Oswald was discovered in time to thwart his attempt at suicide.[C7-177] He was taken to a hospital in Moscow where he was kept until October 28, 1959.[C7-178]
Still intent, however, on staying in the Soviet Union, Oswald went on October 31, to the American Embassy to renounce his U.S. citizenship. Mr. Richard E. Snyder, then Second Secretary and senior consular official at the Embassy, testified that Oswald was extremely sure of himself and seemed “to know what his mission was. He took charge, in a sense, of the conversation right from the beginning.”[C7-179] He presented the following signed note:
I Lee Harvey Oswald do hereby request that my present citizenship in the United States of America, be revoked.
I have entered the Soviet Union for the express purpose of appling for citizenship in the Soviet Union, through the means of naturalization.
My request for citizenship is now pending before the Surprem Soviet of the U.S.S.R..
I take these steps for political reasons. My request for the revoking of my American citizenship is made only after the longest and most serious considerations.
I affirm that my allegiance is to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.[C7-180] (See Commission Exhibit 913, [p. 261].)
As his “principal reason” for renouncing his citizenship Oswald stated: “I am a Marxist.”[C7-181] He also alluded to hardships endured by his mother as a worker, referring to them as experiences that he did not intend to have himself,[C7-182] even though he stated that he had never held a civilian job.[C7-183] He said that his Marine service in Okinawa and elsewhere had given him “a chance to observe ‘American imperialism.’” but he also displayed some sensitivity at not having reached a higher rank in the Marine Corps.[C7-184] He stated that he had volunteered to give Soviet officials any information that he had concerning Marine Corps operations,[C7-185] and intimated that he might know something of special interest.[C7-186] Oswald’s “Historic Diary” describes the event in part as follows:
I leave Embassy, elated at this showdown, returning to my hotel I feel now my energies are not spent in vain. I’m sure Russians will except me after this sign of my faith in them.[C7-187]
The Soviet authorities finally permitted Oswald to remain in their country.[C7-188] No evidence has been found that they used him for any particular propaganda or other political or informational purposes. They sent him to Minsk to work in a radio and television factory as a metal worker.[C7-189] The Soviet authorities denied Oswald permission to attend a university in Moscow,[C7-190] but they gave him a monthly allowance of 700 rubles a month (old exchange rate)[C7-191] in addition to his factory salary of approximately equal amount[C7-192] and considerably better living quarters than those accorded to Soviet citizens of equal age and station.[C7-193] The subsidy, apparently similar to those sometimes given to foreigners allowed to remain in the Soviet Union, together with his salary, gave Oswald an income which he said approximated that of the director of the factory in which he worked.[C7-194]
Even though he received more money and better living quarters than other Russians doing similar work, he envied his wife’s uncle, a colonel in the MVD, because of the larger apartment in which he lived. Reminiscent of his attitude toward his superiors in the Marine Corps, Oswald apparently resented the exercise of authority over him and the better treatment afforded to Communist Party officials.[C7-195] After he returned to the United States he took the position that the Communist Party officials in the Soviet Union were opportunists who were betraying their positions for personal gain. He is reported to have expressed the conclusion that they had “fat stinking politicians over there just like we have over here.”[C7-196]
Oswald apparently continued to have personal difficulties while he was in Minsk. Although Marina Oswald told the Commission that her husband had good personal relationships in the Soviet Union,[C7-197] Katherine Ford, one of the members of the Russian community in Dallas with which the Oswalds became acquainted upon their arrival in the United States, stated that Mrs. Oswald told her everybody in Russia “hated him.”[C7-198] Jeanne De Mohrenschildt, another member of that group, said that Oswald told her that he had returned because “I didn’t find what I was looking for.”[C7-199] George De Mohrenschildt thought that Oswald must have become disgusted with life in the Soviet Union as the novelty of the presence of an American wore off and he began to be less the center of attention.[C7-200]
The best description of Oswald’s state of mind, however, is set forth in his own “Historic Diary.” Under the entry for May 1, 1960, he noted that one of his acquaintances “relats many things I do not know about the U.S.S.R. I begin to feel uneasy inside, its true!”[C7-201] Under the entry for August-September of that year he wrote:
As my Russian improves I become increasingly concious of just what sort of a sociaty I live in. Mass gymnastics, complusory afterwork meeting, usually political information meeting. Complusory attendence at lectures and the sending of the entire shop collective (except me) to pick potatoes on a Sunday, at a state collective farm: A “patroict duty” to bring in the harvest. The opions of the workers (unvoiced) are that its a great pain in the neck: they don’t seem to be esspicialy enthusiastic about any of the “collective” duties a natural feeling. I am increasingly aware of the presence, in all thing, of Lebizen, shop party secretary, fat, fortyish, and jovial on the outside. He is a no-nonsense party regular.[C7-202]