This film uses both actors and official documents (including his top secret KGB file) as well as interviews with people who knew Oswald in Russia, and is one of many excellent documentaries that destroy the fanciful conspiracy "theories" about the man who single-handedly and without either encouragement or assistance murdered a serving US president with a twenty dollar rifle.
When a 19 year old Oswald turned up in Moscow on a tourist visa and said he wanted to "defect", the Soviets didn't know quite what to make of him. They appear to have assumed that he was a mixed up kid but never ruled out the suspicion that he might have been some kind of bizarre American agent.
After blackmailing them into allowing him to stay with a fake suicide attempt in his hotel room, Oswald was packed off to the garden city of Minsk where he was treated if not like royalty then certainly like a celebrity, clearly on account of his propaganda value. When however he realised his starry-eyed view of Russia did not accord with reality, Oswald petitioned the Soviet Government to be allowed to return to the US. By this time the KGB had realised their first impression of him was the right one, and that he was no more an American agent than Mickey Mouse. They couldn't get rid of him fast enough, and he was allowed to leave the country with his new wife and baby daughter.
One criticism unrelated to Oswald, Nikita Krushchev may have looked pugnacious and sounded bellicose at times, but even by 2007 history should have been kinder to him than this. The Soviets also embarked on a black propaganda campaign in Europe fearing that because of Oswald's background, they would be blamed for the assassination; with the wisdom of hindsight, they needn't have bothered.
When a 19 year old Oswald turned up in Moscow on a tourist visa and said he wanted to "defect", the Soviets didn't know quite what to make of him. They appear to have assumed that he was a mixed up kid but never ruled out the suspicion that he might have been some kind of bizarre American agent.
After blackmailing them into allowing him to stay with a fake suicide attempt in his hotel room, Oswald was packed off to the garden city of Minsk where he was treated if not like royalty then certainly like a celebrity, clearly on account of his propaganda value. When however he realised his starry-eyed view of Russia did not accord with reality, Oswald petitioned the Soviet Government to be allowed to return to the US. By this time the KGB had realised their first impression of him was the right one, and that he was no more an American agent than Mickey Mouse. They couldn't get rid of him fast enough, and he was allowed to leave the country with his new wife and baby daughter.
One criticism unrelated to Oswald, Nikita Krushchev may have looked pugnacious and sounded bellicose at times, but even by 2007 history should have been kinder to him than this. The Soviets also embarked on a black propaganda campaign in Europe fearing that because of Oswald's background, they would be blamed for the assassination; with the wisdom of hindsight, they needn't have bothered.
