Finally, allow me to address Jerry Organ's erroneous claim that Oswald did not speak Russian well. Organ is making this bogus claim because the "Oswald" who called the Soviet Consulate in Mexico City spoke "terrible" Russian, "hardly recognizable" Russian.
Mrs. Natalie Ray, a native of Stalingrad, Russia, met Oswald after his return from the Soviet Union. She told the WC that Oswald's conversational Russian was "just perfect." She complimented Oswald while speaking in her own broken English: "I said, 'How come you speak so good Russian? I been here so long and still don't speak very well English." When WC attorney Liebeler ask her, "You thought he spoke Russian better than you would expect a person to be able to speak Russian after only living...there only 3 years?", she replied, "Yes; I really did."
She met Oswald only once (at a house party) and said he said very few words and only about where he had lived in Russia.
"Three year. I said "You speak good Russian." I asked him, I said
"Do you like" no; I asked "How you like Russia?" He said "Oh,
it's all right." But he don't have much to say, you know, but he
always staying close to Marina and every time you asking
something he seems to be one to answer it. If someone say
where you from, he tell you. Maybe he just plain wanted let you
know he speak Russian or something. I don't know reason but
seems to me that he all time interfere. "
"This Oswald don't say much and you introduce and that's as
far as go but he always constantly staying very close to his wife,
you know."
"I know she said he working on factory, some factory and we don't
get any details."
Mrs. Ray didn't hear Oswald on the phone speaking Russian in an agitated manner, as the caller to the Soviet Consulate was.
George de Mohrenschildt, another native Russian speaker, praised Oswald's skills in the Russian language. He told the WC that Oswald "had remarkable fluency in Russian.... he preferred to speak Russian than English any time. He always would switch from English to Russian."
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, he spoke fluent Russian, but with
a foreign accent, and made mistakes, grammatical mistakes,
but had remarkable fluency in Russian.
Mr. JENNER. It was remarkable?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Remarkable -- for a fellow of his back-
ground and education, it is remarkable how fast he learned it.
But he loved the language. He loved to speak it. He preferred to
speak Russian than English any time. He always would switch
from English to Russian.
What de Mohrenschildt mean by Oswald's "background and education":
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, he was not sophisticated, you see.
He was a semieducated hillbilly. And you cannot take such a
person seriously. All his opinions were crude, you see. But I
thought at the time he was rather sincere.
Mr. JENNER. Opinion sincerely held, but crude?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. He was relatively uneducated.
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Oh, yes.
Mr. JENNER. That he had not had the opportunity for a study under
scholars who would criticize, so that he himself could form some
views on the subject?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Exactly. His mind was of a man with
exceedingly poor background, who read rather advanced books,
and did not understand even the words in them. He read compli-
cated economical treatises and just picked up difficult words out
of what he has read, and loved to display them. He loved to use
the difficult words, because it was to impress one.
Mr. JENNER. Did you think he understood it?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. He did not understand the words -- he just
used them. So how can you take seriously a person like that? You
just laugh at him. But there was always an element of pity I had,
and my wife had, for him. We realized that he was sort of a forlorn
individual, groping for something.
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. He said, "I don't want her to study English
because I want to speak Russian to her, I will forget my Russian if
I do not practice it every day." These are the words which I remem-
ber distinctly. And how many times I told him, "You have to let your
wife learn English. This is a very egotistical attitude on your part."
Mr. JENNER. Very selfish.
I guess the de Mohrenschildts also didn't hear Oswald on the phone speaking Russian in an agitated manner, as the caller to the Soviet Consulate was. However, the de Mohrenschildts spoke of Marina as Oswald's punching bag.
Peter Gregory, a native of Chita, Siberia, told the WC that "I thought that Lee Oswald spoke [Russian] with a Polish accent, that is why I asked him if he was of Polish descent. . . . It would be rather unusual . . . for a person who lived in the Soviet Union for 17 months that he would speak so well that a native Russian would not be sure whether he was born in that country or not."
Meaning Oswald's Russian wasn't up to that of a native Russian.
Gregory's son, Peter Paul Gregory, was a graduate student in Russian language and literature at the University of Oklahoma in the early 1960s. He conversed with Oswald and later told the WC that Oswald "was completely fluent. He understood more than I did and he could express any idea . . . that he wanted to in Russian."
The son is Paul Roderick Gregory.
Mr. LIEBELER. What about Oswald's proficiency in Russian?
Mr. GREGORY. He spoke a very ungrammatical Russian with a very
strong accent.
Mr. LIEBELER. What kind of accent?
Mr. GREGORY. Well, I can't tell you, because I am not that much of
a judge. You would have to ask an expert about that. It was this
poorly spoken Russian, but he was completely fluent. He under-
stood more than I did and he could express any idea, I believe,
that he wanted to in Russian. But it was heavily pronounced and
he made all kinds of grammatical errors, and Marina would correct
him, and he would get peered at her for doing this. She would say
you are supposed to say like this, and he would wave his hand
and say, "Don't bother me.""
More recent quote from Gregory:
"If Lee Harvey Oswald [had grown up] today, he would have probably
become a school shooter. He might have ... gone after a public figure,
someone whose death would get him into the news."
Other witnesses spoke of Oswald's good command of Russian, including George Bouhe,
Mr. LIEBELER - Did you form an impression as to his command of
that language?
Mr. BOUHE - Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER - What was that impression?
Mr. BOUHE - A very strange assortment of words. Grammatically not
perfect, but an apparent ease to express himself in that language.
Mr. LIEBELER - You think he had a good command of the language,
considering the amount of time he had spent in Russia?
Mr. BOUHE - Sir, for everyday conversations, yes. But I think that if
I would have asked him to write, I would think he would have difficulty.
Mr. LIEBELER - When did you get the impression that he received
any special training in the Russian language while he was in the
Soviet Union?
Mr. BOUHE - Never heard of it.
Mr. LIEBELER - You did not get that impression?
Mr. BOUHE - I did not get it, but back in the old country, in the good
old days in St. Petersburg, which was cosmopolitan, everybody
spoke French--well, some from in school and some from govern-
esses and some from trips to Paris, and that is supposed to be
the best way to learn the language, so I would say from my
estimate of the caliber of his language is that he picked it up by
ear from Marina, other girls, or from factory workers.
Mr. LIEBELER - You also conversed with Marina in Russian, did
you not?
Mr. BOUHE - Oh, yes; she is very good, I must say, to my great
amazement.
Mr. LIEBELER - Much better than Oswald? Was Marina's command
of the Russian language better than what you would have expected,
based on her education?
Mr. BOUHE - Yes.
Mrs. Teofil Meller, Elena Hall, and Mrs. Dymitruk.
So the "Oswald" who called the Soviet Consulate in MC clearly was not the real Oswald.
"He [Oswald] said he had been studying Russian. And, again, I had
the impression -- I don't recall -- I may have spoken some Russian
to him -- but I at least formed the impression that he did not know
very much Russian. I don't think he could have gotten along on
his own in Russian society. I don't think he could have done more
than buy a piece of bread, maybe."
-- Richard Snyder, Foreign Service Officer, Embassy Counsel
"I can get along in restaurants but my Russian is very bad."
-- Oswald to Aline Mosby, Journalist
"[Oswald's Russian was] rather inadequate, only several hundred
words, really nothing."
-- Ernst Titovets, Friend of Oswald in Minsk
Half the time Oswald spent in the Soviet Union, he was trying to leave. So improving his Russian had no long-term payoff.
"My wife says the note that LHO supposedly left for Marina on the night
of the Walker shooting is terrible - she could barely understand it and
did indeed laugh out loud."
-- Forum posting
Might be interesting to have other Russian-speakers look at the letter.