Born: 1895, Formia, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Italian Occupation: Construction worker; house painter; editor Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: anarchist; IWW
Secretary of Philadelphia’s anarcho-syndicalist Union of Italian Workers, which collaborated with the IWW, he became the editor of the anarchist paper La Comune (1911–1915) and edited La Conquista (1920–1921). Arrested on May 25, 1921; deported on January 7, 1922. His wife and child remained in the United States.
In Italy, Abate was sent by Errico Malatesta to aid the antifascist movement in Ancona, where he helped lead the local section of the Arditi del Popolo. Later he fled arrest to Paris, where he was active in the exiled Comitato di Azione and involved in the “Garibaldi Affair,” a planned armed anti-Mussolini expedition led by Ricciotti Garibaldi, from which Abate withdrew shortly before Garibaldi was exposed as a fascist agent.
In 1926 Abate reentered the United States illegally under the name Hugo Roland, rejoined his family, briefly edited the anarchist newspaper Germinal (1926) in Chicago, and later settled in Michigan. Although a controversial and marginalized figure due his involvement in the Garibaldi Affair, Abate remained active in the anarchist movement in the US until his death in 1977.
Sources: INS file 55009/80; CPC busta 1; Hugo Rolland Papers, International Institute for Social History; Giovanni Marchegiani, Erasmo Abate: Storia di un anarchico pontino.
Jacob (“Jack”) Abrams (Yankel Abramovsky)
Jacob Abrams, 1921. Library of Congress.
Born: 1883, Uman, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Bookbinder Migration: Immigrated to US 1908 Affiliation: anarchist
A prominent Jewish anarchist in New York, he belonged to the group that published the underground Yiddish newspapers Shturem (1917) and Frayhayt (1918). Married fellow anarchist Mary Domsky, a survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Arrested in 1918 for printing and distributing leaflets opposing US intervention in the Russian Civil War, he was the central defendant in the landmark Supreme Court case Abrams v. United States. Following their conviction, he and the other defendants were released to be deported to Soviet Russia on November 23, 1921.
In Russia founded at a steam laundry for Comintern employees and worked with the anarcho-syndicalist Golos Truda press and bookstore, but soon became disillusioned and left with Mary for Paris in 1925, then Mexico City in 1926. There he was active among exiled Spanish anarchists of the Tierra y Libertad group and associated with Leon Trotsky. Co-founded the Yiddish antifascist newspaper Di Shtime in Mexico City 1939. After a cancer diagnosis in 1945 he was was temporarily readmitted to the US under FBI supervision for medical treatment, and he died 1953 in Mexico.
Sources: INS file 54517/79; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, The Supreme Court, and Free Speech; The J. Abrams Book: The Life and Work of an Exceptional Personality.
Mikhail Abrosimov (Michael Abrossemoff)
Born: 1901, Petrograd, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Seaman; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A former socialist born to Polish parents, and reportedly imprisoned in Russia for four years for “wrecking a house of prostitution.” In the US he joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. Arrested and beaten during the November 1919 Palmer Raids and deported Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/453.
Veniamin Afanasevich (a.k.a. Benjamin Ptashetchnik)
Born: 1897, Vilna, Russia (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Carpenter Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member of the Union of Russian Workers in New York City, as was his brother. Arrested and beaten during the Palmer Raids of November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/277.
Crescencio López Aguilera
Born: 1889, Mexico Nationality: Mexican Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliations/Tags: Partido Liberal Mexicano; anarchist
Treasurer of the PLM-affiliated group Los Errantes in Morenci, Arizona and corresponded with María Broussé, wife of Ricardo Flores Magón. Divorced with one American-born daughter. Deported on December 3, 1919.
As late as 1929 he was still contributing funds to anarchist publications in Mexico.
Born: 1896, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Employee of Remington Arms Union Metallic Cartridge Company, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In August 1919 he joined the Union of Russian Workers and was arrested the following month in Hartford. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/389.
Ugo Balzano
Born: 1882, Castel di Sangro, Aquila, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Typographer Migration: Immigrated to US 1903 Affiliation: Anarchist
Employed by Cleveland’s mainstream Italian-language newspaper La Voce del Popolo Italiano. Active in anarchist circles, he belonged to the Circolo Studi Sociali di Cleveland, distributed Cronaca Sovversiva, and published the anarchist paper L’Appello (1916–17). deported on July 28, 1919.
Upon his return to Italy he was immediately arrested for draft evasion during the war. Later subscribed to the paper La Frustra, published by fellow deportee Giobbe Sanchini. Balzano died in his hometown in 1926.
Walter Banaczyk’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1901, Słupia, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Automobile worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Migrated to the United States with his mother to rejoin his father. Employed at the Fisher Body plant in Detroit, he joined Branch 37 of the Polish Section of the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in January 1920 at the age of eighteen, he “voluntary departed” to Poland on October 16, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54859/569; FBI files OG 382042 and BS 202600-768-1.
Peter P. Banaitis
Born: 1899, Lithuania Nationality: Lithuanian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Miner; laborer; toolmaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined Branch 37 of the Lithuanian Section of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Chicago in January 1920, he remarked that “as people are thrown in jail here for their beliefs he thinks he will enjoy just as much liberty in his native country.” An immigration inspector described him as “a typical Bolshevik and…more or less intelligent…This individual should be deported by all means as he is manifestly and potentially a bad influence.” He was deported to Lithuania on December 9, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54811/563; FBI file OG 382041.
Daniel Bardaio (or Bardal)
Born: c. 1882, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
First migrated to the United States in 1906, then moved to Canada in 1908, and returned to the U.S. in 1915. Initially a member of the Socialist Party of America, he later joined the First Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America in Philadelphia. Bardaio was deported on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/124.
Moses Baritz
Moses Baritz, c. 1912. Wikimedia Commons.
Born: 1883, Manchester, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: Russian; Jewish Occupation: Musician; journalist Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Socialist Party of Great Britain; Socialist Party of the United States
Born in England to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. A musician and journalist, Baritz became a prominent member of the small and sectarian Socialist Party of Great Britain and gained notoriety as a skilled Marxist debater. He migrated to Canada in 1910, helping found the “impossibilist” Socialist Party of North America in 1911, before returning to Britain in 1914 and then moving to the United States in 1915 to avoid conscription. In Detroit he cofounded the small “impossibilist” Socialist Party of the United States (which eventually became the World Socialist Party of the United States). Arrested in Seattle in 1918 due to mistaken identity—he was erroneously alleged to be a Russian anarchist and IWW member—he was permitted to “reship foreign” as a sailor to Australia on September 10, 1918.
Baritz subsequently debated rival radicals in Australia, was the first person expelled from New Zealand in January 1920 under that country’s Undesirable Immigrants Exclusion Act, was barred from entry to Canada, returned to Australia, and was deported again in 1920. On the voyage to England he was barred from disembarking in Cape Town to deliver a speech, but was allowed to briefly go ashore in Durban. In England he resumed SPGB activities and became a noted music critic, and in 1924 he became Britain’s first radio disc jockey. He died in 1938.
S. Barkovsky’s IWW membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1893, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Became an active member of the Socialist Party of America, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the Ansonia, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers. He served as chairman of Luch, a URW front functioning as a mutual-aid society, and was a delegate to the 1919 URW convention. Arrested in June 1919 in Ansonia for “breach of the peace” connected to URW-led strike agitation, and arrested again in Hartford in November 1919, where authorities discovered a large cache of anarchist literature in his home. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/405; FBI file OG 8000-364023.
Stanislaw Bartesiewics (a.k.a. Stanley Barton; Joe Rink, Joe Rynkiewich)
Born: 1888, Lithuanian territrories of the Russian Empire Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
As a young man he shot and killed a woman under unclear circumstances and fled to the United States in 1899, where his wife joined him. That same year he was extradited back to Russia, convicted, and imprisoned for three years and seven months, during which time his wife remained in the United States and divorced him. He re-entered the U.S. in 1915 and joined the Lithuanian section of the Communist Party of America. In Detroit in 1920 he was denounced as a violent Communist to federal agents by his second wife Julia, as well as his brother George and sister-in-law. Arrested during the January 1920 Palmer Raids, he was deported on January 20, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54861/6; FBI file OG 382016.
Ivan Baskevich (or John Baskevich)
Born: 1897, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Though he held socialist ideas in Russia, he had belonged to no organization prior to emigration. Shortly after his arrival he joined the Socialist Party of America and later became financial secretary of Cleveland’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/943.
Aleksandr Ivanovich Batura
Born: Year unknown, Polish territories of the Russian Empire Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW
An anarchist and member of the IWW, he was arrested in Steubenville, Ohio, and deported to Poland on September 10, 1924.
Upon return to Soviet territory he openly criticized living conditions and declared that “only Commissars and not workers live well here.” For these remarks he was sentenced to the Solovetsky prison camp and subsequently to internal exile. In correspondence circa 1927 he wrote to comrades in the U.S. reporting: “The main thing is that I have no work and it is so hard to get anything. I have been actually starving here, moreover, I am sick.” International anarchist networks sent him aid between 1929 and 1931.
Sources:Pittsburgh Gazette Times, September 6, 1924; Senya Fleshin Papers, International Institute for Social History; G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents).
Morris Becker
Born: 1885, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: Anarchist
Supporter of Alexander Berkman’s The Blast and participated in the No-Conscription League. One of the first individuals arrested under the Selective Service Act of 1917, he received a sentence of one year and eight months in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for interfering with the draft. He described himself as “a man without a country,” an anarchist, and “an advocate of peace and not of force.” Deported on the Buford on January 21, 1919.
In Petrograd he secured factory employment but complained of poor conditions, prompting accusations that he was a “pampered bourgeois” nostalgic for “capitalist America.” After a decade of silence, he sent a coded letter to Alexander Berkman in 1931.
Sources: INS file 54235/32; Emma Goldman, Living My Life; Alexander Berkman Papers, International Institute for Social History.
Max Belesky
Born: 1888, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Carpenter Migration: Immigration to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Left behind a wife and three children in Russia. In Detroit he joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America, which later became a Communist Party of America branch. Arrested in January 1920, he accepted “voluntary departure” and returned to Russia on October 16, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54859/752.
Emelyan Belesta (a.k.a. Michael, Andrew, or Andriev Belesta)
Born: 1886, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigration to Canada 1912; then to US 1916 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated to Canada. From there he entered the United States without inspection. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh around 1918 and was described as taking a “prominent” role in local radical meetings. Arrested in 1919 in possession of substantial quantities of radical literature, he was released on bail only to be arrested again for distributing a handbill calling for a nationwide general strike “to enforce the the lifting of the blockade against Russia.” He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
He died of typhus in Ufa at an unknown date.
Sources: INS file 54616/134; INS file 54616/89; New-York Tribune, October 4, 1919; Delo Truda, December 1937–February 1938.
Bezil Belousov (or Basil Belusoff)
Born: 1881, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Had a wife and three children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and was arrested in Fairmont, West Virginia, that November. Told immigration authorities he had joined the URW while drunk. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/593.
Demyan Belowky
Born: 1882, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigration to US in 1915 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Communist Party in Detroit and was deported on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54850/994; FBI file OG 382092.
William Bendik (or Bendick)
Flier in Bendik’s possession when arrested. National Archives.
Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigration to US in 1912 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America or Socialist Labor Party
Although he claimed membership in Russian Branch No. 2 of the Socialist Party in Cleveland, authorities noted that he possessed Socialist Labor Party literature at the time of his 1919 arrest. Neither organizational affiliation legally qualified him for deportation. Instead, the case was built on allegations that after the police attacked a 1919 May Day demonstration, he boasted: “We only gave them a demonstration of what we will do July 4th; we will be prepared and have ammunition and everything, and we will show them what we will do.” Deported on December 21, 1919 on the Buford.
Born: 1893, Korets, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New Haven in early 1919. Arrested in Hartford, Connecticut, during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Deported on the Buford under the name Zenov (or Xenov) Bogen on December 21, 1919.
After returning to Ukraine, joined the Nabat Anarchist Federation and observed the partisan army of Nestor Makhno. Arrested in Kharkov around November 1920 and executed by the Cheka around March 1921 (dates differ slightly among sources).
Sources: INS file 54709/207; Senya Fleshin Papers, International Institute for Social History; http://socialist.memo.ru/lists/bio/l3.htm#n814; Voline, The Unknown Revolution, 1917-1921; G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents).
Nikolai Bolsun (or Bolson/Bolsum)
Born: Year unknown, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Member of the Communist Party of America in Plainfield, New Jersey. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920. Deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G; The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920.
Vasily Bondarenko (or Wasiliy Bondarenko; a.k.a. William Bender/Bander)
Born: 1897, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Active member of the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he also lectured for the URW nationally. Arrested repeatedly: in Bridgeport (November 9, 1919), Hartford (November 28, 1919), and New York (January 1920). Deported to Russia January 22, 1921.
Later reported to have been killed executed under Stalin.
Sources: INS file 54709/404; FBI file OG 382161; Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America
Samuel Bondarenko (or Bondarewko)
Born: c. 1878, Kyiv region, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Labor Party
Member of the Russian Branch of the Socialist Party of America in Philadelphia, later joining the Communist Labor Party and serving as secretary of the branch. Arrested December 29, 1919. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921 as an alleged member of the Communist Party of America. (Membership in the CPA rendered immigrants deportable, whereas after 1920 membership in the CLP did not.)
Sources: INS file 54809/871; FBI file OG 267034.
Peter Bonko
Born: Year unknown, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Communist Party of America?
Arrested in Brooklyn during second Palmer Raids in January 1920. Likely a member of the Communist Party of America. Deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file BS 202600-33; The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920.
Vasily Bootryn
Born: 1888, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Moldmaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Had a wife and children in Russia. JoJoined the Socialist Party in Detroit in April 1919 and later transferred to Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, in January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. “Voluntarily departed” on October 16, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54859/998; FBI file OG 387334.
Vladimir Borisyuk (or Borisiuk/Borisink; a.k.a. Walter Borisuk)
Vladimir Borisyuk’s Socialist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Member of the Socialist Party of America who then paid one month’s dues to the Communist Party of America. Authorities also suspected he belonged to the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Hartford, Connecticut, in November 1919 during the first Palmer Raids. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/151.
Borkhak
Born: Year unknown Nationality: Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: IWW
A Polish member of the Industrial Workers of the World, deported on February 20, 1921.
Source: Golos Truzhenika, March 5, 1921.
Ivan Borovsky (or John Borowsky)
Born: Year unknown, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Barber; railroad worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1908 Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers?
Member of the Russian branch of the Industrial Workers of the World in Chicago; also suspected of membership in the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Deported on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/267; FBI file OG 380320.
Boris Borsuk (a.k.a. Boris Boroes/Borores)
Born: Born 1896, Brest, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Barber; shop owner Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Helped organize the Union of Russian Workers branch in Youngstown, Ohio, and distributed URW literature. Arrested in August 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919. His brother Dimitri was also arrested as a suspected anarchist but not deported.
Sources: INS file 54709/500; FBI file OG 380628.
Max Brazeliya (or Brazelia)
Born: Born 1892, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 (via Canada) Affiliation: Unaffiliated socialist
An unaffiliated socialist and reader of the Yiddish socialist Forverts. Arrested in St. Louis in March 1919 after being reported by his employer at the Nelson Pants Manufacturing Company for “spreading Bolshevik propaganda.” His employer, not wanting to see him deported, later defended him as harmless and “a good workingman.” Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54616/25; FBI file OG 352388; Kenyon Zimmer, “The Voyage of the Buford: Political Deportations and the Making and Unmaking of America’s First Red Scare,” in Deportation in the Americas: Histories of Exclusion and Resistance, ed. Kenyon Zimmer and Cristina Salinas.
Josef Brencich
Born: Born 1887, Fiume, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia) Nationality: Austrian Ethnicity: Croatian Occupation: Sailor; painter Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW
An Italian speaker of Slavic background. Arrested in Philadelphia in 1921 along with Erasmo Abate and other members of the IWW-affiliated Union of Italian Workers. Ordered deported to Hungary, then allowed “voluntary departure” on January 8, 1923 because Fiume had become an independent state.
Met up with Erasmo Abate in Italy and France later in the 1920s.
Sources: INS file 55009/82; Hugo Rolland [Erasmo Abate] interviewed by Robert D’Attilio, Paul Avrich Collection, Library of Congress.
Stefen Brezovic (or Vrezovic)
Born: Born 1886, Austro-Hungary Nationality: Austrian Ethnicity: Yugoslavian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1916; in September 1919 he transferred into South Slavic Branch No. 17 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested January 1920, in Detroit. Deported to to Yugoslavia on May 8, 1920.
Born: Born 1882, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Blacksmith Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A former Russian army conscript, Brodya migrated to the United States in 1913 as an already-committed anarcho‑syndicalist. Settling in Pittsburgh, he joined the Union of Russian Workers and served as secretary of his local branch. He collaborated with fellow activist Frank Belesta in calls for a general strike to force the lifting of the U.S. blockade of Soviet Russia. Immigration authorities considered him “one of the most dangerous Russians in the Pittsburgh district,” and his deportation warrant initially misidentified him as an Italian citizen. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54616/89; New-York Tribune, October 4, 1919.
Abe Brook (or Bruk; Brooks)
Abe Brook, 1919. National Archives.
Born: Born 1893, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Brooklyn branch of the Union of Russian Workers, though he denied membership under interrogation. Around 1918 he married fellow anarchist Clara Kessler. He was arrested in October 1919 while helping organize a protest against the U.S. blockade of Russia, and again during the first Palmer Raids the following month. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919, his wife publicly protested the deportations and petitioned to be deported herself, but was denied on account of her US birth.
Sources: INS file 54709/273.
Ivan Nicholaevich Brunert (a.k.a. John Brunert or Brunett)
Born: Born 1869, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Bookkeeper; tailor Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and two sons remained in Kiev when he emigrated to the U.S. By 1918 he had joined Baltimore’s Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers and served as its financial secretary. Previously affiliated with an IWW branch of Polish tailors and later with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/109
Ivan Bubenko (a.k.a. John)
Born: Born 1884, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 (via Canada) Affiliation: Communist Party of America
His wife and child remained in Russia when he emigrated to avoid military service. Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1918 and soon transferred to Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party of America. Accepted “voluntary departure” on October 16, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54860/22; FBI file BS 202600-712-1.
Anton Budkovsky (or Budkowsky; a.k.a. Antoni Buoty or Buotv)
Born: Born 1884, Pružany, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 (via Canada) Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Entered the U.S. from Canada without inspection. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Detroit in 1917. Arrested in July 1918 after a confrontation between authorities and local Russian radicals, he stated, “I am a sympathizer of the anarchists, but I am not an anarchist…I believe in their teachings.” He “voluntarily departed” on January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54554/23.
Fedor Buhay (a.k.a. Frank Bohai)
Born: Born 1893, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1910 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Born in Russia but raised in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, Buhay was a Belarusian (“Ruthenian”) who joined the Communist Party of America in Buffalo and was deported to Austria on April 14, 1920.
S. G. Chestyakov (a.k.a. Gregory Chestikoff; Chestiakoff; Harry Chesniuk)
Chestyiakov’s URW membership card (which he attempted to rip up during his arrest). National Archives.
Born: c. 1893, Chernihiv province, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and child remained in Russia when he emigrated. Became a member of the Union of Russian Workers in Donora, Pennsylvania. He was arrested there on September 1, 1920, reportedly after being identified either by an undercover Bureau of Investigation agent or, according to contemporary accounts, betrayed by a fellow URW member. During his arrest, Chestyakov and fellow activist John Sergeyenko were reportedly beaten severely by police, and anarchist literature was found in his possession. Tried and convicted under Pennsylvania’s Sedition Law and sentenced to one year in the Allegheny County Workhouse. Deported on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54885/30; FBI file OG 389087; Volna (New York), May 1921 (with thanks to Malcolm Archibald).
Andrey Chigraev (a.k.a. Andy Chigraeff)
Chigraev’s membership cards for the SPA and URW. National Archives.
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Miner; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Union of Russian Workers
Belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church before emigrating to the United States in 1913; his wife remained in Russia. After joining the Ukrainian Branch of the Socialist Party of America in 1918, he became a member of the Monessen, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. An undercover officer reported that Chigraev actively participated in political debates focused on socialism and anarchism, and Chigraev admitted to anarchist beliefs. Arrested while on strike at the mill where he was employed and was subsequently deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/478.
Leon Chikalyuk (or Chikaliuk; a.k.a. Leo Chrikaluik)
Born: 1890, Russia (somewhere in present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and son remained in Russia when he emigrated. Joined the Monessen, Pennsylvania branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 while participating in a strike at a tool mill. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/516.
Stepan Chinevich (or Hinievich)
Born: 1886, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Involved in radical political activity in Russia prior to his migration. Moved intermittently between the United States and Canada for work. In Seattle, he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917 and later became a member of the IWW in 1919. Arrested multiple times for radical activity beginning in 1917 and deported on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54235/94.
Maksim Chineyko (or Maxim Chinejko)
Born: 1890, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Became a member of the Brooklyn-based Branch No. 10 of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 while working at the Guggenheim Copper Company in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/117.
Lev Ilyich Chizhevsky (a.k.a. Leo Chijefsky)
Born: 1896, Minsk, Konotop, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1917 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Brother of fellow URW member and deportee Stanislav Chizhevsky. Joined the Buffalo branch of the Union of Russian Workers, where he served as a distributor of anarchist literature. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
After returning to Russia, he continued his education and became an engineer at a paper mill. He later joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union but was arrested in April 1937 on charges of belonging to a counter-revolutionary organization and executed in September 1938.
Stanislav Chizhevsky (a.k.a. Stanislaus Chijevsky)
Born: 1896, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Brother of fellow URW member and deportee Lev Ilyich Chizhevsky. Joined the Buffalo branch of the Union of Russian Workers; arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/141.
Victor Chmylkowski (or Charnelkowski)
Born: 1869, Riga, Russia (present-day Latvia) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Mechanic Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliations: Communist Party of America
Active in socialist and communist politics in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he was treasurer of Polish Branch No. 80 of the Communist Party. In 1914 he married fellow deportee Victoria Okulicz, and the couple had two U.S.-born children. Arrested in March 1920, Chmylkowski and his wife sold their property and “voluntarily departed” for Russia on April 7, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/528.
Victoria Chmylkowski (née Okulicz)
Born: 1893, Łęczyca, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Immigrated to the United States in 1913 and married fellow deportee Victor Chmylkowski the following year. She joined the Socialist Party and later the Polish Branch No. 80 of the Communist Party. Arrested alongside her husband in March 1920 and “voluntarily departed” for Russia with him on April 7, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54861/137.
Andrey Chuprina (a.k.a. Andrew)
Born: 1881, Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 (via Canada) Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers?
Settled in Detroit, where his wife and three children also resided. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 on suspicion of belonging to the Union of Russian Workers, though evidence suggests he may have only attended a few URW meetings. “Voluntarily departed” on September 25, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54709/551; FBI file OG 385742; United States Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Charges of Illegal Practices of the Department of Justice.
Alba Galeotti, postcard to her son Ferrer, c. 1930s. Courtesy of Gina Norsedt.
Born: 1867, Canischio, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Housewife; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1902 Affiliation: Anarchist
After immigrating to the United States around 1902, she married coal miner Killo Gotti in Lafayette, Missouri, later adopting the anarchist name “Alba,” meaning “Dawn.” She named her children Idea (i.e. “L’Idea” of anarchism) and Ravachol (after the French anarchist of the same name). By 1908 she was contributing funds and articles to the Italian-language anarchist newspapers Cronaca Sovversiva and La Questione Sociale and corresponded with anarchists in Italy. She also raised money for the antimilitarist anarchist paper Rompete le file! in Milan. Following her separation from Gotti, she married anarchist miner Guglielmo Galeotti in 1909. The couple lived in mining communities in Kansas and Illinois and named their children Ferrer and Germinal. Unconfirmed reports suggest she was deported in 1916 and illegally returned to the United States. Arrested in 1920 alongside Galeotti, she escaped custody while he was deported. She continued anarchist activity, including collecting funds for the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee in 1921. In 1923 arrested in Schulter, Oklahoma. While detained, she refused food for thirty-three days, was declared insane, and forcibly fed. Deported on January 10, 1924, leaving her two youngest children in the care of her eldest daughter, Ida (Idea) Gotti.
In Italy she did not reunite with Guglielmo Galeotti, and remained in correspondence with her children. Died in Turin in 1940.
Sources: Cronaca Sovversiva, May 31, 1913; Jennifer Guglielmo, Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1 and 2, 1924; Henryetta Standard (Henryetta OK), January 3 and January 7, 1924; Ancestry.com; additional information provided by Gina Norstedt.
Guglielmo Galeotti (a.k.a. William Galleoti)
Guglielmo Galeotti with his wife Alba and children, c. 1915. Courtesy of Gina Norsedt.
Born: 1871, Santa Sofia, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1902 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist in Italy during the late 1880s and was regarded by Italian authorities as a dangerous subversive. Repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for subversive activities between 1888 and 1902. Fled briefly to Switzerland in 1901, but was expelled and arrested on unfounded suspicion of complicity in the assassination of King Umberto I. Subsequently emigrated to and then expelled from Trieste. After immigrating to the United States, lived in mining communities in Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Illinois and became a leading figure in the Kansas anarchist Gruppo 11 Novembre. In 1909 married fellow anarchist Alba Genisio. In 1911 joined other group members in traveling to Mexico to assist the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano during the Mexican Revolution but soon became disillusioned and returned to the United States. Deported on February 19, 1920.
Although he remained under surveillance in Italy, authorities reported that by 1935 he had withdrawn from politics and allegedly showed sympathy toward the Fascist regime.
Sources: CPC busta 2236; Michele Presutto, La rivoluzione dietro l’angolo: Gli anarchici italiani e la Rivoluzione messicana, 1910-1914; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1, 1924; Ancestry.com; additional information provided by Gina Norstedt.
Luigi Galleani
Luigi Galleani, 1919. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.
Born: 1861, Vercelli, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Editor Migration: Immigrated to US 1901 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist while studying law at the University of Turin. After fleeing police repression in Italy, he lived in France and Switzerland, working with anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus, before being arrested, expelled, and imprisoned in Italy. While confined to the island of Pantelleria, he met his wife Maria. He escaped in 1900 and fled to Egypt and England before immigrating to the United States in 1901.
In the United States, edited La Questione Sociale in Paterson, New Jersey, and led the 1902 silk workers’ strike, for which he was indicted for inciting riot and fled to Canada, then Barre, Vermont, where founded newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva in 1903. Later relocated the paper to Lynn, Massachusetts. Emerged as the leading Italian anarchist proponent of insurrectionary violence. Deported on June 24, 1919, leaving his wife and six children behind.
Upon arrival in Italy, briefly arrested and then relaunched Cronaca Sovversiva in Turin. Imprisoned for sedition in 1922, and again arrested in 1926, serving prison time followed by internal exile. He remained under surveillance until his death in 1931.
Sources: INS file 54235/33; CPC busta 2241; Ugo Fedeli, Luigi Galleani: quarant’anni di lotte rivoluzionarie (1891 –1931); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Antonio Senta, Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America.
Alexander Gallod (a.k.a. Golod; Gold)
Gallod’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1888, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party of America before becoming an active member of the Communist Party of American and then the United Communist Party in Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Arrested in Philadelphia on January 7, 1920, and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54811/973.
Laureano García
Born: Spain, year unknown Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW
An anarchist and IWW member, he was arrested in Jerome, Arizona, in February 1919 and deported later that year.
In 1931 he contributed funds from Spain to the New York anarchist newspaper Cultura Proletaria.
Sources: La Nueva Solidaridad, June 14, 1919; Cultura Proletaria, April 18, 1931.
Rogelo García (a.k.a. Regelio García; Roglio García)
Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including García, 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1894, Quibicano, Cuba Nationality: Cuban Ethnicity: Occupation: Cigar maker Migration: Immigrated to US 1903 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist around 1917 and joined the Los Corsarios Group, which published the anarchist paper El Corsario. Arrested in New York in February 1919 with thirteen other Spanish-speaking anarchists on unfounded allegations of plotting to assassinate President Woodrow Wilson. Although charges were dismissed, García was held for deportation. When questioned about his failure to naturalize, replied, “I do not even believe in my own country.” He was married to U.S.-born Blanca Fernandez and had an infant child at the time of his deportation on April 25, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54616/79.
Isso Gartner (a.k.a. Imre Geery or Geerry)
Born: 1895, Kassa, Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia) Nationality: Hungarian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Jeweler Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party of America in Baltimore. A conscientious objector, he opposed military conscription during the First World War. Attempted to unionize Baltimore jewelry workers through the International Jewelry Workers Union (AFL). In May 1918 he was arrested on dubious theft charges, sentenced to six months in prison, and later interned as an “alien enemy” at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. There he contracted tuberculosis of the hip, forcing him to use crutches. Upon release, Gartner was deported on May 8, 1920 on the unsubstantiated charge that he believed in overthrowing the U.S. government by force.
Sources: INS file 54709/38; Baltimore Sun, May 23, 1918; Jewelers’ Circular-Weekly, July 10, 1918.
Jack Gaveel (a.k.a. Jakov Zukatansky; Jackotonsky; Jacknowsky)
Born: 1889, Amsterdam, Netherlands Nationality: Dutch Ethnicity: Occupation: Labor organizer Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915 Affiliation: IWW
Migrated to England in 1905; returned to the Netherlands in 1910 and emigrated to Canada that same year. Joined the IWW in 1913 in Canada and became secretary of IWW Local no. 339 in Edmonton, Canada the following year. Migrated to the U.S. in 1915. Included in the federal indictment of IWW leaders in 1917, but dropped from the case before it went to trial. Acted as an IWW delegate in Los Angeles, where he was “active in organizing the Austrian and Croatian fishermen.” Arrested in April 1921 and sentenced to 1-4 years under California’s criminal syndicalism law. In San Quentin, refused to work in the prison jute mill, declaring: “I have never scabbed on my class outside of prison, and I won’t do it inside.” He was sent to solitary confinement, sparking a sympathy strike of thirteen other imprisoned IWW members. Deported to The Netherlands on August 1, 1924.
Remained active in labor and anarchist circles in The Netherlands. Into 1951 he resumed contact with the IWW and distributed IWW materials in Europe. In 1960, at age 71, he wrote: “I wish I were in America. I’d join you in the fight then.”
Sources: FBI file BS 186701-240; Industrial Worker, June 11, 1921; August 5, 1922; IWW Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library.
Fred Gazeyog (a.k.a. Gazeyek; Gazeycg)
Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to the United States in 1911 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Employed by the B. F. Goodrich Company and joined the Union of Russian Workers in Akron, Ohio, in 1916, becoming secretary of the local branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Born: 1879, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and two children remained in Russia when he migrated. He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in July 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Soviet Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Born: 1897, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Student; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1908 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Immigrated to the United States with his family as a child and later attended the University of Pennsylvania for one year before financial necessity forced him into wage labor. In 1918 he married his childhood sweetheart, Tillie Karetsky. The couple became politically radicalized in Philadelphia, first joining the Socialist Party and later the United Communist Party. Gerish served as secretary-organizer of the Jewish Young Socialist Federation. Both he and his wife were arrested and deported to Soviet Russia on February 1, 1921.
In Russia, Gerish rose to prominence within the Communist movement and became a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. During the Stalinist purges, he was accused of Trotskyist sympathies, expelled from the Communist Party in 1937, arrested, and executed.
Sources: INS file 54810/821; Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921; Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, Harvey Klehr, and John Earl Haynes, Secret Cables of the Comintern, 1933-1943; Michael Buckmiller and Klaus Meschkat, eds., Biographisches Handbuch zur Geschichte der Kommunistischen Internationale: Ein deutsch-russisches Forschungsprojekt.
Tilly Gerish, 1921. Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921.
Born: 1899, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Dressmaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Immigrated to the United States in 1913 to reunite with her childhood sweetheart, Grigory Gerish, whom she married in 1918. Active in the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union. Together with her husband, became politically radicalized in Philadelphia, first joining the Socialist Party and later the Communist Party. She was a member of the party’s Central Jewish Branch. Arrested in January 1920, she was deported with her husband to Soviet Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/126; Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921.
Mikhail Gernet
Born: 1898, Arkhangelsk, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Lathe operator Migration: Migrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America
Entered the United States via Canada without inspection and worked as a lathe operator in Detroit. Became a member of Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America. Arrested in April 1919 for allegedly causing a disturbance during a lecture by Catherine Breshkovsky that was critical of the Bolsheviks. Later testified that police beat him unconscious during his arrest, leaving him unable to raise his arms or eat without pain. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919, under the pretext that he was “likely to become a public charge.”
Sources: INS file 54616/172.
Natale Girolimetti
Born: 1899, Ancona, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Migrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Anarchist
An individualist anarchist described by Italian authorities “an individual of impulsive and violent character.” Deported to Italy sometime before 1921.
A “violent, irreducible” opponent of fascism, he was brutally beaten by Fascists upon his return to Italy. In 1921 he fled abroad, living successively in France, Luxembourg, Germany, and again in France, where he remained active in Italian exile radical circles. In 1926 he returned to Italy seeking medical treatment for head injuries sustained during earlier beatings and was immediately arrested for possession of antifascist literature. Released on parole, he was again assaulted by Fascists and arrested in 1927 while attempting to return to France. His mental condition deteriorated, and in 1928 he was confined to a psychiatric institution, where he died in 1932.
Sources: CPC busta 2446; Fabrizio Giulietti, Il movimento anarchico italiano nella lotta contro il fascismo, 1927–1945.
Bonaiuto Giusto
Bonauito Giusto, c. 1919. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.
Born: 1888, Castel di Casio, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Shoemaker; miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1909 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist in the United States and joined the Circolo dei Studi Sociali in Kensington, Illinois. Traveled to Mexico in 1917 to avoid registering for the U.S. military draft and returned to the United States without inspection in 1918. Arrested in May 1918 during a raid on the Circolo and later detained in Chicago on the grounds of unlawful entry. Deported on December 20, 1919.
After returning to Italy, continued his anarchist activities in Castel di Casio. Arrested in 1923 for opposing the Fascist government and again in 1926 for resisting conscription, but was acquitted both times. Remained under government surveillance until at least 1940.
Born: 1869, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Garment worker; nurse; lecturer Migration: Immigrated to US 1885 Affiliation: Anarchist
Immigrated to the United States in 1885 and became an anarchist in the wake of the Haymarket Affair. Goldman soon emerged as one of the most prominent anarchist propagandists in the country, known for her lectures, writings, and advocacy on issues including syndicalism, free speech, birth control, and antimilitarism. Over the course of her career, she was arrested at least thirteen times for her political activities. In 1906 she founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth, which she published until its suppression in 1917. That year, she co-founded the No-Conscription League and, together with Alexander Berkman, was arrested in June under the Espionage Act for interfering with the military draft. Both were convicted, sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and fined $10,000. Upon her release, Goldman was deported to Soviet Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
In Russia, Goldman and Berkman initially collaborated on collecting materials for a Museum of the Revolution. Following the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion in 1921, both broke decisively with the Bolshevik regime. They left Russia in December 1921 and Goldman lived thereafter in Germany, France, England, and Canada, continuing anarchist activism and publicly condemning Soviet authoritarianism. In 1934 she was permitted to return briefly to the United States for a lecture tour. During the Spanish Civil War, she traveled to Barcelona in 1936 and undertook speaking and organizing tours across Europe on behalf of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT. She died in Toronto in February 1940.
Sources: INS file 52410/43; Emma Goldman, Living My Life; Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia; Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich, Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman.
Philip Golishko
Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers
Became a member of both the Industrial Workers of the World and the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Seattle in January 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/543; FBI file OG 381765.
José González (a.k.a. Rosendo García)
Born: c. 1896, A Coruña, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Galician Occupation: Sailor; laborer Migration: Entered US 1916 Affiliations: IWW
Entered the United States in 1916 by jumping ship from the SS Corunna, using a passport belonging to a sailor friend, Rosendo García. Worked as a sailor and laborer and laid track for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His father resided in Cuba, while his mother remained in Spain. Arrested in Philadelphia as one of eleven Spaniards and Mexicans suspected of radical activity. González admitted membership only in La Mancomunidad (The Commonwealth), a mutual aid society that raised funds for imprisoned Spanish radicals. He denied IWW membership, though he acknowledged attending two IWW meetings and having friends who belonged to the organization. Immigration authorities concluded, “A careful survey of the evidence fails to show his connection with the I.W.W. or that he is guilty of any anarchistic charges, although he admits that a number of his friends are anarchists, socialists or members of the I.W.W.” (González is nevertheless identified as an IWW member in at least one IWW publication.) A deportation warrant was issued on the basis that he was “likely to become a public charge” and “entered by water at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officials.” Deported to Spain on July 10, 1919, aboard the SS León XIII.
Sources: INS file 54648/30.
Grigory Varfolomeevich Gorbich
Born: 1896, Brest or Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Metalworker Migration: Date unknown Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Became an anarchist in 1916 and joined the Union of Russian Workers. Deported to Poland on January 22, 1921.
In 1922 arrested for illegally crossing the Polish border into Soviet territory and subsequently settled in Petrograd. He was arrested again in July 1923 and sentenced to two years of internal exile away from major cities and border regions. In 1925 he was again arrested and sentenced to an additional three years of internal exile.
Sources: International Committee for Political Prisoners, Letters from Russian Prisons; G.P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents); http://visz.nlr.ru/person/book/vi/4/130.
Nikolai Gorin
Nikolia Gorin, c. 1920. National Archives.
Born: 1895, Tverskoy, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Union of Russian Workers
Worked as a machinist in Bridgeport, Connecticut where he joined the Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America and, in 1919, became a member and secretary of the local branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in February 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54861/145; FBI file OG 381756.
Ivan Gornovsky (a.k.a. John Gornovsky)
Born: 1886, Selets, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Brother of Vasil Gornovsky; active in the radical movement in Russia before emigrating to the United States in 1913. Left behind a wife and child in Russia.
He became a member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World and served as secretary of the Seattle branch of the URW. Arrested on October 16, 1919, on charges of criminal syndicalism and arrested again in January 1920. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/407.
Vasil Gornovsky
Born: 1895, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Emigrated to the United States in 1913, following his brother Ivan. Became a member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World. Arrested in Seattle in November 1919 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/427; FBI file OG 388242.
George Goroshkov (or Garoshkow; Gorshkov; a.k.a. Ivan Balui)
Born: 1880, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and child remained in Russia while he emigrated. He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Monessen, Pennsylvania, in early 1919. Deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/214; FBI file OG 383004.
Samuel Goz (a.k.a. Sam Gordon)
Born: 1903, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1918 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Migrated to the United States in 1918 with his mother and younger brother. Claimed that prior to emigration he had been affiliated with the Bolshevik Party in Russia, that Leon Trotsky personally read him the party’s manifesto and program, and that he tried to join the Red Army “but they would not take me because I was only fifteen years old.” Arrested in Buffalo in January 1920 as a member of the Communist Party of America, at the age of seventeen. Openly declared his belief in assassinating public officials who opposed the working class, stating: “In fact, I would kill them myself if I had a chance.” Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/906.
Ivan Gramatsky
Born: 1895, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in Newark, New Jersey in January 1920 and deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.
Sources: FBI file OG 384985.
Josep Grau i Jassans (a.k.a. José Grau Jassans; José Grau; Arnaldo Sopelana; Arnaldo Sopelano; Adolfo Apelle)
Josep Grau, c. 1930s
Born: 1899, Barcelona, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Catalan Occupation: Marine fireman Migration: Immigrated to US 1917 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
Belonged to the anarcho-syndicalist CNT in Spain before emigrating in 1917. Immediately joined the Industrial Workers of the World in the U.S., becoming an organizer for its Martine Transport Workers Industrial Union. He also joined the Spanish-speaking anarchist Los Corsarios Group in New York and edited the first three issues of its paper El Corsario before leaving due to internal disagreements. In February 1919 he was among fourteen members of Los Corsarios arrested by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson; all charges were dropped. He was arrested again in May 1919 while serving as a delegate to a Marine Transport Workers convention in Philadelphia. Although he falsely denied being an anarchist, he admitted IWW membership and was deported on December 20, 1919.
After returning to Spain, Grau became a CNT organizer in Barcelona and involved in relaunching the CNT newspaper Solidaridad Obrera. He later joined the pro-Communist Comités Sindicalistas Revolucionarios and attended the Third Profintern Congress in Moscow in 1924. Following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, he joined the Catalan nationalist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and became private secretary to party leader Lluís Companys. Elected to the Spanish parliament in 1931 and re-elected in 1933 as an ERC candidate, he focused on labor rights and Catalan autonomy. Expelled from the ERC in 1934 amid internal disputes, he was rehabilitated in 1936. During the Spanish Civil War, he served as an inspector for the Rupublican state-run petroleum company and of municipal commissioners. After Franco’s victory, he fled to France in 1939 and emigrated to Mexico in 1942, where he worked as a salesman until his death in 1965.
Sources: INS file 5461/211; FBI file BS 40-9016-1; Arnaldo Sopelana [Josep Grau i Jassans], Lo que yo he visto en Norte-América; Arnau Gonzàlez i Vilalta, Els diputats catalans a les Corts constituents republicanes, 1931–1933; https://memoriaesquerra.cat/biografies/grau-jassans-josep.
Born: 1895, Pinsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist in New York and was active in the Francisco Ferrer Center. Lived in a common-law marriage with fellow anarchist Jacob Isaacson. After Jacob was ordered deported in 1920, she submitted an affidavit declaring, “I am an anarchist, and a believer and advocate of anarchism,” in order to be deported alongside him. The couple “departed voluntarily” for England on June 20, 1922.
She and Jacob later illegally returned to the United States around 1924 under her maiden name, Denenberg, and she was naturalized in 1940. In interviews conducted in the 1970s, she stated, “Anarchism is a way of life, no matter what your view is of human nature. No authority over you, no slaves under you—that’s the anarchist life.” She died in 1983.
Sources: INS file 54616/202; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Jacob Isaacson (or Itzickson; Jack; a.k.a. Jacob Denenberg)
Born: 1896, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Laborer; locksmith Migration: Immigrated to US 1908 Affiliation: Anarchist
Migrated to the United States with his mother and sister and became active in New York anarchist circles, particularly the Francisco Ferrer Center, where he was known as “the Rabbi” due to his depth of reading knowledge. Helped publish the anarchist periodicals Revolt (1916) and Freedom (1919). Arrested in May 1919 for an antiwar article published in Freedom, which he accepted responsibility for even though he was not its author, and was indicted under the Espionage Act after the war had ended. In 1920 the case was dropped in exchange for a warrant of deportation. While on bail, he edited The Hotel Worker, organ of the syndicalist International Federation of Workers in the Hotel, Restaurant, Lunchroom, Club, and Catering Industry. Departed voluntarily to England in June 1922 with his partner Gussie Denenberg.
Returned to the United States in 1924 via Canada under Gussie’s maiden name and opened a grocery store in Washington, DC. When Gussie applied for naturalization in 1940, his true identity came to the attention of immigration authorities, who repeatedly threatened him with deportation. He died by suicide in 1946.
Sources: INS file 54616/202; FBI file OG 281175; Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: : An Oral History of Anarchism in America; interview with Helen McGee, July 25, 2022.
Andrew Iswashko
Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown Nationality: Austrian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation:
Included on an internal Bureau of Immigration list of radicals deported radicals. Deported to Austria on September 1, 1920. No further biographical information has been found.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
George Ivanov
Born: 1889, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Member of the Communist Party in Bayonne, New Jersey. Deported to Russia on December 23, 1920. No additional biographical information located.
One of the circulars Ivanyuk was distributing when arrested. National Archives.
Born: 1882, Brodna, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Unknown
His wife and child remained in Russia when he emigrated. Arrested in Camden, New Jersey in April 1919 for distributing radical circulars calling for a general strike on May Day to free political prisoners. Arrested again in Philadelphia in November 1919. His precise political affiliation remains unclear. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54616/173.
Dmytro Iwankiw
Born: 1884, Stańkowa, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Salesman; journalist; steelworker; labor spy Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
May have joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917 (he denied this after first attesting to it). Recruited in June 1919 by the Armesworthy and Cavitt Detective Agency on behalf of the Youngstown Sheet & Tool Company to inform on Russian radicals. Joined the Socialist Party and then cofounded East Youngstown Ukrainian Branch No. 32 of the Communist Party, serving as its financial secretary, while reporting to company detectives and federal authorities. Arrested during the November 1919 Palmer Raids but released once his informant role was revealed; arrested again January 1920. Although assured by Department of Justice agent J.F. Sawkin that he would be deported to Russia to allay suspicions and then be allowed to reenter the US, and his bail was paid by the Youngstown Sheet & Tool Company, he was arrested in Youngstown for operated an illegal alcohol still on March 26, 1920. Later claimed he was held in solitary confinement and “starved” for about two weeks to extract an incriminating confession. Spent more than a year in detention on Deer Island, and assaulted by other detainees for being an “agent provocateur” and placed in a separate cell for his own protection. Deported May 19, 1921 and not allowed to return.
Sources: INS file 54860/901; FBI file BS 212986; Sidney Howard and Robert Dunn, The Labor Spy.
Jacob Jackotonsky (a.k.a. Jacknowsky; Jakov Zukatansky)
Born: 1891, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Shoemaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Literate and widely read. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/201.
Herbert Harold Jackson
Born: 1900, Hull, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Sailor; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1917 Affiliation: IWW
Jumped ship to enter the United States and joined the IWW shortly thereafter. Arrested multiple times for IWW activities, including distribution of the IWW Defense Bulletin in Seattle in December 1918. Declared, “My reason for joining the I.W.W. was because I realized that I was not master of my own economic living and that I was opposed to being enslaved in the machine of production. I believe the worker is entitled to all he produces.” Deported on February 27, 1919.
Upon arrival in England, his IWW literature was confiscated and he was placed under surveillance and barred from public speaking. Migrated to Canada in May 1921 intending to return to the United States.
Sources: INS file 54547/15; FBI file OG 347558; Rebel Worker, April 15, 1919.
