Tag Archives: IWW

Goldman to Grau i Jassans

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Emma Goldman

File:Emma Goldman's deportation photo, 1919.jpg
Emma Goldman, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1869, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Garment worker; nurse; lecturer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1885
Affiliation: Anarchist

Immigrated to the United States in 1885 and became an anarchist in the wake of the Haymarket Affair. Goldman soon emerged as one of the most prominent anarchist propagandists in the country, known for her lectures, writings, and advocacy on issues including syndicalism, free speech, birth control, and antimilitarism. Over the course of her career, she was arrested at least thirteen times for her political activities. In 1906 she founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth, which she published until its suppression in 1917. That year, she co-founded the No-Conscription League and, together with Alexander Berkman, was arrested in June under the Espionage Act for interfering with the military draft. Both were convicted, sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and fined $10,000. Upon her release, Goldman was deported to Soviet Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In Russia, Goldman and Berkman initially collaborated on collecting materials for a Museum of the Revolution. Following the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion in 1921, both broke decisively with the Bolshevik regime. They left Russia in December 1921 and Goldman lived thereafter in Germany, France, England, and Canada, continuing anarchist activism and publicly condemning Soviet authoritarianism. In 1934 she was permitted to return briefly to the United States for a lecture tour. During the Spanish Civil War, she traveled to Barcelona in 1936 and undertook speaking and organizing tours across Europe on behalf of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT. She died in Toronto in February 1940.

Sources: INS file 52410/43; Emma Goldman, Living My Life; Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia; Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich, Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman.

Philip Golishko

Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers

Became a member of both the Industrial Workers of the World and the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Seattle in January 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/543; FBI file OG 381765.

José González (a.k.a. Rosendo García)

Born: c. 1896, A Coruña, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity: Galician
Occupation: Sailor; laborer
Migration: Entered US 1916
Affiliations: IWW

Entered the United States in 1916 by jumping ship from the SS Corunna, using a passport belonging to a sailor friend, Rosendo García. Worked as a sailor and laborer and laid track for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His father resided in Cuba, while his mother remained in Spain. Arrested in Philadelphia as one of eleven Spaniards and Mexicans suspected of radical activity. González admitted membership only in La Mancomunidad (The Commonwealth), a mutual aid society that raised funds for imprisoned Spanish radicals. He denied IWW membership, though he acknowledged attending two IWW meetings and having friends who belonged to the organization. Immigration authorities concluded, “A careful survey of the evidence fails to show his connection with the I.W.W. or that he is guilty of any anarchistic charges, although he admits that a number of his friends are anarchists, socialists or members of the I.W.W.” (González is nevertheless identified as an IWW member in at least one IWW publication.) A deportation warrant was issued on the basis that he was “likely to become a public charge” and “entered by water at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officials.” Deported to Spain on July 10, 1919, aboard the SS León XIII.

Sources: INS file 54648/30.

Grigory Varfolomeevich Gorbich

Born: 1896, Brest or Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Metalworker
Migration: Date unknown
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Became an anarchist in 1916 and joined the Union of Russian Workers. Deported to Poland on January 22, 1921.

In 1922 arrested for illegally crossing the Polish border into Soviet territory and subsequently settled in Petrograd. He was arrested again in July 1923 and sentenced to two years of internal exile away from major cities and border regions. In 1925 he was again arrested and sentenced to an additional three years of internal exile.

Sources: International Committee for Political Prisoners, Letters from Russian Prisons; G.P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents); http://visz.nlr.ru/person/book/vi/4/130.

Nikolai Gorin

Nikolia Gorin, c. 1920. National Archives.

Born: 1895, Tverskoy, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Union of Russian Workers

Worked as a machinist in Bridgeport, Connecticut where he joined the Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America and, in 1919, became a member and secretary of the local branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in February 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/145; FBI file OG 381756.

Ivan Gornovsky (a.k.a. John Gornovsky)

Born: 1886, Selets, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

Brother of Vasil Gornovsky; active in the radical movement in Russia before emigrating to the United States in 1913. Left behind a wife and child in Russia.

He became a member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World and served as secretary of the Seattle branch of the URW. Arrested on October 16, 1919, on charges of criminal syndicalism and arrested again in January 1920. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/407.

Vasil Gornovsky

Born: 1895, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

Emigrated to the United States in 1913, following his brother Ivan. Became a member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World. Arrested in Seattle in November 1919 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/427; FBI file OG 388242.

George Goroshkov (or Garoshkow; Gorshkov; a.k.a. Ivan Balui)

Born: 1880, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and child remained in Russia while he emigrated. He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Monessen, Pennsylvania, in early 1919. Deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/214; FBI file OG 383004.

Samuel Goz (a.k.a. Sam Gordon)

Born: 1903, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1918
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Migrated to the United States in 1918 with his mother and younger brother. Claimed that prior to emigration he had been affiliated with the Bolshevik Party in Russia, that Leon Trotsky personally read him the party’s manifesto and program, and that he tried to join the Red Army “but they would not take me because I was only fifteen years old.” Arrested in Buffalo in January 1920 as a member of the Communist Party of America, at the age of seventeen. Openly declared his belief in assassinating public officials who opposed the working class, stating: “In fact, I would kill them myself if I had a chance.” Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/906.

Ivan Gramatsky

Born: 1895, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in Newark, New Jersey in January 1920 and deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.

Sources: FBI file OG 384985.

Josep Grau i Jassans (a.k.a. José Grau Jassans; José Grau; Arnaldo Sopelana; Arnaldo Sopelano; Adolfo Apelle)

Josep Grau, c. 1930s

Born: 1899, Barcelona, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity: Catalan
Occupation: Marine fireman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: IWW; anarchist

Belonged to the anarcho-syndicalist CNT in Spain before emigrating in 1917. Immediately joined the Industrial Workers of the World in the U.S., becoming an organizer for its Martine Transport Workers Industrial Union. He also joined the Spanish-speaking anarchist Los Corsarios Group in New York and edited the first three issues of its paper El Corsario before leaving due to internal disagreements. In February 1919 he was among fourteen members of Los Corsarios arrested by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson; all charges were dropped. He was arrested again in May 1919 while serving as a delegate to a Marine Transport Workers convention in Philadelphia. Although he falsely denied being an anarchist, he admitted IWW membership and was deported on December 20, 1919.

After returning to Spain, Grau became a CNT organizer in Barcelona and involved in relaunching the CNT newspaper Solidaridad Obrera. He later joined the pro-Communist Comités Sindicalistas Revolucionarios and attended the Third Profintern Congress in Moscow in 1924. Following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, he joined the Catalan nationalist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and became private secretary to party leader Lluís Companys. Elected to the Spanish parliament in 1931 and re-elected in 1933 as an ERC candidate, he focused on labor rights and Catalan autonomy. Expelled from the ERC in 1934 amid internal disputes, he was rehabilitated in 1936. During the Spanish Civil War, he served as an inspector for the Rupublican state-run petroleum company and of municipal commissioners. After Franco’s victory, he fled to France in 1939 and emigrated to Mexico in 1942, where he worked as a salesman until his death in 1965.

Sources: INS file 5461/211; FBI file BS 40-9016-1; Arnaldo Sopelana [Josep Grau i Jassans], Lo que yo he visto en Norte-América; Arnau Gonzàlez i Vilalta, Els diputats catalans a les Corts constituents republicanes, 1931–1933; https://memoriaesquerra.cat/biografies/grau-jassans-josep.

Graves to Gusko

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Thomas Graves

Born: c. 1895, Haverigg, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: IWW

Worked as a miner in Arizona. In July 1917 he was among the striking miners forcibly expelled from Bisbee, Arizona, and abandoned in the New Mexico desert during the “Bisbee Deportation.” In January 1918 he joined the IWW’s Metal Mine Workers Branch 65, Local No. 800, and soon became an organizer. Arrested in May 1918 on a charge of vagrancy, and again later that year in Globe, Arizona, for allegedly violating the Espionage Act, and again in Globe in April 1919. In a confiscated letter, Graves wrote to a friend, “I have been trying to figure our this democracy for a long time but the only answer that I can come to is if you don’t do as I tell you, you must go to the can, therefore I don’t want any more of it, and the sooner they send me back to the lands of the Kings the better.” Deported to England on June 21, 1919.

After deportation, resumed work as a miner in England and married. In 1930 he was recruited work in a copper mine in colonial Rhodesia (present-day Zambia), where he acquired a reputation as a union militant and became a founding member and shop steward of a whites-only Northern Rhodesia Mine Workers’ Union. He returned to England in 1939 after being dismissed from his job, and died in 1966.

Sources: INS file 54616/87; Duncan Money, White Mineworkers on Zambia’s Copperbelt, 1926–1974: In a Class of Their Own.

Pavel Grib (a.k.a. Paul Grib; Greb)

Born: 1887, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Machinist; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers

His wife and two children remained in Russia when he emigrated. In 1919 he joined both the Industrial Workers of the World and the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle, where he became the URW branch’s financial secretary. Arrested on February 7, 1920, at a lumber camp near Ashford, Washington, and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/444; FBI file OG 372555.

Seodor Grigoreko (or Grigorenko)

Born: 1895, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit in 1919, which later transferred en masse into the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Detroit during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/65; FBI file OG 385764.

Nikolai Grishko (a.k.a. Nicholas Hrishco)

Born: 1898, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Steel worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

In 1918 he joined Russian Branch No. 1 of the Socialist Party of America in Baltimore, which later became part of the Communist Party of America. Served as the branch’s recording secretary. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54809/655; FBI files OG 8000-383428 and 377436.

Alfred Groener

Born: 1898, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: IWW?

Arrested in Portland, Oregon, in January 1918 while in possession of two IWW pamphlets, though no evidence established that he was actually a member of the organization. Nevertheless, he was interned as an “alien enemy” during World War I and was released on the condition of his voluntary departure on June 29, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54379/80.

Adolph Gross (or Grosse)

Adolph Gross, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1860, Mainz, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Farmer; teamster; news vendor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1882
Affiliation: Anarchist

Immigrated to the United States in 1882, at the age of twenty-two. An anarchist, he and his wife and seven children lived at the anarchist Home Colony in Washington State from 1903 onward. Around 1918 he opened a newsstand in Tacoma, Washington. In late 1919 he was arrested and sentenced to twenty-eight months at McNeil Island federal prison under the Espionage Act for selling seditious literature, despite the fact that World War I had already ended. In December 1921 he was deported to Germany at age sixty-one, making him the oldest known deportee of the Red Scare (he had two grandchildren at the time). He was not permitted to contact his family prior to deportation and was denied the opportunity to take money or personal belongings with him.

Settled in Hamburg, and in 1922 his daughter reported “it is killing him to live in idleness over there and he says unless he has a few hundred dollars he cannot do anything.” Reportedly died sometime before 1930.

Sources: INS file 54861/406; FBI file OG 8000-381731; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society; The Nation, October 19, 1921.

Janos Grunzweig (a.k.a. John Grunzweig)

John Grunzweig
Janos Grunzweig, late 1920s. Ancestry.com.

Born: 1900, Schöndorf, Austria-Hungary (present-day Frumușeni, Romania)
Nationality: Disputed (formerly Austro-Hungarian)
Ethnicity: German
Occupation: Cabinetmaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliations: Communist Party of America

Emigrated to the United States in 1910 with his parents and siblings to rejoin his father, settling in Tonawanda, New York. Trained as a cabinetmaker and later joined the Communist Party of America, prompting his father to expel him from the family home. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on May 8, 1920.

Upon arrival in Athens, Greece, he was arrested and jailed for two weeks. Romanian authorities refused him entry because his birthplace was not part of Romania at the time of his birth, and Hungary likewise denied that he was a citizen. After his release, Grunzweig worked odd jobs in Greece for three months before stowing away on a ship bound for Canada.

He disembarked, traveled to Tonawanda, and was arrested again in May 1921. In March 1922 he was released on bail when the government proved unable to deport him. Dubbed “A Man Without a Country” by the American press, he eventually regularized his status and by 1940 had become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Died in Buffalo, New York, in 1984.

Sources: INS file 54811/755; FBI files OG 388225 and BS 202600-1932; Buffalo Times, December 13, 1922; Ancestry.com.

Ivan Gushchia (a.k.a. John Guschia)

Born: Russia, year unknown
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migration to US year unknown
Affiliation: Unknown

His name is included on a list of radicals deported to Soviet Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 55110/4.

Martin Gunderson

Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls), September 10, 1918.

Born: c. 1890, Norway
Nationality: Norwegian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: IWW

Became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In November 1918 he was indicted alongside fellow IWW member Stanley Brown on federal charges for allegedly mailing phosphorous intended for arson. At trial, Gunderson admitted to having burned down the barn of the Aberdeen chief of police. Convicted and sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment at Leavenworth. Deported to Norway on September 4, 1919.

Sources: Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls), November 15, 1917, September 10, 1918, and August 5, 1919; New Solidarity, September 20, 1919.

Ivan Gushchia (a.k.a. John Gushchia; Gushia; Gushchany)

Ivan Gushchia’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1897, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Bridgeport, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in September 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/380.

William Gusko (or Jusko)

Born: 1894, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Punch press operator
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated. Worked as a punch press operator in Detroit and joined the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/968.

Hajduk to Hicke

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , , ,

Alfons Hajduk

Alfons Hajduk’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1886, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Window cleaner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliations: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and child remained in Russia while he emigrated. He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, New Jersey. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/357.

Onofry Halevich

Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America deported on June 8, 1920, reportedly to either Austria or Yugoslavia. No additional biographical information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file BS 202600-33.

Vazil Haluszak (a.k.a. Basil Haluszak; William Halussosek)

Born: Unknown
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America deported on March 2, 1920, to the Galician Soviet Socialist Republic. No additional biographical information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; and FBI file BS 202600-33.

Peter Hancharuk

Born: c. 1892, Grodnensky Uyezd, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America in Detroit, and later transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920 and interned at Fort Wayne. On February 1, 1921, he “voluntarily departed” to Soviet Russia.

Sources: INS file 54859/746.

Stanley Haranin (a.k.a. B. Haranin)

Born: 1894, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Tailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

First joined the Socialist Party of America and later became a member of Milwaukee’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested on January 2, 1920, and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54809/152

Vasil Haritouchik (a.k.a. Wasil Haryntoczyk; William Hatrinuk; Chartonchak)

Born: 1888, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1918 and in 1919 transferred into Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and “voluntarily departed” for Russian on October 16, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54859/735; FBI file OG 386253.

Leo Haskevich (a.k.a. Leonti Hackwicz; Leonte Hackewicz; Sittimikoff)

Born: 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

No political involvement prior to his emigration from Russia, but joined the Union of Russian Workers in Akron, Ohio, in 1917. Became involved in efforts to organize a strike among Akron rubber workers and was arrested in December 1917. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54235/159.

Ernest Emil Albert Heitmiller (a.k.a. E.A. Heitmiller)

Born: 1887, Linden-Limmer, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Sailor; lumber worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 via Canada
Affiliation: IWW

Entered the United States in 1914 via Canada without inspection. Worked as a sailor and lumber worker and became active in the Industrial Workers of the World, eventually serving as a delegate and organizer. Arrested in Seattle in February 1919 and deported on January 7, 1920.

He afterward wrote of his experiences as a passenger aboard the SS Mongolia: “It was a bad trip, as the ship had no accommodations for the many passengers…Several died on the journey and it is a wonder that no contagious sickness developed.”

Sources: INS file 54645/435; FBI file OG 347306; New Solidarity, March 6, 1920.

Peter Herasevich (or Gerasevich)

Born: 1892, Kobryn, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Pipe inspector
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and son remained in Russia when he emigrated. In January 1919 he joined the Youngstown, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 while on strike from the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/513.

José Ángel Hernández

El Heraldo de Mexico, May 13, 1919.

Born: 1885, Tepic, Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Bricklayer; carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US year unkown
Affiliation: Partido Liberal Mexicano; IWW; Socialist Party of America

By 1906 he was living in Los Angeles, where he became a member of the PLM-affiliated Grupo Reforma, Libertad y Justicia. By 1911 he was in Houston, Texas, serving as head of the PLM-affiliated Grupo Regeneración Solidaridad Obrera. He joined the IWW in 1913. In 1914 he married fellow PLM member Elisa Alemán, and their daughter Emancipación was born later that year. In 1915 he became an organizer for the Socialist Party’s Land League of Texas and was active in the PLM-affiliated Grupo Germinal in San Antonio. A second daughter, Susana, was born in 1916, after which Hernández separated from Alemán. In 1917 he was active in the Grupo Solidaridad in Houston and founded a mixed local of the IWW there, serving as its secretary. Arrested on August 22, 1917, for IWW organizing and illegally deported to Mexico on August 31, 1917, by an agent of the Bureau of Investigation.

Back in Mexico, Hernández was active with the IWW and the Casa del Obrero Mundial in Tampico ,and joined the anarchist Hermanos Rojos, becoming a regular contributor to their paper Germinal. In January 1918 he was elected general secretary of the Casa del Obrero Mundial in Tampico, though by March he was no longer affiliated with Hermanos Rojos. He cofounded and edited the newspaper Fuerza y Cerebro and was arrested in August 1918 for his organizing activities. In 1919 began writing for the anarchist newspaper Luz! and was arrested again as a leader of an oil workers’ strike in Tampico. In March 1920 he founded the Liga Socialista in Tampico, which endorsed electoral participation. Arrested 1921 for assisting with an IWW strike and later accused of mismanaging funds raised for a publication project. He subsequently disappeared, with some rumors suggesting he traveled to Soviet Russia.

Sources: FBI Mexican Files 232-84 and 232-2971; El Heraldo de México, May 13, 1919; Steve Rossignol, “A Forgotten Wobbly: José Ángel Hernández Across Two Nations,” Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, Summer 2024.

Jacob Heroch (or Horoch)

Born: Russia, year unknown
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Included on a list of radicals deported to Soviet Russia on December 23, 1920. No further biographical information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Christopher Hetaguroff

Born: Terskoy, Caucasus, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Armenian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Society for the Relief of Russia, then in 1919 joined the Communist Party in Seattle and was elected secretary of his branch. Arrested in January 1920, and immigration authorities issued a deportation warrant describing him as both an anarchist and “likely to become a public charge,” arguing that this charge was “borne out by the fact that thru his radical activities and membership he is now a public charge in the jail at Seattle, Wash.” Hetaguroff protested the designation, stating, “I would not become a public charge; I can work.” Deported aboard the SS Stockholm on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/48; Ancestry.com.

John Charles Hicke (or Kicke; a.k.a. Kurowsky)

Born: 1882, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (present-day Romania)
Nationality: Romanian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 via Canada
Affiliations: Unknown

Arrested in April 1918 in Oxford, Mississippi, and interned as an alien enemy at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he remained for nearly two years before being transferred to immigration custody. During detention, Hicke declared: “I am opposed to the Government of the United States and its peoples. I do not think its peoples are intelligent enough to govern themselves…I think the government should be overthrown and to accomplish this end every action would be justified.” Later, however, he claimed these statements were a strategy to expedite his deportation. He repeatedly petitioned U.S. and Austrian officials to hasten his removal. Deported to Romania on June 29, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54861/404.

Hing to Indriunas

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Wong Hing (a.k.a. Harry Hing)

Born: 1899, Guangdong, China
Nationality: Chinese
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Student; restaurant worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: IWW

Entered the United States in 1916 via Mexico without inspection. Worked as a restaurant worker in New York’s Chinatown while attending Columbia University as a student of John Dewey. In January 1919 he was arrested as a leader of an IWW-led strike by Chinese restaurant workers. Deported to China in March 1919 on the charge of illegal entry.

Sources: INS file 54519/2; Baltimore Sun, February 6, 1919; The Rebel Worker, May 15, 1919.

Mikhail Hirney (a.k.a. Mike Hirney; Herney)

Born: 1899, Pokrovka, Samara Oblast, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Store clerk
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliations: Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America and later became a member and secretary of the Flint, Michigan Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/738.

Mikhail Hladish (or Hladysh)

Born: c. 1885, Galicia, Austria-Hungary
Nationality: Russian (formerly Austro-Hungarian)
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliations: Communist Party of America

His wife remained in Europe when he emigrated. In 1919 he joined the Socialist Party of America and in September of that year transferred into the Communist Party of America. Served as secretary of the Communist Party branch in East Youngstown, Ohio. Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54810/553.

Alfred Hoffman (a.k.a. Edward Compe; Edward Kerlap; Edwin Hoffman)

Born: 1886, Hamburg, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Sailor; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: IWW

Entered the United States in 1907 after jumping ship in San Francisco. Joined the Industrial Workers of the World around 1913 and repeatedly arrested for strike-related activities in Seattle. During World War I he was interned as an alien enemy at Fort Douglas, Utah. While detained, he stated, “I am not a German, no. I am not patriotic for any country.” He “voluntary departed” on June 23, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54379/64.

Fritz Arthur Holm

Born: 1890, Korsberga, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: IWW; anarchist

Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1912 and identified as an anarchist. Subscribed to Alexander Berkman’s The Blast and wrote “Strictly opposed to war” on his draft registration card. He also served as secretary of the Scandinavian Defense League. Arrested in Seattle in February 1918, when authorities reported discovering “a wagon load of I.W.W. and anarchist literature” in his room. Deported in July 1919.

After returning to Sweden, Holm married Ellen Hildur Margareta Molin in 1923. Died in 1975.

Sources: INS file 54379/114; Ancestry.com.

Paul Holovkin (a.k.a. Prokop Holowkin; Golowkin)

Born: 1888, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Longshoreman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliations: Union of Russian Workers

A widower, with a son in Russia. In 1919 he joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In 1921 he was reported to have been “shot by the Bolshevik authorities as an active counter-revolutionist.”

Sources: INS file 54709/318; FBI file BS 202600-2386-1.

Andrew Hostilla (a.k.a. Andrey Kastialla)

Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1918 and honorably discharged in December of that year. He later became a member of the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/353.

Peter Hydamachuk

Born: 1893, Podolsky, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; to US 1917
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Worked as an autoworker in Detroit and was a member of the Machinists’ Union (AFL). attended a Detroit night school run by Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party and signed an application to join the party, though no evidence indicates he became a full member. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/774.

Steponas Indriunas

Born: 1893, Kovno, Russia (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became a member of Lithuanian Branch No. 74 of the Communist Party of America in Rockford, Illinois. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/666.

Jankovich to Justkavich

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Jerto Jankovich

Born: 1896, Bosnia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Nationality: Yugoslav
Ethnicity: South Slavic
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the South Slavic Branch of the Socialist Party of America in Pittsburgh and transferred into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested in March 1920 and deported to Yugoslavia via Italy on June 22, 1920, during which all of his luggage was lost.

Upon disembarkation in Naples, he was imprisoned for sixteen days due to misfiled paperwork from the Bureau of Immigration. He was then transported with bound hands to Trieste, and incarcerated in six different jails along the route. Writing from prison in Trieste on August 8, 1920, he stated: “The suffering was terrible. I am not able to write you everything about it. I do not think that human beings should be treated that way.”

Sources: INS file 54861/319; FBI file OG 387576.

John Janson (or Johnson; Jensen; a.k.a. Ernest Laukivirs)

Janson’s Socialist Party membership card, under the name Ernest Loukivirs. National Archives.

Born: 1886, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Latvian
Occupation: Sailor; wrestler; model; writer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Joined the Lettish Branch of the Socialist Party of America in Boston in March 1917, an affiliation that was not itself grounds for deportation. In 1918, he left Boston intending to return to Russia via the West Coast. Arrested in Denver for allegedly “advocating anarchy” and arrested again in Wyoming in June 1918. According to Immigration authorities, “The alien is highly educated, having written considerable fiction, and is therefore, holding the views that he does, a dangerous person to have in the country.” He expressed a desire to return to Latvia to fight for its independence. Janson was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

He appears to be the “Boston deportee” described by Alexander Berkman who joined the Cheka soon after arriving in Russia.

Sources: INS file 54379/534; Alexander Berkman, The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920–1922).

George Jerevich

Born: Unknown
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity: South Slavic
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Deported as a radical to Yugoslavia on September 1, 1920. No additional information regarding his background or political activities has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Johan Johanson (a.k.a. John Johnson; born Jonas Back)

Johan Johanson, c. 1910s. National Archives.

Born: 1874, Finland
Nationality: Finnish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1901
Affiliation: IWW

His wife and two children remained in Finland when he emigrated. He joined the Industrial Workers of the World around 1917. Twice confined to an insane asylum in Idaho, once in 1915 and again in 1918. In September 1919, arrested in Spokane under the state’s criminal syndicalism law and deported to on August 14, 1920.

In September 1920, he was reported to have left Finland for Soviet Russia, and in September 1921 he was rumored to be en route back to the United States.

Sources: INS file 54709/81; FBI file BS 186701-200.

Ragnar Johanson (or Johannson)

Ragnar Johanson, 1918. National Archives.

Born: 1887, Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Painter; union organizer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW

Became involved in the Swedish labor movement at an early age, joining the syndicalist Young Socialist League around 1900 and later the Painters Union. In 1910, he participated in the founding congress of the Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC) and became one of its leading organizers and speakers.

After immigrating to the United States in 1912, he joined the IWW and became one of its most prominent Swedish organizers. Assisted Frank Little during the 1917 Butte copper strike, where Little was lynched, and received identical threats against his own life. Johanson was convicted in the federal IWW trial of 1917–18 and sentenced to ten years in prison and a $30,000 fine. His sentence was later commuted in exchange for deportation, and he was deported on January 1, 1923.

Upon returning to Sweden, he resumed work for the SAC as a national lecturer and organizer, managing its publishing house from 1929 to 1954. Briefly imprisoned in 1940 for condemning the Hitler–Stalin Pact and served as treasurer of the anarcho-syndicalist International Working Men’s Association from 1942 to 1954. He died in 1959.

Sources: INS file 54616/58; https://web.archive.org/web/20210513121324/https://www.sac.se/Om-SAC/Historik/Biografier/Johanson,-Ragnar-1887-1959.

David E. Johnson

Born: 1883, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1900; immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: IWW

Migrated from Sweden to Canada in 1900 and entered the United States in 1903, subsequently moving back and forth between the two countries several times. He joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1916. In March 1918, he was arrested in St. Maries, Idaho, and deported on November 4, 1918.

Sources: INS file 54379/197.

Oscar Johnson (a.k.a. Arthur Ludwig Holden)

Oscar Johnson, 1916. Everett Public Library.

Born: 1893, Göteborg, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW

Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1916. He survived the Everett Massacre later that year and was arrested in connection with the incident, though charges were dropped in 1917. He was arrested again in Seattle on January 17, 1918. Immigration officials described him as “quite intelligent,” and “a very undesirable acquisition to the population of the United States.” Deported on November 30, 1918.

Sources: INS file 54379/9.

Mihail Jolnerovitz (a.k.a. Dimtro Jolnerovich)

Born: c. 1896, Vilno Governorate, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Hotel housekeeper
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist

Active anarchist and a member of the Anarchist-Communist Groups of the United States and Canada. Distributed the underground anarchist newspaper Free Society. Arrested in Cleveland on February 23, 1920, and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 55009/26.

John Justkavich (a.k.a. Sam Ushkovich)

Born: Russia, year unknown
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America in Bayonne, New Jersey. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920.

Kabas-Tarasyuk to Karniski

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Ivan Kabas-Tarasyuk (a.k.a. Vanaya Kabas-Tarasyuk; John Tarasuk; John Tarasyk; John T. Rasky; John Tarasky)

Ivan Kabas-Tarasyuk. Image from G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work.

Born: 1893 , Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1916. In December 1917, arrested in Akron, Ohio, for attempting to organize a strike among rubber workers but was released on bail. He later became secretary of the Baltimore branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested again in March 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

After returning to Russia, he became active in the anarchist Nabat Federation in Kharkov and was arrested and imprisoned in November 1920. Arrested again in October 1921 and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for anarchist activities, during which he was transferred to the Ryazan labor camp, where he was shot during a prisoner riot and almost killed. He then escaped via the Black Sea, possibly reaching Crimea, but returned to Russia in 1922. In 1925, arrested for organizing an illegal anarchist group and sent into internal exile in Arkhangelsk. HExiled again in 1926 to Petropavlovsk for three years for corresponding with anarchists abroad, and in 1929 he was exiled to Tashkent for an additional three years. In 1974, historian Paul Avrich reported rumors that Kabas-Tarasyuk had returned to the United and lived in Chicago.

Sources: INS file 54235/157; G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents); Boris Yelensky, In sotsialn shturem: zikhroynes fun der rusisher revolutsie; http://lists.memo.ru/d14/f460.htm; https://ru.openlist.wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%8C-%D0%A2%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%8E%D0%BA_%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87_(1893).

Luka Kachanov (or Katchanov; Kachanow; Katchanos)

Born: 1899, Gukovo, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Union of Russian Workers

Entered the United States in 1917 by jumping ship. He joined the Bristol, Connecticut branch of the Socialist Party of America and later became a member of the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested in December 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21.

Sources: INS file 54709/614.

Samuel Kadatsky (or Kodatsky)

Born: Russia, year unknown
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported to Russia on December 23, 1920. No further biographical has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; Butte Daily Bulletin, December 29, 1920.

Paul Kalach

Born: Russia, year unknown
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Deported to Russia on January 6, 1921. No additional biographical information has been identified.

Sources: FBI file OG 388114; INS file 54325/36G.

Josef Kalenezcicz (or Kalenczicz)

Born: Russia, year unknown
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Upholsterer
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Deported as a radical to Russia on February 26, 1921. No further biographical information has been found.

Sources: INS file 55110/4.

Ivan Kalenov (a.k.a. John Kaleanoff; John Chaljin)

Born: 1897, Kubasovo, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917. He served as a volunteer organizer for the URW and frequently acted as chairman of meetings and as a delegate to organizational conventions. Also a member of the Workers’ Defense League. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/231.

George Kaltejika

Born: 1890, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated. A member of the Union of Russian Workers, he was arrested in Youngstown, Ohio, during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/199.

Stepan Kaminsky (a.k.a. Steve Kaminsky)

Kaminsky’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1896, Podolia, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

In 1919, he joined the Elizabeth, New Jersey branch of the Union of Russian Workers, where he taught arithmetic classes and participated actively in organizational life. He also joined the Industrial Workers of the World in October 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/158.

Ivan Kamisoruk (a.k.a. John; Komisaruk)

Born: 1884, Obertyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913 or 1914; immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife and two children remained in Ukraine. In Detroit, he joined Ukrainian Branch No. 128 of the Communist Party of America. Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/781.

Samuel Kanovich (or Kanonovich; Kanowich)

Born: 1891, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russia
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Became a member and secretary of the Perth Amboy, New Jersey branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in New York in December 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/649.

John Kanter

Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Deported to Hungary as a radical on May 8, 1920. No further information regarding his background or political activities has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Gust Karniski

The circular Karniski was distributing when arrested. National Archives.

Born: 1886, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

He married and had a child while living in Chicago. Joined the Socialist Party of America and was latertransferred into the Communist Party, though he denied this to immigration authorities. In April 1921, he was arrested by “two citizens” for distributing “anarchistic literature,” specifically May Day circulars published by the Communist Party of America. “Voluntarily departed” on May 4, 1923.

Sources: INS file 55009/73.

Katzes to Kircher

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , ,

Arthur Katzes (or Katses; Kestes)

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.

Ilya Kerczuk (a.k.a. Ellis Kerchuk; Navul Kerchuk)

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.

Sources: INS file 54860/569; FBI file OG 389514.

Ivan Kesevich

Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Deported as a radical to Yugoslavia on September 1, 1920. No further biographical information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Olan Killen

Born: Unknown
Nationality: Unknown
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: IWW

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.

Sources: INS file 54408/512; FBI file OG 193587.

Kirson to Konavalchuk

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Beril Kirson (a.k.a. Boris; Barnett)

Born: 1872, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Sailor; carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; Workers’ International Industrial Union

Migrated to England in 1914; then to Canada and back to England in 1916. Jumped ship in the United States in 1917. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in July 1919 and was also a member of the Workers’ International Industrial Union. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. At the time of his deportation, his wife and four children remained in Russia.

Sources: INS file 54709/144; FBI file OG 8000-378509.

Joseph Kish

Born: 1889, Aranyosgyéres, Hungary (present-day Câmpia Turzii, Romania)
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity: Hungarian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; IWW

Joined the Hungarian Federation of the Socialist Party of America around 1912 and became a member of the IWW in 1919. Arrested in Cleveland during the May Day disturbances of 1919 and sentenced to thirty days in the workhouse for disturbing the peace. Arrested again in July 1919, he spent nearly nine months confined in the overcrowded and unsanitary Cuyahoga County Jail while awaiting deportation. Deported on March 21, 1920. At the time, his three children were living in Hungary with his mother.

Sources: INS file 54616/236.

Nikolai Kizer (a.k.a. Nick; Nicholas)

Born: 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Alleged to be the secretary of the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, along with his cousin Peter Kizer. Due to an administrative error, Peter was mistakenly sent to Ellis Island while Nikolai remained in the Hartford city jail, but the mistake was later corrected. Nikolai was deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS files 54709/160 and 54709/265; Bruce B. Sherbert, “The Palmer Raids in Connecticut, 1919–1920,” Connecticut Review 5, no. 1 (1971).

Nikolai Klemiatov (or Nicholas Klemiatoff; Kleminatoff)

Nikolai Klemiatov, c. 1920. National Archives.

Born: 1891, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Not specified
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to the US 1912
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America in Pittsburgh and transferred to the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested in October 1920 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54885/48.

Efim Kochovetz (a.k.a. M. Berisoff)

Born: 1888, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer; organizer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1914 and later became secretary of the New London, Connecticut branch, where he also taught arithmetic classes in its school. Arrested in Hartford during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/161.

Efim Kolesnikov (a.k.a. John Kolesnikoff; Joachim)

Efim Kolesnikov (center, standing) with other URW members arrested in New York, November 7, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1880, Kursk, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Ship reamer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A widower, Kolesnikov joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1919. He was arrested and beaten during the first Palmer Raids on November 7, 1919, during the raid on the Russian People’s House in New York. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/454.

Jim Komar (or Jonar)

Born: 1879, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. He was arrested in Youngstown, Ohio during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife and two children remained in Russia.

Sources: INS file 54709/544; FBI file OG 378979.

Pavel Konavalchuk (a.k.a. Paul)

Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark until the organization was broken up in November 1919. Arrested in Newark on January 3, 1920, he openly identified as an anarchist but stated his opposition to violence. Despite having a wife and American-born child in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/164.

Konikh to Korostyshevsky

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Gerasim Konikh (a.k.a. John Konik)

Born: Grodnia, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

After his return to Russia, he was sentenced around 1925 to five years in the Solovki prison camp as an anarchist. In 1930, reportedly “entirely in broken health,” he was sentenced to an additional three years of internal exile in Arkhangelsk.

Sources: INS file 54709/545; FBI file OG 378976; Bulletin of the Relief Fund of the International Working Men’s Association for Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists Imprisoned or Exiled in Russia, November–December 1930.

Aleksandr Konon (or Kornen; Konol)

Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A member of the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/352.

Pavel Konon (or Konen; a.k.a. Paul)

Born: Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America arrested in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921. His wife and four children remained in Russia.

Sources: FBI file OG 389419.

John Konopatsky (a.k.a. Anton Konopatsky)

Born: 1895, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Initially a member of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America and later joined the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Bayonne, New Jersey. Arrested in Newark during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on January 22, 1921. Had a wife and three children in the United States.

Sources: INS file 54860/163; FBI file OG 384085.

Ignatz Konoval (or Ignance Konowal)

Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Polish Branch of the Communist Party of America in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on December 23, 1920.

Sources: The Courier-News (Bridgewater, New Jersey), December 22, 1920.

Benjamin Kontrowitz (or Kontorovich; a.k.a. Berl Kanterowicz; B. Kanter)

Born: 1882, Ekaterinoslav, Russia (present-day Dnipro, Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Silk weaver
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Communist Party of America; IWW

A former member of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America and joined the Russian Federation of the Communist Party of America in 1919. He served as recording secretary, an executive board member, and a lecturer for its Paterson, New Jersey branch, and was a delegate to the First Convention of the Jewish Communist Federation in October 1919. Also a member of the IWW’s Textile Workers’ Industrial Union. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he was deported on November 23, 1920. He was married and had a son living in Paterson.

Sources: INS file 54810/67; FBI file OG 380782.

Vasily Mitin Konyakin (or Vasil Koniakin; a.k.a. Vasil Mitin)

Born: 1873, Saratov, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Rubber worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917 and became an officer in its Akron, Ohio branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/227.

Feodor Korini (a.k.a. Frank; Korano; Karoni; Butzki)

Born: c. 1888, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Served as financial secretary of Russian Branch No. 2 of the Communist Party in Philadelphia under the pseudonym “Butzki.” Arrested in January 1920, he denied the identity, but multiple witnesses identified him as such. An immigration inspector characterized his testimony as “shifting, evasive, and evidently untruthful in material particulars.” He was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54809/873.

Zys Korostyshevsky (or Zusil; a.k.a. Joe Kraus)

Born: 1897, Radomyshl, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Garment worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became a Tolstoyan anarchist in the US, embracing pacifism and agrarian ideals. Arrested in Chicago in June 1917, but the deportation warrant was canceled for lack of evidence. Arrested again in January 1919, he was ultimately deported on March 12, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54235/35.

Lachowsky to Lebed

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Hyman Lachowsky (a.k.a. Chaim Lachowsky; Khaym Lakhovsky)

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.

Sources: INS file 54859/614.