The ‘Soviet Ark’ in Context

Abstract

In December 1919 the U.S. government, in the wake of the famed mail bombings (including to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer) and the earlier Seattle General Strike, took a dramatic step. As a part of the broader anti-radical campaign under the Espionage and Sedition Acts, 249 known leftists and many Russians swept up in the famed Palmer Raids - specifically socialists and anarchists - boarded the Buford and set sail for Europe. Among the passengers were notable radicals like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. This work by the Departments of Justice and Labor stands is an important, though underexplored, physical act and moment that institutionalized the first American “Red Scare,” and revealed the broader tensions surrounding “loyalty,” the immigrant population, and anti-radicalism.