532A; Frances H. Early, A World Without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I; Heather Mayer, Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924; Ancestry.com.
Margaret Roy (Margaret Ray)
Born: 1893, Milmathort, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; IWW
Emigrated to Canada in 1913, then returned to Scotland in 1916 to retrieve her sister Janet.
In Lawrence, Massachusetts, she and Janet joined the Socialist Party and the IWW’s Textile Workers Industrial Union No. 1000. After moving to Chicago and then Seattle, she was arrested with her sister during a raid on an IWW hall in October 1918. She married U.S. citizen Alonzo Ray in January 1919, but was deported July 23, 1919.
Sources: INS files 54379/532 and 54379/532A; Frances H. Early, A World Without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I; Heather Mayer, Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924.
