David Maksimovich Elak-Berman (a.k.a. A. Emelianoff)
Born: 1891, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian; Jewish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1908 or 1909
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, where he served as branch treasurer. Arrested during the Palmer Raids and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
After deportation, settled briefly in Petrograd but soon fled to Poland. In 1923, with aid from comrades in North America, migrated to Montevideo, Uruguay, where he joined the anarchist Delo Truda Group and remained an active anarchist until his death in 1941.
Sources: INS file 54616/221; FBI file OG 368087; https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4f4rz9.
See also: Kate Sharpley Library, “David Maksimovich Elak-Berman”
Roberto Elia
Born: 1871, Catanzaro, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; printer; journalist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Anarchist
Active as a socialist in Italy from 1898, repeatedly arrested for political activity. After migrating to the United States, became a committed anarchist and propagandist. Worked as a typesetter for Carlo Tresca’s La Plebe in Pittsburgh, then for Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva in Barre, Vermont, before relocating to Boston and later New York. Member of the anarchist Gruppo Gaetano Bresci in East Harlem. Published the anarchist journals Domani (1919) and L’Ordine (1919–1920). Arrested in February 1920 on suspicion of printing the anarchist leaflets left at the sites of 1919 radical bombings. Held incommunicado with Andrea Salsedo in the Bureau of Investigation’s Manhattan offices. According to Elia, Salsedo was beaten during interrogation and, on May 1, 1920, jumped—or was thrown—to his death from a twelfth-floor window. Elia was deported on August 7, 1920.
After deportation, remained active in the Italian anarchist movement, largely escaping police surveillance. Selected at a January 1921 conference to co-edit a new anarchist newspaper, but the project was delayed and Elia died of tuberculosis in 1924 before its publication.
Sources: INS file 54861/280 (missing); CPC busta 1879; aul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Charles Howard McCormick, Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers; Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani; Aldo G. Ventrici, Roberto Elia. L’anarchismo antiorganizzatore negli Stati Uniti di primo ‘900.
Nikolai Elkevich (a.k.a. Mike Elkevich)
Born: c. 1891, Vilna, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Former member of the Socialist Party, later joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party. Arrested during the January 1920 raids and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/710.
Ivan Elko
Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Employed at the Dakota Mines in Fairmont, West Virginia. Member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the United Mine Workers; elected secretary of the Farmington, West Virginia URW branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Stated to authorities: “I don’t want to be deported. I want to remain here. I want to work here and I might stay here throughout my life.” Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/602.
Robert Elstin (a.k.a. Robert Kisten)
Born: 1884, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Latvian
Occupation: Carpenter
Migration: Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Entered Canada in 1913 as the “man servant” of Russian Consul General Basek, then migrated to the United States. Former member of the Russian branch of the Socialist Party; transferred in 1919 to Baltimore’s Lettish Branch of the Communist Party. Married, with wife Evelyn residing in the US. Arrested in Baltimore during the second Palmer Raids on January 2, 1920. Deported on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/535; FBI file OG 388790.
Ivan Ermola (or Yarmola; Yermola)
Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1918. Arrested during the Palmer Raids and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/350.
Adolph Ersson
Born: 1890, Karlskrona, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Sailor; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Australia 1905; then immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW
Active in union and strike activity in Australia after emigrating there. Then migrated to the U, where he joined the IWW in Denver in 1914. Survivor of the 1916 Everett Massacre; arrested in its aftermath and held until charges were dropped in 1917. Arrested again in Seattle in October 1918 and in Los Angeles in May 1919. Deported on June 26, 1919.
After deportation made his way to Norway, where gave speeches about the repression of the IWW in the US. Found work on a ship sailing from Kristiana to New York, where he jumped ship in December 1919. 1924 working as a laborer in Buffalo. At some point he returned to Sweden, where he died in 1967.
Sources: FBI file OG 315813; Industrial Worker, March 3, 1916; https://www.everettmassacre.com/biographies/adolph-ersson/; Ancestry.com.
Jakim Eschuk (a.k.a. Jack Esczuk or Escuk)
Born: c. 1891, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920, detained at Fort Wayne, and deported to Russia on March 3, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/362.
Nikita Eskimashko (a.k.a. Nikita Ikmasko)
Born: 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Member of Philadelphia URW Branch No. 1. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/331.
Fred Evanov (or Evanow; Evanoff)
Born: 1896, Russia
Nationality/Ethnicity: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Plumber
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Illiterate. Member of the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 2, 1920 and deported on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/5.
Angelo Faggi
Born: 1885, Brozzi, Italy
Nationality/Ethnicity: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; journalist
Migration: Migrated to Switzerland 1912; then to US 1915
Affiliation: IWW
Raised in a socialist family, joined the Italian Socialist Party at age 15. Active in Genoa’s Chamber of Labor and later a journalist for socialist and syndicalist newspapers. Became a revolutionary syndicalist by 1907 and left the PSI. Served as secretary of the Piacenza Chamber of Labor before fleeing to Switzerland to avoid imprisonment; expelled in 1914, moved to Paris, then immigrated to the US in 1915.
In Barre, Vermont, published Lo Scalpellino and joined the IWW, becoming a lecturer and later editor of the IWW newspaper Il Proletario. Arrested repeatedly for labor agitation; arrested in Chicago in May 1919 and “voluntarily departed” with his wife and two children to Italy on August 30, 1919.
After returning to Italy, again elected secretary of the Piacenza Chamber of Labor and helped found the local paramilitary antifacist Arditi del Popolo. Played a leading role in the 1920 factory occupations and became acting secretary of the Italian Syndicalist Union. Arrested in 1921 in connection with the Teatro Diana bombing; while imprisoned, elected to parliament as a protest Socialist candidate. After release, repeatedly assaulted by fascists and emigrated to Nice, France in 1923. Later joined socialist and antifascist exile organizations, served in the French military during WWII, returned to Italy after the war, and was elected mayor of Piacenza in 1956. Died in 1957.
Sources: INS file 53895/198; CPC busta 1925; Vincenzo Mantovani, Anarchici alla sbarra: la strage del Diana tra primo dopoguerra e fascismo; Sandro Antonini, Storia della Liguria durante il fascismo; http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/angelo-virgilio-faggi_(Dizionario-Biografico).
