Helene Minkin was a Russian-Jewish anarchist immigrant who settled in New York City and had close ties with three of the U.S. anarchist movement's most notable figures – Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and Johann Most – Minkin's common-law husband.

Johann Joseph "Hans" Most was a German-American Social Democratic and then anarchist politician, newspaper editor, and orator. He is credited with popularizing the concept of "propaganda of the deed".