Tag Archives: IWW

Steimer to Stepanov

May 18, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, IWW, Russian, Swedish, URWadmin

Mollie Steimer (Молли Штеймер)

Mollie Steimer, 1919 | Mollie Steimer (1897-1980) began her … | Flickr

Born 1897, Dunaivtsi, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Garment worker. Migrated to US 1912, with parents and four siblings. Began working immediately after arrival, at age 16. Became an anarchist after discovering the writings of Peter Kropotkin; 1917 became a member of New York’s militant Jewish anarchist Shturem Group, which in 1918 became the Frayhayt Group. Arrested, with Hyman Lachowsky, while distributing radical leaflets protesting US intervention in the Russian Civil War on August 23, 1918. While out on bail, arrested eleven more times over eight months, including during a raid on the Union of Russian Workers’ People’s House in New York during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Convicted, with other members of the Frayhayt Group, for violation of the Espionage Act, and sentenced to 15 years in prison; after losing landmark Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States, sentence commuted on the condition of deportation. While detained on Ellis Island awaiting deportation, led a hunger strike to protest her segregation from other detainees. According to a supervisor, “Certainly it would not be safe to put her in a room with other detained females, this by reason of her known activities in spreading the propaganda of anarchism among among women and girls. Most of those detained female aliens will probably be admitted to the United States in due course, and to permit Mollie Steimer to sow the seeds of anarchism among them while they are the wards of the Government would be highly improper.” Deported November 1, 1921.

In Russia, almost immediately involved in aid work for imprisoned anarchists; through this work she met her companion Senya Fleshin, an anarchist who had voluntarily returned from the US in 1917, and together they founded the Society to Help Anarchist Prisoners (with financial aid from comrades in the US). November 1922 both were arrested for this work and sentenced to two years internal exile in Siberia, but released after launching a hunger strike. Both arrested again July 9, 1923, for propagating anarchist ideas. Launched an eight-day hunger strike along with other political prisoners, including several other deportees from the US; Steimer and Fleshin given visas to Germany with the understanding that they would be executed if they returned to Russia, and left September 27, 1923. In Berlin, then after 1924 in Paris, the pair worked with Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and other exiled Russian anarchists to aid radicals imprisoned in Russia. Steimer corresponded with, and was regularly visited by, anarchists from the US and elsewhere. In 1939 Steimer organized aid for refugees from the Spanish Civil War who had been placed in French internment camps; in May 1940, with the Nazi occupation of Paris, Steimer was herself sent to the internment camp in Gurs for seven weeks. After her release, she and Fleshin fled to Mexico, where they were aided by fellow deportees Jacob and Mary Abrams. Active in radical and exile circles in Mexico City, where they befriended Diego Rivera and Spanish anarchist exiles, and Fleshin ran a photography studio. Remained in constant correspondence with anarchists abroad. Steimer died of heart attack July 23, 1980 in Cuernavaca.

INS file 54517/73

See also: Senya Fléchine Papers and Emma Goldman Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam; Rose Pesotta Papers, New York Public Library; International Committee for Political Prisoners, Letters from Russian Prisons; Mollie Steimer: Toda una vida de lucha; Abe Bluestein, ed., Fighters for Anarchism: Mollie Steimer and Senya Fleshin; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Portraits; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech

Sigfrid Stenberg (Siegfried)

Born 1892, Sweden. Painter; editor. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and daughter in Sweden. Joined the IWW and became business manager of its Swedish-language newspaper Allarm in Minneapolis. Defendant in federal IWW trial 1917-1918; convicted of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to ten years in prison and a $30,000 fine. Sentence commuted on condition of deportation; deported January 13, 1923.

Immediately joined the syndicalist Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC), which he viewed as a direct continuation of his activism on behalf of IWW and “the idea that cannot be downed.” In 1928 he became a journalist for the SAC’s daily newspaper Arbetaren, which he also edited from 1930 to 1940. In addition he served as chairman of Sweden’s Executive Committee of the Newspaper and Printing Federation from 1932 to 1942, and treasurer of the anarcho-syndicalist International Working Men’s Association from 1938 until his death in 1942.

INS file 54616/52

See also: Mark Wyman, Round-Trip to America: The Immigrants Return to Europe, 1880-1930; https://www.sac.se/Om-SAC/Historik/Biografier/Stenberg,-Sigfrid-1892-1942

Anton Stepanov (Антон Степанов; Stepanoff; aka Alex Porfenchuk; Perfenshuck)

Born 1887, Vitebsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Chauffer. Migrated to US 1913. A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo, New York; brother of fellow URW member and deportee Osip Stepanov. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Claimed to be another individual named Alex Porfenchuk, who was born in 1884, Vilna, Russia (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania), who migrated to the US in 1914 and had a wife and three children in Russia. However, witness testimony and documents seized during his arrest, including Anton Stepanov’s passport and a letter from Anton to Osip listing the former’s address under the name of Alex Porfenchuk, strongly indicate that this was a ruse. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/308

See also: Buffalo Courier, December 19, 1919; Buffalo Enquirer, November 22 and December 20, 1919

Osip Stepanov (Осип Степанов; Ossip; Stepanoff; aka Joseph; Joe)

Born 1882, Vitebsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Served in the Russian Army. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Buffalo branch of the Union of Russian Workers in August 1916; served at various times as its treasurer and on various committees. Brother of fellow URW member and deportee Anton Stepanov. Claimed to also belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, and to be illiterate (which is unlikely, given his work as treasurer and the amount of URW literature in his possession). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/309

Stepanuk to Sulavka

May 21, 2020Red Scare DeporteesCP, German, IWW, Russian, URWadmin

Naum Stepanuk (Наум Степанюк; Nahum; Nailm; Nick; Stepanick)

Born 1882, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Brest, Belarus). Miner, laborer. Migrated to US 1909. 1917 became secretary of the Akron, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested November 20, 1917, for leading an effort to organize a strike of Russian rubber workers, but released on bail. Relocated to New York, where he helped edit the URW’s newspaper Khleb i Volia. Arrested again January 1919 and detained on Ellis Island. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54248/20; FBI file OG 372181

Jacob Stl_______uk [last name partially illegible]

Deported to Russia, December 11, 1920. No further information found.

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

Gordey Stolatchuk (Gordic)

Born 1890, Volhynia, Russia (probably in present-day Poland). Steelworker. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1916. Wife and child in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Youngstown, Ohio, early 1919. Arrested August 19, 1919; released on bail. Arrested again during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/181; FBI file OG 377413

Tony Stolke

German IWW member. Interned at Fort Douglas, Utah, as an “enemy alien.” Deported September 25, 1919.

One Big Union Monthly, December 1919 and March 1920; Ancestry.com

Karl Strelchuk (Карл Стрелчук; Carl; Strelchuck; Strailchuk)

Born 1897, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Lived in Forth Worth, Texas, Peublo, Colorado, and Chicago before settling in Milwaukee. Secretary of Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party in Milwaukee. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 2, 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54809/203, FBI file OG 378457

Nick Sudnick (Zudnik)

Born Voloka, Vilnius region, Russia (present-day Belarus or Lithuania), 1900. Polish. Migrated to US 1909. Laborer. Joined the Communist Party of America in September 1919. Arrested in Detroit January 1920. Detained at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/733

David Sukhov (Давид Сухов; Suchov; Suhov)

Born 1873, Volynskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. August 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers. Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/394

Estafy Sulavka (Эстафий Сулавка; Istafy; Sulawka; aka E. Dstafy)

Born 1895, Bereza, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to the US 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Ansonia, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/322

Supino to Tabenko

May 22, 2020Red Scare DeporteesGerman, Italian, IWW, Polish, Russian, Swedish, URWadmin

Giuseppantonio Supino (Giuseppe Supino; aka Joe Spino)

Born 1892, Provvidenti, Italy. Laborer. Migrated to US 1908; frequently moved between US and Canada as migrant worker. 1915 joined the IWW in North Dakota. Arrested August 2, 1919 in Seattle. Deported December 20, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54700/28

Michael Surgatanoff (Surgatunoff)

Born c.1893, Tomsk, Russia. Came to the US as a sailor c.1916. Laborer. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in New York. Common-law wife and American-born child in New York. Arrested November 1919 and released, then arrested again February 1920 and testified that he was beaten in police custody. Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/132

Adam Susnowics

Deported to Poland, July 31, 1920. No further information found.

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

Carl Swelgin (Karl)

Born 1884, Germany. Laborer; plumber; rancher; union organizer. Migrated to US 1896. By 1908 he had become a socialist and participated in a public debate on the question of whether “Capitalists be Recompensed for Industries Taken Over By Socialism” in Marshfield, Oregon (he argued in the negative). Joined the IWW in 1911. 1913 became a naturalized US citizen. That same year, illegally “deported” from Coos Bay, Oregon along with other IWW members organizing lumber workers there. 1914 started a 160-acre ranch in Bandon, Oregon, under the Homestead Act, but forced to abandon it. 1917 sentenced to 6 months in prison and $100 fine for “vagrancy” after being arrested while hopping a train to Klamath Falls, Oregon to organize lumber workers. May 23, 1918, denaturalized by the District Court of Oregon for having fraudulently sworn allegiance to the US Constitution while a member of the IWW–the first such denaturalization of the First Red Scare. He then became the first (formerly) naturalized US citizen to be interned as an “enemy alien” during the war, at Fort Douglas, Utah. “Voluntarily departed” June 25, 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54379/525

See also: The World (Coos Bay, OR), February 3, 1908 and August 7, 1917; Evening Herald (Klamath Falls, OR), July 31, 1917; Ancestry.com; Zachary W. Jones, “‘There is No Law Here’: Vigilantism, Militarism, and Metropolitanism in Coos County, Oregon, 1912-1913” (Honors Thesis, Western Oregon University, 2014), https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=honors_theses; Patrick Weil, The Sovereign Citizen: Denaturalization and the Origins of the American Republic

Yustif Svenko (Юстиф Свенко; Estife Swenko)

Born 1895, Chmielewo, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Employed at Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. Active member of the Akron branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested September 30, 1918, but released on bail; arrested again during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/225

Alrik Swenson

IWW member. Deported (to Sweden?), October 31, 1919. No further information found.

See: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920

Bronisław Syzmaniak (Bronislas; Synzmaniak)

Born 1883, Russia. Migrated to US 1904. Molder. Member of the Communist Party of America in Milwaukee. Deported (to Poland?) February 1924.

Daily Worker, February 6, 1923; Ancestry.com

Mikhail Szerba (Михаил Щерба; Mike; Shcherba; Szcerba; Szerbo)

Born 1894, Szczerby, Russia (present-day Poland). Auto mechanic. Migrated to US 1915. Wife in Russia. Joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore in early 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/305; FBI file OG 366771

Parfem Tabenko (Парфем Табенко; aka Porify Silkuko; Proify Silnko)

Born 1886, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1912. Organizer and “president” of the Union of Russian Workers branch at the Dakota Mine in Fairmont, West Virginia, formed 1919. Arrested December 1, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/606

Tadzizieg to Targony

May 24, 2020Red Scare DeporteesCP, Finnish, Hungarian, IWW, Persian, Polish, Russian, URWadmin

Yefin Tadzizieg (Tadsixieg; aka Podziziej)

Born 1892, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Brest, Belarus). Belarusian. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Circa 1918 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore, then transferred into Branch No. 4; became the brach treasurer. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/328

Hussein Tagiev (Хусейн Тагиев; Kussin; Gusein; Tagieff; aka Alexander Carson; Hussein Caucasian)

Born 1881, Nakhichevan, Russia (present-day Nakhichevan, Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic). Persian. Laborer; carpenter. Migrated to US 1914. Wife and two children in Russia. He was once hospitalized for six weeks in Newport, Kentucky, after he “fell down in some hot water in the Andrew Steel Co.” 1916 moved to Detroit, where employed as an autoworker and briefly opened a soft drink stand at River View Park. September 1917 joined the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested October 14, 1918 for distributing radical literature at an Armenian coffeehouse. The local U.S. Attorney took a special interest in his case; he ordered all of the confiscated literature destroyed, and paroled Tagiev on the condition that he purchase $100 in Liberty Bonds and cease patronizing Detroit’s “Turkish” coffeehouses—although he was told that since he could not speak Greek, he was free to “go to the Greek coffee houses.” Despite Tagieff’s compliance (which required him to borrow $50 from a friend), he was detained again in February 1919 as an alien anarchist and a person “likely to become a public charge” (after being forced to spend $100!). He was held incommunicado for a week, and immigration agents confiscated “a book in Persian that was 500 years old that he had prized” (likely a Quran or other family heirloom). Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/82

See also: Agnes Inglis Papers, Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan

George Talas

Deported to Hungary, May 8, 1920. No further information found.

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

William Tanner (Karl William Tanner)

Born 1884, Kuopio, Finland. Mechanic. Migrated to Canada 1911; from there migrated to US in 1912 (though he later mistakenly claimed 1914). Became prominent Finnish member of the IWW; wrote for and edited Finnish-language IWW newspaper. Defendant at the federal IWW trial 1917-18; sentenced to five years in prison. An enthusiastic supporter of the Bolshevik Revolution, he apparently joined the Communist Party of America while in Leavenworth Penitentiary, and by 1919 promoted what he called “Bolshevism-IWWism,” or “industrial communism.” July 1922 his sentence was commuted on the condition of deportation. Because the “Government of Finland may raise objections to receiving this man and might refuse to issue a passport,” he was deported to Russia on the grounds that Finland had been a Russian territory at the time of his birth, and because Russia was willing to issue him a passport. Deported October 31, 1922. Upon his departure Tanner declared: “Deported to Soviet Russia, I will continue fighting under the red flag of the workers’ republic for the crushing of world imperialism and for the building of the republic of work. Long live the class solidarity of the proletariat and the red Internationals.” 1923 migrated to Finland. 1925 became a speaker for the Communist-affiliated Suomen Ammattijärjestö (Finnish Trade Union Confederation) and an organizer for the Communists’ Sosialistinen työväen ja pienviljelijöiden vaalijärjestö (Socialist Electoral Organization of Workers and Smallholders ). 1927-1930 a member of the Finnish Parliament, where he “manifested communist orthodoxy.” In late 1930 he returned to the Soviet Union, where he worked for the Comintern. In 1935 he was a lecturer at the International Lenin School and director of a Moscow watch factory; that same year he was arrested as part of Stalin’s purges and sentenced to five years in the gulag at the White Sea-Baltic Canal for “counter-revolutionary activity”; 1937 transferred to the Ukhta-Izhemsk Camp. Released 1940 and died that same year.

INS file 54616/153

See also: Ancestry.com; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Auvo Kostiainen, The Forging of Finnish-American Communism, 1917-1924: A Study in Ethnic Radicalism; Tommi Kippola, “Transnationell syndikalism i ett lokalt rum: Industrial Workers of the World och finländarna i Duluth 1915–1921” https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/169623; https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tanner

Vasiliy Ivanovich Tarasyuk (Василий Иванович Тарасюк; Wasily; Tarasiuk; Tarasiak)

Born 1891, Kobrinsky Uyezd, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers circa early 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/525

Alex Targony (таргони)

Born 1896, Volhynia region, Russia. Polish. Driver. Migrated to US 1913. Worked as driver for a milk delivery company in Youngstown, Ohio. Political affiliation unknown, but in 1917 he claimed exemption on his draft registration card on the grounds that he would “not fight against brother.” Arrested sometime prior to January 9, 1920. Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.

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

Tataranovich to Tori

May 25, 2020Red Scare DeporteesAustrian, Bulgarian, CP, Italian, IWW, Polish, Russian, URWadmin

Victor Tataranovich (Виктор Татаранович)

Born 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer; machinist. Migrated to Argentina 1909, then Panama 1912, then to the US 1913. Employed by the Ford Motor Company. 1918 joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America, which in September 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” via Canada, October 16, 1920.

INS file 54859/973, FBI files OG 386338 and BS 202600-710-1

Josef Teichman (Joe; Feichman)

Born 1890, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (present-day Poland). Miner. Migrated to US 1912. Worked in a mine in Vestaburg, Pennsylvania. Joined the Socialist Party of America branch in Vestaburg in 1918; 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Pittsburgh. December 1919 became branch secretary. According to Immigration Inspector in Charge W. W. Sibray, “He is a nice clean-cut appearing fellow and does not impress me as being one who would be implicated in a project against the interest of this government. He does, however, belong to the Communist Party of America and is its secretary, and if it is the policy of the Department [of Labor] to deport persons who belong to that organization, then this man should be deported to the country whence he came.” “Voluntarily departed” to Poland, October 20, 1920.

INS file 54809/281; FBI file OG 386882

Nik Telatitski

Born 1893, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Brest, Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Union of Russian Workers. Youngstown, Ohio. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/541; FBI file OG 8000-379688

Afanasy Timonatnko

Deported to Russia, October 16, 1920. No further information found.

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

Jacob Tiomny

Born c. 1892, Minsk Governorate, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Reamer. 1918 joined Socialist Party of America in Baltimore; transferred into Communist Party of America in 1919. Wife and three US-born children in Baltimore. Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921.

INS file 54809/704

Konrad Tkach (Конрад Ткач; Kondrat; Conrad Kachur)

Born c.1888, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Poland). Migrated to the US 1913. Member of the Communist Party of America in Bayonne, New Jersey. Deported to Russia December 23, 1920.

INS file 54810/946

See also: The Morning Post (Camden NJ), December 12, 1920.

Mike Tkach

Born c.1894, Russia. Migrated to US 1914. Steelworker. Member and financial secretary of Pittsburgh local the Communist Party of America. Arrested February 20, 1920. Married after his arrest and petitioned for his new wife to accompany him to Russia. Deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

FBI file OG 8000-193906; INS file 54861/186

Gerasim Tkachuk (Harry; aka Levchenko)

Born 1893 in Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Laborer; autoworker. Married wife Maria 1913, had three US-born children. Contracted rheumatism as a tunnel worker. Employed at Ford Motor Company and family lived in Hamtramck. Arrested November 7, 1919 in Detroit. Denied being a member of the Union of Russian Workers, but admitted to attending “over 100” radical meetings in Detroit and “lecturing on socialism.” Deported March 18, 1921.

1922 reported to be in New York, having secretly returned as a representative of the Communist International.

INS files 54709/289 and 54709/447

Benjamin (“Benny”) Tobak (Toback; Tabak; aka Benjamin Pasweg)

Born 1898, Austria-Hungary. Printer. Date of migration to the US unknown. Member of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested December 8, 1919, and again in January 1920 and charged with “criminal anarchy.” Refused to answer questions during his immigration hearing. Deported to Austria June 19, 1920.

Illegally returned to the US via Mexico; arrested and in February 1926 sentenced to five months imprisonment in El Paso County Jail. May 1948 the FBI reported that he had been seen in New York City. Further investigation revealed no further information.

INS file 54860/999; FBI file OG 377698

See also: New York Herald, November 3, 1919

Spas Todorov (Спас Тодоров; Sam; Todoroff)

Born 1898, Bulgaria. Construction worker. Migrated to US 1917. 1918 lived in Toledo, Ohio. 1919 joined the Communist Party of America in Buffalo. Arrested December 28, 1919 in Lusk Committee raid on Buffalo’s CP headquarters. Initially indicted for “criminal anarchy,” but then turned over to Immigration authorities for deportation. Deported September 8, 1920.

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

See also: Ancestry.com; Buffalo Courier, December 30, 1919; Buffalo Evening News, January 10, 1920

Nicholas Torbiak (Nick)

Born 1895, Galicia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to the US 1909. Miner. Wife Martha and infant son in Coal Run, Pennsylvania. Member, along with wife, of the Ukrainian Federation Branch No. 59 of the Communist Party, in Coal Run. Involved in 1919 miners’ strike. Martha, pregnant, died in custody along with newborn child. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54885/74; FBI file OG 8000-385816

Iacopo Tori (Jacopo; Jacob; aka Louis Tori)

Born 1892, Montecarlo, Lucca, Italy. Laborer. Migrated to US with his father circa 1907; both returned to Italy circa 1908; Tori again migrated to the US 1909. 1913 became an organizer for the IWW and an active member of its Latin Branch in San Francisco. Arrested September 19, 1916 for “disturbing the peace” while protesting the conviction of Warren Billings. Active in anti-conscription agitation during World War I; in 1917 he hand-wrote a placard displayed at the IWW’s headquarters in South San Francisco reading: ” The clergy and the capitalists want war but they are not going to war. Imitate them!” December 20, 1917 arrested in San Francisco for avoiding the draft (for which he was not legally eligible!); he was in possession of a false passport and allegedly planning to make is way to Tijuana. Defendant along with 45 other IWW members in federal trail in Sacramento for violating the Espionage Act; engaged with most of the other defendants in a “silent defense” by refusing to participate in the proceedings. Sentenced to ten years in Leavenworth Penitentiary. In Leavenworth he was repeatedly disciplined for refusing to do work. August 1919 authorities at Leavenworth confiscated a letter from Tori to his older brother in Italy, reading: “The penal institutions of this rotten bawdy-house, American democracy, will never succeed in keeping in chains within the walls of shame the spirit of good men; this rises above the walls and goes where it will. I am sorry to hear that you are still a solider. I understand very well, though I have not tried it myself, that being a soldier in a monarchy is a dog’s life. Military life is a dog’s life anyway.” Sentence commuted December 1923 on condition of deportation. On eve of their deportations, Tori and two other IWW members “asserted that they will carry on the work of the Industrial Workers of the World when they are released, whether it be in this country or in a foreign land.”

Deported March 29, 1924. Imprisoned in Italy upon arrival for avoiding Italian military service and conscripted into the 79th Infantry Regiment until October 1925. Returned to Montecarlo, where authorities in 1936 reported his “good conduct in general, without giving rise to any kind of political remarks”; he was removed from the Italian government’s list of “subversives” that same year. On August 12, 1944, during the German occupation of Italy, he was seized by Nazis and executed for illegal possession of a handgun.

FBI file OG 110181; CPC busta 5160

See also: Kenyon Zimmer, Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America; Iacopo Tori, Il processo muto di Sacramento, Cal. (1919); St. Joseph Gazette (St. Joseph MI), December 27, 1923; Vasco Ferretti, La Resistenza nel pistoiese e nell’area Tosco-Emiliana (1943-1945): rivisitazione e compendio di una terribile guerra di liberazione, guerra civile e guerra ai civili.

Veremiuk to Volk

May 27, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, IWW, Mexican, PLM, Russian, Ukrainian, URWadmin

Ivan Veremiuk (Иван Веремюк; Iwan; John; Vermenuk; Veramanuk; Veremink)

Born 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1911. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Maspeth, Long Island circa 1916; became branch secretary, but apparently left the organization circa 1918. Also a member of the independent Brotherhood of Metal Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 5, 1919, at his workplace in New York. Claimed he was “beaten up” and “treated barbarously.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/117

Juan Villanueva

Born 1889, Paso de Sotos (present-day Villa Hidalgo), Mexico. Train brakeman. Migrated repeatedly between Mexico and the US beginning at least as early at 1913. Wife and son in Mexico. A founding member of anarchist group “Los Errantes” (affiliated with the Partido Liberal Mexicano) in 1913 in Morenci, Arizona. Contributed funds to the PLM newspaper Regeneración. Arrested September 19, 1919, in Tucson. Told authorities: “I do not wish to be deported; I have committed no crime. I am obliged to work to support my family.” Deported December 3, 1919. Crossed back into the US at least twice (in October 1926 and June 1928) seemingly without incident. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/70

See also: Regeneración, April 5, 1913; Ancestry.com

Alexander Vinik (Александр Виник; Alex; Alec)

Born 1887, Udel, Russia. Laborer; miner. 1915 attempted to migrate to US but held at Ellis Island and returned to England due to an eye ailment; later that year migrated to Canada; from there migrated to US in 1916. Wife and child in Russia. Miner at the Bertha Coal Company mine near Morgantown, West Virginia. Joined the IWW there in 1919 and distributed IWW literature. Arrested December 1, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/584; FBI file OG 383880

Demian Vlasov (Демьян Власов; Vlasoff; Wlasof; aka John Vlasoff)

Born 1893, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1912. Machinist. Member of the International Association of Machinists. Organizer and “the moving spirit” of the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers, which he had joined in 1915. 1919 appointed to editorial board of the URW newspaper Rabochy i Krestyanin. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 8, 1919. J. Edgar Hoover described him as “beyond a doubt one of the most hostile, arrogant and pernicious members of the Union of Russian Workers.” He was supposed to have been deported on the Buford, but was not, due to an error. Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.

INS file 54709/104; FBI file OG 369065

Maysey Voleshynyuk

Born 1880, Russia. Ukrainian. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and children in Russia. Member of the United Mine Workers. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 3, 1919. Although the Immigration Inspector in Charge was “inclined to think that the case made out against the alien is somewhat weak,” he was deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/604

Georgiy Volk (Георгий Волк; George; Wolk; aka Wolf or Wolfe)

Born 1886, Grodno region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913 (via Canada). Self-admitted anarchist and proponent of armed revolution. Began attending meetings of the Union of Russian Workers in East Youngstown in January 1918, though he claimed to never have officially joined. Fired from the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company “because he got into a fight through upholding the Bolshevik Government of Russia.” 1919 arrested in East Youngstown for stealing “shirts and other wearing apparel” from a store; sentenced to 30 days and a $50 fine for petty larceny. Police discovered “quantities of radical and anarchist literature” while searching his house. Deported February 26, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI file OG 335403

Volkov to Wälläri

May 28, 2020Red Scare DeporteesFinnish, German, IWW, Russian, URWadmin

Filip Volkov (Philip; Wolkoff; Volk)

Born 1881, Grodno Governorate, Russia (in present-day Belarus). Machinist. Served in Russian Army circa 1908. Migrated to US 1911. Wife and two children in Russia; she died in 1914. Joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore in 1917. Deportation warrant issued November 7, 1919, but he left Baltimore to avoid arrest; relocated to Cleveland, then returned to Baltimore after several months. Active in the Workers Red Cross/Workers Relief Society, a local organization composed largely of URW members to aid imprisoned comrades (but which federal agents mistakenly believed to be affiliated with the Communist Party). Arrested July 26, 1920. Deported February 1, 1921. Common-law wife and US-born daughter in Baltimore. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/304; FBI file OG 370100

Issay Volkov (Иссай Волков; George; Wolkoff)

Born 1890, Kovno, Russia (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania). Painter. In Russia had belonged to the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Migrated to US 1908. 1916 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Waterbury, Connecticut until it dissolved in 1917; March 1919 joined the IWW local there. 1919 a member of the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization of Russian progressives). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 21, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/171

George Voloh (Георгий Волох?)

Born 1897, Chernigov, Russia (present-day Chernihiv, Ukraine). Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Fairmont, West Virginia in 1919. Arrested December 1, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/589

Peter Voloshin (Петр Волошин; Pete; Woloshim)

Born 1895, Russia. Widower. Migrated to US 1914. Machinist. 1917 joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/695

Nikolai Volosyuk (Николай Волосук; Nicolai; Nikolaj; Volosuk; aka Mike Walker)

Born 1888, Stołpie, Russia (present-day Poland). Steelworker. Migrated to US 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Elected as a URW delegate to the Soviet of Workers Deputies of South Bethlehem, composed of members of the URW and local Lithuanian and Polish socialist groups, and for which he served as the recording secretary and a member of the executive committee. Arrested March 4, 1919; released on bail. Arrested again December 12, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/696

Carl Voss (Carl Heinrich Frederick Voss)

Born 1891, Hamburg, Germany. Sailor; laborer. Migrated to US 1910 (deserted ship). Joined the IWW 1913; 1918 became organizer for the IWW’s Metal Mine Workers’ Industrial Union No. 800. Also a member of the International Seamen’s Union. Arrested Tucson, Arizona, September 8, 1918 for failing to register for the draft; January 1919 sentenced a year in the Yavapai County Jail; reported by the sherif to have “caused him more trouble than any other prisoner he as had in jail…on account of attempting to incite riots on several occasions, and attempting to effect a jail delivery.” Arrested upon his release in January 1920 and held for deportation. Deported May 22, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54860/699

See also: Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University

Niilo Wälläri (Nillo; Nullo; Nulo)

Born 1897, Lieto, Finland. Sailor; union organizer. Migrated to US 1916 (jumped ship). Joined the IWW in 1917. Attended the Finnish IWW’s Work People’s College in Duluth, Minnesota. Became prominent Finnish-speaking IWW orator and organizer. February 1919 arrested in Erie, Pennsylvania, for allegedly crossing state lines for “immoral purposes” with his seventeen-year-old common-law wife, Lyylie (Lillian) Jaaskelainen, after she was arrested for shoplifting and IWW materials were found in his possession. The couple officially married August 20, 1920 in Pittsburgh. Niilo was deported 1920 for entering the country without inspection. The Pennsylvania Board of Appeals denied his petition to have his wife’s sentence commuted so that she could travel to Finland with him. (Lillian Wallari remained in the US and became a chiropractor.) Following his deportation, Niilo traveled to Russia where he attended political education courses conducted by the outlawed and exiled Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue (Finnish Communist Party). Returned to Finland and in February 1921 became district secretary for the Suomen Sosialistinen Työväenpuolue (Finnish Socialist Workers’ Party) in Uusimaa. May 1923 became secretary of the SKP. Arrested that August and convicted of treason. While in prison wrote in opposition to the SKP’s conception of a small revolutionary vanguard, its focus on underground organizations, and its adherence to directives from exiled leaders in Russia, and in favor of mass organizations, a popular front with social democrats, national Communist autonomy from the Comintern, and neighborhood, rather than workplace, organizations. 1926 released from prison and became editor of the Communist Työväenjärjestöjen Tiedonantaja (Labor Union Informer); 1929 he cofounded the breakaway Suomen työväen vasemmistoryhmä (Left Group of Finnish Workers). In the 1930s he advocated a united front against fascism, joined the Social Democratic Party, and continued to contribute articles to the IWW’s Finnish-language newspaper Industrialisti. 1938 became head of the militant Finnish Seamen’s Union (Suomen Merimies-Unioni), the most powerful union in the country. Under his leadership the union helped run arms to the antifascists in the Spanish Civil War, aided Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, won Finnish seamen the eight-hour day in 1946, and organized a union boycott of apartheid South Africa in the 1960s. In 1946 Wälläri was allowed to visit the US for two months as a delegate to the International Maritime Conference. After the Second World War he joined the Finnish People’s Democratic League and the ruling Socialist Unity Party (Sosialistinen Yhtenäisyyspuolue), and remained the head of the Seamen’s Union until his death in 1967.

INS file 54648/26 (file missing); FBI file OG 350179

See also: Evening News (Harrisburg PA), January 21 and 22, 1920; Pittsburgh Press, April 19, 1934; Ancestry.com; Tommi Kippola, “Transnationell syndikalism i ett lokalt rum: Industrial Workers of the World och finländarna i Duluth 1915–1921” https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/169623; Keijo Virtanen, Settlement or Return: Finnish Emigrants (1860-1930) in the International Overseas Return Migration Movement; John H. Hodgson, Communism in Finland: A History and Interpretation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967); Tauno Saarela, “American Impact on Finnish Communism in the 1920s,” in Labouring Finns: Transnational Politics in Finland, Canada, and the United States; Jukka Paastela, Finnish Communism Under Soviet Totalitarianism: Oppositions Within the Finnish Communist Party in Soviet Russia 1918-1935; Erkki Savolainen, Niilo Wälläri: legenda jo eläessään

Walter to Whitehead

May 30, 2020Red Scare DeporteesCLP, CP, English, German, IWW, Russian, SPadmin

Albert Wilhelm Walter (Walters)

*Source:* Fort Wayne Sentinel, January 5, 1920

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alfred Wesley (Westley)

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

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

Albert Whitehead

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

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

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

Bell Wicenski

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

INS file 54810/679

Wilckens to Yanish

May 31, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, German, IWW, Jewish, Russian, URWadmin

Kurt Gustav Wilckens (aka Chris Jensen; Gus Jansen)

Born 1886, Bramstedt, Germany. Miner. Migrated to US 1910. 1914 enlisted in the US Army; deserted after six months due to “mis-treatment.” Following several unsuccessful attempts to enter Canada, surrendered to military authorities at St. Louis and was court-martialed; sentenced to a year in military detention at Fort Leavenworth; dishonorably discharged upon his release in November 1916. Around this time he discovered the writings of Leo Tolstoy, became a pacifist and an anarchist, and joined the IWW. June 1917 participated in IWW miners’ strike in Bisbee, Arizona; was one of the 2,000 miners rounded up by vigilantes and “deported” to the New Mexico desert. August 1917 arrested as an “enemy alien” and interned at Fort Douglas, Utah. After several unsuccessful attempts, escaped with a fellow detainee December 24, 1917. Organized for the IWW in Seattle and Colorado (under the name “Chris Jensen”). November 1919 arrested in Silverton, Colorado as an IWW member who “had been making disloyal remarks against the United States Government. Deported to Germany, March 27, 1920. Circa 1921 migrated to Argentina and worked as a dispatcher at port of Buenos Aires. He roomed with Spanish anarchist Diego Abad de Santillán and wrote as correspondent for German anarchist newspapers Alarm and Der Syndikalist. Outraged at the execution of hundreds of striking workers during the Patagonia Rebellion, on January 23, 1923 he assassinated the Colonel responsible, Héctor Benigno Varela, outside of his home. On June 15, 1923, Wilckens was murdered in prison by one of Valera’s former troops; his death led to widespread strikes and protests in Argentina, and his killer was in turn murdered two years later in retaliation.

INS file 54709/612

See also: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Diego Abad de Santillán Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam; Osvaldo Bayer, Rebellion in Patagonia

Harry Wodner (Wadner; Wardner)

Born 1894, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Jewish. Machinist. Migrated to US 1913. Arrested during raid on the Union of Russian Workers’ People’s House in New York during the first Palmer Raids, November 15, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/461

Kronagi Workolf

Born 1896, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus). Steelworker. Migrated to US 1913. February 1919 he helped organize the Monessen, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers, of which he became secretary. Arrested March 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/133; FBI file OG 224794

Maxim Worobey

Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Machinist. Migrated to US 1914. 1919 joined Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested November 28, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/369

Ignac Worobien (Ignace)

Born 1884, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. April 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested November 18, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/403; FBI file OG 380406

Pavel Yakimov (Павел Якимов; Paul; Jacimoff; Jakimov)

Born 1887, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Wife and son in Russia. 1919 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/329

Mikhail Yakovlev (Михаил Яковлев; Mike; Yakovleff)

Born c. 1899, Vologda, Russia. Migrated to US in 1916 (jumped ship from the SS Czar). Sailor. Joined the Russian Branch of the IWW in New York City, of which he became secretary, as well as the Socialist Party and then the Second Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 8, 1920. Declared: “I am a revolutionist…I believe in overthrowing all capitalistic forms of government…I have nothing against deportation to Russia. I love my motherland. I left my relatives there and I am quite willing to go there.” Deported January 22, 1921 on the SS Stockholm.

INS file 54860/597

Mikhail Yanish (Михаил Яниш; Mike)

Born 1889, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and child in Russia. Member of the Monessen, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested November 26, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/521; FBI file OG 378505

Yarmovics to Zamora

May 31, 2020Red Scare DeporteesAustrian, Belarusian, IWW, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, URWadmin

Constanti Yarmovics (Constant)

“Voluntarily departed” to Austria, May 8, 1920. No further information found.

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

Mikhal Yarosevich (Михал Яросевич; Mihal)

Born 1889, Saratov Oblast, Russia. Steelworker. Migrated to US 1911. October 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch Youngstown, Ohio. Was participating in the 1919 steel strike when arrested November 10, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/177

Andrew Yarosevick (Jarosevich, Jaroschwicz)

Born 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. Arrested in Youngstown, Ohio, November 9, 1919, at a convention of the Union of Russian Workers. Unemployed at the time, and claimed to be illiterate. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/175

Fred Yarovoy (Фредрих Яровой; Yarovoi)

Born 1895, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1915. Member of Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia. Arrested November 15, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/317

Alex Yartim (Yarstein; Jorhem)

Born c.1889, Rozeta, Russia (present-day Belarus). Belarusian. Migrated to US 1909. Baker. Member and treasurer of Communist Party branch in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Arrested in Philadelphia, January 1920. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/342

Dimitry Yasinsky (Дмитрий Ясинский; Yasensky; Yesinsky)

Born 1886, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1911; from there migrated to US 1914. Wife in Russia. April 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 15, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/385

Ivan Yatsyshen (Иван Яцышен; John Yatzyshen)

Yatsyshen’s Communist Party membership card

Born c.1898, Nastasiv, Austria-Hungary (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Employed by Standard Oil in Buffalo, New York. Joined the Socialist Party, then the Communist Party’s East Side Ukrainian Branch, for which he was secretary. Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921.

INS file 54809/566

William Yaukum (Yankum; Yankul)

Born 1893, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 2, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/594

John Yereb

Born 1883, Köflach, Austria. Migrated to US 1896. Laborer, miner. Employed in various jobs across the US. Involved in several United Mine Workers strikes in 1900s. 1914 joined the IWW in Mohall, North Dakota; 1920 appointed general delegate for the IWW. Active in 1919 coal strikes in Illinois. Arrested March 31, 1920 in Bellville, Illinois; in possession of a large amount of IWW literature and correspondence. Deported March 28, 1921.

Pregnant wife Laura in US; gave birth to daughter June 1921. John almost immediately left Austria for Germany, from which he sailed to Tampico, Mexico, and from there joined the crew of a ship headed to Portland, Maine, where he disembarked July 30, 1922 and was detained. His case gained significant press coverage, and the deportation warrant was dropped after it was confirmed that he had in fact become a US citizen in 1900 at age seventeen by virtue of his stepfather’s naturalization. Laura died in Bellville in 1952; he died there in 1957.

INS file 54861/401; FBI file OG 383910

See also: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 17 and October 15, 1922; St. Louis Star, October 17, 1922; Nashville Journal (Nashville IL), February 7, 1957

John Zabrian

Born 1894, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913, then Canada later that year; returned to US 1918. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/377

George Zaklan

Born c. 1891, Mogorić, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Serbian. Migrated to US 1909. Laborer. Early 1919 joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Serbian Branch No. 212 of the Communist Party. Requested deportation to Russia rather than Yugoslavia, which was granted; deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/700

J. Zamora

Deported IWW member. No further information found.