Mr. RANKIN. Could you have gotten a job in Leningrad if you stayed
there that would pay you so you could have an apartment?
Mrs. OSWALD. Pharmaceutical workers received comparatively little,
which is quite undeserved, because they have to study so long, and it
is responsible work. Teachers and doctors also receive very little.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you conclude that you could not get a job that would
pay you enough to live in your own apartment in Leningrad, then?
Mrs. OSWALD. If I had an apartment in Leningrad. I would have had to
work overtime hours in order to be able to pay for it, because the
normal workday is only 6-1/2 hours, because they consider that to be
hazardous work.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you have a social life while you were in Leningrad?
Mrs. OSWALD. What do you mean by social life?
Mr. RANKIN. Did you have friends that you went out with in the evening,
pleasant times?
Mrs. OSWALD. An awful lot.
Mr. RANKIN. So that except for the problem of your stepfather, you
enjoyed it there?
Mrs. OSWALD. Oh, yes, of course.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you have any vacations while you were in Leningrad?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. After working in Minsk for one year I received a
vacation and went to a rest home near Leningrad.
Mr. RANKIN. How long did you stay there on vacation?
Mrs. OSWALD. Three weeks. Three weeks in the rest home, and one week I
spent in Leningrad with some friends.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you recall the name of the rest home?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you have to ask anyone in Leningrad in order to be able
to leave there to go to Minsk, or you just go to Minsk and ask the
people there to register you?
Mrs. OSWALD. I simply bought a ticket and went to Minsk, to my uncle.
Mr. RANKIN. And were you registered there then?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. What kind of pay did you get when you worked in Minsk?
Mrs. OSWALD. Forty-five, as everywhere.
Mr. RANKIN. Was that per week?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, that is a month. That is not America.
Mr. RANKIN. Is that 45 rubles?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Per month?
Mr. DULLES. Old rubles or new rubles?
Mr. RANKIN. Is that old rubles?
Mrs. OSWALD. New rubles.
Mr. RANKIN. What were your hours in this work?
Mrs. OSWALD. 10 a.m., to 4:30 p.m.
Mr. RANKIN. When you said this same pay was paid all over, did you mean
to say that you got the same amount regardless of whether you were in a
big city or a small city?
Mrs. OSWALD. This is the pharmacists rate everywhere. Unless you
work in a specialized sort of an institution, such as a military
hospital--there the pay is higher.
Mr. RANKIN. What was the nature of your work?
Mrs. OSWALD. Preparation of prescriptions.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you supervise the preparation of the prescriptions, or
did you just put them up yourself?
Mrs. OSWALD. I prepared them myself.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you have a supervisor?
Mrs. OSWALD. I was in charge of myself. If I was working at a table, I
was responsible for it.
Of course every institution is in charge of a supervisor who does not
prepare medications--he is only an administrator.
Mr. RANKIN. How many days of the week did you work on this job?
Mrs. OSWALD. Six days. Except if a holiday falls upon a weekday. Then I
didn't work.
Mr. RANKIN. Were these prescriptions prepared only for patients in the
hospital?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. Sometimes we prepared something for ourselves or for
friends, or somebody would ask us.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you pay anything to your uncle and aunt for staying
there?
Mrs. OSWALD. No. They had--they were well provided for, and my uncle
wanted that I spend the money on myself.
Mr. RANKIN. What was the name of this uncle?
Mrs. OSWALD. Ilva Vasilyevich Proosakov.
Mr. RANKIN. What was the nature of his work?
Mrs. OSWALD. He works in the Ministry of the Interior of the
Byelorussian SSR.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he have something to do with lumbering?
Mrs. OSWALD. He is an engineer. He is a graduate of a forestry
institute. Technical institute.
Mr. RANKIN. Is he an officer?
Mrs. OSWALD. He was a colonel--a lieutenant colonel or colonel, I think.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he have a nice apartment compared with the others?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, very nice.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he have a telephone in the apartment?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Were you supporting yourself during this period except for
the fact you didn't pay anything for your room and board?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you save money?
Mrs. OSWALD. No. I would receive my pay and I would spend everything in
one day--three days tops.
Mr. RANKIN. What would you spend it for?
Mrs. OSWALD. First all the necessary things which I had to buy--shoes,
an overcoat for winter. It is cold there, and, therefore, you have to
wear warm clothes.
Mr. RANKIN. Was your uncle a member of the Communist Party?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, he is a Communist.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you belong to any organizations during this period in
Minsk?
Mrs. OSWALD. First I was a member of the Trade Union. Then I joined the
Comsomol, but I was discharged after one year.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know why you were discharged?
Mrs. OSWALD. I paid my membership dues regularly, and at first they
didn't know who I was or what I was, but after they found out that
I had married an American and was getting ready to go to the United
States, I was discharged from the Comsomol. They said that I had
anti-Soviet views, even though I had no anti-Soviet views of any kind.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you think that they thought you had anti-Soviet views
because you married an American?
Mrs. OSWALD. They didn't say that.
Mr. RANKIN. Did they give any reason, other than the fact that you had
them?
Mrs. OSWALD. They never gave that as a direct reason, because the
Soviet Government was not against marrying an American. But every small
official wants to keep his place, and he is afraid of any troubles. I
think it was sort of insurance.
Mr. RANKIN. Was there any kind of a hearing about your being let out of
the Comsomol?
Mrs. OSWALD. Oh, yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you attend?
Mrs. OSWALD. I didn't go there, and they discharged me without me--I
was very glad. There was even a reporter there from Comsomol paper,
Comsomol Pravda, I think. He tried to shame me quite strongly--for
what, I don't know. And he said that he would write about this in the
paper, and I told him "Go ahead and write."
But he didn't write anything, because, after all, what could he write?
Mr. RANKIN. Did you make any objection to being removed from the
Comsomol?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you belong to any social clubs there?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you belong to any culture groups?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you go out with groups of students in the evening?
Mrs. OSWALD. Of course.
Mr. RANKIN. After you came to the United States, did you correspond
with some of these friends?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, but these were not the same friends. They were
generally some girl friends before I was married and some friends we
made later.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you have a social life there at Minsk?
Mrs. OSWALD. Of course.
Mr. RANKIN. What did that social life consist of? Did you go to parties
or to the opera or theater, or what?
Mrs. OSWALD. Sometimes we met at the home of some friends. Of course
we went to the opera, to the theater, to concerts, to the circus. To a
restaurant.
Mr. RANKIN. When did you first meet Lee Oswald?
Mrs. OSWALD. The first time when I went to a dance, to a party. And
there I met Lee.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you recall the date?
Mrs. OSWALD. On March 4th.
Mr. RANKIN. What year?
Mrs. OSWALD. 1961.
Mr. RANKIN. Where did you meet him?
Mrs. OSWALD. In Minsk.
Mr. RANKIN. Yes--but can you tell us the place?
Mrs. OSWALD. In the Palace of Trade Unions.
Mr. RANKIN. What kind of a place is that? Is that where there are
public meetings?
Mrs. OSWALD. Sometimes they do have meetings there. Sometimes it is
also rented by some institutes who do not have their own halls for
parties.
Mr. RANKIN. They have dances?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. Every Saturday and Sunday.
Mr. RANKIN. Did someone introduce you to him?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Who introduced you?
Mrs. OSWALD. I had gone there with my friends from the medical
institute, and one of them introduced me to Lee.
Mr. RANKIN. What was his name?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yuri Mereginsky.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know by what name Lee Oswald was introduced to you?
Mrs. OSWALD. Everyone there called him Alec, at his place of work,
because Lee is an unusual, cumbersome name. For Russians it was
easier--this was easier.
Mr. RANKIN. Is Alec a name close to Lee, as far as the Russian language
is concerned?
Mrs. OSWALD. A little. Somewhat similar.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you know that Lee Oswald was an American when you first
met him?
Mrs. OSWALD. I found that out at the end of that party, towards the end
of that party, when I was first introduced to him, I didn't know that.
Mr. RANKIN. Did that make any difference?
Mrs. OSWALD. It was more interesting, of course. You don't meet
Americans very often.
Mr. RANKIN. After this first meeting, did you meet him a number of
times?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Can you describe just briefly how you met him and saw him?
Mrs. OSWALD. After the first meeting he asked me where he could meet me
again. I said that perhaps some day I will come back here again, to the
Palace. About a week later I came there again with my girl friend, and
he was there.
Mr. RANKIN. And did he have a period that he was in the hospital there?
Mrs. OSWALD. I had arranged to meet with him again. I had already given
him a telephone number. But he went to a hospital and he called me
from there. We had arranged to meet on a Friday, and he called from
the hospital and said he couldn't because he was in the hospital and I
should come there, if I could.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you learn what was wrong with him then?
Mrs. OSWALD. He was near the ear, nose and throat section and it seems
that he had something wrong with his ears and also the glands or polyps.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you visit him regularly for some period of time?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, quite frequently, because I felt sorry for him being
there alone.
Mr. RANKIN. And did you observe a scar on his left arm?
Mrs. OSWALD. He had a scar, but I found that out only after we were
married.
Mr. RANKIN. What did you find out about that scar?
Mrs. OSWALD. When I asked him about it, he became very angry and asked
me never to ask about that again.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he ever explain to you what caused the scar?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you ever learn what caused the scar?
Mrs. OSWALD. I found out here, now, recently.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you learn that he had tried to commit suicide at some
time?
Mrs. OSWALD. I found that out now.
Mr. RANKIN. During the time Lee Oswald was courting you, did he talk
about America at all?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, of course.
Mr. RANKIN. What do you recall that he said about it?
Mrs. OSWALD. At that time, of course, he was homesick, and perhaps he
was sorry for having come to Russia. He said many good things. He said
that his home was warmer and that people lived better.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he talk about returning?
Mrs. OSWALD. Then? No.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he describe the life in America as being very
attractive?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. At least in front of others he always defended it.