SOVIET UNION
On September 4, the day on which he was transferred out of MACS-9 in preparation for his discharge, Oswald had applied for a passport at the Superior Court of Santa Ana, Calif. His application stated that he planned to leave the United States on September 21 to attend the Albert Schweitzer College and the University of Turku in Finland, and to travel in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, and Russia.[A13-462] The passport was routinely issued 6 days later.[A13-463]
Oswald went directly home after his discharge, and arrived in Fort Worth by September 14.[A13-464] He told his mother that he intended to get a job on a ship or possibly in the “export-import business.”[A13-465] If he stayed in Fort Worth, he said, he would be able to earn only about $30 per week; on a ship, he would earn “big money” and be able to send substantial amounts home.[A13-466] Three days after he arrived in Fort Worth, he left for New Orleans.[A13-467] While he was in Fort Worth he had registered his dependency discharge and entry into the Marine Reserve at the Fort Worth Selective Service Board,[A13-468] and visited his brother Robert and his family.[A13-469] He also gave his mother $100.[A13-470]
On September 17, Oswald spoke with a representative of Travel Consultants, Inc., a New Orleans travel bureau; he filled out a “Passenger Immigration Questionnaire,” on which he gave his occupation as “shipping export agent” and said that he would be abroad for 2 months on a pleasure trip. He booked passage from New Orleans to Le Havre, France, on a freighter, the SS Marion Lykes, scheduled to sail on September 18, for which he paid $220.75.[A13-471] On the evening of September 17, he registered at the Liberty Hotel.[A13-472]
The Marion Lykes did not sail until the early morning of September 20.[A13-473] Before its departure, Oswald wrote his mother a letter, which was her last news of him until she read stories of his defection in Fort Worth newspapers:
Dear Mother:
Well, I have booked passage on a ship to Europe, I would of had to sooner or later and I think it’s best I go now. Just remember above all else that my values are very different from Robert’s or your’s. It is difficult to tell you how I feel, Just remember this is what I must do. I did not tell you about my plans because you could hardly be expected to understand.
I did not see aunt Lilian while I was here. I will write again as soon as I land.
Lee[A13-474]
The Marion Lykes carried only four passengers.[A13-475] Oswald shared his cabin with Billy Joe Lord, a young man who had just graduated from high school and was going to France to continue his education. Lord testified that he and Oswald did not discuss politics but did have a few amicable religious arguments, in which Oswald defended atheism. Oswald was “standoffish,” but told Lord generally about his background, mentioning that his mother worked in a drugstore in Fort Worth and that he was bitter about the low wages which she received. He told Lord that he intended to travel in Europe and possibly to attend school in Sweden or Switzerland if he had sufficient funds.[A13-476] The other two passengers were Lt. Col. and Mrs. George B. Church, Jr., who also found Oswald unfriendly and had little contact with him. Oswald told them that he had not liked the Marine Corps and that he planned to study in Switzerland; they observed some “bitterness” about his mother’s difficulties, but did not discuss this with him. No one on board suspected that he intended to defect to Russia.[A13-477]
Oswald disembarked at Le Havre on October 8. He left for England that same day, and arrived on October 9.[A13-478] He told English customs officials in Southampton that he had $700 and planned to remain in the United Kingdom for 1 week before proceeding to a school in Switzerland. But on the same day, he flew to Helsinki, Finland, where he registered at the Torni Hotel; on the following day, he moved to the Klaus Kurki Hotel.[A13-479]
Oswald probably applied for a visa at the Russian consulate on October 12, his first business day in Helsinki.[A13-480] The visa was issued on October 14. It was valid until October 20 and permitted him to take one trip of not more than 6 days to the Soviet Union.[A13-481] He also purchased 10 Soviet “tourist vouchers” which cost $30 apiece.[A13-482] He left Helsinki by train on the following day, crossed the Finnish-Russian border at Vainikkala, and arrived in Moscow on October 16.[A13-483]
He was met at the Moscow railroad station by a representative of “Intourist,” the state tourist agency, and taken to the Hotel Berlin, where he registered as a student.[A13-484] On the same day he met the Intourist guide assigned to him during his stay in Russia, a young woman named Rima Shirokova. They went sightseeing the next day. Almost immediately he told her that he wanted to leave the United States and become a citizen of the Soviet Union. According to Oswald’s “Historic Diary,” she later told him that she had reported his statement to Intourist headquarters, which in turn had notified the “Passport and Visa Office” (probably the Visa and Registration Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the MVD[A13-485]). She was instructed to help Oswald prepare a letter to the Supreme Soviet requesting that he be granted citizenship. Oswald mailed such a letter that same day.[A13-486] (The “Historic Diary” is Oswald’s handwritten account of his life in Russia.[A13-487] The earlier entries were written after the events which they describe; later, in Minsk, he probably kept a contemporaneous record of his experiences.[A13-488] The Commission has used the diary, which Oswald may have written with future readers in mind, only as Oswald’s record of his private life and personal impressions as he sought to present them and has relied wherever possible on official documents, correspondence, and the testimony of witnesses.)
The diary records that when Oswald told Rima Shirokova that he intended to defect she was “flabbergassted,” but agreeed to help.[A13-489] She was “politly sympathetic but uneasy” when he told her that he wanted to defect because he was “a Communist, ect.”[A13-490] As an Intourist guide, Rima toured parts of Moscow with Oswald in the next few days. His primary concern, however, appeared to be his effort to become a Soviet citizen, and she also aided him in his dealings with the Soviet Government.[A13-491] He thought that Rima felt sorry for him and tried to be a friend because he was “someth. new.”[A13-492] On his 20th birthday, 2 days after he arrived in Russia, she gave him Dostoevski’s “The Idiot,”[A13-493] in which she had written: “Dear Lee, Great congratulations! Let all your dreams come true! 18.X 1959”[A13-494]
On October 19, Oswald was probably interviewed in his hotel room by a man named Lev Setyayev, who said that he was a reporter for Radio Moscow seeking statements from American tourists about their impressions of Moscow,[A13-495] but who was probably also acting for the KGB.[A13-496] Two years later, Oswald told officials at the American Embassy that he had made a few routine comments to Setyayev of no political significance. The interview with Setyayev may, however, have been the occasion for an attempt by the KGB, in accordance with regular practice, to assess Oswald or even to elicit compromising statements from him; the interview was apparently never broadcast.[A13-497] (As discussed in [ch. VI] of this report, the Commission is aware that many of the Soviet officials with whom Oswald came into contact were employees of the KGB, the agency which has primary jurisdiction for the treatment of defectors.)
On the following day, Rima Shirokova told him that the “Pass. and Visa Dept.” wanted to see him,[A13-498] and on the morning of October 21, he was interviewed by an official concerning his application for citizenship. The official offered little information and no encouragement; he told Oswald only that he would check to see if the visa could be extended. Oswald returned to the Hotel Berlin.[A13-499] That afternoon, he was notified that his visa had expired and that he had to leave Moscow within 2 hours.[A13-500]
Oswald responded to the unfavorable decision by cutting himself above his left wrist, in an apparent suicide attempt. Rima Shirokova found him unconscious in his hotel room and had him taken to the Botkinskaya Hospital. His diary states: “Poor Rimmea stays by my side as interrpator (my Russian is still very bad) far into the night, I tell her ‘Go home’ (my mood is bad) but she stays, she is ‘my friend.’”[A13-501]
For 3 days Oswald was confined in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. He was examined by a psychiatrist, who concluded that he was not dangerous to other people and could be transferred to the “somatic” department. Hospital records containing the results of the examination[A13-502] state that Oswald came to Russia in order to apply for citizenship, and that “in order to postpone his departure he inflicted the injury upon himself.”[A13-503] They note that Oswald understood some Russian and, presumably based on information which he provided, that he had “graduated from a technical high school in radio technology and radio electronics.”[A13-504] The record states: “He claims he regrets his action. After recovering he intends to return to his homeland.”[A13-505]
Oswald resented being in the psychiatric ward and told Rima Shirokova that he wanted a transfer.[A13-506] She visited him at the hospital frequently and his diary records that “only at this moment” did he “notice [that] she is preety.”[A13-507] Another entry for the hospital period says: “Afternoon I am visited by Roza Agafonova of the hotel tourist office, who askes about my health, very beautiful, excelant Eng., very merry and kind, she makes me very glad to be alive.”[A13-508] These entries reflect an attitude gentler and friendlier than his attitude before the suicide attempt, when he seemed to be coldly concerned only with his status in Russia. Once Oswald was out of the psychiatric ward, he found the hospital more pleasant. The new ward, which he shared with 11 other patients, was “airy,” and the food was good. His only complaint, according to his diary, was that an “elderly American” patient was distrustful of him because he had not registered at the American Embassy and because he was evasive about the reasons for his presence in Moscow and confinement in the hospital.[A13-509]
He was released from the hospital on October 28,[A13-510] and, accompanied by Rima Shirokova, was driven to the Hotel Berlin in an Intourist car. After he said goodby to Lyudmila Dmitrieva, head of the Intourist office at the Berlin, and to Roza Agafonova, another Intourist employee at the hotel, he checked out of the Berlin and registered at the Metropole,[A13-511] a large hotel under the same administration as the Berlin.[A13-512] The Government had undoubtedly directed him to make the change. His visa had expired while he was in the hospital, and his presence in Russia was technically illegal; he had received no word that the decision that he must leave had been reversed. Later that day, however, Rima told him that the “Pass and Registration Office” wished to talk to him about his future.[A13-513] According to the diary, when Oswald appeared at the office he was asked whether he still wanted to become a Soviet citizen and he replied that he did; he provided his Marine Corps discharge papers for identification. He was told that he could not expect a decision soon, and was dismissed. During this interview, Oswald was apparently questioned about the interview which preceded his hospitalization, which led him to conclude that there had been no communication between the two sets of officials.[A13-514] That evening he met Rima, on whom he vented his frustration at being put off by the authorities.[A13-515]
Oswald ate only once on the following day; he stayed near the telephone, fully dressed and ready to leave immediately if he were summoned. He remained in his room for 3 days, which seemed to him “like three years,”[A13-516] until October 31, when he decided to act. He met Rima Shirokova at noon and told her that he was impatient, but did not say what he planned to do; she cautioned him to stay in his room “and eat well.”[A13-517] She left him after a short while and, a few minutes later, he took a taxi to the American Embassy, where he asked to see the consul. (See Commission Exhibits Nos. 24, 912, 913, pp. 264, 263, 261.) When the receptionist asked him first to sign the tourist register, he laid his passport on the desk and said that he had come to “dissolve his American citizenship.” Richard E. Snyder, the Second Secretary and senior consular official,[A13-518] was summoned, and he invited Oswald into his office.[A13-519]
Oswald’s meeting with Snyder, at which Snyder’s assistant, John A. McVickar, was also present, is more fully discussed in appendix XV to the Commission’s report. Oswald declared that he wanted to renounce his American citizenship; he denounced the United States and praised the Government of the Soviet Union. Over Oswald’s objections, Snyder sought to learn something of Oswald’s motives and background and to forestall immediate action. Oswald told him that he had already offered to tell a Soviet official what he had learned as a radar operator in the Marines. The interview ended when Snyder told Oswald that he could renounce his citizenship on the following Monday, 2 days later, if he would appear personally to do so. During the interview, Oswald handed to Snyder a note[A13-520] which suggests that he had studied and sought to comply with section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides for loss of American citizenship.[A13-521] The note contains paragraphs which read like inartistic attempts to cast off citizenship in three of the ways specified by the statute. The attempts failed but there is no reason to doubt that they were sincere. Snyder has testified that he believed that Oswald would immediately have formally renounced his citizenship had he been permitted to do so.[A13-522]
The interview lasted for less than an hour. Oswald returned to his hotel angry about the delay but “elated” by the “showdown” and sure that he would be permitted to remain after his “sign of * * * faith” in the Russians.[A13-523] Soon after he returned to the hotel, he was approached by A. I. Goldberg, a reporter for the Associated Press, whom the Embassy had told about Oswald’s actions. Oswald refused to speak to him.[A13-524] He answered a few questions for two other reporters, R. J. Korengold and Miss Aline Mosby, but again refused to be interviewed.[A13-525] Thereafter, the news services made repeated unsuccessful attempts to interview him, which he thought was an indirect form of pressure from the Embassy to return to the United States.[A13-526]
On the day after Oswald’s meeting with Snyder, his family read in the newspapers about his appearance at the Embassy and tried to contact him. Mrs. Oswald testified that she was shocked at her son’s decision to defect but respected his motives for doing so; later she suspected that he had been forcibly removed to Russia.[A13-527] She placed a telephone call to him,[A13-528] but he either refused to speak to her[A13-529] or cut her off very quickly.[A13-530] So too, on November 2, he rejected the Embassy’s efforts to deliver or read on the telephone a telegram from his brother Robert.[A13-531] A call from Robert was either canceled before it was completed or was refused.[A13-532] Robert’s telegram, along with a message asking Oswald to contact him immediately, which Robert had asked the State Department to deliver,[A13-533] was finally sent to Oswald from the Embassy by registered mail.[A13-534]
A few days later, the Embassy received a letter from Oswald dated November 3 which requested that his citizenship be revoked.[A13-535] The letter stated that he had appeared at the Embassy “for the purpose of signing the formal papers to this effect” and protested against the “conduct of the official” who had refused him “this legal right.” Oswald noted that his application for Soviet citizenship was pending and said that if it were granted he would ask the Soviet Government “to lodge a formal protest” on his behalf.[A13-536] The Embassy replied on November 9 that Oswald could renounce his citizenship by appearing at the Embassy and executing the necessary papers.[A13-537]
Oswald’s diary describes the period from November 2 to November 15, during which he continued to isolate himself, as “days of utter loneliness.”[A13-538] On November 8, he wrote to his brother:
Dear Robert
Well, what shall we talk about, the weather perhaps? Certainly you do not wish me to speak of my decision to remain in the Soviet Union and apply for citizenship here, since I’m afraid you would not be able to comprehend my my reasons. You really dont know anything about me. Do you know for instance that I have waited to do this for well over a year, do you know that I * * * [phrase in Russian] speak a fair amount of Russian which I have been studing for many months.
I have been told that I will not have to leave the Soviet Union if I do not care to. this than is my decision. I will not leave this country, the Soviet Union, under any conditions, I will never return to the United States which is a country I hate.
Someday, perhaps soon, and than again perhaps in a few years, I will become a citizen of the Soviet Union, but it is a very legal process, in any event, I will not have to leave the Soviet Union and I will never * * * [word missing].
I recived your telegram and was glad to hear from you, only one word bothered me, the word “mistake.” I assume you mean that I have made a “mistake” it is not for you to tell me that you cannot understand my reasons for this very action.
I will not speak to anyone from the United States over the telephone since it may be taped by the Americans.
If you wish to corespond with me you can write to the below address, but I really don’t see what we could take about if you want to send me money, that I can use, but I do not expect to be able to send it back.
Lee[A13-539]
Oswald’s statement that he had been told that he could remain in Russia was not true. According to his diary, he was not told until later that he could remain even temporarily in Russia,[A13-540] and only in January was he told that he could remain indefinitely.[A13-541] The Embassy tried to deliver a typed copy of a telegram from his brother John on November 9; Oswald refused to answer the knock on his door, and the message was then sent to him by registered mail.[A13-542]
Toward the end of this waiting period, probably on November 13, Aline Mosby succeeded in interviewing Oswald.[A13-543] A reporter for United Press International, she had called him on the telephone and was told to come right over, Oswald’s explanation being that he thought she might “understand and be friendly” because she was a woman.[A13-544] She was the first person who was not a Soviet citizen to whom he granted an interview since his meeting with Snyder at the Embassy on October 31. Miss Mosby found him polite but stiff; she said that he seemed full of confidence, often showing a “small smile, more like a smirk,” and that he talked almost “non-stop.” Oswald said to her that he had been told that he could remain in the Soviet Union and that job possibilities were being explored; they thought it probably would be best, he said, to continue his education. He admitted that his Russian was bad but was confident that it would improve rapidly. He based his dislike for the United States on his observations of racial prejudice and the contrast between “the luxuries of Park Avenue and workers’ lives on the East Side,” and mentioned his mother’s poverty; he said that if he had remained in the United States he too would have become either a capitalist or a worker. “One way or another,” he said, “I’d lose in the United States. In my own mind, even if I’d be exploiting other workers. That’s why I chose Marxist ideology.”
Oswald told his interviewer that he had been interested in Communist theory since he was 15, when “an old lady” in New York handed him “a pamphlet about saving the Rosenbergs.” But when Mosby asked if he were a member of the Communist Party he said that he had never met a Communist and that he “might have seen” one only once, when he saw that “old lady.” He told her that while he was in the Marine Corps he had seen American imperialism in action, and had saved $1,500 in secret preparation for his defection to Russia. His only apparent regrets concerned his family: his mother, whom he had not told of his plans, and his brother, who might lose his job as a result of the publicity.[A13-545]
The interview lasted for about 2 hours. According to Oswald’s own account, he exacted a promise from Miss Mosby that she would show him the story before publication but she broke the promise; he found the published story to contain distortions of his words.[A13-546] Miss Mosby’s notes indicate that he called her to complain of the distortions, saying in particular that his family had not been “poverty-stricken” and that his defection was not prompted by personal hardship but that was “a matter only of ideology.”[A13-547]
According to the diary, Oswald was told in mid-November that he could remain temporarily in Russia “until some solution was found with what to do” with him.[A13-548] Armed with this “comforting news,”[A13-549] he granted a second interview, again to a woman, on November 16.[A13-550] Miss Priscilla Johnson of the North American Newspaper Alliance knocked on the door of his room at the Metropole, and Oswald agreed to come to her room at the hotel that evening. This interview lasted about 5 hours, from 9 p.m. until about 2 in the morning. During the interview he frequently mentioned the fact that he would be able to remain in Russia, which gave him great pleasure, but he also showed disappointment about the difficulties standing in the way of his request for Soviet citizenship. He repeated most of the information he had given Aline Mosby and again denied having been a member of the Communist Party or even ever having seen a Communist in the United States. When Miss Johnson asked him to specify some of the socialist writers whose works he had read during the past 5 years, he could name only Marx and Engels; the only title he could recall was “Das Kapital.” They talked for a long while about Communist economic theory, which Miss Johnson thought was “his language”; she became convinced that his knowledge of the subject was very superficial.[A13-551] He commented that the Russians treated his defection as a “legal formality,” neither encouraging nor discouraging it.[A13-552] When she suggested that if he really wished to renounce his American citizenship he could do so by returning to the Embassy, he said that he would “never set foot in the Embassy again,” since he was sure that he would be given the “same run-around” as before. He seemed to Miss Johnson to be avoiding effective renunciation, consciously or unconsciously, in order to preserve his right to reenter the United States.[A13-553]
For the rest of the year, Oswald seldom left his hotel room where he had arranged to take his meals, except perhaps for a few trips to museums. He spent most of his time studying Russian, “8 hours a day” his diary records. The routine was broken only by another interview at the passport office; occasional visits from Rima Shirokova; lessons in Russian from her and other Intourist guides; and a New Year’s visit from Roza Agafonova, who gave him a small “Boratin” clown as a New Year’s present.[A13-554] He replied to a letter from Robert in a letter quoted at length in chapter VII of this report, which contains his most bitter statements against the United States.[A13-555] Robert received a third letter on December 17, in which Oswald said that he would not write again and did not wish Robert to write to him. The letter concluded:
I am starting a new life and I do not wish to have anything to do with the old life.
I hope you and your family will always be in good health.
Lee[A13-556]
His mother mailed him a personal check for $20 dated December 18. It was returned to her on January 5 with the notation that he could not “use this check, of course”; he asked her to send him $20 in cash and added that he had little money and needed “the rest,” presumably a reference to the $100 he had given her in September. Mrs. Oswald later sent him a money order for about $25.[A13-557]
On January 4, Oswald was summoned to the Soviet Passport Office and given Identity Document for Stateless Persons No. 311479.[A13-558] He was told that he was being sent to Minsk,[A13-559] an industrial city located about 450 miles southwest of Moscow and with a population in 1959 of about 510,000.[A13-560] His disappointment that he had not been granted Soviet citizenship was balanced by relief that the uncertainty was ended; he told Rima Shirokova that he was happy.[A13-561] On the following day, he went to a Government agency which the Russians call the “Red Cross”; it gave him 5,000 rubles (about 500 new rubles, or $500 at the official exchange rate).[A13-562] He used 2,200 rubles to pay his hotel bill and 150 rubles to purchase a railroad ticket to Minsk.[A13-563]
Oswald arrived in Minsk on January 7. He was met at the station by two “Red Cross” workers who took him to the Hotel Minsk. Two Intourist employees, both of whom spoke excellent English, were waiting for him.[A13-564] One of them, a young woman named Roza Kuznetsova, became his close friend and attended his 21st birthday party in October 1960.[A13-565] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2609, [p. 271].) On the following day, Oswald met the “Mayor,” who welcomed him to Minsk, promised him a rent-free apartment, and warned him against “uncultured persons” who sometimes insulted foreigners.[A13-566]
Oswald reported for work at the Belorussian Radio and Television Factory on January 13.[A13-567] Two days earlier he had visited the factory and met Alexander Ziger, a Polish Jew who had emigrated to Argentina in 1938 and went to Russia in 1955. Ziger was a department head at the factory; he spoke English, and he and his family became good friends of Oswald and corresponded with him after his return to the United States.[A13-568] The factory, a major producer of electronic parts and systems, employed about 5,000 persons.[A13-569] Oswald’s union card described him as a “metal worker”;[A13-570] Marina testified that he fashioned parts on a lathe.[A13-571] As Oswald later described it, the shop in which he worked, called the “experimental shop,”[A13-572] employed 58 workers and 5 foremen. It was located in the middle part of the factory area in a 2-story building made of red brick. The workday began at 8 o’clock sharp. Work was assigned according to “pay levels,” which were numbered from one to five plus a top “master” level. A worker could ask to be tested for a higher level at any time.[A13-573]
Oswald had hoped to continue his education in Russia, and was disappointed by his assignment to a factory.[A13-574] His salary varied from 700 to perhaps as high as 900 rubles per month ($70-$90).[A13-575] Although high compared with the salaries of certain professional groups in Russia, which in some areas have not grown proportionately with the wages of factory workers,[A13-576] his salary was normal for his type of work.[A13-577] It was supplemented, however, by 700 rubles per month, which he received from the “Red Cross,” and, according to Oswald, his total income was about equal to that of the director of the factory.[A13-578] In August he applied for membership in the union;[A13-579] he became a dues-paying member in September.[A13-580]
Undoubtedly more noteworthy to most Russians than his extra income was the attractive apartment which Oswald was given in March 1959. It was a small flat with a balcony overlooking the river,[A13-581] for which he paid only 60 rubles a month.[A13-582] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2606, [p. 271].) Oswald describes it in his diary as “a Russian dream.”[A13-583] Had Oswald been a Russian worker, he would probably have had to wait for several years for a comparable apartment, and would have been given one even then only if he had a family.[A13-584] The “Red Cross” subsidy and the apartment were typical of the favorable treatment which the Soviet Union has given defectors.[A13-585]
Oswald’s diary records that he enjoyed his first months in Minsk. His work at the factory was easy and his coworkers were friendly and curious about life in the United States; he declined an invitation to speak at a mass meeting. He took Roza Kuznetsova, his interpreter and language teacher,[A13-586] to the theater, a movie, or an opera almost every night, until he moved into his apartment and temporarily lost contact with her. He wrote in his diary, “I’m living big and am very satisfied.”[A13-587] In March or April, he met Pavel Golovachev, a co-worker at the factory, whom Oswald described as intelligent and friendly and an excellent radio technician. (See Commission Exhibit No. 2609, [p. 271].) Oswald helped Golovachev with English.[A13-588] They became friends,[A13-589] and corresponded after Oswald returned to the United States until at least as late as September 1963.[A13-590]
The spring and summer passed easily and uneventfully. There were picnics and drives in the country, which Oswald described as “green beauty.”[A13-591] On June 18, he obtained a hunting license and soon afterward purchased a 16-gage single-barrel shotgun. His hunting license identifies him as “Aleksy Harvey Oswald.” (He was called “Alec” by his Russian friends, because “Lee” sounded foreign to them and was difficult for them to pronounce.)[A13-592] He joined a local chapter of the Belorussian Society of Hunters and Fishermen, a hunting club sponsored by his factory, and hunted for small game in the farm regions around Minsk about half a dozen times in the summer and fall. The hunters spent the night in small villages and often left their bag with the villagers; Oswald described the peasant life which he saw as crude and poor.[A13-593] Sometime in June, he met Ella German, a worker at the factory, of whom he later said he “perhaps fell in love with her the first minute” he saw her.[A13-594] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2609, [p. 271].)
At the same time, however, the first signs of disillusionment with his Russian life appeared. He noted in his diary that he felt “uneasy inside” after a friend took him aside at a party and advised him to return to the United States.[A13-595] Another entry compared life in Minsk with military life:
I have become habituatated to a small cafe which is where I dine in the evening. The food is generaly poor and always eactly the same, menue in any cafe, at any point in the city. The food is cheap and I don’t really care about quiality after three years in the U.S.M.C.[A13-596]
In an entry for August-September, he wrote that he was becoming “increasingly concious of just what sort of a sociaty” he lived in.[A13-597]
He spent New Year’s Day at the home of Ella German and her family. They ate and drank in a friendly atmosphere, and he was “drunk and happy” when he returned home. During the walk back to his apartment he decided to ask Ella to marry him. On the following night, after he had brought her home from the movies, he proposed on her doorstep. She rejected him, saying that she did not love him and that she was afraid to marry an American. She said that the Polish intervention in the 1920’s had led to the arrest of all people in the Soviet Union of Polish origin and she feared that something similar might happen to Americans some day. Oswald was “too stunned to think,” and concluded that she had gone out with him only because she was envied by the other girls for having an American as an escort.[A13-598] But in one of the entries in the diary he appears to have attributed her failure to love him to “a state of fear which was always in the Soviet Union.”[A13-599] His affection for Ella German apparently continued for some time;[A13-600] he had his last formal date with her in February and remained on friendly terms with her as long as he was in Russia.[A13-601]
After he returned to the United States, Oswald often commented on Russian life. He discussed the Soviet systems of public education[A13-602] and medical care.[A13-603] He observed to one acquaintance that everyone in Russia was trained to do something,[A13-604] and discussed with another the system of regular wage and salary increases.[A13-605] His most frequent criticisms concerned the contrast between the lives of ordinary workers and the lives of Communist Party members. He told an acquaintance in Dallas that the working class in the Soviet Union made just about enough to buy clothing and food and that only party members could afford luxuries.[A13-606] On another occasion, he remarked that if he had had as much money as some of the “managers,” he could have visited the Black Sea resorts.[A13-607] He complained about the lack of freedom in Russia;[A13-608] the lack of opportunity to travel;[A13-609] inadequate housing;[A13-610] and the chronic scarcity of food products.[A13-611] To one acquaintance, he observed that the party members were all “opportunists,” who “shouted the loudest and made the most noise,” but who were interested only in their own welfare.[A13-612]
He expressed similar views in a manuscript which he worked on in Russia[A13-613] and probably intended to publish; soon after he returned to the United States, he hired a stenographer to prepare a typed draft from his notes.[A13-614] Oswald described the manuscript, which amounted to 50 typed pages, as “a look into the lives of work-a-day average Russians.”[A13-615]
The manuscript describes the factory in which Oswald worked and suggests that political considerations of which Oswald disapproved dominated its operation. He attributed the lack of unemployment to the shortage of labor-saving machinery and the heavy load of bureaucracy, which kept “tons of paper work” flowing in and out of the factory and required a high foreman-worker ratio.[A13-616] In addition, he wrote, there was “a small army of examiners, committees, and supply checkers and the quality-control board.”[A13-617]
He described life in Russia, including life at the factory, as centered around the “Kollective.” The head of the Kollective in his shop, Comrade Lebizen, saw to it that everyone maintained shop discipline, attended party meetings, and received all the new propaganda as it came out. He hung the walls of the shop with signs and slogans of the Communist Party. Meetings of the Kollective were “so numerous as to be staggering.” In a single month, there were scheduled one meeting of the professional union, four political information meetings, two young Communist meetings, one meeting of the production committee to discuss ways of improving work, two Communist Party meetings, four meetings of the “School of Communist Labor,” and one sports meeting. All but one of them were compulsory for Communist Party members and all but three were compulsory for everyone.[A13-618] (Marina Oswald testified that her husband did not attend the courses in Marxism and Leninism given in the factory for party members and those who wished to become party members.)[A13-619] They were scheduled so as not to interfere with work, and lasted anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Oswald said that no one liked the meetings, which were accepted “philosophically”; at the political meetings especially, everyone paid strict attention, and party members were posted in the audience to watch for the slightest sign that anyone’s attention might relax, even for a moment.[A13-620]
Oswald wrote that the “spontaneous” demonstrations on Soviet holidays or for distinguished visitors were almost as well organized as the Kollectivist meetings at the factory.[A13-621] He noted that elections were supervised to ensure that everyone voted, and that they voted for the candidates of the Communist Party. The manuscript touches on other aspects of Soviet life—as the housing shortage and the corruption which it evoked, the “rest-homes” where workers had their vacations, television and the omni-present radio, and Russian reading habits.[A13-622] This writing also may include only what Oswald thought might be acceptable.
On January 4, 1961, I year after he had been issued his “stateless” residence permit, Oswald was summoned to the passport office in Minsk and asked if he still wanted to become a Soviet citizen. He replied that he did not, but asked that his residence permit be extended for another year.[A13-623] The entry in his diary for January 4-31 reads: “I am stating to reconsider my disire about staying. The work is drab. The money I get has nowhere to be spent. No nightclubs or bowling allys, no places of recreation acept the trade union dances. I have had enough.”[A13-624]
The American Embassy in Moscow had not heard from Oswald after it received his letter of November 3, 1959.[A13-625] On February 13, 1961, it received an undated letter from him which had been mailed in Minsk about a week earlier. He asked for the return of his passport and stated that he wanted to return to the United States if he could “come to some agreement [with the American Government] concerning the dropping of any legal proceedings” against him. He noted that he had not become a Soviet citizen and was living in Russia with “nonpermanent type papers for a foreigner,” and said that he did not appear personally because he could not leave Minsk without permission. The letter concluded: “I hope that in recalling the responsibility I have to America that you remember yours in doing everything you can to help me, since I am an American citizen.”[A13-626] In this letter, Oswald referred to a previous letter which he said had gone unanswered; there is evidence that such a letter was never sent.[A13-627]
The Second Secretary, Richard Snyder, answered on February 28 that Oswald would have to appear at the Embassy personally to discuss his return to the United States.[A13-628] In the meantime, Oswald’s mother, who in January had inquired at the Department of State about his whereabouts,[A13-629] had been notified of his letter.[A13-630] A second letter from Oswald, posted on March 5, reached the Embassy on March 20; it reiterated that he was unable to leave Minsk without permission and asked that “preliminary inquiries * * * be put in the form of a questionnaire” and sent to him.[A13-631] His diary entry for this period records his “state of expectation about going back to the U.S.,” and adds that a friend had approved his plans but warned him not to discuss them with others.[A13-632] (The Soviet authorities had undoubtedly intercepted and read the correspondence between Oswald and the Embassy and knew of his plans.[A13-633] Soon after the correspondence began, his monthly payments from the “Red Cross” were cut off.)[A13-634] Having informed Washington,[A13-635] the Embassy wrote to Oswald on March 24, stating again that he would have to come to Moscow.[A13-636] Later, the Department of State decided that Oswald’s passport should be returned to him only if he appeared at the Embassy for it and the Embassy was satisfied, after exploring the matter with him, that he had not renounced his citizenship.[A13-637]
Sometime in the second week of March, Miss Katherine Mallory, who was on tour in Minsk with the University of Michigan symphonic band, found herself surrounded by curious Russian citizens. A young man who identified himself as a Texan and former marine stepped out of the crowd and asked if she needed an interpreter; he interpreted for her for the next 15 or 20 minutes. Later he told her that he despised the United States and hoped to stay in Minsk for the rest of his life. Miss Mallory is unable to swear that her interpreter was Oswald, but is personally convinced that it was he.[A13-638]
A few days later, probably on March 17, Oswald attended a trade union dance with a friend, Erik Titovyets, at the Palace of Culture for Professional Workers in Minsk.[A13-639] The dance followed a lecture by a Russian woman who had recently returned from a trip to the United States.[A13-640] Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova arrived too late to hear the lecture[A13-641] but was at the dance. Oswald noticed her and asked Yuriy Merezhinskiy, the son of the lecturer and a friend of both Oswald and Marina, to introduce him to her. Oswald asked her to dance. According to the diary, they liked each other immediately and he obtained her telephone number before she left.[A13-642] Marina testified that she told Oswald that she might see him at another dance, but did not give him her telephone number.[A13-643] Oswald was smitten.[A13-644]
Marina Prusakova was 19 years old when she met Oswald. (See Commission Exhibit No. 1395, [p. 270].) She was born on July 17, 1941, at Severodvinsk (formerly Molotovsk), Arkhangel Oblast’, Russia.[A13-645] A few years later, her mother, Klavdiya Vasilievna Prusakova, married Aleksandr Ivanovich Medvedev, who became the only father Marina knew.[A13-646] While she was still a young girl, Marina went to Arkhangel’sk, Arkhangel Oblast’, to live with her maternal grandparents, Tatyana Yakovlevna Prusakova and Vasiliy Prusakov. Her grandfather died when Marina was about 4 years old; she continued to live with her grandmother for some time.[A13-647] When she was not more than 7, she moved to Zguritva, Moldavian SSR (formerly called Bessarabia) to live with her mother and stepfather, who was an electrical worker.[A13-648] In 1952, the family moved to Leningrad,[A13-649] where her stepfather obtained a job in a power station.[A13-650] Marina testified that neither he nor her mother was a member of the Communist Party.[A13-651]
In Leningrad, Marina attended the Three Hundred and Seventy-Fourth Women’s School. After she had completed the seventh grade at the school in 1955,[A13-652] she entered the Pharmacy Teknikum for special training, which she had requested on the ground that her mother was ill and Marina might need to have a specialty in order to support herself. While she was at the Teknikum, she joined the Trade Union for Medical Workers[A13-653] and, in her last year there, worked part time in the Central Pharmacy in Leningrad. She graduated from the Teknikum with a diploma in pharmacy in June 1959.
Marina’s mother had died in 1957, during Marina’s second year at the Teknikum; she continued to live with her stepfather, but had little contact with him. She testified that she did not get along with her stepfather, whom she displeased by her fresh conduct; she said that she was not easily disciplined[A13-654] and was a source of concern to him.[A13-655] Because of the friction between them, Marina regarded her childhood as an unhappy one.
After her graduation, Marina was assigned to a job preparing and packing orders in a pharmaceutical warehouse in Leningrad; as a new employee she had the right to leave this job within 3 days after the assignment,[A13-656] and she did so after the first day. She took no job for the next 2 months, at the end of which she went to live in Minsk with an aunt and uncle, the Prusakovs, who had no children. She had known them since she was a child and there was a mutual affection between her and them.[A13-657] Her uncle, a member of the Communist Party,[A13-658] was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and headed the local bureau concerned with lumber. The Prusakovs had one of the best apartments in a building reserved for MVD employees.[A13-659]
Marina was 18 when she arrived in Minsk. She had had boyfriends in Leningrad but was not interested in marriage. In October 1960 she started work in the drug section of the Third Clinical Hospital where she earned about 450 rubles per month;[A13-660] at about the same time she became a member of the local Komsomol, the Communist youth organization.[A13-661] Her friends were mostly students, whose social life consisted of meeting in cafes to sip coffee, read newspapers, gossip, and carry on discussions. The group of friends “ran together,” and Marina did not attach herself to a particular boyfriend. She enjoyed this life, which she had been leading for about 7 months when she met Oswald at the dance at the Palace of Culture in March 1961.[A13-662]
When Marina met Oswald, she thought he was from one of the Russian-speaking Baltic countries because he spoke with an accent; later that same evening she learned that he was an American.[A13-663] She met him again at another dance a week later.[A13-664] They danced together most of the evening, at the end of which he walked home with her. They arranged to meet again the following week.[A13-665] Before the scheduled time, Oswald called to say that he was in the hospital and that Marina should visit him there.[A13-666] Medical records furnished to the Commission by the Russian Government show that Oswald was admitted to the Clinical Hospital—Ear, Nose, and Throat Division, on Thursday, March 30, 1961.[A13-667] Marina visited him often,[A13-668] taking advantage of her uniform to visit him outside regular visiting hours, which were only on Sunday.[A13-669] On Easter Sunday, the first Sunday after his admission to the hospital, she brought him an Easter egg.[A13-670] On a subsequent visit, he asked her to be his fiancee, and she agreed to consider it.[A13-671] He left the hospital on April 11.[A13-672]
During these visits, Marina apparently discussed with Oswald his reasons for coming to Russia and his current status. According to her later account, he told her that he had surrendered his American documents to the Embassy in Moscow and had told American officials that he did not intend to return to the United States. He did not say definitely that he was no longer an American citizen, but said in answer to a question about his citizenship that he could not return to the United States.[A13-673]
Oswald visited Marina regularly at her aunt and uncle’s apartment; they were apparently not disturbed by the fact that he was an American and did not disapprove of her seeing him. He continued to ask her to marry him and, according to her recollection, she accepted his proposal on April 20;[A13-674] Oswald’s diary puts the date 5 days earlier.[A13-675] Marina testified that she believed that Oswald could not return to the United States when she agreed to marry him, and that she had not married him in hope of going to the United States.[A13-676]
After filing notice of their intent to marry at the registrar, obtaining the special consent necessary for an alien to marry a citizen, and waiting the usual 10 days, they were married on April 30.[A13-677] The diary entry for the wedding day reads:
two of Marinas girl friends act as bridesmaids. We are married. At her aunts home we have a dinner reception for about 20 friends and neboribos who wish us happiness (in spite of my origin and accept [accent?] which was in general rather disquiting to any Russian since for. are very rare in the soviet Union even tourist. After an evening of eating and drinking in which * * * [Marina’s uncle] started a fright [fight?] and the fuse blow on an overloaded circite we take our leave and walk the 15 minutes to our home. We lived near each other, at midnight we were home.[A13-678]
They both took 3 days off from their jobs, which they spent in Minsk.[A13-679]
Oswald wrote in his diary for May 1, 1 day after the wedding: “In spite of fact I married Marina to hurt Ella I found myself in love with Marina.”[A13-680] The next entry, marked simply “May,” reads in part:
The trasistion of changing full love from Ella to Marina was very painfull esp. as I saw Ella almost every day at the factory but as the days & weeks went by I adjusted more and more [to] my wife mentaly * * * She is maddly in love with me from the very start. Boat rides on Lake Minsk walks through the parks evening at home or at Aunt Valia’s place mark May.”[A13-681]
And in June: “A continuence of May, except that; we draw closer and closer, and I think very little now of Ella.”[A13-682]
Sometime within the first month or two after they were married Oswald told his wife that he was anxious to return to the United States. The diary says that he told her “in the last days” of June and that she was “slightly startled” but encouraged him to do as he wished.[A13-683] Marina’s recollection is that she learned of his plan between May and July. Embassy records show that Oswald notified the Embassy in a letter received on May 25 that he was married and his wife would seek to accompany him to the United States.[A13-684] At about this time, the Oswalds began to make inquiries in Soviet offices about exit visas.[A13-685]
While these preparations were being made, the Oswalds apparently enjoyed their new life.[A13-686] They ate most of their meals in cafes or at restaurants where they worked.[A13-687] For amusement, they went boating, attended the opera, concerts, the circus, and films; occasionally, they gathered with a group of friends for a cooperative meal at someone’s apartment.[A13-688] His Russian improved, but he retained an accent and never learned to speak grammatically or to write well.[A13-689] He read the English language edition of the Daily Worker and books, also in English, on Marxism and Leninism; he also read some Russian newspapers.[A13-690]
Before he married Marina (and presumably before February, when he had begun his efforts to return to the United States) Oswald had applied for admission to the Patrice Lumumba Friendship University in Moscow. He received a letter dated May 3 apologizing for the delay in responding to his application and turning it down on the ground that the university had been established exclusively for students from the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.[A13-691] Oswald expressed his disappointment at having been turned down to Marina.[A13-692]
Oswald reopened his correspondence with his family on May 5, with a friendly letter to his brother Robert. He said nothing about his contacts with the American Embassy, but mentioned that he had married, and that he had a job as a “metal-smith” and was living well. He asked his brother for their mother’s address, and encouraged him to come to Minsk for a visit.[A13-693] Robert answered the letter quickly. On May 31, Oswald wrote again and expressed his pleasure at having heard from Robert after so long. Apparently in response to an offer to send him whatever he needed, Oswald wrote that he needed nothing and thanked Robert for the thought; he suggested, however, that Marina might like a small wedding present. At the end of the letter he said that he did not know whether he would ever return to the United States; he said that before he could return he would have to obtain the permission of the Soviet Union for him and Marina to leave and insure that no charges would be lodged against him in the United States. In this letter, he mentioned that he was in touch with the Embassy in Moscow.[A13-694] At about this time, Oswald wrote also to his mother.[A13-695]
On May 25, the Embassy received a letter mailed in Minsk about 10 days before, in which Oswald asked for assurances that he would not be prosecuted if he returned to the United States, and informed the Embassy that he had married a Russian woman who would want to accompany him.[A13-696] The Embassy communicated this development to Washington[A13-697] and did not answer Oswald immediately. In addition, he had had no word since March concerning the return of his passport. Impatient for action,[A13-698] he appeared without warning at the Embassy on July 8; it was a Saturday and the offices were closed.[A13-699] He used the house telephone to reach Snyder, who came to the office, talked with him briefly, and suggested that he return on the following Monday.[A13-700] Oswald called Marina and asked her to join him in Moscow. She arrived on Sunday, July 9,[A13-701] and they took a room at the Hotel Berlin,[A13-702] where he had stayed when he first arrived in Russia.
Oswald returned to the Embassy on Monday. Marina waited outside during his interview with Snyder,[A13-703] who asked to see Oswald’s Soviet papers and questioned him closely about his life in Russia and possible expatriating acts. Oswald stated that he was not a citizen of the Soviet Union and had never formally applied for citizenship, that he had never taken an oath of allegiance to the Soviet Union, and that he was not a member of the factory trade union organization. He said that he had never given Soviet officials any confidential information that he had learned in the Marines, had never been asked to give such information, and “doubted” that he would have done so had he been asked.[A13-704] Some of Oswald’s statements during this interview were undoubtedly false. He had almost certainly applied for citizenship in the Soviet Union[A13-705] and, at least for a time, been disappointed when it was denied.[A13-706] He possessed a membership card in the union organization.[A13-707] In addition, his assertion to Snyder that he had never been questioned by Soviet authorities concerning his life in the United States is simply unbelievable.
Oswald showed anxiety, already displayed in his letters, that he might be prosecuted and imprisoned if he returned to the United States. Snyder told him informally that he did not know any grounds on which he would be prosecuted but that he could give no assurances in this regard.[A13-708] Snyder testified that Oswald seemed to have matured while he was in Russia and did not show the bravado and arrogance which characterized his first contacts with the Embassy. Oswald told him that he had “learned a hard lesson the hard way” and had acquired a new appreciation of the United States and the meaning of freedom.[A13-709]
Since Oswald’s passport would expire on September 10, 1961,[A13-710] before which date he probably would not be able to obtain Russian exit papers, he filled out an application for its renewal.[A13-711] On a questionnaire attached to the application,[A13-712] he reiterated his oral statements that he had obtained only a residence permit in the Soviet Union and was still an American national. On the basis of Oswald’s written and oral statements, Snyder concluded that he had not expatriated himself and returned his passport, stamped valid only for direct travel to the United States,[A13-713] to him. Accompanied by his wife,[A13-714] Oswald came to the Embassy again on the following day,[A13-715] to initiate procedures for her admission to the United States as an immigrant; they had a routine interview with McVickar, Snyder’s assistant.[A13-716] Three days later, they returned to Minsk.[A13-717]
On the same day, Oswald wrote to his brother. He told Robert that he had his passport again and that he and Marina were doing everything possible to leave the Soviet Union. Apparently referring to his initial reappearance at the Embassy in quest of his passport, he wrote: “I could write a book about how many feeling have come and gone since that day.” The letter closed with an affectionate greeting to his brother and his family.[A13-718] The letter’s tone of firm purpose to return to the United States in the face of heavy odds reflected Oswald’s attitude thereafter.
As soon as they returned to Minsk, the Oswalds began to work with local authorities for permission to leave the country.[A13-719] His diary entry for July 16 through August 20 reads,
We have found out which blanks and certificates are nessceary to apply for a exit visa. They number about 20 papers; birth certificates, affidavit, photos, ect. On Aug 20th we give the papers out they say it will be 3½ months before we know wheather they let us go or not. In the meantime Marina has had to stade 4 differant meeting at the place of work held by her boss’s at the direction of “someone” by phone. The Young Comm. leauge headquttes also called about her and she had to go see them for 1½ hours. The purpose (expressed) is to disuade her from going to the U.S.A. Net effect: Make her more stubborn about wanting to go. Marina is pregnet. We only hope that the visas come through soon.[A13-720]
In a letter dated July 15, he reported their efforts to the Embassy, and said that he would keep it informed “as to the overall picture.” The letter mentioned that Marina was having difficulties at work because of her decision to leave but added that such “tactics” were “quite useless” and that Marina had “stood up well, without getting into trouble.”[A13-721] For August 21 through September 1, the diary reads:
I make repeated trips to the passport & visa office, also to Ministry of For. Affairs in Minsk, also Min. of Internal Affairs, all of which have a say in the granting of a visa. I extrackted promises of quick attention to us.[A13-722]
For September through October 18, “No word from Min. (‘They’ll call us.’).”[A13-723]
Marina testified that when the news of her visit to the American Embassy in July reached Minsk, she was dropped from membership in “Komsomol,” the Communist Youth Organization,[A13-724] and that “meetings were arranged” at which “members of the various organizations” attempted to dissuade her from leaving the Soviet Union.[A13-725] Her aunt and uncle did not speak to her for “a long time.”[A13-726] Paul Gregory, to whom Marina taught Russian in the United States, testified that she once referred to this period of her life in Minsk as “a very horrible time.”[A13-727]
Oswald wrote to the Embassy again on October 4, to request that the U.S. Government officially intervene to facilitate his and his wife’s applications for exit visas.[A13-728] He stated that there had been “systematic and concerted attempts to intimidate [Marina] * * * into withdrawing her application for a visa” which had resulted in her being hospitalized for a 5-day period on September 22 for “nervous exhaustion.”[A13-729] Marina has denied that she was hospitalized for a nervous disorder[A13-730] and he made no mention of it in his diary or letters to his family; he probably lied to the Embassy. The Embassy replied to his letter on October 12, saying that it had no way of influencing Soviet conduct on such matters and that its experience had been that action on applications for exit visas was “seldom taken rapidly.”[A13-731]
In October 1961 Marina took her annual vacation.[A13-732] She and Oswald agreed that she should get a “change of scenery,”[A13-733] and she spent about 3 weeks with an aunt in Khar’kov. It is possible that they were not getting along well together during this period.[A13-734] A diary entry after her return indicates that they were having some quarrels and that she was wavering in her decision to go to the United States, which Oswald attributed to anxiety about their applications for visas and the fact that she was pregnant; he in turn dreaded the approach of the “hard Russian winter.”[A13-735] He noted in his diary that he was lonely while she was gone, but that he and his friend “Erich,” presumably Erik Titovyets, went to some dances and other public amusements.[A13-736] On his 22nd birthday he went alone to see his favorite opera, “The Queen of Spades.”[A13-737] Marina sent him a gold and silver cup, inscribed “To my dear husband on his birthday, 18/x/61” and other gifts, for which he wrote to thank her.[A13-738] She returned on November 12, in Oswald’s words, “radient, with several jars of preserses for me from her aunt.”[A13-739]
Sometime after Marina’s return Oswald applied for an interview with Col. Nicolay Aksenov, an official in the local MVD, in an effort to expedite their application for exit visas; he was told by the colonel’s subordinates that they were competent to handle the matter. Oswald then insisted that Marina seek an interview; she agreed reluctantly. The interview was granted;[A13-740] Marina thought that this might have been due to the fact that her uncle was also a high-ranking official in the Minsk MVD, but she did not believe that he would personally have presumed on his official position to obtain special treatment.[A13-741] Colonel Aksenov questioned her about her reasons for wanting to go to the United States and, noticing that she was pregnant, suggested that she at least delay her departure so that her child could be born in Russia, but did not otherwise try to discourage her. He finally told her that there were many others seeking visas and that she and her husband would have to wait their turn.[A13-742]
Throughout this period, Oswald continued to correspond with his mother and brother. His letters contained the usual chatter among members of a family and occasional references to the progress of the visa applications.[A13-743] He wrote to the Embassy on November 1, saying that if, as he anticipated, his residence permit were renewed in January for another year, it would be over his protest.[A13-744] On November 13 the Embassy replied, telling Oswald that retention of his Soviet passport, which was of the kind issued to persons considered to be stateless, or an extension of it, would not prejudice his claim to American citizenship. The letter added that he could discuss the renewal of his American passport whenever he appeared in person at the Embassy to do so.[A13-745]
Late in December, Oswald wrote a letter to Senator John G. Tower of Texas, which was received in Washington near the end of January. He stated that he was an American citizen and that the Soviet Government refused to permit him and his wife to leave the Soviet Union. He asked Senator Tower to raise “the question of holding by the Soviet Union of a citizen of the U.S., against his will and expressed desires.” The letter was referred to the State Department and no further action concerning it was taken.[A13-746] On December 25, Marina was called to the Soviet Passport Office and told that exit visas would be granted to her and her husband; she was surprised, having doubted that she would ever be permitted to leave. Oswald wrote to the Embassy on December 27 that they would be given visas and asked that his passport be extended without another trip to Moscow; he added, however, that he would come to Moscow if this would expedite the processing of his application. In his diary, he wrote, “It’s great (I think?).”[A13-747] Before the year ended, Marina went on maternity leave from her job.[A13-748] They spent New Year’s Eve at a dinner party given by the Zigers.[A13-749]
Oswald wrote to his mother on January 2, 1962, and told her that he and his wife expected to arrive in the United States sometime around March. He asked her to contact the local Red Cross and request that it put his case before the International Rescue Committee or some other group which aids immigrants to the United States. He told her that he would need about $800 and that she should insist on a gift rather than a loan; he told her not to send any of her own money.[A13-750] Despite his instructions, she requested a loan from the Red Cross.[A13-751] On January 13, Oswald wrote to the International Rescue Committee himself; he asked for $800 with which to purchase two tickets from Moscow to Texas.[A13-752] He wrote to the Committee again on January 26, this time asking for $1,000.[A13-753]
In the meantime, letters of Oswald[A13-754] and the American Embassy,[A13-755] both dated January 5, crossed in the mail. The Embassy’s letter suggested that since there might be difficulties in obtaining an American visa for Marina, he consider returning alone and bringing her over later. He replied on the 16th that he would not leave Russia without her.[A13-756] In his letter, Oswald requested that the U.S. Government loan him the money for his and Marina’s airplane tickets or arrange a loan from another source. The Embassy replied on January 15 that Marina had not yet obtained an American visa and that no evidence had yet been submitted that she would not become a public charge in the United States.[A13-757] It suggested that Oswald’s mother or some other close relative file an affidavit of support in Marina’s behalf. Before receiving this letter, Oswald wrote out such a document himself[A13-758] and mailed it to the Embassy.[A13-759]
On January 23, after receiving the Embassy’s letter, he wrote that his own affidavit should be sufficient, since he had been away from the United States for more than 2 years and could not be expected to obtain an affidavit from someone else.[A13-760] But on the same day, he wrote to his mother asking that she file an affidavit of support with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.[A13-761] On January 24, the Embassy acknowledged receipt of his affidavit, but again suggested that he obtain one from someone else.[A13-762]
Late in January, Oswald received a letter from his mother telling him that he had been given a dishonorable discharge from the Marines.[A13-763] (The discharge had actually been “undesirable,” a less derogatory characterization.)[A13-764] This apparently revived his fear of prosecution, and on January 30, he wrote to his brother for more information.[A13-765] On the same day he wrote also to John B. Connally, Jr., then Governor of Texas, who Oswald believed was still Secretary of Navy. The letter read:
I wish to call your attention to a case about which you may have personal knowlege since you are a resident of Ft. Worth as I am.
In November 1959 an event was well publicated in the Ft. Worth newspapers concerning a person who had gone to the Soviet Union to reside for a short time, (much in the same way E. Hemingway resided in Paris.)
This person in answers to questions put to him by reporteds in Moscow criticized certain facets of american life. The story was blown up into another “turncoat” sensation, with the result that the Navy department gave this person a belated dishonourable discharge, although he had received an honourable discharge after three years service on Sept. 11, 1959 at El Toro, Marine corps base in California.
These are the basic facts of my case.
I have and allways had the full sanction of the U.S. Embassy, Moscow USSR, and hence the U.S. goverment. In as much as I am returning to the U.S.A. in this year with the aid of the U.S. Embassy, bring with me my family (since I married in the USSR) I shall employ all means to right this gross mistake or injustice to a boni-fied U.S. citizen and ex-service man. The U.S. government has no charges or complaints against me. I ask you to look into this case and take the neccessary steps to repair the damage done to me and my family. For information I would direct you to consult the American Embassy, Chikovski St. 19/21, Moscow, USSR.[A13-766]
Connally referred the letter to the Department of the Navy,[A13-767] which sent Oswald a letter stating that the Department contemplated no change in the undesirable discharge.[A13-768] On March 22, Oswald wrote to the Department insisting that his discharge be given a further, full review.[A13-769] The Department promptly replied that it had no authority to hear and review petitions of this sort and referred Oswald to the Navy Discharge Review Board.[A13-770] Oswald filled out the enclosed application for review in Minsk but did not mail it until he returned to the United States.[A13-771]
The Department of State had notified Oswald’s mother that it would need $900 to make the travel arrangements for her son and daughter-in-law.[A13-772] On February 1, Oswald sent his mother a brief letter rejecting her suggestion that she try to raise money by telling the newspapers about his financial plight.[A13-773] Five days later, the Embassy wrote to Oswald and asked him to make formal application for a loan.[A13-774] Oswald wrote to his mother again on February 9, reminding her to file an affidavit of support and asking that she send him clippings from the Fort Worth newspapers about his defection to Russia, a request which he later repeated to his brother. He told her that he wanted to know what had been written about him, so that he could be “forewarned.”[A13-775]
Oswald took Marina to the hospital on the morning of February 15. A baby girl was born at about 10 a.m.[A13-776] He had gone on to the factory where news of the birth awaited him on his arrival.[A13-777] In accordance with regular hospital practice,[A13-778] he did not see the baby until Marina left the hospital.[A13-779] He was excited by the child,[A13-780] who was named “June Lee” in accordance with the Russian custom and law that a child’s second name must be the father’s first name or a variation of it. He had wanted to name his child “June Marina,” and protested the application of the law to her, since he had a United States passport. His diary contains the wry comment, “Po-Russki.”[A13-781] His coworkers at the factory gave the Oswalds “one summer blanket, 6 light diapers, 4 warm diapers, 2 chemises, 3 very good warm chemises, 4 very nice suits and two toys” for the baby.[A13-782] Marina came home on February 23.[A13-783]
There was less urgency about the departure for the United States after June Lee was born.[A13-784] Oswald wrote to his mother,[A13-785] and brother,[A13-786] that he would probably not arrive for several months. The Embassy received a letter on March 3, in which Oswald applied for a loan of $800;[A13-787] the Embassy replied that it was authorized to loan him only $500.[A13-788] It had in the meantime decided that his own affidavit of support for Marina would be sufficient under the circumstances.[A13-789] On March 15, he received notification from the Immigration and Naturalization Service that Marina’s application for a visa had been approved.[A13-790] By March 28, he had received an affidavit of support in Marina’s behalf from his mother’s employer, Byron K. Phillips,[A13-791] which he filed although it was no longer necessary to do so.[A13-792] A few days before, Marina, still on maternity leave, had quit her job.[A13-793] Discussions with the Embassy to complete financial and travel arrangements continued in April and May.[A13-794] In a letter to Robert on April 12, Oswald wrote that only “the American side” was holding up their departure, but added that the winter being over, he didn’t “really * * * want to leave until the beginning of fall, since the spring and summer * * * [in Russia] are so nice.”[A13-795]
On May 10, the Embassy wrote that everything was in order and suggested that Oswald come to the Embassy with his family to sign the final papers.[A13-796] At his request,[A13-797] he was discharged from the factory on about May 18.[A13-798] His work had apparently never been very good. Marina testified that he was rather lazy and resented having to take orders.[A13-799] This estimate is confirmed by a report of the plant director and personnel department chief, filed on December 11, 1961, which was apparently a routine assessment of his work. The report noted that he did not “display the initiative for increasing his skill” in his job, that he was “over-sensitive * * * to remarks from the foremen, and * * * careless in his work”; Oswald took “no part in the social life of the shop” and kept “very much to himself.”[A13-800]
Oswald picked up his Soviet exit visa on May 22;[A13-801] at about this time, he also had an interview with an official of the MVD to obtain final clearance for his departure.[A13-802] He wrote to Robert that he and his family would leave for Moscow on the following day and depart for England 10 to 14 days later. He expected to cross the Atlantic by ship, probably docking in New Orleans. Returning to a point which he had made in an earlier letter to his mother, he commented that he knew from the newspaper clippings what Robert had said about him when he left for Russia; he thought that Robert had talked too much at that time, and asked that Robert say nothing to the newspapers now.[A13-803]
The Oswalds arrived in Moscow by May 24[A13-804] and on that date filled out various documents at the American Embassy;[A13-805] Marina was given her American visa.[A13-806] Final arrangements for their emigration were made with Soviet officials.[A13-807] On June 1, Oswald signed a promissory note at the Embassy for a repatriation loan of $435.71.[A13-808] He and his family boarded a train for Holland,[A13-809] which passed through Minsk that night.[A13-810] They crossed the Soviet frontier at Brest on June 2. Two days later, they departed from Holland on the SS Maasdam.[A13-811] Onboard ship, the Oswalds stayed by themselves; Marina testified that she did not often go on deck because she was poorly dressed and Oswald was ashamed of her.[A13-812]
Probably while he was on board the Maasdam Oswald wrote some notes on ship stationery, which appear to be a summary of what he thought he had learned by living under both the capitalist and Communist systems. The notes reflect his unhappy and deepening feeling of disillusionment with both the Soviet Union and the United States. Oswald observed that although reform groups may oppose the government in power, they always declare that they are for their people and their country, and he asked what “would happen if somebody was to stand up and say he was utterly opposed not only to the governments, but to the people, too the entire land and complete foundations” of his society. He condemned existing political groups and proposed the formation of a third choice between communism and capitalism, neither of which was acceptable to him. “I have lived,” he said, “under both systems, I have sought the answers and although it would be very easy to dupe myself into believing one system is better than the other, I know they are not.” In these notes, he acknowledged that his “Red Cross” subsidy had been paid by the Soviet Government rather than the international organization, and said, “I shall never sell myself intentionlly, or unintentionlly to anyone again.”[A13-813] (Commission Exhibit No. 25, [p. 273].) It was probably also onboard ship that Oswald wrote two sets of answers to questions which he anticipated about his decision to go to Russia and later to return to the United States. Although the sets of answers are somewhat similar, but the tone of one is apologetic, while the other suggests that Oswald went to Russia to study the Soviet system, but remained a loyal American and owed no apologies.[A13-814]
The Maasdam landed at Hoboken, N.J., on June 13.[A13-815] The Oswalds were met by Spas T. Raikin, a representative of the Traveler’s Aid Society, which had been contacted by the Department of State; Raikin had the impression that Oswald was trying to avoid meeting anyone. He told Raikin that he had only $63 and had no plans either for that night or for travel to Fort Worth, and accepted the society’s help, according to Raikin, “with confidence and appreciation.”[A13-816] They passed through the immigration office without incident,[A13-817] and Raikin helped them through customs.[A13-818]
The society referred the Oswalds to the New York City Department of Welfare, which helped them find a room at the Times Square Hotel.[A13-819] Oswald told both Raikin and representatives of the welfare department that he had been a marine stationed at the American Embassy in Moscow, had married a Russian girl, renounced his citizenship, and worked in Minsk; he soon found out, he said, that the Russian propaganda was inaccurate but had not been able to obtain an exit visa for his wife and child for more than 2 years. He said also that he had paid the travel expenses himself.[A13-820]
The welfare department called Robert Oswald’s home in Fort Worth. His wife answered and said that they would help. She contacted her husband who sent $200 immediately.[A13-821] Oswald refused to accept the money and insisted that the department itself should pay the fare to Texas; he threatened that they would go as far as they could on $63 and rely on local authorities to get them the rest of the way. In the end he accepted the money.[A13-822] On the afternoon of June 14, the Oswalds left New York by plane for Fort Worth.[A13-823]