Union of Russian Workers

The group was established shortly after the failure of the Russian Revolution of 1905 and was essentially annihilated in America by the 1919 Red Scare in which it was targeted by the Bureau of Investigation of the U.S. Department of Justice.

[1][2] The URW's declaration of principles called for the unification of Russian workers in the United States and Canada so that they might do battle against capitalism and the forces of authority.

Citing the constitution of the URW at length, the article breathlessly declared An organization directly connected with Russia is at work in the United States with an underground propaganda for overthrow of the Government by force.

[5]With public opinion thus prepared, Federal authorities headed by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in an operation conducted by his "special assistant," J. Edgar Hoover, launched a coordinated campaign in over 30 cities across America on the night of November 7/8, 1919 — the second anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.

At 8:45 in the evening of November 7, 1919, dozens of plainclothes and uniformed members of the New York Police Department together with Federal law enforcement authorities swept down on the "People's House" located at 133 East 15th Street, headquarters of the Union of Russian Workers, in what one reporter characterized as "one of the most brutal raids ever witnessed in the city.

"[6] A report in the socialist New York Call melodramatically recounted the violence of the scene: A witness of the event said that he saw one of the Russians trying to rush out of the building, his face and clothing covered with blood.

One who was close to the scene while the raiders were covering themselves with the blood of men and women against whom no crime had been charged heard heavy thuds as of clubs descending on human flesh.

The crowd was not permitted to approach too closely and a Call reporter was unable to see what marks had been made by the clubs of the police on the faces of the assaulted men and women.

"[6] According to the report of the head of the Bureau of Immigration, Anthony Caminetti, a total of 351 aliens "of anarchist and kindred classes" were deported from the United States from July 1, 1918, to June 30, 1920.

[7] Of these political deportations, the vast majority were made at one time aboard the USAT Buford, which departed from New York harbor on December 21, 1919, carrying 249 involuntary passengers.

1909 May Day demonstration of members and supporters of the Union of Russian Workers, New York City.
The Union of Russian Workers fulfilled not only a political but also a social function for its members. New York URW branch, circa 1917.
Peter Bianki, top leader of the Union of Russian Workers, was deported with Emma Goldman on the U.S.A.T. Buford in 1920.
The United States Transport Buford, which deported 249 non-citizen immigrant political prisoners in December 1919.