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]