Biography
Anton Karachun was a Russian-born United States Army soldier sent to Siberia with the 31st Infantry during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. He deserted, joined Bolshevik-aligned forces, and was later captured and court-martialed. He received a very long military sentence — contemporary reports variously say 20 or 22 years — served at the McNeil Island federal penitentiary in Washington. His case differed from the IWW prisoners alongside whom his name appeared on political-prisoner lists because it involved desertion and fighting against his former command. He was released in March 1925 and subsequently departed for the Soviet Union. The February 6 birthday recorded on the contemporary prisoner birthday list, with the 1897 birth year, gives his date of birth as February 6, 1897.
