And then she went to this school of pharmacists, I think in Minsk, and graduated as a pharmacist. And one day she was walking by this river, which I also remember, in Minsk—the River Svisloch, which crosses the whole town, and where there are some new apartment buildings built, and in one of those apartment buildings there were very nice apartments, and that is where the foreigners lived.
She said it was her dream some day to live in an apartment like that. And that is where Lee Oswald lived. And eventually when they met—I remember they met at some dance—I think he was ill, something like that, after that dance, and she came to take care of him. That is something I have a vague recollection of—that she took care of him, and from then on they fell in love and eventually got married. But she said it was the apartment house that was one of the greatest things she desired to live in, and she found out later on that Lee Oswald lived in that apartment house, and she finally achieved her dream.
It sounds ridiculous, but that is how in Soviet Russia they dream of apartments rather than of people.
She told us a tremendous amount of things which will come to me as things go on.
Mr. Jenner. Go ahead.
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Naturally I was talking to her and to him—I was trying to find out what is life of young people in Soviet Russia, what are the prices on food, what can you get for your money, what salary you get, what amusements you get.
Mr. Jenner. Tell us what they said.
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. The salaries—she was getting an equivalent of $60 a month. He was getting something like $80 a month. That almost all of it had to be spent on food. The lodging was very cheap, almost nothing, because it was provided by the Government. That the food was rather plentiful, you could get it—but it was rather monotonous. Sometimes you could not get meat. They used to have discussions between them all the time—always they quarreled about—Lee Oswald and Marina always quarreled between themselves as to what actually were the prices, what actually were the conditions of life in Soviet Russia.
Mr. Jenner. Tell me about the differences here.
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes.