Tag Archives: Russian

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. Died 1957.

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

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

Rasmus Jacobson Solen (Robert Solen)

Born Manger, Norway in 1885. Migrated to US 1904. Lumber worker. IWW member since June 1917. December 1917 sentenced to one year and a day in McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary for alleged conspiracy “interfering with fire fighters on Government timber lands” while organizing a strike of timber workers in Clallam County, Washington in July 1917. Deported to Norway October 31, 1918 on charges of being “likely to become a public charge,” of entering the US without inspection, and of being convicted of a crime of “moral turpitude.”

INS file 54554/39

See also: Tacoma Daily Ledger, July 26, 1917; Spokesman-Review (Spokane), December 25, 1917

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.

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.

INS file 54709/241; FBI file OG 374549

Mike Ivanovich Solovieve (Mike Solovev)

Born c.1890 Pinsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to Canada 1913, then to US December 1919. Wife in Russia. Laborer. Anarchist. Arrest in Toledo, Ohio, January 1920 after arguing with a Russian Communist speaker at a meeting. At his immigration hearing he declared: “I am a citizen of no country now. I have no country. Well, I am a citizen of Russia because I was born there.” Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921.

INS file 54860/926

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 Germany, 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 García (Emilio Suoto)

Born Corunna, Spain in 1882. Sailor, carpenter, laborer. An “old time militant of the Spanish labor movement” and twice arrested during strikes in Spain and secretary of the Carpenter’s Union. Wife, Estrella Morales, and five children in Spain. Immigrated to the US in 1916 (jumped ship). Anarchist and IWW member. Arrested in Philadelphia on February 16, 1919 as “one of 11 Spaniards and Mexicans suspected of being radicals and one of 5 later arrested by immigration officials…While admitting that he has friends who are anarchists and socialists, a careful survey of the evidence fails to show that he has in any way been active as a propagandist. He is certified as being afflicted with gonorrhea, a loathsome contagious disease.” He appealed to expedite his deportation, “as my family is without any help in Spain and anxiously waiting for me.” Deportation warrant issued on the basis of being “likely to become a public charge” and entering without inspection. “Reshipped foreign” to Spain September 20, 1919, on the SS Leonora.

INS files 54648/28 and 54648/29

See: New Solidarity, February 14, 1920

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.

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.

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

See also: Daily Worker, November 15, 1924

Steimer to Stepanov

Red Scare Deportees, , , ,

Mollie Steimer (Молли Штеймер)

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

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

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

INS file 54517/73

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

Sigfrid Stenberg (Siegfried)

Stenberg’s mugshot, 1918

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

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

INS file 54616/52

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

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

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

INS file 54709/308

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

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

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

INS file 54709/309

Stepanuk to Sulavka

Red Scare Deportees, , , ,

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

Mid-Week Pictorial, January 1, 1920

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

INS file 54248/20; FBI file OG 372181

Jacob Stl_______uk [last name partially illegible]

His name as it appears in the documents

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

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

Gordey Stolatchuk (Gordic)

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

INS file 54709/181; FBI file OG 377413

Tony Stolke

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

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

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

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

INS file 54809/203, FBI file OG 378457

Nick Sudnick (Zudnik)

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

INS file 54860/733

David Sukhov (Давид Сухов; Suchov; Suhov)

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

INS file 54709/394

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

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

INS file 54709/322

Supino to Tabenko

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 Surgatanoff (Surgatunoff)

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

INS file 54861/132

Adam Susnowics

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

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

Carl Swelgin (Karl)

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

INS file 54379/525

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

Yustif Svenko (Юстиф Свенко; Estife Swenko)

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

INS file 54709/225

Alrik Swenson

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

See: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920

Bronisław Syzmaniak (Bronislas; Synzmaniak)

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

Daily Worker, February 6, 1923; Ancestry.com

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

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

INS file 54709/305; FBI file OG 366771

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

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

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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 Tiomny

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

INS file 54809/704

Konrad Tkach (Конрад Ткач; Kondrat; Conrad Kachur)

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

INS file 54810/946

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

Mike Tkach

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

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

Gerasim Tkachuk (Harry; aka Levchenko)

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.

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

INS files 54709/289 and 54709/447

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

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

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

INS file 54860/999; FBI file OG 377698

See also: New York Herald, November 3, 1919

Spas Todorov (Спас Тодоров; Sam; Todoroff)

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

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

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

Nicholas Torbiak (Nick)

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

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

Iacopo Tori (Jacopo; Jacob; aka Louis Tori)

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

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

FBI file OG 110181; CPC busta 5160

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

Urkevich to Vazenas

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Peter Urkevich (Петр Уркевич; Urkevitch; Yurkovics; Yurkewicz; aka John Jorkevits)

Born unknown year , Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Shirt presser. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and two children in Russia. 1919 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia. Federal agents claimed he was treasurer of the branch; he claimed to be illiterate. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 7, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/212; FBI file OG 378953

Josip Vargo (Joseph; Varga; aka Jospeh Vasek)

Vargo’s Communist Party membership card

Born 1881, Zákány, Austria-Hungary (present-day Hungary). Grew up in Croatia; Croatian speaker. Steelworker. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and three children in Croatia. 1916 joined the South Slavic Branch of the Socialist Party of America in Youngstown, Ohio; 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Participated in 1919 steel strike at Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Arrested February, 1920. Deported to Yugoslavia, September 1, 1920.

INS file 54861/122

Angelo Varricchio

Born 1892 near Naples, Italy. Migrated to US 1910. Tailor. Joined the IWW and the syndicalist Federazione Socialista Italiana in Utica, New York; secretary of FSI branch. Arrested 1916 for protesting trial of Carlo Tresca. Arrested November 11, 1918 and December 18, 1918 after a music teacher adjacent to his workplace reported him for “seditious utterances.” Deported to Italy March 27, 1919.

Italian authorities noted no political activity after his deportation.

INS file 54517/90; CPC busta 5327

See also: New York Call, March 28, 1919

Vasiliy Vaschuk (Василий Ващук; Wasily Waschuk; aka Porify Silkuko; Proify Silnko)

Born 1892, Volhynia region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. October 1919 joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia. Arrested in the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/330

Mikhail Vaseyko (Михаил Васейко; Michael; Wassiko; Vaseiko; Mike Vsiko)

Born 1890, Volhynia region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1916. Wife and child in Russia. Member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 20, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/388; FBI file OG 8000-133915

Zachary Vaseyko (Захарий Васейко; Zach Wasciki)

Born 1886, Pidhorodna, Volynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there to the US in 1916. Wife and three children in Russia. Inconclusive evidence that he was a member of the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut, though he did attend several of its meetings and signed up for its automobile school. Arrested in raid on Hartford URW hall November 25, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/398

Iosif Vasilenko (Иосиф Василенко; Joseph; Joe; Wassilenko)

Born 1881, Kiev Governorate, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Machinist. Migrated to US 1907; returned to Russia 1912; again migrated to US 1913. Wife and child in Russia. Twice arrested during 1919 strike at American Brass Company in Ansonia, Connecticut. Arrested again during the first Palmer Raids, November 7, 1919. Authorities claimed he belonged to the Union of Russian Workers, but he denied this and claimed he belonged only to the Socialist Party of America. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/236; FBI file OG 379009

Nikolai Vasilyev (Николай Васильев; Nicholas; Wasilieff; aka Adam Vlasoff)

Born 1883, Podolian Governorate, Russia (present-day Ukriane). Ukrainian. Sailor. Already an anarchist in Russia. Migrated to US 1912. Joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in New York; says he quit the URW because it “does not consist of anarchists, but merely of people who want education.” Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 11, 1919. Stated, “I believe that the history of government is the history of organized burglary.” Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/99

Konstantin Vasiliuk (Константин Василюк)

Born Lemburg, Austria-Hungry (present-day Lviv, Ukraine), c.1890. Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1909. Laborer. Married to deportee Maria Vasiliuk. Four American-born children, ages two weeks to four years in January 1921. Member and secretary of the Ukrainian Branch of the Communist Party of America in Coal Run, Pennsylvania. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

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

Maria Vasiliuk (Мария Василюк; Mary)

Born c.1895, Lviv (Lemburg), Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1915. Housewife. Married to deportee Konstntin Vasiliuk. Four American-born children, ages two weeks to four years in January 1921. Member of the Communist Party of America in Coal Run, Pennsylvania. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

IINS file 54885/74

Stefan Vasiluk (Стефан Василук; Stephan; Wasiluk)

Born c.1892, Saratov, Russia. Migrated to US 1916. Laborer. Joined of the Union of Russian Workers in New York around 1917. Admitted to holding anarchist beliefs and agreeing with the ideas of Peter Kropotkin. Arrested February 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/133

Vasily Vasilyevich (Василий Васильевич; Wasilly; Wasilewics; Wasylewics; Wasylevicz)

Deported to Russia, October 2, 1920.

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

Stanley Vazenas (Stasys)

Born 1887, Kamay, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania). Lithuanian. Migrated to the US in 1913. Wood finisher. Joined the Socialist Party in 1917, then the Lithuanian Branch of the Communist Party in Rockford, Illinois, of which he became chairman. Arrested January 1920. Originally was to be deported to Lithuania, but as he had no relatives there, at his request he was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921, on the SS Zeeland.

INS file 54860/692

Veremiuk to Volk

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

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

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

INS file 54709/117

Juan Villanueva

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

INS file 54709/70

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

Alexander Vinik (Александр Виник; Alex; Alec)

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

INS file 54709/584; FBI file OG 383880

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

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

INS file 54709/104; FBI file OG 369065

Maysey Voleshynyuk

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

INS file 54709/604

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

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

FBI file OG 335403

Volkov to Wälläri

Red Scare Deportees, , , ,

Filip Volkov (Philip; Wolkoff; Volk)

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

INS file 54709/304; FBI file OG 370100

Issay Volkov (Иссай Волков; George; Wolkoff)

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

INS file 54709/171

George Voloh (Георгий Волох?)

Voloh’s URW membership card

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

INS file 54709/589

Peter Voloshin (Петр Волошин; Pete; Woloshim)

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

INS file 54859/695

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

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

INS file 54709/696

Carl Voss (Carl Heinrich Frederick Voss)

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

INS file 54860/699

See also: Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University

Niilo Wälläri (Nillo; Nullo; Nulo)

Wälläri in 1926
Wälläri in 1955

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

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

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