Soviet officials were shocked at John F. Kennedy’s assassination, according to a source who was in Russia at the time cited in a document released with the JKF files this week.
“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,” a Dec. 1, 1966 document said.
The top secret file details how Soviet leaders believed a “well-organized conspiracy on the part of the ‘ultraright'” in the U.S. was responsible for Kennedy’s death, not a single person. Lee Harvey Oswald, described as a “neurotic maniac” who was “disloyal,” was not connected to the Soviet Union, according to an unnamed source.
“They noted that Oswald never belonged to any organization in the Soviet Union and was never given Soviet citizenship,” the document said.
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