Warren Commission (03 of 26): Hearings Vol. III (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (03 of 26): Hearings Vol. III (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mrs. PAINE. I was not. But I was chairman of a committee of that
committee, which was called Correspondence, and I helped make contact
between young people in this country who wished to write to someone in
the Soviet Union, and an organization of young people in Moscow which
found pen pals for these young Americans.
We particularly wanted to go through an official organization so as to
be certain we were not endangering or putting suspicion upon anyone,
any young person in the Soviet Union to whom we were writing. We felt
if they picked their own people that would lessen the suspicion of the
Soviet person.
Mr. JENNER. Were you active in that group?
Mrs. PAINE. I was chairman of that for sometime.
Mr. JENNER. Did you take part in the pen pal correspondence yourself?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I did.
Mr. JENNER. And do you recall now the names of the Russian young
people or Russian young person with whom you communicate, or sought
communication?
Mrs. PAINE. I recall I wrote a few letters to a person named Ella,
I have forgotten her last name, and I don't believe I have the
correspondence still. If I did, I don't any more.
Mr. JENNER. If you once had it?
Mrs. PAINE. If I once had it, I don't have it now in my possession, and
then that stopped because she stopped writing. I wrote and got another
correspondent whose name is Nina Aparina, with whom I corresponded up
to last spring, I would say, and I haven't--yes; and I haven't heard
anything from her for about a year.
Mr. JENNER. What was the nature of the correspondence, particularly
with respect to subject matter?
Mrs. PAINE. We discussed?
Mr. JENNER. In this letter period?
Mrs. PAINE. We discussed our mutual interest in language. She was a
teacher of the English language. She married an engineer during the
time of our correspondence.
Mr. JENNER. Russian?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; of course.
Mr. JENNER. Russian citizen?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes. We exchanged a magnetic tape recording one time. I
sent her one and she sent one with music and readings, hers were music
and readings in Russian, and mine was similar in English as part of
language study aid.
My last communication said she was expecting a baby last June but I
haven't heard anything from her since that communication, as I say,
probably a year ago that came.
Mr. JENNER. Now all of your activity, this activity, of correspondence
between you and any citizen in Russia, was part of it, originated in
the Young Friends group, an activity to supply here a meeting with,
communication by, Americans with citizens in Russia, and then latterly
in your communication with the lady you have last mentioned, a mutual
exchange between the two of you here to improve her English and you to
improve your Russian?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right. The committee was formed much the same
time that our State Department made arrangements with the Soviets
for cultural exchange, and I think our purposes were similar but, of
course, outside the government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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