REACTION OF SOVIET AND COMMUNIST PARTY OFFICIALS TO JFK ASSASSINATION
Agency: KISS/SCOW
Originator: FBI
From: HOOVER, J. EDGAR
To: WATSON, MARVIN
Document date: 12/1/63
Document type: REPORT

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JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

8/27/201

AGENCY :

RECORD NUMBER :

KISS/SCOW

178-10003-10131

RECORD SERIES: CHURCH COM.

AGENCY FILE NUMBER: 7602957(3)

Released under the John

Assassination Recorda

Collection Act of 1992

144 USC 2107 Notel.

Case#:NW 54653 Date:

10-23-2017

Document Information

ORIGINATOR :

FBI

FROM: HOOVER, J. EDGAR

10:

WATSON, MARVIN

TITLE: REACTION OF SOVIET AND COMMUNIST PARTY OFFICIALS TO JFK ASSASSINATION

DATE :

PAGES:

SUBJECTS :

12/01/1963

7

OSWALD, LEE, RUSSIAN PERIOD

OSWALD, LEE, RUSSIAN PERIOD, DEFECTION TO RUSSIA

OSWALD, LEE, RUSSIAN PERIOD, SUICIDE ATTEMPT

OSWALD, LEE, TRAVEL, PROPOSED RUSSIAN TRIP (1963)

OSWALD, LEE, TRIP TO MEXICO

WARREN COMMISSION

OSWALD, LEE, GOVERNMENT AFFILIATIONS

NEWSPAPER, PROGRESSIVE LABOR

NOSENKO, YURI

NEWSPAPER, PRAVDA

NEWSPAPER, IZVESTIA

FBI

CONSPIRACY THEORIES, ULTRARIGHT COUP

DOCUMENT TYPE: REPORT

CLASSIFICATION: Top Secret

RESTRICTIONS: Consulted

CURRENT STATUS:

Withhold

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 07/18/1993

OPENING CRITERIA:

COMMENTS :

Attached to 1781000310109.

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D

LAITED MAT D0000THRNT OF 1IC

FLAMNAL BALAG DE CAFNOPIGACION

December 2, 1966

BY LIAISON

Honorable Marvin Watson

Special Assistant to the President

The White house

Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. Watson:

For your infornation, I am enclosing

a communication which nay be of interest to you.

Upon removal of the enclosure, if

classified, this transmittal form becomes

unclassified.

Sincerely yours,

PHOTOCOPY

FROM THE GERALD R.

FORD LIBPARY

Edgar Hoover

Director

Ecc.

In accordance with your request

on November 29, 1966, there is attached a

nemorandun summarizing information in our

files concerning reaction of Soviet and

Connunist Party officials to the assassina-

tion of President John F. Kennedy.

This data

has not been furnished to the Acting

Attorney General.

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UNITED STATES DEPARTALAT OF JUSTICE

FEDERAL MUREAU DEINVESTIGATION

Reply, fuse Hofer 1o

è Nu.

¡VASUINCTON, D.C. 20535

December 1, 1966

REACTION'OF SOVIET AND

COMMUNIST PARTY OFFICIALS

TO THE ASSASSINATION OF

PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY

A source who has furnished reliable information

in the past and who was in Russia on the date of the

assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy advised

on December 4, 1963, that the news of the assassination of

President Kennedy was flashed to the Soviet people almost

immediately after its occurrence.

It was greeted by great

shock and consternation and church bells were tolled in the

memory of President Kennedy.

According to our source, officials of the Communist

Party of the Soviet Union believed

there was some well-

organized conspiracy on the part of the "ultraright" in the

United States to effect a "coup." They seemed convinced that

the assassination was not the deed of one man, but that it

arose out of a carefully planned campaign in which several

They felt that those elements interested

in utilizing the assassination and playing on anticommunist

sentiments in the United States would then utilize this act

to stop negotiations with the Soviet Union, attack Cuba and

thereafter spread the war.

As a result of

these feelings,

the Soviet Union immediately went into a state of national

alert.

Our source further stated that soviet officials

were fearful that without leadership, some irresponsible

general in the United States might launch a missile at the

Soviet Union.

It was the further opinion of the soviet

na missile at the

officials that only maniacs would think that the "left"

forces in the United States, as represented by the Communist

Party, USA, would assassinate President Kennedy, especially

In view of the abuse the Communist Party, USA,

has taken

Iron the "ultraleit" as a result of its support of the

peaceful coexistence and disarmament policies of the Kennedy

administration.

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Group I

Excluded from automatic

downgrading and

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PHOTOCOPY

FROM

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AND MALINI

REACTION OF SOVIET AND COMMUNIST

PARTY OFFICIALS TO THE ASSASSINATION

OF PRESIDENT JOIN F. KENNEDY

According to our source, Soviet officials claimed

that lee Harvey Oswald had no connection whatsoever with

the Soviet Union. They described him as a neurotic maniac

who was disloyal to his own country and everything else.

They noted that Osvald never belonged to any organization

in the soviet Union and was

never given soviet citizenship.

A second source who has furnished reliable infor-

mation in the past advised on November 27, 1953, that

Nikolai I. Fedorenko,

the Permanent Representative to the

Soviet Mission to the United Nations, held a brief meeting

with all diplomatic personnel employed at the Soviet Mission

on November 23, 1963.

During this meeting, Fedorenko related

for the benefit of all present the news of

the assassination

Of President John E. Kennedy and stated that Kennedy's death

was very much regretted by the Soviet Union and had caused

considerable shock in Soviet Government circles. Fedorenko

stated that the Soviet Union would have preferred to have

had President Kennedy at the helm of the Anerican Government.

He added that President Kennedy had,

mutual understanding with the soviet Union, and had

seriously to improve relations between the

and

Jonuson and, as a result, the soviet Government did not know

what policies President Johnson would follow in the future

regarding the Soviet Union.

According to our source, Colonel Boris Ivanov,

Chief of the Soviet Comnittee for State Security (KGB)

Residency in New

on the morning of November

Ivanov informed those

for the KGB and stated that it was necessary for all KGB

employees to lend their efforts to solving the problem.

According to our source, Ivanov stated that it was

his personal feeling that the assassination of President

Kennedy had been planned by an organized group rather than

being the act of one individual assassin.

Ivanov stated

that it was therefors necessary that the KGB ascertain with

the greatest possible speed the true story surrounding

President Kennecy's assassination.

Ivanov stated that the

AGB was interested in knowing all the factors and all of

the possible groups which might have worked behind the scenes

to organize and plan this assassination.

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REACTION OF SOVIET AND COLINIST

PARTY OFFICIALS TO THE ASSASSINATION

OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY

it was of extreme importance to the Soviet Government to

determine precisely what kind of a man the new President

Lyndon Johnson would be. Ivanov said that President Johnson

was practically an unknown to the Soviet Government and,

accordingly,

the KGB had issued instructions to all of its

agents to immediately obtain all data available concerning

the incumbent President.

Ivanov said that it would be

necessary for KGB personnel to gather and correlate all

information concerning President Johnson, including his

background, his past working experience and record in

Congress,

his present attitude toward the Soviet Union, and

particularly all information which might have bearing upon

the future foreign policy line he would follow.

On September 16, 1965, this same source reported

that the KGB Residency in New York City received instructions

approximately September 16, 1965, from KGB headquarters in

Moscow to develop all possible information concerning

President Lyndon B. Johnson's character, background, personal

friends, family, and from which quarters he derives

his

support

in his position as President of the United States.

Our source added that in the instructions from Moscow, it

was indicated that "now" the KGB was in possession of data

purporting to indicate President Johnson vas responsible for

the assassination of the late President John r. Kennedy.

KGB headquarters indicated that in view of this information,

it was necessary for the Soviet Government to know the

existing personal relationship between President Johnson

Johnson and Robert and

and the Kennedy family'ned" Kennedy.

particularly that betveen President

On Narch 3, 1964, Yuri I. Nosenko, Soviet defector

whose bona fides has not been established, advised that he

was handling Soviet Comnittee for State Security (KGB)

Investigations of tourists from the United States at the

time Lee Harvey Oswald visited Russin in 1959, and conse-

quently was fully cognizant of the Lee

Harvey Oswald case.

According to Nosenko, Oswald came to the attention

of the KGB when he expressed a wish to defect to the Union

of Soviet Socialist Republics shortly after his arrival in

Russia.

However, the KGB, after inquiry, decided he was

mentally unstable and Informed him he had to return to the

United States upon completion of his visit.

Thereafter,

when Oswald missed a sight-seeing tour he was to take,

his

hotel room was forced open and he was found with one of his

wrists badly cut.

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REACTION OF SOVIET AND COMMUNIST

PARTY OFFICIALS TO TIE ASSASSINATION

OF PRESIDENT JOIN E. KENNEDY

Nosenko added that Oswald was hospitalized and

thereafter was

allowed to remain in Russia,

apparently

through the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and

the Red Cross.

Oswald again came to the attention of the

KGB when he attempted to re-enter the Soviet Union by placing

a request with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico, after

his return

to the United States.

Nosenko stated that the KGB recomnended

against allowing Oswald to re-anter the Soviet Union.

Accord-

ing to Nosenko, Oswald's case vas a routine one in which the

KGB had no interest until he assassinated President Kennedy.

He was not approached or

recruited for espionage by the KGB

nor was his wife, Marina.

Nosenko said Marina vas regarded

as a woman who possessed little intelligence and he added

that she had once been a member of the Communist Party but

had been dropped for failure over a long period of time to

pay her dues.

"Kennedy was held in high esteem by the Soviet Government

and that President Kennedy had been evaluated by the Soviet

President high esteem

It was the opinion of Nosenko that President

Government as a person interested in maintaining peace.

According to Nosenko, following the assassination, soviet

from around the American Embassy in

Moscow and the Soviet people were permitted without inter~

ference to visit the American Embassy to express their

condolences.

Nosenko. added that the KGB provided approxi-

mately 20 men who spoke the English language to handle duties

in the immediate vicinity of the American Embassy in Moscow

at that time to insure that no disrespect was shown during

this period.

Following the assassination of President Kennedy,

Anatoli Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador to the United States,

turned over to the Secretary of State a file alleged to be

the complete consular file on Lee H. and Marina Osvald

maintained in the Soviet Embassy, Washington, D. C.

Subsequently, the Soviet Government made available to the

United States Government the hospitalization record of

Harvey Oswald during his hospitalization in the

soviet Union.

This record corroborated data previously

received indicating Oswald had attempted to commit suicide

In the Soviet Union.

Reaction of Communist Party officials to the

assassination of President Kennedy and to the investigation

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LUi WILLIA

REACTION OF SOVIET AND COMMUNIST

PARTY- OFFICIALS TO THE ASSASSINATION

Or PRESIDENT JOIN F. KENNEDY

conducted by the Warren Commission concerning such assassi

nation closely follows the soviet party line. On December 1,

1963, Gus liall, General Secretary, Communist Party, US infOr-

informed one of our sources who has furnished reliable

mation in the past that the assassination followed a pattern

which clearly indicated it could have been done by no one

other than the "ultraright" and that Hall feels that Oswald

was killed by the "ultraright" in order to prevent him from

talking.

Hall indicated to our source that he planned to

contact Soviet officials to determine if they planned to

interview Marina Oswald

and, if so, he planned to ask the

Soviets to question Marina whether

Lee Harvey Oswald had

any connections with the "ultraright," had any relations

with the federal Bureau of Investigation, or had any

relations or contacts with Jack Ruby.

Hall also told our source that he felt the Soviets

.are too lax in allowing "all kinds of persons to go to

Moscow." Hall expressed his opinion that at the time Oswald

went to Moscow, he was operating for the Federal Bureau of

Investigation.

Hall further stated that Oswald "could have

been a nut, too."

The position of the Communist Party, USA, toward

the Marren Commission Peport was clearly set forth

in the

October, 11, 1961, issue of "The Worker," an East Coast

communist newspaper. In an article captioned "Warren Report

Brushes Off Ultra-Rightist Conspiracy," it was stated that

the Warren Report gives comparatively very little space to

the material that came before it indicating that a

"Right-lying conspiracy" was in the making and that Oswald

was a "Left-painted" undercover instrument of such forces

or of a Government agency.

The article further stated that

even the limited material which the Warren Commission has

put into the record on the Rightist conspiracy that was in

progress is an important contribution and provides a basis

for further investigation.

No information has been developed indicating any

of the so-called communist "splinter groups,

such as the

Progressive Labor Party, Socialist Workers Party or the

Workers "orld party, have planned or instituted any con-

certed cffort or crive to discredit or attack the Warren

Commission.

Official publications of these organizations

have from time to time contrined isolated articles which

have been critical of the Varren Commission.

For example,

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REACTION OF SOVIET AND COMMUNIST

PARTY OFFICIALS TO TIE ASSASSINATION

OF PRESIDENT JOIN E. KENNEDY

"progressive Labor," the official publication of the

Progressive Inbor Party, issued a Special Supploment dated

November 27, 1963, which contained an article which attempted

to rnise doubts as to whether Lee Harvey Oswald actually

killed President Kennedy.

The article also attempted to

establish that Oswald possibly had been "framed."

The

December, 1963, issue of this same magazine contained an

article which further attempted to establish that Oswald

had been "framed" and that the Warren Commission did not

nake a thorough investigation of the assassination.

The soviet press, from time to time since the

assassination of President Kennedy, has carried articles

attacking the conclusions of the Warren Commission.

Immediately following the publication of the larren

Commission

Report on September

'27, 1964,.

the Soviet newspaper "Pravda"

carried an article in its September 28, 1964, edition

"summarizing the findings of the Warren Commission. In this

article, the soviet author stated that the Warren Commission

Report did not dispel all doubts and suspicions about the.

The article also noted that

"not everything mysterious has become public" and pointed

out that at the beginning of the work of the Warren Commission,

Mr. Warren declared that some facts connected with the

assassisation of President Kennedy may not be revealed in

the lifetime of this generation.

In an article in the Soviet newspaper "Izvestia"

for september 21, 1965, Soviet reporter V. Zorin criticized

the Warren Commission

investigation and the conclusions of

the Warren Commission. The author also summarized the

allegations of a number of American and European authors

who have written books critical of the Warren Commission

Report and concluded that the assassination in Dallas has

many riddles to offer and that the mystery remains a mystery.

In September, 1966, the Soviet publication

"New Times" published excerpts of book reviews by American

journalist Professor Richard Popkin. Among the excerpts

pointed out vere comments made by Professor Popkin concerning

the books "Whiterash" by Harold Weisberg and "Inquest" by

Edward J. Epstein.

The Sovict publication points out that

It is the conclusion of Professor Popkin that the Kennedy

assassination uns the outcome of a carefully laid plot in

which influential quarters were implicnted.

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