As part of the ongoing research for my book on the global history of immigrant radicals who were deported during America’s First Red Scare, I have posted brief profiles of 836 (and counting) individual deportees I have identified. This list is a work in progress, and entries are being added updated as I obtain additional information.
Who is included:
This list includes radicals and suspected radicals who were deported between 1918 (following America’s entrance into the First World War) and 1925, when the last of the foreign-born radicals arrested between 1917 and 1920 were expelled, some after serving prison sentences or being interned as “enemy aliens.” It includes both those who were deported by government order and those who were ordered deported but “voluntarily departed” at their own expense with the government’s consent (both categories were included in US government deportation statistics). It does not include those who fled the country to avoid arrest or deportation. It includes both individuals deported for belonging to legally-defined “anarchistic classes,” and others who were suspected of radicalism but deported on other grounds (most commonly for entering the country without inspection or being retroactively deemed “likely to become a public charge” at the time of their entry).
This is not a complete list. In the fiscal years (June-July) 1918-1926, the United States deported 979 aliens as “anarchists,” and an unknown number of additional radical immigrants under other statutes. The largest single group of deportees, composed of 242 alleged radicals (as well as seven unrelated deportees) departed on the USAT Buford on December 21, 1919. However, it appears that no complete list of Red Scare deportees was produced by either the Bureau of Immigration or the Bureau of Investigation. I have instead had to rely on partial lists and mentions of individual cases included in these organizations’ files, congressional testimony, radical publications, newspaper reports, and other sources.
How to use this site:
Profiles have been posted in small batches. They are organized in alphabetical order by last name, followed by alternate spellings and pseudonyms in parentheses. (The Cyrillic spellings of Russian names are generally my best guess; American sources from the era were wildly inconsistent in their spellings of such names. The same is true of the transliteration of Chinese names in the Roman alphabet.) You can also browse the Index of Names.
Birth years are often approximate, usually having been calculated from an individual’s age at the time of their examination by immigration authorities, and some may therefore be off by a year.
You can search by individuals’ nationalities (country of birth and, in some cases, ethnicity [i.e. Jewish, Lithuanian, etc.]) by using the tags above.
Occupations describe the individuals’ employment in the US, not necessarily the work they engaged in before arrival or after their deportation.
Political affiliations represented include the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the anarcho-syndicalist Union of Russian Workers of the United States and Canada (URW); the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM); anarchists unaffiliated with larger organizations; the Communist Party of America (CP); the Communist Labor Party (CLP); the Socialist Party of America (SP); the Socialist Labor Party (SLP); and unaffiliated socialists. You can search by political affiliation by using the tags above.
You may also use the “Search” box at the top of the page to look for individual names, locations, etc.
The main sources used for compiling these profiles are case files from the Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Record Group 85, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC; the Old German Files (OG) and Bureau Section Files (BS) of the Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Record Group 65, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (as digitized at fold3.com); and (for Italians) the Casellario Politico Centrale (CPC), Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome, Italy.
A special thanks to Molly Thacker and Brooke Thompson, who photographed hundreds of INS files for me; Malcolm Archibald, who has translated a number of Russian-language sources; D.J. Alperovitz, who has provided photographs of several IWW members; and the dozens of other archivists, translators, activists, and colleagues who have helped me locate, acquire, and read material from across the globe while undertaking this research.
Finally, if you have additional information about any of the deportees, or spot an error, please contact me!
Vasiliy Balik (Василий Балик, Wasily Balick or Bilicki)
Born 1896, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer; migrated to US 1913. Employee of Remington Arms Union Metallic Cartridge Company, Bridgeport, CT. Joined of Union of Russian Workers August 1919; arrested September 1919, Hartford, CT. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/389
Ugo Balzano
Born 1882, Castel di Sangro, Aquila, Italy. Typographer; migrated to US 1903; employed by mainstream Italian-American Cleveland newspaper, La Voce del Popolo Italiano. Anarchist; member Circolo Studi Sociali di Cleveland; distributor of Cronaca Sovversiva; publisher of anarchist paper L’Appello (1916-1917). Deported 1919. Arrested immediately upon return to Italy for avoiding the draft. Died Castel di Sangro, 1926.
Born 1901, Słupia, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Auto worker. Migrated to US with mother 1915 to join father already there; employee at Fischer Body. December 1919 joined Branch 37, Polish Section of the Communist Party of America. Arrested Detroit January 1920, age 18. “Voluntarily departed” to Poland October 16, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54859/569; FBI files OG 382042 and BS 202600-768-1
Peter P. Banaitis
Born 1899, Lithuania. Miner, laborer, toolmaker. Migrated to US 1911. Member International Union of Tool, Die, and Mold Makers; member Branch 37, Lithuanian Section of the Communist Party of America. Arrested January 1920, Chicago. When asked if he intended to remain in US, replied “he did intend to remain here but he has no preference, and as people are thrown in jail here for their beliefs he thinks he will enjoy just as much liberty in his native country as he does here.” According to immigration inspector, “Subject appears to be a typical Bolshevik and is more or less intelligent…This individual should be deported by all means as he is manifestly and potentially a bad influence.” Deported December 9, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54811/563; FBI file OG 382041
Daniel Bardaio
Born Russia, year unknown. Member Communist Party of America. Deported February, 1921. No further information.
Included in list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Moses Baritz
Moses Baritz, center
Born 1883, Manchester, England. Jewish. Musician, journalist. Member Socialist Party of Great Britain; renowned (and feared) agitator and debater, able to quote Marx extemporaneously. Music critic for the Manchester Guardian. He “made more than one journey to America,” and in Canada in 1911 helped found the tiny, “impossibilist” Socialist Party of North America. Migrated to US 1915 to avoid conscription; joined Socialist Party of America, then in 1916 in Detroit cofounded the small and more radical breakaway “Socialist Party of the United States” (which later became the Socialist Educational Society, the Workers’ Socialist Party, and finally the World Socialist Party of the United States). Arrested for anti-war speeches Seattle, 1918. “Voluntary departure” September 1918 to Australia, where debated IWW members, then expelled. Went to New Zealand, from which he was the first person expelled under the Undesirable Immigrants Exclusion Act. From there went to South Africa, then returned to England 1920, where resumed SPGB membership; in 1924 also became “Britain’s first radio disc jockey.” Died 1938.
Born 1892, Ancona, Italy. Shoemaker. Migrated to US 1911. Anarchist militant associated with Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. Wife and two children in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Arrested 1918. Subsequently suspected by police (but not most historians) of involvement in the robberies and murder for which Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested. Deported April 18, 1920; joined by family in Italy. According to Eugene Lyons, Coacci’s “yellow-haired wife wept for the vanished glories of life in a New England shoe town,” and “The man’s shelves were lined with brochures on the home manufacture of bombs and he professed himself a terrorist of the Galleani school.” October 1921 migrated to Argentina, where involved in anarchist “expropriations” and bombings, associated with Severino Di Giovanni. Arrested Buenos Aires 1930 with two other Italian anarchists in connection with robbery of a bus company.
INS file 54379/396; FBI file OG 387205; CPC busta 1382
See also: Eugene Lyons, Assignment in Utopia; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background
Umberto Colarossi
Born 1894, Carpineto, Italy. Bookkeeper. Migrated to US 1913. Became anarchist “After a few months I arrived in this country.” Associated with Luigi Galleani and Cronaca Sovversiva. In Mexico 1917-1919 to avoid US draft. Arrested Chicago, May 1919. Deported July 1920. September 1921, wrote letter to Italian government repenting and renouncing his pas radicalism. 1922 inducted into Italian military. In Italy became manager for the Singer Corporation. 1929 fascist government reported that “he has maintained a sincere attitude of sympathy towards the current regime, also showing loyalty to the current institutions, thus giving evident proof of repentance.”
INS file 54616/214; CPC busta 1400
See also: Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background
Sam Colbus (aka Colbas, Colbun, Kolbun)
Born 1879, Russia. Minder. Migrated to US 1910. Wife and two children in Russia. Joined Union of Russian Workers 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919, in Fairmont, West Virginia. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/592
Amy Colyer (née Withall)
Born 1881, London, England. Housewife. Joined the Independent Labour Party. 1915 married William Thomas Colyer. Migrated to US 1915 with husband. 1916 joined the Socialist Party of America in Boston, 1917 became branch secretary; joined the Communist Party of America in 1919; secretary of Boston CPA branch. Arrested with husband during second Palmer Raids, January 1920; arrested again in 1922 and detained at Deer Island Prison; formed a prisoners’ “soviet.” Told immigration agents, “As a communist I am opposed to all capitalist governments.” When asked “Do you understand the form of government that you are enjoying in the United States?” she replied, “I am not enjoying it, but I think I understand it.” Appealed their case to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit but lost; both deported April 11, 1922. Joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Labour Party; then became active in the Independent Labour Party again.
Born 1883, London, England. Civil servant. Opposed the First World War; joined the Independent Labour Party. Migrated to US 1915 with his new wife, Amy Colyer. 1916 joined the Socialist Party of America in Boston; became a leading figure in the Massachusetts branch of the SPA, which he helped transfer into the Communist Party of America 1919. Wrote for several radical publications, and on the editorial staff of The Communist. Made a declaration of intent to naturalize in 1916, but abandoned plans to become a US citizen “Because of the treatment I have received and because I have discovered that the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence and the historic speeches of Lincoln are interpreted entirely different by the authorities from any way which I could possibly imagine by reading those documents.” Arrested with Amy during second Palmer Raids, January 1920; arrested again in 1922 and detained at Deer Island Prison; formed a prisoners’ “soviet.” Appealed their case to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit but lost; both deported April 11, 1922. Later that year he published a scathing critique of the US titled Americanism: A World Menace. Joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Labour Party. 1926 became secretary of the Greater London Left-Wing Movement (an organization created to expand Communist influence within the Labour Party), then secretary of the National Left-Wing Movement, but resigned from the CPGB around this same time and forced to resign from the NLWM after less than a year for resisting CPGB control of the organization. Became chair of the Kent Federation of Labour Parties; ran unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1931 and 1935 as a Labour Party candidate. 1942 resigned from Labour Party and rejoined the Independent Labour Party, for which he eventually served on the National Administrative Council. Died 1956.
IWW member; led group of 200 draft resisters in Rockford, Illinois, where all were arrested and 112 convicted. Deported to England sometime before October 1919. Continued as street speaker for the Merseyside IWW branch in Liverpool.
Included on list of deported IWW members in One Big Union Monthly, October 1919
See also Gerald E. Shenk, “Work or Fight!”: Race, Gender, and the Draft in World War One; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959
George Cyzyk (Cysyk, Cyzik, Chizhik, aka Paul Gigalko; Paul Zygaloff)
Born 1896, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Member of and lecturer for Union of Russian Workers. Arrested Cleveland, February 1918, then New York during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Anarchist literature, including copies The Anarchist Soviet Bulletin, found in his home. Suspected involvement in a counterfeiting scheme. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54379/125; FBI file OG 375385
Jan Dalkovksy (Ян Далковский; Dalkowsky)
Born 1896, Plotsk Governate, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined Polish Local No. 28 of Socialist Party of America in Erie, Pennsylvania in January 1918; transferred into Communist Party in 1919. Also a member of the IWW. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Poland, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54809/280
Ivan Danilovich (Иван Данилович, John Danilovich)
Born 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. Wife in Russia. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown
INS file 54709/390; FBI file OG 388677
John Dardzinski
Born c.1905, Russia. Polish. Migrated to US 1912; shade maker. Member of the Communist Party. Arrested in Hamtramck, Michigan, January 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.
Born 1877, Sunderland, England. Sailor; baker. Migrated to US 1897. Joined IWW circa 1909; IWW delegate and organizer; secretary of Seattle IWW branch. Arrested “at least five or six times in connection with his I.W.W. activities.” As sailor, shipped to India, China, Japan, Singapore, Samoa, and the Philippines. Arrested Seattle, July 1918. Deported June 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54379/503
Wincenty Dmowski (Vincenty Druowski)
Born 1885 in Russian Poland. Polish. Migrated to US 1914. Member of the Communist Party of America. Arrested Detroit, January 1920. Initially ordered deported to Poland, then allowed “voluntary departure” to Russia, October 16, 1920. No further information found.
INS file 54709/836
John W. Dobrinich
Born 1892, Austria-Hungary (in present-day Croatia). Croatian. Migrated to US 1910. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Labor Party. Arrested Missouri, 1919 or 1920. Deported to Croatia 1925.
INS file 54861/376
See also: American Labor Year Book, 1926
Peter Dolgay (Dolgag; Dowhay)
Born 1880, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Metal worker. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and three children in Russia. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio. Arrested August 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/543
Victor Dombrowski (Dombrivski; aka Douglas Dombrowski)
Dombrowski’s Socialist Party membership card
Born 1871, Telsha, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Lithuanian. Laborer. Not radical in Russia. Migrated to US 1900. Arrested in Chicago circa 1914 and served 3 years in prison for “assault with intent to kill.” Joined Socialist Party of America and IWW; left IWW 1918; then joined Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920, in Chicago. Deported to Lithuania May 14, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54809/19; FBI files OG 385518 and OG 388575
Harry Dorosh (aka Mike Dorash, Mike Smith)
Deported to Russia January 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS folder 54325/36G
Konstantin Demyanovich Draco (Константин Демьянович Драко)
Born 1888, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and son in Russia. Joined New London, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers, 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/373; FBI file OG 388601
Sidor Drankovich (Cedar)
Born 1880 in Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US in 1913. Autoworker. Lived in Hamtramck. 1919 joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party, which later that year became Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920.; held at Fort Wayne Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54589/983
Dionisy Drichetz (Dennis Drichitz)
Member of the Communist Party of America in Bayonne, New Jersey. Arrested during second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to Russia, December 23, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS folder 54325/36G
See also: The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920
Sergey Drigov (сергей дригов; Drigoff)
Financial secretary of the Seattle branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Deported February 1921. No further information found.
FBI file OG 388594
Alexandr Dubarev (Александр Дубарев, Alexander Dubareff)
Deported to Russia February, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS folder 54325/36G
Ivan Dubov (Иван Дубов, John Duboff)
Born 1885, Feodorovka, Russia. Migrated to US 1912. First joined Union of Russian Workers in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, circa 1914; then active in branches in New York and then Detroit. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Told immigration agents, “Of course, I am an anarchist…I do not acknowledge any government.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/97; FBI file OG 381656
Petr Dubovik (Петр Дубовик)
Deported to Russia January 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS folder 54325/36G
Ivan Dudinsky (John Dudinsky)
Dudinsky’s Communist Party membership card
Born 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Date of migration to US unknown. Former member of the Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America, then joined the Communist Party of America. Arrested Newark, New Jersey. Detained for 101 days, while suffering from tuberculosis, and refused to answer any questions without a lawyer, which was not provided. Deported December 23, 1920. 1923 immigrated to Canada and settled in Quebec. In 1935 requested readmission to the US to visit his brother and acquaintances, but denied.
INS file 54810/346
See also: Investigation of Administration of Louis F. Post, Assistant Secretary of Labor: In the Matter of Deportation of Aliens, Hearings, Sixty-sixth Congress, Second Session; Constantine Maria Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920; Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror
Anton Dudka (Антон Дудка; Antonio; Tony)
Born Podolsk, Russia, 1894. Polish. Migrated to Canada 1914, then to US 1918. Blacksmith, handyman. Chairman of Buffalo’s East Side Russian Branch. Arrested January 7, 1920. Denied all allegations. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
INS file 54809/443
Serge Dukhane
Deported to Russia, February 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS folder 54325/36G
Alex Dulchewshi
Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 54860/808
Michael Dunetz (Mike)
Born 1885, Vilensky, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1912. Carpenter for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/988
Wladyslaw Dwanowsky (Walter Jazonski)
Born c. 1884 in Lublin, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Arrested in Russia for going “on a furlough without permission.” Migrated to US 1914. Bricklayer. Member of Communist Party in Hamtramck, Michigan, where arrested January 1920. Arrested previously or handing out May Day flyers. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/610
Paul Dyachuk (aka Pavel Deonesieff)
Deported to Russia, February 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS folder 54325/36G
David Maksimovich Elak-Berman (David Ilak; David Eelak; aka A. Emelianoff)
Born 1891, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1908 or 1909. Joined Union of Russian Workers branch in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania; became branch’s treasurer. Deported on the Buford.
Settled in Petrograd, but then fled to Poland. 1923 migrated to Montevideo, Uruguay; joined anarchist Delo Truda Group there and active anarchist until his death in 1941.
Born 1871, Catanzaro, Italy. Laborer; printer. A socialist in Italy beginning 1898, for which arrested numerous times. Migrated to US 1906. became “fanatic anarchist and propagandist” in US. New York. Worked as typesetter for Carlo Tresca’s La Plebe in Pittsburgh, then 1910 worked on Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva in Barre, Vermont, before moving to Boston and then New York in 1914. Member of anarchist Gruppo Gaetano Bresci in East Harlem. Published anarchist magazines Domani (1919) and L’Ordine (1919-1920). Arrested February 1920 under suspicion of printing leaflets left at the sites of 1919 anarchist bombings throughout US. Held incommunicado, along with friend and coworker Andrea Salsedo, in twelfth-floor Manhattan offices of Bureau of Investigation, where the pair admitted to printing the leaflets and supplied testimony implicating alleged members of the bomb plot. Salsedo was, according to Elia, beaten while interrogated, and was distressed at informing on his comrades; on night of May 1 Salsedo jumped (or some claimed was thrown) to his death from the window. Elia deported August 1920.
Active in Italian anarchist movement, though this went largely unnoticed by Italian government surveillance. Selected at January 1921 conference to co-edit a proposed new anarchist newspaper, but the project was delayed and Elia died of tuberculosis before the new publication appeared in 1924.
Nikolai Elkevich (Николай Элькевич; Nicholas; Mike)
Elkevich’s Communist Party membership card
Born Vilna, Russia, c. 1891. Polish. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Member of Socialist Party, then of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54709/710
Ivan Elko (Evan; Velko)
Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Miner. Migrated to US 1914. Worked at Dakota Mines in Fairmont, West Virginia. Joined both the Union of Russian Workers and the United Mine Workers; elected secretary of Farmington, West Virginia URW branch. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Stated, “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 on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/602
Robert Elstin (aka Robert Kisten)
Elstin’s application and membership card for the Communist Party
Born 1884, Russia. Latvian. Carpenter. Migrated to Canada in 1913 as the “man servant” of Russian Consul General Basek, then to US in 1914. Former member of the Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America, transferred to Baltimore’s Lettish Branch of the Communist Party of America in 1919. Wife, Evelyn, in the US. Arrested in Baltimore during second Palmer Raids, January 2, 1920. Deported February 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54859/535; FBI file OG 388790
Ivan Ermola (John Yarmola, Ivan Yermola, Иван Ермола)
Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Joined Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1918. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/350
Adolph Ersson
Born 1890, Karlskrona, Sweden. Sailor; laborer. Migrated to Australia 1905, where involved in union and strike activity. Migrated to US 1912. Joined IWW 1914 in Denver. Survivor of 1916 Everett Massacre, for which he was arrested until charges dropped in 1917. Arrested Seattle, October 1918, and again in Los Angeles May 1919; deported June 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.
FBI file OG 315813
See also: Industrial Worker, March 3, 1916
Jakim Eschuk (Jack Esczuk; Escuk)
Born c.1891, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wane. Deported to Russia, March 3, 1921.
INS file 54860/362
Nikita Eskimashko (aka Nikita Ikmasko)
Born 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Carpenter. Migrated to US 1913. Member of Philadelphia branch no. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/331
Fred Evanow (Theo; Evanov; Evanof)
Born 1896, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Plumber. Illiterate. Member of the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 2, 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/5
Angelo Faggi
Born 1885, Brozzi, Italy. Laborer; journalist. Anarcho-syndicalist; IWW member. Socialist parents; joined Italian Socialist Party at age 15; active in Genoa’s Chamber of Labor (Camera del Lavoro). Journalist for socialist and syndicalist newspapers. By 1907 he was a revolutionary syndicalist, and left the PSI. 1909 moved to Piacenza, where secretary of the Chamber and Labor. Arrested several times for labor and anti-war activism. 1912 migrated to Lugano, Switzerland to avoid prison; expelled 1914 and migrated to Paris, and 1915 migrated to US. In Barre, Vermont, published local labor paper Lo Scalpellino. Joined IWW as lecturer and in 1916 became editor of IWW newspaper Il Proletario, while drawing closer to the anarchists. Arrested multiple times for IWW agitation; final arrest in Chicago in May 1919; deported August 1919.
In Piacenza again elected secretary of the Chamber and Labor and formed the local branch of the paramilitary anti-fascist organization Arditi del Popolo. 1920 helped lead factory takeovers in Sestri Ponente, and became acting secretary of the anarcho-syndicalist Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI). Arrested 1921 in on suspicion of involvement with bombing of the Teatro Diana, intended to pressure authorities to release Errico Malatesta and other imprisoned anarchists, prompting a general strike of workers in Piacenza. While in prison, elected to parliament as a protest candidate for the Italian Socialist Party (prompting heated debate among anarchist comrades). Released from prison but repeatedly assaulted by fascists; migrated to Nice, France with his family in 1923. Involved in antifascist exile organizations and advocated a Popular Front with Communists. By 1937 he had joined the Partito Socialista Unitario. When WWII broke out, he joined the French military. After the war he returned to Piacenza and participated in socialist politics, and in 1956 elected mayor of Piacenza as a member of the Italian Social Democratic Party; died 1957.
Born 1867, Canischio, Italy. Housewife; laborer. Migrated to US circa 1902. April 1902 married coal miner Killo Gotti in Lafayette, Missouri. She adopted the common anarchist name Alba (“Dawn”), and 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 writings to the Italian-American anarchist newspapers Cronaca Sovversiva and La Questione Sociale. Also in contact with anarchists in Italy, including Aldino Felicani (future treasurer of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee), and raised funs for the antimilitarist anarchist newspaper Rompete le file! (Break Ranks!) in Milan. Separated from Gotti (who died in 1913); in 1909 married anarchist coal miner Guglielmo Galeotti (“William Galleoti”). Lived in various mining towns in Kansas and Illinois. Named their children Ferrer (after martyred Spanish anarchist educator Francisco Ferrer) and Germinal (after Émile Zola’s radical novel about French coal miners, Germinal). Reportedly deported as an anarchist in 1916 but returned illegally to the US. Arrested 1920 with Guglielmo Galeotti; she escaped custody while he was deported. 1921 she collected money for the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee. Arrested 1923 in Schulter, Oklahoma. Ill and fasting when detained, she refused to eat for 33 days and was declared “insane” and force-fed. Deported January 10, 1924. Her youngest two children were left in the care of their sister, Ida (Idea) Gotti, now age 21 and a teacher.
Died 1940 in Turin.
See also: Ancestry.com; Cronaca Sovversiva, May 31, 1913; Financial Report of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee (1925); Jennifer Guglielmo, Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945; Caroline Waldron Merithew, “Anarchist Motherhood: Toward the Making of a Revolutionary Proletariat in Illinois Coal Towns,” in Women, Gender, and Transnational Lives: Italian Workers of the World; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1 and 2, 1924; Henryetta Standard (Henryetta OK), January 3 and January 7, 1924
Guglielmo Galeotti (aka William Galleoti)
Born 1871, Santa Sofia, Italy. Miner. Anarchist by late 1880s. Considered by Italian authorities to be “extremely dangerous” and “one of the most actives subversives of S. Sofia, capable of fomenting disorder.” Arrested and imprisoned repeatedly between 1888 and 1902. 1898 fled to Switzerland, but deported in 1901 and arrested on (unfounded) suspicion of being an accomplice to the assassination of King Umberto I. Briefly emigrated to Trieste, but expelled. Migrated to US 1902. Lived in various mining towns in Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Illinois; leading figure in Kansas anarchist Gruppo 11 Novembre. 1909 married fellow anarchist and deportee Alba Genisio, with whom he had two children named Ferrer (after martyred Spanish anarchist educator Francisco Ferrer) and Germinal (after Émile Zola’s radical novel about French coal miners, Germinal). 1911 left with other members of the Gruppo 11 Novembre to join forces of the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano in the Mexican Revolution, but quickly disillusioned with the PLM and returned to US. Deported February 19, 1920.
Under surveillance in Italy, but in 1935 reported to have “left politics” and “oriented himself towards the regime for which he now shows sympathy.”
CPC busta 2236
See also: Ancestry.com; Michele Presutto, La rivoluzione dietro l’angolo: Gli anarchici italiani e la Rivoluzione messicana, 1910-1914; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1, 1924
Luigi Galleani
Born 1861, Vercelli, Italy. Editor. Became anarchist while studying law at the University of Turin; left before finishing degree. Fled police to France in 1880; migrated to Switzerland where worked for anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus on his La Nouvelle Géographie universelle. Arrested and expelled; returned to France; deported to Italy. 1894 arrested for anarchist activities and served five years in prison and internal exile. While confined to island of Pantelleria met his wife, Maria. Escaped Pantellaria in 1900 and fled to Egypt, then England. Migrated to US in 1901 with an invitation to edit the anarchist newspaper La Questione Sociale in Paterson, New Jersey. Leader of 1902 general strike of silk workers in Paterson, where indicted for inciting riot and fled to Canada, then Barre, Vermont, where founded newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva. Moved paper to Lynn, Massachusetts; Galleani became the leading Italian anarchist proponent of violent acts of insurrection and revolt. Deported June 1919, leaving wife and six children in the US (only his daughter Cossyra would later rejoin him in Italy).
Immediately arrested upon arrival in Italy, but released a day later after maritime workers’ union threatened to strike on his behalf. Relaunched Cronaca Sovversiva in Turin in 1920. Involved in armed resistance movement and evaded warrant for his arrest for two years; turned himself in 1922 and sentenced to 14 months imprisonment for sedition. Maintained contact with comrades in US and fellow deportees, but suffered increasingly from diabetes. 1926 arrested again and sentenced to two years in prison, followed by two years of internal exile. Allowed to return to mainland, but under surveillance until his death in 1931.
INS file 54235/33; CPC busta 2241
See also: Ugo Fedeli, Luigi Galleani: quarant’anni di lotte rivoluzionarie (1891 –1931); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Roberto Gremmo, “La ‘Cronaca Sovversiva’ di Galleani, le ‘bande armate’ di Raffaele Schiavina e la bomba del giovane anarchico Musso,” Storia ribelle 18 (2005): 1657-67; Antonio Senta, Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America
Alexander Gallod (Alex; Golod)
Gallod’s Communist Party membership card
Born 1888, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Polish. Migrated to US 1914. Machinist. Wife in Russia. Joined the Socialist Party, then “a very active member of the United Communist Party” in Camden, New Jersey, and Phildelphia. Arrested Philadelphia, January 7, 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54811/973
Laureano García
Born Spain. In the United States, became miner. Anarchist and IWW member. Arrested in Jerome, Arizona, February 1919, and deported.
1931 still donating funds to Cultura Proletaria from Spain (see issue of April 18, 1931).
Regelio García (Roglio)
Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including Garcia, 1919
Born 1894, Quibicano, Cuba. Cigar maker. Migrated to US 1903; became anarchist circa 1917. Member of Los Corsarios Group which published anarchist paper El Corsario. One of 14 members arrested in New York, February 1919, by Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson. All charges dropped, but several members, including García, held for deportation as anarchists. When asked why he had failed to apply for naturalization in the US, he replied, “I do not even believe in my own country.” US-born wife, Blanca Fernandez, and 9-month-old child. Deported April 1919.
INS file 54616/79
Isso Gartner (aka Imre Geery or Geerry)
Born 1895, Kassa, Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia). Jewish. Jeweler. Migrated to US 1911. A socialist in Hungary, he joined the Socialist Party of America in Baltimore; did not align with either side in 1919 split between Left and Right. Conscientious objector and opposed WWI draft. Attempted to unionize Baltimore jewelry workers in International Jewelry Workers Union (AFL), then arrested May 1918 for allegedly “stealing a number of gold rings” from a former employer and sentenced to six months imprisonment. Subsequently Interned at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, as an “enemy alien.” Suffered from “tuberculosis of the hip and is on crutches.” Deported May 1920 upon release of internees on basis “That he believes in the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States” (a patently unsubstantiated charge).
INS file 54709/38
See also: Baltimore Sun, May 23, 1918; Jewelers’ Circular-Weekly, July 10, 1918
Jack Gaveel (J. G. Gaveel; aka Jackotonsky, Jacknowsky, Jakov Zukatansky)
Born 1889, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Migrated to England 1905; returned to Netherlands 1910 and migrated to Canada that same year. Joined IWW 1913 in Canada. 1914 secretary of IWW Local no. 339, Edmonton, Canada. Migrated to US 1915. 1917 included in federal indictment of IWW leaders, but dropped before case went to trial. IWW delegate in Los Angeles, where “active in organizing the Austrian and Croatian fishermen.” Arrested April 1921 and sentenced to 1-4 years under California’s criminal syndicalism law. In San Quentin, refused to work in prison jute mill, declaring: “I have never scabbed on my class outside of prison, and I won’t do it inside.” Sent to solitary confinement, sparking sympathy strike of thirteen other imprisoned IWW members. Deported to Canada 1924.
Subsequently deported from Canada to The Netherlands. 1925 in Hamburg, Germany, where became supporter of the Soviet Union and the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU). Living in Amsterdam in 1926. After WWII worked for Stichting Pelita, a foundation dedicated to aiding migrants from the former Dutch East Indies in The Netherlands. In 1951, receiving IWW literature from US and supporting the Dutch anarchist movement. 1960 (at age 71) wrote to the Industrial Worker and recalled he could still sing most of the songs from the union’s Little Red Song Book; also wrote: “I wish I were in America. I’d join you in the fight then.”
Born 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to the US 1911. Employee at B. F. Goodrich. Joined Union of Russian Workers in Akron in 1916; became secretary of that branch. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
Born 1899, Guangdong, China. Student; restaurant worker. Migrated to US 1916 (via Mexico, without inspection). Attended Columbia University. Arrested January 1919 as a leader of IWW-led strike of Chinese restaurant workers. Deported March 1919 on charge of illegal entry. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54490/3 (file missing); see also file 54519/2
See also: Baltimore Sun, February 6, 1919; The Rebel Worker, May 15, 1919
Mikhail Hirney (Michael; Mike; Herney)
Mechanic. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Mikhail Hladish (Hladysh)
Born c. 1885 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary. Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Joined the Socialist Party in 1919, then the Communist Party September 1919. Secretary of CP branch in East Youngstown, Ohio. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54810/553
Alfred Hoffman (aka Edward Compe; Edward Kerlap; Edwin Hoffman)
Born 1886, Hamburg, Germany. Sailor; laborer. Migrated to US 1907 (jumped ship in San Francisco). Joined IWW around 1913; repeatedly arrested for strike-related activities. Seattle. Interned as an “enemy alien” at Fort Douglas, Utah, but declared “I am not a German, no. I am not patriotic for any country.” “Voluntary departure” June 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54379/64
Fritz Arthur Holm
Born 1890, Korsberga, Sweden. Carpenter. Migrated to US 1911. Joined IWW 1912; also an anarchist and subscriber to Alexander Berkman’s The Blast. Wrote “Strictly opposed to war” on his draft card. Secretary of the Scandinavian Defense League. Arrested Seattle, February 1918; authorities discovered “a wagon load of I.W.W. and anarchist literature in his room.” Deported July 1919. In Sweden, married Ellen Hildur Margareta Molin, 1923. May have written articles for the German anarcho-syndicalist paper Der Syndikalist in the 1920s. Died 1975.
INS file 54379/114
Paul Holovkin (Prokop Holowkin; Golowkin)
Born 1888, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Longshoreman. Migrated to US 1914. Widower; a son in Russia. Joined Branch no. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore, 1919. Deported on the Buford. 1921 reported to have been “shot by the Bolshevik authorities as an active counter-revolutionist.”
INS file 54709/318; FBI file BS 202600-2386-1
Andrew Hostilla (Andrey Kastialla)
Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Machinist. Migrated to US 1914. Drafted into US Army 1918; honorably discharged December 1918. Member of Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/353
Pete Hydamachuk (Peter)
Born 1893, Podolsky, Russia. Polish. Immigrated to Canada 1913, then to US 1917. Autoworker. Member of Machinists’ Union (AFL) and attended Detroit night school run by Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party. Signed an application to join the party, but no evidence he officially joined. Arrested January 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/774
Stepanos Indriunas (Степанос Индриунас; Steponas)
Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Stanislovas Kubinskis (Станисловас Кубинскис; Kubinskas; aka Stanley Kubinsky)
Born 1897, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Carpenter; miner; laborer. In Russia, belonged to the Russian Social Democratic Party. Migrated to US 1914. Worked as a coal miner; former member of the United Mine Workers. In Detroit, worked for Ford Motor Company and in 1915 joined the Lithuanian Branch of the Socialist Party of America, which was transferred into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested April 22, 1919, “while distributing radical literature on a Michigan Avenue street car.” Declared his belief in “the soviet form of government.” Deported February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/165
Michael Kucher
Recording secretary of the Jersey City branch of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to “Galicia” (Poland?) March 30, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G; FBI file OG 380877
Efrem Kucher (Ефрем Кучер; Evsey; Evesey)
Arrested in Brooklyn during the second Palmer Raids, January 1919. Deported to Russia December 23, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
See also: The Standard Union (Brooklyn), December 23, 1920
Alek Kuchinsky (Алек Кучинский)
Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4
Mikal Kudreyko (Микал Кудрейко; aka Peter Kravchuk, Петр Кравчук; aka Michael Kravchuk; Krawchuk)
Mid-Week Pictorial, January 1, 1920
Born 1883, Pruzhany, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and child in Russia. Became secretary of a Detroit branch of the URW. Arrested July 1918 at a radical picnic; admitted he was “an anarchist, and proud of it.” Moved to New York; became secretary of the Housewreckers’ Union and coeditor of URW paper Khlieb i Volia. August 1919 arrested with editorial team and indicted for “criminal anarchy.” Falsely claimed that he had left the URW in 1918 “Because I thought this organization is not radical enough.” Deported on the Buford. Reportedly died soon thereafter.
INS file 54554/23
See also: Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America
Simon Kuish (Sam)
Born 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Rubber worker. Migrated to the US in 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio, 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/193
Ivan Kulak (Иван Кулак; John)
Deported to Russia November 27, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Roman Kulich (Kovalevich)
Born Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus), 1895. Migrated to US 1913. Machinist. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; deported February 26, 1921.
INS file 54859/722
Mark Kulish (Марк Кулиш; Kulesch; Kulesh)
Born 1890, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Laborer; factory inspector. Migrated to the US 1913. Wife and child in Russia. During the First World War, a factory worker and then a US arms factory inspector for the Russian Commission. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut circa 1916; became secretary of the URW branch in South Manchester, Connecticut 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919; falsely suspected of being a “bomb-maker.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
Born 1890, Rokitnica, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Longshoreman. Migrated to US 1910. Joined the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/345
Tony Kurson (Kirsion; Kirson)
Born 1884, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to the US 1909. Joined the Luch Society in Ansonia, Connecticut, circa 1917, which federal authorities maintained was a branch of the Union of Russian Workers (though Kurson denied this). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/326; FBI file OG 382937
Michael Kusbit
Deported to Austria, May 8, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in 54325/36G
Fedor Kushnarev (Федор Кушнарев; Theodore Kushnareff; Kushnirov; Kushneroff; aka Theodore Alexander Casher; aka Alexander Dalny or Dalney)
Born 1898, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Student; laborer. Migrated with parents and five younger siblings in 1913; father died less than a year later. Graduated high school in New Haven, Connecticut; became student at New York University. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917 or 1918. Organized a URW branch in New Haven; in 1919, he was financial secretary of the URW branch in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Arrested there March 1919 (under his pen name Alexander Dalney), but case against him dismissed. In New York, a coeditor of Khlieb i Volia. Arrested several more times (under different names), for the last time during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Asked for permission to have his “wife” (his companion, the anarchist and labor organizer Rose Pesotta) accompany him if deported. Deported on the Buford. 1920 arrested in Crimea and sentenced to five years in a prison camp “for propaganda of libertarian ideas” and allegedly taking up arms against the Soviet government. Later released after authorities deemed his incarceration an “error.” In 1920 and again 1924 hoped to leave Russia and go to US or Cuba. Although he did not join the Communist Party or call himself a Communist, he no longer considered himself an anarchist and concluded that “to support the Revolution means to support Lenin and Trotsky.” Briefly attended the Moscow Institute of Journalism. Worked with the American Relief Administration as interpreter and secretary for US Colonel Walter Bell in Ufa during the famine; contracted typhus. Some sources claim he died in 1925, but in 1934 his mother petitioned the US government to allow him and his family to enter the country.
INS file 54709/522
See also: Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Elaine J. Leeder, The Gentle General: Rose Pesotta, Anarchist and Labor Organizer; Groupe des anarchistes russes exilés en Allemagne, Répression de l’anarchisme en Russie Soviétique; Rose Pesotta Papers, New York Public Library
Steve K______ (last name illegible)
His partially illegible name as it appears in the records
Deported to Yugoslavia, September 1, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in 54325/36G
Editor of the IWW’s newspaper The Industrial Worker in Seattle from June 1916 to July 1918; active in defense of IWW members on trial following the Everett Massacre. Defendant at federal IWW trial 1917-1918; sentenced to ten years. His wife Kate edited the Industrial Worker, for which she had been the bookkeeper, during the trial. 1923 his sentence commuted on the condition of his deportation to Canada. In Canada, continued organizing for the IWW and writing for American IWW publications until at least 1926; led 1925 effort to organize Canadian agricultural workers, along with fellow deported IWW member Sam Scarlett. He should not be confused with the Communist Party of Canada organizer of the same name; MacDonald believed “a political revolution had occurred in Russia, but that any industrial revolution other than from feudalism to capitalism was unthinkable…[I]ndustrial communism must not come from the top but from the bottom, changing the foundations of society and consequently its superstructure, and destroying the state, of necessity an instrument of class rule.” Or, as he put it elsewhere, “a proletarian revolution is possible in a nation of smokestacks but it can not occur in a nation of haystacks” (see Industrial Pioneer, May 1925 and May 1926).
FBI file OG 8000-41990
See also: Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts; Heather Mayer, Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924; James Sullivan, “Reviewing the 1925 Harvest Drive,” Industrial Pioneer November 1925; J. A. McDonald [sic], “Training for Freedom,” Industrial Pioneer, March 1926; J. A. MacDonald, “The Reforging of Russia,” Industrial Pioneer, May 1925.
Samuel Mackway
Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Victor Macur
Born Vilna, Russia, 1887 (present-day Lithuania). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. 1919 joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America in August 1919, which subsequently transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” to Poland via Canada, October 16, 1920.
INS file 54859/984; FBI file OG 387500
Nils Madsen (Nels; Madison)
Born 1886, Drammen, Norway. Laborer; union organizer. Migrated to US 1904. 1912 joined IWW; became General Organizer for the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500 circa 1916; arrested multiple times in connection with IWW organizing. Arrested March 26, 1918, in St. Maries, Idaho under state “criminal syndicalism” law. Deported November 4, 1918. 1918-1919 lectured throughout Norway on conditions in the US and cofounded the “Norwegian-American Defense Committee” to raise money for imprisoned IWW members. By 1922, had become an organizer for the Norske Arbeiderpartiet (Norwegian Labour Party) and led its Norges Røde Speiderforbund (Norwegian Red Scout Federation, NRS), an attempt to create a radical alternative to the international Scout movement, but in the Labour Party’s 1925 split sided with the expelled pro-Communist faction connected to the publication Mot Dag and most of the NRS organizations followed him, only to collapse in 1926. 1934-1955 served as head of Norway’s Hotel Workers’ Union (Hotellpersonalets forening). Died 1965.
INS file 54379/199
See also: “Norwegian Workers Come to the Aid of the I. W. W.,” One Big Union Monthly, March 1, 1919; Terje Halvorsen, Partiets salt : AUFs historie; Sondre Ljoså, “‘Etter beste evne at alltid være en god kamerat’: Speiderarbeid i arbeiderbevegelsen på 1920-tallet,” Arbeiderhistorie (2007); https://leksikon.speidermuseet.no/wiki/Nils_Madsen
Piotr Mager (Петр Магер; Peter Magyar)
Born 1891, Russia. Metalworker. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio circa 1915. Arrested August 1919, then again during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/498
Ivan Maiboroda (Иван Майборода; John)
Deported to Russia January 22, 1921. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Vinko Majetic
Deported to Croatia, September 1, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
George Makaranko (Makarenko)
Born Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine), 1893. Migrated to US 1914. Laborer. Wife and children in Russia. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/621
Lavrenti Makarevich (Лаврентий Макаревич; Lawrence Makarvitch)
Born 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). 1914 migrated to Canada; 1915 migrated from there to US. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. According to INS file, he was deported January 22, 1921; however, a Department of Justice agent reported that Makarevich attended a June 4, 1922 conference of the URW in New Haven as a delegate of that city’s Russian Progressive Organization. His wife, Sophie Babitz, was living with her parents in Connecticut “and does not desire to have anything more to do with him.” Unclear if he was deported and returned, was never deported, or was deported and the DoJ report was in error.
Born 1896, Rakitnica, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1914. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/337
Julius Ohsis (Юлий Осис; Osis)
Ohsis’s Communist Party membership card
Born 1890, Riga, Russia (present-day Latvia). Latvian. Carpenter. Migrated to US 1911. 1917 married fellow radical Katie Namin in Chicago. Member of the Carpenters’ Union. 1915 joined the Socialist Party of America; 1919 became member of Communist Party of America; told authorities he was the financial secretary of the Lettish Branch in Baltimore, but historian Vernon L. Pedersen describes him as the the “Latvian branch head.” Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported with wife February 1, 1921.
INS file 54859/541; FBI file OG 8000-385964
See also: Vernon L. Pedersen, The Communist Party in Maryland, 1919-57
Kate Ohsis (Екатерина Осис; Katie; Osis; née Namin)
Ohsis’s Communist Party membership card
Born 1896, Libau, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Latvian. Migrated to US 1913. 1917 married fellow radical Julius Ohsis in Chicago. Member of the Lettish Branch of the Communist Party of America in Baltimore. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported February 1, 1921.
INS file 54859/542; FBI file OG 8000-385963
See also: Vernon L. Pedersen, The Communist Party in Maryland, 1919-57
Born 1895, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1914. Joined the URW in Detroit, 1916. Arrested January 21, 1919, at end of a prison term for “disorderly conduct and loitering,” and held at Fort Wayne. Escaped June 5, 1920 at 3:30AM and made his way to New York, where he was convinced by attorney Isaac Shore to turn himself in at Ellis Island. Deported to Russia,February 1, 1921.
May 21, 1923 migrated to Mexico; from there returned to the US at El Paso, where arrested and sentenced to sixty days for illegal entry. June 1924 deported again, under a passport the US government obtained from the “Ukrainian Diplomatic Mission,” an anti-Soviet self-proclaimed government in exile not recognized by the United States or Ukraine. Routed via Switzerland, we was turned away at the Russian border and returned to the US in July 21, 1924. August 23, 1924 deported once more, and returned to US again in September 1924 after being not being permitted to enter Switzerland. Finally “paroled in his own custody” (i.e. set free). No further information found.
INS file 54709/673
See: Kansas State News, August 29, 1924; The American Flint, November 1924
Adolf Olehnovich (Adam; Olahucvicz; Alechnovitz)
Born c. 1882, Russia. Polish. Laborer. Migrated to US 1910. Member of the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Racine, Wisconsin. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
Born c.1886, Volhyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife and child in Russia. Employed at Ford Motor Works. Treasurer of Detroit’s Russian People’s Home; alleged URW member. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
However, refused entry on the basis of his anarchism at Libau, along with several other deportees. Coauthored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Lenin” in response.
INS file 54709/502
See also: Free Society (New York), October-November 1921
Harry Olshansky (Harvey, Herasim)
Born c.1895 in Samarkand, Russia (present-day Uzbekistan). Migrated to US 1910. Tailor. Wife and six children in Detroit, four of the children US-born. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 2 of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/627
Nikolai Omelianchuk (Николай Омельянчук; Nicholas)
Born 1892, Tułowice, Russia (present-day Poland?). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913, from there to US in April 1919 (without inspection). Arrested two days later in Detroit as part of a group of Russian radicals who disrupted a talk by the visiting Socialist Revolutionary (and anti-Bolshevik) Catherine Breshkovsky and threw rotten eggs. Denied any radical affiliations; instead charged with entering the country without inspection and being “likely to become a public charge” (due to the fact that he was suffering from influenza at the time). Deported January 22, 1921.
INS file 54616/172
Wong Tai On (Ong Wu Tai; aka Lee Tai Cen)
Chinese. Student; restaurant worker. Attended Columbia University and worked as a waiter in New York’s Chinatown. 1918 joined the United Chinese Association, an anarchist-led union for Chinatown’s restaurant workers that was chartered as a general recruiting union of the IWW. Helped lead strike of Chinatown’s waiters in December 1918-January 1919. Arrested January 16, 1919 on charges unfounded charge of felonious assault that were immediately dropped; then charges with illegal possession of firearms, which was also dropped; then held for deportation on unspecified grounds (not related to radicalism). Deported to China March 1, 1919.
INS file 54490/2 (file missing); see also file 54519/2
See also: New York Call, February 9, 1919; Rebel Worker (New York), February 15 and May 15, 1919
Fred Onischuk (Онищук)
Born 1894, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to Canada 1913, then to US 1916. Autoworker. Lived in Detroit. Member of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. “Voluntarily departed” to Russia via Canada October 16, 1920.
Born 1886, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Steelworker. Migrated to Canada 1913, and from there to the US 1915. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in July 1918 in Buffalo; served as secretary and on various committees of his branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/327
Aleksandr Opotsky (Александр Опоцкий; aka Aleksandr Antonov; Александр Антонов)
Born 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer; migrated to US 1913. Joined Union of Russian Workers in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania in 1917; also a delegate for IWW General Recruiting Union; took “a very active part in the meetings of the Russian radicals” in the region. Arrested Pittsburgh April 1919. At interrogation, declared, “I believe in no government of any kind,” and instead “I favor the system of [Peter] Kropatkin [sic].” When asked if he believed in God—a question with no bearing on his case—he answered, “I do not believe in a God painted on wood, but I believe in the God that gives freedom to the people.” Deported on the Buford.
Reportedly imprisoned in 17 different Soviet prisons. By 1931 he had emigrated to Argentina with aid of comrades abroad.
INS file 54616/135; FBI file OG 367935
See also: Delo Truda, December 1937-February 1938 (with thanks to Malcolm Archibald)
Markus Naumovich Oradovsky (Маркус Наумович Орадовский; Marcus)
New York Tribune, December 23, 1919Mid-Week Pictorial, January 1, 1920
Born 1895, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Sailor; laborer. 1912 migrated Austria and Germany; circa 1913 migrated Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru; migrated to the US 1916 (without inspection). Could speak Russian, English, French, and Portuguese. Common-law marriage to fellow anarchist and deportee Rosa Oradovsky. 1917 worked as a spring maker and helped organize the Mechanical Spring Works Union, affiliated with the United Hebrew Trades, and helped lead a strike in Brooklyn, after which the union dissolved. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1918; served as secretary and editor of URW newspaper Khleb i Volia; elected secretary of the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies of the United States and Canada (an umbrella organization of Russian immigrant radicals). Arrested July 2, 1919 in New York. Told authorities, “I consider myself a citizen of the whole world.” Deported on the Buford.
1920 joined Union of Russian Anarchist Workers Repatriated from America, formed by Hyman Perkus, which critically supported the Bolshevik dictatorship as a temporary necessity. Later that year reportedly imprisoned for his anarchist views. January 1921, Alexander Berkman reported that Oradovsky “Says they [i.e. the Bolsheviks] won’t let him work.” His name is included on lists of victims of Soviet repression, but no further details have been found.
Born 1894, Smolensk, Russia. Jewish. Migrated to US 1910 with mother and siblings. Became anarchist circa 1911; joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York either 1914 or 1918. Common-law wife of Markus Oradovsky. Following Markus’s deportation, she petitioned to be deported as well; swore out affidavit affirming that she was a member of URW, and “I am still a member of that organization and believe in its principles. I am an anarchist and believe in the abolition of all forms of law and government. I believe in the overthrow of the government of the United States by means of forcible revolution.” Deported February 2, 1921. On the voyage aboard the SS Estonia, elected to a five-person committee of deportees elected to negotiate for better accommodations on the ship.
INS file 54616/115A
See also: Boston Post, March 6, 1921; New York Times, April 2, 1921
