Almost immediately after arriving, Oswald informed his Intourist guide of his desire to become a Soviet citizen. When asked why by the various Soviet officials he encountered — all of whom, by Oswald's account, found his wish incomprehensible — he said that he was a communist, and gave what he described in his diary as "vauge answers about 'Great Soviet Union'".Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 16, p. 94, CE 24, Lee Harvey Oswald's "Historic Diary" , entries of October 16, 1959, to October 21, 1959. On October 21, the day his visa was due to expire, he was told that his citizenship application had been refused, and that he had to leave the Soviet Union that evening. Distraught, Oswald inflicted a minor but bloody wound to his left wrist in his hotel room bathtub soon before his Intourist guide was due to arrive to escort him from the country, according to his diary because he wished to kill himself in a way that would shock her. Delaying Oswald's departure because of his self-inflicted injury, the Soviets kept him in a Moscow hospital under psychiatric observation for a week, until October 28, 1959.Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 16, p. 95, CE 24, Lee Harvey Oswald's "Historic Diary" , entries of October 21, 1959, to October 28, 1959.
Almost immediately after arriving, Oswald informed his Intourist guide of his desire to become a Soviet citizen. When asked why by the various Soviet officials he encountered — all of whom, by Oswald's account, found his wish incomprehensible — he said that he was a communist, and gave what he described in his diary as "vauge answers about 'Great Soviet Union'".Warren Commission Hearings, vol 16, p. 94, CE 24, Lee Harvey Oswald's "Historic Diary" , entries of October 16, 1959, to October 21, 1959. On October 21, the day his visa was due to expire, he was told that his citizenship application had been refused, and that he had to leave the Soviet Union that evening. Distraught, Oswald inflicted a minor but bloody wound to his left wrist in his hotel room bathtub soon before his Intourist guide was due to arrive to escort him from the country, according to his diary because he wished to kill himself in a way that would shock her. Delaying Oswald's departure because of his self-inflicted injury, the Soviets kept him in a Moscow hospital under psychiatric observation for a week, until October 28, 1959.Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 16, p. 95, CE 24, Lee Harvey Oswald's "Historic Diary" , entries of October 21, 1959, to October 28, 1959.