Did Oswald Speak in Russian while Living in the Soviet Union?
John Delane Williams and Ernst Titovets
Why Oswald, an alleged assassin of JFK, according to the expressed
official view, and an innocent man, according to the overwhelming evidence
supplied by independent researchers, is still relevant half a century after
those tragic events in Dallas? Is it that, in defending Oswald, there is a
public outcry against the deeds of those forces in power that stood behind the
JFK assassination and picked out Oswald, a convenient scapegoat, to cover up
their crime? The protesting voices carry an important message that the human
rights of a man in the street should be respected so there could be no persons
used, like Oswald was,
in the future. The relevance of Oswald is further demonstrated by the hundreds
of books that have appeared up to now concerning Oswald. Unfortunately, only a
few of these books were written by persons who had firsthand information about
Oswald; all too often others distort to various degrees the profile of the man.
The common
sense answer to the question posed in the title of this article would be, “Of
course”. He was known to be a reasonably proficient speaker of Russian. After
his return from Russia, Oswald demonstrated his proficiency in Russian in his
interactions in Dallas with the Russian community there; also, he must have
spoken Russian to his wife Marina, who had only a simple knowledge of English.
However, John Armstrong in his tome [1] where he hypothesizes two Oswalds, Lee
Oswald and Harvey Oswald, that Lee Oswald never spoke Russian [2], and Harvey
Oswald never spoke Russian during his 1959-1962 stay in the Soviet Union.[3] It
is difficult to prove a negative, but Armstrong reasons from several known
instances of Oswald not speaking Russian that he never spoke Russian in Russia:
“Oswald had to be suspicious of everyone
around him, including Marina and the Zigers, and would never have dared to
speak Russian. In fact no one said he did, except Marina.” [4] The
inference that can be drawn from this reasoning is that to speak Russian would
have been dangerous for Oswald, perhaps inferring that he might have been sent
to spy on Russia by an American intelligence agency; perhaps expulsion from the
Soviet Union, or imprisonment might have been outcome from speaking Russian.
Meeting Oswald
The publication of the book [5] by one of the author’s of
this article would seem to call into question much of the reasoning by
Armstrong. Though the book was completed in
2000, delays in publication were due to not finding a publisher; the book was
published in 2010. Titovets was a Russian with a strong interest in the English
language, and was cultivating his abilities to speak English. There were few
native English speakers in Minsk (since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Minsk
is in Belarus), where Titovets was a fourth year medical student when he was
introduced to Lee Harvey Oswald in September, 1960. Titovets was invited to the home of Alexander
Ziger, an older worker at the radio factory where Oswald was also employed. The
Zigers were immigrants from Argentina, who spoke both Spanish and Russian
fluently. Among the Zigers, only Alexander spoke English; his English was with
a heavy accent. Titovets noted that (in
September, 1960) Oswald’s Russian consisted mostly of a few stereotyped phrases
and a very limited vocabulary. Oswald seemed tongue-tied trying to converse in
Russian. It was as if he had to think in English, and then translate to
Russian. [6]
Oswald was allowed to stay in an apartment near the radio
factory where a job was found for him. It turns out that the Russians were
trying to accommodate Oswald during his stay in Russia. While Oswald might have
information that could be of use to Soviet Intelligence, other bureaucratic
entities decided to allow Oswald to stay. Instead of trying to directly get classified
information from Oswald, the KGB monitored his activities and bugged his
apartment. The Soviets apparently didn’t want to have an international incident
while Oswald was in the Soviet Union. Oswald had indicated he wanted to stay in
the Soviet Union, and seek Soviet citizenship. [7] A Russian tutor was found
for Oswald, given Oswald’s rudimentary skills in the language. Stanislav
Shushkevich, a senior engineer at the radio factory, gave him lessons in
Russian. The assignment was made by the Communist Party; thus, the assignment
was taken seriously by Shushkevich. [8]
Getting Together
Oswald invited Titovets to his apartment on September 28,
1960. Neither knew very much about the other. Titovets had a strong interest in
becoming closer to a native speaker of English; his training and exposure had
been to British English both in class and on the BBC. He had only briefly had
experience talking to a British student who had a short stay in Russia. Oswald,
with his Southern American speech would be his longest exposure to a person who
was a native speaker of English. Titovets tape recorded Oswald speaking English
so that he could study more closely Oswald’s American English. [9] Oswald’s
interest in Titovets was simpler; Titovets was a similar aged Russian who
seemed, for whatever reason, to be genuinely interested in Oswald. Titovets
began making assumptions about Oswald based on appearances and Oswald’s
behavior. Oswald’s apartment was but poorly furnished and seemingly not what would be inhabited by a successful young
professional. Oswald invited Titovets to the opera, and Oswald seemed to enjoy
it, leading Titovets to presume Oswald was a more refined person. At the
medical school, only a few of his classmates would go to the opera and actually
enjoy it. It was Titovets observation that, “Lee would be a wary character when
speaking his faltering Russian and a relaxed normal person when he spoke his
native tongue.” [10]
The
Unfolding of Oswald’s Competency in Russian
As indicated, Oswald’s initial communication in Russian
after he arrived in Russia was quite limited. This may have been at least
slightly surprising to him, to be aware that he had chosen to move to a country
that he was not able to communicate very well in their language, though his
receptive Russian might have let him understand more than he could make himself
understood. When Oswald’s fellow workers would tell a joke during work breaks,
Oswald would often miss the punch lines due to his inadequate Russian. [11] On
March 17, 1961, Oswald attended a lecture by Professor Lidia Cherkasova about
her recent trip to the United States. Cherkasova’s son introduced his mother to
Oswald. After the lecture, Oswald met Marina for the first time at a dance held
after the lecture. In Marina’s account
of how she met Lee, she stated, “Sasha was with his friends from the Institute.
One of the friends introduced me to Lee, calling him Alik…And Lee invited me to
dance and we started to talk. I decided he was one from the Baltic countries,
since he talked with an accent.” [12]
Oswald, according to Titovets, eventually succeeded in
making considerable progress with his Russian. [13] Oswald would eventually
write:
I am
totally proficient in speaking conversational Russian. I can read non-technical
Russian
text without difficulty and can to a less extent write in the Russian
language. [14]
Titovets adds,
By the
time we met, his Russian was just adequate for the task he set before him.
I
would mention that it took him about twelve months in the Soviet Union to
arrive
at that level. It was another academic step that he set for himself to
achieve and he accomplished it. A far
as I’m aware, he did not attend any Russian
language
courses. It was all through self-education and practice combined with
his
natural aptitude for languages. [15]
I sent an
e-mail query to Titovets regarding the degree to which Oswald spoke Russian in
the Soviet Union. [16] Titovets replied, “By the time I met Oswald he had
stayed in Russia already close to 12 months and he did speak quite adequate
Russian with a heavy American accent. He read Russian newspapers and
journals. The two of us spoke exclusively in English but when in the company of
Russian speakers Oswald made it a point that, as a matter of politeness, we all
spoke Russian.” [17] When Titovets learned that Armstrong stated that Oswald
spoke no Russian while in the Soviet Union, [18] he was amazed. Titovets
stated, “It was a cause of genuine surprise on the part of my old friend
Vyacheslav Stelmakh, Ph.D., a senior researcher at the Belorussian State
University, who knew Oswald at the Radio Plant and was also friends with
Oswald’s first love Ella Germann, when I told him a researcher in the States
doubts the fact that Oswald spoke Russian. There are still many Russians here
in Minsk who would confirm the fact.” [19]
Armstrong [20] stated “The KGB recorded numerous
conversations within Oswald’s apartment from 1960 thru 1962. If any of the
conversations had been in Russian the KGB would have noted the extent of his
language ability in their reports and would have immediately suspected him of
being a spy.” Armstrong is wrong on two counts. Oswald did use Russian while
living in the Soviet Union. And, in that the Communist party provided a person
to tutor Oswald in Russian, they would have expected him to use Russian in his
daily activities. His using Russian would not have seemed to be a cause for
alarm for the KGB if Oswald spoke Russian when his apartment was bugged.
Deciding to Come Back to the United States
Though we can’t know for sure when Oswald began thinking
about coming back to the United States, we can pinpoint two incidents that more
or less heralded his return. He had fallen in love with Ella Germann, a
co-worker at the radio factory in Minsk. He proposed to her on January 2, 1961.
She turned him down. [21] The decisive incident occurred just two days later.
He routinely went to the Passport Office shortly before his residence permit
was about to expire. He was given the option of applying for Soviet citizenship
or getting another term for his residence permit. Oswald chose to simply extend
his residence permit for another year, signaling that his intent to become a
Soviet citizen may have ended. [22] Titovets noted there were several hints in
Oswald’s behavior that showed an interest in returning to the United States.
When at Titovets apartment, Oswald would listen intently to Voice of America;
Oswald seemed starved for news from his homeland. [23] Titovets came up with
idea that they should play army games, specifically to yell out the drill
orders to the other person. It became clear that Oswald was proud of his
service in the Marines, and he thought America’s armies were better. [24] The
University of Michigan Band gave a concert in Minsk on March 12, 1961. After
the concert, Oswald went to the stage to engage the Americans in conversation.
It was clear that Oswald strongly wished to be among his countrymen. [25] Five
days later, after Professor Lidia Cherkasova’s lecture about her trip to the
United States, Oswald, along with several others, was invited to her apartment
for a reception. Oswald wanted to find the news from home. [26]
Then too, there
was Oswald’s disillusionment with the Soviet system. He would ask about the
ridiculousness of the quota system, wherein each sector was encouraged to
overproduce their commodities. How would the Soviets be able to utilize the
surplus? Also by this time, Oswald was aware that his apartment had been
bugged. [27]
Titovets’ Retrospective View of Oswald
After Oswald returned to the United States, he and
Titovets wrote letters to one another. Oswald mentioned that he and Marina
might be coming back to the Soviet Union. His last letter (August 30, 1963)
mentioned that a second child was to be born in October. [28] As time went on
after the assassinations of President Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, Titovets
tried to understand what Oswald was doing when he came to the Soviet Union.
Titovets used the Warren Commission exhibits in his own search for Lee Harvey
Oswald-Who was this interesting American English speaker who was my close
friend while he was here in the Soviet Union? Why did he come? Why did he
leave? Why was he planning to come back? Titovets wrestled with these and other
thoughts regarding Oswald both before and during the writing of Oswald: Russian Episode. What Titovets
came to understand was that Oswald was a self educated person who was
interested in political sociology. Perhaps he came to Russia to live
permanently, or perhaps he was tentative in this decision, or perhaps his
decisions were framed through his learning process. He was definitely a student
of the Soviet system, as he was a student of the American system. Oswald began
to look at the two systems and try to take the better things from both systems,
while discarding some aspects of both systems. These ideas were brought to
fruition in Oswald’s writing The Athenian
System. [29]
Titovets stated, “Summing up my research into Oswald’s
life in Russia, it seems to me I was more privileged to learn his true state of
mind than any other person he knew.” [30] Titovets posited that Oswald was
trying to integrate the better features of the Soviet system into an American
democracy to help bring forth a fairer, better society in America. Oswald foresaw, much as Marx did, that the
American capitalistic system would eventuate in a crisis (perhaps a nuclear
war) that would bring itself to an end. At that point, the Athenian system
could be the logical step for the survivors of the crisis. [31]
Titovets saw
Oswald as a non-violent person, and incapable of committing the acts toward
President Kennedy that were the conclusions of the efforts of the Warren
Commission. [32] It appeared that Oswald was a convenient pawn for the Warren
Commission to place the blame upon for President Kennedy’s assassination. In
Titovets view, Oswald was pursuing his dream, to look at the systems of the two
superpowers and amalgamate a new system that combined the best features of both
of their systems. [33] Thus, Oswald, in chasing his dream, was a happy man.
[34]
Titovets’ Reading of Harvey and
Lee
Ernst Titovets apparently decided to read Harvey and Lee
for himself, partially to answer the question, how did Armstrong conclude that
Oswald spoke no Russian in Russia? Titovets then sent me an e-mail [35]
addressing only those portions of Armstrong’s book that pertained to Oswald’s
being in Russia and only those portions which were familiar
to Titovets.
Armstrong
[36]:”I wanted to be sure I understood her answer and said, “Ana you knew
Oswald from the time he arrived in Minsk until the day he and Marina left for
the United States. You and your parents accompanied them to the train station
and took photographs (published in the Warren Volumes). During that time he
never spoke any Russian, even up to the day he left Minsk?” Ana, once again
replied, “No,-not a word. My father always interpreted for him-he was the only
person in the family who spoke English…” (p. 288)…“An English-speaking medical
student, Erich (Ernst) Titovets, first met Oswald at the Hotel Minsk and later
was a regular visitor to his apartment.” (p. 289).
Titovets:
Actually, I met Oswald not at the Hotel Minsk, but at the Zigers apartment. It
was in the presence of the whole family: Alexander Zigers, his wife Signora
Anna and his two daughters, Anita, [37] and Eleanora. Oswald spoke Russian and
there was no need to interpret for him.
Armstrong
[38]: “At the factory Oswald met another person who spoke English. Pavel
Golovachev, the son of a famous Soviet Air Force General…After Pavel and Oswald
began spending a lot of time together the KGB asked him to report on Oswald’s
activities. He dutifully informed of his contacts with Oswald and kept them apprised
of his movements.” (p. 289).
Titovets:
Pavel Golovachev did not speak English at all. Once he confided in me that he
wished he did and he was sorry he did not speak the language.
Armstrong [39] “On October 18 [1960]
Lee Harvey Oswald celebrated his 21st birthday. Ella Germann, a girl
from the Horizon factory who Oswald had been dating the past two months, and
spoke very good English, attended a small birthday party at his apartment.”(p.
311).
Titovets: Ella
Germann did not speak English at all.
Armstrong
[40]:”It is clear that Marina associated with Americans, spoke English with
Webster and almost certainly spoke English with Oswald… Marina’s ability to
read, write, and speak English fluently before she left Russia is
indisputable.” (p. 340).
Titovets:
Marina did not speak English at all. It would be really surprising if she would
have spoken English with Oswald and completely ignored me even when the three
of us were together.
Armstrong
[41]: “When Oswald and Marina met, danced, and agreed to a date the following
Friday they spoke a common language. Was it Russian or English? The HSCA asked
Marina, ‘At the time were you speaking Russian together?’ She answered, ‘Yes.
He spoke with an accent so I assumed he was from another state.’ Oswald came in
contact with hundreds of people in Russia, but Marina is the only person-THE
ONLY PERSON who said that he spoke Russian while in Russia.” (p. 334).
Titovets:
Armstrong is right about there were so many people who met Oswald in Minsk.
There are still many living who would have testified to the fact that Oswald
spoke Russian to them. Had John Armstrong followed Norman Mailer’s [42]
example, he would have come to Minsk and interviewed them.
In the book Oswald:
Russian Episode [43] one can find an illustration with Oswald’s longhand in
Russian on the inside cover of a book where Oswald contemplates the names for
his future child. Incidentally, Oswald signed his writings.
When a date-line does not fit Armstrong’s he dismisses it
as an error and suggests his “correct” one. To give an example:
Armstrong
[44]: “NOTE: We will soon see the date of March 17 is in error.” (p. 333).
Titovets: It
is the night at the Trade Union Palace when Oswald first met Marina Prussokova.
The date of March 17, 1961 is correct.
Recent
Interviews of Persons Who Knew Oswald in Minsk
Two recent interviews were conducted by Ernst Titovets
with persons who had known Oswald in Minsk
The first interview was with Vladimir Zhidovich, a
leading engineer at the Radio and Cosmic Technologies Department of the
Bylorussian State University in Minsk. This interview took place on March 19,
2013. Zhidovich worked together with Oswald at the same shop in the Radio Plant
in Minsk.
Titovets: Vladimir,
do you know English?
Zhidovich: No,
I do not. Why ask? You know that I don’t speak the language!
Titovets: Never mind. I’ll tell you
later. Just answer my questions! Did Oswald speak Russian?
Zhidovitch:
Russian was the only language we could communicate with him. He was not a
talkative person and his Russian needed much brushing up. But he understood
most [of] what he was told to and reacted accordingly.
Titovets: Did
anyone at the Radio Plant speak English to him?
Zhidovitch: No
way! Nobody knew English around [there] and I never heard anybody speaking
English to Oswald at work. Even Stanislav Shushkevich, when he happened to drop
over on business to the shop, spoke Russian to him. Now, tell me what’s this
all about?
Titovets: A
John Armstrong in his book Harvey and Lee
insists that Oswald did not speak Russian while those around him spoke mainly
English. We both know perfectly well that Oswald did speak Russian and I just
wanted to hear it from you to oblige an American friend and researcher who
wants to check the fact.
Zhidovitch:
First I thought it was some kind of trick question. Of course Oswald did speak
Russian!
The second interview was with a neurologist, Dr.
Alexander Mastykin, MD., Ph.D. on March 20, 2013. Mastykin was a medical student
at the time he met Oswald. Mastykin was learning Spanish and practiced the
language at the Spanish-speaking Zigers family’s apartment. He knew Anita
Zigers very well.
Titovets: Did
Anita Zigers speak English at the time she knew Oswald?
Mastykin: I
never heard a single English word ever drop from her lips!
Titovets: John
Armstrong wrote a book Harvey and Lee
and there, according to John Armstrong, Anita would say to him in an interview
that Oswald did not speak Russian at all while he was in Minsk.
Mastykin: It
would be Anita all over! I wouldn’t put it past her that she might well invent
things and say anything on the spur of the moment, unnecessary true, just for
kicks. It might well depend on her mood, how she was approached and if the
question was a suggestive one.
Titovets: Did
Oswald speak Russian?
Mastykin: To
say the truth there was not much love lost between the two of us; I mostly
tried to steer away from him. I did not speak English while Oswald did not
speak Spanish so it was Russians on those rare occasions when we happened to
meet.
Armstrong’s Contribution to the Critical Literature
regarding the Kennedy Assassination
In any research investigation, the theorist may either
start with assertions, or with hypotheses they arrive at in some manner. In
Armstrong’s case, though he does not refer to his assertion as a hypothesis
(one might infer that Armstrong felt that he sufficiently proved his assertion
to being true) his assertion/hypothesis can be addressed logically by others.
To be sure, Armstrong had a tough hypothesis to prove. No matter how convincing
his reasoning, one counterexample would prove his hypothesis false. Repeating Armstrong’s assertion, “Oswald had to be suspicious of everyone
around him, including Marina and the Zigers, and would never have dared to
speak Russian. In fact no one said he did, except Marina. [45]
Allowing the exception of Marina, any other person who
heard him speak Russian while in Russia would prove this assertion/hypothesis
false. Titovets’ [46] book stands as evidence that Oswald did on many occasions
speak Russian in Russia. Further, the interviews herein with Vladimir
Zhidovitch and Alexander Mastykin concur that Oswald spoke Russian in
Minsk. But we would even question
Armstrong’s making the assertion in the first place. If the Communist party
were to provide him with a Russian tutor, then would not they logically expect
him to speak Russian? The KGB was bugging his apartment and had at least one
person (Pavel Golovachev) reporting to the KGB on Oswald. If Oswald seemed to
learn Russian too fast, they would have figured that out. In monitoring his
apartment, they would seem likely to have ferreted out any bogus behavior.
Stanislav Shushkevich, the person chosen to tutor Oswald by the communist
party, was a poor choice to attempt to teach Oswald. Shushkevich, a
post-graduate science student at the university in Minsk, had learned to read
English for his scientific studies, but had little experience in conversing in
English. Because Russian is a language
that uses Cyrillic symbols, it is initially more difficult for persons whose
reading has been mostly using European alphabetical symbols. On the other hand,
using an approach that emphasizes first learning the spoken language would likely
be more successful, particularly for someone with Oswald’s educational
background. Stellina Ivanova, the Intourist Director at Minsk would become a
teacher of Russian to Oswald. This proved more helpful to Oswald, though as
Mailer pointed out, Oswald did not pay her a kopeck for her efforts. [47]
Oswald’s learning of Russian, as described earlier, was an arduous task-and
apparently within the expectancies of the KGB as they listened to his progress
with the hidden microphones. Titovets [48] has shown that Oswald began to speak
Russian with limited fluency with increasing success over time while in Russia.
In Armstrong’s concluding that Oswald spoke no Russian to
anyone in Russia (perhaps excepting Marina), given the rather strong case that
Oswald did in fact talk in Russian as he became somewhat more proficient in the
language, the statement that Oswald did
not speak Russian in Minsk is clearly false. Curiously Armstrong admits that
Oswald must have spoken some Russian to Stellina Ivanova, since, upon hearing
of his marriage to Marina she quipped, ”How can that be? You don’t know Russian
well enough.” [49] From this comment one could infer that he must have spoken
Russian to her- it just wasn’t adequate enough for fluency.
Armstrong has
compiled the many circumstances that multiple “Oswalds” appears to be doing
things at the same time that cannot be attributed to a single individual. [50]
Some of these multiple Oswalds can be attributed to misidentifications, to
doppelgangers, or to persons who have deliberately impersonated Oswald, either
for their own reasons or for hire. That compilation is a useful contribution.
But the multiple Oswalds appear to have ended on November 22, 1963.
Finally, the question posed in the title to this article,
“Did Oswald speak Russian while in the Soviet Union?” and the answer is simple.
Of course he did.
Notes
1. Armstrong,
J. (2006). Harvey & Lee: How the CIA
framed Oswald. Arlington, TX: Quasar, LTD.
2. Ibid,
p. 187.
3. Ibid,
pp. 339-340.
4. Ibid,
p. 340.
5. Titovets,
E. (2010). Oswald: Russian Episode.
Minsk, Belarus: Mon Litera Publishing House.
6. Ibid,
pp. 94-95.
7. Ibid,
p. 18-31.
8. Ibid,
p. 49, p. 229.
9. Ibid,
pp. 146-155.
10. Ibid,
p. 111.
11. Ibid,
p.62.
12. WCE,
Vol. XVIII, pp. 597-602.
13. Titovets,
p. 377.
14. WCE,
Vol. XVI, pp. 337-346.
15. Titovets,
p. 377.
16. Williams,
J.D. e-mail sent to Ernst Titovets, March 13, 2012.
17. Titovets,
E. e-mail sent to John Williams, March 14, 2012.
18. Williams,
J.D. e-mail sent to Ernst Titovets, March 16, 2012.
19. Titovets,
E. e-mail sent to John Williams, March 19, 2012.
20. Armstrong,
p. 339.
21. Titovets,
pp. 156-163.
22. Ibid,
p. 173.
23. Ibid,
p. 147.
24. Ibid,
pp. 182-190.
25. Ibid,
pp. 210-216.
26. Ibid,
p. 241 .
27. Ibid,
pp. 191-193.
28. Ibid,
pp. 329-345.
29. Ibid,
p. 384; Lee Oswald, The Athenian System,
WCE 98, pp. 431-434.
30. Titovets,
p. 384.
31. Ibid,
p.384.
32. Ibid,
pp.389-390.
33. Ibid,
pp. 384-394.
34. Ibid,
p. 423.
35. Titovets,
E. e-mail to John Williams, 1/29/2013.
36. Armstrong,
p. 288, 289.
37. Some
confusion might arise between “Ana” and “Anita”. Anita’s actual name was Ana,
the same name as her mother. Thus as long as she lived in the family unit, the
younger Ana went by Anita to avoid confusion. Thus, the Russian youths who knew
her at the time Oswald was in Russia referred to her as Anita. By the time John
Armstrong interviewed her in 1998, she now went by Ana.
38. Ibid,
p.289.
39. Ibid,
p. 311.
40. Ibid,
p. 340.
41. Ibid, p. 334.
42. Mailer,
N. (1995). Oswald’s Tale: An American
Mystery. New York: Random House.
43. Titovets,
E. (2010).
44. Armstrong,
p. 333. Incidentally, Titovets gives in his Oswald:
Russian Episode a different account of Marina meeting Lee.
45. Ibid,
p. 340.
46. Titovets,
E. (2010).
47. Mailer,
N. (1995). p. 82.
48. Titovets,
E. (2010).
49. Armstrong,
p. 339.
50. In
reading Janney, P. (2012) Mary’s Mosaic. New York: Skyhorse Publishing., I came across a reference to John Armstrong’s
article in Probe: Armstrong, J.
(1998). Harvey, Lee and Tippet: A New Look at the Tippit shooting. Probe: January-February, Vol. 5, No. 2,
(www.ctka.net/pr198-jfk.html )
which in turn was identical to an article of the same name published in 2012 in
The Dealey Plaza Echo (17: No. 2, pp.
9-22). There should minimally have been a note of attribution to the earlier
publication so that readers would not mistake it for new original
research.
