Oswald's language abilities and evidence related to his Soviet soujourn (1959-63)

[Steve Thomas]

On 6/10/2020 at 8:49 PM, Bill Simpich said:

The above facts do not prove that Lee Oswald was a CIA agent.  If he was operating as the witting agent of any intelligence organization, my best bet is that he may have been doing it with some assistance with the Office of Naval Intelligence.  Although I am not yet convinced, ONI would be my first choice for any fake "military defector program" that included Oswald - Donald Moneir told the ARRB that he was aware of an operation known as Navy Code 30, a fake defector program run by ONI.

Bill,

From Item# 35 in my list of Harvey Lee Oswald references:

35. Transcript of ARRB Interview of Donald Monier conducted August 12, 1996 by Dave Montague and Christopher Barger

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-Oct2017/ARRB/CBARGER/WP-DOCS/MONIER.WPD.pdf

(see p. 6)

Monier:"I was with the 112th CIC Group in Dallas-- “I can remember doing some things relative to that, but none of that had to do with Harvey Os-- Lee Harvey Oswald.”

Steve Thomas

 

 

[James Norwood]

2 hours ago, Tony Krome said:

I may have missed something, buy how do you know Harvey's age?

H&L have Harvey's height in 1953/54 as 4'8"

The average Hungarian male height in the 1950s for 12 year olds was 4'8" and they began to level off at around age 18 at 5'8"

If you're Harvey was Hungarian and of average height, would not his probable birth year be 1941/42?

You have missed something, Tony.  It is a mistake to be assuming that Harvey Oswald came from Hungary when we have no hard evidence about his place of birth.  And no one knows Harvey's birth date.  I was attempting to show that my friend, who was in the same generation as Oswald and born in the mid- to late-1930s, learned both Polish and Russian at home around the same time.  When I wrote "the exact age of Oswald," I was referring to the exact age of the American-born Oswald.  We do not know either the precise age of the refugee or his birthplace.  It is therefore a non-starter to engaging in a wildly speculative comparison of the height of male Hungarians in the 1950s and hope to add anything to the discussion of Oswald's Russian language proficiency. 

[James Norwood]

5 hours ago, Mathias Baumann said:

But what about the Warren Commission? Why did they believe that Oswald was trained in foreign languages in Monterey?

Mathias,

The following is the extent of what we know about the Warren Commission's inquiry into the possibility that  Oswald studied Russian at the foreign language institute in Monterey.  In a closed-door meeting of the Warren Commission, general counsel J. Lee Rankin stated that,

“we are trying to find out what [Oswald] studied at the Monterey School of the Army in the way of languages.”

Of course, Rankin's inquiry produced no documented results and no conclusions about where Oswald learned Russian.  And in the Marine records of Oswald, there is no placement of Oswald in Monterey, especially for the lengthy period of time that would be necessary for intensive foreign language training.

Thanks very much for getting the ball rolling on this discussion.

James

[Tony Krome]

11 minutes ago, James Norwood said:

When I wrote "the exact age of Oswald," I was referring to the exact age of the American-born Oswald. 

What has the American born Oswald have to do with you're paragraph below?

(2)  A second point is that, depending on the family, a child growing up in Eastern Europe either during the war or in the postwar years, may have learned to speak Russian at home, due to bilingual parents.  A colleague of mine was a Holocaust survivor from Poland, who would have been almost the exact age as Oswald.  The colleague informed me that in his childhood he had already learned to speak both Polish and Russian at home prior to starting school.

I should think from you're perspective, determining the age of the subject that you are examining regarding the proficiency of languages, would help. By the time that you're Harvey is known to attend school in 1953, possibly at the very young age of 11 or 12, he would be speaking at least three different languages. First, the language of the country you decide to originate him from, secondly, the Russian language, and thirdly, the English language.

Not only that, by 1953, he has mastered the American accent of both northern and southern American schools. A witness that H&L relies on, Mrya DaRouse, stated quite clearly that "Harvey" spoke exactly like the others students at Beauregard. She went as far as to say she could not believe the boy had been in New York very long.

[James Norwood]

23 minutes ago, Tony Krome said:

Mrya DaRouse, stated quite clearly that "Harvey" spoke exactly like the others students at Beauregard. She went as far as to say she could not believe the boy had been in New York very long.

There is eyewitness testimony that challenges Myra DaRouse's recall on the matter of the accent.  Ed Collier was one of the classmates of Oswald and apparently in the same homeroom of DaRouse.  Collier recalled that "we called him Yank because he had a Yankee accent."  Marilyn Murret, Oswald's cousin recalled that "it seems he was from the North, and so they ridiculed him in school....he was riding the streetcar one day, I believe, and he sat next to some Negroes.  Well, when he got out of the streetcar or bus, or whatever it was, these boys ganged up on him, and hit him in the mouth."  This testimony suggests that the boy known to Collier and Murret was from north of the Mason-Dixon line, did not speak with a Southern accent, and was unfamiliar with segregation practices in the Deep South.   

[Tony Krome]

12 minutes ago, James Norwood said:

There is eyewitness testimony that challenges Myra DaRouse's recall on the matter of the accent.  Ed Collier was one of the classmates of Oswald and apparently in the same homeroom of DaRouse.  Collier recalled that "we called him Yank because he had a Yankee accent."  Marilyn Murret, Oswald's cousin recalled that "it seems he was from the North, and so they ridiculed him in school....he was riding the streetcar one day, I believe, and he sat next to some Negroes.  Well, when he got out of the streetcar or bus, or whatever it was, these boys ganged up on him, and hit him in the mouth."  This testimony suggests that the boy known to Collier and Murret was from north of the Mason-Dixon line, did not speak with a Southern accent, and was unfamiliar with segregation practices in the Deep South.   

Exactly!

That fits in with my information that Myra DaRouse was at Beauregard for a total of 3 school years, 53/54, 54/55 and 55/56. When she said she had her home room in the second year, or middle year, she meant 54/55.

So we have Oswald coming in with a northern accent, being called Yankee, then by the time of Myra DaRouse, he's mastered the southern accent.

This scenario would account for what looks like conflicting witness accounts.

[Jim Hargrove]

14 hours ago, Mathias Baumann said:

Dear Jim,

if I remember correctly your explanation for Oswald's remarkable fluency in Russian was that he learned it in school in Hungary in the late 1940s. I found believable evidence on the internet that  Russian was not taught in Hungarian public schools until many years later. I still think that the most likely explanation for Oswald's language skills is that he took a fair amount of lessons, probably one-on-one lessons. I remember that someone posted an interview with Oswald's Marine buddy Delgado, who thought that Oswald learned Russian in Berlin (Berlitz?). That seems like a plausible explanation to me. Now I accept that there is no evidence that Oswald ever took lessons at a Berlitz school. But he almost certainly did not learn Russian in Hungary. So what is your current theory now? Where and how did Oswald learn Russian, in your opinion?

Hi, Mathias,

It’s good to see you posting here again.

The possibility that the Russian-speaking Oswald had a Hungarian background is based SOLELY on the document transcribed below.  (Can’t recall if you’ve seen it or not.)  Harvey and Lee critics tend to mock “Hungarian Harvey,” but we have always believed this is just a possibility.

Anyway, the day after the assassination, Mrs. Jack Tippit, of Westport, Connecticut was telephoned by an unidentified woman. This woman said she personally knew Oswald's father and uncle in New York City, who were from Hungary, promoted communism and lived at 77th and 2nd Avenue in Yorkville (NYC). This woman asked Mrs. Tippit to relay her information to Dallas authorities.

Mrs. Tippit is still very much alive and forum member John Kowalski has learned from her family that she has retained notes she made during MULTIPLE phone conversations with the anonymous caller.  Mr. Kowalski is making careful efforts to acquire a copy of those note, presumably untouched by the FBI.

Here’s a transcript of the FBI report, which was kept secret for three decades.  The actual document can be seen here.

URGENT 11-30-63 7-37 PM EST MB
TO DIRECTOR, AND SACS DALLAS AND NEW YORK
FROM SAC, NEW HAVEN /100-18158/
NEW YORK VIA WASHINGTON
LEE HARVEY OSWALD, IS - R
ON NOV. THIRTY INSTANT, JACK D. TIPPIT, SELF EMPLOYED
CARTOONIST FOR NATIONAL MAGAZINES AND WIFE, ONE SIX FOUR
NEW TOWN TURNPIKE, WESTPORT, CONN., ADVISED AS FOLLOWS. AT
APPROXIMATELY ELEVEN THIRTY AM ON INSTANT DATE MRS. TIPPIT
RECEIVED A TELEPHONE CALL FROM UNKNOWN WOMAN WHO ASKED IF
MR. TIPPIT WAS A POLICEMAN AND IF HE WAS RELATED TO THE POLICE-
MAN TIPPIT WHO WAS SHOT IN DALLAS. MRS. TIPPIT REPLIED HER
HUSBAND WAS NOT A POLICEMAN, WAS DISTANTLY RELATED TO OFFICER
TIPPIT AND ASKED IDENTITY OF CALLER. ON ANOTHER EXTENSION
JACK TIPPIT LISTENED TO BALANCE OF PHONE CALL. THE WOMAN SAID
SHE COULD NOT GIVE HER NAME AS SHE WAS AFRAID OF BEING KILLED,
THAT SHE WAS FROM NEW YORK AND HAD TO COME "HERE" TO MAKE THE
CALL SO THAT SHE COULD NOT BE TRACED AS SHE WAS IN FEAR OF HER
END PAGE ONE

PAGE TWO:

LIFE. THE WOMAN REQUESTED THAT NOTHING BE SAID TO THE PRESS
ABOUT A WOMAN CALLING AS THEY WOULD KNOW HER IDENTITY AND SHE
WOULD BE KILLED.
THE WOMAN SAID SHE KNEW OSWALD-S FATHER AND UNCLE WHO
WERE HUNGARIANS AND COMMUNISTS. THE WOMAN CONTINUED THAT
OSWALD-S FATHER AND UNCLE HAD LIVED AT SEVENTY SEVENTH AND SECOND
AVENUE, YORKVILLE, NYC, THAT WHILE LIVING THERE BOTH WERE
UNEMPLOYED, GOT THEIR MONEY FROM COMMUNISTS AND SPENT ALL THERE
TIME IN COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES.
THE WOMAN THEN BEGAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY, DISJOINTEDLY,
AND NERVOUSLY. SHE STATED SHE HAD TWO NAMES TO GIVE AND
MENTIONED THE NAME EMILE KARDOS AND SAID SOMETHING ABOUT A
BROTHER IN LAW. WHEN MRS. TIPPIT TRIED TO FIND OUT WHOSE
BROTHER IN LAW THE WOMAN KEPT REPEATING THE WORD BROTHER IN LAW.
THE WOMAN STATED KARDOS IS HEAD OF THE COMMUNISTS AND THAT THIS
GROUP IN NEW YORK NOW HAS CHARTS AND MAPS. THE WOMAN SAID
SOMETHING ABOUT WEINSTOCK THE EDITOR OF QUOTE WOMAN-S WORLD
UNQUOTE BUT DID NOT GIVE FURTHER DETAILS.. THE WOMAN SAID THE
END PAGE TWO

PAGE THREE:

GROUP IN NEW YORK PLANS TO TAKE OVER THE GOVERNMENT, THAT OF
COURSE THEY WOULD DENY THIS BUT SHE KNEW IT TO BE TRUE.
SHE THEN HUNG UP ABRUPTLY. THE WOMAN NEVER GAVE ANY REASON
FOR HER CALL WHICH SOUNDED LOCAL. MRS. TIPPIT THOUGHT THE
WOMAN HAD AN AUSTRIAN OR GERMAN ACCENT WHILE MR. TIPPIT
BELIEVED IT WAS SPANISH. BOTH FELT THE WOMAN SOUNDED LIKE
A MATURE ADULT AND DID NOT HAVE A YOUTHFUL VOICE.
MR. TIPPIT EXPLAINED WOMAN MAY HAVE OBTAINED HIS IDENTITY
FROM AN ARTICLE ON PAGE ONE OF NORWALK, CONN. QUOTE HOUR
UNQUOTE FOR NOVEMBER TWENTYFIVE LAST, WHICH STATED THAT WE MAY
BE A DISTANT RELATIVE OF THE DALLAS POLICEMAN. TIPPIT SAID
ARTICLE RESULTED FROM TELEPHONE CALL FROM REPORTER WHO WAS
CHECKING ALL TIPPITS IN LOCAL TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES.
BUREAU REQUESTED TO COORDINATE ABOVE WITH ANY OTHER
INFORMATION TO DETERMINE IF PERTINENT AS NEW HAVEN HAS NO
KNOWLEDGE OF THE RESIDENCE AND ASSOCIATES OF OSWALD-S FATHER
AND UNCLE.

END AND ACK PLS
7-45 PM OK FBI WA LLD FOR RELAY
6-47 PM CST OK FBI DL FL
TU PLSDISC M
CC-MR_ROSEN

[John Butler]

13 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

John,

You know, I have kind of wondered about that myself.

That "Collective" is so detailed, it seems almost impossible to have been written simply by memory. To me, you would had to have had notes to go by.

My question has been, how did he get those notes out of Russia? Wasn't he searched before he left?

Was he smuggling notes out all along? And, if so, what was his method?

Steve Thomas

 

 

Steve,

It's my understanding that Oswald wrote that after he left Russia.  I don't have a great memory anymore.  I might be wrong.  I've always seen the Collective as a spy report.  Recall that Oswald was the first American that lived in Minsk.  American tourists went there from time to time, but their were no permanent residents other than Oswald.  I believe that Oswald was a dedicated spy whose task was to also set up pro-American spy networks, if possible.  His main mission was to help down the U2.  He began prepping for this mission at Atsugi, Japan with his involvement with Russian agents.  Lee probably had a greater training in electronic aviation/radar operation then Harvey.  Being watched by 30 KGB agents required the other half of the spy team to be there.  That's why there is this sense of a dichotomy of Oswalds.  There was the Oswald who didn't know Russian and was anti-communist, and Oswald, the Russian expert, who favored communism.  I believe Harvey Oswald was what he said he was, a Marxist-Socialist, but not a Troskeyite.  On the other hand, he could have pretended to that role.  I also believed he was raised by Hungarian communists in New York. 

I've been toying with the notion that Minsk, with it's large Polish descended population, was the birth place of immigrant Harvey Oswald.  It explains his knowledge of Russian and his Polish accent.  It also explains his immigrant status and his saying my parents are dead and I do not have a brother or sister. 

During the rise of communism, Minsk was the center of resistance for White Russians.  That's why Harvey, the Marxist-Socialist, was accepted readily by that community in Dallas.  He could pretend he was Lee, the anti-communist or he was not a Marxist-Socialist in reality. 

Here is Harvey the anomalistic, anti-social loner.  This loner business was a role that both Harvey and Lee played.  Just as an aside they dressed alike.  That shirt Harvey is wearing is seen in other photos and perhaps by Lee.  Sorry about the quality of this photo.  It is a magnified crop.

 

Oswald had more acquaintances and social contacts then most people.  Oswald the spy is accentuated by most of these people being in the spy business.  This crowd in the first photo is part of the 30 KGB agents monitoring Oswald or are hangers on because he had money and he was an important part of the Minsk factory favored by the authorities.  If you look closely at his "buds" they appear to be a non-trustworthy bunch.   

Also, Oswald was not sent to Minsk as a lowly factory worker.  The was sent as a "regulator" of supervisor in the experimental shop.  As he was a supervisor his pay indicates what worth and value he had to the Russians in the experimental shop.  These people are either monitors or folks hanging around because he had money or was a boss at the factory.         

Edited August 13, 2020 by John Butler

[James Norwood]

9 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

That "Collective" is so detailed, it seems almost impossible to have been written simply by memory. To me, you would had to have had notes to go by.

My question has been, how did he get those notes out of Russia? Wasn't he searched before he left?

Steve,

You raise an important question about how Oswald was able to take his notes out of the Soviet Union without them being confiscated.  One of the most interesting facets of this story is what he did with the notes upon returning to the United States.

On June 13, 1962, Oswald, Marina, and Baby Junie arrive in Hoboken, New Jersey aboard the SS Maasdam.  Without detention by the federal authorities for arguably being a traitor to his country, Oswald spends the night with his wife and daughter safely ensconced at the Times Square Hotel in New York.  The next day, the Oswalds fly out of New York to Dallas-Fort Worth, arriving on the evening of June 14.  

On June 18, five days after his return, Oswald hires a professional stenographer to type up his notes.  He never lets the notes out of his sight, spending time in the office watching the typist preparing the manuscript and assisting her in reading his handwriting.  The typist completes ten pages of single-spaced manuscript, which include only a portion of the complete set of notes.  She is paid $10, or $1 per page, for her work.  Oswald takes away the finished copy, his original notes, and even her carbon paper used for the copy she prepared.

The notes were obviously of special import and priority for Oswald to have them transcribed within a week of his return to the United States.

The typist, Pauline Virginia Bates, recalls her work in transcribing the notes in the youtube video linked below.  Notice that early in the video there is an image of a UPI news release after the assassination that recalled the time Miss Bates spent with Oswald.  The title of the article is "Hinted He was Secret Agent for U.S."  For the article, Miss Bates is quoted as saying that Oswald was nervous or scared on the last day of their association:  "He was fidgety, jumping up and down, looking over my shoulder, wondering at what point I was in the manuscript."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlnp0HfhLvQ



 

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2020 by James Norwood

[John Butler]

3 hours ago, James Norwood said:

On June 13, 1962, Oswald, Marina, and Baby Junie arrive in Hoboken, New Jersey aboard the SS Maasdam.  Without detention by the federal authorities for arguably being a traitor to his country, Oswald spends the night with his wife and daughter safely ensconced at the Times Square Hotel in New York.  The next day, the Oswalds fly out of New York to Dallas-Fort Worth, arriving on the evening of June 14.  

Harvey had time to take Marina up to his old neighborhood, 77th and 2nd Ave, and show her around the old Hungarian communist neighborhood.  Maybe even go over to the old communist club there.

[Jeremy Bojczuk]

Mathias Baumann writes:

Quote

the results from his test in the military were ... quite far from what we would expect from a native speaker (especially if we consider his performance in listening comprehension).

Exactly. And even on Oswald's return to the USA after spending two and a half years in the company of native Russian speakers, he was frequently making grammatical mistakes. The mistakes were such that even a non-native speaker like Ruth Paine picked up on them. The fact that Oswald's Russian improved over the years, yet remained imperfect, shows clearly that he wasn't a native speaker.

The claim that he was a native speaker of Russian seems to be the result of two main errors:

Firstly, cherry-picking the evidence: selecting those witnesses who praised Oswald's Russian while ignoring those who pointed out his frequent mistakes. There are plenty of reasons why someone might describe Oswald's Russian as better than it actually was (e.g.: being polite; only describing one aspect of it; only witnessing a small amount of it). But there aren't many plausible reasons why a native speaker would consistently make grammatical mistakes, as Oswald did, even after having lived among genuine native speakers for years.

Secondly, the argument from incomprehension: I simply can't understand how anyone could pick up Russian so quickly! The words are all different! And the alphabet looks funny! But it is a fact that some people happen to be much better than others at learning languages, just as some people are much better than others at athletic and artistic pursuits. With a certain amount of natural aptitude, sufficient motivation, and perhaps some tuition, there's nothing earth-shatteringly remarkable about Oswald's Russian.

[Jeremy Bojczuk]

I'm not sure the 'Harvey and Lee' believers have thought this whole thing through. Just on one page, they offer two different accounts:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/26644-the-far-reaching-influence-of-%E2%80%9Charvey-and-lee%E2%80%9D/page/2/

The first comment is by the thin-skinned James Norwood, who, in a rare break from trying to get his critics banned, wrote:

Quote

this man who lived briefly in her [Ruth Paine's] home and spoke flawless Russian

But the final comment on that page, by Jim Hargrove, offers a different opinion:

Quote

The real purpose was to take a youth, reasonably fluent in the Russian language, give him an American ID, and eventually send him as a U.S. spy in the Soviet Union who secretly understood Russian.

Was the subject of their improbable long-term doppelganger scheme a "flawless" (i.e. native or near-native level) speaker of Russian, or was he just "reasonably fluent"?

John Armstrong seems to think that the defecting doppelganger needed to be a native speaker:

Quote

One of the requirements for infiltrating an agent into a foreign country is that he/she have an intimate knowledge of the local language. … And there is little point in sending an American agent, taught in the United States to speak a Slavic or Oriental language, to infiltrate these countries because they would speak with an accent. One way to avoid the problems of physical appearance and accent is to recruit local residents or former residents living abroad.

(Armstrong, Harvey and Lee, p.10)

As I understand it, 'Harvey and Lee' doctrine requires that one of the doppelgangers was a native speaker of Russian; the purpose of this was that the doppelganger who defected should be able to understand what was being said around him in Russian. But this native-speaker requirement fails for two reasons, practical and theoretical:

The practical reason: It is far from certain (and that's being charitable) that the defector was actually a native speaker of Russian. Recordings survive of Oswald speaking English. He appears to have been a native speaker of English, just like the other US military types who defected at around the same time, none of whom were involved in an improbable long-term doppelganger scheme.

The theoretical reason: You don't need to be a native speaker, or anywhere near that level, to be able to understand the language that's being used around you. Anyone who has learned a foreign language to a reasonable level knows this. The native-speaker requirement was unnecessary; Jim's "reasonably fluent" is all that's needed.

Perhaps 'Harvey and Lee' doctrine does not require the defecting doppelganger to have been a native speaker of Russian. In this case, all that was needed was a native English-speaker who had learned sufficient Russian to understand what was going on around him, and the long-term doppelganger scheme was redundant.

To put the problem another way:

- If your long-term doppelganger scheme requires a native speaker, why did you choose someone who wasn't a native speaker?

- If your long-term doppelganger scheme does not require a native speaker, what's the point of the scheme? Why waste time and money maintaining a decade-long charade involving two Oswalds, two Marguerites, and an unknown number of officials employed to fake and destroy inconvenient evidence? Why not just send a defector who had learned Russian in his teens, like ... ooh, I don't know, let's pick an example at random ... the real-life, historical Lee Harvey Oswald?

The speculative notion of a long-term doppelganger scheme was internally inconsistent, or it was redundant. Either way, it fails.

Incidentally, one of Oswald's Soviet friends, Ernst Titovets, shows that the defector was learning Russian, and speaking it imperfectly, while in the Soviet Union, contrary to 'Harvey and Lee' doctrine:

http://johndelanewilliams.blogspot.com/2013/07/did-oswald-speak-russian-while-living.html

While we're on the subject of internal inconsistencies in the linguistic area of 'Harvey and Lee' doctrine, Greg Parker makes a good point here:

https://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/t2228-doc-norwood#34340

I think James Norwood is a member of that forum. I'd be interested to see what he has to say to Greg over there.

[Mathias Baumann]

2 hours ago, Jeremy Bojczuk said:

...

The practical reason: It is far from certain (and that's being charitable) that the defector was actually a native speaker of Russian. Recordings survive of Oswald speaking English. He appears to have been a native speaker of English, just like the other US military types who defected at around the same time, none of whom were involved in an improbable long-term doppelganger scheme.

...

Jeremy,

what do we know about the "other US military types who defected"? Were they given Russian tests too?

[Jim Hargrove]

There is plenty of evidence that Oswald had considerable ability with the Russian language while he was still in the Marines.  But it is also clear that he hid his Russian skills while in the USSR.

As soon as he arrived in Moscow, the Soviets apparently suspected he was a spy and decided to kick him out.  In a desperate move, Oswald faked a suicide attempt and was able to rescue his mission.  Nevertheless, medics at Botkinskaya Hospital in Moscow who treated his wound realized that “The patient apparently understands the questions asked in Russian. Sometimes he answers correctly, but immediately states that he does not understand what was asked.”

 

 

In Russia, “Oswald” tried to hide his fluency in Russian from almost everyone.  Pulitzer Prize winning author Norman Mailer was among the earliest people to gain access to Russian Intel documents about “Oswald.”   Mailer wrote that when “Oswald” arrived in Moscow by “Deluxe class,” he hired a personal tour guide named Rimma and, “He didn’t seem to know a single word in Russian, so Rimma spoke to him in English.”

By the time he got to Minsk, “Oswald” continued to pretend he didn’t speak Russian.  Mailer wrote, “People laughed at him when he talked.  His Russian was so bad people laughed, not mocking, but friendly.  He would try to pronounce words, get them wrong. They would laugh…. You have cows in America?  You have pigs in America?  He couldn’t understand their words, so they showed him with sign language, made animal sounds, and he laughed.”

A Belarusian scientist named Stanislav Shushkevich was eventually assigned to teach “Oswald” the Russian language.  A few years ago, Shushkevich was extensively interviewed by an American writer.   There were, apparently, only a dozen or so lessons, and the teacher noted that “He didn’t appear to know a lot.  He didn’t appear to want to know a lot.”  Shushkevich added that he “knew very few words” in Russian.

Shushkevich concluded that he real job (he didn’t speak English) was not to teach “Oswald” Russian, but “to see how much Russian Oswald really knew….”

As soon as he arrived in Moscow, the Soviets apparently suspected he was a spy and decided to kick him out. In a desperate move, Oswald faked a suicide attempt and was able to rescue his mission. Nevertheless, medics at Botkinskaya Hospital in Moscow who treated his wound realized that “The patient apparently understands the questions asked in Russian. Sometimes he answers correctly, but immediately states that he does not understand what was asked.”

Clearly, Oswald tried to hide his Russian fluency while in the Soviet Union.  Saying otherwise is merely attempting to hide the fact that he was a U.S. spy who successfully worked in the Soviet Union understanding everything that was said about him but pretending he barely understood a word.  His brilliant and lengthy final report was published by the Warren Commission, hidden in plain sight for all these years.

For much more on all of this, read Dr. James Norwood’s essay on my website:

Oswald’s Proficiency in the Russian Language

[W. Tracy Parnell]

3 minutes ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Clearly, Oswald tried to hide his Russian fluency while in the Soviet Union.

Clearly, he had no Russian fluency when he arrived there. He obtained his ability, which as Jeremy points out, was far from perfect, over time from speaking it every day. Thank you Jim for providing all of these examples of what the critics have been saying all along. LHO could barely speak Russian when he first arrived.