Patrice Lumumba University

[Mathias Baumann]

Oswald applied for admission at this university:

Quote

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (PFUR), Russian Rossiysky universitet druzhby narodov, state institution of higher learning in Moscow, founded in 1960 as Peoples’ Friendship University “to give an education to people who had liberated themselves from colonialist oppression.” It was renamed Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University (Universitet druzhby narodov imeni Patrisa Lumumby) for the Congolese premier Patrice Lumumba after his death in 1961. Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University drew students from developing countries throughout the world.

As at all Soviet universities, education at Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University was fully financed by the government, which also paid for the students’ initial transportation to the Soviet Union and their return after graduation. There were six departments: engineering; agriculture; medicine; physics, mathematics, and general science; economics and international law; and history and philosophy. There was a strong emphasis on the first three subjects; only about 30 percent of the students were in the humanities. All programs required six years for completion, the first year being preparatory, during which students learned Russian, the language of instruction. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the university was renamed the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (1992).

Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Peoples-Friendship-University-of-Russia

Further information can be found here: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-11-05/news/1995309007_1_patrice-lumumba-dream-school-moscow

The university was opened in February 1960, several months AFTER Oswald had arrived in Russia. Could Oswald have been aware of Soviet plans to establish a universtiy for foreign students when he decided to desert? Doubtful.

But I think there can be no doubt that this place would certainly have been of great interest to US intelligence.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Mathias Baumann

[Jim Hargrove]

That's an interesting point, Mathias.  "Oswald" may or may not have been aware of the new university, but I'll bet the CIA had a thick file on it long before he departed the U.S. The WCR says this:

Before he married Marina (and presumably before February, when
he had begun his efforts to return to the United States) Oswald had
applied for admission to the Patrice Lumumba Friendship University
in Moscow. He received a letter dated May 3 apologizing for the delay
in responding to his application and turning it down on the ground
that the university had been established exclusively for students from
the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Oswald expressed his disappointment at having been turned down
to Marina.692

The source for the above apparently is Marina, and so we do have to consider it cautiously.  But you suggest an interesting line of investigation.  If possible acceptance at the school was a goal of the so-called defection, how can we find more evidence for or against it?  I'm not sure.

[Michael Clark]

11 minutes ago, Jim Hargrove said:

That's an interesting point, Mathias.  "Oswald" may or may not have been aware of the new university, but I'll bet the CIA had a thick file on it long before he departed the U.S. The WCR says this:

Before he married Marina (and presumably before February, when
he had begun his efforts to return to the United States) Oswald had
applied for admission to the Patrice Lumumba Friendship University
in Moscow. He received a letter dated May 3 apologizing for the delay
in responding to his application and turning it down on the ground
that the university had been established exclusively for students from
the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Oswald expressed his disappointment at having been turned down
to Marina.692

The source for the above apparently is Marina, and so we do have to consider it cautiously.  But you suggest an interesting line of investigation.  If possible acceptance at the school was a goal of the so-called defection, how can we find more evidence for or against it?  I'm not sure.

If there was something on this in the Yeltsin Cache, we would probably know it; yet....

On 5/7/2017 at 4:08 PM, Lawrence Schnapf said:

Judge Turnheim said at the March 16th CAPA Sunshine Week event that he personally saw a stack of files several feet high that were not part of the records that Yeltsin turned over to President Clinton 

There is no mention of his university application in his diary.

From this thread:

I am not clear as to what Lawrence was referring.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Michael Clark