Tag Archives: URW

Fraser to Furs

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Donald McPherson Fraser

Born: 1888, Edinburgh, Scotland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Scottish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to Canada 1908; then to US 1915
Affiliation: IWW

Spent time in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico before entering the US (via Canada, without inspection) in 1915. Joined the IWW in 1909 and later became secretary of the IWW local in Astoria, Washington. On his 1917 draft registration card, wrote: “Don’t believe [in] militarism.” Arrested in Portland, Oregon, in February 1919 and deported March 29, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54379/2; Ancestry.com.

Adolfo Frattesi (a.k.a. Adolph Fratese)

Born: 1893, Pergola, Italy
Nationality/Ethnicity: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Anarchist

A member of the anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali in Milwaukee, along with his brother Vincenzo Frattesi, sister Maria Nardini, and brother-in-law Pasquale Nardini. Arrested in 1917 following an Italian anarchist “riot” in Milwaukee and initially sentenced to twenty-five years in prison as an accessory to the attempted murder of a police officer. The conviction was later reversed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Following his release, rearrested for “teaching or advocating anarchy” and deported to Italy on July 15, 1920.

Italian authorities do not appear to have placed him under political surveillance after his return.

Sources: INS file 54235/70; Robert Tanzilo, The Milwaukee Police Station Bomb of 1917; Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror.

Giuseppe Frattesi

Born: 1894, Pergola, Italy
Nationality/Ethnicity: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913

The brother of Adolfo and Vincenzo Frattesi and of Maria Nardini. While living in Racine, Wisconsin, became involved in the defense campaign for his siblings following the 1917 Milwaukee anarchist “riot,” during which he became radicalized and embraced anarchism. Later moved to Chicago, where he was arrested in May 1919 and again in August 1919. Deported on December 20, 1919. His trunk containing personal possessions was lost by immigration authorities.

In June 1920 migrated to France, where he briefly lived with his brother Teodolfo, before returning to Italy. Throughout the 1930s he remained under Italian government surveillance and was reported to continue holding anarchist and antifascist views, though he was not considered politically active.

Sources: INS file 54616/182; FBI file OG 8000-177156; CPC busta 2172.

Vincenzo Frattesi (a.k.a. Vincent Fratese)

Born: 1886, Pergola, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Anarchist

Emigrated to Avignon, France, where he was fined for assault in 1908, and was jailed for eight days in 1910 for the same offense. After immigrating to the United States in 1913, he became active in Milwaukee’s anarchist Circolo Studi Sociali, along with his siblings and brother-in-law. Following the 1917 Milwaukee anarchist “riot,” convicted as an accessory to the attempted murder of a police officer and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison, a conviction upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. While incarcerated, repeatedly disciplined for infractions and in 1920 was declared insane and transferred to a mental hospital. Pardoned in 1922 on condition of deportation and deported on February 25, 1922.

Upon arrival in Italy, institutionalized in Naples as “paranoid” and released in November 1924. Later settled in Fossombrone, where he remained under surveillance and continued to express anarchist beliefs. In July 1928 he was recommitted to a psychiatric hospital in Pesaro and diagnosed with “paranoid early dementia.” Remained institutionalized as of 1940.

Sources: INS file 54235/69; CPC busta 2172; Robert Tanzilo, The Milwaukee Police Station Bomb of 1917; Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror.

Giovanni Fruzzetti (a.k.a. Giovanni Balloni; Gianni Lupo)

Giovanni Fruzzetti. Source: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/113565859/person/210112210983/facts?_phsrc=ezK144&_phstart=successSource

Born: 1865, Carrara, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Granite cutter; farmer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1892
Affiliation: Anarchist

Lived in Barre, Vermont, until 1905, where he was a friend of Luigi Galleani and helped found Cronaca Sovversiva. Later lived in Quincy, Massachusetts, before purchasing a sixty-acre farm in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1910. Married with ten children and also supported six nieces and nephews following the death of his sister-in-law. Suffered ongoing health problems stemming from an appendicitis operation. Arrested in May 1918, Fruzzetti stated his belief “in the overthrow of any government by force.” He also emphasized the hardship deportation would impose on his family, noting that his wife could not return to Italy because of their disabled American-born daughter. Despite this, he was deported on June 24, 1919.

Unable to make a living in Italy, he received financial assistance from comrades in the United States until his death in 1926.

Sources: INS file 54379/351; CPC busta 295; L’Adunata dei Refrattari, June 13 and October 3, 1925; Ancestry.com.

Timofey Furs (a.k.a. Thomas Furs)

Furs’ URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1896, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/365; FBI file OG 379709.

Galeotti to Gazeyog

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

Alba Galeotti (born Giuseppina Genisio)

Alba Galeotti, postcard to her son Ferrer, c. 1930s. Courtesy of Gina Norsedt.

Born: 1867, Canischio, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1902
Affiliation: Anarchist

After immigrating to the United States around 1902, she married coal miner Killo Gotti in Lafayette, Missouri, later adopting the anarchist name “Alba,” meaning “Dawn.” She named her children Idea (i.e. “L’Idea” of anarchism) and Ravachol (after the French anarchist of the same name). By 1908 she was contributing funds and articles to the Italian-language anarchist newspapers Cronaca Sovversiva and La Questione Sociale and corresponded with anarchists in Italy. She also raised money for the antimilitarist anarchist paper Rompete le file! in Milan. Following her separation from Gotti, she married anarchist miner Guglielmo Galeotti in 1909. The couple lived in mining communities in Kansas and Illinois and named their children Ferrer and Germinal. Unconfirmed reports suggest she was deported in 1916 and illegally returned to the United States. Arrested in 1920 alongside Galeotti, she escaped custody while he was deported. She continued anarchist activity, including collecting funds for the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee in 1921. In 1923 arrested in Schulter, Oklahoma. While detained, she refused food for thirty-three days, was declared insane, and forcibly fed. Deported on January 10, 1924, leaving her two youngest children in the care of her eldest daughter, Ida (Idea) Gotti.

In Italy she did not reunite with Guglielmo Galeotti, and remained in correspondence with her children. Died in Turin in 1940.

Sources: Cronaca Sovversiva, May 31, 1913; Jennifer Guglielmo, Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1 and 2, 1924; Henryetta Standard (Henryetta OK), January 3 and January 7, 1924; Ancestry.com; additional information provided by Gina Norstedt.

Guglielmo Galeotti (a.k.a. William Galleoti)

Guglielmo Galeotti with his wife Alba and children, c. 1915. Courtesy of Gina Norsedt.

Born: 1871, Santa Sofia, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1902
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist in Italy during the late 1880s and was regarded by Italian authorities as a dangerous subversive. Repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for subversive activities between 1888 and 1902. Fled briefly to Switzerland in 1901, but was expelled and arrested on unfounded suspicion of complicity in the assassination of King Umberto I. Subsequently emigrated to and then expelled from Trieste. After immigrating to the United States, lived in mining communities in Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Illinois and became a leading figure in the Kansas anarchist Gruppo 11 Novembre. In 1909 married fellow anarchist Alba Genisio. In 1911 joined other group members in traveling to Mexico to assist the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano during the Mexican Revolution but soon became disillusioned and returned to the United States. Deported on February 19, 1920.

Although he remained under surveillance in Italy, authorities reported that by 1935 he had withdrawn from politics and allegedly showed sympathy toward the Fascist regime.

Sources: CPC busta 2236; Michele Presutto, La rivoluzione dietro l’angolo: Gli anarchici italiani e la Rivoluzione messicana, 1910-1914; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1, 1924; Ancestry.com; additional information provided by Gina Norstedt.

Luigi Galleani

Luigi Galleani, 1919. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1861, Vercelli, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Editor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1901
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist while studying law at the University of Turin. After fleeing police repression in Italy, he lived in France and Switzerland, working with anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus, before being arrested, expelled, and imprisoned in Italy. While confined to the island of Pantelleria, he met his wife Maria. He escaped in 1900 and fled to Egypt and England before immigrating to the United States in 1901.

In the United States, edited La Questione Sociale in Paterson, New Jersey, and led the 1902 silk workers’ strike, for which he was indicted for inciting riot and fled to Canada, then Barre, Vermont, where founded newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva in 1903. Later relocated the paper to Lynn, Massachusetts. Emerged as the leading Italian anarchist proponent of insurrectionary violence. Deported on June 24, 1919, leaving his wife and six children behind.

Upon arrival in Italy, briefly arrested and then relaunched Cronaca Sovversiva in Turin. Imprisoned for sedition in 1922, and again arrested in 1926, serving prison time followed by internal exile. He remained under surveillance until his death in 1931.

Sources: INS file 54235/33; CPC busta 2241; Ugo Fedeli, Luigi Galleani: quarant’anni di lotte rivoluzionarie (1891 –1931); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Antonio Senta, Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America.

Alexander Gallod (a.k.a. Golod; Gold)

Gallod’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1888, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America before becoming an active member of the Communist Party of American and then the United Communist Party in Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Arrested in Philadelphia on January 7, 1920, and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54811/973.

Laureano García

Born: Spain, year unknown
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW

An anarchist and IWW member, he was arrested in Jerome, Arizona, in February 1919 and deported later that year.

In 1931 he contributed funds from Spain to the New York anarchist newspaper Cultura Proletaria.

Sources: La Nueva Solidaridad, June 14, 1919; Cultura Proletaria, April 18, 1931.

Rogelo García (a.k.a. Regelio García; Roglio García)

Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including García, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1894, Quibicano, Cuba
Nationality: Cuban
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cigar maker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist around 1917 and joined the Los Corsarios Group, which published the anarchist paper El Corsario. Arrested in New York in February 1919 with thirteen other Spanish-speaking anarchists on unfounded allegations of plotting to assassinate President Woodrow Wilson. Although charges were dismissed, García was held for deportation. When questioned about his failure to naturalize, replied, “I do not even believe in my own country.” He was married to U.S.-born Blanca Fernandez and had an infant child at the time of his deportation on April 25, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/79.

Isso Gartner (a.k.a. Imre Geery or Geerry)

Born: 1895, Kassa, Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia)
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Jeweler
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America in Baltimore. A conscientious objector, he opposed military conscription during the First World War. Attempted to unionize Baltimore jewelry workers through the International Jewelry Workers Union (AFL). In May 1918 he was arrested on dubious theft charges, sentenced to six months in prison, and later interned as an “alien enemy” at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. There he contracted tuberculosis of the hip, forcing him to use crutches. Upon release, Gartner was deported on May 8, 1920 on the unsubstantiated charge that he believed in overthrowing the U.S. government by force.

Sources: INS file 54709/38; Baltimore Sun, May 23, 1918; Jewelers’ Circular-Weekly, July 10, 1918.

Jack Gaveel (a.k.a. Jakov Zukatansky; Jackotonsky; Jacknowsky)

Born: 1889, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Labor organizer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915
Affiliation: IWW

Migrated to England in 1905; returned to the Netherlands in 1910 and emigrated to Canada that same year. Joined the IWW in 1913 in Canada and became secretary of IWW Local no. 339 in Edmonton, Canada the following year. Migrated to the U.S. in 1915. Included in the federal indictment of IWW leaders in 1917, but dropped from the case before it went to trial. Acted as an IWW delegate in Los Angeles, where he was “active in organizing the Austrian and Croatian fishermen.” Arrested in April 1921 and sentenced to 1-4 years under California’s criminal syndicalism law. In San Quentin, refused to work in the prison jute mill, declaring: “I have never scabbed on my class outside of prison, and I won’t do it inside.” He was sent to solitary confinement, sparking a sympathy strike of thirteen other imprisoned IWW members. Deported to The Netherlands on August 1, 1924.

Remained active in labor and anarchist circles in The Netherlands. Into 1951 he resumed contact with the IWW and distributed IWW materials in Europe. In 1960, at age 71, he wrote: “I wish I were in America. I’d join you in the fight then.”

Sources: FBI file BS 186701-240; Industrial Worker, June 11, 1921; August 5, 1922; IWW Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library.

Fred Gazeyog (a.k.a. Gazeyek; Gazeycg)

Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to the United States in 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Employed by the B. F. Goodrich Company and joined the Union of Russian Workers in Akron, Ohio, in 1916, becoming secretary of the local branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/535.

Geray to Giusto

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Andrey Geray (a.k.a. Andrew Geray)

Born: 1879, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and two children remained in Russia when he migrated. He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in July 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Soviet Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/477; FBI file OG 388189.

Grigory Gerish (a.k.a. Harry Gerrish)

Grigory Gerish. https://ru.openlist.wiki/.

Born: 1897, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Student; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1908
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Immigrated to the United States with his family as a child and later attended the University of Pennsylvania for one year before financial necessity forced him into wage labor. In 1918 he married his childhood sweetheart, Tillie Karetsky. The couple became politically radicalized in Philadelphia, first joining the Socialist Party and later the United Communist Party. Gerish served as secretary-organizer of the Jewish Young Socialist Federation. Both he and his wife were arrested and deported to Soviet Russia on February 1, 1921.

In Russia, Gerish rose to prominence within the Communist movement and became a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. During the Stalinist purges, he was accused of Trotskyist sympathies, expelled from the Communist Party in 1937, arrested, and executed.

Sources: INS file 54810/821; Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921; Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, Harvey Klehr, and John Earl Haynes, Secret Cables of the Comintern, 1933-1943; Michael Buckmiller and Klaus Meschkat, eds., Biographisches Handbuch zur Geschichte der Kommunistischen Internationale: Ein deutsch-russisches Forschungsprojekt.

Tilly Gerish (née Karetsky; a.k.a. Tillie Gerrish)

Tilly Gerish, 1921. Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921.

Born: 1899, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Dressmaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Immigrated to the United States in 1913 to reunite with her childhood sweetheart, Grigory Gerish, whom she married in 1918. Active in the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union. Together with her husband, became politically radicalized in Philadelphia, first joining the Socialist Party and later the Communist Party. She was a member of the party’s Central Jewish Branch. Arrested in January 1920, she was deported with her husband to Soviet Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/126; Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921.

Mikhail Gernet

Born: 1898, Arkhangelsk, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Lathe operator
Migration: Migrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Entered the United States via Canada without inspection and worked as a lathe operator in Detroit. Became a member of Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America. Arrested in April 1919 for allegedly causing a disturbance during a lecture by Catherine Breshkovsky that was critical of the Bolsheviks. Later testified that police beat him unconscious during his arrest, leaving him unable to raise his arms or eat without pain. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919, under the pretext that he was “likely to become a public charge.”

Sources: INS file 54616/172.

Natale Girolimetti

Born: 1899, Ancona, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Migrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: Anarchist

An individualist anarchist described by Italian authorities “an individual of impulsive and violent character.” Deported to Italy sometime before 1921.

A “violent, irreducible” opponent of fascism, he was brutally beaten by Fascists upon his return to Italy. In 1921 he fled abroad, living successively in France, Luxembourg, Germany, and again in France, where he remained active in Italian exile radical circles. In 1926 he returned to Italy seeking medical treatment for head injuries sustained during earlier beatings and was immediately arrested for possession of antifascist literature. Released on parole, he was again assaulted by Fascists and arrested in 1927 while attempting to return to France. His mental condition deteriorated, and in 1928 he was confined to a psychiatric institution, where he died in 1932.

Sources: CPC busta 2446; Fabrizio Giulietti, Il movimento anarchico italiano nella lotta contro il fascismo, 1927–1945.

Bonaiuto Giusto

Bonauito Giusto, c. 1919. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1888, Castel di Casio, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Shoemaker; miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1909
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist in the United States and joined the Circolo dei Studi Sociali in Kensington, Illinois. Traveled to Mexico in 1917 to avoid registering for the U.S. military draft and returned to the United States without inspection in 1918. Arrested in May 1918 during a raid on the Circolo and later detained in Chicago on the grounds of unlawful entry. Deported on December 20, 1919.

After returning to Italy, continued his anarchist activities in Castel di Casio. Arrested in 1923 for opposing the Fascist government and again in 1926 for resisting conscription, but was acquitted both times. Remained under government surveillance until at least 1940.

Sources: INS file 54616/213; CPC busta 711.

Goldman to Grau i Jassans

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Emma Goldman

File:Emma Goldman's deportation photo, 1919.jpg
Emma Goldman, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1869, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Garment worker; nurse; lecturer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1885
Affiliation: Anarchist

Immigrated to the United States in 1885 and became an anarchist in the wake of the Haymarket Affair. Goldman soon emerged as one of the most prominent anarchist propagandists in the country, known for her lectures, writings, and advocacy on issues including syndicalism, free speech, birth control, and antimilitarism. Over the course of her career, she was arrested at least thirteen times for her political activities. In 1906 she founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth, which she published until its suppression in 1917. That year, she co-founded the No-Conscription League and, together with Alexander Berkman, was arrested in June under the Espionage Act for interfering with the military draft. Both were convicted, sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and fined $10,000. Upon her release, Goldman was deported to Soviet Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

In Russia, Goldman and Berkman initially collaborated on collecting materials for a Museum of the Revolution. Following the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion in 1921, both broke decisively with the Bolshevik regime. They left Russia in December 1921 and Goldman lived thereafter in Germany, France, England, and Canada, continuing anarchist activism and publicly condemning Soviet authoritarianism. In 1934 she was permitted to return briefly to the United States for a lecture tour. During the Spanish Civil War, she traveled to Barcelona in 1936 and undertook speaking and organizing tours across Europe on behalf of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT. She died in Toronto in February 1940.

Sources: INS file 52410/43; Emma Goldman, Living My Life; Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia; Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich, Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman.

Philip Golishko

Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers

Became a member of both the Industrial Workers of the World and the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Seattle in January 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/543; FBI file OG 381765.

José González (a.k.a. Rosendo García)

Born: c. 1896, A Coruña, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity: Galician
Occupation: Sailor; laborer
Migration: Entered US 1916
Affiliations: IWW

Entered the United States in 1916 by jumping ship from the SS Corunna, using a passport belonging to a sailor friend, Rosendo García. Worked as a sailor and laborer and laid track for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His father resided in Cuba, while his mother remained in Spain. Arrested in Philadelphia as one of eleven Spaniards and Mexicans suspected of radical activity. González admitted membership only in La Mancomunidad (The Commonwealth), a mutual aid society that raised funds for imprisoned Spanish radicals. He denied IWW membership, though he acknowledged attending two IWW meetings and having friends who belonged to the organization. Immigration authorities concluded, “A careful survey of the evidence fails to show his connection with the I.W.W. or that he is guilty of any anarchistic charges, although he admits that a number of his friends are anarchists, socialists or members of the I.W.W.” (González is nevertheless identified as an IWW member in at least one IWW publication.) A deportation warrant was issued on the basis that he was “likely to become a public charge” and “entered by water at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officials.” Deported to Spain on July 10, 1919, aboard the SS León XIII.

Sources: INS file 54648/30.

Grigory Varfolomeevich Gorbich

Born: 1896, Brest or Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Metalworker
Migration: Date unknown
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Became an anarchist in 1916 and joined the Union of Russian Workers. Deported to Poland on January 22, 1921.

In 1922 arrested for illegally crossing the Polish border into Soviet territory and subsequently settled in Petrograd. He was arrested again in July 1923 and sentenced to two years of internal exile away from major cities and border regions. In 1925 he was again arrested and sentenced to an additional three years of internal exile.

Sources: 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); http://visz.nlr.ru/person/book/vi/4/130.

Nikolai Gorin

Nikolia Gorin, c. 1920. National Archives.

Born: 1895, Tverskoy, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Union of Russian Workers

Worked as a machinist in Bridgeport, Connecticut where he joined the Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America and, in 1919, became a member and secretary of the local branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in February 1920 and deported to Soviet Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/145; FBI file OG 381756.

Ivan Gornovsky (a.k.a. John Gornovsky)

Born: 1886, Selets, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

Brother of Vasil Gornovsky; active in the radical movement in Russia before emigrating to the United States in 1913. Left behind a wife and child in Russia.

He became a member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World and served as secretary of the Seattle branch of the URW. Arrested on October 16, 1919, on charges of criminal syndicalism and arrested again in January 1920. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/407.

Vasil Gornovsky

Born: 1895, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

Emigrated to the United States in 1913, following his brother Ivan. Became a member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World. Arrested in Seattle in November 1919 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/427; FBI file OG 388242.

George Goroshkov (or Garoshkow; Gorshkov; a.k.a. Ivan Balui)

Born: 1880, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and child remained in Russia while he emigrated. He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Monessen, Pennsylvania, in early 1919. Deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/214; FBI file OG 383004.

Samuel Goz (a.k.a. Sam Gordon)

Born: 1903, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1918
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Migrated to the United States in 1918 with his mother and younger brother. Claimed that prior to emigration he had been affiliated with the Bolshevik Party in Russia, that Leon Trotsky personally read him the party’s manifesto and program, and that he tried to join the Red Army “but they would not take me because I was only fifteen years old.” Arrested in Buffalo in January 1920 as a member of the Communist Party of America, at the age of seventeen. Openly declared his belief in assassinating public officials who opposed the working class, stating: “In fact, I would kill them myself if I had a chance.” Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/906.

Ivan Gramatsky

Born: 1895, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party of America in December 1919. Arrested in Newark, New Jersey in January 1920 and deported to Russia on December 23, 1920.

Sources: FBI file OG 384985.

Josep Grau i Jassans (a.k.a. José Grau Jassans; José Grau; Arnaldo Sopelana; Arnaldo Sopelano; Adolfo Apelle)

Josep Grau, c. 1930s

Born: 1899, Barcelona, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity: Catalan
Occupation: Marine fireman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: IWW; anarchist

Belonged to the anarcho-syndicalist CNT in Spain before emigrating in 1917. Immediately joined the Industrial Workers of the World in the U.S., becoming an organizer for its Martine Transport Workers Industrial Union. He also joined the Spanish-speaking anarchist Los Corsarios Group in New York and edited the first three issues of its paper El Corsario before leaving due to internal disagreements. In February 1919 he was among fourteen members of Los Corsarios arrested by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson; all charges were dropped. He was arrested again in May 1919 while serving as a delegate to a Marine Transport Workers convention in Philadelphia. Although he falsely denied being an anarchist, he admitted IWW membership and was deported on December 20, 1919.

After returning to Spain, Grau became a CNT organizer in Barcelona and involved in relaunching the CNT newspaper Solidaridad Obrera. He later joined the pro-Communist Comités Sindicalistas Revolucionarios and attended the Third Profintern Congress in Moscow in 1924. Following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, he joined the Catalan nationalist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and became private secretary to party leader Lluís Companys. Elected to the Spanish parliament in 1931 and re-elected in 1933 as an ERC candidate, he focused on labor rights and Catalan autonomy. Expelled from the ERC in 1934 amid internal disputes, he was rehabilitated in 1936. During the Spanish Civil War, he served as an inspector for the Rupublican state-run petroleum company and of municipal commissioners. After Franco’s victory, he fled to France in 1939 and emigrated to Mexico in 1942, where he worked as a salesman until his death in 1965.

Sources: INS file 5461/211; FBI file BS 40-9016-1; Arnaldo Sopelana [Josep Grau i Jassans], Lo que yo he visto en Norte-América; Arnau Gonzàlez i Vilalta, Els diputats catalans a les Corts constituents republicanes, 1931–1933; https://memoriaesquerra.cat/biografies/grau-jassans-josep.

Hajduk to Hicke

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

Alfons Hajduk

Alfons Hajduk’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1886, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Window cleaner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliations: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and child remained in Russia while he emigrated. He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, New Jersey. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/357.

Onofry Halevich

Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America deported on June 8, 1920, reportedly to either Austria or Yugoslavia. No additional biographical information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file BS 202600-33.

Vazil Haluszak (a.k.a. Basil Haluszak; William Halussosek)

Born: Unknown
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America deported on March 2, 1920, to the Galician Soviet Socialist Republic. No additional biographical information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; and FBI file BS 202600-33.

Peter Hancharuk

Born: c. 1892, Grodnensky Uyezd, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America in Detroit, and later transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920 and interned at Fort Wayne. On February 1, 1921, he “voluntarily departed” to Soviet Russia.

Sources: INS file 54859/746.

Stanley Haranin (a.k.a. B. Haranin)

Born: 1894, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Tailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

First joined the Socialist Party of America and later became a member of Milwaukee’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested on January 2, 1920, and deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54809/152

Vasil Haritouchik (a.k.a. Wasil Haryntoczyk; William Hatrinuk; Chartonchak)

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

Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1918 and in 1919 transferred into Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and “voluntarily departed” for Russian on October 16, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54859/735; FBI file OG 386253.

Leo Haskevich (a.k.a. Leonti Hackwicz; Leonte Hackewicz; Sittimikoff)

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

No political involvement prior to his emigration from Russia, but joined the Union of Russian Workers in Akron, Ohio, in 1917. Became involved in efforts to organize a strike among Akron rubber workers and was arrested in December 1917. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54235/159.

Ernest Emil Albert Heitmiller (a.k.a. E.A. Heitmiller)

Born: 1887, Linden-Limmer, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Sailor; lumber worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 via Canada
Affiliation: IWW

Entered the United States in 1914 via Canada without inspection. Worked as a sailor and lumber worker and became active in the Industrial Workers of the World, eventually serving as a delegate and organizer. Arrested in Seattle in February 1919 and deported on January 7, 1920.

He afterward wrote of his experiences as a passenger aboard the SS Mongolia: “It was a bad trip, as the ship had no accommodations for the many passengers…Several died on the journey and it is a wonder that no contagious sickness developed.”

Sources: INS file 54645/435; FBI file OG 347306; New Solidarity, March 6, 1920.

Peter Herasevich (or Gerasevich)

Born: 1892, Kobryn, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Pipe inspector
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife and son remained in Russia when he emigrated. In January 1919 he joined the Youngstown, Ohio branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 while on strike from the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/513.

José Ángel Hernández

El Heraldo de Mexico, May 13, 1919.

Born: 1885, Tepic, Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Bricklayer; carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US year unkown
Affiliation: Partido Liberal Mexicano; IWW; Socialist Party of America

By 1906 he was living in Los Angeles, where he became a member of the PLM-affiliated Grupo Reforma, Libertad y Justicia. By 1911 he was in Houston, Texas, serving as head of the PLM-affiliated Grupo Regeneración Solidaridad Obrera. He joined the IWW in 1913. In 1914 he married fellow PLM member Elisa Alemán, and their daughter Emancipación was born later that year. In 1915 he became an organizer for the Socialist Party’s Land League of Texas and was active in the PLM-affiliated Grupo Germinal in San Antonio. A second daughter, Susana, was born in 1916, after which Hernández separated from Alemán. In 1917 he was active in the Grupo Solidaridad in Houston and founded a mixed local of the IWW there, serving as its secretary. Arrested on August 22, 1917, for IWW organizing and illegally deported to Mexico on August 31, 1917, by an agent of the Bureau of Investigation.

Back in Mexico, Hernández was active with the IWW and the Casa del Obrero Mundial in Tampico ,and joined the anarchist Hermanos Rojos, becoming a regular contributor to their paper Germinal. In January 1918 he was elected general secretary of the Casa del Obrero Mundial in Tampico, though by March he was no longer affiliated with Hermanos Rojos. He cofounded and edited the newspaper Fuerza y Cerebro and was arrested in August 1918 for his organizing activities. In 1919 began writing for the anarchist newspaper Luz! and was arrested again as a leader of an oil workers’ strike in Tampico. In March 1920 he founded the Liga Socialista in Tampico, which endorsed electoral participation. Arrested 1921 for assisting with an IWW strike and later accused of mismanaging funds raised for a publication project. He subsequently disappeared, with some rumors suggesting he traveled to Soviet Russia.

Sources: FBI Mexican Files 232-84 and 232-2971; El Heraldo de México, May 13, 1919; Steve Rossignol, “A Forgotten Wobbly: José Ángel Hernández Across Two Nations,” Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, Summer 2024.

Jacob Heroch (or Horoch)

Born: Russia, year unknown
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Included on a list of radicals deported to Soviet Russia on December 23, 1920. No further biographical information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Christopher Hetaguroff

Born: Terskoy, Caucasus, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Armenian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Society for the Relief of Russia, then in 1919 joined the Communist Party in Seattle and was elected secretary of his branch. Arrested in January 1920, and immigration authorities issued a deportation warrant describing him as both an anarchist and “likely to become a public charge,” arguing that this charge was “borne out by the fact that thru his radical activities and membership he is now a public charge in the jail at Seattle, Wash.” Hetaguroff protested the designation, stating, “I would not become a public charge; I can work.” Deported aboard the SS Stockholm on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/48; Ancestry.com.

John Charles Hicke (or Kicke; a.k.a. Kurowsky)

Born: 1882, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (present-day Romania)
Nationality: Romanian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 via Canada
Affiliations: Unknown

Arrested in April 1918 in Oxford, Mississippi, and interned as an alien enemy at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he remained for nearly two years before being transferred to immigration custody. During detention, Hicke declared: “I am opposed to the Government of the United States and its peoples. I do not think its peoples are intelligent enough to govern themselves…I think the government should be overthrown and to accomplish this end every action would be justified.” Later, however, he claimed these statements were a strategy to expedite his deportation. He repeatedly petitioned U.S. and Austrian officials to hasten his removal. Deported to Romania on June 29, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54861/404.

Hing to Indriunas

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Wong Hing (a.k.a. Harry Hing)

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.

Sources: INS file 54860/666.

Isaacson to Jackson

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Gussie Isaacson (or Itzickson; née Denenberg)

Born: 1895, Pinsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Housewife
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist in New York and was active in the Francisco Ferrer Center. Lived in a common-law marriage with fellow anarchist Jacob Isaacson. After Jacob was ordered deported in 1920, she submitted an affidavit declaring, “I am an anarchist, and a believer and advocate of anarchism,” in order to be deported alongside him. The couple “departed voluntarily” for England on June 20, 1922.

She and Jacob later illegally returned to the United States around 1924 under her maiden name, Denenberg, and she was naturalized in 1940. In interviews conducted in the 1970s, she stated, “Anarchism is a way of life, no matter what your view is of human nature. No authority over you, no slaves under you—that’s the anarchist life.” She died in 1983.

Sources: INS file 54616/202; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.

Jacob Isaacson (or Itzickson; Jack; a.k.a. Jacob Denenberg)

Born: 1896, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Laborer; locksmith
Migration: Immigrated to US 1908
Affiliation: Anarchist

Migrated to the United States with his mother and sister and became active in New York anarchist circles, particularly the Francisco Ferrer Center, where he was known as “the Rabbi” due to his depth of reading knowledge. Helped publish the anarchist periodicals Revolt (1916) and Freedom (1919). Arrested in May 1919 for an antiwar article published in Freedom, which he accepted responsibility for even though he was not its author, and was indicted under the Espionage Act after the war had ended. In 1920 the case was dropped in exchange for a warrant of deportation. While on bail, he edited The Hotel Worker, organ of the syndicalist International Federation of Workers in the Hotel, Restaurant, Lunchroom, Club, and Catering Industry. Departed voluntarily to England in June 1922 with his partner Gussie Denenberg.

Returned to the United States in 1924 via Canada under Gussie’s maiden name and opened a grocery store in Washington, DC. When Gussie applied for naturalization in 1940, his true identity came to the attention of immigration authorities, who repeatedly threatened him with deportation. He died by suicide in 1946.

Sources: INS file 54616/202; FBI file OG 281175; Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: : An Oral History of Anarchism in America; interview with Helen McGee, July 25, 2022.

Andrew Iswashko

Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown
Nationality: Austrian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:

Included on an internal Bureau of Immigration list of radicals deported radicals. Deported to Austria on September 1, 1920. No further biographical information has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

George Ivanov

Born: 1889, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Member of the Communist Party in Bayonne, New Jersey. Deported to Russia on December 23, 1920. No additional biographical information located.

Sources: FBI file BS 202600-601; Butte Daily Bulletin, December 29, 1920.

Dmitry Ivanyuk (or Iwaniuk; a.k.a. James Nouvak)

One of the circulars Ivanyuk was distributing when arrested. National Archives.

Born: 1882, Brodna, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Unknown

His wife and child remained in Russia when he emigrated. Arrested in Camden, New Jersey in April 1919 for distributing radical circulars calling for a general strike on May Day to free political prisoners. Arrested again in Philadelphia in November 1919. His precise political affiliation remains unclear. Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/173.

Dmytro Iwankiw

Born: 1884, Stańkowa, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Salesman; journalist; steelworker; labor spy
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

May have joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917 (he denied this after first attesting to it). Recruited in June 1919 by the Armesworthy and Cavitt Detective Agency on behalf of the Youngstown Sheet & Tool Company to inform on Russian radicals. Joined the Socialist Party and then cofounded East Youngstown Ukrainian Branch No. 32 of the Communist Party, serving as its financial secretary, while reporting to company detectives and federal authorities. Arrested during the November 1919 Palmer Raids but released once his informant role was revealed; arrested again January 1920. Although assured by Department of Justice agent J.F. Sawkin that he would be deported to Russia to allay suspicions and then be allowed to reenter the US, and his bail was paid by the Youngstown Sheet & Tool Company, he was arrested in Youngstown for operated an illegal alcohol still on March 26, 1920. Later claimed he was held in solitary confinement and “starved” for about two weeks to extract an incriminating confession. Spent more than a year in detention on Deer Island, and assaulted by other detainees for being an “agent provocateur” and placed in a separate cell for his own protection. Deported May 19, 1921 and not allowed to return.

Sources: INS file 54860/901; FBI file BS 212986; Sidney Howard and Robert Dunn, The Labor Spy.

Jacob Jackotonsky (a.k.a. Jacknowsky; Jakov Zukatansky)

Born: 1891, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Shoemaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Literate and widely read. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/201.

Herbert Harold Jackson

Born: 1900, Hull, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Sailor; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: IWW

Jumped ship to enter the United States and joined the IWW shortly thereafter. Arrested multiple times for IWW activities, including distribution of the IWW Defense Bulletin in Seattle in December 1918. Declared, “My reason for joining the I.W.W. was because I realized that I was not master of my own economic living and that I was opposed to being enslaved in the machine of production. I believe the worker is entitled to all he produces.” Deported on February 27, 1919.

Upon arrival in England, his IWW literature was confiscated and he was placed under surveillance and barred from public speaking. Migrated to Canada in May 1921 intending to return to the United States.

Sources: INS file 54547/15; FBI file OG 347558; Rebel Worker, April 15, 1919.

Kabas-Tarasyuk to Karniski

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Ivan Kabas-Tarasyuk (a.k.a. Vanaya Kabas-Tarasyuk; John Tarasuk; John Tarasyk; John T. Rasky; John Tarasky)

Ivan Kabas-Tarasyuk. Image from G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work.

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

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1916. In December 1917, arrested in Akron, Ohio, for attempting to organize a strike among rubber workers but was released on bail. He later became secretary of the Baltimore branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested again in March 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

After returning to Russia, he became active in the anarchist Nabat Federation in Kharkov and was arrested and imprisoned in November 1920. Arrested again in October 1921 and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for anarchist activities, during which he was transferred to the Ryazan labor camp, where he was shot during a prisoner riot and almost killed. He then escaped via the Black Sea, possibly reaching Crimea, but returned to Russia in 1922. In 1925, arrested for organizing an illegal anarchist group and sent into internal exile in Arkhangelsk. HExiled again in 1926 to Petropavlovsk for three years for corresponding with anarchists abroad, and in 1929 he was exiled to Tashkent for an additional three years. In 1974, historian Paul Avrich reported rumors that Kabas-Tarasyuk had returned to the United and lived in Chicago.

Sources: INS file 54235/157; G. P. Maximoff, The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia (Data and Documents); Boris Yelensky, In sotsialn shturem: zikhroynes fun der rusisher revolutsie; http://lists.memo.ru/d14/f460.htm; https://ru.openlist.wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%8C-%D0%A2%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%8E%D0%BA_%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87_(1893).

Luka Kachanov (or Katchanov; Kachanow; Katchanos)

Born: 1899, Gukovo, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Union of Russian Workers

Entered the United States in 1917 by jumping ship. He joined the Bristol, Connecticut branch of the Socialist Party of America and later became a member of the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut. Arrested in December 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21.

Sources: INS file 54709/614.

Samuel Kadatsky (or Kodatsky)

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

A member of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported to Russia on December 23, 1920. No further biographical has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; Butte Daily Bulletin, December 29, 1920.

Paul Kalach

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

A member of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Deported to Russia on January 6, 1921. No additional biographical information has been identified.

Sources: FBI file OG 388114; INS file 54325/36G.

Josef Kalenezcicz (or Kalenczicz)

Born: Russia, year unknown
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Upholsterer
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Deported as a radical to Russia on February 26, 1921. No further biographical information has been found.

Sources: INS file 55110/4.

Ivan Kalenov (a.k.a. John Kaleanoff; John Chaljin)

Born: 1897, Kubasovo, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917. He served as a volunteer organizer for the URW and frequently acted as chairman of meetings and as a delegate to organizational conventions. Also a member of the Workers’ Defense League. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/231.

George Kaltejika

Born: 1890, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated. A member of the Union of Russian Workers, he was arrested in Youngstown, Ohio, during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/199.

Stepan Kaminsky (a.k.a. Steve Kaminsky)

Kaminsky’s URW membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1896, Podolia, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

In 1919, he joined the Elizabeth, New Jersey branch of the Union of Russian Workers, where he taught arithmetic classes and participated actively in organizational life. He also joined the Industrial Workers of the World in October 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/158.

Ivan Kamisoruk (a.k.a. John; Komisaruk)

Born: 1884, Obertyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913 or 1914; immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife and two children remained in Ukraine. In Detroit, he joined Ukrainian Branch No. 128 of the Communist Party of America. Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859/781.

Samuel Kanovich (or Kanonovich; Kanowich)

Born: 1891, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russia
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Became a member and secretary of the Perth Amboy, New Jersey branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in New York in December 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/649.

John Kanter

Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Deported to Hungary as a radical on May 8, 1920. No further information regarding his background or political activities has been found.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Gust Karniski

The circular Karniski was distributing when arrested. National Archives.

Born: 1886, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

He married and had a child while living in Chicago. Joined the Socialist Party of America and was latertransferred into the Communist Party, though he denied this to immigration authorities. In April 1921, he was arrested by “two citizens” for distributing “anarchistic literature,” specifically May Day circulars published by the Communist Party of America. “Voluntarily departed” on May 4, 1923.

Sources: INS file 55009/73.

Katzes to Kircher

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , ,

Arthur Katzes (or Katses; Kestes)

Arthur Katzes, 1919. Springfield News (OH)
December 28, 1919.

Born: 1897, Podolia, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Ukrainian
Occupation: Printer
Migration: Entered the United States without inspection in 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; anarchist

Had been a student in Russia and was apprenticing as a pressman before working as a sailor to finance his passage to the United States in 1914. Around 1917, he joined the Union of Russian Workers and became a member of the editorial board of its newspaper, Khleb i Volia. He was arrested in New York in March 1919 and released on bail. While at liberty, he collaborated in producing the illegal Anarchist Soviet Bulletin. In September 1919, he was arrested again, together with Ethel Bernstein, for distributing copies of that publication. He was deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/115; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech.

Joe Kaunas (or Kavnas; a.k.a. Bogdonas; Boglonas)

Born: 1885, Russian Lithuania
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation: Coal miner; student
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Entered the US without inspection in 1913. Worked as a coal miner in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and later attended Valparaiso University. He became a member of Valparaiso Branch No. 20 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested on January 14, 1920. Although he claimed Lithuanian citizenship, immigration authorities deported him to Russia on March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/713.

Teleso Kavalianskas (or Kavalionskas, Kavalauskas; Talespor Kavalanchas; a.k.a. Stanley)

Born: 1881, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Lithuanian
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became secretary of Branch No. 43 of the Lithuanian Federation of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” for Rissia via Canada on October 20, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54709/954; FBI file BS 202600-155-1.

Joseph Kennedy

Joseph Kennedy, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1885, Belfast, Ireland
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: Irish
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1905
Affiliation: Industrial Workers of the World

Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917 and became secretary of Metal Mine Workers’ Industrial Union No. 800 in Butte, Montana. He worked closely with IWW organizer Frank Little before Little was lynched during the Butte copper strike in 1917. Kennedy was arrested multiple times for IWW activity and was also described by authorities as “active…in the cause of Irish independence.” Arrested again in February 1919 in the aftermath of a miners’ strike and deported on June 21, 1919.

After his return to Britain, Kennedy joined the Merseyside branch of the IWW in Liverpool and involved in underground activities on behalf of the Irish Republican Army, including as an accessory to a botched robbery. In 1924, he was reported to be planning an illegal return to the United States, and emigrated to Canada. Settled in Timmins, Ontario, where he became secretary of the local branch of the IWW’s Metal and Coal Mine Workers Industrial Union. In 1928, after a fire in the Hollinger Gold Mine killed thirty-nine people, Kennedy led a protest meeting of 600 miners “to demand action on the part of those responsible for the murder of our fellow workers.”

Sources: INS file 54616/74; Butte Daily Bulletin, June 13, 1919; Socialist Review (London), February 1, 1959; Ancestry.com; Windsor Star, February 15, 1928.

Ilya Kerczuk (a.k.a. Ellis Kerchuk; Navul Kerchuk)

Born: c. 1898, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer; longshoreman
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Unknown

Worked as a laborer and longshoreman in Camden, New Jersey, and New York. In May 1919, he was arrested in Philadelphia by company guards from the Pusey and Jones Shipbuilding Company of Gloucester City, New Jersey, for distributing what authorities described as “Bolshevik circulars” on company property. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54616/173.

Boris Keretchuk

Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/358.

Nuval Kerget (or Nabul)

Born: 1875, Minsk Governorate, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Lumber worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW

First arrived in the United States through Honolulu in 1910 and later settled in Seattle in 1918. Worked as a lumber worker and became a member of the Union of Russian Workers as well as the Industrial Workers of the World in 1919. Arrested in January 1920 and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/569; FBI file OG 389514.

Ivan Kesevich

Born: Austria-Hungary, year unknown
Nationality: Yugoslavian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Unknown

Deported as a radical to Yugoslavia on September 1, 1920. No further biographical information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Olan Killen

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

Included on a list of deported members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and deported on October 31, 1919. No further biographical information has been found.

Sources: One Big Union Monthly, March 1920.

William Kircher

Born: 1892, Hesse, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1906
Affiliation: IWW

Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917. He was arrested in Seattle in May 1918 and interned as an “alien enemy” at Fort Douglas, Utah. Released on condition of “voluntary departure” and left the United States on September 25, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54408/512; FBI file OG 193587.

Kirson to Konavalchuk

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Beril Kirson (a.k.a. Boris; Barnett)

Born: 1872, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Sailor; carpenter
Migration: Immigrated to US 1917
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; Workers’ International Industrial Union

Migrated to England in 1914; then to Canada and back to England in 1916. Jumped ship in the United States in 1917. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in July 1919 and was also a member of the Workers’ International Industrial Union. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. At the time of his deportation, his wife and four children remained in Russia.

Sources: INS file 54709/144; FBI file OG 8000-378509.

Joseph Kish

Born: 1889, Aranyosgyéres, Hungary (present-day Câmpia Turzii, Romania)
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity: Hungarian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; IWW

Joined the Hungarian Federation of the Socialist Party of America around 1912 and became a member of the IWW in 1919. Arrested in Cleveland during the May Day disturbances of 1919 and sentenced to thirty days in the workhouse for disturbing the peace. Arrested again in July 1919, he spent nearly nine months confined in the overcrowded and unsanitary Cuyahoga County Jail while awaiting deportation. Deported on March 21, 1920. At the time, his three children were living in Hungary with his mother.

Sources: INS file 54616/236.

Nikolai Kizer (a.k.a. Nick; Nicholas)

Born: 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1915
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Alleged to be the secretary of the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, along with his cousin Peter Kizer. Due to an administrative error, Peter was mistakenly sent to Ellis Island while Nikolai remained in the Hartford city jail, but the mistake was later corrected. Nikolai was deported to Russia on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS files 54709/160 and 54709/265; Bruce B. Sherbert, “The Palmer Raids in Connecticut, 1919–1920,” Connecticut Review 5, no. 1 (1971).

Nikolai Klemiatov (or Nicholas Klemiatoff; Kleminatoff)

Nikolai Klemiatov, c. 1920. National Archives.

Born: 1891, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Not specified
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to the US 1912
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America in Pittsburgh and transferred to the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested in October 1920 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54885/48.

Efim Kochovetz (a.k.a. M. Berisoff)

Born: 1888, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer; organizer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1907
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1914 and later became secretary of the New London, Connecticut branch, where he also taught arithmetic classes in its school. Arrested in Hartford during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/161.

Efim Kolesnikov (a.k.a. John Kolesnikoff; Joachim)

Efim Kolesnikov (center, standing) with other URW members arrested in New York, November 7, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1880, Kursk, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Ship reamer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A widower, Kolesnikov joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1919. He was arrested and beaten during the first Palmer Raids on November 7, 1919, during the raid on the Russian People’s House in New York. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/454.

Jim Komar (or Jonar)

Born: 1879, Chernihiv, 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 1919. He was arrested in Youngstown, Ohio during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife and two children remained in Russia.

Sources: INS file 54709/544; FBI file OG 378979.

Pavel Konavalchuk (a.k.a. Paul)

Born: 1894, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark until the organization was broken up in November 1919. Arrested in Newark on January 3, 1920, he openly identified as an anarchist but stated his opposition to violence. Despite having a wife and American-born child in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/164.