As part of the ongoing research for my book on the global history of immigrant radicals who were deported during America’s First Red Scare, I have posted brief profiles of 835 (and counting) individual deportees I have identified. This list is a work in progress, and entries are being added and updated as I obtain additional information.
Who is included:
This list includes radicals and suspected radicals who were deported between 1917 (following America’s entrance into the First World War) and 1925, when the last of the foreign-born radicals arrested between 1917 and 1920 were expelled, some after serving prison sentences or being interned as “enemy aliens.” It includes both those who were deported by government order and those who were ordered deported but “voluntarily departed” at their own expense with the government’s consent (both categories were included in US government deportation statistics). It does not include those who fled the country to avoid arrest or deportation. It includes both individuals deported for belonging to legally-defined “anarchistic classes,” and others who were suspected of radicalism but deported on other grounds (most commonly for entering the country without inspection or being retroactively deemed “likely to become a public charge” at the time of their entry).
This is not a complete list. In the fiscal years (June-July) 1918-1926, the United States deported 979 aliens as “anarchists,” and an unknown number of additional radical immigrants under other statutes. The largest single group of deportees, composed of 242 alleged radicals (as well as seven unrelated deportees) departed on the USAT Buford on December 21, 1919. However, it appears that no complete list of Red Scare deportees was produced by either the Bureau of Immigration or the Bureau of Investigation. I have instead had to rely on partial lists and mentions of individual cases included in these organizations’ files, congressional testimony, radical publications, newspaper reports, and other sources.
How to use this site:
Profiles have been posted in small batches. They are organized in alphabetical order by last name, followed by alternate spellings and pseudonyms in parentheses. (The Cyrillic spellings of Russian names are generally my best guess; American sources from the era were wildly inconsistent in their spellings of such names. The same is true of the transliteration of Chinese names in the Roman alphabet.) You can also browse the Index of Names.
Birth years are often approximate, usually having been calculated from an individual’s age at the time of their examination by immigration authorities, and some may therefore be off by a year.
You can search by individuals’ nationalities (country of birth and, in some cases, ethnicity [i.e. Jewish, Lithuanian, etc.]) by using the tags above.
Occupations describe the individuals’ employment in the US, not necessarily the work they engaged in before arrival or after their deportation.
Political affiliations represented include the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the anarcho-syndicalist Union of Russian Workers of the United States and Canada (URW); the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM); anarchists unaffiliated with larger organizations; the Communist Party of America (CP); the Communist Labor Party (CLP); the Socialist Party of America (SP); the Socialist Labor Party (SLP); and unaffiliated socialists. You can search by political affiliation by using the tags above.
You may also use the “Search” box at the top of the page to look for individual names, locations, etc.
The main sources used for compiling these profiles are case files from the Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Record Group 85, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC; the Old German Files (OG) and Bureau Section Files (BS) of the Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Record Group 65, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (as digitized at fold3.com); and (for Italians) the Casellario Politico Centrale (CPC), Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome, Italy.
A special thanks to Molly Thacker, Brooke Thompson, and Nargis Azaryun, who photographed hundreds of INS files for me; Malcolm Archibald, who has translated a number of Russian-language sources; D.J. Alperovitz, who has provided sources on IWW members; and the dozens of other archivists, translators, activists, and colleagues who have helped me locate, acquire, and read material from across the globe while undertaking this research.
Finally, if you have additional information about any of the deportees, or spot an error, please contact me!
Born: 1888, Edinburgh, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1908; then to US 1915 Affiliation: IWW
Spent time in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico before entering the US (via Canada, without inspection) in 1915. Joined the IWW in 1909 and later became secretary of the IWW local in Astoria, Washington. On his 1917 draft registration card, wrote: “Don’t believe [in] militarism.” Arrested in Portland, Oregon, in February 1919 and deported March 29, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54379/2; Ancestry.com.
Adolfo Frattesi (a.k.a. Adolph Fratese)
Born: 1893, Pergola, Italy Nationality/Ethnicity: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Anarchist
A member of the anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali in Milwaukee, along with his brother Vincenzo Frattesi, sister Maria Nardini, and brother-in-law Pasquale Nardini. Arrested in 1917 following an Italian anarchist “riot” in Milwaukee and initially sentenced to twenty-five years in prison as an accessory to the attempted murder of a police officer. The conviction was later reversed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Following his release, rearrested for “teaching or advocating anarchy” and deported to Italy on July 15, 1920.
Italian authorities do not appear to have placed him under political surveillance after his return.
Sources: INS file 54235/70; Robert Tanzilo, The Milwaukee Police Station Bomb of 1917; Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror.
Giuseppe Frattesi
Born: 1894, Pergola, Italy Nationality/Ethnicity: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
The brother of Adolfo and Vincenzo Frattesi and of Maria Nardini. While living in Racine, Wisconsin, became involved in the defense campaign for his siblings following the 1917 Milwaukee anarchist “riot,” during which he became radicalized and embraced anarchism. Later moved to Chicago, where he was arrested in May 1919 and again in August 1919. Deported on December 20, 1919. His trunk containing personal possessions was lost by immigration authorities.
In June 1920 migrated to France, where he briefly lived with his brother Teodolfo, before returning to Italy. Throughout the 1930s he remained under Italian government surveillance and was reported to continue holding anarchist and antifascist views, though he was not considered politically active.
Sources: INS file 54616/182; FBI file OG 8000-177156; CPC busta 2172.
Vincenzo Frattesi (a.k.a. Vincent Fratese)
Born: 1886, Pergola, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Anarchist
Emigrated to Avignon, France, where he was fined for assault in 1908, and was jailed for eight days in 1910 for the same offense. After immigrating to the United States in 1913, he became active in Milwaukee’s anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali, along with his siblings and brother-in-law. Following the 1917 Milwaukee anarchist “riot,” convicted as an accessory to the attempted murder of a police officer and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison, a conviction upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. While incarcerated, repeatedly disciplined for infractions and in 1920 was declared insane and transferred to a mental hospital. Pardoned in 1922 on condition of deportation and deported on February 25, 1922.
Upon arrival in Italy, institutionalized in Naples as “paranoid” and released in November 1924. Later settled in Fossombrone, where he remained under surveillance and continued to express anarchist beliefs. In July 1928 he was recommitted to a psychiatric hospital in Pesaro and diagnosed with “paranoid early dementia.” Remained institutionalized as of 1940.
Sources: INS file 54235/69; CPC busta 2172; Robert Tanzilo, The Milwaukee Police Station Bomb of 1917; Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror.
Giovanni Fruzzetti (a.k.a. Giovanni Balloni; Gianni Lupo)
Born: 1865, Carrara, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Granite cutter; farmer Migration: Immigrated to US 1892 Affiliation: Anarchist
Lived in Barre, Vermont, until 1905, where he was a friend of Luigi Galleani and helped found Cronaca Sovversiva. Later lived in Quincy, Massachusetts, before purchasing a sixty-acre farm in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1910. Married with ten children and also supported six nieces and nephews following the death of his sister-in-law. Suffered ongoing health problems stemming from an appendicitis operation. Arrested in May 1918, Fruzzetti stated his belief “in the overthrow of any government by force.” He also emphasized the hardship deportation would impose on his family, noting that his wife could not return to Italy because of their disabled American-born daughter. Despite this, he was deported on June 24, 1919.
Unable to make a living in Italy, he received financial assistance from comrades in the United States until his death in 1926.
Sources: INS file 54379/351; CPC busta 295; L’Adunata dei Refrattari, June 13 and October 3, 1925; Ancestry.com.
Timofey Furs (a.k.a. Thomas Furs)
Furs’ URW membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1896, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Unidentified newspaper clipping, Paul Avrich Collection, Library of Congress.
Born: 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Bookbinder Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: Anarchist
In 1917 Lachowsky joined New York’s militant Jewish anarchist Shturem Group, which became the Frayhayt Group in 1918. On August 23, 1918, he was arrested with Molly Steimer while distributing leaflets protesting US intervention in the Russian Civil War. Beaten during interrogation, he was convicted with other group members under the Espionage Act and sentenced to twenty years in prison and a $1,000 fine. In October 1919 he declared to immigration agents, “I am an alien and an anarchist…I am opposed to all organized government. Not only the Government of the United States but any government…I’m an anarchist and proud of it.” By 1921, however, he had become disillusioned and renounced anarchism. After losing the Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States, he was deported November 23, 1921.
Disillusioned with radicalism, he returned to Minsk, started a family, and stayed out of politics. He reportedly died of natural causes sometime before the Second World War.
Sources: INS file 54517/74; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Charles Lindsay Lambert
Charles Lambert, 1918. National Archives.
Born: 1881, Arbroath, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Baker; oil worker; labor organizer Migration: Immigrated to US 1901 or 1902 Affiliation: IWW
Joined the IWW in 1911 and served as secretary of Local No. 453 of the Oil Workers’ Industrial Union in Taft, California, in 1913, and later as secretary of mixed IWW locals in Sacramento from 1914 to 1917. As Secretary-Treasurer of the Wheatland Defense Committee (1914–1915), he advocated sabotage on behalf of the campaign to free the Wheatland prisoners. Elected to the IWW’s General Executive Board in 1916, he played a key role in the controversial decertification of the IWW’s Domestic Workers’ Industrial Union in Denver. A defendant in the federal IWW trial of 1917–1918, where his writings were used against the union by the prosecution, and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. In 1922 his sentence was commuted in exchange for “voluntary departure” to Britain, and he sailed March 31, 1923.
In Britain he attended trade-union meetings and encouraged protests against the imprisonment of IWW members in the United States. He may have worked in the Tampico oil fields during the 1920s, appears to have illegally reentered the US, then returned to Scotland via New York in 1926. During the 1930s he worked as an oil worker in the Caribbean, returned to the UK in 1933, and later left radical politics, becoming a diamond prospector in British Guiana and then a bookie’s runner (i.e. enforcer) in London, where he died circa 1961.
Sources: INS file 54616/59; FBI file OG 8000-160053; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Jane Little Botkin, The Girl Who Dared to Defy: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver; Richard Brazier, “The Mass I.W.W. Trial of 1918: A Retrospect,” Labor History 7, no. 2 (1966); Eric Thomas Chester, The Wobblies in Their Heyday: The Rise and Destruction of the Industrial Workers of the World during the World War I Era; Eric Thomas Chester, Yours for Industrial Freedom: The Industrial Workers of the World from the Inside; Ancestry.com.
Manya Lansky
Born: 1898, Pieski, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Garment worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Migrated to the United States for work and soon became an anarchist in New York. She distributed the Union of Russian Workers’ paper Golos Truda. Arrested July 4, 1920 en route to a radical picnic in Cleveland, she was described by an immigration inspector as “the most typical of the usual conception of the anarchistic type that one may have occasion to observe.” She stated, “I am not in sympathy with the leaders of the Soviets, but am in sympathy with the Russian people.” Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54885/2.
Ivan Lapitsky (a.k.a. John; Lapinsky; Lapitzky)
Born: 1893, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Dye worker Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1917 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Belonged to Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920, he initially denied Communist Party membership but admitted it after authorities produced documentary proof. Deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/491.
Ivan Laposanko (or Lapczanko; a.k.a. John Lapko)
Born: 1890, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; coal miner; steel worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh in 1914 and served as a delegate to its New York convention in January 1919. Arrested in Erie, Pennsylvania during May Day disturbances on May 1, 1919, and again on December 12, 1919, he testified: “Yes, I am an anarchist; but I am not the violent anarchist that is pictured… I am studying the question of Anarchy.” Deported January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/642.
James Larkin (a.k.a. Jim; “Big Jim”)
James Larkin, 1919. Wikimedia Commons.
Born: 1876, Liverpool, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: Irish Occupation: Laborer; lecturer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Labor Party
Raised in poverty in Ireland, Larkin joined the Independent Labour Party in 1893 and became a full-time organizer for the National Union of Dock Labourers in 1905 before being expelled in 1908. He founded the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, cofounded the Irish Labour Party in 1912, and helped lead the 1913 Dublin Lockout with James Connolly while also founding the Irish Citizen Army.
In the United States he joined the Socialist Party of America, aligned with its pro-Bolshevik Left Wing, and lectured widely, often in conjunction with the IWW. Expelled from the SPA in 1919, he cofounded the Communist Labor Party. Arrested under New York’s criminal anarchy law, sentenced to five to ten years, pardoned by Governor Al Smith in 1923, and deported to England in April 1923, after repeated passport denials by British authorities.
Returning to Ireland he founded the Irish Worker League as the country’s official Communist Party and became head of the Communist-aligned Worker’s Union of Ireland. Attended the Fifth Congress of the Comintern in 1924 and appointed to the Comintern’s Executive Committee.In 1927 he was elected to the Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann) on behalf of the IWL , but unable to take his seat due to an unpaid award for libel against him. He resigned from the Comintern in 1929 and broke with Communism completely in 1932. In 1936 he was elected to the Dublin city government; 1937 elected to the Dáil Éireann as an independent candidate, but lost reelection the following year. In 1941 he rejoined the Irish Labour Party and served in the Dáil Éireann from 1943 to 1944. He died in 1947.
Sources: Emmet O’Connor, “James Larkin in the United States, 1914-23,” Journal of Contemporary History 37, no. 2 (April 2002); Emmet O’Connor, Big Jim Larkin: Hero or Wrecker?
Carl Larson (born Carl Johan Fredrik Larson)
Born: 1885, Upsala, Sweden Nationality: Swedish Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; shoemaker Migration: Migrated to US via Canada 1911 Affiliation: IWW; Communist Labor Party
Joined the IWW in 1912 and the Scandinavian section of the Socialist Party of America in 1917. Arrested May 3, 1918 after denouncing the US government, he was convicted under the Espionage Act in February 1919 and sentenced to one year and a day in Leavenworth. While imprisoned he joined the Communist Labor Party. After his release he served as literature agent for Salt Lake City’s Scandinavian Socialist Club. Arrested again in August 1920, he was deported June 9, 1921.
He reportedly left Sweden in 1924 as a seaman and jumped ship in Canada, returning to the US. On January 7, 1925, the Swedish Communist paper Folkets Dagblad Politiken printed a letter from him about Communist activity in America. In 1932 he was believed to be living in Seattle, and in 1933 authorities received confidential reports that he was in San Francisco under an assumed name and active in the Communist Party.
Sources: INS file 54861/408; FBI file OG 196909; The Toiler, April 2, 1920; One Big Union Monthly, May 1920.
Ludwig Lau
Born: Nationality: Polish Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Poland on September 1, 1920. No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Stefan Lavrichuk (a.k.a. Lawrichuk; Steve Liunsky)
Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Mechanic Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party in Rockford, Illinois, later transferring into the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920, he “voluntarily departed” to Russia via Canada on October 20, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54860/671.
Mikail Lavrinuk (a.k.a. Michael Lawrinuk)
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Hotel worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York around 1918 and the IWW in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/489.
Giacomo Lavrio (a.k.a. James Lavrio)
Giacomo Lavrio, c. 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1884, Turin, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1901 Affiliation: Anarchist
Worked in mines across the United States and became an anarchist there, supporting Cronaca Sovversiva and corresponding extensively with Italian-American anarchists. Briefly returned to Italy from 1905 to 1907. Arrested in St. Charles, Michigan, in May 1919 while participating in a miners’ strike. He married widow Maria Perocchetti while out on bail and promised to abandon radicalism for her. Deported December 20, 1919.
Upon arrival in Italy he was detained for possible draft evasion, after which authorities lost track of him. He died on October 17, 1923 in Turin of unknown causes.
Sources: INS file 54616/206; CPC busta 2781.
William Lawna (or Launa; Lauva; a.k.a. Alfred Schmidt)
Born: 1886, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Locksmith Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and was alleged to have served as secretary of its Elizabeth, New Jersey branch and to have hosted Leon Trotsky in his home, though he denied this claim. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife remained in the United States.
Sources: INS file 54709/103.
Andrey Lazarevich (a.k.a. Andrew Lazarewich or Lazarowitz)
Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, though the only evidence authorities had against him was a membership card for the Executive Committee of the Second Russian All-Colonial Convention of the United States and Canada (a meeting of various leftwing Russian groups held in New York in January 1919). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife Maria and their newborn child were left behind in the US.
Sources: INS file 54709/347.
Maria Lazarevich (née Kott; a.k.a. Mary Lazarewich)
Born: 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
An anarchist since 1917 and member of the URW, Maria Lazarevich was the wife of Buford deportee Andrey Lazarevich. After actively campaigning to be expelled to rejoin her husband, she was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921 along with the couple’s fourteen-month-old child.
Sources: INS file 55009/14.
Simeon Lebed (a.k.a. Sam Lebed)
Born: 1893, Novovolynsk, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party and later Detroit’s Communist Party Branch No. 22. Arrested January 1920, he was deported March 18, 1921.
Born: 1874, Edinburgh, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to U.S. c. 1901 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
Migrated to South Africa c. 1900, then to Australia and Mexico, before arriving in the United States around 1901. Worked in mines and acted as an IWW propagandist on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border. Although he filed a declaration of intent to naturalize, he never completed his application for citizenship, explaining, “I traveled all over the country and saw too much.” Arrested in Deming, New Mexico, in September 1919, he was deported April 3, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54709/648; The Deming Headlight (Deming, NM), September 26, 1919.
Anton Minarich (a.k.a. Tony)
Born: 1891, near Fiume, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia) Nationality: Yugoslavian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to U.S. 1909 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Worked for the Ford Motor Company Hospital in Detroit and joined South Slavic Branch No. 17 of the Communist Party in 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and held at Fort Wayne, he was deported to Yugoslavia on June 19, 1920.
Born: c. 1888, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
His wife and three children remained in Russia. He joined Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party of America in Rachine, Wisconsin. Arrested January 2, 1920, and deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Source: INS file 54859-167.
Petr Ivanovich Mironovich
Mironovich’s URW membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1900, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Belonged to the URW in New York and later Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Source: INS file 54709/527.
______ Mirolyubov
Born: Russia, year unknown Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Akron, Ohio, he was deported to Russia. No further information has been found.
Sources:Probuzhdenie, January 1932.
Simeon Misnik (a.k.a. Semeon; Minnik)
Born: Russia, year unknown Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation:
Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and agreed to “voluntary departure” to Russia October 16, 1920. No further information has been found.
Deported to Hungary as a radical on March 21, 1920. No additional information has been found.
Source: NS file 54325/36G.
Xavier Mitalski (a.k.a. Prostopluk)
Born: 1885, Volyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Carpenter Migration: Migrated to US 1909 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Worked in New York, Chicago, and Detroit and belonged to the URW along with his brothers and cousin. Arrested in Chicago November 14, 1919, he claimed his membership lasted only “a month and a half,” though authorities found URW literature in his apartment. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/434; FBI file OG 8000-385993.
Nicholas Mlaveransky (or Mlaverausky)
Born: 1894, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Machinist Migration: Migrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the URW in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Source: INS file 54709/376.
Ketia Fedrovich Molkowsky (a.k.a. L.C. Marten; Leo Martin)
Arrested in Seattle in September 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21 as a contract laborer and as “likely to become a public charge,” though officials also suspected radicalism.
Source: Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, Communist and Anarchist Deportation Cases.
Aggi Molochko (a.k.a. Mike A. Molaka)
Born: 1889, Starobin, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Millworker Migration: Migrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the URW in Norwich, Connecticut, in February 1918. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he was deported February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54861/8; FBI file OG 380828.
Peter Moloishik (or Maloishun)
Moloishik’s URW membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1895, Grodna, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Polish Ethnicity: Russian Occupation: Laborer; moulder Migration: Migrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Although he claimed Polish citizenship, authorities listed his “race” as Russian. He joined the URW in May 1919. Arrested in Marshall, Michigan, November 14, 1919, he was deported to Poland January 22, 1921.
Roberts’ Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: c. 1882, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1915; then to US 1917 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the Socialist Party of America before joining Philadelphia’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party. He was arrested January 7, 1920, and deported to Russia February 1, 1921.
An IWW member arrested in Sand Point, Idaho, in 1918. He was released, then rearrested and deported to an unknown country October 28, 1919. No further information has been located.
Sources: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920.
Alfred Robinson
Born: 1893, Chislehurst, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: English Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1905 Affiliation: IWW
Worked throughout the United States and Canada. In July 1919 he joined the IWW’s Metal and Machinery Workers’ Industrial Union No. 300. Arrested in Detroit during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported March 27, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54709/578; FBI file OG 8000-385119.
Abraham Rodríguez (a.k.a. Abram Rodríguez)
Abraham Rodríguez, by Ralph Chaplin. Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan.
Born: Mexico Nationality: Mexican Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner; labor organizer; poet Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Partido Liberal Mexicano; IWW
In 1911 he formed a PLM group in Del Valle, Texas, and reportedly “a colonel in the rebel army that overthrew the dictatorship in Mexico.” After returning to mining work in Arizona, he belonged to IWW Local 800 and chaired its grievance committee. Indicted in the federal IWW trial of 1917, he was arrested in New Mexico after an armed standoff with authorities. Charges were dropped in exchange for deportation to Mexico.
In Cananea, he continued organizing on behalf of the IWW.
Sources: FBI file Misc 18346.
Juan Rodríguez
Born: 1885, Asturias, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Occupation: Cook; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: IWW
His father died in Spain before he was born.
In 1916 he jumped ship in the United States and was arrested in Philadelphia in February 1919 as a suspected radical, though authorities could not prove it. (However, his is listed as an IWW member in IWW publications.) A deportation warrant was instead issued based on illiteracy, illegal entry, and likelihood of becoming a public charge. He requested voluntary departure to Cuba, which was granted, and departed August 22, 1919, aboard the SS Moro Castle.
Sources: INS file 54648/27.
Konstantin Romanchuk
Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immgrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, around July 1919 and became its secretary. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/396; FBI file OG 376791.
Gavril Romanovich (a.k.a. Gabriel; G.R.D.)
Romanovich’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1896, Kozhevniki, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party of America, then in 1919 transferred to the Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America, becoming secretary of its Waterbury, Connecticut branch. Arrested during a raid on headquarters in March 1920, he was deported to Russia February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/462; FBI file OG 379909.
Jesus Romo
Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1919.
Born: c. 1884, Mexico Nationality: Mexican Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
Joined the IWW in Los Angeles in February 1919 and quickly became a delegate for its General Recruiting Union; he was probably previously a member in Morenci, Arizona, where his father and brothers were also activists. Arrested June 9, 1919 for distributing literature outside an employment agency, he declared he “was born an anarchist.” Deported August 18, 1919.
Continued organizing for the IWW in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Sources: INS file 54616/232; FBI file OG 363737.
Angel Roncal
Born: 1896, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Occupation: Sailor Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: IWW
He reportedly spent time in South America before immigrating to the U.S. in 1916.
A member of the Niagara Falls IWW branch, he was arrested in September 1918 for failing to register for the draft, with IWW literature found in his possession. After five months in jail without trial he was released in February 1919 but immediately detained for deportation. He was deported to Spain around July 1, 1920.
Sources: Buffalo Commercial, February 1 and 3, 1919; Buffalo Times, February 20, 1919; Cattaraucus Republican, March 27, 1919; Buffalo Express, April 30, 1919; Illustrated Buffalo Express, June 22, 1919.
Maxim Rosak (a.k.a. Max; Roosak)
Maxim Rosak’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.
Born: c.1887, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Driller Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Formerly a member of the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party in Philadelphia, he transferred into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested January 7, 1920, he was deported to Russia February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54811/948; FBI file OG 379897.
Savely Roshkov (a.k.a. Charles Roshko)
Savely Roshkov holding a copy of the URW newspaper Khleb i Volia. National Archives.
Born: 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Employed by Singer Manufacturing Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he belonged to the International Association of Machinists’ Local No. 30 and took part in a 1919 wildcat strike. He was also a member of the Union of Russian Workers branch there. Arrested February 12, 1920, he was deported to Russia January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54861/143; FBI file OG 382709.
Mikail Rosnak (a.k.a.Michael Rosnack; Bosnack)
Born: 1897, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (present-day Romania) Nationality: Romanian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Blacksmith’s helper Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1917 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Expelled from Canada during World War I as an “enemy alien,” he moved to the United States and in 1919 joined URW Branch No. 6 in Detroit. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he testified that the detective who arrested him called him “worse than a nigger,” and gave him “a smash in the face.” He was deported to Romania March 17, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54739/469.
Janet Johnstone Roy (Janet Johnstone MacKay)
Seattle Union Record, February 14, 1919.
Born: 1895, Milmathort, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; IWW
Supported the Independent Labour Party before emigrating.
In Lawrence, Massachusetts, she joined the Socialist Party and the IWW’s Textile Workers Industrial Union No. 1000. After moving to Chicago and then Seattle, she was arrested with her sister in a police raid on an IWW hall in October 1918. She married Ian V. MacKay, a naturalized U.S. citizen, in January 1919. Deported July 23, 1919.
She later reunited with her husband in British Columbia, where she died in 1972.
Sources: INS files 54379/532 and 54379/532A; Frances H. Early, A World Without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I; Heather Mayer, Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924; Ancestry.com.
Margaret Roy (Margaret Ray)
Born: 1893, Milmathort, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; IWW
Emigrated to Canada in 1913, then returned to Scotland in 1916 to retrieve her sister Janet.
In Lawrence, Massachusetts, she and Janet joined the Socialist Party and the IWW’s Textile Workers Industrial Union No. 1000. After moving to Chicago and then Seattle, she was arrested with her sister during a raid on an IWW hall in October 1918. She married U.S. citizen Alonzo Ray in January 1919, but was deported July 23, 1919.
Sources: INS files 54379/532 and 54379/532A; Frances H. Early, A World Without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I; Heather Mayer, Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924.
Born: 1883, Kilmarnock, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Machinist; union organizer Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1903; then to US 1904 Affiliation: IWW
Originally a member of the International Association of Machinists, he was radicalized and joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911, becoming a prominent speaker and organizer reportedly arrested about 160 times. Among these arrests was his detention during the 1916 strike on the Mesabi Iron Range on murder charges that were later dropped. A defendant in the federal IWW trial of 1917–1918, he was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment and a $20,000 fine. His sentence was commuted in 1923 on condition of deportation, and he was deported to England in April of that year.
That August he emigrated to Canada and resumed organizing for the IWW in the Vancouver area, especially among miners. Canadian authorities attempted to deport him in 1924 using evidence supplied by US immigration officials, but the case was dropped. In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Canada. He became an organizer for the party’s Mine Workers’ Union of Canada and was arrested in connection with the violent Estevan strike of October 1931, receiving a one-year sentence that damaged his health. Around 1938 he became chairman of the party in Toronto and of its newspaper The Clarion. When the party was outlawed in 1940, Scarlett lived underground and clandestinely entered the United States, where he remained illegally until his death in 1941.
Sources: INS file 54616/49; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Daily Worker, October 2, 1931; Donald H. Avery, “British-Born ‘Radicals’ in North America, 1900-1941: The Case of Sam Scarlett,” Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes Ethniques Au Canada 10, no. 2 (1978); Barbara Ann Roberts, Whence They Came: Deportation from Canada, 1900-1935.
Alexander Schatz (or Shatz; a.k.a. Harry)
Born: 1884, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Ethnicity: Occupation: Printer Migration: Immigrated to US 1909 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Around 1917 he joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in New York. A member of the editorial board of Khleb i Volia and brother of fellow URW member Boris Schatz, he was arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. During questioning he declared, “I consider myself a citizen and a laborer wherever I work and wherever I live.” He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919, leaving behind his wife and stepchild in the U.S.
Sources: INS file 54709/128.
Boris Schatz (or Shatz)
Born: 1894, Russia (probably in present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Ethnicity: Occupation: Photographer Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
In 1917 he joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. He served on the editorial board of the organization’s newspaper Khleb i Volia and was the brother of fellow member and deportee Alexander Schatz. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, the stress of his detention reportedly caused his wife Elsie to miscarry. He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919, while Elsie remained in New York.
Sources: INS file 54709/278; FBI file OG 378924; Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920.
John Carl Schedel
John Carl Schedel, 1920. Fort Wayne Sentinel, September 1, 1920.
Born: 1885, Munich, Germany Nationality: German Ethnicity: Occupation: Piano polisher Migration: Immigrated to US 1903 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
In August 1914 he reportedly registered with the German consulate in Cincinnati to join the German Army, yet he simultaneously became active in American radical politics, serving as county secretary of the Socialist Party of America in Fort Wayne, Indiana and later joining the Communist Party of America. Described as “a very radical socialist ” who “and “during the war caused considerable trouble at the Packard Piano Company where he his employed,” he was arrested in 1920 for declaring he would rather live in Russia “where all is freedom” than in the United States. Deported May 22, 1920, leaving behind a pregnant wife and four American-born children; shortly afterward their newborn died and his wife was temporarily declared insane.
In Germany he reportedly joined the merchant marine and then traveled to Russia, where he claimed to have joined the Red Army and worked as an interpreter near Soviet leaders. After about a year he returned to Germany disillusioned with Soviet rule. In May 1921 he stowed away from Rotterdam to New York but was ordered deported again; disembarking in England, he was jailed for a month and undertook a hunger strike. After several failed attempts he reentered the United States in 1924 via Mexico. Arrested in Chicago for unlawful entry, he was defended by the American Civil Liberties Union and pursued multiple appeals until his deportation warrant was dropped. He died in Chicago in November 1968.
Sources: FBI file OG 341493; Fort Wayne Sentinel, September 1, 1920; Garrett Clipper (Garrett, IN), July 4, 1921; American Civil Liberties Union, Annual Report, 1924; Indianapolis Star, January 21, 1925; Chicago Tribune, November 7, 1968.
Nathan Schechter (or Shechter; Shacter)
Born: 1884, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated to the United States in 1913. In September 1919 he joined Russian Branch No. 5 of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested in December 1919 for “criminal anarchy” and released on bail, he was arrested again during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920. He told an immigration inspector “I consider the entire capitalist system to be rotten, and it ought to be abolished,” and protested being deported as a criminal, insisting he could pay his own passage if forced to leave. After four months’ detention on Ellis Island he became a leader of protests among detained radicals and was placed in a separate cell, prompting others to threaten a hunger strike. He was deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54811/424.
Raffaele Schiavina (a.k.a. Max Sartin; Melchior Steele; Bruno)
Raffaele Schiavina, 1920s. Archives Nationales, France.
Born: 1895, San Carlo, Ferrara, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Bookkeeper Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Anarchist
Attended an Italian business school until age nineteen and initially a socialist.
Emigrated to the United States in 1913 and became an anarchist the following year. In 1916 he became bookkeeper for Luigi Galleani’s newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva in Lynn, becoming a close associate and contributor. Arrested in 1916 for inciting to riot but acquitted, he was arrested again in 1918 for refusing draft registration and sentenced to one year in the Middlesex County House of Correction. Upon release in March 1919 he was detained for deportation and described by a federal judge as “one of the most dangerous men with whom he has had to deal.” Deported to Italy June 24, 1919, with Galleani and other associates.
Back in Italy he was briefly jailed for draft evasion, then settled in Turin, where he helped revive Cronaca Sovversiva (January–October 1920) until it was suppressed. Arrested in 1921 alongside several Communists and falsely accused of leading Turin’s paramilitary Arditi del Popolo sections, but all defendants were acquitted. In March 1923 he emigrated illegally to France; in Paris he published the anarchist newspapers Il Monito and La Difesa per Sacco e Vanzetti.
He returned clandestinely to the United States in 1928 under various pseudonyms and edited the anarchist paper L’Adunata dei Refrattari in New York and New Jersey from 1928 until 1971. He died in Salt Lake City in 1987.
Sources: INS file 54391/81; CPC busta 4690; Max Sartin, “Breve autobiografia,” Bollettino Archivio G. Pinelli, no. 13 (August 1999); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani.
Andrew Schkurski (or Schkursky; Shkursky)
Born: 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Crane operator Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Became a member of the Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party in Milwaukee, serving as its delegate to the party’s City Central Committee. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/196.
Adolph Schnabel
Adolph Schnabel, 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1882, Kharkiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: German Occupation: Machinist; sailor Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
The child of German immigrants to Russia, he participated in socialist organizations in Ukraine during the Russian Revolution of 1905–1907 before emigrating to the United States in 1907.
Married Helena Ring in Philadelphia in 1913 and cofounded the Union of Russian Workers the following year, editing several of its newspapers and serving as national secretary prior to Peter Bianki. Arrested in Chicago in June 1917 for allegedly circulating anti-draft literature, the charge was dismissed for lack of evidence. He was later arrested in Duquesne, Pennsylvania for holding a street meeting without a permit. After recovering from influenza in 1919 he was arrested again in New York for deportation; released on bail, he reportedly traveled through New York and New Jersey organizing anarchist clubs. Returned to detention on Ellis Island, he participated in a hunger strike protesting conditions and was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
His wife petitioned to be deported as well, though whether she was is unclear. In Russia Schnabel was active in anarchist organizations in Ukraine before leaving the movement; in 1931 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Arrested in Moscow during the purges in 1937 as an alleged German spy, he was shot in a mass execution.
