Thomas H. Purvis Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 Perhaps not! ________________________________________________________________________________ _______ Mr. THORNLEY. Completely omniverous. Anything that I would happen to get a hold of I would read. At that time I was reading, well, at Oswald's advice I read "1984." At someone else's advice I was reading a book called "Human-ism," by Corliss Lamont, as I remember, and I was reading either "The Brothers Karamazov" or the "Idiot" by Dostoievsky, I forget which, at that time. ________________________________________________________________________________ ________ The diary records that when Oswald told Rima Shirokova that he intended to defect she was "flabbergassted," but agreed to help.489 She was "politly sympathetic but uneasy" when he told her that he wanted to defect because he was "a Communist, ect." 490 As an Intourist guide, Rima toured parts of Moscow with Oswald in the next few days. His primary concern, however, appeared to be his effort to become a Soviet citizen, and she also aided him in his dealings with the Soviet Government.491 He thought that Rima felt sorry for him and tried to be a friend because he was "someth. new." 492 On his 20th birthday, 2 days after he arrived in Russia, she gave him Dostoevski's "The Idiot," 493 in which she had written: "Dear Lee, Great congratulations! Let all your dreams come true! 18.X 1959" 494 ________________________________________________________________________________ _________ Just perhaps "The Idiot" was not such an "Idiot" afterall. Curious that CE1399 merely states that it is a "congratulatory note" from Ms. Shirokova, when in reality it is the book "The Idiot" which she gave to LHO and contains here handwritten notes inside the front cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dolva Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 Perhaps not!________________________________________________________________________________ _______ Mr. THORNLEY. Completely omniverous. Anything that I would happen to get a hold of I would read. At that time I was reading, well, at Oswald's advice I read "1984." At someone else's advice I was reading a book called "Human-ism," by Corliss Lamont, as I remember, and I was reading either "The Brothers Karamazov" or the "Idiot" by Dostoievsky, I forget which, at that time. ________________________________________________________________________________ ________ The diary records that when Oswald told Rima Shirokova that he intended to defect she was "flabbergassted," but agreed to help.489 She was "politly sympathetic but uneasy" when he told her that he wanted to defect because he was "a Communist, ect." 490 As an Intourist guide, Rima toured parts of Moscow with Oswald in the next few days. His primary concern, however, appeared to be his effort to become a Soviet citizen, and she also aided him in his dealings with the Soviet Government.491 He thought that Rima felt sorry for him and tried to be a friend because he was "someth. new." 492 On his 20th birthday, 2 days after he arrived in Russia, she gave him Dostoevski's "The Idiot," 493 in which she had written: "Dear Lee, Great congratulations! Let all your dreams come true! 18.X 1959" 494 ________________________________________________________________________________ _________ Just perhaps "The Idiot" was not such an "Idiot" afterall. Curious that CE1399 merely states that it is a "congratulatory note" from Ms. Shirokova, when in reality it is the book "The Idiot" which she gave to LHO and contains here handwritten notes inside the front cover. Tom, not quite sure what you are getting at here. A perusal of online version of book *: http://www.online-literature.com/dostoevsky/idiot/ doesn't make it clear. It's a great piece of literature. Some say the best of Dostoyevsky. I can see relevance to giving to Oswald. It dispells naivitee and explains the Russian mind. On the other hand it can be seen as a 'fascist' document that, to those already so inclined, describes a futility of christian morality. Overall it doesn't seem significant. Is it? Another point: the use of "to defect" seems interesting? Isn't it government people and such like that "defect". Ordinary citizens emigrate. Or maybe the two were interchangeable back then? (*seems a good site for searchable classics) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Weaver Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 John, you have raised an very interresting point here, I did think about this when I read about other defectors from that time, some years ago. Why not try and find out the number of defectors versus the number of emigrants between 1958-1963. Was every emigrant mentioned in newspapers or only the defectors, and then find out how many emigrants did return versus how many defectors did. My guess is, the percentage of defectors returning to the US was significant higher during 1959-1963 than the percentage of emigrants was. I would not limit this to the USSR, but to the whole eastern block plus China and North Korea. Normaly one should expect the following categorization: Emigrants Dissidents Defectors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas H. Purvis Posted November 13, 2005 Author Share Posted November 13, 2005 Perhaps not! ________________________________________________________________________________ _______ Mr. THORNLEY. Completely omniverous. Anything that I would happen to get a hold of I would read. At that time I was reading, well, at Oswald's advice I read "1984." At someone else's advice I was reading a book called "Human-ism," by Corliss Lamont, as I remember, and I was reading either "The Brothers Karamazov" or the "Idiot" by Dostoievsky, I forget which, at that time. ________________________________________________________________________________ ________ The diary records that when Oswald told Rima Shirokova that he intended to defect she was "flabbergassted," but agreed to help.489 She was "politly sympathetic but uneasy" when he told her that he wanted to defect because he was "a Communist, ect." 490 As an Intourist guide, Rima toured parts of Moscow with Oswald in the next few days. His primary concern, however, appeared to be his effort to become a Soviet citizen, and she also aided him in his dealings with the Soviet Government.491 He thought that Rima felt sorry for him and tried to be a friend because he was "someth. new." 492 On his 20th birthday, 2 days after he arrived in Russia, she gave him Dostoevski's "The Idiot," 493 in which she had written: "Dear Lee, Great congratulations! Let all your dreams come true! 18.X 1959" 494 ________________________________________________________________________________ _________ Just perhaps "The Idiot" was not such an "Idiot" afterall. Curious that CE1399 merely states that it is a "congratulatory note" from Ms. Shirokova, when in reality it is the book "The Idiot" which she gave to LHO and contains here handwritten notes inside the front cover. Tom, not quite sure what you are getting at here. A perusal of online version of book *: http://www.online-literature.com/dostoevsky/idiot/ doesn't make it clear. It's a great piece of literature. Some say the best of Dostoyevsky. I can see relevance to giving to Oswald. It dispells naivitee and explains the Russian mind. On the other hand it can be seen as a 'fascist' document that, to those already so inclined, describes a futility of christian morality. Overall it doesn't seem significant. Is it? Another point: the use of "to defect" seems interesting? Isn't it government people and such like that "defect". Ordinary citizens emigrate. Or maybe the two were interchangeable back then? (*seems a good site for searchable classics) ________________________________________________________________________________ _________ reading, well, at Oswald's advice I read "1984 ________________________________________________________________________________ _________ After the arrest of LHO, it was found that he also had his own personal copy of George Orwell's "1984", which was recoverd at the Paine garage. Tom P.S. The point is "communications capability"/aka message transmission in code! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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