Did Bugliosi touch upon the incomprehensibly varying accounts of Oswald’s fluency in the Russian language?
On arrival in the USSR Oswald had no ability in Russian, something that aroused the suspicions of the KGB since they assumed a genuine defector would have made the effort to acquire some. Nor did Oswald show much enthusiasm during the regular language lessons provided by the Soviets. Naturally enough they suspected his ignorance of Russian might be feigned so he was constantly monitored and had his apartment ‘bugged,’ but if it was all an act then he seems to have carried it off successfully.
The Oswald who arrived back in the USA with his wife would have acquired decent conversational Russian and possibly slightly higher ability in reading. Yet émigré Russians have described a man who felt more comfortable on occasion discussing politics and literature in Russian. One claimed he spoke near perfect Russian with a clear command of idioms and expressions. Clearly either these witnesses are not telling the truth or they were speaking to someone else. No one with Oswald’s known educational background, even someone with a talent for picking up new languages, could have reached that level inside a couple of years.
On arrival in the USSR Oswald had no ability in Russian, something that aroused the suspicions of the KGB since they assumed a genuine defector would have made the effort to acquire some. Nor did Oswald show much enthusiasm during the regular language lessons provided by the Soviets. Naturally enough they suspected his ignorance of Russian might be feigned so he was constantly monitored and had his apartment ‘bugged,’ but if it was all an act then he seems to have carried it off successfully.
The Oswald who arrived back in the USA with his wife would have acquired decent conversational Russian and possibly slightly higher ability in reading. Yet émigré Russians have described a man who felt more comfortable on occasion discussing politics and literature in Russian. One claimed he spoke near perfect Russian with a clear command of idioms and expressions. Clearly either these witnesses are not telling the truth or they were speaking to someone else. No one with Oswald’s known educational background, even someone with a talent for picking up new languages, could have reached that level inside a couple of years.
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