In the years leading up to 1920, a perfect storm of reasonable anxieties and irrational conspiracy theories brewed. In 1917, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia and called upon the working class of other countries to follow their lead. In response, an American Communist Party (which quickly split in two) formed at a 1919 convention in Chicago, long the center of political dissent in this country. Seattle witnessed a general strike, a phenomenon that, in radical and conservative ideology alike, was thought to be a harbinger of revolution. The Boston police went on strike, as did steelworkers in Gary and other mill towns. A series of spectacular bombings and attempted bombings in April and June 1919 indicated that some radicals weren't willing to wait until election victories enabled them to put into place their theories of a society of equals. Among the targets was the Washington home of Palmer himself, and, as the mastermind of the anarchist bombers was an Italian immigrant, not only was he deported but immigrants in general also came under suspicion.