Read Online Oswald's Tale by Norman Mailer - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Norman Mailer
Tags: Suspense
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so-and-so.’”
Alexander, of course, understood. At that time, they were taught that a majority of foreigners are spies. So you had to understand certain requirements of his position. But as far as Alexander can tell, not of a single person on whom he reported could you say that he told something inaccurate. He would tell Gennady Petrovich exactly how he accepted and reacted to each person. He reported verbally.
Alexander was a Party member then, but he could also confess now that he had been afraid to become one, although he recognized that it was necessary for his future. He had been afraid, because he thought he would have to say on his application that his father had been a Czarist officer in World War I. While his father never joined the White Army after the Bolshevik Revolution and did move with his family back to the countryside where he was born and did help to organize a collective farm there, he was still arrested. In 1930. Although he was subsequently released, it was still frightening to Alexander. So, in his fourth year at Foreign Languages Institute, when one of his officers said, “You have to become a Party member,” Alexander asked his father how to fill out the forms. His father replied, “By the time you were born in 1925, I was a peasant. Put me down as a peasant, therefore, not an officer.” All the same, Alexander felt he was walking a knife-edge. It was just a few years after Stalin. Yet, his father was right. He was accepted, and entered a post-graduate course at Moscow University in the Faculty of Philology. Having money troubles when he finished, he read how Intourist was receiving its first group of foreign tourists, so he applied early and became its thirteenth interpreter. Now, by October 1959, he was director at the USA/Canada Department of OVIR, and had about thirty people under him.
Alexander had acquired some experience concerning persons from other countries who wanted to apply for Soviet citizenship. Ninety-nine percent of them were disturbed. He remembered a call from a militia-man in Red Square, who told him, “There’s an American lady distributing leaflets here in front of Lenin’s tomb,” and he said, “Okay, bring her to my office. Also, bring her leaflets.” Printed in Russian was: “Dear Soviet Citizens: Help me to receive Soviet citizenship.” Alexander told her, “You have to apply to our Embassy in Washington for something like this,” and she said, “I did, and they said, ‘Go to Russia, and Intourist will help you.’” So Alexander told her that Intourist was responsible only for tourists who were acting as tourists. Others were always told to go back and apply again to the Embassy of the Soviet Union in their own country. When they still insisted on trying to get it done in Russia, his only answer was, “Go to the Presidium of our Supreme Congress,” which Presidium happened to be in an adjoining building, and so they would walk over there, and someone would receive them and say, “Go back to Intourist.” At the Russian Embassy in Washington, they kept saying, “Travel to Moscow on a tourist trip. Intourist will help you.”
Of course, Alexander would often hear from KGB of such cases. Still, he had never met anyone from KGB; it was always a voice on his phone. If it wasn’t Gennady Petrovich, it was someone who would get on and say, “I don’t know you, but Gennady Petrovich recommended I call and speak to you . . .” Then they would proceed. He just listened, and tried to be helpful.
The first time Alexander came across Lee Harvey Oswald’s name was when he received a call that a young American was trying to receive Soviet citizenship. When Alexander heard his first name was Lee, he thought, “Chinese, maybe he’s Chinese by birth.” But then he thought, “Oswald—that’s not Chinese, not Oswald.” So he wasn’t too surprised when this young person came in accompanied by two pretty young ladies from Intourist, named Rimma and Rosa. He
Alexander, of course, understood. At that time, they were taught that a majority of foreigners are spies. So you had to understand certain requirements of his position. But as far as Alexander can tell, not of a single person on whom he reported could you say that he told something inaccurate. He would tell Gennady Petrovich exactly how he accepted and reacted to each person. He reported verbally.
Alexander was a Party member then, but he could also confess now that he had been afraid to become one, although he recognized that it was necessary for his future. He had been afraid, because he thought he would have to say on his application that his father had been a Czarist officer in World War I. While his father never joined the White Army after the Bolshevik Revolution and did move with his family back to the countryside where he was born and did help to organize a collective farm there, he was still arrested. In 1930. Although he was subsequently released, it was still frightening to Alexander. So, in his fourth year at Foreign Languages Institute, when one of his officers said, “You have to become a Party member,” Alexander asked his father how to fill out the forms. His father replied, “By the time you were born in 1925, I was a peasant. Put me down as a peasant, therefore, not an officer.” All the same, Alexander felt he was walking a knife-edge. It was just a few years after Stalin. Yet, his father was right. He was accepted, and entered a post-graduate course at Moscow University in the Faculty of Philology. Having money troubles when he finished, he read how Intourist was receiving its first group of foreign tourists, so he applied early and became its thirteenth interpreter. Now, by October 1959, he was director at the USA/Canada Department of OVIR, and had about thirty people under him.
Alexander had acquired some experience concerning persons from other countries who wanted to apply for Soviet citizenship. Ninety-nine percent of them were disturbed. He remembered a call from a militia-man in Red Square, who told him, “There’s an American lady distributing leaflets here in front of Lenin’s tomb,” and he said, “Okay, bring her to my office. Also, bring her leaflets.” Printed in Russian was: “Dear Soviet Citizens: Help me to receive Soviet citizenship.” Alexander told her, “You have to apply to our Embassy in Washington for something like this,” and she said, “I did, and they said, ‘Go to Russia, and Intourist will help you.’” So Alexander told her that Intourist was responsible only for tourists who were acting as tourists. Others were always told to go back and apply again to the Embassy of the Soviet Union in their own country. When they still insisted on trying to get it done in Russia, his only answer was, “Go to the Presidium of our Supreme Congress,” which Presidium happened to be in an adjoining building, and so they would walk over there, and someone would receive them and say, “Go back to Intourist.” At the Russian Embassy in Washington, they kept saying, “Travel to Moscow on a tourist trip. Intourist will help you.”
Of course, Alexander would often hear from KGB of such cases. Still, he had never met anyone from KGB; it was always a voice on his phone. If it wasn’t Gennady Petrovich, it was someone who would get on and say, “I don’t know you, but Gennady Petrovich recommended I call and speak to you . . .” Then they would proceed. He just listened, and tried to be helpful.
The first time Alexander came across Lee Harvey Oswald’s name was when he received a call that a young American was trying to receive Soviet citizenship. When Alexander heard his first name was Lee, he thought, “Chinese, maybe he’s Chinese by birth.” But then he thought, “Oswald—that’s not Chinese, not Oswald.” So he wasn’t too surprised when this young person came in accompanied by two pretty young ladies from Intourist, named Rimma and Rosa. He
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