Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

It's said that in Russia, Oswald went by the name "Alek" because Russians were unfamiliar with the name "Lee". But, so what? It's not as though "Lee" is hard to say. It's only one syllable. And, it's easy enough to phonate. You just put the tip of your tongue behind your upper teeth, and then lower your tongue as you widen your mouth. Lee, Lee, Lee. What's the big deal? 

If you met a German guy whose name was Gunter, pronounced Goon-ter, it's not common to Americans, but you'd have no trouble saying it, right?  You wouldn't ask him to change his name, would you? 

So, I can't imagine that anyone in Russia said to Oswald:

"It's great that you're here, but would you mind changing your name? Because, we're not familiar with "Lee". It's a real tongue-twister for us. It's hard for us to say. We're just not used to it. So, how about going with a nice Russian name? Like Boris. Or, you could go with Sergei. How about Vlad?"

I'd be willing to bet that the sound "lee" is so basic that it is used- in one way or another- in almost every language, although not necessarily as a person's name. 

So, the reason why Oswald didn't go by Lee in Russia had nothing to do with the Russians and their linguistic limitations. It must have been his decision based on his own reasons- and no one else's. 

So, why would Oswald want to go by a different name in Russia?

Well, if you believe as I do that he was a false defector to the Soviet Union, a spy if you will, then maintaining anonymity would have been important to him- as it is to every spy. Why not have another layer of cover over what he was doing?

But why'd he go with Alek? Well, there may be a simple explanation for that. There is a book that came out in 1985 called Alias Oswald, which was co-authored by William Morris and RB Cutler. It is long out of print but can be obtained, used, at high prices. I haven't read it, but I have been told that in it they claim that the Oswald we know was born in Latvia in February 1938 (making him a year and a half older than he officially was) and that his real name was Alek J. Hidell. Didn't Oswald have an ID card with that name on it at the time of his arrest? Does that not tell us something about what Marina said concerning Lee's Russian accent? 

This is from The JFK Assassination and the Uncensored Story of the Two Oswalds by OIC senior member Pat Shannon:

"The second Oswald (whom we refer to as 'Harvey' to distinguish him from 'Lee') was no dummy but rather a brilliant young man- apparently more so than the first ('Lee'). When his future wife, Marina, met him in Minsk in 1961, his capture of the Russian language was so perfect that she thought him to be a native from one of the provinces because of his Baltic accent." 

Wow! What a difference! That idiot Bud from McAdams' forum took the exact opposite point of view- that if Oswald spoke Russian with what sounded like a Baltic accent to Marina, then he must have stunk at speaking Russian. But, she only said that he spoke with an accent, not that he had any difficulty speaking fluently, nor that she had any difficult understanding him, nor that he had any difficulty understanding her- and remember that comprehending is at least half the process--more than half, because in total we do more listening than we do talking, and listening and comprehending is something that you do WITHOUT an accent- nor that their communication was compromised or hindered in any way, shape, or form by his "accent", yet, the mere presence of it should cause us to belittle Oswald's acquisition of Russian. It was, in fact, a gargantuan and prodigious linguistic accomplishment. And anyone who doubts that is either ignorant, naive, stupid, or bloodied.