Oswald competent in Russian?

[david-us.livejournal.com]

Many years ago (in the 70's), I took an elective course at the United States Naval Academy in the Political Science Department. The Kennedy assassination was very topical at the time since it was being reinvestigated under the HSCA (House Select Committee on Assassinations).

As probably many of you know, Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy's alleged assassin, taught himself Russian. He lived in Minsk for about 2 years where he eventually married a Russian woman, Marina. They had a child and returned to the United States.

Prior to the Kennedy assassination (November 22, 1963), what few people know is that Oswald made an assassination attempt on a right wing extremist who resided in Dallas, General Edwin Walker. He used the same rifle that he ultimately used against Kennedy.

Oswald was very secretive about his plan to kill General Walker, not even telling his own wife.

The night he went out to kill Walker, Oswald left a 2-page note for Marina. That note was ultimately discovered by the investigators in the wake of the Kennedy assassination and it was entered into evidence.

I have read this note and it seems Oswald was not very good at writing Russian.

I would like one of you native Russians to look over this note and make an estimate at what level Oswald was with his Russian. For instance, did he write better than a 5th grader? Was it adult-style writing?

http://emerling22.com/images/walkernote1.jpg
http://emerling22.com/images/walkernote2.jpg

Thanks!

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_christine/]

I think it is also a question of the relative power of the countries. While Canadians generally speak English, as the international language, not all Canadians speak it natively (Quebec for instance) and Canada is not as powerful as the United States. What are the motivations for learning Mandarin? China is likely to be the next economic hegemony. There are many Spanish immigrants. Russia also has a cultural history for looking outside its borders for what is fashionable, be it the French culture of Pushkin's era, the German culture of Peter I era, and now American culture. American culture tends to be, if I may say so, a bit cockier in that we look at ourselves only, more so within our borders. We were not part of a commonwealth in the same way like Canada, so while we get our resources and exploit economically other nations, we do it on our own terms so there isn't as great a perception to learn a new language. Cultural perceptions influence educational priorities.

With that being said, there are exceptions all over the place. All of the Americans I have met who are learning Russian do it from an intrinsic love of the country, language, culture, people, etc. But it's not the most common situation, unfortunately. Therefore, people are uncomfortable and embarrassed if they do not have perfect competence.

[david-us.livejournal.com]

I am 51-yr-old native American who started learning Russian when I was in the 6th grade as a part of a survey of languages: German, French, Spanish, and Russian. It was a public middle school.

We were then all required to choose from amongst those four languages, and we had to take only that language for our 7th grade year.

I chose Russian because I was fascinated by it's structure. In particular, I liked the phonetic nature of their alphabet. I found French to be frustrating in that, it seemed, every letter in their alphabet was silent. :)

I continued with my Russian studies all the way through high school (9-12th grade). I then entered the U.S. Naval Academy where I validated 6 semesters of Russian.

I majored in Aerospace Engineering and my study of Russian came to a halt, although I took a few advanced Russian courses my senior year.

Sadly, my Russian is all academic. I have never been to Russia or ever been immersed in a situation where my knowledge of Russian was critical. (Other than the time I was flying my Navy fighter in the Mediterranean and I spoke Russian on a U.S. military frequency, as a joke, which nearly turned into an international incident. It was thought that the transmission came from a Russian troller and such a transmission violated an international agreement not to interfere or jam each other's radio communications.)

I try to keep up with the Russian I have learned - but it's a struggle.

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

[memphis9535.livejournal.com]

I appreciate your struggle, really difficult without strong necessity, ready to support you, I'm narive Russian, live in Memphis. Re: Oswald - the letter looks quite strange