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!
Ferruccio Coacci, 1930. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.
Born: 1892, Ancona, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Shoemaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Anarchist
An anarchist militant associated with Luigi Galleani and the newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva. He lived in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children. Arrested in 1918 and subsequently became a suspect—though not regarded as such by most historians—in the robberies and murder for which Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were later arrested. Deported on April 18, 1920, and was joined by his family in Italy.
According to journalist Eugene Lyons, at his home in Italy Coacci possessed anarchist literature on bomb-making and described himself as “a terrorist of the Galleani school.” In October 1921, he migrated to Argentina, where he became involved in anarchist “expropriations” and bombings and was associated with Severino Di Giovanni. In 1930, he was arrested in Buenos Aires with two other Italian anarchists in connection with the robbery of a bus company, but released for lack of evidence.
Sources: INS file 54379/396; FBI file OG 387205; CPC busta 1382; Eugene Lyons, Assignment in Utopia; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background.
Umberto Colarossi
Born: 1894, Carpineto, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Bookkeeper Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist shortly after arriving in the United States; associated with Luigi Galleani and Cronaca Sovversiva. From 1917 to 1919, he resided in Mexico in order to avoid the U.S. military draft. He was arrested in Chicago in May 1919 and deported on July 15, 1920.
In September 1921, he wrote a letter to an Italian government representative renouncing his previous radicalism. He was inducted into the Italian military in 1922 and later became a manager for the Singer Corporation in Italy. In 1929, the Fascist government reported that he demonstrated loyalty to the regime.
Sources: INS file 54616/214; CPC busta 1400; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background.
Sam Colbus
Born: 1879, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1910 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and two children remained in Russia when he emigrated to the US. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and was arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 in Fairmont, West Virginia. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/592.
Amy Colyer (née Withall)
Source: Richmond Palladium (IN), January 8, 1920.
Born: 1881, London, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A university-educated daughter of a dress manufacturer, she was active in the Independent Labour Party and married fellow ILP member William Thomas Colyer before the couple emigrated to the U.S. to escape the wartime British political atmosphere. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Boston in 1916 and became branch secretary in 1917. In 1919, she joined the Communist Party of America and served as secretary of its Boston branch. Arrested with her husband during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and detained at Deer Island Prison. During interrogation, she stated, “As a communist I am opposed to all capitalist governments,” and when asked “Do you understand the form of government that you are enjoying in the United States?” she replied “I am not enjoying it, but I think I understand it.” After losing an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, she and her husband were deported on April 11, 1922.
After returning to England, she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Labour Party, left for the CPGB in 1926, and later resumed activity in the Independent Labour Party. She anonymously collaborated on many of her husband’s writings.
Sources: INS file 54810/162; U.S. Congress, House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Deportation Cases of William T. and Amy Colyer (Government Printing Office, 1920).
William Thomas Colyer (a.k.a. Tom Colyer)
Born: 1883, London, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Writer Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Opposed the First World War as a member of the Independent Labour Party. Immigrated to the United States in 1915 with his wife and fellow ILP member, Amy Colyer. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Boston in 1916 and became a leading figure in the Massachusetts organization, which he helped transfer into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Wrote for several radical publications and served on the editorial staff of The Communist. Although he declared his intention to naturalize in 1916, he later abandoned the effort, citing disillusionment with U.S. political institutions. Arrested with his wife during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 an detained at Deer Island Prison, where he helped organize a prisoners’ “soviet.” After losing their appeal, he and his wife were deported on April 11, 1922.
After returning to Britain, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Labour Party. Served as secretary of the Communist-affiliated Greater London Left-Wing Movement and the National Left-Wing Movement, but resigned amid conflicts with the CPGB in 1926. Published Americanism: A World Menace (1922) and The Worker’s Passport: A Study of the Legal Restrictions on Migrant Workers (1928). Ran unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1931 and 1935 as a Labour Party candidate. In 1942, he rejoined the Independent Labour Party and later served on its National Administrative Council. Died in 1956.
Sources: INS file 54810/209; U.S. Congress, House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Deportation Cases of William T. and Amy Colyer (Government Printing Office, 1920); Lawrence Parker, Communists and Labour: The National Left-Wing Movement, 1925–1929.
James Cully (a.k.a. Jimmy Cully)
Born: c. 1870, Ireland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Irish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: IWW
As a member of the Industrial Workers of the World during the First World War, led a group of approximately 200 draft resisters in Rockford, Illinois. All were arrested, and 112 were convicted. Sentenced to two years in prison for conspiracy to interfere with military conscription and deported to England on June 21, 1919.
After deportation, he continued to be active as a street speaker for the Merseyside branch of the IWW in Liverpool. Also implicated in illegal activities on behalf of the Irish Republican Army.
Sources: Gerald E. Shenk, “Work or Fight!”: Race, Gender, and the Draft in World War One; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959; Liverpool Echo, June 28, 1923.
George Cyzyk (a.k.a. Paul Gigalko; Paul Zygaloff)
Born: 1896, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member and lecturer for the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Cleveland in February 1918 and again in New York during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Anarchist literature, including copies of The Anarchist Soviet Bulletin, was found in his home. Also suspected of involvement in a counterfeiting scheme. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54379/125; FBI file OG 375385.
Jan Dalkovksy (or Dalkowsky)
Born: 1896, Płock Governorate, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America; IWW
Joined Polish Local No. 28 of the Socialist Party of America in Erie, Pennsylvania, in January 1918, and transferred into the Communist Party in 1919. He was also a member of the IWW. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Poland on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/280.
Ivan Danilovich (a.k.a. John Danilovich)
Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated. Became a member of the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/390; FBI file OG 388677.
John Dardzinski
Born: c. 1905, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Shade maker Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the Communist Party, he was arrested in Hamtramck, Michigan, in January 1920 and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Arthur Katzes, 1919. Springfield News (OH) December 28, 1919.
Born: 1897, Podolia, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Printer Migration: Entered the United States without inspection in 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; anarchist
Had been a student in Russia and was apprenticing as a pressman before working as a sailor to finance his passage to the United States in 1914. Around 1917, he joined the Union of Russian Workers and became a member of the editorial board of its newspaper, Khleb i Volia. He was arrested in New York in March 1919 and released on bail. While at liberty, he collaborated in producing the illegal Anarchist Soviet Bulletin. In September 1919, he was arrested again, together with Ethel Bernstein, for distributing copies of that publication. He was deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54616/115; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech.
Joe Kaunas (or Kavnas; a.k.a. Bogdonas; Boglonas)
Born: 1885, Russian Lithuania Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Coal miner; student Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Entered the US without inspection in 1913. Worked as a coal miner in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and later attended Valparaiso University. He became a member of Valparaiso Branch No. 20 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested on January 14, 1920. Although he claimed Lithuanian citizenship, immigration authorities deported him to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/713.
Teleso Kavalianskas (or Kavalionskas, Kavalauskas; Talespor Kavalanchas; a.k.a. Stanley)
Born: 1881, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Became secretary of Branch No. 43 of the Lithuanian Federation of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” for Rissia via Canada on October 20, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54709/954; FBI file BS 202600-155-1.
Joseph Kennedy
Joseph Kennedy, 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1885, Belfast, Ireland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Irish Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1905 Affiliation: Industrial Workers of the World
Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917 and became secretary of Metal Mine Workers’ Industrial Union No. 800 in Butte, Montana. He worked closely with IWW organizer Frank Little before Little was lynched during the Butte copper strike in 1917. Kennedy was arrested multiple times for IWW activity and was also described by authorities as “active…in the cause of Irish independence.” Arrested again in February 1919 in the aftermath of a miners’ strike and deported on June 21, 1919.
After his return to Britain, Kennedy joined the Merseyside branch of the IWW in Liverpool and involved in underground activities on behalf of the Irish Republican Army, including as an accessory to a botched robbery. In 1924, he was reported to be planning an illegal return to the United States, and emigrated to Canada. Settled in Timmins, Ontario, where he became secretary of the local branch of the IWW’s Metal and Coal Mine Workers Industrial Union. In 1928, after a fire in the Hollinger Gold Mine killed thirty-nine people, Kennedy led a protest meeting of 600 miners “to demand action on the part of those responsible for the murder of our fellow workers.”
Sources: INS file 54616/74; Butte Daily Bulletin, June 13, 1919; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959; Ancestry.com; Windsor Star, February 15, 1928.
Born: c. 1898, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer; longshoreman Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Unknown
Worked as a laborer and longshoreman in Camden, New Jersey, and New York. In May 1919, he was arrested in Philadelphia by company guards from the Pusey and Jones Shipbuilding Company of Gloucester City, New Jersey, for distributing what authorities described as “Bolshevik circulars” on company property. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54616/173.
Boris Keretchuk
Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/358.
Nuval Kerget (or Nabul)
Born: 1875, Minsk Governorate, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Lumber worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1910 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
First arrived in the United States through Honolulu in 1910 and later settled in Seattle in 1918. Worked as a lumber worker and became a member of the Union of Russian Workers as well as the Industrial Workers of the World in 1919. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Included on a list of deported members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and deported on October 31, 1919. No further biographical information has been found.
Sources: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920.
William Kircher
Born: 1892, Hesse, Germany Nationality: German Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: IWW
Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917. He was arrested in Seattle in May 1918 and interned as an “alien enemy” at Fort Douglas, Utah. Released on condition of “voluntary departure” and left the United States on September 25, 1919.
Unidentified newspaper clipping, Paul Avrich Collection, Library of Congress.
Born: 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Bookbinder Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: Anarchist
In 1917 Lachowsky joined New York’s militant Jewish anarchist Shturem Group, which became the Frayhayt Group in 1918. On August 23, 1918, he was arrested with Molly Steimer while distributing leaflets protesting US intervention in the Russian Civil War. Beaten during interrogation, he was convicted with other group members under the Espionage Act and sentenced to twenty years in prison and a $1,000 fine. In October 1919 he declared to immigration agents, “I am an alien and an anarchist…I am opposed to all organized government. Not only the Government of the United States but any government…I’m an anarchist and proud of it.” By 1921, however, he had become disillusioned and renounced anarchism. After losing the Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States, he was deported November 23, 1921.
Disillusioned with radicalism, he returned to Minsk, started a family, and stayed out of politics. He reportedly died of natural causes sometime before the Second World War.
Sources: INS file 54517/74; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Charles Lindsay Lambert
Charles Lambert, 1918. National Archives.
Born: 1881, Arbroath, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Baker; oil worker; labor organizer Migration: Immigrated to US 1901 or 1902 Affiliation: IWW
Joined the IWW in 1911 and served as secretary of Local No. 453 of the Oil Workers’ Industrial Union in Taft, California, in 1913, and later as secretary of mixed IWW locals in Sacramento from 1914 to 1917. As Secretary-Treasurer of the Wheatland Defense Committee (1914–1915), he advocated sabotage on behalf of the campaign to free the Wheatland prisoners. Elected to the IWW’s General Executive Board in 1916, he played a key role in the controversial decertification of the IWW’s Domestic Workers’ Industrial Union in Denver. A defendant in the federal IWW trial of 1917–1918, where his writings were used against the union by the prosecution, and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. In 1922 his sentence was commuted in exchange for “voluntary departure” to Britain, and he sailed March 31, 1923.
In Britain he attended trade-union meetings and encouraged protests against the imprisonment of IWW members in the United States. He may have worked in the Tampico oil fields during the 1920s, appears to have illegally reentered the US, then returned to Scotland via New York in 1926. During the 1930s he worked as an oil worker in the Caribbean, returned to the UK in 1933, and later left radical politics, becoming a diamond prospector in British Guiana and then a bookie’s runner (i.e. enforcer) in London, where he died circa 1961.
Sources: INS file 54616/59; FBI file OG 8000-160053; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Jane Little Botkin, The Girl Who Dared to Defy: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver; Richard Brazier, “The Mass I.W.W. Trial of 1918: A Retrospect,” Labor History 7, no. 2 (1966); Eric Thomas Chester, The Wobblies in Their Heyday: The Rise and Destruction of the Industrial Workers of the World during the World War I Era; Eric Thomas Chester, Yours for Industrial Freedom: The Industrial Workers of the World from the Inside; Ancestry.com.
Manya Lansky
Born: 1898, Pieski, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Garment worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Migrated to the United States for work and soon became an anarchist in New York. She distributed the Union of Russian Workers’ paper Golos Truda. Arrested July 4, 1920 en route to a radical picnic in Cleveland, she was described by an immigration inspector as “the most typical of the usual conception of the anarchistic type that one may have occasion to observe.” She stated, “I am not in sympathy with the leaders of the Soviets, but am in sympathy with the Russian people.” Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54885/2.
Ivan Lapitsky (a.k.a. John; Lapinsky; Lapitzky)
Born: 1893, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Dye worker Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1917 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Belonged to Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920, he initially denied Communist Party membership but admitted it after authorities produced documentary proof. Deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/491.
Ivan Laposanko (or Lapczanko; a.k.a. John Lapko)
Born: 1890, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; coal miner; steel worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh in 1914 and served as a delegate to its New York convention in January 1919. Arrested in Erie, Pennsylvania during May Day disturbances on May 1, 1919, and again on December 12, 1919, he testified: “Yes, I am an anarchist; but I am not the violent anarchist that is pictured… I am studying the question of Anarchy.” Deported January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/642.
James Larkin (a.k.a. Jim; “Big Jim”)
James Larkin, 1919. Wikimedia Commons.
Born: 1876, Liverpool, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: Irish Occupation: Laborer; lecturer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Labor Party
Raised in poverty in Ireland, Larkin joined the Independent Labour Party in 1893 and became a full-time organizer for the National Union of Dock Labourers in 1905 before being expelled in 1908. He founded the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, cofounded the Irish Labour Party in 1912, and helped lead the 1913 Dublin Lockout with James Connolly while also founding the Irish Citizen Army.
In the United States he joined the Socialist Party of America, aligned with its pro-Bolshevik Left Wing, and lectured widely, often in conjunction with the IWW. Expelled from the SPA in 1919, he cofounded the Communist Labor Party. Arrested under New York’s criminal anarchy law, sentenced to five to ten years, pardoned by Governor Al Smith in 1923, and deported to England in April 1923, after repeated passport denials by British authorities.
Returning to Ireland he founded the Irish Worker League as the country’s official Communist Party and became head of the Communist-aligned Worker’s Union of Ireland. Attended the Fifth Congress of the Comintern in 1924 and appointed to the Comintern’s Executive Committee.In 1927 he was elected to the Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann) on behalf of the IWL , but unable to take his seat due to an unpaid award for libel against him. He resigned from the Comintern in 1929 and broke with Communism completely in 1932. In 1936 he was elected to the Dublin city government; 1937 elected to the Dáil Éireann as an independent candidate, but lost reelection the following year. In 1941 he rejoined the Irish Labour Party and served in the Dáil Éireann from 1943 to 1944. He died in 1947.
Sources: Emmet O’Connor, “James Larkin in the United States, 1914-23,” Journal of Contemporary History 37, no. 2 (April 2002); Emmet O’Connor, Big Jim Larkin: Hero or Wrecker?
Carl Larson (born Carl Johan Fredrik Larson)
Born: 1885, Upsala, Sweden Nationality: Swedish Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; shoemaker Migration: Migrated to US via Canada 1911 Affiliation: IWW; Communist Labor Party
Joined the IWW in 1912 and the Scandinavian section of the Socialist Party of America in 1917. Arrested May 3, 1918 after denouncing the US government, he was convicted under the Espionage Act in February 1919 and sentenced to one year and a day in Leavenworth. While imprisoned he joined the Communist Labor Party. After his release he served as literature agent for Salt Lake City’s Scandinavian Socialist Club. Arrested again in August 1920, he was deported June 9, 1921.
He reportedly left Sweden in 1924 as a seaman and jumped ship in Canada, returning to the US. On January 7, 1925, the Swedish Communist paper Folkets Dagblad Politiken printed a letter from him about Communist activity in America. In 1932 he was believed to be living in Seattle, and in 1933 authorities received confidential reports that he was in San Francisco under an assumed name and active in the Communist Party.
Sources: INS file 54861/408; FBI file OG 196909; The Toiler, April 2, 1920; One Big Union Monthly, May 1920.
Ludwig Lau
Born: Nationality: Polish Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Poland on September 1, 1920. No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Stefan Lavrichuk (a.k.a. Lawrichuk; Steve Liunsky)
Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Mechanic Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party in Rockford, Illinois, later transferring into the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920, he “voluntarily departed” to Russia via Canada on October 20, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54860/671.
Mikail Lavrinuk (a.k.a. Michael Lawrinuk)
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Hotel worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York around 1918 and the IWW in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/489.
Giacomo Lavrio (a.k.a. James Lavrio)
Giacomo Lavrio, c. 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1884, Turin, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1901 Affiliation: Anarchist
Worked in mines across the United States and became an anarchist there, supporting Cronaca Sovversiva and corresponding extensively with Italian-American anarchists. Briefly returned to Italy from 1905 to 1907. Arrested in St. Charles, Michigan, in May 1919 while participating in a miners’ strike. He married widow Maria Perocchetti while out on bail and promised to abandon radicalism for her. Deported December 20, 1919.
Upon arrival in Italy he was detained for possible draft evasion, after which authorities lost track of him. He died on October 17, 1923 in Turin of unknown causes.
Sources: INS file 54616/206; CPC busta 2781.
William Lawna (or Launa; Lauva; a.k.a. Alfred Schmidt)
Born: 1886, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Locksmith Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and was alleged to have served as secretary of its Elizabeth, New Jersey branch and to have hosted Leon Trotsky in his home, though he denied this claim. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife remained in the United States.
Sources: INS file 54709/103.
Andrey Lazarevich (a.k.a. Andrew Lazarewich or Lazarowitz)
Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, though the only evidence authorities had against him was a membership card for the Executive Committee of the Second Russian All-Colonial Convention of the United States and Canada (a meeting of various leftwing Russian groups held in New York in January 1919). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife Maria and their newborn child were left behind in the US.
Sources: INS file 54709/347.
Maria Lazarevich (née Kott; a.k.a. Mary Lazarewich)
Born: 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
An anarchist since 1917 and member of the URW, Maria Lazarevich was the wife of Buford deportee Andrey Lazarevich. After actively campaigning to be expelled to rejoin her husband, she was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921 along with the couple’s fourteen-month-old child.
Sources: INS file 55009/14.
Simeon Lebed (a.k.a. Sam Lebed)
Born: 1893, Novovolynsk, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party and later Detroit’s Communist Party Branch No. 22. Arrested January 1920, he was deported March 18, 1921.
Born: 1871, Derry, Ireland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Ulster-Scots Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1890s Affiliation: IWW
Worked as an itinerant laborer throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Arrested in Centralia, Washington, in November 1919, he stated he was “ashamed to say” that he was not a dues-paying member of the IWW due to lack of funds, though he supported its ideology and declared that the only government he supported was that of Soviet Russia. Deported April 2, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54709/581; FBI file OG 378240.
Dimitry Remar
Born: 1896, Podolsk, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1915; then to US 1918 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Became a member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 5 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920 and deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/796.
Benjamin Repsys (or Repshys)
Born: 1894, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Autoworker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Worked for the Ford Motor Company and in 1918 joined Detroit’s Branch No. 116 of the Lithuanian Socialist Federation, later transferring into the Communist Party. Arrested November 15, 1919, for receiving radical literature but released. Arrested again in January 1920 and deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/658.
Manuel Rey y García (a.k.a. Louis G. Raymond)
Manuel Rey y García, 1918. National Archives.
Born: 1888, Castrofoya, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Galician Occupation: Sailor; union organizer; house painter Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: IWW
His father was killed in the Cuban War of Independence. Emigrated to Cuba in 1905; from 1909 to 1914 he worked as sailor throughout Atlantic.
Entered the United States without inspection in 1914. An anarchist, he joined the IWW around that same year and became secretary of its Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union in Philadelphia; in April 1917 he moved to Niagara Falls, New York, where he was elected secretary of the local IWW organization. Arrested three times within six months for failure to register for the draft and for antiwar speeches, he was a defendant in the 1917–1918 mass IWW trial in Chicago and was sentenced to twenty years and a $20,000 fine. While imprisoned he corresponded with anarchist Lilly Sarnoff, who became his lifelong companion. His sentence was commuted in December 1922 on condition of deportation, and he was deported to Spain March 22, 1923.
He illegally returned to the United States, was deported again in 1926, and returned once more under the name “Louis G. Raymond.” He continued to be active in the anarchist movemint, living in the Stelton, New Jersey anarchist community and coediting the newspaper Freedom (1933–1934). He died in New York in 1990 at age 101.
Sources: INS file 54297/18; FBI file OG 8000-160053′ Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Peter Cole, Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia; Bieito Alonso, “Spanish Anarchists and Maritime Workers in the IWW,” in Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW; Bieito Alonso, Anarquistas galegos en América; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Federico Ricci
Federico Ricci, c. 1920. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.
Born: 1887, Cesenatico, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Shoemaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1905 Affiliation: Anarchist
Originally a socialist in Italy, he became an anarchist in the U.S. around 1910. Returned to Italy from 1911 to 1913. Arrested in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in January 1918 for failure to register for the draft, he was sentenced to a year in prison and declared, “I do not believe in any form of government, because the people have no liberty.” Deported May 22, 1919.
In 1920 he was arrested in Naples for desertion but released on probation. He returned to Cesenatico, where authorities reported he lived a solitary life. Emigrated to France in 1925 and returned to Italy in 1929, remaining under surveillance until 1941, though no further radical activity was noted.
Sources: INS files 54379/2 and 54379/3; CPC busta 4302.
Augusto Rigoni
Augusto Rigoni, c. 1920. Archivio Central dello Stato, Italy.
Not politically radical in Italy, in the United States he joined the anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali in Kensington, Illinois, and supported Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. He was deported December 20, 1919.
After returning to Italy, authorities reported he initially showed sympathy with socialism but withdrew from politics, married, had children, and devoted himself to farming with his brothers. In 1932 he developed symptoms described as “mental alienation” and was confined to a provincial psychiatric hospital in Vicenza, where he died that same year.
Sources: CPC busta 4329; Cronaca Sovversiva, July 15, 1916.
Thomas Rimmer
Born: 1886, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Sailor; miner Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1912; then to US 1914 Affiliation: IWW
Emigrated to Canada in 1912, and from there entered the United States in 1914 without inspection. Radicalized in the U.S., he joined the Socialist Party of America and the Western Federation of Miners, then became an IWW member around. Helped organize the 1917 miners’ strike in Butte, Montana, served on the strikers’ publicity committee, and spoke at the funeral of organizer Frank Little. In 1918 he became an IWW delegate. Arrested May 6, 1918, during a police raid on an IWW hall in Seattle, he befriended fellow deportee Moses Baritz, beginning a lifelong political and personal friendship. Deported February 27, 1919, as a person deemed likely to become a public charge.
In Liverpool he joined the Merseyside IWW branch. In 1921 he joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain, and that was believed to travel frequently between England and Canada. After a lapse he rejoined the SPGB in 1933. He died in 1952.
Born: 1896, Volynia, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Worked for the Singer Sewing Machine Company in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested in New York during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/457.
Librado Rivera
Librado Rivera, c. 1910s. Wikimedia Commons.
Librado Rivera, c. 1930.
Born: 1864, Rayón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico Nationality: Mexican Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1905 Affiliation: Partido Liberal Mexicano
In Mexico, became a teacher in 1888 and in 1900 cofounded a liberal political group in San Luis Potosí opposing Catholic influence on the government. Arrested in 1902 for political activities, he served a year in prison. In 1903 he collaborated with Ricardo Flores Magón and others on El hijo del Ahuizote and was arrested for “ridiculing public officials.”
After migrating to the United States in 1905, he cofounded the Partido Liberal Mexicano and soon adopted anarchism. Arrested in St. Louis in 1906, the US government attempted unsuccessfully to extradite him to Mexico. In 1907 he moved to Los Angeles, where he and other PLM leaders were arrested without warrants by private detectives acting for the Mexican government and convicted of violating US neutrality laws, though later released. In 1910 he became a founding editor of Regeneración. Arrested again in 1911 for neutrality violations related to organizing PLM fighters for the Mexican Revolution, he was imprisoned until 1914. In 1918 he was convicted under the Espionage Act for material published in Regeneración and sentenced to fifteen years. In 1920 he was transferred from McNeil Island to Leavenworth Penitentiary. His sentence was commuted in 1923 on condition of deportation to Mexico.
Back in Mexico he declined government posts offered in San Luis Potosí and continued publishing anarchist newspapers and supporting anarcho-syndicalist unionxsin Tampico, for which he was arrested repeatedly. He died in 1932 after being struck by a car in Mexico City.
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.
