Tag Archives: URW

Sachar to Sánchez

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , ,

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

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

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

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

Andrei Sacharchuk

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

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

Sources: INS file 54861/359.

Mike Sachco

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

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

Sources: INS file 54859-158.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources: INS file 54709/586.

Nikofor Salabay

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

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

Sources: INS file 54860/644.

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

Marcelo Salinas.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources: INS file 54861/31.

Nikolai Saluk (or Celiuk)

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

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

Sources: INS file 54860/24.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ramón Sánchez

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

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

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

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

Sources: INS file 54616/79.

Ramón L. Sánchez

Ramón L. Sánchez, 1921. National Archives.

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

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

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

Sanchini to Sarvas

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Giobbe Sanchini

Giobbe Sanchini. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

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

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

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

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

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

Irma Sanchini (née Cassolino)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources: INS file 54709/184.

Plácido Santamaría

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alex Sarchkoff (a.k.a. Savcakoff)

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

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

Sources: INS file 54859/671.

Ivan Sarvas (a.k.a. John)

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

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

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Sastre y García to Scali

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Manuel Sastre y García

Los Angeles Times, February 23, 1919.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources: INS file 54860/412.

Sergei Savchuk (or Savshuk)

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

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

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

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

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Savitsky’s URW membership card. National Archives

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

Likely involved in anarchist activity in Russia before emigrating.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources: INS file 54861/328.

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

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

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

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

Timofey Saychenko

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

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

Sources: INS file 54325/36G.

Giuseppe Scali

Giuseppe Scali, c. 1920. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

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

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

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

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

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

Schwartzwalder to Sergi

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

George Schwartzwalder

Born: 1882, Baden, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; sailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: IWW

George Schwartzwalder migrated repeatedly across Europe in his youth, living in Austria, Russia, and Italy before returning to Germany, where he served three years in the army and later worked as a sailor between Germany and Argentina.

Immigrated to the United States in 1910 and lived as a migrant laborer. Although sympathetic to the Industrial Workers of the World since 1915, he formally joined the organization only in December 1918 in Kansas City. He was also a personal friend of Joe Hill. Classified as an “enemy alien” during World War I, he was arrested in Bartlesville in February 1919 and interrogated for five hours before being released, then arrested again the following month in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he lost thirty to forty pounds in unsanitary jail conditions. He told officials he hated the Kaiser because “he represented the capitalist class in Germany” and declared “he would not fight for any country, that he felt no patriotism for any country.” Deported to Germany January 7, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54616/107; FBI files OG 211405 and 346328.

Stepan Schwetz (a.k.a. Stephen; Shvets; Shoetz)

Schwetz’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: c. 1885, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: .
Occupation: Tailor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Jumped ship in the United States in 1913 from the steamship Czar. Settling in Baltimore, he married and joined the Russian Branch of the Socialist Party before transferring into the Communist Party of America. Deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54810/337.

George Sechke (or Sechko)

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

A member of the Communist Party of America in New York City. He was deported to Russia December 23, 1920. No further information has been located.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920.

Vasily Sedov (a.k.a. Vasil Sedoff)

Born: 1885, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: .
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Already a radical in Russia before emigrating.

His wife and child remained in Russia when he emigrated. He became a member of the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle. Deported to Russia January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/408; FBI file OG 386687.

Mike Seegan (a.k.a. Semon; Michael Seegunoff)

Born: 1889, Orlovo, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Carpenter; machinist; upholsterer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York City in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/113.

Feodor Semenchuk (a.k.a. Frank)

Born: 1895, Grodno Governorate, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: .
Occupation: Factory worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Became secretary of Russian Branch No. 6 of the Communist Party in Argo. Arrested in Chicago in January 1920, he was deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/596; FBI file OG 375725.

Andy Sereck (a.k.a. Andrew; Sirik; Savick)

Born: 1885, Vilna Governorate, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Metalworker
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1916
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers (alleged)

Emigrated first to Canada in 1913 and then to the United States in 1916, leaving a wife and child in Russia. Authorities claimed he admitted joining the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown in August 1919, though he later denied this. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported on the basis of his stated belief in “sabotage” abroad on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/185.

Alexander Serevetnik

Born: 1892, “Village of Rodzehov,” Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919, he was deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/411.

Ivan Sergeyenko (a.k.a. John)

Born: 1888, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remained in Russia when he emigrated. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Donora, Pennsylvania. Allegedly betrayed by former URW member Stefan Zhuk, after Zhuk was arrested in Donora for stealing chickens. (Neither his INS file nor his FBI file confirm this, although he was identified by an undercover Bureau of Investigation agent, Michael Yankovitch.) Found in possession of URW literature when arrested, he was allegedly “beaten half to death” by police. Convicted under Pennsylvania’s sedition law, he was then deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54885/31; FBI file OG 389087; Volna (New York), May 1921 (with thanks to Malcolm Archibald).

Evdokin Sergeychik

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

Became a member, and later branch secretary, of the Socialist Party in Pittsburgh before transferring into the Communist Party of America. He was deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/301.

Salvatore Sergi

Born: 1890, Melito di Porto Salvo, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Tailor; barber
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist after immigrating to the U.S. in 1912, subscribing to Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva. He opened his own barbershop in Trenton and was arrested in May 1918. Describing himself as a “philosophical anarchist,” he insisted he opposed violence and believed in “educating the people through teaching and preaching and by schools by not by violence.” Deported to Italy June 14, 1919.

Italian authorities recorded no political activity by him through 1936. In 1937 he was jailed for alleged involvement in the murder of a man named Vincenzo Mallamo. In 1968 he donated funds to the anarchist magazine Volontà.

Sources: INS file 54379/326; CPC busta 4759; https://books.google.com/books?id=twZbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22salvatore+Sergi%22+%2B+anarchico&dq=%22salvatore+Sergi%22+%2B+anarchico&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ98D27YHbAhVG-6wKHQJ-AVEQ6AEIKTAA.

Sernaker to Shakman

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Bernard Lazarevich Sernaker (Бернард Лазаревич Сернакер; aka Adolph/Adolff Benet Sernaker)

Born 1884, Warsaw, Russia (present-day Poland). Jewish. Machinist. Raised in Orthodox family. Early 1900s joined the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna) and supported Polish independence; 1905 arrested in Warsaw for protesting the Russo-Japanese War and imprisoned for two months. Migrated to Argentina working as a ship’s fireman; studied engineering there. Spoke Polish, Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Spanish, German, and English, as well as some Italian and Chinese. Circa 1907-8 migrated to England; active in anarchist circles in London and Leeds, where me met an unofficially married Jenny/Jennie Cohen, a participant in the 1905 Russian Revolution. 1909 daughter Germain (“Germinal”) born in London; that same year Bernard migrated to US, followed by Jenny and Germaine. Became estranged from Jenny; lived with daughters at the anarchist Stelton colony near New York City; active in anarchist movement in New York. Deeply influenced by Tolstoy and became a pacifist advocate of “nonresistance” as well as a vegetarian. Daughter Harmony born 1912. 1917 joined the Yiddish-speaking anarchist Der Shturem Group as well as the Conscientious Objectors League. Questioned by federal agents November 1918 after making a speech in which he allegedly hailed “a world-wide revolution that will knock in the gates of Ellis Island.” Moved to San Francisco, where arrested pending deportation; while out on bail, an active member of the “San Francisco Soviet of Russian Workers.” Removed to Ellis Island, where he became a leader of protests of detained radicals and was placed in a separate cell after allegedly “endeavoring to incite the other men to violence,” leading other detainees to threaten a hunger strike. Appealed to conservative congressman Albert Johnson, “Would you be so kind as to order my immediate deportation, and get rid of another RED, which I certainly acknowledge to be.” “Voluntarily departed” as a ship’s fireman September 16, 1920. Wife and children remained in US.

In Russia, worked as an engineer at the Moscow Tool Plant (Московского инструментального завода) and an automobile factory; remarried to Sophia Finkelstein and had two more daughters. Not active politically, but known among his coworkers to be an anarchist and privately remained one. 1949, at age 65, sent to the prison camp in Abez for six year for having “subversive” foreign connections. Upon his release in 1956 he reestablished contact with his adult American-born daughters. In Moscow he and his family were treated as pariahs until his death in 1971.

INS file 54517/81; FBI file OG 325661

See also: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, University of Wisconsin, Madison; interviews with Ralph Coppola and Janet Goldner; personal collection of Janet Goldner; https://bessmertnybarak.ru/books/person/1807049/

Kondrate Serovatka (Кондратэ Сероватка; Conrad)

Born 1895, Grodno area, Russia (present-day Belarus). Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1913. 1918 joined the Russian Branch of the Socialist Party of America in Rockford, Illinois; 1919 transferred into the Communist Party of America. Arrested in Chicago during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Released on bail; joined the breakaway United Communist Party; arrested again August 1920 while posting UCP fliers calling for a general strike against US aid to Poland in the Polish-Soviet War. “Voluntarily departed,” October 16, 1920.

INS file 54859/506; FBI files BS 202600-151-1 and OG 386686

Stanislav Servatka (Станислав Серватка; Stanislaus; Stanley; Serwatka)

Born 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Wife and five children in Russia. Joined the Communist Party of America branch in Passaic, New Jersey. Deported December 23, 1920.

INS file 54810/701; FBI file OG 380377

Vladimir Sestrensky (Владимир Сестренский)

Deported to Russia October 16, 1920. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Nicholai Sevany (Николай Севаны; Nicoli; Savin; Sevin)

Born 1892, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. Laborer. Financial secretary of the Seattle branch of the Union of Russian Workers. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54860/474; FBI file OG 386685

Afanasy Severny (Афанасий Северный; Alfamasy; aka Frank Sergin)

Born 1895, Uman, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1918. 1919 secretary of the Philadelphia branch of the Union of Russian Workers. February 1920 arrested in Chester, Pennsylvania “for endeavoring to make a speech advocating the overthrow of this government and all capitalism.” Deported February 26, 1921

Refused entry on the basis of his anarchism at Libau, along with several other deportees. Coauthored “An Open Letter to the Russian Premier Lenin” in response. Transported to the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland); illegally crossed into Poland, where arrested June 2, 1921, and deported to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. He “expressed his indignation” at the conditions in his hometown and was arrested by the Cheka August 24, 1921, and not released until January 6, 1922. Migrated to the Netherlands; from there stowed away on a ship to Canada but discovered and detained for deportation. While out on bail, illegally crossed the border into Detroit, where arrested. Quoted from jail as saying, “If the anarchists, communists and bolshevists in the United States would spend just one week in Russia they would be cured.” 1928 he was living in Ontario, Canada, where he worked as a papermaker and married Annie Areshenkoff. Died June 11, 1960, in Vancouver.

FBI file OG 383729

See also: Free Society (New York), October-November 1921; Detroit Free Press, September 27, 1923; Billings Gazette (Billings MO), October 14 1923; Ancestry.com

Edward Shainfine (Эдвард Шейнфайн)

Born 1896, Russia. Jewish. Salesman. Migrated to US 1913. August 1919 joined the Socialist Party of America in Philadelphia; November 1919 transferred into the First Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America; became branch secretary December 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported February 1, 1921.

INS file 54809/897; FBI file OG 8000-362520

Witte Moses Shakman

Born Odesa, Russia (present-day Ukraine), 1882. Jewish. Migrated to US 1915. Tailor. Former member of the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party in Chicago. Member of the Communist Party of America and then the United Communist Party. Also a member of the IWW and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. Arrested Chicago. Wife (Rachael) and seven-year-old daughter Lucy (born in Paris) in Chicago. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54885/47

Shardov to Sheleg

Red Scare Deportees, , , ,

Zachary Shardov (Захарий Шардов; Sharkoff)

Born Minsk Province, Russia (present-day Belarus) c.1896. Migrated to US 1912. Machinist. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Hartford, Connecticut in 1917 or 1918. Arrested January 1920. When interrogated declared, “where there is Government there is no freedom.” Deported to Russia, January 21, 1921.

INS file 54861/83

Nicholas Shattovaloff (Shapovaloff; aka Nich Shap)

Born c.1880, Russia. Migrated to the US in 1907. Machinist (missing part of a finger on his right hand). Lived in Seattle and San Francisco, then Honolulu, HI 1908-1917, then Seattle again. In Hawaii met his companion, a Russian widow named Tina Selznoff, “with whom he lived as man and wife in Honolulu,” and she came back with him to the continental US. During his interrogation, he was asked:

  • Q. Do you believe in polygamy?
  • A. No, one is enough…[S]ince we have no children, I hold this woman as a free woman to act as she pleases…I am single but I have got a wife.

Member of the International Association of Machinists (AFL). Arrested in Seattle. Denied URW membership, but said he believed in the principles of the organization and attended URW meetings. “I believe but I don’t belong. I have been to the meetings lots of times.” “Voluntary departure” to Russia, January 27, 1922.

INS file 54861/49

Stepan Shatuka (Степан Шатука; Stephen)

Born 1888, Mogilev region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. 1918 joined the Union of Russian Workers in Seattle. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. When asked what the URW stood for, replied, “To destroy to the power of the capitalists…By a world wide revolution.” Original warrant for deportation listed Poland as his destination; he successfully petitioned to have it changed to Russia. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/28

John Sheehan

Sheehan’s IWW organizer credentials

Born 1863, Roscommon, Ireland. Construction worker; lumber worker. Migrated to US 1904. 1917 joined the IWW; became an organizer and delegate. Arrested January 1918 in Yakima, Washington. Denied British citizenship, declaring, “I never owed allegiance to England; I was a native of Great Britain in my boyhood, but when I came here I…no longer belonged to that.” Deported February 27, 1919.

INS file 54379/54

Gordei Sheika (George Schaiko, Гордей Шейка)

Born 1883, Streli, Russia (present-day Belarus). Metalworker. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and three children in Russia. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Also a member of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers and participated in the 1919 steel strike as an employee at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Deported on the Buford.

INS files 54709/546 and 54616/116; FBI file OG 378918

Mikail Sheleg (Микаил Шелег; Shelef)

Born 1893, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Printer. Year of migration to US unknown. Joined the Communist Party of America in Bayonne, New Jersey, 1919. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported December 23, 1920.

See: Morning Post (Camden NJ), December 23, 1920; Ancestry.com

Nestor Mikhailovich Sheleg (Нестор Михайлович Шелег; Nasto; Michaelovich)

Born 1895, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1914. 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Employed at Singer Sewing Machine Company. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/393

Shepelov to Shveykus

Red Scare Deportees, , , , ,

Efrem Shepelov (Ефрем Шепелов; Ephraim)

Member of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported December 23, 1920.

Included in lists of deported radicals in FBI file BS 202600-33 and INS file 54325/36G

See also: Butte Daily Bulletin, December 29, 1920

Anton Sheroff (Antone)

Born 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1914. Factory worker. January 1919 joined the Socialist Party; tensferred into Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 4, 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/369; FBI file OG 8000-132475

Walter Sherwen (Wherwan; Wladylaw Czerwonajcio)

Born 1892, Suwałki, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Migrated to US 1913. Carpenter. Member of Detroit’s Polish Branch No. 37 of the Communist Party. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/785

Mikhail A. Shinkarenko (Михаил А. Шинкаренко; Misha, Michael; Shinkaroff; Shinkerenko)

Shinkarenko

Born c.1888, Stetsovka, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Involved in Russian Revolution of 1905; sentenced to Siberia with his brother; both escaped 1907 to Canada, then biefly migrated to the US. Returned to the US in 1914. Machinist. Attended the founding convention of the Communist Party of America; became secretary of the Russian Branch of the Communist Party in Rockford, Illinois. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 3, 1920. “Voluntarily departed” to Russia, October 30, 1920.

His sister-in-law prevented his letters from Russia from ever reaching his American-born wife; both subsequently remarried. Died 1957.

INS file 54809/94; FBI files OG 370620 and BS 202600-154-1

See also: interview with John Cunningham, April 26, 2021

Trofin Shipuk (Трофин Шипук; Trofim Chepuk)

Born c.1896, Petrograd, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Tailor. Belonged to the Socialist Party of America for about three years before joining the Communist Party. Arrested January 6, 1920 at the New York offices of the Communist magazine Novy Mir; testified that he was beaten by a Justice Department agent prior to his initial examination. Deported December 23, 1920.

INS file 54860/328; FBI file OG 386641

Alexander Shkilnyuk (Александр Шкильнюк; Shkilnuk; Szkilniuk)

Born 1895, Kiev, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1912 with father; from there migrated to US 1916. Unaffiliated socialist. Registered for draft in Detroit June 1917, but arrested March 1918 in Elgin, Illinois for not carrying his registration card. Returned to Detroit to claim exemption from the draft as an unnaturalized alien, but was detained and (illegally) conscripted; sent to Camp Custer, Michigan, where arrested by military police June 22, 1918 for “disobedience of orders” and (illegally) court-martialed; sentenced to life imprisonment, subsequently reduced to ten years in Fort Leavenworth disciplinary barracks, then released July 1, 1919 but immediately detained for deportation. His admitted belief in socialism did not meet the legal standard for deportation; instead a warrant was issued on the grounds that he was “likely to become a public charge” at the time of his entry to the US—despite the fact that he claimed to have been carrying $400 at the time—because he had subsequently become a military prisoner, regardless of the illegality of his incarceration. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54616/239

See also: Detroit Free Press, June 27, 1918; Kenyon Zimmer, “The Voyage of the Buford: Political Deportations and the Making and Unmaking of America’s First Red Scare,” in Deportation in the Americas: Histories of Exclusion and Resistance

Andrey Shkuraki (Андрей Шкураки; Andrew Schkuraki; Schkruski)

Laborer. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Lukoz Shohidko (Lukcz Shoidko; Louis Sedlko; Zhohidko)

Shohidko’s URW membership card

Born 1886, Antosia, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there migrated to US 1916. Wife and two children in Russia. Joined Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1918. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/381

Fred Sholuh

Born 1897, Vilnius, Russia (present-day Lithuania). To US 1914. Machinist; chauffeur. Member of the Communist Party in Detroit. Arrested January 1920. Deported to Russia February 26, 1921.

INS file 54859/654

John Shumavich

Born 1889, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to Canada around 1910, then to US 1915. Laborer. Member of the Russian Federation of the Socialist Party and then of the Communist Party. Arrested in Detroit October 1, 1919; deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

INS file 54709/83

Mikhail Shveykus (Михаил Швейкус; Mike Shweikus)

Born 1894, Grodno region, Russia (probably in present-day Belarus). Metalworker. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Ansonia, Connecticut. Participated in 1919 strike at American Brass Company in Ansonia. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/324

Siluch to Sokolovsky

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , , , ,

Ludwig Siluch (Siluh; Siluk)

Born 1897, Dubica, Russia (present-day Poland). Polish. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1914; from there migrated to US 1918. March 1919 joined Branch 37 of the Polish Section of the Socialist Party of America in Detroit; then branch transferred into the Communist Party of America. Detroit. Hamtramck. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. “Voluntarily departed” via Canada and Germany, October 14, 1920.

INS file 54859/644; FBI files OG 384187 and BS 202600-772-1

Giuseppe Simeone (Joe; Simone)

Born 1888, Caserta, Italy. Tailor. Claimed, “In Italy I was a republican.” Migrated to US circa 1903. Lived with a cousin in Sommerville, Massachusetts, where he became an anarchist and supporter of Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva (from which he won a bicycle in a 1906 raffle!). Returned to Italy circa 1907 due to illness; served in Italian military. Again migrated to US in 1913. Member of the anarchists Circoli di Studi Sociali in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and continued to support the Cronaca Sovversiva. Also a member and one-time local secretary of a garment workers’ union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Arrested in Boston May, 1918, after his correspondence with Cronaca Sovversiva was confiscated in a federal raid on that newspaper in February 1918. Admitted he was “a socialist anarchist,” but claimed to have only become a radical in 1916. Deported to Italy May 24, 1919.

Upon arrival in Naples June 6 sent to a military prison as a military deserter, then amnestied in 1920. Italian government reported in 1926 that he had “only local influence” in the anarchist movement in Naples, but he also corresponded with Errico Malatesta and subscribed to Malatesta’s Pensiero e Volontà, and visited Malatesta in Elena in July 1925. Placed under surveillance. 1926 emigrated to Canada. 1927-30 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and still active in anarchist movement. 1930s in Brooklyn, subscribing to L’Adunata dei Refrattari. 1935 reported to be living under the name “Gioacchino Simeone” (Gioachino was his middle name).

INS file 54379/316; CPC busta 4815

See also: Cronaca Sovversiva, November 3, 1906

Peter Siniavski (Pete; Siniavsky; Siniawsky)

Born 1897, Chernihiv Oblast, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Migrated to US 1913. Steelworker. Member of the Communist Party of America in Pittsburgh. Arrested in Woodlawn, Pennsylvania, January 1920. Described by an immigration agent as being “of a morose, sullen disposition and is one, who, in my judgement, would be capable of doing harm to this country if the opportunity offered.” Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.

INS file 54860/768

Andrew Sinitza

Born 1895, Minsk region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Factory worker. Employed as an inspector at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. 1917 joined the Socialist Party; 1919 transferred into Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; held at Fort Wayne. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 55009/25

Gabriel Siniza

Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/43

Yakov Sinov (Яков Синов; Jacob Sinoff; Synov; Synoff; Finoff; Zinoff; aka Smith)

Born 1894, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Already a “revolutionist” in Russia. Migrated to US 1915. Carpenter. Member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Trenton, New Jersey. Roommate of Buford deportee Roman Mosichuk. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/255; FBI file OG 379221

Onasin Sivicky (Onasim)

Born 1886, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1910. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Member of the Communist Party in Rockford, Illinois. “Voluntary departure” to Russia, October 16, 1920.

INS file 54709/942

Grigori “Harry” Skochuk (Zjuk)

Born 1893, Grondo region, Russia (probably in present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1912. 1917 joined the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives) in Waterbury, Connecticut; circa 1919 joined the Union of Russian Workers in New York City. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/447

Matfey Skorina (Матфей Скорина; Mike Skorena)

Born 1895 in Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Wife in Russia. Member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 1 of the Communist Party. “Voluntarily departed” to Poland via Canada, October 30, 1920.

INS file 54859/704

Konstantin Skorokod (Константин Скорокод)

Born 1885, Russia. Miner. Migrated to US 1913. Wife in Russia. Worked at Jamieson No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia, where he joined the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. in Fairmont, West Virginia. Arrested December 3, 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/588

Peter Skrigan

Born 1893, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1912. Laborer. Wife and child in Detroit. Arrested January 1920 while attending a geography class at a Communist-run night school. Denied Communist membership, but admitted to believing specific Communist doctrines. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54859/665

Grigori Ivanovich Skrobat (Григорий Иванович Скробат; Gregory; Skrobet)

Born 1895, Osęka, Russia (present-day Poland). Migrated to US 1914. Laborer. Member of the Union of Russian Workers in Waterbury, Connecticut. Arrested March 1920. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/374; FBI file OG 385383

Peter Skudney

Born 1891, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to US 1913. Machinist. Employed by Ford Motor Company at Highland Park. Joined the Socialist Party, then Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party. Arrested Detroit January 1920. Deported to Russia, March 18, 1921.

INS file 54860/57

Nikolai Slyvka (Николай Сливка; Nickoli)

Deported to Austria, May 8, 1919.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Andrey Smal (Андрей Смаль; Andy)

Born 1893, Volhynia region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/512

Abram Snikarenko (Абрам Сникаренко; Snicarenko; Sniewrenko)

Born 1888, Russia. Migrated to US 1913. Laborer. Joined the Socialist Party, then September 1919 joined the Communist Party of America in Pittsburgh. Participated in 1919 steel strike. Arrested January 1920. Deported February 26, 1921.

INS file 54860/645

Malakhiya Sokolovsky (Malachia; Sokolofski; Sokolowski)

Born 1892, Minsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1909. Wife and two children in US. Secretary of Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Baltimore. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Denied being an anarchist; admitted to being a communist. Deportation initially deferred because of his family in the US. Deported February 1, 1921.

INS file 54709/110

Solari to Spisak

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

Giuseppe Solari

Born 1884, Genoa, Italy. Laborer; carpenter. Migrated to US 1905. Joined brother Giovanni in the US, who paid for his passage and his mother’s. Worked his way up from a pick-and-shovel worker to cabinetmaker; financially supported his mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law, and thirteen nieces and nephews. A close associate of Luigi Galleani, a distributor of anarchist literature, and and the secretary and treasurer of the anarchist Gruppo Autonomo in East Boston. Described by the US government as “one of the leading anarchists in New England” and by Italian authorities as “the deus ex machina of many meetings and conferences held among the subversives” of East Boston. Arrested May 17, 1918, for agitating against the military draft; “it required two automobiles to transport to the Federal Building the immense amount of literature and correspondence that was found in the premises” of his home. Deported June 24, 1919, with Galleani and others.

Under surveillance by the Italian government, which noted that he maintained his anarchist ideas but recorded no radical activities on his part. Died 1937 in Genoa.

INS file 54241/22; CPC busta 4857

Rasmus Jacobson Solen (Robert Solen)

Born Manger, Norway in 1885. Migrated to US 1904. Lumber worker. IWW member since June 1917. December 1917 sentenced to one year and a day in McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary for alleged conspiracy “interfering with fire fighters on Government timber lands” while organizing a strike of timber workers in Clallam County, Washington in July 1917. Deported to Norway October 31, 1918 on charges of being “likely to become a public charge,” of entering the US without inspection, and of being convicted of a crime of “moral turpitude.”

INS file 54554/39

See also: Tacoma Daily Ledger, July 26, 1917; Spokesman-Review (Spokane), December 25, 1917

Peter Solocha (Penataley; Solocho)

Born 1893, Chernigov, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Autoworker. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers branch in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in early 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54707/243

Fedor Solenki (Федор Соленки; Fred; Solonika)

Born 1896, Volodymyr-Volynsky, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Ukrainian. Laborer. Migrated to US circa 1912. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in New London, Connecticut circa 1917. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Claims to be illiterate, but in possession of radical literature. According to the Immigration Inspector, “even though his illiteracy or stupidity [should] be taken into consideration, I believe he is very dangerous, because his evidence shows he is easily led, as he admits attempting to secure members for the Union of Russian Workers.” Deported on the Buford.

INS file 54709/241; FBI file OG 374549

Mike Ivanovich Solovieve (Mike Solovev)

Born c.1890 Pinsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). Migrated to Canada 1913, then to US December 1919. Wife in Russia. Laborer. Anarchist. Arrest in Toledo, Ohio, January 1920 after arguing with a Russian Communist speaker at a meeting. At his immigration hearing he declared: “I am a citizen of no country now. I have no country. Well, I am a citizen of Russia because I was born there.” Deported to Russia, January 22, 1921.

INS file 54860/926

Karl W. Sonntag (aka John Fensky)

Song lyrics written by Sonntag during an IWW strike at Potlatch Lumber Company in Potlatch, Idaho, 1917
Cartoon drawn by Sonntag

Born 1886, Breslau, Germany (present-day Wrocław, Poland). Polish. Served three years in the German navy. Laborer; machinist. Migrated to US 1908 (deserted ship in Galvaston, Texas). Sonntag was a skilled metalworker who patented a “tire-testing machine” (US patent no. 1068180) in 1913. Joined the IWW in Kansas City, Missouri, 1914; found work as a lumber worker and active in IWW strikes, for which he wrote radical songs. 1917 imprisoned for three months in Idaho for “criminal syndicalism” following his participation in a lumber strike at the Potlatch Lumber Company. Arrested in Walla Walla, Washington, February 8, 1918, after reported by the “Minute Men of Seattle” for unlawfully working within a federally-mandated “prohibited zone” along the waterfront from which Germans and other “enemy aliens” were barred. (Sonntag had secured employment by using the name “John Fesky” and claiming to be Austrian.) Upon discovery of his IWW membership, he was also charged with advocating the unlawful destruction of property, but then interned at Fort Douglas in Utah as an “enemy alien.” There he spent eight months in the disciplinary barracks for singing IWW songs, on what he described as a diet of “bread and water, and finally two leaden bullets in the leg.” Released on the condition that he “voluntarily depart” to Germany, which he did on June 23, 1919.

He expected “to be busy in the so-called German revolution” upon his return, but he “found that I again got badly fooled,” and he subsequently made his way to Soviet Russia. There he found employment at the Felser & Co. factory in Nizhny Novgorod, where his workday was “sixteen hours and more.” After IWW leader William D. Haywood jumped his bail and fled to Russia in 1921, Sonntag, who had known Haywood in the United States, wrote him a letter of welcome, advising, “if this country needs anything it’s organizers and I think you’ll have a hell of a lot of work to do here…Let’s all do your best to make a paradise for workers out of this country.” No further information found.

INS file 54379/116

See also: Lewis S. Gannett, “Americans in Russia,” The Nation, August 17, 1921

Emilio Souto García (Emilio Suoto)

Born Corunna, Spain in 1882. Sailor, carpenter, laborer. An “old time militant of the Spanish labor movement” and twice arrested during strikes in Spain and secretary of the Carpenter’s Union. Wife, Estrella Morales, and five children in Spain. Immigrated to the US in 1916 (jumped ship). Anarchist and IWW member. Arrested in Philadelphia on February 16, 1919 as “one of 11 Spaniards and Mexicans suspected of being radicals and one of 5 later arrested by immigration officials…While admitting that he has friends who are anarchists and socialists, a careful survey of the evidence fails to show that he has in any way been active as a propagandist. He is certified as being afflicted with gonorrhea, a loathsome contagious disease.” He appealed to expedite his deportation, “as my family is without any help in Spain and anxiously waiting for me.” Deportation warrant issued on the basis of being “likely to become a public charge” and entering without inspection. “Reshipped foreign” to Spain September 20, 1919, on the SS Leonora.

INS files 54648/28 and 54648/29

See: New Solidarity, February 14, 1920

Charles Spangberg

Spangberg’s IWW membership card

Born 1887, Sweden. Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1905. Joined the IWW in February 1917. Arrested in Spokane, Washington, April 6, 1918. Deported November 4, 1918. January 1919 wrote to Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson inquiring why he had been deported and when he could be allowed to return to the US; there is no record of a reply being sent.

INS file 54379/235

Andrew Jacob Spisak (aka A.J. Smith)

May Day flier Spisak was posting when arrested

Born 1886, Rozgony, Austria-Hungary (present-day Rozhanovce, Slovakia). Metalworker; sign painter. Migrated to US 1904. 1912 lost his left eye and suffered a skull fracture from a workplace accident. Communist Party of America. Braddock, Pennsylvania. Arrested April 29, 1921 by members of the Edgar Thomson Steel Company’s private police force for posting radical May Day leaflets published by the United Communist Party; convicted of violating Pennsylvania’s sedition law, then turned over to immigration authorities. Released November 1922; detained again June 1923 and held on Ellis Island for seventeen months while awaiting a passport from Czechoslovakia, which was initially denied on the grounds that he had resided outside of Czechoslovakian territory for more than ten years and therefore lost his citizenship. Deported to Czechoslovakia, October 24, 1924.

INS file 54809/601; FBI file BS 202600-1897

See also: Daily Worker, November 15, 1924

Stalzer to Stechishin

Red Scare Deportees, , , , , ,

Franz Stalzer (Frank)

Born 1896, Reinthal, Austria. Machinist. Migrated to US 1913. Worked as a lathe operator in Cleveland; engaged to a domestic worker named Lena Schmuck. Circa 1917 joined the Socialist Party of America. Drafted into the US Army (despite the fact that as an unnaturalized alien he was not eligible for conscription, and had claimed exemption on his registration card, though he cited “no reason”). Trained at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio; arrested by military police February 1918 after it was reported that “he said that if he were sent to the Mexican border [to fight Pancho Villa] he would fire on his own officers and that he otherwise appeared antagonistic to the war,” and that he had two brothers “in the Austrian Army” who he did not wish to shoot (and later stated had been killed by the French). However, he also “expressed his dislike for Germany” and “says he wants the allies to win.” He was interned in the stockades until the end of the war. After his release he transferred into the Communist Party of America. September 1919 took out a declaration of intent to naturalize. Arrested in Cleveland, January 1920, as an alien “anarchist.” Deported to Yugoslavia, January 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

FBI file OG 146923

See also: Chillicothe Gazette, February 28, 1918; Ancestry.com

John Stanger (Ivan Shtanger)

Born 1891, Bohatikiwei, Austria-Hungary (present-day Poland). Ukrainian. Migrated to US 1911. Janitor. Caretaker of of the Ukrainian Home in Hamtramck, Michigan that housed Branch No. 56 of the Ukrainian Federation of Communist Party. Member of Branch No. 8 of the Ukrainian Federation of the Communist Party, for which he was a “delegate to the local committee” of the Ukrainian Federation. Wife and four US-born children in Detroit. Deported March 18, 1921.

INS file 54861/191, FBI file OG 386410

Konstantin Stankevich (Константин Станкевич; Konstantine; Contanti; Stankewich; Stankevitz; aka Kostuk Clarensky)

Born 1894, Grodno region, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined Branch No. 2 of the Union of Russian Workers in Detroit in 1918. Arrested April 1919 for participating in “disturbance” during a talk by Catherina Breshovsky that was critical of the Bolsheviks. Declared that he “desires to return to Russia.” Contracted tuberculosis while detained on Ellis Island. Deported January 22, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/172

See also: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society

Yevgeny Starikevich (Евгений Старикевич; Eugei; Evgenu)

Born 1890, Demenichi, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Youngstown, Ohio. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919, while on strike. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/542

Simon Starovotenko (Симон Старовотенко; Skarowojyuko)

Born 1880, Morozovka, Russia. Laborer. Migrated to Canada 1913; from there to US 1914. Wife and two children in Russia. 1918 joined a Russian branch of the Socialist Party of America in Philadelphia, as well as the Philadelphia branch of the Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives). 1919 transferred into a Russian Branch of the Communist Party of America. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids, January 1920. Deported February 1, 1921. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54859/904

Feofan Stavishuk (Stauisuski; Alfrance Staveshuke, Alfonso Stavinsky, Jack Stavinsky)

Born c.1892, Katalinka, Volhynia, Russia. Migrated to the US in 1913. Electrician, laborer. Joined the IWW, but quit it in 1917. Member and financial secretary of Russian Branch No. 4 of the Communist Party in Pittsburgh. On February 1, 1917, at Jones and Laughlin iron yard, he was “struck by a sixteen-foot iron bar, on my face and chest,” and hospitalized more than nineteen months and left “crippled” and deformed. According to his own attorney, he was “a man of small stature, thin, yellow, emaciated, with a countenance partially torn away and ‘rubbed off’ as it were by a great iron bar in an accident that occurred some four years prior to the arrest; but a stub of a former nose remains on his fact and two red blotches of skin protrude in the middle of his face and take the place of former lips. He makes a horrible appearance. One’s first impulse, when looking at the man, is to recoil and shudder.” Afterward, he resumed work at same company, but suffered repeated periods of unemployment due to “sickness” resulting from injuries to chest that made hard labor impossible. Arrested in Cleveland in 1920; deported January 22, 1921.

INS file 54861/381

Nikolai Stechishin (Николай Стечишин; Nicholas; Stichishin; Stecsysyn)

Born 1888, Hlesczawa, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (present-day Ukraine). Ruthenian. Miner. Migrated to North America 1908 and became naturalized Canadian citizen. Migrated from Kaslo, British Columbia, to Spokane, Washington in 1913; returned Kaslo and migrated to Spokane again in 1916. Joined the IWW at an unknown date. Arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in March 1920 as part of local authorities’ “attempt to break up the I.W.W. element in the district”; indicted for criminal syndicalism. Deported to Canada September 28, 1920. However, in 1926 he managed to migrate to Alaska from Steward, British Columbia. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS 54325/36G

See also: Ancestry.com; The Spokesman-Review (Spokane WA), March 21 and 24, 1920