Deluded into thinking that the Soviet Union is a “communist paradise,” Oswald defects in October 1959, just weeks after leaving the Marines. At first, the Soviets don’t want him, and order him to leave. But after a suicide attempt, Oswald is given permission to stay. But not in Moscow. He's shunted off to Minsk, a secondary city, and given a menial job in a radio-TV factory. Meanwhile, the KGB worries that Oswald is a CIA spy. The CIA worries he's a KGB spy. And Oswald is clueless as ever.
Up Next in Season 1
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Defector: Oswald in the Soviet Union,...
Lee Harvey Oswald is living in Minsk, a backwater Soviet city, and working a lowly and menial job in a radio-TV factory. He soon learns that life in the USSR is anything but paradise, and schemes to return to America. The KGB worries he's a CIA spy. The CIA worries he's a KGB spy. And Oswald depa...
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Defector: Oswald in the Soviet Union,...
Living in Minsk, a backwater Soviet city, and working a lowly and menial job in a radio-TV factory, Oswald soon learns that life in the USSR is anything but paradise, and schemes to return to America. But he doesn't return alone. When he lands stateside in 1962, he has a wife, Marina, and daughte...
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Oswald Returns to America, Part 1
Oswald returns to Texas. “What, no reporters?” He asks his brother. Oswald has difficulty finding work and getting back on his feet. Marina is a hit with the emigre community in Dallas-Fort Worth but Lee — surly and angry as ever — turns people off. The episode ends on Thanksgiving Day, 1962 — ex...
