Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Formal Renunciation Request and Period of Isolation

A few days later, the Embassy received a letter from Oswald dated November 3 requesting that his citizenship be revoked, stating he had appeared at the Embassy “for the purpose of signing the formal papers” and protesting the “conduct of the official” who had refused him this “legal right.” He noted his pending Soviet citizenship application and said he would ask the Soviet Government to lodge a formal protest on his behalf. The Embassy replied on November 9 that Oswald could renounce his citizenship by appearing in person and executing the necessary papers. Oswald’s diary describes the period from November 2 to November 15, during which he continued to isolate himself, as “days of utter loneliness.” On November 8, he wrote to his brother Robert insisting he had waited over a year to take this action, claiming to speak a fair amount of Russian, and declaring he would never return to the United States, which he said he hated. Oswald refused to speak to anyone from the United States by telephone, suspecting calls might be taped. Although he claimed to have been told he could remain in Russia, his diary indicates he was not actually told this until later, and only in January was he told he could remain indefinitely. The Embassy’s attempt to deliver a telegram from his brother John on November 9 was also refused, with the message eventually sent by registered mail.

CAPÍTULO II. With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the

Toward the end of his waiting period in Moscow, Oswald granted interviews to two women journalists—Aline Mosby of United Press International on November 13 and Priscilla Johnson of the North American Newspaper Alliance on November 16—during which he explained his Marxist convictions, claimed he had never met a Communist in the United States, and expressed frustration at the slow processing of his request for Soviet citizenship. On January 4, 1961, he was issued Identity Document for Stateless Persons No. 311479 and informed he was being sent to Minsk, an industrial city about 450 miles southwest of Moscow, where he reported for work at the Belorussian Radio and Television Factory on January 13, was assigned to the experimental shop as a metal worker, and received a 700–900 ruble monthly salary supplemented by a 700-ruble “Red Cross” subsidy along with a rent-free riverside apartment—treatment the report describes as typical of the favorable arrangements the Soviet Union extended to defectors. Although his early months in Minsk were comfortable and friendly, with picnics, hunting trips under the name “Aleksy Harvey Oswald,” and close relationships with coworkers Pavel Golovachev, Roza Kuznetsova, and Ella German, signs of disillusionment began to emerge, culminating in German’s rejection of his marriage proposal in January 1960 and his growing recognition of the privileges enjoyed by Communist Party members compared with ordinary workers, themes he developed in a fifty-page manuscript on daily Soviet life. By the one-year anniversary of his residence permit, Oswald had decided against pursuing Soviet citizenship, writing in his diary that the work was “drab,” that his money had “nowhere to be spent,” and that he had “had enough,” asking instead that his stay in Minsk be extended for another year.

Aline Mosby’s First Interview with Oswald

On or about November 13, Aline Mosby of United Press International became the first non-Soviet citizen to interview Oswald since his October 31 meeting with Snyder at the U.S. Embassy. Oswald told her she might “understand and be friendly” because she was a woman. He appeared confident and talked almost nonstop, with a small “smirk.” He claimed Soviet authorities had indicated he could remain in the USSR, with job possibilities being explored and education likely to continue. He admitted his Russian was poor but expected rapid improvement. Oswald grounded his rejection of the United States in observed racial prejudice, the contrast between Park Avenue wealth and East Side workers, and his mother’s poverty, declaring that in America he would inevitably “lose” whether as capitalist or worker, which led him to embrace Marxist ideology. He said he had been interested in Communist theory since age 15, when “an old lady” in New York gave him a pamphlet about the Rosenbergs, but he denied ever having met a Communist or been a Party member. He described witnessing American imperialism while in the Marines and said he had saved $1,500 in preparation for defecting. His only expressed regrets concerned his mother, whom he had not informed, and his brother, who might lose his job from the publicity. The two-hour interview ended with Mosby reportedly promising to show Oswald the story before publication; she did not, and Oswald later complained of distortions, specifically that his family had not been “poverty-stricken” and his defection was a matter of ideology, not personal hardship.