Biography
Mikhail Orlov was born 1889 in Mogilev, Russia (present-day Belarus). Immigrated to the United States in 1909.
Joined the Union of Russian Workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania in 1915. Authorities suspected he was “one of the moving spirits” of a URW branch believed to exist in the Bertha mines in Morgantown, West Virginia. He was also a member of the United Mine Workers. Received anarchist and IWW literature from Max Maisel’s anarchist bookstore in New York. Arrested December 1, 1919 during the miners’ strike and deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Adapted from Kenyon Zimmer, Red Scare Deportees (kenyonzimmer.com), compiled from INS deportation case files.
Vecellio’s additions print M. Irloff as deported to Russia aboard the Soviet Ark, corroborating the established Buford removal. The contemporary name variation is retained without inventing an initial arrest day or treating deportation as unconditional release.
The One Big Union Monthly, May 1920, vol. 2 no. 5, PDF page 60.