Rare ALS signed “Lee,” two pages, 5.5 x 8, May 5, 1961. Addressed Minsk, a handwritten letter from Lee Harvey Oswald to his estranged brother, Robert. After nearly a year of silence, Oswald updates his brother on his arrival in the city and his recent marriage and alludes to his potential disillusionment with Soviet Russia. In part: “It has been a long time since I have written you, more than a year, a lot has happened in that time. I am now living in the city of Minsk which is located about 400 S-W of Moscow...I shall have been living here already a year and three months. I came to live in Minsk after I wrote my last letter to you. I have been working at the local radio-television plant as a metal-smith. On April 30 of this year, I got married, my wife is nineteen years old, she was born in the city of Leningrad, which is the second largest city in the U.S.S.R., her parents are dead - and she was living with her aunt and uncle here in Minsk when I first met her...We have a small flat near my factory and are living nicely. In general I have found the living conditions here to be good but there is a lot of things still to be done. I hope to send you somethings [sic] from here if you like. The Soviet Union is one of the most interesting country's [sic] I have seen in my travels. You should try to visit us some time I sometimes meet American tourist [sic] here especially in the summer." In fine condition.
After a tumultuous run with the U.S. Marine Corps, Oswald defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 for an equally turbulent period of three years. Almost immediately after arriving in Russia, Oswald expressed interest in becoming a citizen of the U.S.S.R. However, when Russian officials did not extend his visa in Moscow, Oswald attempted to commit suicide. Following his release from a Moscow psychiatric ward, he was granted an Identity Document for Stateless Persons and transferred to Minsk. As mentioned in his letter, Oswald worked for the Belorussian Radio and Television Factory, a position he resented given that he had wanted to enroll as a student at Moscow State University. After two years, Oswald had become increasingly disillusioned with the Soviet Union, writing in his diary that ‘the work is drab, the money I get has nowhere to be spent. No nightclubs or bowling alleys, no places of recreation except the trade union dances.’ In March 1961, Oswald met Marina Prusakova and married her six weeks later, only six days before he wrote his letter to Robert. A year later, Oswald returned to the United States with Marina and their infant daughter.
Despite Oswald's brief infatuation with Soviet Russia, the communist regime did not reciprocate Oswald's admiration. Rather, as soon as Oswald arrived in the country, Soviet intelligence began assembling a dossier on the ex-Marine out of mistrust for his motives. Though they originally suspected he might be a spy, they concluded that he was simply mentally unstable and decided against recruiting him to the Soviet cause. The regime actively distanced itself from Oswald after he assassinated President Kennedy.
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