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

第二章 With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the

Chapter II documents the period from the Oswalds’ return to Minsk in mid-1961 through their final departure from the Soviet Union in June 1962, chronicling the complex, months-long effort to secure exit visas, the pressures applied to Marina, the birth of their daughter June Lee, and the various financial, legal, and diplomatic arrangements required for their emigration. The chapter concludes with Oswald’s disillusionment notes written aboard the SS Maasdam.

Minsk Exit Visa Application Process

Upon returning to Minsk, the Oswalds immediately began working with local authorities to obtain permission to leave the Soviet Union. Oswald’s diary entry for July 16 through August 20 records that they identified approximately 20 required documents—including birth certificates, an affidavit, and photographs—and submitted them on August 20, with officials indicating a 3½-month waiting period for a decision. The entry also noted that Marina was pregnant and that multiple meetings were being held at her workplace by her bosses at the direction of “someone” by phone, ostensibly to dissuade her from emigrating. Oswald reported these efforts to the Embassy in a July 15 letter, stating he would keep the Embassy informed and noting that the intimidation “tactics” were “quite useless” since Marina had “stood up well.”

Soviet Pressure on Marina to Abandon Emigration

Marina testified that after news of her July visit to the American Embassy reached Minsk, she was expelled from Komsomol (the Communist Youth Organization) and that “meetings were arranged” at which “members of the various organizations” attempted to dissuade her from leaving the Soviet Union. Her aunt and uncle did not speak to her for “a long time.” Paul Gregory, to whom Marina later taught Russian in the United States, testified that she once described this period in Minsk as “a very horrible time.”