Tag Archives: URW

Abate to Aguilera

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Erasmo Abate (a.k.a. Hugo Roland)

Erasmo Abate, c. 1920. Archivo dello Stato, Rome.

Born: 1895, Formia, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity: Italian
Occupation: Construction worker; house painter; editor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: anarchist; IWW

Secretary of Philadelphia’s anarcho-syndicalist Union of Italian Workers, which collaborated with the IWW, he became the editor of the anarchist paper La Comune (1911–1915) and edited La Conquista (1920–1921). Arrested on May 25, 1921; deported on January 7, 1922. His wife and child remained in the United States.

In Italy, Abate was sent by Errico Malatesta to aid the antifascist movement in Ancona, where he helped lead the local section of the Arditi del Popolo. Later he fled arrest to Paris, where he was active in the exiled Comitato di Azione and involved in the “Garibaldi Affair,” a planned armed anti-Mussolini expedition led by Ricciotti Garibaldi, from which Abate withdrew shortly before Garibaldi was exposed as a fascist agent.

In 1926 Abate reentered the United States illegally under the name Hugo Roland, rejoined his family, briefly edited the anarchist newspaper Germinal (1926) in Chicago, and later settled in Michigan. Although a controversial and marginalized figure due his involvement in the Garibaldi Affair, Abate remained active in the anarchist movement in the US until his death in 1977.

Sources: INS file 55009/80; CPC busta 1; Hugo Rolland Papers, International Institute for Social History; Giovanni Marchegiani, Erasmo Abate: Storia di un anarchico pontino.

Jacob (“Jack”) Abrams (Yankel Abramovsky)

Jacob Abrams, 1921. Library of Congress.

Born: 1883, Uman, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Bookbinder
Migration: Immigrated to US 1908
Affiliation: anarchist

A prominent Jewish anarchist in New York, he belonged to the group that published the underground Yiddish newspapers Shturem (1917) and Frayhayt (1918). Married fellow anarchist Mary Domsky, a survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Arrested in 1918 for printing and distributing leaflets opposing US intervention in the Russian Civil War, he was the central defendant in the landmark Supreme Court case Abrams v. United States. Following their conviction, he and the other defendants were released to be deported to Soviet Russia on November 23, 1921.

In Russia founded at a steam laundry for Comintern employees and worked with the anarcho-syndicalist Golos Truda press and bookstore, but soon became disillusioned and left with Mary for Paris in 1925, then Mexico City in 1926. There he was active among exiled Spanish anarchists of the Tierra y Libertad group and associated with Leon Trotsky. Co-founded the Yiddish antifascist newspaper Di Shtime in Mexico City 1939. After a cancer diagnosis in 1945 he was was temporarily readmitted to the US under FBI supervision for medical treatment, and he died 1953 in Mexico.

Sources: INS file 54517/79; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, The Supreme Court, and Free Speech; The J. Abrams Book: The Life and Work of an Exceptional Personality.

Mikhail Abrosimov (Michael Abrossemoff)

Born: 1901, Petrograd, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Seaman; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A former socialist born to Polish parents, and reportedly imprisoned in Russia for four years for “wrecking a house of prostitution.” In the US he joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. Arrested and beaten during the November 1919 Palmer Raids and deported Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/453.

Veniamin Afanasevich (a.k.a. Benjamin Ptashetchnik)

Born: 1897, Vilna, Russia (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A member of the Union of Russian Workers in New York City, as was his brother. Arrested and beaten during the Palmer Raids of November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/277.

Crescencio López Aguilera

Born: 1889, Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliations/Tags: Partido Liberal Mexicano; anarchist

Treasurer of the PLM-affiliated group Los Errantes in Morenci, Arizona and corresponded with María Broussé, wife of Ricardo Flores Magón. Divorced with one American-born daughter. Deported on December 3, 1919.

As late as 1929 he was still contributing funds to anarchist publications in Mexico.

Sources: INS file 54709/70; FBI file OG 360538.

Andreyev to Archuk

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Vasily Andreyev (or Wasily Andreyeff)

Born: 1897, Petrograd, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Seaman; acrobat; actor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Anarchist

Worked as a seaman between the ages of fifteen and nineteen before becoming a traveling acrobat and actor. In the United States he met Emma Goldman and maintained regular contact with her; also a vegetarian who opposed the killing of animals. Toured with the variety troupe “The Five Pandurs,” and his American employer reported that he actively disseminated socialist and anarchist literature and ideas while traveling on tour. Andreyev also belonged to the White Rats Actors’ Union of America (an AFL affiliate) and took part in its 1916–17 strike in New York City. He was arrested in Chicago in 1918 after federal agents traced issues of the Mother Earth Bulletin to him. After release on bail, he was deported on January 22, 1921.

Sources: FBI file OG 8000-133039; Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University.

Anton Andronsyuk (or Andronsuk; Androusuk)

Born: 1893, Grodno Province, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

At the time of his arrest in November 1919, he served as financial secretary of the Buffalo branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. 

Sources: INS file 54709/137

Roman Andryuk (or Andriuk)

Born: 1893, Grodno Province, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Sailor (marine fireman)
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1918. Arrested in New York during the Palmer Raids of November 1919, he voiced his support for the Soviet government during interrogation. He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/272

George Angulus (a.k.a. Charles Stern)

Born: c. 1888, Libau, Russia (present-day Liepāja, Latvia)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Latvian
Occupation: Carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1909
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A socialist in Russia prior to migrating to the United States; he joined Cleveland’s Lettish Branch No. 1 of the Socialist Party of America, which transferred into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested twice—in December 1919 and again in March 1920—and deported to Soviet Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54811/4

Antoniy Anisenya (or Anthony Anisienia)

Born: 1887, Sobolki, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested in November of that year, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. Wife died in childbirth in Russia shortly after his emigration, and he was never reunited with this two children, who were raised by relatives.

Sources: INS file 54709/391; information provided by Katya Anisenya.

Ivan Anotsky (or Onotsky; Onotzky)

Born: 1893, Grodno Province, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Porter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Hoined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party in Detroit around 1917, and transferred into the Communist Party of America at its founding in 1919. That same year he traveled to Pittsburgh to speak publicly against the anarchists of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Detroit during the first Palmer Raids in January 1920, he was described by the city’s Review Committee of Citizens as educated, thrifty, hardworking, and of high intelligence. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Upon arrival, he reportedly volunteered to help suppress the Kronstadt mutiny, afterward became a commissar, and ultimately fell into disfavor. One account claims he became an alcoholic and “degenerate,” and was sentenced to death for embezzlement, but escaped to Poland.

Sources: INS file 54860/602; FBI file OG 386232; Delo Truda, December 1937-February 1938 (with thanks to Malcolm Archibald)

Fedor Antonchick (or Fred/Frederick)

Born: 1891, Grodno Province, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Longshoreman
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Migrated surreptitiously to the United States from Canada in 1914, leaving behind a wife and child in Petrograd. He joined Local 895 of the International Longshoremen’s Association (AFL), and was likely also a member of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in New York on October 20, 1919, during an ILA strike while distributing multilingual Communist Party leaflets, he was arrested again in the November 11 Palmer Raids and once more on November 29 on charges of “criminal anarchy.” He stated that he was not an anarchist but welcomed deportation if he could be sent to rejoin his wife. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/94

Alexander Antonov (or Antonoff)

Born: c. 1896, Grodno Province, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; to US 1916
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

A member of the both the Union of Russian Workers and the IWW in Pittsburgh, he identified himself as an anarchist. Arrested in Pittsburgh on April 14, 1919, and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/135

Vladimir Archuk (or Wladzimar Archiuk)

Born: 1888, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; to US 1916
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Served as a corporal in the Russian Army before emigrating to the United States. In 1919 he joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested during the nationwide raids of November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/375

Arndt to Bagatchuk

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Fred Arndt

Born: Year unknown, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Construction worker
Migration: Year unknown
Affiliation: IWW

Organizer and delegate for the IWW’s Local No. 573 of the Construction Workers’ Industrial Union in Seattle. He refused to register for the draft during the First World War and was arrested in February 1919 during a raid on the Seattle IWW headquarters. Charged with “criminal anarchy,” he declined to answer investigators’ questions. Because of his German nationality, he was interned as an “alien enemy” at Fort Douglas, Utah. He was released on condition of “voluntary repatriation” and deported on June 23, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/32; FBI file OG 347754

Charles Ashleigh

Charles Ashleigh, 1918. National Archives.

Born: 1889, London, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English; Jewish
Occupation: Clerk; laborer; union organizer; journalist
Migration: Immigrated to Argentina 1909; to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW; Communist Party of America

Raised in a middle-class environment, Ashleigh joined the Independent Labour Party at age fifteen, later affiliating with the Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation. He served as a secretary of the Fabian Society from 1908 and was active in the socialist Clarion Scouts. At the behest of the ILP, he organized among South Wales coal miners in 1908–9. In 1909 he moved to Buenos Aires to work as a clerk with the Central Argentine Railroad, founded a Socialist Club there, and wrote for the Buenos Aires Herald. After traveling on foot through Argentina, Chile, and Peru, he worked his way as a crew member to Portland in 1912, then regularized his legal status by crossing between Canada and the United States. He became a paid speaker for the Socialist Party of America, but soon aligned himself with the IWW and became a paid organizer. He traveled extensively as a journalist, wrote poetry, and participated in the Rangel-Cline and Everett defense campaigns. Openly gay, he maintained a romantic relationship with African American radical poet Claude McKay. Arrested in 1917, he was a defendant in the federal IWW trial and received a ten-year sentence and a $30,000 fine. He joined the Communist Party while incarcerated, and his sentence was commuted in 1921 on the condition of his voluntary departure on February 7, 1922.

In London, Ashleigh transferred to the Communist Party of Great Britain and worked for the Sunday Worker, Daily Worker, and TASS. In 1922 he was dispatched to India to deliver invitations to the Fourth Comintern Congress but was detained and expelled by British authorities, yet was able to complete his mission. Later that year, he worked as a translator at the Fourth Comintern Congress in Moscow and was asked to establish an American information section for the Red International of Labor Unions, and moved to Berlin in 1923 to work for the RILU. He was arrested and expelled from Germany shortly thereafter. Published his semi-autobiographical IWW novel The Rambling Kid in 1930. Sent to Moscow in 1931 to write for The Moscow News/Moscow Daily News, he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1934 after being denounced as homosexual by a roommate. He remained a member of the CPGB until his death in 1974, though largely marginalized within it.

Sources: INS file 54235/39-A; Steve Kellerman, “Introduction,” Charles Ashleigh, The Rambling Kid (2004); Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen, and Andrew Flynn, Communists and British Society, 1920-1991 (2007); Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, International Communism and the Spanish Civil War: Solidarity and Suspicion (2015).

Joseph Kyauskas Aukstuolis

Born: c. 1896, Bartninkai, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation: Deliveryman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Joined the Lithuanian Federation of the Socialist Party of America in December 1913 and remained a member until September 1919, serving as secretary of its Cleveland branch for seven months. Although he claimed Russian citizenship, his deportation warrant was issued for Lithuania. Deported on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/795

Aurelio Vincente Azuara (or Vicente Azuara)

Born: 1884, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; miner
Migration: Immigrated to Mexico 1907; to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW; anarchist

Migrated to Mexico in 1907 and to the United States in 1912. Joined the IWW in 1913 and became an unofficial organizer. In Los Angeles he edited the unofficial Spanish-language IWW paper El Rebelde (1916–17). Arrested in September 1917, he was a defendant in the federal IWW trial and received a sentence of twenty years and a $10,000 fine. His sentence was commuted on condition of deportation to Spain on March 27, 1923.

Possibly the same Aurelio Vicente Azuara who from Paris requested a visa to visit England on behalf of Spain’s anarcho-syndicalist CNT in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War.

Sources: INS file 54616/48; David Struthers, The World in a City: Multiethnic Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles; https://wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/scw/id/4302

Alfredo Bagaglino

Born: 1864, Turin, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Anarchist

An orphan and an anarchist, he was expelled from France in 1904 for unclear reasons. He migrated to the United States in 1907 and settled in Spring Valley, Illinois, where he lived with his wife Domenica Cariglio and their adopted son. A supporter of Cronaca Sovversiva, Umanità Nova (Milan), and Alleanza Libertaria (Rome), he was active in local mining strikes. According to Chicago immigration inspector George E. Schubert, Bagaglino was the “actual leader” and “most outspoken” of the Spring Valley anarchists, and “a forcible speaker.” Deported to Italy on March 16, 1921; his wife intended to sell their home and join him.

He continued to correspond with Italian anarchists in the United States. In 1926 he was arrested by fascist authorities for anti-fascist activities and sentenced to several years of mandato al confino (internal exile in a prison colony). He died in Turin in 1936.

Sources: INS file 54885/18; CPC busta 239; Un trentennio di attività anarchica (1915-1945); L’Adunata dei Refrattari, June 6, 1936.

Simon Bagatchuk (a.k.a. Sam Bush)

Born: 1888, Podolsk, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 (via Canada)
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Seattle branch of the Union of Russian Workers in April 1919. Arrested in Seattle on 17 January 1919, and again on 17 November 1919. Deported on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/453; FBI file OG 388850.

Bahruk to Baldenkov

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Dimitry Bahruk

Born: 1897, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: 
Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; Socialist Party of America

Migrated to the United States around 1914 and settled in Detroit, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1916. By 1919 he had relocated to Passaic, New Jersey, and briefly joined the Socialist Party while maintaining URW membership. Arrested in Passaic and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54810/845.

Frederick Baker

Born: 1881, Surrey, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Laborer; clerk
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: IWW

Before immigrating, Baker suffered a significant head injury in 1912 that reportedly affected his behavior. Drafted into the British Army in 1915, he received an honorable discharge following a “nervous breakdown.” After immigrating to the United States, he was arrested in Chicago in 1917 for stealing $80 from a neighbor and spent three months in prison. Arrested in October 1918 as an alleged member of the IWW, a charge he denied but is confirmed by other evidence. Immigration authorities deemed him “mentally defective” but not insane. Although he received a pension from the British Post Office, he was nevertheless deported on March 1, 1919 as “likely to become a public charge.”

Sources: INS file 54552/33; Klasen Kampf (New York), April 1919.

Andrei Balash (or Andrew Balucz)

Born: 1886, Vilna region, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: 
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1919. Arrested that November in Ansonia, Connecticut, a substantial collection of Russian-language anarchist literature was found in his room. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/320.

Giovanni Baldazzi

Giovanni Baldazzi, 1918. National Archives.

Born: 1883, Imola, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Printer; electrician; labor organizer; editor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: IWW; anarchist

Active in Italian anarchist circles by 1903, he wrote for several anarchist papers and advocated the general strike. Repeatedly arrested for labor activism, he shifted in 1906 toward individualist anarchism and spent 1907–1910 moving between England, France, and Italy as a sales representative. Expelled from France in 1912, he again engaged in labor struggles in Italy. In 1914 he collaborated on Utopia, a pro-war, syndicalist-leaning newspaper edited by then-socialist Benito Mussolini.

Migrating to the United States later that year, he joined the IWW, became an organizer for its Bakers’ Union in New York, and contributed to (and later edited) the IWW’s Italian-language newspaper Il Proletario. Arrested in Pennsylvania in 1917 for “pernicious activities” and opposition to conscription, he was a defendant in the 1918 federal IWW trial and received a sentence of ten years and a $30,000 fine. His sentence was commuted in 1922 on condition of deportation on February 21, 1922.

Back in Italy, Baldazzi gravitated to Fascist institutions—working for the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro and later the fascist newspaper La Stirpe—though he never joined the National Fascist Party. 1931–1936 employed as a translator for the Italian National Olympic Committee and the Federazione Internazionale dei Tecnici Agricoli. In 1935, however, he was placed under government surveillance as a suspected antifascist. He began advocating for a liberal-democratic renewal in Europe and petitioned unsuccessfully to emigrate to France in 1936. Died in 1940.

Sources: INS file 54235/39; CPC busta 268; http://www.bfscollezionidigitali.org/entita/12935-baldazzi-giovanni/.

Ivan G. Baldenkov (or Baldenkoff)

Born: 1895, Zvenyhorodka, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Bookkeeper; salesman; journalist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW; Communist Labor Party

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark in 1915; joined the IWW in 1919; and later joined the Syracuse branch of the Communist Labor Party. Active as an IWW organizer and URW literary agent, he was arrested in 1920. While held in the Cortland County jail, he led a hunger strike of Russian radicals demanding expedited deportation. He was deported to Soviet Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/325

Balick to Baritz

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

Vasiliy Balik (or Wasily Balick/Bilicki)

Vasiliy Balik, c. 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1896, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Employee of Remington Arms Union Metallic Cartridge Company, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In August 1919 he joined the Union of Russian Workers and was arrested the following month in Hartford. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/389.

Ugo Balzano

Born: 1882, Castel di Sangro, Aquila, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Typographer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Anarchist

Employed by Cleveland’s mainstream Italian-language newspaper La Voce del Popolo Italiano. Active in anarchist circles, he belonged to the Circolo Studi Sociali di Cleveland, distributed Cronaca Sovversiva, and published the anarchist paper L’Appello (1916–17). deported on July 28, 1919.

Upon his return to Italy he was immediately arrested for draft evasion during the war. Later subscribed to the paper La Frustra, published by fellow deportee Giobbe Sanchini. Balzano died in his hometown in 1926.

Sources: INS file 54616/348; CPC busta 298; http://bibliotecaborghi.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Cicolani-La-presenza-anarchica.pdf.

Walter Banaczyk

Walter Banaczyk’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1901, Słupia, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Automobile worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Migrated to the United States with his mother to rejoin his father. Employed at the Fisher Body plant in Detroit, he joined Branch 37 of the Polish Section of the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in January 1920 at the age of eighteen, he “voluntary departed” to Poland on October 16, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54859/569; FBI files OG 382042 and BS 202600-768-1.

Peter P. Banaitis

Born: 1899, Lithuania
Nationality: Lithuanian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation: Miner; laborer; toolmaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined Branch 37 of the Lithuanian Section of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Chicago in January 1920, he remarked that “as people are thrown in jail here for their beliefs he thinks he will enjoy just as much liberty in his native country.” An immigration inspector described him as “a typical Bolshevik and…more or less intelligent…This individual should be deported by all means as he is manifestly and potentially a bad influence.” He was deported to Lithuania on December 9, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54811/563; FBI file OG 382041.

Daniel Bardaio (or Bardal)

Born: c. 1882, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

First migrated to the United States in 1906, then moved to Canada in 1908, and returned to the U.S. in 1915. Initially a member of the Socialist Party of America, he later joined the First Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America in Philadelphia. Bardaio was deported on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/124.

Moses Baritz

Moses Baritz, c. 1912. Wikimedia Commons.

Born: 1883, Manchester, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Russian; Jewish
Occupation: Musician; journalist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Socialist Party of Great Britain; Socialist Party of the United States

Born in England to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. A musician and journalist, Baritz became a prominent member of the small and sectarian Socialist Party of Great Britain and gained notoriety as a skilled Marxist debater. He migrated to Canada in 1910, helping found the “impossibilist” Socialist Party of North America in 1911, before returning to Britain in 1914 and then moving to the United States in 1915 to avoid conscription. In Detroit he cofounded the small “impossibilist” Socialist Party of the United States (which eventually became the World Socialist Party of the United States). Arrested in Seattle in 1918 due to mistaken identity—he was erroneously alleged to be a Russian anarchist and IWW member—he was permitted to “reship foreign” as a sailor to Australia on September 10, 1918.

Baritz subsequently debated rival radicals in Australia, was the first person expelled from New Zealand in January 1920 under that country’s Undesirable Immigrants Exclusion Act, was barred from entry to Canada, returned to Australia, and was deported again in 1920. On the voyage to England he was barred from disembarking in Cape Town to deliver a speech, but was allowed to briefly go ashore in Durban. In England he resumed SPGB activities and became a noted music critic, and in 1924 he became Britain’s first radio disc jockey. He died in 1938.

Sources: INS file 54408/12; http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/09/death-of-moses-baritz.html; https://www.solidarityforeverbook.com/book/solidarityforever.pdf; Ian Angus, Canadian Bolsheviks: The Early Years of the Communist Party of Canada; Karla Doris Rab, Role-Modeling Socialist Behavior: The Life and Letters of Isaac Rab.

Barovsky to Bendik

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Semyon Barovsky (or Samuel Barkovsky)

S. Barkovsky’s IWW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1893, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Became an active member of the Socialist Party of America, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the Ansonia, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers. He served as chairman of Luch, a URW front functioning as a mutual-aid society, and was a delegate to the 1919 URW convention. Arrested in June 1919 in Ansonia for “breach of the peace” connected to URW-led strike agitation, and arrested again in Hartford in November 1919, where authorities discovered a large cache of anarchist literature in his home. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/405; FBI file OG 8000-364023.

Stanislaw Bartesiewics (a.k.a. Stanley Barton; Joe Rink, Joe Rynkiewich)

Born: 1888, Lithuanian territrories of the Russian Empire
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

As a young man he shot and killed a woman under unclear circumstances and fled to the United States in 1899, where his wife joined him. That same year he was extradited back to Russia, convicted, and imprisoned for three years and seven months, during which time his wife remained in the United States and divorced him. He re-entered the U.S. in 1915 and joined the Lithuanian section of the Communist Party of America. In Detroit in 1920 he was denounced as a violent Communist to federal agents by his second wife Julia, as well as his brother George and sister-in-law. Arrested during the January 1920 Palmer Raids, he was deported on January 20, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/6; FBI file OG 382016.

Ivan Baskevich (or John Baskevich)

Born: 1897, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Though he held socialist ideas in Russia, he had belonged to no organization prior to emigration. Shortly after his arrival he joined the Socialist Party of America and later became financial secretary of Cleveland’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/943.

Aleksandr Ivanovich Batura

Born: Year unknown, Polish territories of the Russian Empire
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW

An anarchist and member of the IWW, he was arrested in Steubenville, Ohio, and deported to Poland on September 10, 1924.

Upon return to Soviet territory he openly criticized living conditions and declared that “only Commissars and not workers live well here.” For these remarks he was sentenced to the Solovetsky prison camp and subsequently to internal exile. In correspondence circa 1927 he wrote to comrades in the U.S. reporting: “The main thing is that I have no work and it is so hard to get anything. I have been actually starving here, moreover, I am sick.” International anarchist networks sent him aid between 1929 and 1931.

Sources: Pittsburgh Gazette Times, September 6, 1924; Senya Fleshin Papers, International Institute for Social History; G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents).

Morris Becker

Born: 1885, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Anarchist

Supporter of Alexander Berkman’s The Blast and participated in the No-Conscription League. One of the first individuals arrested under the Selective Service Act of 1917, he received a sentence of one year and eight months in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for interfering with the draft. He described himself as “a man without a country,” an anarchist, and “an advocate of peace and not of force.” Deported on the Buford on January 21, 1919.

In Petrograd he secured factory employment but complained of poor conditions, prompting accusations that he was a “pampered bourgeois” nostalgic for “capitalist America.” After a decade of silence, he sent a coded letter to Alexander Berkman in 1931.

Sources: INS file 54235/32; Emma Goldman, Living My Life; Alexander Berkman Papers, International Institute for Social History.

Max Belesky

Born: 1888, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Carpenter
Migration: Immigration to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Left behind a wife and three children in Russia. In Detroit he joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America, which later became a Communist Party of America branch. Arrested in January 1920, he accepted “voluntary departure” and returned to Russia on October 16, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54859/752.

Emelyan Belesta (a.k.a. Michael, Andrew, or Andriev Belesta)

Born: 1886, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigration to Canada 1912; then to US 1916
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated to Canada. From there he entered the United States without inspection. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh around 1918 and was described as taking a “prominent” role in local radical meetings. Arrested in 1919 in possession of substantial quantities of radical literature, he was released on bail only to be arrested again for distributing a handbill calling for a nationwide general strike “to enforce the the lifting of the blockade against Russia.” He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

He died of typhus in Ufa at an unknown date.

Sources: INS file 54616/134; INS file 54616/89; New-York Tribune, October 4, 1919; Delo Truda, December 1937–February 1938.

Bezil Belousov (or Basil Belusoff)

Born: 1881, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Had a wife and three children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and was arrested in Fairmont, West Virginia, that November. Told immigration authorities he had joined the URW while drunk. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/593.

Demyan Belowky

Born: 1882, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigration to US in 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party in Detroit and was deported on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54850/994; FBI file OG 382092.

William Bendik (or Bendick)

Flier in Bendik’s possession when arrested. National Archives.

Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigration to US in 1912
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America or Socialist Labor Party

Although he claimed membership in Russian Branch No. 2 of the Socialist Party in Cleveland, authorities noted that he possessed Socialist Labor Party literature at the time of his 1919 arrest. Neither organizational affiliation legally qualified him for deportation. Instead, the case was built on allegations that after the police attacked a 1919 May Day demonstration, he boasted: “We only gave them a demonstration of what we will do July 4th; we will be prepared and have ammunition and everything, and we will show them what we will do.” Deported on December 21, 1919 on the Buford.

Sources: INS file 54616/235; FBI file OG 372982.

Beniecewich to Berg

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , ,

Kazimir Benicewich

Born: 1880, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation: Tailor
Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1902
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

By 1919 he operated his own tailor shop in Baltimore. He joined the IWW around 1914 but left that organization approximately two years later. In 1917 he became a member of Baltimore Branch No. 1 of the Union of Russian Workers and participated in URW affairs at the national level. Arrested in November 1919 during the first wave of federal raids, he was deported on January 20, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54709/419.

Tom Benich

Born: 1895, Slavonia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Croatia)
Nationality: Austrian
Ethnicity: Croatian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Initially a member of the Socialist Labor Party, he joined South Slavic Branch No. 75 of the Communist Party of America in 1919, later claiming that his purpose in doing so was “to get the members to come over to the Socialist Labor Party.” Arrested in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1920, he declared during interrogation: “I believe that the working men should run this country.” Deported to Yugoslavia on September 1, 1920.

Source: INS file 54811/479; FBI file OG 384859.

Philip Beresko (or Berezka, Borodsky, Berezovsky)

Born: 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belaruaian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 (via Canada)
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Employed by the Pullman Coach Company. He joined the Socialist Party in Rockford, Illinois, in 1918 and became a member of the Communist Party of America in November 1919. Arrested during the January 1920 Palmer Raids in Chicago, he stated to investigators: “I do not believe in organized government.” While out on bail in August 1920 he was arrested again, together with Kondrate Serovatke, while posting pro-Soviet placards on telephone poles. He accepted “voluntary departure” to Russia on October 16, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54808/7; FBI files OG 811, OG 386686, and BS 202600-152-1.

Edward Berg

Edward Berg’s IWW credentials. National Archives.

Born: 1880, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Union organizer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1905
Affiliation: IWW

Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1906. He worked as a paid organizer and delegate for Lumber Workers Industrial Union No. 500 of the IWW. Arrested in Spokane, Washington, in April 1918, he was deported on November 4, 1918.

Sources: INS file 54379/240.

Bernstein to Bianki

Red Scare Deportees, , ,

Ethel Bernstein

Mid-Week Pictorial, January 1, 1920

Born: 1898, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Garment worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist; Union of Russian Workers

Became an anarchist around 1917 and joined the Jewish anarchist Frayhayt Group along with her partner, Samuel Lipman. Arrested in New York in 1919 for distributing The Anarchist Soviet Bulletin. She admitted to being an anarchist but denied belonging to the Union of Russian Workers and refused to answer additional questions. In November 1919 she led a hunger strike on Ellis Island to protest conditions. Deported on December 21, 1919 on the Buford.

In Russia, she began working for the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in 1920. Reunited in 1921 with Samuel Lipman (who was deported with Jacob Abrams and others). Lipman was killed in Stalin’s purges in the 1930s; their son was killed in the Second World War. Bernstein herself was sentenced to ten years of hard labor in a Soviet prison camp. Reportedly still alive in Moscow in 1983, “alone and impoverished.”

Sources: INS file 54616/115; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Abe Bluestein, ed., Fighters for Anarchism: Mollie Steimer and Senya Fleshin.

Yakov Berov (or Jacob Berov; a.k.a. Jocob Byra)

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

Had a wife and son in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and served as secretary of the URW branch in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Arrested later that year and deported on December 21, 1919 on the Buford.

Sources: INS file 54709/479.

Isidoro Bertazzon (a.k.a. Isidoro Bertason)

Isidoro Bertazzon, 1926. Source: https://www.coasit.com.au/images/ihs/journals/Individual%20Journal%20Extracts/Refactory%20migrants%20Journal_DECEMBER07.pdf.

Born: 1891, Treviso, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Anarchist

Active in radical circles in Italy before emigrating to the United States. Affiliated with Seattle’s Italian anarchist Circolo di Studi Sociali and distributor of Cronaca Sovversiva. Narrowly escaped arrest on November 25, 1917. “Voluntarily returned” to Italy via Canada in early 1921.

In 1922 he migrated to Australia, where in Melbourne he became a significant figure in the Italian anarchist and antifascist press, editing the newspapers Il Risveglio (1927) and L’Avanguardia Libertaria (1930–32). Cofounded the Anti-Fascist League and Matteotti Club. Died in 1940.

Sources: CPC busta 551; Gianfranco Cresciani, Fascism, Anti-Fascism, and Italians in Australia, 1922–1945; Gianfranco Cresciani, “Exploitation, Emigration and Anarchism: The Case of Isidoro Alessandro Bertazzon,” Altreitalie, no. 46 (June 2013).

Fedor Biacharsky (or Frank Biacharski)

Born: 1895, Kupyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 (via Canada)
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia. Joined the Youngstown, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested in the Palmer Raids of November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/208; FBI file OG 380612.

Pietro Bianchi

Pietro Bianchi, 1932. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1882, Isola Fano, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Mason; laborer; fish peddler; co-op manager
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Anarchist

Worked as a mason until he lost an eye in a workplace accident. Married and a member of the Italian anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali in Milwaukee. Arrested in 1917 following a “riot” against a pro-war speech from a Protestant minister. Deported in December 20, 1919.

In Italy he became a baker and remained under police surveillance until 1940, but no political activity was recorded after his return.

Sources: INS file 54235/64; CPC busta 621; Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror

Nadia Bianki (née Nikiforovna)

Born: 1895, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist; Union of Russian Workers

An anarchist since 1914. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1918. Wife of deportee Peter Bianki; their son, Peter, was born in New York in 1917. Deported to Soviet Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 55009/15.

Peter Bianki (or Bianchi)

Peter Bianki, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1891, Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Italian
Occupation: Laborer; metal worker; printer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Born to Italian immigrant parents to Russia. Hoined the Union of Russian Workers shortly after its founding in 1914. Quickly became one of its prominent leaders. Elected URW Secretary in January 1919 and later editor of its newspaper Khleb i Volia. Married to Nadia Bianki. Arrested in New York in February 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In Russia, quickly joined the Communist Party and held multiple Soviet government posts. During the Kronstadt mutiny, however, he shot himself in the arm to avoid being conscripted into military action against it. In 1928 transferred to Siberia to direct a grain-requisitioning detachment; killed in March 1930 during an armed peasant uprising, and was afterward celebrated as a Communist martyr.

Sources: INS file 54616/115; Malcolm Archibald, “Peter Bianki: The Soviet Years,” Kate Sharpley Library, http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/pnvzh1; Alexander Berkman diary, Alexander Berkman Papers, International Institute of Social History.

Bileski to Bogdanovich

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Harry Bileski (or Hawrylo Bilecki)

Born: 1896, Austria-Hungary
Nationality: Austrian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party in Detroit in September 1919. Deported to Austria on May 8, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54860/358.

Mikhail Bilokumsky (or Michael Bilokumsky)

Born: 1892, Andreevka, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: United Communist Party

Member of the United Communist Party (the result of a merger between the Communist Labor Party and part of the Communist Party of America in 1920). Arrested in Philadelphia in January 1921 during the second Palmer Raids, and again in April 1921 while distributing UCP May Day leaflets. Ordered deported to Russia in August 1921 on the basis of the revolutionary content of those handbills. His legal challenge failed before the U.S. Supreme Court in United States ex rel. Bilokumsky v. Tod (1923). Because the Soviet Union no longer accepted deportees from the United States, officials attempted to use a passport issued by the unrecognized “Ukrainian Diplomatic Mission,” but this document was invalid. Although an Immigration Bureau board recommended his release in January 1924 due to the impossibility of lawful deportation, officials nevertheless deported him May 24, 1924.

Routed through Switzerland to the Russian border, he was refused entry. Last reported to be stranded and starving in Vienna.

Sources: INS file 55009/76; Daily Worker, June 19, 1924; Kansas State News (Topeka KS), August 29, 1924.

(Conrad?) Bjorkman

Born: Sweden?
Nationality: Swedish?
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: 
Affiliation: IWW

A list of IWW prisoners and deportees in the IWW’s One Big Union Monthly lists a Bjorkman as having been deported on October 28, 1919. This may be Conrad Bjorkman, a Swedish IWW member and delegate arrested in Seattle in November 1917 for failing to register for the draft, and again in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in March 1919 for “vagrancy.”

Sources: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920; Seattle Star, Novembrer 17, 1919; FBI file MS 15960.

Juan Blanco

Born: 
Nationality: 
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: IWW

Listed in an IWW publication as having been deported sometime before February 1921.

Sources: La Unión del Marino (Buenos Aires), February 1921.

Catherine Hartog Bloom

Born: 1883, Hoogwoud, The Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Not politically active before migration, but joined the Socialist Party of America around 1915 and became treasurer of her Chicago SP local. Transferred to the Ninth Ward branch of the Communist Party of America in October 1919. Married to Nick Bloom, a building-trades worker; the couple owned a home in Chicago and intended to sell it so that he could accompany her back to the Netherlands. Deported on June 11, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/120; FBI file OG 381560.

Sergey Bobkov (or Serge Bobkoff/Babkoff)

Born: 1898, Moscow, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A member and delegate of the Seattle branch of the Union of Russian Workers. After his brother, Feodor, died in Seattle in 1919, he became the sole supporter of Feodor’s sick wife and daughter. Arrested Seattle, December 1919. Deported on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/431; FBI file 388847.

Sevastyan Bogdanovich (or Sebastian; a.k.a. Sam)

Born: 1892, Grodno Governate, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Arrested in Baltimore in March 1920 after he “nearly caused a riot” by giving a pro-Bolshevik speech in front of Holy Rosary Church. Deported to Poland on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/380; FBI file OG 384761.

Bogush to Brezovic

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

Zenov Bogush (a.k.a. Xenov/Zenow/Zinow Bogen)

Born: 1893, Korets, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New Haven in early 1919. Arrested in Hartford, Connecticut, during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Deported on the Buford under the name Zenov (or Xenov) Bogen on December 21, 1919.

After returning to Ukraine, joined the Nabat Anarchist Federation and observed the partisan army of Nestor Makhno. Arrested in Kharkov around November 1920 and executed by the Cheka around March 1921 (dates differ slightly among sources).

Sources: INS file 54709/207; Senya Fleshin Papers, International Institute for Social History; http://socialist.memo.ru/lists/bio/l3.htm#n814; Voline, The Unknown Revolution, 1917-1921; G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents).

Nikolai Bolsun (or Bolson/Bolsum)

Born: Year unknown, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Member of the Communist Party of America in Plainfield, New Jersey. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920. Deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920.

Vasily Bondarenko (or Wasiliy Bondarenko; a.k.a. William Bender/Bander)

Born: 1897, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Active member of the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he also lectured for the URW nationally. Arrested repeatedly: in Bridgeport (November 9, 1919), Hartford (November 28, 1919), and New York (January 1920). Deported to Russia January 22, 1921.

Later reported to have been killed executed under Stalin.

Sources: INS file 54709/404; FBI file OG 382161; Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America

Samuel Bondarenko (or Bondarewko)

Born: c. 1878, Kyiv region, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Labor Party

Member of the Russian Branch of the Socialist Party of America in Philadelphia, later joining the Communist Labor Party and serving as secretary of the branch. Arrested December 29, 1919. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921 as an alleged member of the Communist Party of America. (Membership in the CPA rendered immigrants deportable, whereas after 1920 membership in the CLP did not.)

Sources: INS file 54809/871; FBI file OG 267034.

Peter Bonko

Born: Year unknown, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: Communist Party of America?

Arrested in Brooklyn during second Palmer Raids in January 1920. Likely a member of the Communist Party of America. Deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file BS 202600-33; The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey), December 23, 1920.

Vasily Bootryn

Born: 1888, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Moldmaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Had a wife and children in Russia. JoJoined the Socialist Party in Detroit in April 1919 and later transferred to Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, in January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. “Voluntarily departed” on October 16, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54859/998; FBI file OG 387334.

Vladimir Borisyuk (or Borisiuk/Borisink; a.k.a. Walter Borisuk)

Vladimir Borisyuk’s Socialist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Member of the Socialist Party of America who then paid one month’s dues to the Communist Party of America. Authorities also suspected he belonged to the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Hartford, Connecticut, in November 1919 during the first Palmer Raids. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/151.

Borkhak

Born: Year unknown
Nationality:
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: IWW

A Polish member of the Industrial Workers of the World, deported on February 20, 1921.

Source: Golos Truzhenika, March 5, 1921.

Ivan Borovsky (or John Borowsky)

Born: Year unknown, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Barber; railroad worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1908
Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers?

Member of the Russian branch of the Industrial Workers of the World in Chicago; also suspected of membership in the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. Deported on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54709/267; FBI file OG 380320.

Boris Borsuk (a.k.a. Boris Boroes/Borores)

Born: Born 1896, Brest, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Barber; shop owner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Helped organize the Union of Russian Workers branch in Youngstown, Ohio, and distributed URW literature. Arrested in August 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919. His brother Dimitri was also arrested as a suspected anarchist but not deported.

Sources: INS file 54709/500; FBI file OG 380628.

Max Brazeliya (or Brazelia)

Born: Born 1892, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 (via Canada)
Affiliation: Unaffiliated socialist

An unaffiliated socialist and reader of the Yiddish socialist Forverts. Arrested in St. Louis in March 1919 after being reported by his employer at the Nelson Pants Manufacturing Company for “spreading Bolshevik propaganda.” His employer, not wanting to see him deported, later defended him as harmless and “a good workingman.” Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/25; FBI file OG 352388; 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, ed. Kenyon Zimmer and Cristina Salinas.

Josef Brencich

Born: Born 1887, Fiume, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia)
Nationality: Austrian
Ethnicity: Croatian
Occupation: Sailor; painter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW

An Italian speaker of Slavic background. Arrested in Philadelphia in 1921 along with Erasmo Abate and other members of the IWW-affiliated Union of Italian Workers. Ordered deported to Hungary, then allowed “voluntary departure” on January 8, 1923 because Fiume had become an independent state.

Met up with Erasmo Abate in Italy and France later in the 1920s.

Sources: INS file 55009/82; Hugo Rolland [Erasmo Abate] interviewed by Robert D’Attilio, Paul Avrich Collection, Library of Congress.

Stefen Brezovic (or Vrezovic)

Born: Born 1886, Austro-Hungary
Nationality: Austrian
Ethnicity: Yugoslavian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1916; in September 1919 he transferred into South Slavic Branch No. 17 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested January 1920, in Detroit. Deported to to Yugoslavia on May 8, 1920.

Sources: FBI file OG 387297.