Representative FORD. In the Soviet Union?
Mr. GREGORY. In the Soviet Union, he probably could do it in 2 or 3
years.
Representative FORD. Did Oswald tell you when he first visited you that
he had learned to speak Russian, where?
Mr. GREGORY. In the Soviet Union.
Representative FORD. He never gave you any indication he had learned or
studied prior to going to the Soviet Union?
Mr. GREGORY. No, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. I have about one or two more questions.
Did you discuss at any time with Marina Oswald the conversation that
she had with Lee Oswald after the assassination?
Mr. GREGORY. Would you mind to state that again?
Mr. LIEBELER. Yes.
Marina Oswald spoke with Lee after the assassination, when he was in
the jail.
Mr. GREGORY. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did she tell you about that?
Mr. GREGORY. Well, I don't remember whether it was Marina or whether
it was Marguerite Oswald. I don't remember now; they did go to see him
in the jail in the city of Dallas, and it must have been Marguerite
because she was bragging what a wonderful son he is because he looked
at the little girl, June, she is 2 years old, and he said, "You have
got to buy her a new pair of shoes," I remember that. It must have been
Marguerite because she used that as an illustration of what a wonderful
boy he was.
Mr. LIEBELER. Other than that, you have no information as to what
transpired at that time, happened at that time?
Mr. GREGORY. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. Would it be fair to say, Mr. Gregory, that it was through
Oswald's contact with you that he subsequently made the association
with and contact with the other members of the Russian community in
Dallas and Fort Worth?
Mr. GREGORY. I think that would be a fair statement, yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. I have no more questions.
The CHAIRMAN. Congressman?
Representative FORD. I have one more, Mr. Gregory.
I believe Marina has testified when she first met Lee Harvey Oswald it
was approximately 17 months after he had arrived in the Soviet Union.
She testified, also, that she could not tell whether he was a native
born resident of the Soviet Union or a foreigner by the way he spoke.
Mr. GREGORY. Yes.
Representative FORD. Is that unusual?
Mr. GREGORY. Well, frankly. I don't know. You see, Congressman, the
city of Minsk is what we call, they call it, not we call, they call it
in the White Russia Republic. You know they called this the Union of
Republics, you know, in the White Russian Republic, and Minsk, I guess,
is the capital of it.
It is fairly close to Poland, and there are all sorts of people, Poles,
Lithuanians, probably Latvians, that lived in that part of the country,
and none of those people speak pure Russian.
Now, whether she had reference, whether that had anything to do with
her statement----
Representative FORD. Her observations?
Mr. GREGORY. Right; I don't know.
Now, I thought that Lee Oswald spoke with a Polish accent, that is why
I asked him if he was of Polish descent.