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ALS signed “Lee,” three pages on two adjoining lightly-lined sheets, 5.75 x 8, October 22, 1959. Oswald writes to his mother from Russia. In part (with spelling and grammatical errors retained): “Dear Mother, Sorry to take so long to write but I thought sometime might have come up but we’re still waiting.
I received your birthday card on the 14th thanks for the thought.
I’ll be glad to get any books you send me in the future you might include some fashion magazines for Marina also if you remember it.
Marina’s maiden name was Proosakova, her aunt and uncles address in Minsk is Minsh Us. Kalinina 42 Apt 20 Proocakova.
They don’t speak any english, however, her uncle is a army colonel, soon to retire.
You needn’t worry about my losing american citizenship I can only do that if I want to, and I don’t want too.
For my birthday, Marina sent me a gold and silver cup with the inscription ‘to my Dear Husband on his birthday 18/X/61’ very nice don’t you think, Marina is on her vacation now, she is spending it with her aunt in the city of Khapkov about 600 miles South-East of here. She’s just relaxing and taking it easy from work and the house work.
We both agreed that she should go to a new environment on her vacation, but she comes back in a few more days…Marina, unfortionily, doesn’t speak any English at all, I would like her to learn, and I’v bought some books for her on the subject but for now she doesn’t want to learn, she speaks a little French already (she learned in grammar school), and she really doesn’t want to study another language for now, she really does not have the time…” Oswald adds a brief postscript reading: “Did you receive any letters with some pictured of Minsk in it??” This letter was an official exhibit (No. 183) in the Warren Commission investigation into JFK’s assassination and, like most of the exhibits, is protectively and permanently soft-laminated. Scattered creasing and wrinkling, otherwise fine condition. Provenance: Charles Hamilton Galleries auction, New York, April 6, 1967. Copies of the original catalogue listing, final price list, and related clippings accompany the letter.
Trouble in Lee and Marina Oswald’s marriage sent her packing to visit her aunt and uncle just a few months after their wedding—a fact mentioned in this letter and one that would later catch the attention of the Warren Commission following the assassination of JFK. In the wake of that assassination, US officials investigated whether the president’s death involved the KGB...and the fact that Marina’s uncle was a member of the secret police didn’t help matters. In reality, it was simply a young bride’s nerves that led her to Kharkov—a rather inhospitable Soviet locale during October. Shortly before writing this letter, the US Embassy had rejected Oswald’s request for help in expediting his return to the country he had left only two years before. The young family was granted permission to leave the country in June 1962. Historically unique! Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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