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.
Mr. Rankin. Did he——
Mrs. Oswald. It is strange to reconcile this. When he was there he was saying good things about America.
Mr. Rankin. And when he was talking only to you, did he do that, too?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. Before you were married, did you find out anything about his plans to return to America?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. Did you learn anything before you were married about the fact that there might be some doubt whether he could return to the United States?
Mrs. Oswald. Once before we were married we had a talk and I asked him whether he could return to the United States if he wanted to, and he said no, he could not.
Mr. Rankin. Did he tell you why?
Mrs. Oswald. No. At that time, he didn't. He said that when he had arrived, he had thrown his passport on a table and said that he would not return any more to the United States. He thought that they would not forgive him such an act.
Mr. Rankin. Before you were married, did you ever say to him you would like to go to the United States?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. Can you tell us what attracted you to him?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know. First, the fact that he was—he didn't look like others. You could see he was an American. He was very neat, very polite, not the way he was here, not as you know him here. And it seemed that he would be a good family man. And he was good.
Mr. Rankin. Did you talk about many things when you were together, when he was courting you?
Mrs. Oswald. We talked about everything, about the moon and the weather.
Mr. Rankin. Where was he living at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. In Minsk. By the way, on the same street where I lived.
Mr. Rankin. Did he have an apartment?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes. By the way, this was the same apartment where I had dreamed to live. I didn't know about it yet. It had a very beautiful balcony, terrace. I would look at that building sometimes and say it would be good to visit in that building, visit someone there, but I never thought that I would wind up living there.
Mr. Rankin. Can you describe the number of rooms there were in his apartment?
Mrs. Oswald. We had a small room—one room, kitchen, foyer, and bathroom. A large terrace, balcony.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know what he paid for rent?
Mrs. Oswald. For two it was quite sufficient. Seven and a half rubles per month.
Mr. Rankin. Wasn't that pretty cheap for such a nice apartment?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, it was cheap.
Mr. Rankin. Was this apartment nicer than most in this city?
Mrs. Oswald. No, in that city they have good apartments because the houses are new. That is, on a Russian scale, of course. You cannot compare it to private houses people live in here.
Mr. Rankin. Did he have an automobile?
Mrs. Oswald. Oh, no. In Russia this is a problem. In Russia it is difficult to have an automobile.
Mr. Rankin. Did he have a television set?
Mrs. Oswald. No. Only a radio receiver, a record player.
Mr. Rankin. Did you have a telephone?
Mrs. Oswald. No—I don't like television.
Mr. Rankin. Why?
Mrs. Oswald. The programs are not always interesting, and you can get into a stupor just watching television. It is better to go to the movies.
Mr. Rankin. What was his occupation at this time?
Mrs. Oswald. He worked in a radio plant in Minsk.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know what his work was?
Mrs. Oswald. As an ordinary laborer—metal worker. From that point of view, he was nothing special. I had a greater choice in the sense that many of my friends were engineers and doctors. But that is not the main thing.
Mr. Rankin. Did others with a similar job have similar apartments?
Mrs. Oswald. The house in which we lived belonged to the factory in which Lee worked. But, of course, no one had a separate apartment for only two persons. I think that Lee had been given better living conditions, better than others, because he was an American. If Lee had been Russian, and we would have had two children, we could not have obtained a larger apartment. But since he was an American, we would have obtained the larger one. It seems to me that in Russia they treat foreigners better than they should. It would be better if they treated Russians better. Not all foreigners are better than the Russians.
Mr. Rankin. Did he say whether he liked this job?
Mrs. Oswald. No, he didn't like it.
Mr. Rankin. What did he say about it?
Mrs. Oswald. First of all, he was being ordered around by someone. He didn't like that.
Mr. Rankin. Anything else?
Mrs. Oswald. And the fact that it was comparatively dirty work.
Mr. Rankin. Did he say anything about the Russian system, whether he liked it or not?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes. He didn't like it. Not everything, but some things.
Mr. Rankin. Did he say anything about Communists and whether he liked that?
Mrs. Oswald. He didn't like Russian Communists. He said that they joined the party not because of the ideas, but in order to obtain better living conditions and to get the benefit of them.
Mr. Rankin. Did it appear to you that he had become disenchanted with the Soviet system?
Mrs.
