Oswald's Proficiency in the Russian Language

[James Norwood]

Around the time of the 50th anniversary, a participant in an internet discussion wrote that  “The single most important question about LHO’s background is where and how he learned to speak Russian.”  I have prepared an article that synthesizes the evidence about Oswald's proficiency in Russian before, during, and after his stay in the Soviet Union.  An understanding of Oswald's Russian language skills may help to clarify confusing aspects of his biography, including the true nature of his beliefs about Marxism, the Soviet Union, and Cuba. 

 

Warren Commission apologists begin with the premise that Oswald was a genuine Marxist sympathizer.  But if that premise is false, then the legend of Oswald promoted by the Warren Commission collapses like a house of cards.

The article may be accessed at Jim Hargrove's Harvey and Lee website:

 http://harveyandlee.net/Russian.html

[Ron Bulman]

Deep and interesting.  I thought from what I've read Oswald learned his Russian from the U S Government language school in Monterey California while in Marines (ONI ?).  Throw all this in with when did Marina learn English and it's get's interesting.  If Marina really did speak to another defector in Moscow in English as reported prior to meeting Lee when did they first communicate in what language after her "banishment" to the care her Uncle in the KGB?  If she knew English then just about everything regarding relationship with the Paines and her Warren Omission testimony is BS.  

Edited September 16, 2017 by Ron Bulman

[Jim Hargrove]

It’s a treat that Prof. Norwood is making such substantial contributions to HarveyandLee.net.  He combines the thoroughness and vigor of an academic researcher with a real flair for popular writing.

In the opening pages of Harvey and Lee, John Armstrong examined the possibilities that Oswald may have studied Russian at a language school and concluded there simply wasn’t a time when he could have done so.   He also interviewed Zack Stout, who was stationed with Oswald in Japan and the Far East for roughly an entire year before he (Oswald) suddenly began speaking and reading and writing Russian while based in California. Stout said, “ We slept in the same bunkhouse and most of the time worked on the same radar crew. The idea that Oswald studied Russian in Japan is ridiculous--it just didn't happen.”  (H&L p. 5)

Norman Mailer apparently had little to say about what language Marina and her new husband spoke in private, a shortcoming I have heard both John and James complain about.  The link to Prof. Norwood's new article, again, is here:

http://harveyandlee.net/Russian.html

Edited September 15, 2017 by Jim Hargrove

[Jim Hargrove]

Two young boys, Lee Harvey Oswald and an eastern European refugee who
spoke Russian and was given the name "Harvey Oswald," were selected by the CIA for
inclusion in a super-secret project known as MK-ULTRA. The plan was to merge the
identity of a Russian-speaking refugee with that of American born Lee Harvey Oswald
over a period of many years. If the merging of identities was successful the CIA could
then place a native Russian-speaking young man, with an American identity, in the
Soviet Union as a spy.

The young man known to the world as "Lee Harvey Oswald" successfully "de­-
fected" to the Soviet Union in 1959 and returned to the United States with a Russian
wife in 1962. A year and a half later this young man was set-up as the "patsy" in an elabo­
rate scheme engineered by career CIA officials to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.
Following the assassination the FBI and Warren Commission collected and
pieced together background information from the Russian-speaking refugee and Ameri-­
can born Lee Harvey Oswald that was used to create a fictionalized person we know as
"Lee Harvey Oswald." Two days after the assassination of President Kennedy the
Russian-speaking refugee, Harvey Oswald, was shot and killed by Dallas night-club
owner/CIA gunrunner, Jack Ruby. Arnerican born Lee Oswald was, and may still be, very
much alive.

--from Harvey and Lee, preface

 

See Dr. Norwood's LEE HARVEY OSWALD ESSAY, right here:

http://harveyandlee.net/J_Norwood/Legend.html

Edited September 16, 2017 by Jim Hargrove