Born: 1899, Guangdong, China Nationality: Chinese Ethnicity: Occupation: Student; restaurant worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: IWW
Entered the United States in 1916 via Mexico without inspection. Worked as a restaurant worker in New York’s Chinatown while attending Columbia University as a student of John Dewey. In January 1919 he was arrested as a leader of an IWW-led strike by Chinese restaurant workers. Deported to China in March 1919 on the charge of illegal entry.
Sources: INS file 54519/2; Baltimore Sun, February 6, 1919; The Rebel Worker, May 15, 1919.
Mikhail Hirney (a.k.a. Mike Hirney; Herney)
Born: 1899, Pokrovka, Samara Oblast, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Store clerk Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliations: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party of America and later became a member and secretary of the Flint, Michigan Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/738.
Mikhail Hladish (or Hladysh)
Born: c. 1885, Galicia, Austria-Hungary Nationality: Russian (formerly Austro-Hungarian) Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliations: Communist Party of America
His wife remained in Europe when he emigrated. In 1919 he joined the Socialist Party of America and in September of that year transferred into the Communist Party of America. Served as secretary of the Communist Party branch in East Youngstown, Ohio. Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54810/553.
Alfred Hoffman (a.k.a. Edward Compe; Edward Kerlap; Edwin Hoffman)
Born: 1886, Hamburg, Germany Nationality: German Ethnicity: Occupation: Sailor; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: IWW
Entered the United States in 1907 after jumping ship in San Francisco. Joined the Industrial Workers of the World around 1913 and repeatedly arrested for strike-related activities in Seattle. During World War I he was interned as an alien enemy at Fort Douglas, Utah. While detained, he stated, “I am not a German, no. I am not patriotic for any country.” He “voluntary departed” on June 23, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54379/64.
Fritz Arthur Holm
Born: 1890, Korsberga, Sweden Nationality: Swedish Ethnicity: Occupation: Carpenter Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: IWW; anarchist
Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1912 and identified as an anarchist. Subscribed to Alexander Berkman’s The Blast and wrote “Strictly opposed to war” on his draft registration card. He also served as secretary of the Scandinavian Defense League. Arrested in Seattle in February 1918, when authorities reported discovering “a wagon load of I.W.W. and anarchist literature” in his room. Deported in July 1919.
After returning to Sweden, Holm married Ellen Hildur Margareta Molin in 1923. Died in 1975.
Sources: INS file 54379/114; Ancestry.com.
Paul Holovkin (a.k.a. Prokop Holowkin; Golowkin)
Born: 1888, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Longshoreman Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliations: Union of Russian Workers
A widower, with a son in Russia. In 1919 he joined Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
In 1921 he was reported to have been “shot by the Bolshevik authorities as an active counter-revolutionist.”
Sources: INS file 54709/318; FBI file BS 202600-2386-1.
Andrew Hostilla (a.k.a. Andrey Kastialla)
Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1918 and honorably discharged in December of that year. He later became a member of the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/353.
Peter Hydamachuk
Born: 1893, Podolsky, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Autoworker Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; to US 1917 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Worked as an autoworker in Detroit and was a member of the Machinists’ Union (AFL). attended a Detroit night school run by Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party and signed an application to join the party, though no evidence indicates he became a full member. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/774.
Steponas Indriunas
Born: 1893, Kovno, Russia (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Became a member of Lithuanian Branch No. 74 of the Communist Party of America in Rockford, Illinois. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
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: 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.
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
Giuseppe Scali, c. 1920. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.
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.
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.
Born 1897, Dubica, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1914; from there migrated to US 1918. March 1919 joined Branch 37 of the Polish Section of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit; then branch transferred into the Communist Party of America. Detroit. Hamtramck. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” via Canada and Germany, October 14, 1920.
INS file 54859/644; FBI files OG 384187 and BS 202600-772-1
Giuseppe Simeone (Joe; Simone)
Born 1888, Caserta, Italy. Tailor. Claimed, “In Italy I was a republican.” Migrated to US circa 1903. Lived with a cousin in Sommerville, Massachusetts, where he became an anarchist and supporter of Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva (from which he won a bicycle in a 1906 raffle!). Returned to Italy circa 1907 due to illness; served in Italian military. Again migrated to US in 1913. Member of the anarchists Circoli di Studi Sociali in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and continued to support the Cronaca Sovversiva. Also a member and one-time local secretary of a garment workers’ union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Arrested in Boston May, 1918, after his correspondence with Cronaca Sovversiva was confiscated in a federal raid on that newspaper in February 1918. Admitted he was “a socialist anarchist,” but claimed to have only become a radical in 1916. Deported to Italy May 24, 1919.
Upon arrival in Naples June 6 sent to a military prison as a military deserter, then amnestied in 1920. Italian government reported in 1926 that he had “only local influence” in the anarchist movement in Naples, but he also corresponded with Errico Malatesta and subscribed to Malatesta’s Pensiero e Volontà, and visited Malatesta in Elena in July 1925. Placed under surveillance. 1926 emigrated to Canada. 1927-30 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and still active in anarchist movement. 1930s in Brooklyn, subscribing to L’Adunata dei Refrattari. 1935 reported to be living under the name “Gioacchino Simeone” (Gioachino was his middle name).
INS file 54379/316; CPC busta 4815
See also: Cronaca Sovversiva, November 3, 1906
Peter Siniavski (Pete; Siniavsky; Siniawsky)
Born 1897, Chernihiv Oblast, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1913. Steelworker. Member of the Communist Party of America in Pittsburgh. Arrested in Woodlawn, Pennsylvania, January 1920. Described by an immigration agent as being “of a morose, sullen disposition and is one, who, in my judgement, would be capable of doing harm to this country if the opportunity offered.” Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54860/768
Andrew Sinitza
Born 1895, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Factory worker. Employed as an inspector at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. 1917 joined the Socialist Party; 1919 transferred into Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.
Born 1894, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Already a “revolutionist” in Russia. Migrated to US 1915. Carpenter. Member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Trenton, New Jersey. Roommate of Buford deportee Roman Mosichuk. Deported January 22, 1921.
INS file 54861/255; FBI file OG 379221
Onasin Sivicky (Onasim)
Born 1886, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Member of the Communist Party in Rockford, Illinois. “Voluntary departure” to Russia, October 16, 1920.
INS file 54709/942
Grigori “Harry” Skochuk (Zjuk)
Born 1893, Grondo region, Russia (probably in present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1912. 1917 joined the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives) in Waterbury, Connecticut; circa 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/447
Matfey Skorina (Матфей Скорина; Mike Skorena)
Born 1895 in Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. “Voluntarily departed” to Poland via Canada, October 30, 1920.
INS file 54859/704
Konstantin Skorokod (Константин Скорокод)
Born 1885, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Worked at Jamieson No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 3, 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/588
Peter Skrigan
Born 1893, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Wife and child in Detroit. Arrested January 1920 while attending a geography class at a Communist-run night school. Denied Communist membership, but admitted to believing specific Communist doctrines. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/665
Grigori Ivanovich Skrobat (Григорий Иванович Скробат; Gregory; Skrobet)
Born 1895, Osęka, Russia (present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1914. Laborer. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Waterbury, Connecticut. Arrested March 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.
INS file 54861/374; FBI file OG 385383
Peter Skudney
Born 1891, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Machinist. Employed by Ford Motor Company at Highland Park. Joined the Socialist Party, then Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested Detroit January 1920. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.
INS file 54860/57
Nikolai Slyvka (Николай Сливка; Nickoli)
Deported to Austria, May 8, 1919.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Andrey Smal (Андрей Смаль; Andy)
Born 1893, Volhynia region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
Born 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party, then September 1919 joined the Communist Party of America in Pittsburgh. Participated in 1919 steel strike. Arrested January 1920. Deported February 26, 1921.
Born 1892, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. Wife and two children in US. Secretary of Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Denied being an anarchist; admitted to being a communist. Deportation initially deferred because of his family in the US. Deported February 1, 1921.
Stefan Tranets (Стефан Транец; Tranetz; aka Tronick; S. Trahety)
Born c.1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Member of Philadelphia’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party; previously a member of the Socialist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920. Deported to Russia, February 2, 1921.
INS file 54811/953
Stepan Tretyakov (Степан Третьяков; Stephen Tretiakoff)
Born 1896, Russia. Migrated to US 1914. 1919 joined the Communist Party of America in Passaic. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.
INS file 54810/948; FBI file OG 8000-306384
Nestor Masarev Trubey (Нестор Масарев Трубей)
Born 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1912. Mechanic. Wife in Russia. Member of the Union of Russian Workers; distributed URW newspapers and volunteered as a teacher of Russian, arithmetic, and geography for a Communist-Party-run night school. Arrested in Rockford, Illinois during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920, after being reported to authorities by his suspicious landlady for remarking of the first Palmer Raids, “This is a Hell of a free country.” A large amount of correspondence and URW literature confiscated from his apartment. “Voluntary departure” to Russia via Canada, October 16, 1920.
INS file 54809/111; FBI file OG 8000-320960
Wasili Truchan (Wasilia; William)
Born 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1912. Autoworker. 1918 joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920. Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/977; FBI file OG 386370
Vincent George Tryzno
Born 1880, Wojstom, Russia (present-day Belarus). Polish. Tailor. Migrated to US 1899. Joined in Baltimore by his younger sisters Annie and Amelia in 1904 an 1908. 1906 submitted a Declaration of Intent to Naturalize in Baltimore. Onetime IWW member, then member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. 1917 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Baltimore, served as its treasurer. Wife and son (Mary and Vincent) in Baltimore. Deported February 26, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/105; FBI file OG 8000-364025
See also: Ancestry.com
Anton Trzpiot
Born 1888, Zarechye, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Served three years in the Russian Army. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated US 1915 (entered without inspection). 1917 joined the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party of America in Cleveland. Also a member of the Ukrainian Dramatic Club. May 1, 1919, participated in a May Day parade in which he was carrying “a little red flag”; became a “riot” when police dispersed the marchers. Arrested with 27 other Russian radicals identified by Cleveland police and members of the Loyal American League on baseless suspicion of involvement in June 2, 1919 bombing of Mayor Harry L. Davis’s home. Answering immigration inspectors in broken English, he admitted to being a member of the Socialist Party and the “Russian Workers of the World,” which immigration authorities “presumed,” without any supporting evidence, to be the same as the Union of Russian Workers. His first deportation warrant was canceled for insufficient evidence, but he was arrested again November 28, 1919, in possession of copies of the Socialist papers Novy Mir and The Ohio Socialist were confiscated. Although Trzpiot was almost certainly not a member of the URW, this alleged affiliation became the basis for his deportation. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54616/222
Ortiub Tsubrick
Born 1893, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus). Steelworker. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. 1919 joined and was a “passive member” of the Union of Russian Workers in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Employee of the Pittsburgh Steel Company; participating in the 1919 steel strike when arrested in Greensburg, Pennsylvania during the first Palmer Raids, November 21, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/476
Foma Turka (Фома Турка; aka Tom; Tommie)
Born 1885, Białowieża, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there to US 1914. Wife and daughter in Russia. First joined the Union of Russian Workers in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1916. Rejoined the URW in Newark in 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 11, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.
INS file 54709/341; FBI file OG 379689
Mike Tymoschavic
Born c.1873, Russia. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and four children in Russia. Laborer. Joined Socialist Party 1919; transferred into Communist Party of America. Arrested Pittsburgh. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.
INS file 54861/187
Stanley Ull
Born 1893, Lublin, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1909. Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party of America, then the Communist Party. Arrested in Detroit, January 1920. Declared: “We was arrested for nothing. I was believe before that his country is a good Democracy and I was arrested for nothing. I don’t know I going to believe more or not it is a free and Democratic county.” Deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/697
Peter Urgel (Pete; Urgell)
Urgel’s URW membership card
Born 1895, Obrub, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Circa 1917 briefly joined the Socialist Party of America. 1918 joined Branch No 1. of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 11, 1919. Deported on the Buford. Wife, Hedwig/Gadwiga, in Newark.
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.
“Voluntarily departed” to Austria, May 8, 1920. No further information found.
Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G
Mikhal Yarosevich (Михал Яросевич; Mihal)
Born 1889, Saratov Oblast, Russia. Steelworker. Migrated to US 1911. October 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch Youngstown, Ohio. Was participating in the 1919 steel strike when arrested November 10, 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/177
Andrew Yarosevick (Jarosevich, Jaroschwicz)
Born 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. Arrested in Youngstown, Ohio, November 9, 1919, at a convention of the Union of Russian Workers. Unemployed at the time, and claimed to be illiterate. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/175
Fred Yarovoy (Фредрих Яровой; Yarovoi)
Born 1895, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1915. Member of Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia. Arrested November 15, 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/317
Alex Yartim (Yarstein; Jorhem)
Yarim’s Communist Party membership card
Born c.1889, Rozeta, Russia (present-day Belarus). Belarusian. Migrated to US 1909. Baker. Member and treasurer of Communist Party branch in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Arrested in Philadelphia, January 1920. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Born 1886, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1911; from there migrated to US 1914. Wife in Russia. April 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 15, 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/385
Ivan Yatsyshen (Иван Яцышен; John Yatzyshen)
Yatsyshen’s Communist Party membership card
Born c.1898, Nastasiv, Austria-Hungary (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Employed by Standard Oil in Buffalo, New York. Joined the Socialist Party, then the Communist Party’s East Side Ukrainian Branch, for which he was secretary. Deported to Russia, February 1, 1921.
INS file 54809/566
William Yaukum (Yankum; Yankul)
Born 1893, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 2, 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/594
John Yereb
Born 1883, Köflach, Austria. Migrated to US 1896. Laborer, miner. Employed in various jobs across the US. Involved in several United Mine Workers strikes in 1900s. 1914 joined the IWW in Mohall, North Dakota; 1920 appointed general delegate for the IWW. Active in 1919 coal strikes in Illinois. Arrested March 31, 1920 in Bellville, Illinois; in possession of a large amount of IWW literature and correspondence. Deported March 28, 1921.
Pregnant wife Laura in US; gave birth to daughter June 1921. John almost immediately left Austria for Germany, from which he sailed to Tampico, Mexico, and from there joined the crew of a ship headed to Portland, Maine, where he disembarked July 30, 1922 and was detained. His case gained significant press coverage, and the deportation warrant was dropped after it was confirmed that he had in fact become a US citizen in 1900 at age seventeen by virtue of his stepfather’s naturalization. Laura died in Bellville in 1952; he died there in 1957.
INS file 54861/401; FBI file OG 383910
See also: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 17 and October 15, 1922; St. Louis Star, October 17, 1922; Nashville Journal (Nashville IL), February 7, 1957
John Zabrian
Born 1894, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913, then Canada later that year; returned to US 1918. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.
INS file 54860/377
George Zaklan
Born c. 1891, Mogorić, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia). Serbian. Migrated to US 1909. Laborer. Early 1919 joined the Socialist Party, then Detroit’s Serbian Branch No. 212 of the Communist Party. Requested deportation to Russia rather than Yugoslavia, which was granted; deported March 18, 1921.
INS file 54859/700
J. Zamora
Deported IWW member. No further information found.
