Born: Grodnia, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
After his return to Russia, he was sentenced around 1925 to five years in the Solovki prison camp as an anarchist. In 1930, reportedly “entirely in broken health,” he was sentenced to an additional three years of internal exile in Arkhangelsk.
Sources: INS file 54709/545; FBI file OG 378976; Bulletin of the Relief Fund of the International Working Men’s Association for Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists Imprisoned or Exiled in Russia, November–December 1930.
Aleksandr Konon (or Kornen; Konol)
Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
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 54709/352.
Pavel Konon (or Konen; a.k.a. Paul)
Born: Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the Communist Party of America arrested in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921. His wife and four children remained in Russia.
Sources: FBI file OG 389419.
John Konopatsky (a.k.a. Anton Konopatsky)
Born: 1895, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Initially a member of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America and later joined the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Bayonne, New Jersey. Arrested in Newark during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on January 22, 1921. Had a wife and three children in the United States.
Sources: INS file 54860/163; FBI file OG 384085.
Ignatz Konoval (or Ignance Konowal)
Born: 1894, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the Polish Branch of the Communist Party of America in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and deported on December 23, 1920.
Sources:The Courier-News (Bridgewater, New Jersey), December 22, 1920.
Benjamin Kontrowitz (or Kontorovich; a.k.a. Berl Kanterowicz; B. Kanter)
Born: 1882, Ekaterinoslav, Russia (present-day Dnipro, Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Silk weaver Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Communist Party of America; IWW
A former member of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America and joined the Russian Federation of the Communist Party of America in 1919. He served as recording secretary, an executive board member, and a lecturer for its Paterson, New Jersey branch, and was a delegate to the First Convention of the Jewish Communist Federation in October 1919. Also a member of the IWW’s Textile Workers’ Industrial Union. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he was deported on November 23, 1920. He was married and had a son living in Paterson.
Born: 1873, Saratov, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Rubber worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1917 and became an officer in its Akron, Ohio branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Born: c. 1888, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Served as financial secretary of Russian Branch No. 2 of the Communist Party in Philadelphia under the pseudonym “Butzki.” Arrested in January 1920, he denied the identity, but multiple witnesses identified him as such. An immigration inspector characterized his testimony as “shifting, evasive, and evidently untruthful in material particulars.” He was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/873.
Zys Korostyshevsky (or Zusil; a.k.a. Joe Kraus)
Born: 1897, Radomyshl, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Garment worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became a Tolstoyan anarchist in the US, embracing pacifism and agrarian ideals. Arrested in Chicago in June 1917, but the deportation warrant was canceled for lack of evidence. Arrested again in January 1919, he was ultimately deported on March 12, 1921.
Born: c. 1875, Saratov Oblast, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1909 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife remained in Russia while he emigrated. In the U.S. he joined the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Seattle in December 1919 and deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/526; FBI file OG 389407.
Gregory Koroviansky (a.k.a. George Karoff)
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Argentina 1912; then to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife and child remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54709/145.
Anton Korshikov (a.k.a. Tony Korschikoff)
Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Described himself as “a fugitive from Czarism.” He was arrested and beaten while attending an arithmetic class at the Union of Russian Workers’ People’s House in New York during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/455.
Wacław Kosiorek
Born: 1894, Russian Poland Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined Detroit’s Polish Branch No. 8 of the Socialist Party in 1914, which later transferred into the Communist Party. Arrested December 29, 1919 and “voluntarily departed” on October 16, 1920, traveling to Russia via Canada and England.
Sources: INS file 54709/860.
Mike Koslick
Born: c. 1889, Pyatigorsk, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Weaver Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party in Philadelphia in 1918 and then the city’s First Russian Branch of the Communist Party in 1919. Arrested in January 1920, he declared, “I am willing to go back to Russia if the Government will deport me.” Seported on February 1, 1921 aboard the SS Estonia. He was married, though records are unclear whether his wife resided in Russia or the United States.
Sources: INS file 54811/936.
Logvin Kostevich (a.k.a. Lenohon or Louis Kostevich)
Born: 1894, Povusk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the “Russian Workmen’s Organization” in Baltimore in 1917 and transferred in 1919 into Branch No. 2 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 54709/420.
Gabriel Kosticovitch (pr Kosticowitsc)
Born: 1882, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party of America in Detroit. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he “voluntarily departed” the United States via Canada on October 16, 1920.
Sources: FBI file 202600-1380-1.
Konstantin Koszko
Born: c. 1897, Zasieki, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Butcher; meatpacker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist around 1917 and joined the Anarchist-Communist Groups of the United States and Canada. Arrested in Cleveland in February 1921, he defined anarchism by stating: “An Anarchist is a man who understands the ‘Blood-suckers’ of the world and its parasites, who are a menace to society, and understanding that, no man can be anything else but an Anarchist.” Deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 55009/23.
Anton Kotiak
Anton Kotiak’s URW membership card. National Archives.
Born: 1895, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Drafted into the US Army in November 1918 but honorably discharged in March 1919 at his request as an unnaturalized alien. Around September 1919 he joined the Bridgeport, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in Hartford during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/386; FBI file OG 389393.
Maxwell Kotick (a.k.a. Kotik; Kutick)
Maxwell Kotick’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives
Born: c. 1890, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Clerk Migration: Immigrated to US 1910 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A widower who was literate in English, Yiddish, Russian, and German. He joined the Socialist Party in 1912 and transferred in October 1919 to the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Philadelphia. Arrested January 2, 1920, he was deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54810/820; FBI file OG 389320.
Dionisiy Ivanovich Koval (a.k.a. Daniel Kowal; Danny Cowas)
Born: 1884, Lutsk Raion, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1919 and escaped arrest during the Palmer Raids on the Russian People’s House in November of that year. He relocated to Waterbury, Connecticut, where he joined the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives). Arrested in March 1920, he was deported on January 22, 1921. His wife and two children remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54861/332; FBI file OG 384417.
Foma Koval (a.k.a. Tom Coval)
Koval’s Communist Party card. National Archives.
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Blacksmith Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Socialist Party of America, then the Communist Party of America in September 1919. Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Born: 1900, Lachka, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Autoworker Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the Communist Party of America in Philadelphia. He was deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54811/967; Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1921.
Evgraf Kovalenko (a.k.a. Efgram; Kovaleko; E. Koval)
Born: 1885, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Migrated to England 1906; then to Germany; then Canada 1912; and finally to US 1917 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and two children remained in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh and was described by local authorities as “one of the worst radicals in the city.” Arrested in May 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21 of that year.
At an unknown later date, he and his family were sentenced to internal Russian exile in the Omsk region of Siberia.
Born: 1892, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1911; then to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Detroit in February 1918 and distributed Russian anarchist and IWW publications. Arrested in May 1919, he was deported January 22, 1921.
He appears to have illegally returned to the United States, where in 1939 he was active in Detroit’s Dielo Truda Group and described as a comrade “capable of doing great work of the organizational-educational type in the movement.”
Sources: INS file 54616/187; FBI file OG 369234; Lazar Lipotkin, The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America.
Born: 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Rubber worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Worked for B. F. Goodrich and spent nearly a year in the US Army stationed at Camps Sheridan and Jackson in Alabama. He joined the Akron branch of the Union of Russian Workers in April 1919 and told immigration agents, “By Internationalism I mean that there should not be different countries or different nations.” He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/534; FBI file OG 376750.
Iakov Kovalevich (a.k.a. John or Jacob Kowalewich)
Born: 1889, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to the US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Formerly a member of the Socialist Party of America before joining the Hartford branch of the Union of Russian Workers in September 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21 of that year. His wife remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54709/402.
Ilya Kovalsky (a.k.a. Louis Kowalsky; Kuznetz)
Kovalsky’s URW membership card. National Archives.
Born: Russia, year unknown Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member of the Union of Russian Workers arrested in Ansonia, Connecticut during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21 of that year. His immigration file is incomplete.
Sources: INS file 54709/496.
Józef Kowalski (a.k.a. Joseph or Joe; A. Gorny; Jan Gómy)
Source: Don Binkowski Papers, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.
Born: 1890, Łódź, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Polish Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Silk weaver; editor Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
A member of the left faction of the Polish Socialist Party in Łódź, where he distributed illegal literature and was imprisoned from 1907 to 1910 for assaulting a foreman.
In the United States he worked as a silk weaver in Paterson, New Jersey, joined the Polish Section of the Socialist Party of America, and participated in strikes in Passaic and Philadelphia. By 1919 he was secretary of the Polish Federation of the SPA, on the executive board of its newspaper Głos Robotniczy, a delegate to the founding convention of the Communist Party of America. Became a member of the CP’s central committee and secretary of its Polish Bureau. Arrested in Kansas City in September 1919 for making a “disloyal and inflammatory speech,” he was imprisoned for unlawful assembly and deported to Poland upon his release on March 17, 1921.
Made his way to Moscow, where his wife and child later joined him, and briefly served as a court investigator for Butyrka Prison and attended the Third Congress of the Comintern in July 1921 under the name “Jan Gómy.”
He illegally returned to the United States via Canada in 1922 to organize on behalf of the Comintern but was arrested in New York and sentenced to eighteen months in federal prison. After his release both Poland and Russia refused to issue passports for deportation, leaving him free on bail. He later served on the Executive Board of the Communist Party and administered the newspaper Glos Ludowy, founded in 1923, eventually settling in Detroit. During the 1930s he was a district manager for the Daily Worker, a section leader in CP District No. 7, coeditor of the monthly Trybuna (1936–1938).
He returned to Poland in 1949, joined the ruling Polish United Workers’ Party, and held various administrative posts. Died in Łódź in 1960.
Sources: INS file 54709/486 (missing); FBI file OG 8000-143411; New York Herald, August 9, 1922; Don Binkowski Papers, Walter P. Reuther Library; Jacob Spolansky, The Communist Trail in America; Don Binkowski, Poles Together: Leo Krzycki and Polish Americans in the American Labor Movement; Zygmunt Pietrzak, “Kowalski Józef (1890-1960),” Słownik biograficzny działaczy polskiego ruchu robotniczego, vol. 3.
Matthew Kozario (a.k.a. Kosario; Kozaric; Kosaric)
Deported to Yugoslavia on April 14, 1920 as a radical. No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Ivan Kozlik (a.k.a. John Cozich; Gustko)
Born: 1893, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1908 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Elizabeth, New Jersey branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1917. Arrested in New York during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/363.
Vasil Kozlov (a.k.a. Kozlow)
Born: 1893, Gomel, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Worked as a hauler in the Jamison No. 9 coal mine in Farmington, West Virginia. Like many members of the Union of Russian Workers, he had farmed in Russia before emigrating, explaining: “There were many people in the village where I lived and they received letters telling that we could make more money in America, so I decided to come.” Arrested December 1, 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21 of that year.
Sources: INS file 54709/601; FBI file OG 8000-379018.
Vasily Kozlovch
Born: 1896, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party before becoming a member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920 and held at Fort Wayne, he was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/379.
Osip Kozorez (a.k.a. Joseph Koza; Joe Koza)
Born: 1881, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Newark in January 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he participated in a five-day hunger strike on Ellis Island protesting installation of a wire screen separating detainees from visitors. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife and four children remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54709/342; FBI file OG 379013.
Ivan Kozy (a.k.a. John Kozy)
Born: 1894, Uman, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1914; then to US March 1919 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Crossed into the United States at Niagara Falls in March 1919 and joined the Union of Russian Workers in Philadelphia. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21 of that year.
Born: 1891, Saratov, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Served in the Russian Army in the Caucasus before emigrating.
In the United States he worked for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, and joined the Union of Russian Workers around 1915. Arrested in December 1917 for attempting to organize a strike of rubber workers and released on bail. Deported on January 22, 1921. His wife remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54235/158.
Tikon Krasnov (a.k.a. Tehon Krassnoff)
Born: 1888, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Carpenter; miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Philadelphia branch of the Union of Russian Workers and in November 1919 organized an eight-member URW branch in Barracksville, West Virginia, at Jamieson Coal and Coke Company Mine No. 7. Arrested December 2, 1919, “in possession of a considerable amount of anarchistic literature,” he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21. His wife and three children remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54709/625; FBI file OG 389365.
Faras Kravchuk
Born: 1894, Komarów, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Factory worker Migration: Migrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1916 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party in 1919 and later became a member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party. Arrested in January 1920, he was deported to Russia on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/972.
Peter Krawchuk
Born: 1885, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1912 or 1913; immigrated to US 1916; returned to Canada 1917; reentered US 1918 Affiliation: Industrial Workers of the World; Communist Party of America
Joined IWW Branch no. 517 in Spokane in 1919. Arrested January 4, 1920 at the Detroit Communist Party’s House of the Masses, he answered “Yes” when asked whether he believed in Communist Party doctrine. Held at Fort Wayne, he was deported March 18, 1921. His wife and child remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54860/27.
Natale Krilete (a.k.a. Boso)
Born: Austria-Hungary Nationality: Austrian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Austria on June 29, 1920. No further information has been located.
Sources: Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G.
Alexander Krishtal (a.k.a. Aleksey Kryshtall)
Born: 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: Anarchist
Deported to Russia on February 26, 1921 but was refused entry at Libau, along with several other deportees, because of his anarchist beliefs. In response, he coauthored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Lenin.”
He later returned to the United States and lived in the anarchist colony at Mohegan, New York, into at least the 1940s. He died in Lindenhurst, New York, in 1961.
Sources:Free Society (New York), Oct.–Nov. 1921; Ancestry.com.
Felip Krishtepowich
Born: Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Russia on October 16, 1920. No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Teodor Krishtop (a.k.a. Theodore Krishtiop)
Born: 1885, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Worked at Jamieson Coal and Coke Company Mine No. 9 in Farmington, West Virginia. He joined both the Union of Russian Workers and the United Mine Workers. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was described as being “of a surly, non-communicative disposition” and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife and two children remained in Russia.
Sources: INS file 54709/598.
Maxim Kruk (a.k.a. Max Kroock)
Born: 1881, Volhynia, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Worked at Detroit’s Studebaker Plant No. 3. Joined Ukrainian Branch No. 1 of the Socialist Party in Detroit in 1911, which in 1919 became Ukrainian Branch No. 22 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920 and held at Fort Wayne, he “voluntarily departed” for Russia via Canada on October 14, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54859/778; FBI file BS 202600-714-1.
Pavel Krupka (a.k.a. Paul Krupkie; Krupkic)
Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Worked for the Republic Rubber Company and joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21 of that year.
Sources: INS file 54709/195.
John Krutz
Born: 1888, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1918 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Worked for the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn. He joined the Socialist Party around 1918 and later transferred to Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 4, 1920, he was deported March 18, 1921. His wife and three children remained in Russia.
Born: 1897, Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Lithuanian Occupation: Carpenter; miner; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Belonged to the Russian Social Democratic Party before emigrating.
In the United States he worked as a coal miner, and later for Ford Motor Company in Detroit. In 1915 he joined the Lithuanian Branch of the Socialist Party of America, which transferred into the Communist Party of America in 1919. Arrested April 22, 1919, “while distributing radical literature on a Michigan Avenue street car,” he declared his belief in “the soviet form of government.” Deported February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54616/165.
Michael Kucher
Born: Nationality: Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Served as recording secretary of the Jersey City branch of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he was deported March 30, 1920 to “Galicia” (likely either Poland or Ukraine). No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file OG 380877.
Efrem Kucher
Born: Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
Arrested in Brooklyn during the second Palmer Raids in January 1919 and deported as a radical to Russia on December 23, 1920. No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G; The Standard Union (Brooklyn), Dec. 23, 1920.
Alek Grigorov Kuchinsky
Born: c. 1884, Vilna, Russia (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Textile worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Norwich, Connecticut, in September 1919. Arrested in January 1920, he was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54861/9.
Mikal Kudreyko (a.k.a. Peter Kravchuk; Michael Kravchuk)
Mid-Week Pictorial, January 1, 1920.
Born: 1883, Pruzhany, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and child remained in Russia during his emigration. Became secretary of a Detroit branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Arrested in July 1918 at a radical picnic, he admitted he was “an anarchist, and proud of it.” After moving to New York he became secretary of the Housewreckers’ Union and coeditor of the URW paper Khlieb i Volia. Arrested with its editorial team in August 1919 and indicted for “criminal anarchy,” he falsely claimed he had left the URW in 1918 “because I thought this organization is not radical enough.” Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Reportedly died in Russia soon thereafter.
Sources: INS file 54554/23; Mid-Week Pictorial, January 1, 1920; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Simon Kuish (a.k.a. Sam)
Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Rubber worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21.
Sources: INS file 54709/193.
Ivan Kulak (a.k.a. John)
Born: Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Russia on November 27, 1920. No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Roman Kulich (a.k.a. Kovalevich)
Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Machinist Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Belonged to Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920, he was deported February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/722.
Mark Kulish (or Kulesch; Kulesh)
Born: 1890, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; factory inspector Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
During the First World War he worked first as a factory laborer and later as a US arms factory inspector for the Russian Commission. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut, around 1916 and became secretary of the URW branch in South Manchester in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and falsely suspected of being a “bomb-maker,” he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21. His wife and child remained in Russia.
Born: 1890, Rokitnica, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Longshoreman Migration: Immigrated to US 1910 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Newark branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/345.
Tony Kurson (a.k.a. Kirsion; Kirson)
Born: 1884, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1909 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Luch Society in Ansonia, Connecticut, around 1917, which federal authorities claimed was a branch of the Union of Russian Workers, though he denied this. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/326; FBI file OG 382937.
Michael Kusbit
Born: Austria-Hungary Nationality: Austrian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Austria on May 8, 1920. No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Fedor Kushnarev (a.k.a. Theodore Kushnareff; Theodore Alexander Casher; Alexander Dalny or Dalney)
Fedor Kushnarev, 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1898, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Student; laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Migrated to the UW with his parents and five younger siblings; his father died less than a year later. After graduating high school in New Haven he attended New York University. Joined the Union of Russian Workers around 1917–1918, organized a URW branch in New Haven, and in 1919 became financial secretary of the URW branch in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Arrested there in March 1919 under the pen name Alexander Dalney, the case was dismissed. In New York he coedited Khlieb i Volia. Arrested several more times under different names, he was last arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. He requested permission for his companion, anarchist organizer Rose Pesotta, to accompany him if deported. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
In Russia, arrested in Crimea in 1920 and sentenced to five years in a prison camp for “propaganda of libertarian ideas” and allegedly taking up arms against the Soviet government, but was later released after authorities deemed his imprisonment an error. He later concluded that “to support the Revolution means to support Lenin and Trotsky.” He briefly attended the Moscow Institute of Journalism and worked for the American Relief Administration as interpreter and secretary for US Colonel Walter Bell in Ufa during the famine, where he contracted typhus. Some sources claim he died in 1925, but in 1934 his mother petitioned the US government to allow him and his family to visit the U.S.
Sources: INS file 54709/522; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Elaine J. Leeder, The Gentle General: Rose Pesotta, Anarchist and Labor Organizer; Groupe des anarchistes russes exilés en Allemagne, Répression de l’anarchisme en Russie Soviétique; Elaine Leeder Collection of Rose Pesotta Papers, Cornell University Library.
Steve K______
His partially illegible name as it appears in the records. National Archives.
Born: Nationality: Yugoslavian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
The individual appears in immigration records under a partially illegible surname. He was deported as a radical to Yugoslavia on September 1, 1920. No further information has been located.
Unidentified newspaper clipping, Paul Avrich Collection, Library of Congress.
Born: 1894, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Bookbinder Migration: Immigrated to US 1907 Affiliation: Anarchist
In 1917 Lachowsky joined New York’s militant Jewish anarchist Shturem Group, which became the Frayhayt Group in 1918. On August 23, 1918, he was arrested with Molly Steimer while distributing leaflets protesting US intervention in the Russian Civil War. Beaten during interrogation, he was convicted with other group members under the Espionage Act and sentenced to twenty years in prison and a $1,000 fine. In October 1919 he declared to immigration agents, “I am an alien and an anarchist…I am opposed to all organized government. Not only the Government of the United States but any government…I’m an anarchist and proud of it.” By 1921, however, he had become disillusioned and renounced anarchism. After losing the Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States, he was deported November 23, 1921.
Disillusioned with radicalism, he returned to Minsk, started a family, and stayed out of politics. He reportedly died of natural causes sometime before the Second World War.
Sources: INS file 54517/74; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Charles Lindsay Lambert
Charles Lambert, 1918. National Archives.
Born: 1881, Arbroath, Scotland Nationality: British Ethnicity: Scottish Occupation: Baker; oil worker; labor organizer Migration: Immigrated to US 1901 or 1902 Affiliation: IWW
Joined the IWW in 1911 and served as secretary of Local No. 453 of the Oil Workers’ Industrial Union in Taft, California, in 1913, and later as secretary of mixed IWW locals in Sacramento from 1914 to 1917. As Secretary-Treasurer of the Wheatland Defense Committee (1914–1915), he advocated sabotage on behalf of the campaign to free the Wheatland prisoners. Elected to the IWW’s General Executive Board in 1916, he played a key role in the controversial decertification of the IWW’s Domestic Workers’ Industrial Union in Denver. A defendant in the federal IWW trial of 1917–1918, where his writings were used against the union by the prosecution, and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. In 1922 his sentence was commuted in exchange for “voluntary departure” to Britain, and he sailed March 31, 1923.
In Britain he attended trade-union meetings and encouraged protests against the imprisonment of IWW members in the United States. He may have worked in the Tampico oil fields during the 1920s, appears to have illegally reentered the US, then returned to Scotland via New York in 1926. During the 1930s he worked as an oil worker in the Caribbean, returned to the UK in 1933, and later left radical politics, becoming a diamond prospector in British Guiana and then a bookie’s runner (i.e. enforcer) in London, where he died circa 1961.
Sources: INS file 54616/59; FBI file OG 8000-160053; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Jane Little Botkin, The Girl Who Dared to Defy: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver; Richard Brazier, “The Mass I.W.W. Trial of 1918: A Retrospect,” Labor History 7, no. 2 (1966); Eric Thomas Chester, The Wobblies in Their Heyday: The Rise and Destruction of the Industrial Workers of the World during the World War I Era; Eric Thomas Chester, Yours for Industrial Freedom: The Industrial Workers of the World from the Inside; Ancestry.com.
Manya Lansky
Born: 1898, Pieski, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Garment worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Migrated to the United States for work and soon became an anarchist in New York. She distributed the Union of Russian Workers’ paper Golos Truda. Arrested July 4, 1920 en route to a radical picnic in Cleveland, she was described by an immigration inspector as “the most typical of the usual conception of the anarchistic type that one may have occasion to observe.” She stated, “I am not in sympathy with the leaders of the Soviets, but am in sympathy with the Russian people.” Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54885/2.
Ivan Lapitsky (a.k.a. John; Lapinsky; Lapitzky)
Born: 1893, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Dye worker Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1917 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Belonged to Buffalo’s Russian Branch of the Communist Party. Arrested January 2, 1920, he initially denied Communist Party membership but admitted it after authorities produced documentary proof. Deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54809/491.
Ivan Laposanko (or Lapczanko; a.k.a. John Lapko)
Born: 1890, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; coal miner; steel worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Pittsburgh in 1914 and served as a delegate to its New York convention in January 1919. Arrested in Erie, Pennsylvania during May Day disturbances on May 1, 1919, and again on December 12, 1919, he testified: “Yes, I am an anarchist; but I am not the violent anarchist that is pictured… I am studying the question of Anarchy.” Deported January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/642.
James Larkin (a.k.a. Jim; “Big Jim”)
James Larkin, 1919. Wikimedia Commons.
Born: 1876, Liverpool, England Nationality: British Ethnicity: Irish Occupation: Laborer; lecturer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Labor Party
Raised in poverty in Ireland, Larkin joined the Independent Labour Party in 1893 and became a full-time organizer for the National Union of Dock Labourers in 1905 before being expelled in 1908. He founded the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, cofounded the Irish Labour Party in 1912, and helped lead the 1913 Dublin Lockout with James Connolly while also founding the Irish Citizen Army.
In the United States he joined the Socialist Party of America, aligned with its pro-Bolshevik Left Wing, and lectured widely, often in conjunction with the IWW. Expelled from the SPA in 1919, he cofounded the Communist Labor Party. Arrested under New York’s criminal anarchy law, sentenced to five to ten years, pardoned by Governor Al Smith in 1923, and deported to England in April 1923, after repeated passport denials by British authorities.
Returning to Ireland he founded the Irish Worker League as the country’s official Communist Party and became head of the Communist-aligned Worker’s Union of Ireland. Attended the Fifth Congress of the Comintern in 1924 and appointed to the Comintern’s Executive Committee.In 1927 he was elected to the Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann) on behalf of the IWL , but unable to take his seat due to an unpaid award for libel against him. He resigned from the Comintern in 1929 and broke with Communism completely in 1932. In 1936 he was elected to the Dublin city government; 1937 elected to the Dáil Éireann as an independent candidate, but lost reelection the following year. In 1941 he rejoined the Irish Labour Party and served in the Dáil Éireann from 1943 to 1944. He died in 1947.
Sources: Emmet O’Connor, “James Larkin in the United States, 1914-23,” Journal of Contemporary History 37, no. 2 (April 2002); Emmet O’Connor, Big Jim Larkin: Hero or Wrecker?
Carl Larson (born Carl Johan Fredrik Larson)
Born: 1885, Upsala, Sweden Nationality: Swedish Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; shoemaker Migration: Migrated to US via Canada 1911 Affiliation: IWW; Communist Labor Party
Joined the IWW in 1912 and the Scandinavian section of the Socialist Party of America in 1917. Arrested May 3, 1918 after denouncing the US government, he was convicted under the Espionage Act in February 1919 and sentenced to one year and a day in Leavenworth. While imprisoned he joined the Communist Labor Party. After his release he served as literature agent for Salt Lake City’s Scandinavian Socialist Club. Arrested again in August 1920, he was deported June 9, 1921.
He reportedly left Sweden in 1924 as a seaman and jumped ship in Canada, returning to the US. On January 7, 1925, the Swedish Communist paper Folkets Dagblad Politiken printed a letter from him about Communist activity in America. In 1932 he was believed to be living in Seattle, and in 1933 authorities received confidential reports that he was in San Francisco under an assumed name and active in the Communist Party.
Sources: INS file 54861/408; FBI file OG 196909; The Toiler, April 2, 1920; One Big Union Monthly, May 1920.
Ludwig Lau
Born: Nationality: Polish Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Poland on September 1, 1920. No further information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Stefan Lavrichuk (a.k.a. Lawrichuk; Steve Liunsky)
Born: 1893, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Belarusian Occupation: Mechanic Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party in Rockford, Illinois, later transferring into the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920, he “voluntarily departed” to Russia via Canada on October 20, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54860/671.
Mikail Lavrinuk (a.k.a. Michael Lawrinuk)
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Hotel worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers; IWW
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York around 1918 and the IWW in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/489.
Giacomo Lavrio (a.k.a. James Lavrio)
Giacomo Lavrio, c. 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1884, Turin, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1901 Affiliation: Anarchist
Worked in mines across the United States and became an anarchist there, supporting Cronaca Sovversiva and corresponding extensively with Italian-American anarchists. Briefly returned to Italy from 1905 to 1907. Arrested in St. Charles, Michigan, in May 1919 while participating in a miners’ strike. He married widow Maria Perocchetti while out on bail and promised to abandon radicalism for her. Deported December 20, 1919.
Upon arrival in Italy he was detained for possible draft evasion, after which authorities lost track of him. He died on October 17, 1923 in Turin of unknown causes.
Sources: INS file 54616/206; CPC busta 2781.
William Lawna (or Launa; Lauva; a.k.a. Alfred Schmidt)
Born: 1886, Libau, Russia (present-day Latvia) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Locksmith Migration: Immigrated to US 1906 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919 and was alleged to have served as secretary of its Elizabeth, New Jersey branch and to have hosted Leon Trotsky in his home, though he denied this claim. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife remained in the United States.
Sources: INS file 54709/103.
Andrey Lazarevich (a.k.a. Andrew Lazarewich or Lazarowitz)
Born: 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
A member of the Union of Russian Workers in Newark, though the only evidence authorities had against him was a membership card for the Executive Committee of the Second Russian All-Colonial Convention of the United States and Canada (a meeting of various leftwing Russian groups held in New York in January 1919). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919. His wife Maria and their newborn child were left behind in the US.
Sources: INS file 54709/347.
Maria Lazarevich (née Kott; a.k.a. Mary Lazarewich)
Born: 1896, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
An anarchist since 1917 and member of the URW, Maria Lazarevich was the wife of Buford deportee Andrey Lazarevich. After actively campaigning to be expelled to rejoin her husband, she was deported to Russia on February 26, 1921 along with the couple’s fourteen-month-old child.
Sources: INS file 55009/14.
Simeon Lebed (a.k.a. Sam Lebed)
Born: 1893, Novovolynsk, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party and later Detroit’s Communist Party Branch No. 22. Arrested January 1920, he was deported March 18, 1921.
Mike Legeze’s URW membership book. National Archives.
Born: 1890, Ułęż, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. He was arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/384.
Terentius Leonov (a.k.a. Thomas Leonoff)
Terentius Leonov, 1910s. National Archives.
Born: 1885, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Shoemaker Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America; Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1918 and the Bridgeport, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in August 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/377.
Mikail Leshchuk (a.k.a. Michael Lestchuk; Listchuk)
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined Philadelphia’s URW Branch No. 1 in early 1919 and became its secretary. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/210; FBI file OG 380953.
Arthur Lesiga (or Lessiga)
Born: 1889, Petrograd, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Sailor Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the International Seamen’s Union and the Union of Russian Workers in New York in 1918. A Justice Department agent claimed he served as treasurer of the URW newspaper Rabochii i Krest’ianin. He lived in a common-law marriage with widow Jennie Garnitz, who had a young son. Arrested in Pittsburgh in July 1919 as a “notorious anarchist,” he was released on bail but rearrested December 3, 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21.
In 1921 he signed a statement of the Union of Russian Anarchist Workers Repatriated from America, which critically supported Bolshevik rule as temporary. He was later arrested by the Soviet government at an unknown date.
Karl Lesse (a.k.a. Carl or Charles Lesse; Oswald Dönitz; Joseph Duncan)
Karl Lesse, 1919. National Archives
Karl Lesse, 1937. National Archives of Britain.
Born: 1894, Hamburg, Germany Nationality: German Ethnicity: Occupation: Sailor Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: IWW
Left Germany at age fourteen and later joined the Sailor’s Union of the Pacific. In San Francisco in 1916 he joined the IWW and became a delegate. Arrested in February 1919 as “likely to become a public charge,” he was released on bail but rearrested in Arcata, California, in November 1919 for violating the state criminal syndicalism law. Convicted and sentenced to one to fourteen years, he was imprisoned at San Quentin from January 1920 to May 1922, then deported March 4, 1922.
In Germany he briefly joined the syndicalist Freie Arbeiter Union Deutschlands, then joined the Communist Party of German and worked as an underground agent for the Communist International’s Department of International Communications (OMS) in Europe and Shanghai during the 1920s and 1930s.
Sources: INS file 54616/17; Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts; Brigitte Studer, Travellers of the World Revolution: A Global History of the Communist International; Barry McLoughlin et al., Kommunismus in Österreich, 1918–1938; Security Service: Personal (PF Series) Files, KV2/1399, National Archives, Kew, England.
Daniil Levchuk (a.k.a. Daniel Levozuk)
Born: 1874, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Levchuk, who had a wife and seven children in Russia, joined the Union of Russian Workers in Buffalo in 1918 and was sent as a delegate to its New York conference in January 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Born: 1881, Volyn, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Ukrainian Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Lived in Fairmont, West Virginia, and was arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. He was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Deported as a radical to Austria on May 8, 1920. No additional information has been located.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Anton Lichkevich (or Lishkevitch; Litshkevitch; a.k.a. Anton Cotie)
Born: 1887, Kamieniec, Russia (present-day Poland) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1912; then to US April 1919 Affiliation: Anarchist
Declared, “I have been an Anarchist since 1905.” Arrested in Detroit in January 1920 while traveling to distribute anarchist newspapers, he openly affirmed his anarchism at his immigration hearing and “voluntarily departed” to Russia February 26, 1921.
Russian authorities at Libau refused him and several others entry because of their anarchism. He and other deportees coauthored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Lenin” in response.
Sources: INS file 54861/375; FBI file OG 367316; Free Society, October–November 1921.
Tito Ligi (a.k.a. Augusto Vitaletti)
Tito Ligi, c. 1922. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.
Born: 1894, Sassoferrato, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Anarchist
Ligi and his brother Adolfo were already anarchists before emigrating together. In the United States he associated with Luigi Galleani’s circle. In November 1920 he was arrested in Scranton, Pennsylvania, for evading the draft after filing a declaration of intent to naturalize, and he briefly became a leading suspect—almost certainly falsely—in the 1920 Wall Street bombing. Deported on August 3, 1922.
In 1925 he moved to Rome with his wife, Bianchi Angela, where they opened a small shop. He remained under government surveillance until 1940; although he retained anarchist beliefs, authorities recorded no significant political activity. Meanwhile his brother Angelo, living in Jessup, Pennsylvania, adopted Tito’s name and married anarchist Maria Giaconi, who later fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Sources: FBI file BS 25-63-12-1; CPC busta 2786; The Nation, May 18, 1921; Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror; Charles H. McCormick, Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers; Kenyon Zimmer, “The Other Volunteers: American Anarchists and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939,” Journal for the Study of Radicalism 10, no. 2 (2016).
Amedeo Lilli
Born: 1894, Acqualagna, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; tailor Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Anarchist
Arrested in September 1917 after an Italian anarchist “riot” during which he was shot in the shoulder by an undercover policeman. Convicted of assault, he was sentenced to twenty-five years in Wisconsin State Prison. Pardoned in 1922 on condition of deportation, he was deported February 16, 1922.
After returning to Italy he became a tailor and, according to police surveillance extending to 1932, did not resume radical political activity.
Sources: INS file 54235/67; CPC busta 2787; 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.
Peter Linecky (a.k.a. Pete; Linieski)
Born: 1885, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Linecky had a wife and two children in Russia. While living in Detroit he joined the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920, he was deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/713.
Dora Lipkin
Dora Lipkin, 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1894, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1910 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
An anarchist and the common-law wife of URW leader and fellow deportee Hyman Perkus. She lived in New York with the family of fellow URW member Boris Shatz. Arrested in October 1919 for “disturbing the peace,” she was arrested again during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and refused to answer questions while detained. She helped lead a hunger strike on Ellis Island protesting detention conditions and was deported with Perkus aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
After plans to leave Russia in 1924 fell through, she married Hyman Perkus and by 1930 both had joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Sources: INS file 54709/275; New York Tribune, November 30, 1919; Elaine Leeder Collection of Rose Pesotta Papers, 1912–1961, Cornell University Library; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Samuel Lipman (a.k.a. Schaie Lipzcuk)
Samuel Lipman, 1921. Paul Avrich Collection, Library of Congress.
Born: 1888, Pinsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Jewish Occupation: Furrier Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Socialist Party of America
Lipman belonged to the Socialist Party of America as well as New York’s anarchist Frayhayt Group, and identified as a leftwing socialist and Marxist rather than an anarchist. A pacifist and vegetarian strongly influenced by Leo Tolstoy, he lived with anarchist Ethel Bernstein, his common-law wife. In 1918 he was arrested with others for distributing leaflets opposing US intervention in the Russian Civil War and sentenced to twenty years under the Espionage Act. While imprisoned he became disillusioned with Tolstoy and falsely claimed anarchist beliefs in hopes of deportation. After losing the landmark Supreme Court free-speech case Abrams v. United States, he was deported November 23, 1921.
In Russia he married Bernstein, studied agronomy, and became chairman of the Department of Economic Geography at the University of the Toilers of the East. In 1928 he applied to join the Communist Party. During Stalin’s purges in the 1930s he was executed.
Sources: INS file 54517/72; Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America; Senya Fléchine Papers, International Institute for Social History, The Netherlands.
Anton Lipsky
Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Presser Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Lipsky stated that he came to the United States “to learn some profession.” Living in New York, he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/456.
Demian Lisiuk (a.k.a. Jim; Lisuk)
Born: 1894, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Migrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1919 and later transferred into Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party of America. Arrested in January 1920, he was deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/772.
Nikolai Lisiuk (a.k.a. Nicholas; Nick)
Born: 1887, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1911; then to US 1917 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Lisiuk had a wife and two children in Russia. Arrested in Pittsburgh on November 17, 1920, federal agents accused him of owning a trunk full of Communist Party literature. Indicted under the Sedition Act and jailed in Allegheny County, he denied radical affiliations, though a confidential informant identified him as a Communist Party literature agent. He was deported to Russia February 26, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54885/71.
Aftanasy Litvakoff
Born: c. 1884, Lopatni, Chernihiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Lived in Homestead, Pennsylvania for six years and joined the URW there in 1917. Arrested for distributing radical handbills, he served twenty days in jail. After moving to Cleveland he was arrested again February 21, 1921. He stated, “I do recognize Anarchism, but I feel that I am not worthy enough to be called such, owing to the fat that I do not understand Anarchy enough to be honored by being called an Anarchist.” Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 55009/22.
Anna Loban
Born: c. 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Housewife Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Married fellow anarchist Konstantin Loban in Akron in 1916 and became a member of the Union of Russian Workers. Deported to Russia with her husband on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 55009/24.
Konstantin Loban (a.k.a. Peter Dedka or Dutka)
Born: 1893, Slutsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Rubber worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Worked at the BF Goodrich plant in Akron and married Anna Loban there in 1916. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1915 and became secretary of its Lansing, Michigan branch in 1919. Asked why he had become antagonistic to the US government, he replied “Because I have been working here for eight years and am still doing hard laboring work and have not enough money to return to Russia, whereas the Americans all have much better jobs, have money and have privileges that I do not have and this country does not belong to Americans any more than it belongs to any one…as it was originally owned by the Indians.” Deported to Russia with his wife on March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 55009/24.
Michael Lojan
Born: 1897, Austria-Hungary Nationality: Yugoslavian Ethnicity: N Occupation: Barber Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined the Communist Party while living in Milwaukee. Arrested there and deported to Yugoslavia in 1923.
Francisco López García (a.k.a. Frank R. Lopez; José Marinero; Jesus Legendario; Alberto Martín; Albert Martin)
Francisco López c. 1923. Boston Public Library.
Born: 1885, A Coruña, Spain Nationality: Spanish Ethnicity: Galician Occupation: Sailor; carpenter Migration: Immigrated to US 1904 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became one of the most prominent Spanish-speaking anarchists in the United States, contributing to Spanish-language radical newspapers internationally. He collaborated on Cultura Obrera (1911–1925) and helped launch its successor Cultura Proletaria (1927–1953). A photograph seized during his 1918 arrest suggested that he also participated in the Mexican Revolution with the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano. In Boston he belonged to the Grupo Rebelión and helped found the Grupo Fraternidad, which corresponded with anarchist groups across Europe and the Americas. In 1912 he married Italian widow Rosa [Rose] De Matteis. Though close to Luigi Galleani’s circle, he rejected advocacy of violence. Arrested February 1918 in a federal raid, agents described him as “practically the only real Spanish anarchist leader in the eastern part of the United States.” Ordered deported in November 1918, he was released on bond while appealing on the grounds that he was a nonviolent “philosophical anarchist.” Joined Boston’s new International Revolutionary Group, which published the Spanish-language single-issue anarchist magazines El Azote (1921) and America (1922). Became secretary of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee in 1920 and coordinated extensive international propaganda. Separated from his wife around this time. After the Supreme Court ruled against him in 1924, he was deported to Spain on May 25, 1925.
According to different accounts, he either jumped ship and swam ashore with help from anarchist sailors, or returned to North America later in 1925 after arriving in Spain. He lived for several years in Canada with his companion Mary Berkowitz, later returning to New York under the name Alberto Martín. In 1953 he married anarchist organizer Rose Pesotta (as “Albert Martin”); they divorced after two years. He coauthored the book Breve historia del movimiento anarquista en Estados Unidos de América del Norte and died in 1967, leaving $500 in his will to the Mexican anarchist newspaper Tierra y Libertad.
Sources: INS file 54379/511; Bieito Alonso, Inimigos ás portas: Frank López e o anarquismo global; Francis Russell, Tragedy in Dedham: The Story of the Sacco-Vanzetti Case; Elaine J. Leeder, The Gentle General: Rose Pesotta, Anarchist and Labor Organizer; Alberto Martin, Vladimiro Muñoz, and Federica Montseny, Breve historia del movimiento anarquista en Estados Unidos de América del Norte; Tierra y Libertad, June 1967.
Andrew Lopitsky
Born: 1894, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Explained his immigration by saying Russians were “oppressed” and “had heard of better wages and freedom in America”heard of good wages and freedom in America.” He joined the Union of Russian Workers in Downs, West Virginia. Arrested December 2, 1919, in connection with a URW-organized miners’ strike at a Consumers Fuel Company mine, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/591; FBI file OG 380920; Charles H. McCormick, Seeing Reds: Federal Surveillance of Radicals in the Pittsburgh Mill District.
Adolfo Lorenzini (a.k.a. John Lorenzini)
Adolgo Lorenzini, c. 1921. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.
Born: 1887, Modena, Italy Nationality: Italian Ethnicity: Occupation: Miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1911 Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist around 1914 or 1915 while living in Spring Valley, Illinois, and subscribed to the Italian anarchist paper Umanità Nova. Deported March 1, 1921.
Emigrated to Nice, France in 1922 and joined the French Communist Party, though Italian consular surveillance recorded no political activity on his pary.
Sources: INS file 54885/16; CPC busta 2839.
Ivan Loshakov (a.k.a. John Loshakoff)
Born: 1891, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Lumber worker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Around 1917 Loshakov became an anarchist and joined the URW in Granite Falls, Washington, later serving as secretary of its Seattle branch. Arrested in Seattle in January 1920, he was deported January 22, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54860/398; FBI file OG 387801.
Prokopy Losiov (or Losioff; Lasioff)
Born: 1891, Chernigov, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; miner Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and child remained in Russia. After collapsing from heat while working in a Pittsburgh steel mill, he was confined for nine months in the Woodville Asylum in Allegheny County in 1917. He later moved to Fairmont, West Virginia, joined the United Mine Workers and URW, and participated in the 1919 miners’ strike. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/600.
Anthony Lovenetsky (a.k.a. H. Levinensky)
Born: 1894, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers
Joined the IWW and in early 1919 became secretary of the URW branch in Monessen, Pennsylvania, where he chaired meetings. Immigration officials described him as “far above the average in intelligence.” Arrested in Pittsburgh in May 1919 and released after four days, he was arrested again during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 while on strike at Page Wire Works. He was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/474; One Big Union Monthly, May 1920.
Vasily Lukashuk (a.k.a. Wiliam Lukov; Lukow)
Born: 1896, Brest-Litovsk, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Lost three fingers and the use of his left arm in an accident at the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company. He briefly joined the Socialist Party around 1915 and became a member of the URW branch in Youngstown in 1916. Arrested while on strike in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/539; FBI file OG 375161a.
Andrew Lukianow (a.k.a. John Wilichko)
Andrew Lukianow, c. 1919. National Archives.
Born: 1885, Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Worked at the Arctic Ice Cream Company in Detroit and had a wife and child in Russia. Arrested November 7, 1919, authorities seized anarchist literature and correspondence with a URW secretary. Detained more than six months before being granted bail, he claimed his name was John Wilichko and Andrew Lukianow was a friend of his, but multiple witnesses identified him as Lukianow. Deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54709/314; FBI file OG 380910.
Chaim Lurie (a.k.a. Michael Loorie)
Born: Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Cabinetmaker Migration: Affiliation:
Deported as a radical to Russia February 26, 1921. No further information has been found.
Born: c. 1882, Cape Breton, Canada Nationality: Canadian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer; soldier; foreman; journalist; editor Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1901 Affiliation: IWW
Served nine years in the US Army at Vancouver, Washington, before discharge due to tuberculosis contracted during service. He joined the IWW around 1913 in Kansas City and became editor of The Industrial Worker in Seattle in May 1916, actively defending members prosecuted after the Everett Massacre. A defendant in the federal IWW trial (1917–1918), he was sentenced to ten years. His wife Kate (Katherine Beidel), whom he married in 1918, edited the paper during the trial until July 1918. His sentence was commuted in 1923, and he was deported to Canada August 5, 1923.
In Canada he continued organizing for the IWW and writing for its US publications through at least 1926, including organizing agricultural workers alongside fellow deportee Sam Scarlett.
Sources: INS file 54616/145; FBI file OG 8000-41990; Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Heather Mayer, Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924; James Sullivan, “Reviewing the 1925 Harvest Drive,” Industrial Pioneer, November 1925; J. A. McDonald [sic], “Training for Freedom,” Industrial Pioneer, March 1926; J. A. MacDonald, “The Reforging of Russia,” Industrial Pioneer, May 1925.
Samuel Mackway
Born: Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Affiliation:
Deported to Russia as a radical on January 22, 1921. No further information has been found.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Victor Macur
Born: 1887, Vilna, Russia (present-day Lithuania) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Polish Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1912 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Joined Russian Branch No. 3 of the Socialist Party of America in August 1919, which soon transferred into the Communist Party. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1920, he accepted “voluntary departure” and left for Poland via Canada October 16, 1920.
Sources: INS file 54859/984; FBI file OG 387500.
Nils Madsen
Nils Madsen, 1960s. Arbeiderbladet, July 26, 1965.
Born: 1886, Drammen, Norway Nationality: Norwegian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1904 Affiliation: IWW
Joined the IWW in 1912 and became General Organizer for the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500 around 1916, facing repeated arrests for organizing. Arrested March 26, 1918, in St. Maries, Idaho under a criminal syndicalism law, he was deported November 4, 1918.
Back in Norway he lectured widely about US conditions and cofounded a Norwegian-American Defense Committee for imprisoned IWW members. By 1922 he was organizing for the Norwegian Labour Party and led its radical youth scouting organization, the Norges Røde Speiderforbund. After the party split in 1925 he sided with the expelled pro-Communist faction, but then appears to have abandoned Communism. From 1934 to 1955 he was an organizer and official of the Norwegian Union of Hotel and Restaurant Workers (Norsk Hotell-og Restaurantarbeiderforbund). He died in 1965.
Sources: INS file 54379/199; “Norwegian Workers Come to the Aid of the I. W. W.,” One Big Union Monthly, March 1, 1919; Sondre Ljoså, “‘Etter beste evne at alltid være en god kamerat’: Speiderarbeid i arbeiderbevegelsen på 1920-tallet,” Arbeiderhistorie (2007); Harald Berntsen, Alle rettigheter!: hotell- og restaurantarbeiderne i service og strid gjennom 75 år.
Piotr Mager (a.k.a. Peter Magyar)
Born: 1891, Russia Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Metalworker Migration: Immigrated to US 1913 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the URW in Youngstown, Ohio around 1915. Arrested in August 1919 and again during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/498.
Ivan Maiboroda (a.k.a. John Mayborada)
Born: 1885, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to US 1916 Affiliation: IWW; Union of Russian Workers
Belonged to the Socialist Revolutionary Party in Russia before emigrating.
In the United States he joined the IWW in Butte and later, in 1919, joined the URW in Seattle. Deported to Russia January 22, 1921.
Deported to Croatia as a radical on September 1, 1920. No further information has been found.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
George Makaranko (or Makarenko)
Born: 1893, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Laborer Migration: Immigrated to US 1914 Affiliation: Communist Party of America
Makaranko, who had a wife and children in Russia, belonged to Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920, he was deported March 18, 1921.
Sources: INS file 54859/621.
Lavrenti Makarevich (a.k.a. Lawrence Makarvitch)
Born: 1894, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus) Nationality: Russian Ethnicity: Occupation: Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1915 Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the URW in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, records state he was deported January 22, 1921. However, a Department of Justice agent reported that he attended a URW conference in New Haven June 4, 1922 as a delegate of that city’s Russian Progressive Organization. His wife Sophie Babitz, living with her parents in Connecticut, reportedly wished no further contact with him. It remains unclear whether he was deported and returned, never deported, or the report of his later return was mistaken.
