Oswald in Minsk

[David Lifton]

The life of Oswald in the USSR is surrounded by a cloud of mystery. I'll try to raise some questions:
1. Why he was sent in Minsk Belarusia, miles away from Russia?
2. Why he was sent to work in an electronics factory and not in a milk or clothing factory?
3. Why his supervisor at the factory was one Alexander Romanovich Ziger with possible CIA connections?
4. How come and Marina Prusakova an educated woman,who had an uncle in the interior ministry security service
fell immediately in love with Oswald?
5. Why Marina, a niece of a security officer was allowed to marry an American defecor?
6. Why the Soviet authorities gave her a visa to travel to USA with an American defector
when her uncle could have stopped the visa?
I can only think that all the above mysteries were part of an elaborate spy game involving illegals and false defectors
and it is probably an indication of what Charles Drago calls Supra-national cooperation between factions of CIA and KGB.
Any suggestions?

FWIW: Having been intrigued by most of these questions for many years, here are my own comments and reactions:

1. Why he was sent in Minsk Belarusia, miles away from Russia?

DSL Reponse: mainly because the Soviet leadership, in Moscow, did not want Oswald hanging around Moscow, where he could stage additional acts of "high drama" (my quotes). So Minsk--525 miles from Moscow--was deemed just the right spot. (And you will find corroboration for what I'm saying here, in Nosenko's HSCA testimony)

2. Why he was sent to work in an electronics factory and not in a milk or clothing factory?

DSL RESPONSE: Because (IMHO) Oswald indicated multiple times that he had been stationed at Atsugi. Putting him in an "electronics" environment permitted "tests" to be staged, as to whether he was up to something. (I think there is support for what I'm saying here in some of Mailer's interviews--see Oswald's Tale).

3. Why his supervisor at the factory was one Alexander Romanovich Ziger with possible CIA connections?

DSL RESPONSE: It would be critically important if Ziger was in any way connected to the CIA. But what is the evidence for that? I'm not saying he wasn't sympathetic to the USA, and didn't regret having come back to the USSR (he and his wife certainly did regret that). But is there any evidence of a CIA connection? If so, I'd appreciate knowing about it.

4. How come and Marina Prusakova an educated woman,who had an uncle in the interior ministry security service
fell immediately in love with Oswald?

DSL RESPONSE: Marina definitely did not fall "immediately in love" with Oswald. He went into the hospital for an ear problem (in late March, 1961) and she (Marina)--who had met him at a dance on 3/17--then visited him. I don't think he had a single date with her, and had never even kissed her. Nonetheless, it was he--Lee Oswald himself--who at that point (in the first week of April, 1961) was promoting the idea, during a hospital visit of Marina, that she consider marrying him. She acceded, and they took out a marriage license in mid-April. From everything I know, it was Lee Oswald was the moving force behind the marriage. In fact, based on interviews with a Marina confidant--in Russia--Marina complained bitterly that she did not know why Lee married her, because he was obviously not in love with her. She was most upset about that, in fact, and felt she had been deceived.

5. Why Marina, a niece of a security officer was allowed to marry an American defecor?

DSL RESPONSE: A reasonable question; all we know for sure is that they took out a marriage license in mid-April, and it was (seemingly) routinely approved.

6. Why the Soviet authorities gave her a visa to travel to USA with an American defector
when her uncle could have stopped the visa?

DSL RESPONSE: As far as I know, her uncle (Ilya Prusakov) stayed out of it. Completely. But the real question --and the most important question--is: how did she get a Soviet exit visa so fast? I don't think this is a random event. And I assume there was some sort of bribe, or some under-the-table goings on. I do not believe this happened by accident, or that it was just routine. Not at all.

Bottom line: Its question #6 that is really the important one; and that holds the key to whether someone on the U.S. side "bargained" with someone on the USSR side, to get that USSR exit visa issued as promptly as it was. (FYI: Marina learned she had the visa--much to her astonishment--on 12/25/61. See McMillan for details, but Marina's testimony (I believe) as well).

DSL
6/23/13; 6:10 PM PDT
Los Angeles, California