Born 1890, Ułęż, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to the US 1916. Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1885, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Shoemaker. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and child in Russia. Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1918; then joined the Bridgeport, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in August 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/377
Mikal Leshchuk (Микал Лещук; Michael Lestchuk; Listchuk)
Born 1891, Russia. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers Branch No. 1 in Philadelphia early 1919; became its secretary. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/210; FBI file OG 380953
Arthur Lesiga (Артур Лесига; Lessiga)
Born 1889, Petrograd, Russia. Sailor. Migrated to US 1913. Member of the International Seamen’s Union (AFL). Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1918. According to the Deptment of Justice agent, he was the treasurer of URW paper Rabochii i Krest’ianin. Common-law marriage to widow Jennie Garnitz, “a Russian Pole” with a nine-year-old son (in 1919). Arrested Pittsburgh, July 1919, as a “notorious anarchist”; released on bail. Arrested December 3, 1919. Deported on the Buford. 1920 joined Union of Russian Anarchist Workers Repatriated from America, formed by Hyman Perkus, which critically supported the Bolshevik dictatorship as a temporary necessity. At some point arrested. No further information found.
Born 1894, Hamburg, Germany. Sailor. Left Germany at age fourteen. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Sailor’s Union of the Pacific. Joined the IWW in San Francisco, 1916; became IWW delegate. Arrested in San Francisco, February, 1919, and initially held as “likely to become a public charge,” but released on bail; arrested again in Arcata, California, November 1919 for violation of state “criminal syndicalism” law. Sentenced to 1-14 years for “criminal syndicalism”; imprisoned at San Quentin January 1920 to May 1922. Deported 1922. Became an organizer for the International Seaman’s Union and an agent for the Comintern in Europe and China in the 1930s and 1940s.
INS file 54616/17
See also: Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts; Brigitte Studer, Travellers of the World Revolution: A Global History of the Communist International
Daniil Levchuk (Даниил Левчук; Daniel Levozuk)
Born 1874, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Polish. Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915. Wife and seven children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in 1918; sent as delegate to URW conference in New York, January 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Francisco López García (aka Frank R. Lopez; José Marinero; Jesus Lejendario; Albert Martin; Alberto Martín)
López García in the 1950s
Born 1885, A Coruña, Spain. Galician. Sailor; carpenter. Migrated to US 1904. Became one of the most prominent Spanish-speaking anarchists in the US and contributed to Spanish-language newspapers in several countries; collaborated on New York’s Cultura Obrera (1911-1925) and helped launch its successor, Cultura Proletaria (1927-1953). When he was arrested in 1918, federal agents confiscated a photograph “of Lopez and several other persons with all sorts of implements, entitled ‘The Social Revolution of 1911,'” suggesting that he may have participated in the Mexican Revolution with the forces of the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano. 1912 married Italian widow Rosa [Rose] De Matteis. In Boston, a member of the Grupo Rebelion circa 1914 and a founder and secretary of the Grupo Fraternidad, which was in communication with anarchist groups in Spain, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. 1917-1918 became close to Luigi Galleani and Cronaca Sovversiva, but rejected their promotion of violence. Arrested February 1918 during federal raid on Grupo Fraternidad’s headquarters. Described by federal agents as “practically the only real Spanish anarchist leader in the eastern part of the United States,” who “is a man of considerable intelligence and is and has been active in anarchistic circles and in spreading the propaganda of malcontents and disbelievers in government, law and order, of his stamp. It seems to be highly desirable to rid the country of his presence at the earliest time possible.” Ordered deported November, 1918, but released on bond while his case was appealed on the grounds that he was a “philosophical anarchist” who did not advocate violence. Active in Boston’s new International Revolutionary Group, which published the Spanish-language single-issue anarchist magazines El Azote (1921) and America (1922). In 1920 he also became the secretary of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee, “and has been responsible for voluminous propaganda sent throughout the world by that organization, devoting his time entirely to that work and to other subversive propaganda.” He appears to have separated from his wife during this time. His case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled against him in 1924 and he was deported May 25, 1925.
However, reportedly with the aid of Galician anarchist sailors, he either jumped ship and swam ashore, or returned to North America from Spain, possibly living in Canada for a number of years with his new companion, Mary Berkowitz, until her death. At some point he returned to New York under the name Alberto Martín. 1953 married Russian-Jewish anarchist union organizer Rose Pesotta (as “Albert Martin”), divorced after two years. Collaborated on book Breve historia del movimiento anarquista en Estados Unidos de América del Norte with exiled Spanish anarchists Vladimiro Muñoz and Federica Montseny. Died 1967; left $500 to the Mexican anarchist newspaper Tierra y Libertad in his will.
INS file 54379/511
See also: Miguel Íñiguez, Esbozo de una Enciclopedia Histórica del Anarquismo Español; Bieito Alonso, Anarquistas Galegos en América; Francis Russell, Tragedy in Dedham: The Story of the Sacco-Vanzetti Case; Elaine J. Leeder, The Gentle General: Rose Pesotta, Anarchist and Labor Organizer; Alberto Martin, Vladimiro Muñoz, and Federica Montseny, Breve historia del movimiento anarquista en Estados Unidos de América del Norte; Tierra y Libertad (Mexico City), June 1967
Andrew Lopitsky (Андрей Лопицкий)
Born 1894, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Miner. Migrated to US 1913. “We were oppressed in Russia and we heard of good wages and freedom in America. That is the reason I came here.” Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Downs, West Virginia. Arrested December 2, 1919, in connection with a URW-organized miners’ strike at the Consumers Fuel Company mine. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/591; FBI file OG 380920
See also: Charles H. McCormick, Seeing Reds: Federal Surveillance of Radicals in the Pittsburgh Mill District
Adolfo Lorenzini (aka John)
Born 1887, Modena, Italy. Migrated to US 1911. Miner. Became an anarchist around 1914 or 1915. Lived in Spring Valley, Illinois. Subscriber to Italian anarchist paper Umanità Nova. Deported March 1, 1921.
Kept under government surveillance upon his return until 1941.
INS file 54885/16; CPC busta 2839
Ivan Loshakov (Иван Лошаков; Loshakoff; John)
Born 1891, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1913. Lumber worker. Around 1917 became an anarchist; joined the Union of Russian Workers in Granite Falls, Washington, and became secretary of URW’s Seattle branch. Arrested Seattle, January 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.
Born 1891, Chernigov, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer; miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and child in Russia. 1917 confined for nine months to the Woodville Asylum in Allegheny County after collapsing at work in a steel mill “overcome by the heat.” Afterward moved to Fairmont, West Virginia, where he joined the United Mine Workers and the Union of Russian Workers. Participated in 1919 miners’ strike. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/600
Anthony Lovenetsky (H. Levinensky)
Born 1894, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the IWW; early 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Monessen, Pennsylvania; served as its secretary and chaired meetings. According the immigration offiicals, “the alien is far above the average in intelligence.” Arrested May 1919 in Pittsburgh and held for four days, but released; arrested again in Greensburg, Pennsylvania during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919, while on strike at Page Wire Works. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/474
See also: One Big Union Monthly, May 1920
Vasily Lukashuk (aka Lukov; Василий Лукашук aka Луков; William Lukow; Vasil)
Born 1896, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Belerus). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Lost three fingers and the use of his left arm due to an accident at the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company. 1915 joined the Socialist Party of America “for a month or two”; 1916 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Youngstown, Ohio, 1918. On strike when arrested in November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/539; FBI file OG 375161a
Andrew Lukianow (aka John Wilichko)
Born 1885, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. Laborer. Wife and child in Russia. Worked at Arctic Ice Cream Company in Detroit. Member of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested November 7, 1919; anarchist literature and correspondence with URW secretary seized. Detained for over six months before being granted bail; claimed his name was John Wilichko and that Lukianow was a friend who had left items in his care, but multiple witnesses identified him as Lukianow. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 54709/314; FBI file OG 380910
Chaim Lurie (Хаим Лурье; Chaim; Michael; Loorie)
Cabinetmaker. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Editor of the IWW’s newspaper The Industrial Worker in Seattle from June 1916 to July 1918; active in defense of IWW members on trial following the Everett Massacre. Defendant at federal IWW trial 1917-1918; sentenced to ten years. His wife Kate edited the Industrial Worker, for which she had been the bookkeeper, during the trial. 1923 his sentence commuted on the condition of his deportation to Canada. In Canada, continued organizing for the IWW and writing for American IWW publications until at least 1926; led 1925 effort to organize Canadian agricultural workers, along with fellow deported IWW member Sam Scarlett. He should not be confused with the Communist Party of Canada organizer of the same name; MacDonald believed “a political revolution had occurred in Russia, but that any industrial revolution other than from feudalism to capitalism was unthinkable…[I]ndustrial communism must not come from the top but from the bottom, changing the foundations of society and consequently its superstructure, and destroying the state, of necessity an instrument of class rule.” Or, as he put it elsewhere, “a proletarian revolution is possible in a nation of smokestacks but it can not occur in a nation of haystacks” (see Industrial Pioneer, May 1925 and May 1926).
FBI file OG 8000-41990
See also: Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts; Heather Mayer, Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924; James Sullivan, “Reviewing the 1925 Harvest Drive,” Industrial Pioneer November 1925; J. A. McDonald [sic], “Training for Freedom,” Industrial Pioneer, March 1926; J. A. MacDonald, “The Reforging of Russia,” Industrial Pioneer, May 1925.
Samuel Mackway
Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Victor Macur
Born Vilna, Russia, 1887 (present-day Lithuania). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. 1919 joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America in August 1919, which subsequently transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” to Poland via Canada, October 16, 1920.
INS file 54859/984; FBI file OG 387500
Nils Madsen (Nels; Madison)
Born 1886, Drammen, Norway. Laborer; union organizer. Migrated to US 1904. 1912 joined IWW; became General Organizer for the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500 circa 1916; arrested multiple times in connection with IWW organizing. Arrested March 26, 1918, in St. Maries, Idaho under state “criminal syndicalism” law. Deported November 4, 1918. 1918-1919 lectured throughout Norway on conditions in the US and cofounded the “Norwegian-American Defense Committee” to raise money for imprisoned IWW members. By 1922, had become an organizer for the Norske Arbeiderpartiet (Norwegian Labour Party) and led its Norges Røde Speiderforbund (Norwegian Red Scout Federation, NRS), an attempt to create a radical alternative to the international Scout movement, but in the Labour Party’s 1925 split sided with the expelled pro-Communist faction connected to the publication Mot Dag and most of the NRS organizations followed him, only to collapse in 1926. 1934-1955 served as head of Norway’s Hotel Workers’ Union (Hotellpersonalets forening). Died 1965.
INS file 54379/199
See also: “Norwegian Workers Come to the Aid of the I. W. W.,” One Big Union Monthly, March 1, 1919; Terje Halvorsen, Partiets salt : AUFs historie; Sondre Ljoså, “‘Etter beste evne at alltid være en god kamerat’: Speiderarbeid i arbeiderbevegelsen på 1920-tallet,” Arbeiderhistorie (2007); https://leksikon.speidermuseet.no/wiki/Nils_Madsen
Piotr Mager (Петр Магер; Peter Magyar)
Born 1891, Russia. Metalworker. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio circa 1915. Arrested August 1919, then again during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/498
Ivan Maiboroda (Иван Майборода; John)
Deported to Russia January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Vinko Majetic
Deported to Croatia, September 1, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
George Makaranko (Makarenko)
Born Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine), 1893. Migrated to US 1914. Laborer. Wife and children in Russia. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/621
Lavrenti Makarevich (Лаврентий Макаревич; Lawrence Makarvitch)
Born 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). 1914 migrated to Canada; 1915 migrated from there to US. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. According to INS file, he was deported January 22, 1921; however, a Department of Justice agent reported that Makarevich attended a June 4, 1922 conference of the URW in New Haven as a delegate of that city’s Russian Progressive Organization. His wife, Sophie Babitz, was living with her parents in Connecticut “and does not desire to have anything more to do with him.” Unclear if he was deported and returned, was never deported, or was deported and the DoJ report was in error.
Born 1878 in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia (present-day Ukriane). Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Socialists Party, then the communist Party in Philadelphia. Arrested January 7, 1920; deported to Russia February 1, 1921.
INS file 54811/943
Ivan Malash (Иван Малаш; John)
Born 1891, Aleksandrovka, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Mason; laborer. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Norwich, Connecticut, in November 1919. Arrested at his home in Yantic, Connecticut, February, 1920. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1898, Khomsk, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Machinist. Migrated to US 1914. April 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark (however, evidence suggested he may have been a member as early as 1917). Arrested during a raid on URW headquarters in Akron, Ohio during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/536
Dan Malina
Born 1894, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Metalworker; worked in New Castle, PA, then Elwood PA, then Akron where worked for Firestone. Arrested November 1919 for belonging to the Union of Russian Workers, but denied being a radical and released for lack of evidence. Rearrested February 22, 1921, admitted to being an anarchist, and deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 55009/21; FBI file OG 8000-355192
Karl Malmstrom
Born 1897, Ystad, Sweden. Laborer. Migrated to Argentina 1915, then to US later that year (without inspection). Joined the IWW in Portland, Oregon, December 1916. Arrested February, 1917 in San Francisco for distributing IWW literature and sentenced to 60 days; arrested in Seattle in 1918 on the same charge; arrested March, 1919 in Everett, Washington and held for deportation. When asked, “You do not desire to become a citizen of this country?” he answered: “Never…I am a citizen of the world.” Also stated: “For the workers to get industrial freedom, I would pick up arms at any time…Just like in Russia—do away with the parasites.” Deported June 29, 1919 (as “likely to become a public charge”). Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/34
Ustin Manko (Устин Манько; Austin; Justyn)
Julia Manko and children, 1935Ustin Manko, c.1935
Born 1894, Kherson, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Machinist. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut in May 1919. Arrested February 1920. Married Julia Chervenak while being held on Ellis Island, May 11, 1920. Deported January 22, 1921; accompanied by Julia. Son born in Ukraine. Suspected of Bolsheviks of being a “spy”; migrated with family in 1924 to Turkey, then France (where daughter born), then Mexico (where another son born). US-born Julia returned to US 1928 and regained her US citizenship 1932; brought children to US 1933, but Ustin had to remain in Mexico City. Unsuccessfully petitioned to rejoin family; deemed “insane” by US consulate in Mexico; in his letters to his family he became increasingly paranoid and incoherent. Died in Mexico City, 1976. Ustin (“Austin Voronkov”) is the subject of the semi-fictional novel The Invention of Exile (2014) by his granddaughter, Vanessa Manko.
Deported to Russia January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Julius Manninger (Julian; aka Julius Pichler)
Born 1896, Ponitz, Austria-Hungary (present-day Hungary). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. Joined the Socialist Party of America, and attended a single meeting of the Communist Party of America. Arrested January 1920 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Deported June 22, 1920 as an alleged member of the Communist Party of America. In February 1921 Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis F. Post “concluded that such deportation had been in error and under a misapprehension of the true facts.” Returned to US December 1921 (under his family name, Pichler); declared his intention to become a US citizen.
INS file 54859/122
See also: Hancock Democrat (Greenfield IN), January 26, 1922; Garrett Clipper (Garrett IN), January 30, 1922
Born 1886, Biaroza, Russia (present-day Belarus). Autoworker. Migrated to US circa 1911. An employee of the Ford Motor Company, with a wife and four American-born daughters in Hamtramck, Michigan. A member of Branch 3 of Union of Russian Workers in Detroit; distributor of URW newspaper Volna. Arrested September, 1921. Despite large-scale defense campaign and national press coverage of his case, deported June 7, 1924 to Poland. Letters to his wife in 1926 “tell of intense suffering…Last winter his feet were frozen in a lumber camp where he found work.” His wife meanwhile was in ill health and dependent on the Department of Welfare. He migrated to Canada circa 1940 and worked as a farmer. Died Windsor, Ontario, 1960.
INS file 55119/18
Agnes Inglis Papers, Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan; The New Republic, September 17, 1924; The Windsor Star, March 10, 1960
Philip Marchuk
Deported to Russia February 2, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Vito Mariani (Mariano)
Born 1882, Morra Irpina (present-day Marra de Sanctis), Italy. Migrated to US as a young man. Became prominent anarchist in Lynn, Massachusetts, and then Bridgeport, Connecticut, closely associated with Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. May 30, 1914 arrested for giving a radical speech in El Paso, Texas during a lecture tour and held for deportation, but then released. Circa 1917-1919 moved to New York, where he became editor of Il Refrattario and coeditor of Il Diritto (along with Raffaele Schiavina), both short-lived successors to Cronaca Sovversiva. Arrested February 1920 under New York’s “criminal anarchy” law. Deported June 29, 1920. In Italy in 1921, sentenced to two years in prison for resisting the draft. Subsequent government reports recorded “good conduct” and no political activity, and he was removed from the list of “subversives” in 1932; however, locally in Morra Irpina he was remembered as an unwavering antifascist and militant who patiently lectured peasants as they exited church and “is now unanimously considered the civil and moral point of reference for an entire generation.” In the first free municipal elections after the fascist period, in 1946, Mariani was elected to the town government and spearheaded the effort to open its first middle school. He died in 1964.
FBI file OG 8000-385978; CPC busta 3061
See also: Un trentennio di attività anarchica (1915-1945); Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University; Francesco de Rogatis, Rocco di Santo, and Francesco Grippo, eds., Morra de Sanctis: Tra cronaca e storia ad un anno del terremoto
Vakula Markovets
“Voluntary departure” to Russia, September 26, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Sam Markowich
Deported to Russia January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Ludwig C.A.K. Martens (Людвиг Карлович Мартенс)
Born 1875, Bachmut, Russia (present-day Ukriane). Engineer; diplomat. German factory owner father. Became friends with Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov at university and joined their League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. Arrested 1896 and deported 1899 to Germany, where joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany. 1906 migrated to England; 1916 migrated to the US. Vice-president of an engineering firm in New York. 1917 returned to Russia after February Revolution with Leon Trotsky and others, joined Russian Communist Party. March 1919 returned to US as official representative of the Soviet government, which the US government refused to recognize. Established Russian Soviet Government Bureau in New York (funded in part by diamonds smuggled by Communist curriers), published the magazine Soviet Russia and other radical literature, recruited skilled Russian immigrants to return to Russia, and attempted to negotiate contracts with American businesses. 1920 ordered deported; “voluntary departure” January 22, 1921. In the Soviet Union, became member of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy, then a head of research and development for diesel engines. Retired in 1941 and died in 1948.
INS file 55079/76 (file missing); FBI file OG 8000-377098
See also: Frederick C. Giffin, “The Martens Mission,” International Social Science Review 73, no. 3/4 (1998); Todd J. Pfannestiel, Rethinking the Red Scare: The Lusk Committee and New York’s Crusade Against Radicalism, 1919-1923; New York Times, October 22, 1948; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Martens
John Martin
Born 1885, Hørsholm, Denmark. Laborer; union organizer. Migrated to US 1910. Joined the IWW in 1916 in Seattle; became branch secretary in Raymond, Washington, then elected district secretary for IWW’s Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500; helped lead 1917 general lumber strike in the Northwest. Defendant at federal IWW trial 1917-1918; sentenced to ten years and $30,000 fine. Sentence commuted on condition of deportation; deported December 7, 1922. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/57
See also: Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts
Tomás Martínez (Thomas Martinez)
Martínez shortly before his death in Mexico
Born 1893, Mexico. Miner. Participated in Mexican Revolution of 1910, then joined the IWW in Sonora and organized minters in Cananea. 1914 denounced and expelled from Sonoroa as a “Huerta supporter,” leading to a strike of 2,500-3,000 miners until he was allowed to return. 1915-1918 active in IWW and PLM activities in Arizona and Los Angeles. Wrote numerous articles for the IWW’s paper El Rebelde (1915-1917). Arrested Miami, Arizona, March 1918; convicted to two years in Leavenworth Penitentiary and a $500 fine for violation of the Espionage Act. Contracted tuberculosis while in prison, and a botched operation resulted in septicemia. Upon his release, detained for deportation but he petitioned to be allowed to leave what he called “the Jail of Free America” to another country at his own expense for fear that he would be executed for his past revolutionary activities if returned to Mexico; his petition was denied and he was deported in 1921; according to one report, “When he was finally shipped across the border he was more dead than alive.” Furthermore, he wrote to a friend in the US, “When I arrived at the border, they left me naked, they burned my clothes and shoes.” He never recovered, and died in Guadalajara, October 23, 1921. Comrades buried him with a headstone reading: ¡Nunca olvidamos! (We Never Forget!).
INS file 54412/47 (file missing); FBI file OG 240868
See also: Tucson Citizen, April 15, 1914; Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society; Erie Labor Press, December 3, 1921; America: Numero Unico (Boston), January 1922
Ivan Martinovsky (Иван Мартиновский; John Martinowski)
Born 1887, Cherga, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Rockville, Connecticut, September 1919 and became its secretary. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born c.1898, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Housewife. Anarchist and URW member since 1918. Wife of fellow deportee Vincent Martzin. Two children–one two years old and one six months old–when detained. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 55009/16
Vincent Martzin
Born 1893, Russia. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1916. New York. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Pregnant common-law wife and infant child left behind in US.
INS file 54709/276; FBI file OG 378318
See also: Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920
Pietro Marucco (Peter; Marrucho)
Born Maggiora, Italy, circa 1885. Miner. Migrated to US 1905. Joined the anarchist “Demolizione” Group in Latrobe, Pennsylvania; a supporter of Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. Arrested May 20, 1918. Deported February 22, 1919. Although reported to be in perfect health at the time of his deportation, he died at sea March 8, 1919. Officially the cause of death was “pneumonia following influenza” and he was buried at sea, but his comrades suspected that he was thrown overboard.
INS file 54379/378
See also: Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background
Born 1894, Kovno, Russia (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania). Lithuanian. Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers 1916; joined IWW 1917. Arrested January 1918 in Seattle when inquiring at US Immigration office after a friend who had been detained; held without hearing for three months and then transferred to jail in Ellensburg, Washington, where finally examined. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54379/101
Bartolomeo Massullo (Massulo)
Born 1881, Bagnoli, Italy. Laborer. Already an anarchist in Italy. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and three children in Italy. Member of Seattle’s Circolo di Studi Sociali; distributed Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva and corresponded extensively with its leading figures. Arrested November 1917. Under interrogation, provided names and addresses of members of the Circolo. Deported July 10, 1919. Italian government surveillance reported no radical activities. 1923 emigrated to Canada, from there illegally reentered the US. 1932 he was living in San Francisco, but still not active in politics; removed from Italian list of “subversives” 1934.
INS file 54616/19
See also: Gianfranco Cresciani, “Exploitation, Emigration and Anarchism: the Case of Isidoro Alessandro Bertazzon,” Altreitalie no. 46 (January-June 2013)
William Matera
Deported to Russia February 2, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Pavel Matesky (Павел Матеский; Paul)
Weaver. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Elia Matuska
Born 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1912. Machinist. Joined the Socialist Party, then a charter member of Chicago’s Karl Marx Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party, and served as branch librarian. Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/4
James Maundeloe
Born 1895, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. 1919 joined the Greensburg, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers, but claimed he was expelled when he briefly became owner of a butcher shop. Participated in 1919 strike at American Sheet and Tinplate Company. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/431
Donald McPherson (aka Edgar Dunn)
Born 1898, Leeds, England. Scottish. Sailor. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the IWW circa 1915. Arrested September 9, 1918 in Seattle. When asked about his thoughts on the Soviet government, replied: “It is all right.” At his second immigration hearing, he refused to answer any questions. Deported July 12, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown. (Note: Not to be confused with the Donald McPherson of the Sydney Twelve trial of IWW members in Australia.)
Member of Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntary departure” (via Canada) October 16, 1920. No further information found.
FBI file BS 202600-1378-1
Peter Melcishik
Deported to Russia January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Born 1896, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1917. Janitor. Arrested and beaten at the URW’s People’s House in New York City, November 11, 1919; denied being a URW member, but a “confidential source” for the Department of Justice testified that he was. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/522
Nikolai Melikov (Николая Меликова; Nick Melincoff; Melikoff)
Member of the Union of Russian Workers in New York. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
See also: National Popular Government League, To the American People: Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice
Pavel Melnikov (Павел Мельников; Paul Melnicoff; Pawel Melnik; Mcinicoff)
Born 1886, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Slovenian. Laborer. Attended gymnasium in Russia until age 18; worked as a clerk in Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers circa 1918; became national URW organizer and lecturer; based in Seattle and San Francisco; taught English in URW’s school in San Francisco. Accused, based on no evidence, of involvement in various bomb and assassination plots. Arrested April 23, 1917 in Trenton, New Jersey for “uttering seditious remarks”; arrested March 1919 in San Francisco for “vagrancy.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/123
See also: Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America
Peter Williamson Merta (Melta; Murti; aka Peter Williamson)
Born 1885, Finland. Migrated to US 1908, via Canada. Lumber worker. Secretary and treasurer of the IWW’s Lumber Workers’ Union No. 500 in Raymond, Washington. Application for US citizenship denied in 1916 due to his IWW membership. Arrested February 1918 while posting IWW stickers; sentenced to fifteen days prison. Detained for deportation upon his release in March 1918, but released on bail. Relocated to Duluth, Minnesota, where he became an editor of the Finnish-language IWW newspaper Industrialisti. Detained again December 1918. Attorney Charles Recht successfully argued for Merta to be deported to Sweden rather than Finland (where the conservative Whites had just won a civil war against the socialist Reds). His wife Elsie Merta, also an IWW member, initially asked to be deported along with Peter, but ultimately remained in the US.
INS file 54397/134; FBI file OG 8000-382409
See also: Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, Communist and Anarchist Deportation Cases; Frances H. Early, A World Without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I
Sam Meskov (Самуэль Месков; Serpion; Meshkov; Miskoff; Meshoff; Moshoff)
Born 1889, Saratov, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and child in Russia. Joined the IWW in March 1919; distributed IWW literature. Arrested in Van Voorhis, Pennsylvania. Commissioner-General of Immigration A. Caminetti opined that he “is apparently an ignorant harmless fellow, [but] the Bureau [of Immigration] is of the opinion that this type of man is often dangerous because of his ignorance and the fact that he can be easily imposed upon by the shrewder type of radical.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1893, Leeds, England. Laborer. Migrated to US 1906 (age 13) with family. Became a “hobo” laborer; “I had a thousand different jobs” in the US and Canada. Joined the IWW in 1916 in Salina, Kansas. Served one year in Pierce County (Washington) Jail for refusing to register for the draft–“In my estimation it was just an employers’ edict to go and fight for them.” Arrested in Tacoma, Washington, February 1919 while posting IWW stickers along waterfront. Deported June 21, 1919.
Upon arrival asked if he intended “to carry on I.W.W. propaganda in England;” replied: “Yes, if conditions are no better than they were in America,” but later noted, “the real wobblies I have been deported with, seem to find no outlet for I.W.W. activities [in England].” Became admirer of socialist George Lansbury, and worked as a docker in Liverpool.
INS file 54517/88; FBI file OG 8000-382412
Nicholas Michels
Member of the Communist Labor Party. Deported to Hungary 1921. No further information found.
FBI file OG 381688
Frederik Michkov (Фредерик Мичков; Fred Mechcoff; Michcov; Mihaitch)
Deported to Russia January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Kalenik Migura (Kalymnyk)
Born 1885, Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Northampton Heights (present-day Bethlehem), Pennsylvania, and became its secretary. Arrested February 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.
FBI file OG 381865
Nikolai Mikhaelov (Николай Михайлов; Nicholas Mihaeloff; Mikeloff; Michaelov; aka Peter Lund; Fritiak)
Born 1893, Petrograd, Russia. Sailor; machinist. 1914 enlisted in British Army; fought in France, where injured and discharged; returned to Russia 1915 and drafted into Russian Army; deserted 1916 and migrated to England, the US, Cuba, and then, in 1917, the US again. (According to another source, however, leader of an anarchist gang that took part in “expropriations” in Petrograd in 1916 and fled to US after two members killed and he was injured in the hand.) Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark; 1919 also joined the IWW. Arrested March 1919; released on bail; expelled from the URW after his common-law wife, Celia Fisher, “had made overtures to the Police of Newark to furnish information.” Nevertheless, he remained “anxious to return to Russia to take part in the over-throw of Lenine [sic] and putting in effect pure anarchy.” Deported on the Buford. Wife and seven-week-old child remained in US and requested to be allowed to leave for Russia.
Born 1886, Kremno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut in August 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/421
Julius Miller (Юлиус Миллер)
Born 1894, Dvinsk, Russia (present-day Latvia). Migrated to US 1915. Laborer. IWW member and delegate. Arrested Detroit, January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. While on bail moved to Cleveland, where arrested September 8, 1920 for distributing IWW literature. Held in the county jail for more than a year; immigration inspector reported he “has been in the county jail a long time and complains that his health is breaking down on account of the confinement and he looks very bad physically.” Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54860/32
Samuel Miller (Sholem Melamed; Schulim)
Born 1897, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. IWW; anarchist. Employee of Sears, Roebuck and Company. in Chicago. Arrested July 1917. When asked his nationality, replied: “Well, I am international. I don’t belong in any nationality. I am born of Jewish parentage in Russia.” Clarence Darrow acted as his attorney, and unsuccessfully argued that a “philosophical anarchist” and pacifist like Miller did not properly fall under anarchist exclusion laws. Deported December 23, 1920.
Born 1874, Edinburgh, Scotland. Miner. Migrated to South Africa circa 1900; then Australia and Mexico; migrated to US circa 1901. Took out a declaration of intent to naturalize, but never did so, explaining, “I traveled all over the country and saw too much.” Joined the IWW circa 1910; also an admitted anarchist. Worked in mines and acted as IWW propagandists on both sides of US-Mexico border. Arrested in Deming, New Mexico, September 1919. Deported April 3, 1920.
INS file 54709/648
See also: The Deming Headlight (Deming, NM), September 26, 1919.
Anton Minarich (Tony)
Born 1891, near Fiume, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. Worked for Ford Motor Company Hospital in Detroit. Joined South Slavic Branch No. 17 of Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Yugoslavia June 19, 1920.
Born c. 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife and three children in Russia. Member of Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party in Rachine, Wisconsin. Arrested January 2, 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54859-167
Petr Ivanovich Mironovich (Петр Иванович Миронович; Mironovich)
Mironovich’s URW membership card
Born 1900, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1915. A member of the Union of Russian Workers in New York and then Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/527
______ Mirolyubov (Миролюбов)
A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Akron, Ohio. Deported to Russia. No further information found.
See: Probuzhdenie, January 1932 (with thanks to Malcolm Archibald for translating this source)
Simeon Misnik (Симеон Мисник; Semeon; Minnik)
Member of the Communist Party of America in Chicago. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntary departure” to Russia, October 16, 1920.
FBI file BS 202600-153-1
Joseph Miss
Deported to Hungary, March 21, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Xavier Mitalski (aka Prostopluk)
Born 1885, Volyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1909. Carpenter. Worked in New York, Chicago, and Detroit. Member of the Union of Russian Workers, along with brothers Alex and Philip and cousin Mike Mitalski. Arrested November 14, 1919 in Chicago; claimed he was a URW member for only “a month and a half,” but URW literature found in his apartment. Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54709/434; FBI file OG 8000-385993
Nicholas Mlaveransky (Mlaverausky)
Born 1894, Russia. Machinist. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/376
Ketia Fedrovich Molkowsky (Кетя Федрович Молковский; aka L. C. Marten; Leo Martin)
Born 1884. Laborer; fisherman. Arrested Seattle, September 1919. Deported on the Buford (as a contract laborer and as “likely to become a public charge”, but radicalism was “suspected”).
INS file 54709/68 (file missing)
See also: Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, Communist and Anarchist Deportation Cases
Aggi Molochko (Агги молочко; aka Mike A. Molaka)
Born 1889, Starobin, Russia (present-day Belarus). Millworker. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Norwich, Connecticut, circa October 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported February 1, 1921.
Born 1886, Russia. Steelworker. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/187
Giuseppe Montagni
Born 1890, Riva di Trento (present-day Riva di Garda), Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Italy). Electrician. Migrated to US 1911. Lived in Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Joined the Communist Party of America. Deported June 19, 1920.
Apparently did not join Italian Communist Party. Late 1922 illegally emigrated to Hungary (reportedly hoping to reach Russia); caught in Budapest without proper papers and sent to internment camp at Zalaegerszeg for ten months, then expelled back to Italy, June 1924. Moved around Italy looking for steady work for several years, then settled in his hometown as a farmer. Maintained his radical beliefs and Italian government surveillance until 1941.
FBI file OG 204622; CPC busta 3359
Tugardo Montanari (Montenari)
Born 1886, Orciano di Pesaro, Italy. Metalworker. Migrated to US 1903. Iron molder and member of the International Molders Union. Not radical before arrival; became anarchist and distributed Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva around New England by motorcycle. 1913 arrested in Worchester, Massachusetts for “lewd and lascivious cohabitation” with his companion, fellow anarchist Lucia Mancini, and sentenced to six months. Arrested May 17, 1918, in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Deported June 24, 1919. Mancini and their daughter remained in US.
1923 Montanari emigrated to France, where continued to be active in anarchist and antifascist circles. 1977 still living in France and contributing funds to Italian anarchist publication Volontà.
INS file 54379/374; CPC busta 3366
See also: Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Volontà, January-February 1977
Ivan Morgolenkow (aka John Novak)
Born 1891, Russia. Longshoreman. Migrated to US 1911. Union of Russian Workers Baltimore. Arrested December 3, 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/622
Harry Morozoff (Morogoff)
Born c.1894, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party in 1917; in Detroit in 1919 in “regular attendance at meetings held by Russian Branch No. 3, Communist Party of America,” though he denied official membership. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 54860/54
Grigori Moroz (Григорий Мороз; Gregory; aka Mike Moroz)
Born 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. 1913 migrated to Canada; 1916 migrated to US. April 1919 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore. Worked for the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Plant; October 1919 a “special officer” of the company reported him to the Department of Justice for wearing a “suspicious black button” bearing the name of the URW newspaper Khleb i Volia. Arrested November 1919. Deported February 1, 1921.
INS file 54709/108
Roman Mosichuk (Роман Мосичук; Mosichok; Mosicshok; Mosithuk)
Born 1890, Volyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Blacksmith’s helper. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, New Jersey in 1915; became secretary of the URW’s school in Trenton, New Jersey, where he also distributed URW literature. Arrested in during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/220
Pavel Mozuris (Paul; Mozures)
Born 1885, Suwałki, Russia (present-day Poland). Lithuanian. Laborer. Migrated to US 1907. Joined the Communist Party of America in New York in 1919. January 20, 1920 turned himself in to the Department of Justice as a CP member, because he had been blacklisted by employers and wished to return to Russia. After more than six months of detention on Ellis Island, on the night of July 12, 1920 he escaped by leaping from a third-floor window into the water below. Later that year located and arrested in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Deported February 26, 1921.
INS file 54861/22; FBI file OG 381458
Joseph Mule
Deported to Yugoslavia, June 19, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Camillo Muñoz (Munos)
Born 1880, Nochistlán, Mexico. Laborer. Migrated to US 1915. Member of anarchist group “Los Errantes” (affiliated with the Partido Liberal Mexicano) in Morenci, Arizona. Arrested September 19, 1919, in Tucson. Wife and three (Mexican-born) children came to Tucson from Morenci “for the purpose of accompanying” him if deported. Deported December 3, 1919. Wife in Arizona.
INS file 54709/70
José Maria Murias
Born 1889, Rosario de Santa Fe, Argentina. Spanish father and Italian mother. Sailor; miner. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the IWW in 1914 in San Francisco and became a delegate and organizer in Arizona. Arrested in Globe, Arizona, September, 1918. Argentina refused to issue passport, claiming he was a Spanish citizen; Spain refused, claiming he was an Argentine citizen. Allowed to “reship as a foreign seaman” to Costa Rica, July 11, 1919.
1920 it was reported that “following his deportation…this alien has made several trips to New York as a seaman, and that he expects to return to the United States some time during the coming summer.”
INS file 54648/32
Vasily Murza (Василий Мурза; Wasily; aka Sam Drozda, Sam Murza, Sam Murgu)
Born c. 1897 in Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1912. Steelworker. Joined the Communist Party in Buffalo, November 1919. According to immigration authorities, “He appears to be a dangerous radical and, in addition, he is immoral, as will be seen from the testimony he is living with a woman without being married to her.” (In fact, he and his wife Pauline Brya were legally married, albeit without a religious ceremony.) Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
