Tag Archives: English

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

Walter to Whitehead

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Albert Wilhelm Walter (Walters)

Source: Fort Wayne Sentinel, January 5, 1920

Born 1889, Saxony, Germany. Knitter. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and in 1916 elected secretary of the Party’s German Federation. 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America; Indiana State Secretary of the Communist Party beginning November 1919. Deported January 12, 1921. Sent his wife Martha and two US-born daughters to Germany ahead of him. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54859/123; FBI file OG 8000-383588

See also: Fort Wayne Sentinel, January 5, 1920; Garrett Clipper, December 23, 1920

Henry William Watts (Willy; H. W. Watts)

Journalist. Migrated to US from Canada in 1914. Immediately joined the Socialist Party of America in Everett, Washington. January 1915 began writing for the Washington Socialist; February 1915 became its business manager. Continued that role for the paper’s successor, the Northwest Worker, of which he became editor in April 1916. He wrote in support of the IWW and of “collective ownership” (by workers) rather than “state socialism” (i.e. government ownership). Arrested August 1916 for protesting police repression of IWW speakers in Everett. Arrested again April 6, 1917 for libel of local military recruiters; charges dismissed. Arrested once more October 25, 1917 as an alien “anarchist”; released on bail after seven weeks. While in jail, continued as editor of the Northwest Worker and its successor, The Co-operative News. Eventually deported solely on the dubious grounds that he had been “likely to become a public charge” at the time of his entry into the US. Deported to Canada, February 27, 1918–making him the first known deportee of the Red Scare.

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

See also: https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/NWWorker.htm; https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/CoopNews.htm; The Co-operative News, February 21 and February 28, 1918

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

Source: Richmond Palladium (IN), January 8, 1920.

Born 1880, Vilna, Russia (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania). Jewish. Statistician; editor. In Russia, “a public school teacher in a Jewish school.” Involved in socialist movement since 1900 (in both the General Jewish Labour Bund and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party); participated in 1905 revolution and befriended Leon Trotsky. December 1905 arrested at Brest-Litovsk and imprisoned, then in 1916 sentenced to four years in Siberia; escaped after ten days and went to France. 1907 migrated from there to Switzerland, where he graduated from the University of Geneva in 1912 with degrees in law and social science. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party of America in New York; 1914 became an editor of the socialist newspaper Novy Mir; employed Trotsky as a writer January-March 1917. 1919 cofounded the Communist Labor Party and became general office manager of the (unrecognized) Russian Soviet Government Bureau. Also became an editor of the CLP’s Class Struggle and its short-lived Russian-language paper Pravda. Ordered deported; “voluntarily departed” January 22, 1921. 1922 employed by the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which in 1923 became the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs); served as a Soviet diplomatic representative to Canada, a diplomatic agent in Leningrad, and in 1926-28 worked at the Soviet Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey. 1930s in Moscow became head of the Second Western Department of the USSR People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. August 1939 arrested in Stalin’s purges; executed 1940.

INS file 54810/500 (file missing) and 54810/500A (Exhibits)

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

Alfred Wesley (Westley)

Deported to England, June 19, 1920. No further information found.

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

Albert Whitehead

Born 1867, Leicester, England. Sailor. Migrated to US 1907. 1911 joined the IWW; became a charter member of Sacramento Council of the IWW. Defendant along with 45 other IWW members in federal trail in Sacramento for violating the Espionage Act; engaged with most of the other defendants in a “silent defense” by refusing to participate in the proceedings. Accused of “arson and destruction of property” in connection with fires that had occurred near Fresno. Sentenced to a year in San Francisco County Jail; caught tuberculosis while imprisoned. Deported December 24, 1919. Upon his arrival in Liverpool, he “gave all his cash to poor children,” and apparently joined the Merseyside IWW branch.

INS file 54616/36; FBI file OG 8000-237893

See also: Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959

Bell Wicenski

Born 1899, Hampovica, Croatia, Austria. Listed by immigration athorities as “Croatian, Jugo-Slav,” and gave his “race” as “Croatian.” Immigrated to the US in 1913. Laborer. Unmarried. Empoyed by the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. Joined the Socialist Party c.1918, then Local No. 8 of the Communist Labor Party in Youngstown. Arrested January 1920 and deported on the SS Calabria, September 1, 1920, bound for Yugoslavia via Greece.

INS file 54810/679