Biography
Peter Bianki was born 1891 in Odessa, Russia (present-day Ukraine). Worked as a laborer, metal worker, printer. Immigrated to the United States in 1913.
Born to Italian immigrant parents to Russia. Hoined the Union of Russian Workers shortly after its founding in 1914. Quickly became one of its prominent leaders. Elected URW Secretary in January 1919 and later editor of its newspaper Khleb i Volia. Married to Nadia Bianki. Arrested in New York in February 1919 and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
In Russia, quickly joined the Communist Party and held multiple Soviet government posts. During the Kronstadt mutiny, however, he shot himself in the arm to avoid being conscripted into military action against it. In 1928 transferred to Siberia to direct a grain-requisitioning detachment; killed in March 1930 during an armed peasant uprising, and was afterward celebrated as a Communist martyr.
Adapted from Kenyon Zimmer, Red Scare Deportees (kenyonzimmer.com), compiled from INS deportation case files.
