Tag Archives: Polish

Orlov to Pankov

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Mikhail Orlov (Михаил Орлов; Mike; Orloff)

Born 1889, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Miner. Migrated to US 1909. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania in 1915. Also a member of the United Mine Workers. “It is suspected…that alien is one of the moving spirits of the branch of the Union of Russian Workers which is thought to exist in the Bertha mines” in Morgantown, West Virginia. Received anarchist and IWW literature from Max Maisel’s anarchist bookstore in New York. Arrested December 1, 1919 (during miners’ strike). Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/608

Samuel Orlov (Самуил Орлов; Sam; Orloff)

Born 1889, Mogliev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Miner. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Mosessen, Pennsylvania, circa 1915. Also a member of the United Mine Workers. Arrested December 1, 1919 (during miners’ strike). Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/609; FBI file OG 8000-248688

Albert Osborn

Born 1898, Førde, Norway. Sailor; laborer. Migrated to US 1909 with step-mother to rejoin father. 1915 went to England as a sailor; returned 1916 (without inspection). Joined the IWW in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota in 1915, but during his inspection claimed “I don’t care much about them…I had to join, because it was a matter of joining them or getting beaten up in going around the country in the harvest fields…they throw you from trains going sixty miles an hour.” 1917 arrested in Everett, Washington for no registering for the draft; served 13 days in jail. Arrested May 23, 1918 in Seattle as an IWW member. Diagnosed as “insane” June 6, 1918 due to “dementia praecox” resulting from a head injury as a child.Deported September 20, 1919 (as “likely to become a public charge,” entering without inspection, and suffering from “insanity”). According to Commissioner General of Immigration A. Caminetti, “the charge against him does not arise, even remotely, from his connection with the I.W.W.”

INS file 54414/81

Anton Ostopchuk

Born c. 1886 in present-day Ukraine. Migrated to US 1912. Metalworker. Wife and two children in Russia. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/719

Nick Ostreiko

Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/739

Osip Otrozttzek (Otroschyk, O’Troschy, aka Joe Trocki)

Born 1880, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Polish. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Employed at Fisher Body Company. Illiterate. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. “Voluntary departure” to Russia via Canada, January 24, 1921.

INS file 54859/989

Yakov Ozols (Яков Озолс; Jacob; Ozal; Ozols)

Born c.1887, Riga, Russia (present-day Latvia). Migrated to US 1917. Sailor, laborer. Joined the Socialist Party, then the Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America in Philadelphia. Arrested January 7, 1920. Deported February 1, 1921.

INS file 54811/944; FBI file OG 8000-276616

Peter Paich (Paick)

Born 1897, Požega, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Socialist Party of American in Detroit and 1915, and the Workers’ International Industrial Union in 1918 in Lorain, Ohio. Arrested August 1917 in Lorain for distributing socialist literature and spent four days in jail; arrested April, 1918, for distributing socialist and anti-conscription literature; then interned at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, as an “enemy alien”; detained for deportation upon his release in September 1919; Deported May 8, 1920 (on the charge of being “likely to become a public charge,” as SP and WIIU membership did not meet the legal definition of a deportable “anarchist”).

INS file 54379/474; FBI file OG 8000-203962

Alexandr Palukevich (Александр Палукевич; Alexander; Palukovich; Pavlukoich)

Communist Party of America member in Bayonne, New Jersey; deported to Russia December 23, 1920.

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

Pavel Panasuk (Павел Панасук; Paul; Panosik)

Member of the Communist Party of America in Chicago. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 2, 1920. “Voluntarily departed” to Russia October 10, 1920.

FBI file BS 202600-149-1

Joseph T. Pandack

Deported to Yugoslavia August 1, 1920. No further information found.

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

Dimitri Panko (Дмитрий Панко; Panco)

Born 1890, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Mechanic. Migrated to US 1914. Joined Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, for which he distributed literature. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/112

Pavel Pankov (Павел Панков; Pual Panko; Pankoff)

Born Mogliev, Russia (present-day Belarus), 1886. Migrated to US 1907. Moulder. Joined the Socialist Party 1914, then Detroit’s Russian Branch of the Communist Party in 1919. Bartender at Detroit’s House of the Masses. Arrested January 1920; deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/634

Parenti to Penske

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Luigi Parenti (Louis)

Parenti in 1918
Parenti in 1922

Born 1887, Calcinaia, Italy. Laborer; union organizer. In Italy he was a Christian democrat and completed two years of seminary school in Lucca, then abandoned religious studies, married, and aided a Lucca streetcar drivers’ strike. Migrated to US 1910, with his wife. Soon became an anarchist, and joined the IWW in San Francisco in 1911. Became a lecturer and organizer for the IWW, and was arrested several times for leading strikes and demonstrations. Italian authorities considered him “one of the most dangerous propagandists in the anarchist movement across the United States,” and described him as “taciturn in character, educated, intelligent, [and] cultured.” Defendant at the mass IWW trail 1917-1918; sentenced to five years and a $30,000 fine; from September 1917 to June 1919 he was refused permission to communicate with his wife and three daughters, one of whom was born while he was in prison. Released on bail during appeal; worked as organizer for an independent Italian fisherman’s union in San Francisco, then as a correspondent for the newspaper La Voce del Popolo. May 1921 appeal lost and he reentered prison, but in 1922 his sentence was commuted on condition of deportation in August 1922. “Voluntarily departed” with his family October 26, 1922. In Italy, settled in Lucca and joined the syndicalist Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI), and attended its illegal 1926 convention. Then withdrew from radical activities; worked for a state-created union and as a reporter. 1929 Italian government reported that he “demonstrates obedience to the directives of the Regime,” but 1930 authorities discovered he was secretly receiving copies of radical publications from the US. 1932 he again reportedly displayed “good moral and political conduct” and “ideas in full agreement with the directives of the Regime.” Died 1961. (Note: An obituary in L’Adunata dei Refrattari, September 1942 for an anarchist named Luigi Parenti, who died in Paterson, New Jersey, refers to a different individual.)

INS file 54235/61; CPC busta 3732

See also: Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Kenyon Zimmer, Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America

Theodor Pasiuk (Feodor, Paschuk)

Born c.1880, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife and child in Russia. Member Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 4, 1920; deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/967

Lev Paskovich (Лев Паскович; Levi Paskevick)

Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in Philadelphia in January 1920; deported to Russia February 1, 1921. No further information found.

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

See also: Philadelphia Enquirer, February 1, 1921

John Paskvalick (Pashvalisk)

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

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

George Pasukow

Deported to Russia October 17, 1920. No further information found.

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

Peter Pavlas (Петр Павлас; Pete Pawlas; Pawalas; Pavlus)

Born 1885 in Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Czech (“Bohemian”) parents. Machinist; laborer. 1894 migrated to Bohemia; 1909 migrated to Argentina; 1915 migrated to Mexico; migrated from there to US 1917 (without inspection). Brought to US by a labor agent to work in a sugar factory near San Francisco. Described by an immigration agent as “a peculiar character, being somewhat of a ‘globe trotter’, and a student of Esperanto…He is believed to be more intelligent than he would represent.” Appears to have been a member of the Socialist Party of America. Arrested January 31, 1919 in Cleveland while distributing SP literature. In ill health at Ellis Island. Because SP membership was not a deportable offense, the Bureau of Immigration was “unable to find that the anarchistic charges in the warrant are substantiated by the evidence,” but deported him on the grounds of having entered without inspection and being “likely to become a public charge.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/16

Artemy Pavluk (Артемий Павлук; Pauluk; Paulik)

Born 1885, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Miner. Served four years in the Russian Army. Migrated to US 1913. Drafted into US Army and served for six months at Camp Lee and Camp Shelby, then discharged. Secretary of the Union of Russian Workers branch at the Dakota Mine in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 2, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/605

Josef Penske (Йозеф Пенске; Joseph Penski)

Born 1886, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Polish. Migrated to US 1912. Autoworker. Lived in Hamtramck. Joined the Socialist Party 1914, then the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; “voluntary departure” to Russia October 16, 1920.

INS file 54859/541

Pivarsky to Potenkin

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Steve Pivarsky

Born 1892, Veliki Bečkerek (present-day Zrenjanin), Austria-Hungary (present-day Serbia). Serbian. Migrated to US 1912. Autoworker. Employee of the Fisher Body Corporation in Detroit. 1913 joined Branch No. 61 (later Branch No. 17) of the South Slavic Federation of the Socialist Party of America; 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to Yugoslavia, April 14, 1920.

INS file 54860/374; FBI file OG 388055

Jacob Plajek

Deported to Poland, August 1, 1920. No further information found.

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

Mike Podalak

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

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

Mathew Podlipsky (Матвей Подлипский)

Podlipsky’s URW membership card

Born 1887, Rakitnitsa, Russia (present-day Belarus). Polish-Belarusian. Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. A member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Newark. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/356; FBI file OG 381187

Marko Podner

Born 1892, Okrug, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Croatian. Laborer; miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Croatia-Slavonia. June 1919 joined Branch No. 62 of Communist Party of America in West Winfield, Pennsylvania; became its secretary. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported to Yugoslavia, June 19, 1920.

FBI file OG 8000-382563

Wolf Pohl (aka Pawlowicz; Pavlovich)

Pohl’s Communist Party membership card

Born c.1896, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Jewish. Migrated to US 1912. Housepainter. Joined the Socialist Party in 1913, then the Communist Party. Communist speaker and literature distributor in Buffalo. December 1920 joined the IWW as well. August 1919 arrested for distributing radical literature, but released. Arrrested again January 1920. Confined at Erie County Jail, where contracted pneumonia that required transfer to hospital for treatment. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/912

George Polevoy (Полевой)

Born 1883, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Miner. Migrated to US 1907. Joined the IWW circa 1914 in Moundsville, West Virginia; also a member of the United Mine Workers (UMW). Participated in a miners’ strike protesting the conviction of Tom Mooney, and another in protest of the imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs. Arrested June 1918 for disturbing the peace during a dispute with UMW leaders; sentenced to $50 fine and ten days in jail (UMW member William Bursey later testified against Polevoy as a leader “of the foreign element [in the union]…they have made all kinds of trouble.” Arrested August, 1919. Described by immigration agent as “exceptionally shrewd and astute.” Deported February 1, 1921. Wife and child in US.

INS file 54709/49

Josef Polulech (Йозеф Полулех; Joseph; aka Joseph Balluch)

Born 1892, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Arrested during raid on the Union of Russian Workers’ “Russian People’s House” in New York during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Denied membership in the URW (and no evidence of membership was produced); claimed he was only there to attend arithmetic and Russian classes. He had, however, been an active member of New York Methodist Episcopal Church of All Nations since 1913, and several church leaders attempted to intervene on his behalf. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/449; FBI file OG 8000-382493

See also: The Churchman, January 24 and February 21, 1920; Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920

Jacob Popich

Born 1892, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Laborer. Member of the South Slavic Branch of the Communist Party of America in Omaha. Arrested in St. Paul, Nebraska, January 8, 1920. Deported to Yugoslavia, July 15, 1920.

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

See also: Omaha Daily Bee, January 9, 1920

Serjy Porchunoff (Sergy; Sergey)

Born 1888, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Served in Russian Army for two years. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Employed by Standard Oil. Joined the Russian Branch of the Whiting, Indiana branch of the Socialist Party in 1914, then the Communist Party; secretary of both branches. Arrested Chicago, January 7, 1920; deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54809/82

Andrew Postaruk (Pestaruk?)

Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921. No further information found.

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

Efrim Potenkin (Ефрим Потемкин; Efrem; Efreem; Potemkin)

Born 1897, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Steelworker. Attended meetings of the Union of Russian Workers in Monessen, Pennsylvania, but denied being a member and no evidence of membership produced. Arrested in Greensburg, Pennsylvania during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Immigration Inspector in Charge recommended cancelation of the deportation warrant for lack of evidence, but overruled by Commissioner General A. Caminetti. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/519

See also: Kate Holladay Claghorn, The Immigrant’s Day in Court

Proshkovich to Ravavio

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Fedor Proshkovich (Федор Прошкович; Theodor)

Proshkovich’s URW membership card

Born 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Machine operator. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York circa 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/364

Tomas Prosk (Томас Проск; Thomas; Drosk; Rosk)

Born 1893, Kaluga, Russia. Metalworker. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the New Haven branch of Union of Russian Workers circa 1918. Employed at Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, Connecticut, but fired for organizing for IWW; he denied being an IWW member, but evidence showed he paid IWW dues and received IWW literature. At work, when given instructions for paying his income tax, he also remarked, “F— the Government.” Arrested April 1919 after his employer reported him to the authorities. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/156

Anton Prushchuk (Антон Прущук; Anthony Pruschuk; Tony)

Born 1898, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913 (to avoid military service). Worked in Detroit and probably a member of the Union of Russian Workers there, although he denied it. Avowed pacifist. Arrested 1918 for not registering for the draft, and illegally inducted in the US Army. June 1918 court-martialed for refusing orders; sentenced to five years in military prison; imprisoned at the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks and then Fort Douglas, Utah, until August 1919, when he was dishonorably discharged from the Army. Arrested again during the second Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported to Poland, January 22, 1921. May be the anarchist “Prushtshuk” who participated in an hunger strike in Petrograd’s House of Preliminary Detention (“Splareka”) in November 1922.

INS file 54709/510; FBI file OG 363519

See also: International Committee for Political Prisoners, Letters from Russian Prisons

Demian Pruss (Демиан Прусс; Bruss)

Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1912. Agricultural worker. Member of Philadelphia’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54811/959

Louis Purtikowsky (Purtik; Pyrtek)

Born Biata, Russia (present-day Poland). Barber; laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Reported to authorities by three US Army recruiters in Indianapolis who claimed he had stated his opposition to the US government and the war, his support revolution and the red flag, and “said he would throw bombs before he would assist this Government.” Arrested September 1919; denied all charges but wished to return to Poland. Explained his desire to return by saying, “Here was colored people and I don’t want to mix people. They don’t speak good government. They don’t speak Black man fighting with white man.” Deported to Poland, May 14, 1920. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/55

Kazimir Radkovits (Казимир Радковиц; Kazimer Radkowicz; Kozimer Radowiz; Kozumer Radkovich, aka John Baron)

Born c.1884, Russia. Migrated to Us 1903. Autoworker. Joined the Socialist Party around 1910, then Detroit’s Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

INS file 54859/659

Pavel Rak (Павел Рак; Paul; Rakand)

Born 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Longshoreman. Migrated to US 1914. July, 1918 illegally drafted into US Army; sentenced to 18 months imprisonment at Fort Douglas, Utah, as a conscientious objector. After his release, joined the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” sometime before February 1921.

FBI file OG 379972; included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Ignaty Ramoroff (Tony Paros)

Born 1899, Novozybkov, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Hotel housekeeper. Individualist anarchist and Tolstoyan; not a member of any group. Arrested Cleveland, February 23, 1920. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 55009/20

Michael Ransc

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

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

Albert Rasimovicius (Rasimo)

Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/712

Yakim Ravavio (Ravavoi)

Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Shepelov to Shveykus

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Efrem Shepelov (Ефрем Шепелов; Ephraim)

Member of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported December 23, 1920.

Included in lists of deported radicals in FBI file BS 202600-33 and INS file 54325/36G

See also: Butte Daily Bulletin, December 29, 1920

Anton Sheroff (Antone)

Born 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1914. Factory worker. January 1919 joined the Socialist Party; tensferred into Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 4, 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/369; FBI file OG 8000-132475

Walter Sherwen (Wherwan; Wladylaw Czerwonajcio)

Born 1892, Suwałki, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Migrated to US 1913. Carpenter. Member of Detroit’s Polish Branch No. 37 of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/785

Mikhail A. Shinkarenko (Михаил А. Шинкаренко; Misha, Michael; Shinkaroff; Shinkerenko)

Shinkarenko

Born c.1888, Stetsovka, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Involved in Russian Revolution of 1905; sentenced to Siberia with his brother; both escaped 1907 to Canada, then biefly migrated to the US. Returned to the US in 1914. Machinist. Attended the founding convention of the Communist Party of America; became secretary of the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Rockford, Illinois. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 3, 1920. “Voluntarily departed” to Russia, October 30, 1920.

His sister-in-law prevented his letters from Russia from ever reaching his American-born wife; both subsequently remarried.

INS file 54809/94; FBI files OG 370620 and BS 202600-154-1

See also: interview with John Cunningham, April 26, 2021

Trofin Shipuk (Трофин Шипук; Trofim Chepuk)

Born c.1896, Petrograd, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Tailor. Belonged to the Socialist Party of America for about three years before joining the Communist Party. Arrested January 6, 1920 at the New York offices of the Communist magazine Novy Mir; testified that he was beaten by a Justice Department agent prior to his initial examination. Deported December 23, 1920.

INS file 54860/328; FBI file OG 386641

Alexander Shkilnyuk (Александр Шкильнюк; Shkilnuk; Szkilniuk)

Born 1895, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1912 with father; from there migrated to US 1916. Unaffiliated socialist. Registered for draft in Detroit June 1917, but arrested March 1918 in Elgin, Illinois for not carrying his registration card. Returned to Detroit to claim exemption from the draft as an unnaturalized alien, but was detained and (illegally) conscripted; sent to Camp Custer, Michigan, where arrested by military police June 22, 1918 for “disobedience of orders” and (illegally) court-martialed; sentenced to life imprisonment, subsequently reduced to ten years in Fort Leavenworth disciplinary barracks, then released July 1, 1919 but immediately detained for deportation. His admitted belief in socialism did not meet the legal standard for deportation; instead a warrant was issued on the grounds that he was “likely to become a public charge” at the time of his entry to the US—despite the fact that he claimed to have been carrying $400 at the time—because he had subsequently become a military prisoner, regardless of the illegality of his incarceration. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54616/239

See also: Detroit Free Press, June 27, 1918; 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

Andrey Shkuraki (Андрей Шкураки; Andrew Schkuraki; Schkruski)

Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Lukoz Shohidko (Lukcz Shoidko; Louis Sedlko; Zhohidko)

Shohidko’s URW membership card

Born 1886, Antosia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1916. Wife and two children in Russia. Joined Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/381

Fred Sholuh

Born 1897, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania). To US 1914. Machinist; chauffeur. Member of the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/654

John Shumavich

Born 1889, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to Canada around 1910, then to US 1915. Laborer. Member of the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party and then of the Communist Party. Arrested in Detroit October 1, 1919; deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54709/83

Mikhail Shveykus (Михаил Швейкус; Mike Shweikus)

Born 1894, Grodno region, Russia (probably in present-day Belarus). Metalworker. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Ansonia, Connecticut. Participated in 1919 strike at American Brass Company in Ansonia. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/324

Siluch to Sokolovsky

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Ludwig Siluch (Siluh; Siluk)

Born 1897, Dubica, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1914; from there migrated to US 1918. March 1919 joined Branch 37 of the Polish Section of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit; then branch transferred into the Communist Party of America. Detroit. Hamtramck. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” via Canada and Germany, October 14, 1920.

INS file 54859/644; FBI files OG 384187 and BS 202600-772-1

Giuseppe Simone (Joe; Simeone)

Born 1888, Caserta, Italy. Tailor. Claimed, “In Italy I was a republican.” Migrated to US circa 1903. Lived with a cousin in Sommerville, Massachusetts, where he became an anarchist and supporter of Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva (from which he won a bicycle in a 1906 raffle!). Returned to Italy circa 1907 due to illness; served in Italian military. Again migrated to US in 1913. Member of the anarchists Circoli di Studi Sociali in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and continued to support the Cronaca Sovversiva. Also a member and one-time local secretary of a garment workers’ union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Arrested in Boston May, 1918, after his correspondence with Cronaca Sovversiva was confiscated in a federal raid on that newspaper in February 1918. Admitted he was “a socialist anarchist,” but claimed to have only become a radical in 1916. Deported to Italy May 24, 1919.

INS file 54379/316

See also: Cronaca Sovversiva, November 3, 1906

Peter Sinavski (Pete)

Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Andrew Sinitza

Born 1895, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Factory worker. Employed as an inspector at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. 1917 joined the Socialist Party; 1919 transferred into Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 55009/25

Gabriel Siniza

Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/43

Yakov Sinov (Яков Синов; Jacob Sinoff; Synov; Synoff; Finoff; Zinoff; aka Smith)

Born 1894, Russia. Carpenter. Already a “revolutionist” in Russia. Migrated to US 1915. Member of the Union fo Russian Workers branch in Trenton, New Jersey. Roommate of Buford deportee Roman Mosichuk. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/255; FBI file OG 379221

Onasin Sivicky (Onasim)

Born 1886, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Member of the Communist Party in Rockford, Illinois. “Voluntary departure” to Russia, October 16, 1920.

INS file 54709/942

Grigori “Harry” Skochuk (Tkachuk; Thachuk; Zjuk; aka Levchenko)

Born 1893, Grondo region, Russia (probably in present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1912. 1917 joined the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives) in Waterbury, Connecticut; circa 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/447

Matfey Skorina (Матфей Скорина; Mike Skorena)

Born 1895 in Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. “Voluntarily departed” to Poland via Canada, October 30, 1920.

INS file 54859/704

Konstantin Skorokod (Константин Скорокод)

Born 1885, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Worked at Jamieson No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 3, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/588

Peter Skrigan

Born 1893, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Wife and child in Detroit. Arrested January 1920 while attending a geography class at a Communist-run night school. Denied Communist membership, but admitted to believing specific Communist doctrines. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/665

Grigori Ivanovich Skrobat (Григорий Иванович Скробат; Gregory; Skrobet)

Born 1895, Osęka, Russia (present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1914. Union of Russian Workers. Waterbury, Connecticut. Arrested March 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/374; FBI file OG 385383

Peter Skudney

Born 1891, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Machinist. Employed by Ford Motor Company at Highland Park. Joined the Socialist Party, then Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested Detroit January 1920. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/57

Nikolai Slyvka (Николай Сливка; Nickoli)

Deported to Austria, May 8, 1919. No further information found.

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

Andrey Smal (Андрей Смаль; Andy)

Born 1893, Volhynia region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/512

Abram Snikarenko (Абрам Сникаренко; Snicarenko; Sniewrenko)

Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Malakhiya Sokolovsky (Malachia; Sokolofski; Sokolowski)

Born 1892, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. Wife and two children in US. Secretary of Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Denied being an anarchist; admitted to being a communist. Deportation initially deferred because of his family in the US. Deported February 1, 1921.

INS file 54709/110

Solari to Spisak

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , , ,

Giuseppe Solari

Born 1884, Genoa, Italy. Laborer; carpenter. Migrated to US 1905. Joined brother Giovanni in the US, who paid for his passage and his mother’s. Worked his way up from a pick-and-shovel worker to cabinetmaker; financially supported his mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law, and thirteen nieces and nephews. A close associate of Luigi Galleani, a distributor of anarchist literature, and and the secretary and treasurer of the anarchist Gruppo Autonomo in East Boston. Described by the US government as “one of the leading anarchists in New England” and by Italian authorities as “the deus ex machina of many meetings and conferences held among the subversives” of East Boston. Arrested May 17, 1918, for agitating against the military draft; “it required two automobiles to transport to the Federal Building the immense amount of literature and correspondence that was found in the premises” of his home. Deported June 24, 1919, with Galleani and others. Under surveillance by the Italian government, which noted that he maintained his anarchist ideas but recorded no radical activities on his part. Died 1937 in Genoa.

INS file 54241/22; CPC busta 4857

Peter Solocha (Penataley; Solocho)

Born 1893, Chernigov, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Autoworker. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in early 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54707/243

Fedor Solenki (Федор Соленки; Fred; Solonika)

Born 1896, Volodymyr-Volynsky, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to US circa 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New London, Connecticut circa 1917. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Claims to be illiterate, but in possession of radical literature. According to the Immigration Inspector, “even though his illiteracy or stupidity [should] be taken into consideration, I believe he is very dangerous, because his evidence shows he is easily led, as he admits attempting to secure members for the Union of Russian Workers.” Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/241; FBI file OG 374549

Karl W. Sonntag (aka John Fensky)

Song lyrics written by Sonntag during an IWW strike at Potlatch Lumber Company in Potlatch, Idaho, 1917
Cartoon drawn by Sonntag

Born 1886, Breslau, Germany (present-day Wrocław, Poland). Polish. Served three years in the German navy. Laborer; machinist. Migrated to US 1908 (deserted ship in Galvaston, Texas). Sonntag was a skilled metalworker who patented a “tire-testing machine” (US patent no. 1068180) in 1913. Joined the IWW in Kansas City, Missouri, 1914; found work as a lumber worker and active in IWW strikes, for which he wrote radical songs. 1917 imprisoned for three months in Idaho for “criminal syndicalism” following his participation in a lumber strike at the Potlatch Lumber Company. Arrested in Walla Walla, Washington, February 8, 1918, after reported by the “Minute Men of Seattle” for unlawfully working within a federally-mandated “prohibited zone” along the waterfront from which Germans and other “enemy aliens” were barred. (Sonntag had secured employment by using the name “John Fesky” and claiming to be Austrian.) Upon discovery of his IWW membership, he was also charged with advocating the unlawful destruction of property, but then interned at Fort Douglas in Utah as an “enemy alien.” There he spent eight months in the disciplinary barracks for singing IWW songs, on what he described as a diet of “bread and water, and finally two leaden bullets in the leg.” Released on the condition that he “voluntarily depart” to German, which he did on June 23, 1919. He expected “to be busy in the so-called German revolution” upon his return, but he “found that I again got badly fooled,” and he subsequently made his way to Soviet Russia. There he found employment at the Felser & Co. factory in Nizhny Novgorod, where his workday was “sixteen hours and more.” After IWW leader William D. Haywood jumped his bail and fled to Russia in 1921, Sonntag, who had known Haywood in the United States, wrote him a letter of welcome, advising, “if this country needs anything it’s organizers and I think you’ll have a hell of a lot of work to do here…Let’s all do your best to make a paradise for workers out of this country.” No further information found.

INS file 54379/116

See also: Lewis S. Gannett, “Americans in Russia,” The Nation, August 17, 1921

Emilio Souto

Deported IWW member.

Charles Spangberg

Spangberg’s IWW membership card

Born 1887, Sweden. Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1905. Joined the IWW in February 1917. Arrested in Spokane, Washington, April 6, 1918. Deported November 4, 1918. January 1919 wrote to Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson inquiring why he had been deported and when he could be allowed to return to the US; there is no record of a reply being sent. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54379/235

Andrew Jacob Spisak (aka A.J. Smith)

May Day flier Spisak was posting when arrested

Born 1886, Rozgony, Austria-Hungary (present-day Rozhanovce, Slovakia). Metalworker; sign painter. Migrated to US 1904. 1912 lost his left eye and suffered a skull fracture from a workplace accident. Communist Party of America. Braddock, Pennsylvania. Arrested April 29, 1921 by members of the Edgar Thomson Steel Company’s private police force for posting radical May Day leaflets published by the United Communist Party; convicted of violating Pennsylvania’s sedition law, then turned over to immigration authorities. Released November 1922; detained again June 1923 and held on Ellis Island for seventeen months while awaiting a passport from Czechoslovakia, which was initially denied on the grounds that he had resided outside of Czechoslovakian territory for more than ten years and therefore lost his citizenship. Deported to Czechoslovakia, October 24, 1924. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54809/601; FBI file BS 202600-1897

See also: Daily Worker, November 15, 1924

Supino to Tabenko

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Giuseppantonio Supino (Giuseppe Supino; aka Joe Spino)

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

INS file 54700/28

Michael Surigatanoff (last name partially illegible)

His name as it appears in the document

Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921. No further information found.

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

Adam Susnowics

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

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

Carl Swelgin (Karl)

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

INS file 54379/525

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

Yustif Svenko (Юстиф Свенко; Estife Swenko)

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

INS file 54709/225

Alrik Swenson

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

See: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920

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

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

INS file 54709/305; FBI file OG 366771

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

Tabenko’s URW membership card

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

INS file 54709/606

Tadzizieg to Targony

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , ,

Yefin Tadzizieg (Tadsixieg; aka Podziziej)

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

INS file 54709/328

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

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

INS file 54616/82

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

George Talas

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

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

William Tanner (Karl William Tanner)

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

INS file 54616/153

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

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

Photo of Tarasyuk and two friends

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

INS file 54709/525

Alex Targony (таргони)

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

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

See also: Ancestry.com

Tataranovich to Tori

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , ,

Victor Tataranovich (Виктор Татаранович)

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

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

Josef Teichman (Joe; Feichman)

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

INS file 54809/281; FBI file OG 386882

Nik Telatitski

Telatitski’s URW membership card

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

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

Afanasy Timonatnko

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

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

Jacob Tiomay(?)

The partially illegible name as it appears in the record

Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921. No further information found.

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

Konrad Tkach (Конрад Ткач; Kondrat; Conrad Kachur)

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

INS file 54810/946

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

Mike Tkach

Member of the Communist Party of America in Pittsburgh. Arrested February 20, 1920. Deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

FBI file OG 8000-193906; list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Gerasim Tkachuk (Harry)

Tkachuk and his family

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

INS file 54709/289

Benjamin Tobak

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

FBI file OG 377698

See also: New York Herald, November 3, 1919

Spas Todorov (Спас Тодоров; Sam; Todoroff)

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

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

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

Nicholas Torbiak (Nick)

Born 1895, Galicia, Austria-Hungary(?). Migrated to the US 1909. Miner. Wife and infant son in Coal Run, Pennsylvania. Member, along with wife, of the Ukrainian Federation Branch No. 59 of the Communist Party, in Coal Run. Involved in 1919 miners’ strike. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

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

Iacopo Tori (Jacopo; Jacob; aka Louis Tori)

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

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

FBI file OG 110181; CPC busta 5160

See also: Kenyon Zimmer, Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America; Iacopo Tori, Il processo muto di Sacramento, Cal. (1919); St. Joseph Gazette (St. Joseph MI), December 27, 1923