Oswald's salary in the USSR

[Steve Thomas]

I was looking for something else and got caught up in this:

 

WC testimony of Gary Taylor

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/taylor1.htm

 

Mr. TAYLOR. “All right. Lee, on various occasions, and I discussed the life that he led in Russia,... That he worked as a sheet-metal fabricator in the town of Minsk, and received for his remuneration for his work 45 rubles a month--which was the minimum, he said, that everyone in Russia receives whether they work or not.

 

A Russian citizen does not have to pay for medical services; the house apartment, a place to live, a Russian citizen does not have to pay for it.

I believe he said Marina received 180 rubles a month for her work as a pharmacist.

(If he was making 45 rubles a month, Marina was making 4 times what he was making. At age 23, she was making as much as someone who retired after 20 years or so of service).

 

Mr. TAYLOR. In other words, for length of time at your machine, for example. When you first come to work, like Lee, and you make 45 rubles a month, as he does it for so many years or for such a length of time, he gets a raise over and above that.

Mr. TAYLOR. That is the impression I received. I believe he said that someone doing his job, by the time they reach retirement age I don't remember what that was--would be receiving something just under 200 rubles a month for performing the same task.

 

Mr. JENNER. Was anything said about the context of 180 rubles a month earned by Marina and 45 rubles a month earned by Oswald?
Mr. TAYLOR. I don't remember any specific comments that he made about that. The only thing I remember in this regard w. as that he did mention at one time that Marina had a higher education than he had and that--uh--I don't believe I ever heard him say anything else about it.

Mr. TAYLOR. That this is one of the reasons why I would never have asked him, as you asked me, what he felt about his wife making more money. He seemed very depressed about how the Russians had treated him.
Mr. JENNER. Did he appear to you to be sensitive on this score--that he----
Mr. TAYLOR. It appeared that he would be sensitive if I had broached the subject.

 

Taylor said that Oswald told him, “A Russian citizen does not have to pay for medical services; the house apartment, a place to live, a Russian citizen does not have to pay for it. There is no charge for this.”

 

Oswald's “Diary”

 

https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/pdf/WH16_CE_24.pdf

 

 

Jan 4. “The offial(sic)... tells me that they have arranged for me to recive(sic) some

money though the Red Cross to pay my hotel bills and expensis(sic).”

 

Jan. 5. I go to Red Cross in Moscow for money with Interrupter(sic) (a new one) I recive(sic) 5000. rubles a huge sum!! Later in Mink(sic) I am to earn 70 rubles a month at the factory.”

 

There are three things in this two sentence diary entry that caught my eye:

1. Lee Oswald couldn't spell worth a damn.

2. He is going to the Red Cross with a “new interpreter” Why?

3. 5,000 rubles. If he was making 45 rubles a month as he told Gary Taylor (see above), that's 9.25 years worth of salary. If he was making 70 rubles a month as he says in this diary entry(see above), that's 6 years worth of salary.

 

 

Jan. 13-16 "I work as a "checker" metal worker, pay : 700 rubles a month, work very easy,... I recive(sic) a check from the Red Cross every 5^th of the month "to help”. The check is 700 rubles. Therefore every month I make 1400. R . about the same as the Director of the factory!”

 

No diary entries for two months.

 

March 16. I recive(sic) a small flat one-room kicten(sic)-bath near the factory (8 min. walk) with splendid view from 2 balconies of the river, almost rent free (60. rub. a mon.) It is a Russians dream.”

 

Was Oswald getting 45 rubles a month? 70 rubles a month? 700 rubles a month? Plus 700 rubles a month from the Red Cross for a total of 1,400 rubles a month??

 

If Oswald was receiving 45 rubles a month, as Gary Taylor said; his pay would be less than his rent.

Or, was Oswald living rent-free, as he told Taylor?

 

Is Oswald's Diary just a total fabrication?

 

Steve Thomas

 

 

 

 

 

[Steve Thomas]

23 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Was Oswald getting 45 rubles a month? 70 rubles a month? 700 rubles a month? Plus 700 rubles a month from the Red Cross for a total of 1,400 rubles a month??

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=57690#relPageId=85&tab=page

 

On July 8, 1961 Oswald appeared at the American Embassy in Moscow. At that time, he informed the Embassy that “he was employed at the Belo Russian Radio and Television Factory in Minsk, Russia as a metal worker in the research shop. He gave his earnings as 90 rubles per month.”

 

45? 70? 90? 700?

hmmmm.....

 

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=57690#relPageId=94&tab=page

 

On June 26, 1962. Oswald told FBI SA John Fain that while in Russia, “that he earned 80 rubles a month, which was the equivalent of about $72.00 per month in American money.”

 

Steve Thomas

 

[Robert Harper]

Using an inflation calculator, that's in the range of $600 a month. Using the same, one can find that Jack Ruby had the equivalent in cash of around $50,000. The government takes the cars of people with cash like that and no proof of income.

btw--thanks for welcoming