(5 of 9)
In the fall of 1956 the Oswalds returned to Texas, and Lee, just 17, quit school to join the Marines. All told, he spent about three years in the service, was trained in aviation electronics. His mother still insists that his service rec ord was exemplary; in fact, Oswald was twice court-martialed, once for unlawful possession of a pistol, once for swearing at a noncommissioned officer. He is remembered mostly as a rather dislikable loner who spent his off-duty hours studying the Russian language.
Renunciation. In September 1959, Oswald received a hardship discharge from the Marines; his mother had been hurt when a box of glass jars fell on her in a Fort Worth department store, and she needed him at home. But Os wald stayed with Marguerite only three days. Instead of helping her, he shipped out on a freighter to the Soviet Union. In Moscow he appeared at the U.S. embassy and announced: "I'm through. Capitalism has passed its peak. I've seen poor niggers, and that was a lesson. People hate because they've been told to hate. It's the fashion to hate people in the United States." He then signed an affidavit: "I affirm that my allegiance is to the Soviet Socialist Republics."
Renouncing his American citizenship was one thing, but gaining Soviet citizenship was another. Russian officials did not view Oswald as America's greatest gift to Communism. They let him stay as an alien resident, got him a factory job for 80 rubles ($88.00) a month —but no citizenship.
Boy Meets Girl. Oswald was working in a Minsk factory in the spring of 1961 when he met pretty Marina Nikolaevna Pruskova at a dance. Marina was born in Archangel, raised in Leningrad. Her father died when she was two, her mother when she was 15. Marina studied Latin and French, had gone on to become a pharmacist. She sensed that there was something mysterious and unstable about Lee—but she was convinced that he loved her, and they were married six weeks after they met, in a double-ring civil ceremony.
Soviet life was totally frustrating for Oswald; the living accommodations were inadequate, the job paid poorly. Moreover, he was enraged to learn that the Marine Corps had changed his discharge to "undesirable." In January 1962 he wrote an angry letter to John Connally, who had just resigned as Secretary of the Navy to run for Governor of Texas, demanding that Connally "take-the-necessary steps to repair the harm done to me and my family." Six ""months later, thanks to a loan of $435.71 from the U.S. embassy ii cow, Lee, Marina, and Junie, then months old, arrived in Fort Worth, where they lived for several weeks with Oswald's mother. Says Marguerite: "Every day, of course, Lee would go out and look for work. They were very nice at the employment commission office, but he couldn't get a job. You see, he had no background, no experience or training. And I think people remembered his defection, because it was all blown up out of proportion in Fort Worth when it happened. Then Lee got a job with a welding company. Marina was so happy. She said to me, Thank your God. Lee work.''