Born 1888, Sweden. Laborer. Migrated to US 1911. IWW member, began editing Swedish IWW paper Allarm 1915. Arrested Minneapolis 1917 and defendant in federal IWW trial; in 1918 sentenced to twenty years in prison and fined $20,000. 1923 released from Leavenworth on condition of deportation. 1924 spoke at Stockholm memorial meeting for Joe Hill, whom he had known in the US. Son Carl Y. Ahlteen born that same year. Withdrew from labor activism and opened a homeopathy practice in Stockholm. In 1931, sentenced to 75 days imprisonment and 3 kroner fine for medical malpractice after a patient died under his care, and subsequently moved his family to Colombia and the Panama Canal Zone, where he continued his homeopathic practice and died in 1953. In 1957 his son, a licensed chiropractor, became a naturalized citizen of the US.
INS file 54235/62 (file missing); FBI Miscellaneous Files, file 13031
Clement Alexanderovitch
Born 1893, Vilna, Russia (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania). Laborer, steelworker; migrated to US 1914 and settled in Pittsburgh, where joined Communist Party of America in 1919 shortly after its founding. Arrested November 1919; deported 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54860/337; FBI file OG 382279
August Allman (Allmann)
Born 1870, Obereisenbach, Germany. Agricultural worker; migrated to US 1887. IWW member since at least 1917; arrested 1918 in Walla Walla, Washington. Like all IWW members arrested in Washington, charged with promoting illegal destruction of property and as “likely to become a public charge”–despite $528 in savings. Due to German nationality, interned as an “enemy alien” at Ford Douglas, Utah. Deported 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54379/36
Lars Anderson (Andersson)
IWW stickers in Anderson’s possession
Born 1881, Sweden. Laborer, immigrated without inspection to US via Canada 1904; crossed between US and Canada several times for work. Joined IWW 1916. Arrested Spokane, WA, 1918; in possession of a number of IWW stickers (or “silent agitators”); deported November 4, 1918. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54379/241
Peter Anderson (Andersson; aka Peter Martel)
Born 1885, Sweden. Laborer; immigrated to Canada 1908 and US 1910. Joined IWW 1917 in Montana; later member of Rockford, IL IWW’s Literature Committee; arrested 1918 for distributing IWW literature; deported 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/532; FBI file OG 8000-212463
Henning Anderson (Andersson)
Henning Anderson’s IWW delegate credentials
Born 1884, Sweden. Sailor, laborer; immigrated to US 1908, worked between US and Canada until 1915. Joined IWW 1912; union organizer and delegate for Lumber Workers Industrial Union. Arrested Spokane, WA, March 1918; deported November 4, 1918. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1897, Petrograd, Russia. Worked as seaman age 15-19, then as a traveling acrobat and actor, and migrated to US in 1915. Met Emma Goldman that same year, and frequently visited her thereafter. Toured with variety show “The Five Pandurs,” and according to his American employer, “Ever since he has been in my employ this man has been active in talking and handing pamphlets to others on the stage, trains and hotels. The nature of his talk has been on the subject of socialism and anarchism.” Also a vegetarian who “does not believe in the killing of any animal life,” and member of the White Rats Actor’ Union of America (AFL) and involved in its 1916-17 strike in New York. Arrested 1918 while on tour in Chicago after federal agents interrogated a waitress about where she had obtained copies of the Mother Earth Bulletin they saw her reading. Released on bail, then deported 1921.
FBI file OG 8000-133039
See also Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University
Anton Andronsyuk (Антон Андронсюк; Anton Andronsuk; Androusuk)
Born 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer; migrated to US 1911. Financial secretary of Buffalo branch of Union of Russian Workers when arrested November 1919; deported on Buford.
INS file 54709/137
Roman Andryuk (Роман Андрюк; Roman Andriuk)
Born 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Sailor (fireman); first migrated to US 1913. Joined Union of Russian Workers 1918. Arrested New York during Palmer Raids of November 1919, stated support for the Soviet government; deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/272
George Angulus (aka Charles Stern)
Born Libau, Russia (present-day Liepāja, Latvia), c. 1888. Latvian. Had been a socialist in Russia. Migrated to US 1909. Carpenter. Member and literary agent of Cleveland’s Lettish Branch No. 1 of the Socialist Party since his arrival, which in 1919 transferred to the Communist Party. Arrested in Cleveland December 1919 and again March 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54811/4
Antoniy Aniseniya (Антоний Анисения; Anthony Anisienia)
Born 1887, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Member Hartford, CT branch of Union of Russian Workers 1919, arrested November of that year; deported on Buford.
INS file 54709/391
Ivan Anotsky (Иван Аноцкий; John; Onotsky; Onotzky; Onortsyk)
Born 1893, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Porter. Migrated to US 1915. Joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit circa 1917; transferred into Communist Party of America 1919. Visited Pittsburgh 1919 to speak against the anarchists of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Detroit during the first Palmer Raids, January 1920. According to Detroit’s Review Committee of Citizens, “This man is much more educated tahn the others whom we examined; he has always been thrifty and hard working, and the Committee is impressed with his high level of intelligence.” Deported to Russia February 1, 1921.
Immediately after arrival reportedly volunteered to participate in repression of the Kronstadt Mutiny; and subsequently made a commissar. Allegedly a “degenerate and an alcoholic,” and sentenced to death for embezzlement; escaped to Poland.
INS file 54860/602; FBI file OG 386232
See also: Delo Truda, December 1937-February 1938 (with thanks to Malcolm Archibald)
Born 1891, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US via Canada 1914, “probably surreptitiously,” leaving wife and child in Petrograd. Member of the International Longshoremen’s Association, Local 895 (AFL), and probably the Communist Party of America. Arrested New York October 20, 1919, during ILA strike while handing out multilingual leaflets published by the Communist Party of America. Arrested again during Palmer Raids, November 11, 1919; while on bail arrested November 29 and charged with “criminal anarchy.” Declared, “I don’t consider myself guilty of this charge, but I have nothing against being deported if I can be deported where my wife is.” Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/94
Alexander Antonoff (Antonov)
Born c.1896, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Immigrated to Canada 1913, then to US 1916. Laborer. Member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the IWW; anarchist. Arrested Pittsburgh, April 14, 1919. Deported on the Buford.
Vladimir Archuk (Владимир Арчук, Wladzimar Archiuk)
Born 1888, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Former corporal in Russian Army. Laborer; migrated to US 1914. Joined Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, CT, 1919. Arrested November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
Born Germany, year unknown. Construction worker; year of migration unknown. IWW organizer and delegate for Local No. 573 of Construction Workers’ Industrial Union, Seattle. Refused to register for the draft. Arrested during raid on Seattle IWW in February 1919; charged with “criminal anarchy.” Refused to answer questions. Interned at Fort Douglas, Utah as “enemy alien”; released on condition of “voluntary repatriation” and departed June 1919.
INS file 54616/32, FBI file OG 347754
Charles Ashleigh
Born 1888 or 1889, London, England. Clerk, laborer, union organizer, journalist. Middle-class upbringing; joined Independent Labour Party age 15, then Fabian Society and Social Democratic Federation; became a secretary for the Fabian Society 1908 and active in socialist Clarion Scouts movement. 1908-9 sent by ILP to agitate among coal miners in South Wales. 1909 migrated Buenos Aires for clerk position with Central Argentine Railroad; established Socialist Club and wrote for Buenos Aires Herald. Hiked from Argentina to Chile and Peru, then 1912 sailed as crew member from Peru to Portland where jumped ship (with collusion of captain) and regularized his status by crossing into Canada and back. Immediately employed as a paid speaker for Socialist Party of America, but soon left it for IWW, for which became a paid organizer. Traveled as migrant laborer, or “hobo,” throughout US and wrote poetry on behalf of IWW; involved in Rangel-Cline and Everett defense campaigns. Openly queer, he had a romantic relationship with African American radical poet Claude McKay. Arrested 1917 and defendant at federal IWW trial; sentenced to 10 years and $30,000 fine. Joined Communist Party in prison; 1921 sentence commuted on condition of “voluntary departure” in early 1922.
In London transferred to Communist Party of Great Britain and on staff of Sunday Worker and Daily Worker, as well as TASS. September 1922 traveled to India to deliver invitations to Fourth Congress of the Comintern; detained and expelled by British authorities but managed to complete his mission. November 1922 in Moscow (with McKay) where worked as translator for Fourth Comintern Congress, then asked to start an “American information section in the RILU,” which transferred to Berlin 1923. Soon arrested in Berlin and expelled. 1930 published semi-autobiographical novel about IWW, The Rambling Kid. 1931 sent to Moscow to write for The Moscow News/Moscow Daily News; 1934 denounced by roommate as homosexual and expelled from USSR. Remained member of CPGB until his death in 1974, but on the margins of local party activity.
INS file 54235/39-A
See also: Steve Kellerman, “Introduction,” Charles Ashleigh, The Rambling Kid (2004); Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen, and Andrew Flinn, 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 Bartninkai, Russia (present-day Lithuania), c.1896. Lithuanian. Migrated to US 1913. Deliveryman. Member of the Lithuanian Federation of the Socialist Party of America from December 1913 to September 1919, and secretary of its Cleveland branch for seven months. Claimed Russian citizenship, but deportation warrant issued for Lithuania. Deported February 26, 1921.
INS file 54860/795
Aurelio Vincente Azuara (Vicente Azuara)
Born Spain, 1884. Laborer, miner, editor. Migrated to Mexico 1907, then to US 1912. Joined IWW 1913, became unofficial organizer for it. In Los Angeles, edited unofficial Spanish-language IWW paper El Rebelde (1916-17). Arrested Los Angeles September 1917; defendant at federal IWW trial; sentenced to 20 years and $10,000 fine. Sentence commuted on condition of deportation to Spain 1923.
INS file 54616/48
See also David Struthers, The World in a City: Multiethnic Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles (2019)
Alfredo Bagaglino
Born 1868, Turin, Italy. Orphaned. Miner. Anarchist. 1904 expelled from France (reason unclear). Migrated to US 1907; miner in Spring Valley, Illinois, where lived with wife Domenica Cariglio and their adopted son. Supporter of Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva, Umanità Nova (Milan), and Alleanza Libertaria (Rome), and active in mining strikes. According to Chicago Immigration Inspector George E. Schubert, Bagaglino “is the actual leader and the most outspoken” of the Spring Valley anarchists, and “a forcible speaker and has command of the language and the high sounding phrases used by the present radical demagogues.” Deported March 1921; wife planned to sell home and join him in Italy.
Maintained correspondence with Italian anarchists in US; 1926 arrested by fascist authorities and sentenced to several years “mandato al Confino” (confinement to a prison colony). Died Turin 1936.
INS file 54885/18; CPC busta 239
See also: Un trentennio di attività anarchica (1915-1945) (1953)
Simon Bagatchuk (aka Sam Bush)
Born 1888, Podolsk, Russia. Laborer; migrated to US 1913 (via Canada). April 1919 joined the Seattle branch of Union of Russian Workers. Arrested Seattle, January 17, 1919, then again November 17, 1919. Deported February 1921.
Born Russia, 1897. Migrated at unknown date to Detroit. Deported to Russia January 22, 1921.
Included on list of radical deportees in INS file 54325/36G
Frederick Baker
Born 1881 in Surrey, England. Sustained head injury in 1912 that may have affected his behavior. Drafted into British Army in 1915 but honorably discharged due to “nervous breakdown.” Immigrated to US 1916. Laborer, clerk. Arrested Chicago 1917 for stealing $80 from a neighbor and spent three months in prison. Arrested October 6, 1918 as an IWW member, which he denied (but which is confirmed in other sources). The Bureau of Immigration concluded “this alien is mentally defective,” but “no evidence indicating that the defect is mental insanity.” Deported as “likely to become a public charge,” March 1, 1919 (despite receiving a pension from the British Post Office).
INS file 54552/33
See also: Klasen Kampf, April 1919
Andrei Balash (Андрей Балаш, Andrew Balucz)
Born Vilna region, Russia, 1886. Migrated to US 1913. Joined URW in New Haven, CT, 1919. Arrested Ansonia, CT November 1919; trove of Russian-language anarchist literature found in his room. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/320
Giovanni Baldazzi (John Baldazzi; Baldazza)
Born 1883, Imola, Italy. Printer, electrician, labor organizer. Anarchist by 1903; wrote for several anarchist newspapers; proponent of general strike; arrested multiple times in Italy for strike activity. 1906 disillusioned with labor movement and turned to individualist anarchism. 1907-1910 migrated between England, France, and Italy as a sale representative. 1912 expelled from France to Italy, where again involved in labor and strike activity. 1914 collaborated on Utopia, a pro-war, syndicalist-leaning paper edited by Benito Mussolini. Migrated to US late 1914. Joined IWW upon arrival; organizer and lecturer for IWW’s Bakers’ Union (New York), editor and contributor to IWW paper Il Proletario. Arrested Old Forge, PA July 1917 for “pernicious activities” as labor organizer and opposing conscription; defendant at IWW federal trial, sentenced to ten years and $30,000 fine. Sentence commuted on condition of deportation; deported 1922.
In Rome quickly gravitated toward Fascism; worked for Fascist Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro and newspaper La Stirpe, founded by fellow Wobbly-turned-Fascist Edmondo Rossoni. 1926 removed from Italian government’s list of subversives. However, did not join the National Fascist Party. 1931-1936 employed as translator for Italian National Olympic Committee and for the Federazione Internazionale dei Tecnici Agricoli. 1935, however, placed under government surveillance and reported to privately be “intimately hostile to Fascism,” and labeled an antifascist. Began advocating for a “renewal of the forces of democracy” in Europe. 1936 sought permission to immigrate to France. September 7, 1940 wrote directly to Mussolini to intervene in his ongoing surveillance, cataloging his work for the regime. Died 1940.
Born 1895, Zvenyhorodka, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Bookkeeper, salesman, journalist. Migrated to US 1912. Joined URW in Newark, 1915; joined IWW 1919; also joined Syracuse, NY branch of Communist Labor Party. Organizer for IWW and literary agent for URW. Arrested 1920; led hunger strike of nine other detained Russian radicals in Cortland County jail demanding expedited deportation. Deported February 1921.
Samuel (or Semyon) Barkovsky (Сэмюэл or Семён Барковский, Samuel or Samion Barkowsky)
S. Barkovsky’s IWW membership card
Born 1893, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Machinist. Migrated to US 1913. Member of the Socialist Party of America, the IWW, and the Ansonia, CT branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Chairman of “Luch,” a URW organization disguised as a mutual aid society, delegate to 1919 URW convention. Arrested in Ansonia June 1919 for “breach of the peace” for agitation in connection with URW-organized strike. Arrested Hartford, CT, November 1919; a trove of anarchist literature found in his home. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/405; FBI file OG 8000-364023
Stanislaw Bartesiewics (aka Stanley Barton, aka Joe Rink, aka Joe Rynkiewich)
Born 1888, Lithuania. Laborer. Killed a woman in Russia (circumstances unclear) and fled to US in 1899; extradited back to Russia that year where convicted and served three years and seven months in prison. Migrated to US again 1915. Member Lithuanian Branch of the Communist Party of America. His own wife, as well as his brother (George) and sister-in-law, all gave sworn depositions against him to the Bureau of Investigation. Arrested Detroit, January 1920. Deported 1921.
FBI file OG 382016
Ivan Baskevich (Иван Баскевич; John; Basskevich)
Born 1897, Russia. Immigrated to US 1913, laborer. Held socialist ideas in Russia but not a party member. Joined the Socialist Party within “a few days” of arrival in US, became financial secretary of Cleveland’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
INS file 54859/943
Aleksandr Ivanovich Batura (Александр Иванович Батура)
Born in Polish Russia. Anarchist and IWW member arrested in Steubenville, Ohio. Deported to Poland September 10, 1924.
In Russia, “openly declared that it is only Commissars and not workers that live well here,” and sentenced to Solovetsky prison camp, then internal exile. Wrote to comrades in US circa 1927: “The main thing is that I have no work and it is so hard to get anything. I have been actually starving here, moreover, I am sick.” Received aid from anarchists abroad 1929-1931.
See: Pittsburgh Gazette Times, September 6, 1924; Senya Fleshin Papers, International Institute for Social History; G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents) (1940)
Morris Becker
Born 1885, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1906. Married, wife in US. Anarchist; supporter of Alexander Berkman’s The Blast; member of No-Conscription League. One of the first two people arrested under the Selective Service Act of 1917; sentenced to a year and eight months in Atlanta federal penitentiary for interference in the draft, and repeatedly disciplined for “misconduct.” Admitted he was an anarchist and “a man without a country,” “but I am an advocate of peace and not of force.” Deported on the Buford.
After a long period of unemployment secured a factory job in Petrograd, but when he complained of “the unbearably putrid air in the shop where he was working, the unnecessary filth and dirt,” he was told he was “a pampered bourgeois” who “pine[d] for the comforts of capitalist America.” 1931 wrote a coded letter to Alexander Berkman after a decade of silence.
INS file 54235/32
See also: Emma Goldman, Living My Life; Alexander Berkman Papers, IISH
Max Belesky or Belessky
Born 1888, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Migrated to US 1913; carpenter. Wife and three children in Russia. Joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party in Detroit, which became a branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. “Voluntary departure” to Russia October 16, 1920.
INS file 54859/752
Emelyan Belesta (Емельян Белеста, aka Michael Belesta, Andrew Belesta, Andriev Belesta)
Born Russia, 1886. Wife in Russia. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1912, then US (without inspection) 1916. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh around 1918; took “more or less of a prominent part in meetings of Russian radicals in the district.” Arrested 1919 in possession of “a considerable amount of extremely radical literature.” On bail, arrested again for writing and distributing handbill calling for a general strike of American workers “to enforce the lifting of the blockade against Russia.” Deported on the Buford.
Died of typhus in Ufa.
INS file 54616/134
See also: INS file 54616/89; New-York Tribune, October 4, 1919
Born 1881, Russia. Wife and three children in Russia. Joined Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested Fairmont, West Virginia, November 1919. Claimed to have been drunk when joined URW. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/593
Demyan Belowky
Born 1882, Russia. Immigrated to US 1915; laborer. Joined Communist Party in Detroit. Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54850/994; FBI file OG 382092
William Bendik (Бендик, Bendick)
Flier in Bendik’s possession when arrested
Born 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Claimed to have joined Russian Branch No. 2 of Socialist Party of America, Cleveland, January 1919, but in possession of Socialist Labor Party literature when arrested June 1919. Membership in neither qualified as grounds for deportation. Instead, deportation based on the alleged fact that, after he participated in 1919 May Day demonstration broken up by police, he reportedly stated, “We only gave them a demonstration of what we will do July 4th; we will be prepared and have ammunition and everything, and we will show them what we will do.” Deported on the Buford.
Born circa 1880, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Tailor. Migrated to US circa 1902; opened his own tailor shop in Baltimore 1919. Joined IWW circa 1914, but left circa 1916; joined Baltimore Branch No. 1 of Union of Russian Workers in 1917; active in national URW affairs. Arrested November 1919. Deported 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/419
Tom Benich
Born 1895, Slavonia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Croatia). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Member, Socialist Labor Party; 1919 joined South Slavic Branch no. 75, Communist Party of America. Claims he joined CP “in order to get the members to come over to the Socialist Labor Party.” Arrested Youngstown, Ohio 1920. Stated, “I believe that the working men should run this country.” Deported to Yugoslavia, September 1, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54811/479; FBI file OG 384859
Philip Berezka (Beresko, Borodsky, Berezovsky)
Born 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913 via Canada. Employed by Pullman Coach Company. Joined Socialist Party in Rockford, Illinois, in 1918; joined Communist Party of America, November, 1919. Arrested Chicago, January 1920, during second Palmer Raids; declared “I do not believe in organized government.” Arrested again while on bail August 1920, with Kondrate Serovatke, while posting pro-Soviet posters on telephone poles. “Voluntary departure” to Russia, October 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54808/7; FBI files OG 811, OG 386686, and BS 202600-152-1
Edward Berg
Edward Berg’s IWW credentials
Born 1880, Sweden. Laborer. Migrated to US 1905. Joined IWW 1906; paid organizer and delegate for Lumber Workers Industrial Union no. 500. Arrested Spokane, Washington, April 1918. Deported November 1918. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1885, Russia. Laborer. Anarchist; belonged to “revolutionary groups in Russia” and participated in 1905 revolution; migrated to US 1913; joined IWW shortly thereafter. Arrested Fresno, California, September 1917 for public drunkenness; detained after IWW membership card found. Declared, “I hold allegiance to no country. The world is my country…I was a syndicalist since I was a lad of 13 or 14.” Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54407/17
Otto Berglind (Otto Bergleind; aka August Berdland)
Born 1880, Västmanland County, Sweden. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1908, then US 1913; joined IWW that same year. IWW members. Arrested January 1918 in Everett, Washington. Deported October 31, 1918.
INS file 54379/33
Alexander Berkman (Александр Беркман; Ovsei Osipovich Berkman)
Born 1870, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania), to well-off Jewish family. Drawn to Russian populist movement as a student. Migrated to US 1888; soon after became anarchist and lifelong collaborator of Emma Goldman. Laborer; typesetter; editor. 1892 attempted to assassinate steel manager Henry Clay Frick in retaliation for deaths of workers during Homestead Strike. Sentenced to 21 years; served 14. By his release in 1906 he was one of the most well-known anarchists in the US. Became editor of Goldman’s Mother Earth, then 1915 moved to San Francisco where published The Blast. Co-founded the No-Conscription League in 1917 and arrested that June under the Espionage Act. Sentenced to two years federal prison, then deported on the Buford.
In Russia, he and Goldman collected materials for a Museum of the Revolution. Broke with Bolsheviks after 1921 Kronstadt Rebellion; left Russia December 1921 with Goldman. Lived illegally in Germany, France, and elsewhere in Europe until his death. Wrote numerous leftwing critiques of the Soviet regime, including The Bolshevik Myth (1925). Cofounder and secretary of the Joint Committee for the Defense of Revolutionists Imprisoned in Russia; member of Relief Fund of the International Working Men’s Association for Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists Imprisoned or Exiled in Russia. In ill health, committed suicide Nice, France, 1936.
INS file 52410/43
See also: Alexander Berkman, The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920–1922); Emma Goldman, Living My Life; Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich, The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman; Alexander Berkman Papers, International Institute for Social History
Born 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913; laborer. Member, Rockford, Illinois branch of the Communist Party. Arrested Chicago, January 1920; “voluntary departure” to Russia October 16, 1920.
INS file 54809/8; FBI file BS 202600-150-1
Charles Bernat (Бернат)
Born 1879, Russia (present-day Estonia). Estonian. Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1902. Joined IWW around 1908; IWW delegate and organizer; in 1917 became Secretary of Lumber Workers Industrial Union Local No. 500, Seattle. Arrested Seattle, June 1918. Deported February 1921.
Deported to Austria May 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of radical deportees in INS file 54325/36G
Mikhail Bilokumsky (Michael)
Born 1892, Andreevka, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Member, United Communist Party. Arrested January 1921 in Philadelphia during second Palmer Raids, and again April 1921 while handing out UCP May Day handbills with a friend. Ordered deported to Russia in August 1921 on basis of revolutionary content of those handbills; lost Supreme Court challenge in 1923 (United States ex rel. Bilokumsky v. Tod, 263 U.S. 149), by which time the Soviet Union no longer accepted deportees from US. Instead, a passport was obtained from a New York representative of the “Ukrainian Diplomatic Mission,” an anti-Soviet self-proclaimed government in exile not recognized by the United States or Ukraine. A Bureau of Immigration board of review ruled in January 1924 that Bilokumsky be released on bond because “the passport cannot be used…and in order to effect deportation a passport must be had from the Ukrainian Soviet representative which is not practicable at this time.” But these instructions were ignored; on May 24, 1924 he was deported via Switzerland to the Russian border, where he may have been turned away; rumored to have been left in Romania, prompting the Communist newspaper Novy Mir to protest that if Bilokumsky was left stranded in a “country that is hostile to Russia he will either be imprisoned or murdered.” He was last reported to be “stranded and starving in Vienna.” No further information of his fate was found.
INS file 55009/76
See also: Kansas State News (Topeka KS), August 29, 1924
_________ Bjorkman
IWW member deported October 28, 1919. No further information found.
Included on list of IWW prisoners and deportees in One Big Union Monthly, March 1920
Juan Blanco
Deported IWW member. No further information found.
See: La Union del Marino, February 1921
Catherine Hartog Bloom
Born 1883, Hoogwoud, The Netherlands. Housewife. Migrated to US 1913. Not radical before arrival; joined Socialist Party circa 1915 and was treasurer of her SP local in Chicago; transferred to Ninth Ward branch of Communist Party of America in October 1919. Husband Nick Bloom “in the building trades”; owned home in Chicago, which they intended to sell so he could return to The Netherlands with her. Deported June 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54861/120; FBI file OG 381560
Sergey Bobkov (Сергей Бобков, Serge Bobkoff or Babkoff)
Born 1898, Moscow, Russia. Carpenter, migrated to US 1914. Member and delegate of the Seattle branch of the Union of Russian Workers. After his brother, Feodor, died in Seattle in 1919, he became the sole supporter of Feodor’s sick wife and daughter. Arrested Seattle, December 1919. Deported January 1921.
INS file 54860/431; FBI file 388847
Sevastyan Bogdanovich (Севастьян Богданович, Sebastian aka Sam)
Born 1892, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1915. Union of Russian Workers. Arrested March 1920, Baltimore, after “nearly caused a riot” by giving pro-Bolshevik speech in front of Holy Rosary Church. Deported February 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
FBI file OG 384761
Xenov Bogen (Зенов Боген, Zenow/Zenov Bogen)
Born 1893, Korets, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined Union of Russian Workers early 1919. Arrested Hartford, Connecticut, during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born Russia (probably in present-day Ukraine). Member of the Union of Russian Workers. Multiple sources claim Bogush was deported on the Buford; however his name is not on the ship’s manifest (though it is possible that Bogush or the name he was deported under was a pseudonym). In Ukraine, joined anarchist Nabat Federation and observed Nestor Makhno’s partisan army. Arrested Kharkov circa November 1920 and executed by Checka circa March 1921 (Voline and Maximoff give slightly different dates).
See: Senya Fleshin Papers, International Institute for Social History; http://socialist.memo.ru/lists/bio/l3.htm#n814; Voline, The Unknown Revolution, 1917-1921; G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents)
Nikolai Bolsun (Bolson, Bolsum)
Member of the Communist Party of America in Plainfield, New Jersey. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to Russia December 23, 1920. Nor further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
See also: The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920
Vasiliy Bondarenko (Васи́лий Бондаренко, Wasiliy Bondarenko, aka William Bender/Bander)
Born 1897, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and two children in US. “Very active” member of Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and lectured for the URW nationally. Arrested Bridgeport, Connecticut November 9, 1919, again in Hartford, Connecticut, November 28, 1919, and then in New York during second the Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown, but likely the same Bondarenko mentioned by anarchist Clara Larsen as having been “killed by Stalin.”
INS file 54709/404; FBI file OG 382161
See also Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America
Samuel Bondarenko (Самуил Бондаренко; Sam Bondarenko; Bondarewko)
Born state of Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine), c.1878. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Member of the Philadelphia’s Russian Branch of the Socialist Party, then joined the Communist Labor Party ; secretary of the city’s Russian Branch. Arrested December 29, 1919. Deported to Russia February 1921, as an alleged member of the Communist Party of America (which was incorrect).
INS file 54809/871; see also FBI file OG 267034
Peter Bonko
Arrested in Brooklyn during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Probably Communist Party of America member. Deported to Russia December 23, 1920. No further information found.
Included on lists of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G and FBI file BS 202600-33
See also: The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920
Vasiliy Bootryn
Born 1888, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Molder. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and children in Russia. Joined the Socialist Party of America in Detroit, April 1919; transferred to Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party of America later that year. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Held at Fort Wayne. “Voluntarily departed” 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54859/998; FBI file OG 387334
Vladimir Borisyuk (Владимир Борисюк, Vladimir Borisiuk/Borisink, Walter Borisuk)
Vladimir Borisyuk’s Socialist Party membership card
Born 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November, 1919, Hartford, Connecticut. Member of the Socialist Party (not a deportable offense), but had paid one month’s dues to Communist Party, and authorities suspected he belonged to Union of Russian Workers. Also accused of making revolutionary statements. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/151
____ Borkhak
Polish IWW member deported February 20, 1921. No further information found.
See Golos Truzhenika, March 5, 1921.
Ivan Borovsky (Боровский; John; Borowsky)
Born 1878, Ventspils, Russia (present-day Latvia). Barber, railroad worker. Migrated to US 1908. Married; wife in Chicago. Member of IWW’s Russian Branch in Chicago; also suspected of belonging to URW. Arrested Chicago during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported March 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/267; FBI file OG 380320
Boris Borsuk (Борис Борсук, Boroes/Borores Borsuk)
Born 1896, Brest, Russia (present-day Belarus). Barber. Migrated to US 1912. Owned barbershop at 70 Robinson Rd., Youngstown, Ohio. Helped organize Youngstown branch of the Union of Russian Workers and distributed URW literature. Arrested Youngstown in August 1919. His brother, Dimitri, arrested after visiting him in jail and again in 1920 on suspicion of belonging to the URW, although he denied this and does not appear to have been deported. Boris meanwhile was deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/500
See also: FBI file OG 380628
Max Brazeliya (Макс Бразелия or Бразилия, Brazelia)
Born 1892, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Jewish; laborer. Migrated to US 1913 (via Canada). Unaffiliated socialist; subscribed to the Forverts. Arrested March 1919, St. Louis after employer at Nelson Pants Manufacturing Company reported him for “spreading Bolsheviki propaganda in the workroom.” His employer, not actually wanting to see him deported, later defended him as harmless and “a good workingman.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/25; FBI file OG 352388
See also: Kenyon Zimmer, “The Voyage of the Buford: Political Deportations and the Making and Unmaking of America’s First Red Scare,” in Deportation in the Americas: Histories of Exclusion and Resistance, edited by Kenyon Zimmer and Cristina Salinas
Josef Brencich
Born 1887, Fiume, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Sailor; painter. Italian-speaker, member of “the Slavish Race.” Migrated to US 1911. Anarchist, member of Philadelphia’s Union of Italian Workers. Arrested April, 1921, with Erasmo Abate and other members. Ordered deported to Hungary, but in 1921 Fiume had become an independent state, so allowed “voluntary departure” as a sailor “direct for Mediterranean ports,” January 1923. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 55009/82
Stefen Brezovic (Vrezovic; Steve)
Born 1886, Austro-Hungarian Empire (somewhere that later became part of Yugoslavia). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined Socialist Party of America 1916; September 1919 transferred to the South Slavic Branch No. 17 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested January 1920, Detroit. Deported May 1920 to Yugoslavia. Subsequent activities unknown.
Frank Brodya (Бродя, Frank Brodia, Frank Broida, aka P. Broido)
Born 1882, Russia. Blacksmith. Served five years in Russian army. Wife and three children in Russia. Migrated to US 1913; already an anarcho-syndicalist at that time. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh and secretary of his branch. Cooperated with Frank Belesta in campaign for a general strike of American workers “to enforce the lifting of the blockade against Russia.” Local immigration inspector described him as “intelligent and I consider him one of the most dangerous Russians in the Pittsburgh district.” His original deportation warrant erroneously listed his country of citizenship as Italy. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/89
See also: New-York Tribune, October 4, 1919
Abe Brook (Эйб Брук, Abe Bruk/Brooks/Brock/Bruke, Obe Bruk)
Born 1893, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Migrated to US 1914. Member of the Brooklyn branch of the Union of Russian Workers (but denied this in interrogation). Married Clara Kessler, also an anarchist, circa 1918. Arrested in New York October 1919 while organizing protest of US blockade of Russia, and again during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Clara Brook led protest upon learning of the deportations; petitioned to be deported herself to join her husband. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/273
Ivan Nicholaevich Brunert (Иван Брунерт, John Brunert/Brunett)
Born 1869, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Bookkeeper; tailor. Wife and two sons in Kiev. Migrated to US 1912. Joined Branch no. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore in 1918, and served as its financial secretary. Former member of an IWW branch of Polish tailors, and member of Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/109
Ivan Bubenko (aka John Bubenko)
Born 1884, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Wife and child in Russia. Migrated to US 1912 (via Canada) to avoid military service. Joined Socialist Party of America 1918, then transferred to Russian Branch no. 3 of Communist Party of America in Detroit. “Voluntary departure” October 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54860/22; FBI file BS 202600-712-1
Anton Budkowsky (Antoni Buoty/Buotv; Butkocky; Butkockery; Butkowski)
Born 1884, Pružany, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Wife and son in Russia. Migrated to US 1914 (via Canada, without inspection). Joined Union of Russian Workers in Detroit in 1917. Arrested July 1918 during scuffle between authorities and Russian radicals attending picnic. Told immigration inspectors “I am a sympathizer of the anarchists, but I am not an anarchist…I believe in their teachings.” “Voluntary departure” January 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54554/23
Fedor Buhay (Frank Bohai)
Born 1893, Russia. At age three family moved to Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Belarusian (“Ruthenian”). Machinist; Russian-speaker. Migrated to US circa 1910. Joined Communist Party of America in Buffalo. Deported to Austria, April 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
