OSWALD LEE HARVEY: (1939-1963) American private with the United States Marine Corps, the ...

OSWALD LEE HARVEY: (1939-1963) American private with the United States Marine Corps, the assassin of John F. Kennedy. A rare A.L.S., Lee, two pages (written to the first and third sides of the feint ruled bifolium), 8vo, n.p. (Russia), 30^th November 1961, to his brother Robert. Oswald informs his brother that a package 'with a few little Christmas presents' has been send that day although it 'may be a little late you may not get it until about New Years', further writing 'We still haven't recived (sic) any word about our visas. Marina says that she cannot wait untill (sic) she gets to the U.S. and sees little Robert Jr. If you like, you can send me a football (they only have round one's here) just deflate it & send it to me like a letter. Also you can pick up a few diagrams of plays at any filling station and send them along also, these Russians seem interested in learning how to play, so I thought maybe you could help me out and together we'll show them a little bit of American sport. Our deal about the visas is not getting any better, and I think about New Years, I'll fly into Moscow, and go to the Embassy about it. As time goes on, our complaints, and their inactivity, will bring things to a head, and one side or the other will break' and concluding 'We sent you a can of a kind of Russian candy, called "KHAIIVA", it's made from grain and sugar, so when you'll open the package you'll know its candy. I eat alot (sic) of it, if you all like it, will send some more'. VG

Provenance: The present letter was included in the Warren Commission as Exhibit No. 308 (see pages 849-850 of Volume XVI of the Warren Commission Hearings).

Lee Harvey Oswald had travelled to the Soviet Union in October 1959 and almost immediately after arriving expressed his desire to become a Soviet citizen, claiming that he was a communist. His application for citizenship was refused on 21^st October, the day his visa was due to expire, and he was informed that he had to leave the Soviet Union that evening. Oswald's departure was delayed due to a self-inflicted injury and the Soviets kept him under psychiatric observation in a Moscow hospital for a week. In January 1960 Oswald was sent to Minsk where he was given employment as a lathe operator. A year later Oswald was beginning to reconsider his decision (although he had never formally renounced his U.S. citizenship) and wrote to the Embassy of the United States in Moscow requesting the return of his American passport. In March 1961 Oswald met Marina Prusakova, a pharmacology student, and they married six weeks later. On 24^th May 1962 the Oswalds applied at the US Embassy in Moscow for documents that enabled Marina to immigrate to the United States. The couple and their infant daughter left for the United States on 1^st June and soon settled in the Dallas area.