Tag Archives: Spanish

Roberts to Roy

April 18, 2020Red Scare DeporteesCP, English, IWW, Mexico, PLM, Romanian, Russian, Scottish, SP, Spanish, URWadmin

Vasily Roberts (a.k.a. Wasily Robetz)

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.

Sources: INS file 54811/947; FBI file OG 382735.

Jack Robey

Born:
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: IWW

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

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.

Sachar to Sánchez

April 21, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, CP, cuban, IWW, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, URWadmin

Andrey Sachar (a.k.a. Andrej; Andrew; Henry Sugar)

Born: 1898, Minsk oblast, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation:

Employed by the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. In 1918 he became secretary of the Russian National Home (also called the Russian People’s Home), described by authorities as “an alleged Bolshevik organization” that hosted speakers from the Union of Russian Workers and the Communist Party of America. He admitted supporting the Bolshevik government and revolution in the United States, but later claimed his testimony had been mistranslated. Arrested April 1919 after three members of Detroit’s Russian community accused him of advocating overthrow of the US government—possibly tied to a dispute within Detroit’s Russian Orthodox All Saints Church. He “voluntarily departed” September 25, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54709/557; FBI file BS 202600-353-1; Aram G. Sarkisian, “Their Daily Dread: Russian Orthodox Christians in Red Scare Detroit, 1918–1920,” Journal of American Ethnic History 41, no. 4 (2022).

Andrei Sacharchuk

Born: c. 1895, Wołyń, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party in Atlantic City. Arrested November 19, 1919; later rearrested in Welch, West Virginia for distributing radical literature. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/359.

Mike Sachco

Born: c. 1897, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Steamfitters’ helper
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Member of Milwaukee’s Russian Branch No. 2 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859-158.

Nikita Safroniev (a.k.a. Necita; Safronieff; Zafronia)

Born: 1883, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remaine din Russia when he emigrated. Arrested November 9, 1919 during the first Palmer Raids. A member of the Maspeth, Queens branch of the Union of Russian Workers. He testified: “I lived long enough in Russia under the Czar. I have seen enough brutality committed there, but I have never seen the brutality that was committed upon the Russian people here in my case…When I was arrested…I was travelling in the automobile, they were beating me in the sides with their handcuffs; and this continued all the way until they brought me to the Park Row Building in New York.” Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/284; FBI file OG 379106; Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920.

Orteof Sahtabnog (a.k.a. Ortiof; Ortiob Shtabnoy)

Born: 1891, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined hte Union of Russian Workers branch at the Jamieson No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia in September 1919, and became its secretary. Arrested November 1919; he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/586.

Nikofor Salabay

Born: c. 1890, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1916
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife and two children remained in Russia. He joined the Communist Party in Pittsburgh in September 1919. Arrested January 1920, he was deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/644.

Marcelo Salinas y López (a.k.a. Marcelino Menéndez; Jorge Gallart; George Gallart; Pedro Martín; Pedro Martín Sánchez; Palomero)

Born: 1889, Batabanó, Cuba
Nationality: Cuban
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cigarworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist IWW

Became an anarchist around 1908 and collaborated on Havana’s anarchist newspaper ¡Tierra!.

Migrated to the U.S. in 1911 to work in the cigar industry in Tampa, Florida. Active in anarchist groups there affiliated with the Partido Liberal Mexicano, and also joined and organized for the IWW. He was briefly the roommate of Spanish anarchist Manuel Pardiñas, who in 1912 returned to Spain and assassinated Spanish Prime Minister José Canalejas; wrongly suspected of involvement in the assassination, Salinas was also accused by the Mexican government of being part of plot to kill Mexico’s President Madero. Arrested and deported to Cuba February 7, 1913. He illegally returned to the U.S. in June of that year under the name “Marcelino Menendez” and participated in an IWW maritime strike in New Orleans; he then moved to New York where he frequented the Francisco Ferrer Center and collaborated on the newspaper Cultura Obrera under the name “Jorge Gallart.” In 1914 he migrated to Spain, where he was part of an influential group of “americanos” (Spanish-speaking anarchists who had lived in the US) and collaborated on anarchist newspapers and joined and organized on behalf of the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo; he was imprisoned numerous times for these activities. Around 1918 he returned to New York where, under the name “Pedro Martín,” he was a member of the Los Corsarios Group and became editor its newspaper El Corsario. One of fourteen group members arrested in February 1919 by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson; although all charges were dropped, he and several others were held for deportation as anarchists. Salinas claimed to have been born in Cartagena, Spain, and was deported to Spain May 4, 1919 as “Pedro Martín.”

Arrested during a propaganda tour in Andalusia (for possession false identity documents under the name Pedro Martín); he was sentenced to two months in prison in Cádiz and then deported to Cuba August 1, 1919. In Cuba he took an active part in the general strikes of 1919; for which he was arrested multiple times and sentenced to death along with several other leading anarchists, but released in 1921. While in prison he sent a letter to the Comintern to apply for the creation of a Cuban Communist Party, but soon became disillusioned with Soviet Communism. In the 1920-1940s he became nationally recognized as radical poet, novelist, and playwright. In 1944 he helped found the Asociacíon Libertaria de Cuba (ALC); in 1948 he was appointed its Secretary of Culture. Edited a succession of Cuban anarchist newspapers. In 1956-1959 he served on the secretariat of the Confederacíon de Trabajadores de Cuba. Refused to support Castro’s seizure of power. In 1967 he was allowed to enter the United States as an anti-Castro refugee. He settled in Miami, Florida, where he continued to be an active member of the Movimiento Libertario Cubano en el Exilio and write for anarchist publications. He died in 1976.

Sources: INS files 53572/12 (1913 deportation) and 54616/79 (1919 deportation [under name “Pedro Martin aka Pedro Martin Sanchez”]); Marcelo Salinas: Un ideal sublime y elevado; Kirwin R. Shaffer, Anarchists of the Caribbean: Countercultural Politics and Transnational Networks in the Age of US Expansion; Frank Fernández, Cuban Anarchism: The History of a Movement; Manuel Buenacas, El movimiento obrero español, 1886-1926; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.

Nikolai Salov (a.k.a. Nick Saloff)

Born: 1891, Alagir, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party of America in Seattle. Deported on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/31.

Nikolai Saluk (or Celiuk)

Born: 1892, Bobry, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; punch press operator
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party, he was deported February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/24.

Roland S. Samuelson (a.k.a. Roy)

Born: 1884, Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW

Joined IWW Mixed Local No. 382 in Seattle in April 1917, and became and IWW delegate. Arrested January 1920 in Everett, Washington, for “criminal syndicalism” after the Great Northern Railway fired him for organizing his fellow workers and reported him to the police. Deported to Sweden August 13, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54861/371; FBI file OG 386735.

Ivan Samuylov (a.k.a. John; Samuyloff; Somaurloff; Samuyilof)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1919 and deported to Russia December 23, 1920. No further information has been located.

Sources: 54325/36G and FBI file BS 202600-33; Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920.

Vladimir Samuylov (a.k.a. Samuyloff; Samoileff; Pavel Wolkoff)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America in New York City. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1919; deported to Russian December 23, 1920 with his teenage son and daughter.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file BS 202600-33; Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920; New-York Tribune, December 19, 1920.

Ramón Sánchez

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-2.png — Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including Sánchez, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1886, Santa Cruz, Canary Islands, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cigarmaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Anarchist

His family emigrated to Cuba in 1898, and in 1916 he migrated to Mexico and then the United States.

A member of New York’s anarchist Los Corsarios Group, and one of fourteen members arrested in February 1919 by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson. All charges were dropped, but Sánchez and several other members were held for deportation as anarchists. Deported to Spain May 4, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/79.

Ramón L. Sánchez

Born: Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: IWW

Arrested June 21, 1921 in Sacramento on criminal syndicalism charges after distributing IWW literature. Sentenced to 1–14 years in San Quentin Penitentiary, where he contracted tuberculosis. Deported to Spain on August 1, 1924.

Sources: Sacramento Star, June 22, October 21, 1921; Daily Worker, February 29 and June 2, 1924; Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts.

Sanchini to Sarvas

April 22, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, Italian, Russian, SP, Spanish, URWadmin

Giobbe Sanchini

Born: 1887, Sant’Angelo in Lizzola, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Mason
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist in his youth and migrated to Switzerland in 1902, returning to Italy in 1906.

In 1911 he emigrated to New Britain, Connecticut, where he joined the circle around Galleani and distributed the paper Cronaca Sovversiva. In 1913 he married fellow anarchist Irma Cassolino. First arrested on September 8, 1917, after organizing a defense fund for Galleani; although that warrant was canceled, he was rearrested May 16, 1918. When asked why he should not be deported, he responded: “My reasons are as follows: That every person has the right to live wherever he desires without being molested in a state that is called [a] democracy and, when a state ceases to be democratic it then embodies the term ‘tyranny’ and in that case we no longer enjoy liberty.” Deported June 24, 1919, together with his pregnant wife and their American-born children.

Upon return to Italy he was immediately imprisoned for evading military service, though the charges were dropped in 1922. He joined an anarchist group in Pesaro and published the anarchist newspaper La Frusta there and later in Fano, from 1919 to 1922. After Irma died in childbirth in 1925, he sent their children back to the United States in 1926 but was never able to reunite with them. He remained under police surveillance until 1942. During the 1930s he reportedly worked as a pasta-factory supervisor, bricklayer, and public-works supervisor, and he remarried in 1933. Fascist authorities reported no subversive activity on his part and even claimed he showed “a favorable attitude towards the regime,” though other reports and family testimony stated that he always remained committed to anarchism. After the fall of Fascism he attempted to revive La Frusta in 1946 and he stayed in contact with Italian anarchists in America until his death in Pesaro in December 1951.

Sources: INS file 54235/52; CPC busta 4562; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Richard Lenzi, Facing Toward the Dawn: The Italian Anarchists of New London; La Frusta; Edoardo Puglielli, Il movimento anarchico abruzzese 1907–1957; Il Fondo L’Adunata Collection, Boston Public Library; Ugo Fedeli Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.

Irma Sanchini (née Cassolino)

https://www.estelnegre.org/documents/sanchini/sanchini.html

Born: 1895, Tonco, Piedmont, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Anarchist

Migrated to the United States with her father and settled in New Britain, Connecticut, where she became associated with Luigi Galleani’s anarchist circle and distributed Cronaca Sovversiva. Married Giobbe Sanchini in 1913. Arrested September 8, 1917 for helping to organize a defense fund for Galleani, she was released when the warrant was canceled but rearrested May 16, 1918. Some newspapers dubbed her the “Queen of the Anarchists,” and the district attorney hyperbolically claimed she “accomplished untold mischief in the period that she has resided in Connecticut. She is highly intelligent, very resourceful, and is considered to be much more dangerous than her husband.” Asked by an immigration agent what she thought an anarchist was, she replied, “a good man.” Deported June 24, 1919 with her husband and children.

Reportedly suffering from tuberculosis at the time of her deportation, she died in childbirth in 1925.

Sources: INS file 54235/52; Boston Globe, June 20, 1919; Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Richard Lenzi, Facing Toward the Dawn: The Italian Anarchists of New London.

Ivan Sanko (a.k.a. Iwan; Evan; Sinko; Sankio)

Born: 1896, Minsk region, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

In January 1918 he joined the Youngstown, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers, soon becoming its secretary. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he explained to authorities, “I read a great many Anarchistic books which put me in the notion of joining this Union,” and he did “not care for the Bolsheviks.” He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/184.

Plácido Santamaría

Born: 1890, Burgos, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Gunsmith; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Anarchist

A foundling raised in an orphanage, he helped found Los Desamparados, a youth anarchist group in Eibar, Spain, in 1912. Emigrating to Scotland and Wales in 1914.

After immigrating to the U.S. 1916 he joined the anarchist Los Corsarios Group in New York. In February 1919 he was among fourteen members arrested by the United States Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate Woodrow Wilson. Although all charges were dropped, he was one of several members held for deportation as anarchists and he was deported to England (his port of departure to the U.S.) on July 5, 1919.

In 1931 he donated money to the Mexican anarchist paper ¡Paso! published by Librado Rivera.

Sources: INS file 54616/79; Tierra y Libertad (Barcelona), December 11, 1912; ¡Paso! (Mexico City), July 1, 1931.

Turibbio Santarelli (a.k.a. Giuseppe or Joseph Santarelli; Joseph Galligari)

Born: 1899, Fano, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Mechanic; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Immigrated to the United States with his parents and joined the Socialist Party of America in Buffalo in 1916. That same year, after coworkers insulted him with anti-socialist and ethnic slurs, he allegedly replied that President Wilson “should be shot,” or “Somebody ought to kill him.” Arrested at age sixteen and interrogated by the Secret Service, he was released on bail. Rearrested in 1919 under new immigration laws for “advocating or teaching the assassination of public officials.” Confidential informants also accused him—implausibly and inconsistently—of being secretary of an anarchist group called the Roma Club, praising the Kaiser, plotting sabotage with a German agent, making or receiving a bomb, and having ties to the Black Hand. Deported to Italy December 14, 1919.

He migrated to Canada in 1920 and for years petitioned unsuccessfully to return to the United States. In 1926 he married Constance Yuraities in York, Ontario. In the 1930s, after his parents died, he subscribed to the American anarchist newspaper L’Adunata dei Refrattari.

Sources: INS file 54235/91; CPC busta 4582; L’Adunata dei Refrattari (New York).

Alex Sarchkoff (a.k.a. Savcakoff)

Born: 1886, Mogliev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Lived in Detroit with his wife Catherine. In November 1919 he joined Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested in January 1920 during the second round of Palmer Raids, he “voluntarily departed” for Russia via Canada on October 30, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54859/671.

Ivan Sarvas (a.k.a. John)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Russia as a radical on November 17, 1920. No further information has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Sastre y García to Scali

April 23, 2020Red Scare Deporteesanarchist, CP, Hungarian, Italian, IWW, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian, URWadmin

Manuel Sastre y García

Born: c. 1881, Pozaldez, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; union organizer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910.
Affiliation: IWW

Emigrated first to the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone in 1908 and then to the United States in 1910. After joining the Industrial Workers of the World in California in 1911, he organized Spanish-speaking workers across Southern California and led a major citrus workers’ strike in Covina from January to February 1919. Arrested and sentenced to thirty days in jail for assault during the strike. Arrested again in February 1919 for allegedly violating the Espionage Act, he was never brought to trial but was deported later that year.

In 1932 he was living in Málaga and subscribing to the anarchist magazine Estudios published in Valencia.

Sources: FBI file OG 8000-96994; Nelson Van Valen, “The Bolsheviki and the Orange Growers,” Pacific Historical Review 22, no. 1 (1953); David M. Struthers, The World in a City: Multiethnic Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles; Estudios: Generación Consciente, October 1932.

Prokofen Savach (a.k.a. Peter Sawich, Savitch)

Born: 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1918
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated to Canada in 1914, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers, and then entered the United States in 1918, later residing in Seattle. Questioned about his citizenship, he replied “I don’t see any reason why I should change my nationality. Being an American citizen, I would have to work just as hard as if I was a Russian.” He was deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/412.

Sergei Savchuk (or Savshuk)

Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Longshoreman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore in 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the transport Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/583; FBI file OG 376569.

Mieczyslaw Savitsky (a.k.a. Michael; Savitzky; Sawicki)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-21.png — Savitsky’s URW membership card. National Archives

Born: 1887, Lesnoy, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Likely involved in anarchist activity in Russia before emigrating.

In the United States he worked for Gould & Eberhardt in Irvington, New Jersey. He served on the organizing committee of the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he participated in a hunger strike at Ellis Island protesting a wire screen separating detainees from visitors and was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In Petrograd he was arrested in June 1923 during Soviet raids on anarchists, imprisoned for seven weeks, and joined fourteen others in a hunger strike before being sentenced to two years’ internal exile in Pyatigorsk.

Sources: INS file 54709/348; FBI file OG 378917; Behind the Bars (New York), January 1924; International Committee for Political Prisoners, Letters from Russian Prisons; G.P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents).

Petr Stepanovich Savko (a.k.a. Sawka)

Born: c. 1893, Zagorie region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: .
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became a member and secretary of the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Waterbury, Connecticut. Deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/328.

Andrey Savruk (a.k.a. Andrew Sawruk)

Born: 1892, Austria-Hungary (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Typesetter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Around 1917 he joined the Socialist Party of America and in 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America while living in Detroit. Deported to Hungary on May 8, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file OG 385566.

Timofey Saychenko

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Deported to Russia as a radical on December 12, 1920. No further information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Giuseppe Scali

Born: 1874, Pisa, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Anarchist

By 1900 he was already active in distributing anarchist publications. After briefly relocating to Corsica in 1901, he settled in Carrara, Italy, where he became the first editor of the anarchist newspaper Combattiamo! (1902–1904). In 1903 he moved to Lucerne to avoid arrest for defamation charges, and in 1906 emigrated to the United States.

By 1907 he was living in San Francisco, collaborating on the individualist anarchist paper Nihil and joining the Gruppo Iconoclasti, later reorganized as the Gruppo Anarchico Volontà aligned with Luigi Galleani. Arrested in October 1916 with other Italian radicals for disturbing the peace, he received a ninety-day sentence. Arrested again in May 1918 during raids targeting Galleani’s associates, he was released on bail. Asked whether he had ever advocated anarchy, he replied, “Yes, whenever I had a chance.” Detained again after posting bail for fellow anarchist Michele Centrone, after a month he wrote to conservative Congressman Albert Johnson requesting that his deportation be expedited. Deported to Italy June 19, 1920.

Back in Italy he remained under government surveillance until 1929 and was reportedly still an anarchist, though no longer politically active.

Sources: INS file 54379/313; CPC busta 4652; Cronaca Sovversica; Maurizio Antonioli et al., Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani.