Biography
Alex Kiriluk was a conscientious objector from New Jersey imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Leavenworth. Sentenced to 20 years in prison - reduced to 2 years. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: registered for the draft on June 5, 1917, but not as a CO; was interviewed on Jan. 5, 1919 at the Disciplinary Barracks re: 64th article of war; sentenced to 20 years in prison - reduced to 2 years; was Russian, not a U.S. citizen; WAS HE A CO?
The Revolutionary Age of August 9, 1919 prints a letter received by the National Left Wing Conference on June 21, 1919 from political prisoners confined in the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It lists Alexy Kiriluk among political prisoners who explicitly said they were not Socialist Party members, endorsing the letter's support for the Left Wing and its political aims. June 21 is the conference's receipt date, not an admission or release date; no individual charge or measured custody total is supplied.
