"Freedom or death". 70 years of the Cuban Revolution
Capitalism is disgusting.
He brings only war
hypocrisy and rivalry.
Fidel Castro
He brings only war
hypocrisy and rivalry.
Fidel Castro
Preconditions of the revolution
The prerequisites for the Cuban Revolution were related to the socio-economic and political situation of Cuba. The island state was a classic picture of peripheral capitalism, a new colonial (slave-owning) system that replaced classical colonialism. The signs have changed, but the essence remains.
Cuba, in essence, was a semi-colony of the Americans. The available resources were used in the interests of the local criminal oligarchy and American capital. The American masters controlled up to 70% of the economy, including 90% of the mining industry, 90% of the electric and telephone companies, 80% of the utilities, 80% of the fuel consumption, 50% of the service sector, 50% of the sugar crops and 40% of the sugar mills.
The Cuban economy was completely dependent on one product - sugar cane (more than 80% of exports). The island had a strong dependence on American imports, especially food, although there were all conditions to ensure food security on their own.
46% of cultivated land in the country belonged to large landowners-latifundists, who accounted for only 7,5% of the total number of landowners (with 36,1% of the land owned by 0,5% of landowners). The workers and peasant tenants were completely dependent on the "good will" of the capitalists and landlords.
Most of the people did not have access to normal education and health care, and lived in poverty. The number of illiterates reached 50% of the population. People received minimal education only from the church. Only children from wealthy social groups could receive a full-fledged secondary and higher education.
The population of the island was divided into a small caste of gentlemen - "chosen" and ordinary people, who were treated like cattle. Peasants lived in squalid huts with dirt floors, mass epidemics mowed down people, especially children. The mass healthcare system was in its infancy. Health care, which achieved high results during this period, was available only to financially well-to-do people.
At the same time, a small caste of people - owners of enterprises (sugar factories, railways, etc.) and plantations, bankers, high-ranking officials and the military, literally bathed in luxury. Americans even lived in separate neighborhoods where the future had already arrived: beautiful houses with electricity, various household appliances, expensive furniture, good food and their own security.
A characteristic feature of Cuba was mass prostitution, including among children. Cuba was "the brothel and casino of the United States" - a haunt for the American rich, middle class and military.
This position of Cuba suited America, so Washington turned a blind eye to the crimes of its "sons of bitches."
Batista regime
The regime of Fulgencio Batista, who, as head of the General Staff of the Cuban army, controlled power in the country since 1933, was president of Cuba in 1940-1944 and 1954-1959, interim president in 1952-1954. (in 1952 he carried out a military coup and seized power), completely suited the Americans. He also established personal connections with the American mafia. Many well-known American gangsters were received almost at the official level, in the best hotel in Havana - the Nacional de Cuba.
Havana became the Latin American Las Vegas, and the entire tourist and entertainment business in the country was controlled by American gangsters. The slave trade flourished on the island: bandits kidnapped girls and girls, forced them to sell the body. There were over 8 brothels in Havana alone. The "work" was so hard, and the conditions were bad, that the average life time of a prostitute after starting work did not exceed seven years.
Political opponents of the regime were usually killed, they disappeared without a trace. The country's economy was controlled by the Americans. Control was also exercised through customs tariffs, reduced for American goods. Foreign capital, mostly American, was actively attracted to the country. Which only increased the dependence of the island on the United States.
Havana refused to modernize and develop its industry, the mono-economy (sugar cane) only strengthened. The authorities encouraged the development of American agricultural companies, to the detriment of the Cuban peasants. In particular, rice crops were reduced in order to buy more American rice.
Many large mining concessions were granted to American companies, and Havana also gave the Americans complete freedom of action in the field of electricity, communications, after which tariffs for electricity and telephone communications in Cuba became the highest in the world.
The Batista government began to pursue a policy of unilateral reduction in sugar production in the interests of speculators and the United States. As a result, Cuba's share of world sugar production fell from 15,7% in 1951 to 12,2% in 1958. This led to a serious drop in the purchasing power of the Cuban peso and an increase in the prices of all goods.
As a result, the living conditions of ordinary people worsened even more. Landlessness of already poor peasants accelerated. The land was increasingly controlled by American companies.
In 1958, unemployment in Cuba reached, according to official figures, 40% (which is 2-3 times the unemployment rate in Western countries during the Great Depression). Moreover, official statistics did not take into account agricultural laborers as unemployed, most of whom could find work only for 3-4 months a year.
Due to the high level of competition for jobs in industrial enterprises, they could be sold and bought. Many workers, in order to keep or buy a place, fell into debt bondage to usurers. All this led to the fact that the lower classes could no longer live in the old way.
Cuban ruler Fulgencio Batista y Saldivar (1901–1973
Resistance
The resistance was led by a representative of the local elite, the son of the landowner Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (Fidel Castro Rus). He received an excellent education, had a high intellect, could make a career as a lawyer and had every opportunity to live the beautiful life of an ordinary upper-class person.
But Fidel chose a different path. He became a defender of the disadvantaged, advocated social justice. As a result, the Cuban Comandante became a real people's leader, a legend, the personification of the fight against injustice and predatory capitalism for the whole world!
Desperate social injustice, where most of the Cuban people were doomed to poverty, to the constant humiliation of human dignity and had no chance of a normal human life, put forward Fidel to the people's leaders. In fact, he became "one warrior in the field", who expressed the anger and discontent of the whole people.
The revolution began on July 26, 1953, with an attack by a group of rebels led by Fidel Castro at the Moncada government barracks in Santiago de Cuba (the second largest city in Cuba). The rebels were defeated, Fidel was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
However, due to the great public attention, he was released under an amnesty already in 1955. Fearing an assassination attempt, Fidel moved to Mexico, where other revolutionaries were waiting for him. Here, Fidel, with his brother Raul and Che Guevara, founded the July 26 movement and began preparing a new uprising ("Freedom or death").
Victory of the revolution
The rebels landed in Cuba in December 1956. The landing due to the storm was later than scheduled, so the uprising that began in Santiago de Cuba was crushed. The rebels withdrew to the Sierra Maestra mountains and began a guerrilla war.
At first, small groups of rebels did not pose a threat to the regime of the dictator Batista. However, the general disintegration of the dictatorial regime and the proclamation of a land reform in favor of the peasants (the seizure of land from large landowners and their transfer to the peasants) led to mass popular support for the partisans. Cuban students actively joined the struggle against the dictatorial regime.
As a result, a small revolutionary core quickly united wide sections of the population around itself. Government troops sent to suppress the rebels began to go over to their side. In 1957–1958 The rebels carried out a number of successful operations.
In the second half of 1958, the army was completely demoralized. On January 1, 1959, the rebels occupied Havana. The population of the capital greeted the revolutionaries with jubilation. Batista, having taken the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the state, fled from the island. On January 8, Fidel Castro, appointed Minister of War, arrived in Havana, he will head the government on February 15, 1959.
The first major actions of the new government were: agrarian reform in the interests of the peasantry; the creation of a people's militia and the arrest of counter-revolutionaries; nationalization of large enterprises and banks owned by foreign capital (mainly American).
In response to people's demands for the perpetrators to be punished, Castro organized many trials, as a result of which hundreds of people were executed. These processes were popular among the people. The American media claimed that many of the cases were unfair. Fidel Castro replied that "revolutionary justice is based not on legal prescriptions, but on moral convictions."
After an unsuccessful attempt by the United States to overthrow the revolutionary government in 1961 with the help of the forces of the Cuban counter-revolutionary emigration, Fidel Castro announced the country's transition to a socialist path of development. In 1965, the Communist Party of Cuba was created, and Fidel was elected First Secretary of the Party's Central Committee. Socialist Cuba became the most important ally of the USSR in the region. Russia rendered great assistance in the formation of Cuban socialism. And Cuba has become a truly valuable ally and partner of the Union.
Thus, Fidel and his comrades-in-arms started and accomplished the revolution, having only a few dozen comrades-in-arms at its beginning, and for a long time did not succumb and were not sold to the United States, the world of capital. The island of freedom survived even after the death of the USSR.
Cuban socialism
Cuban socialism turned out to be more viable than the Soviet one.
This was due to the fact that Havana did not copy the socialism of the Khrushchev era. The leadership of the country and the Communist Party kept in touch with the people and avoided excessive bureaucratization. In agriculture, instead of forced collectivization, they chose the cooperative option, small business was preserved (as it was under Stalin).
At the same time, Cuban socialism was fueled by the patriotic spirit of the people opposed to predatory American imperialism. The enemy was at Cuba's side, and people still remembered the disasters of the country from the domination of American capital and the oligarch thieves and embezzlers-officials associated with it.
People realized that they could survive only within the framework of a rigid one-party system (the people can feed only one party that protects national interests) and that hardships are inevitable due to the need for confrontation.
In contrast to the USSR since the time of Khrushchev, where the American consumer standard of quality and standard of living was taken as the main model, Cuba abandoned this erroneous and vicious path. Indeed, since the time of Khrushchev, a rapid degeneration of socialist society and the state began, which led to the catastrophe of 1991. When the ideals of socialism were replaced by consumer money-grubbing, a consumer society (“golden calf”), the USSR was doomed.
At the same time, socialist Cuba, in the conditions of a weak resource base and American sanctions, has achieved high social achievements. In particular, Cuban medicine (completely free) has become one of the best not only in the region, but also in the world! According to the WHO (World Health Organization), in 2012, medicine in Cuba was the best in the world.
Cuban socialism survived the death of the USSR and the socialist camp. The small island country and Fidel Castro did not give up even in the face of the global surrender of the Soviet project by Gorbachev and his team. Cuba has become a symbol of a successful national liberation struggle, the struggle of Latin America against American neo-colonialism.
As De Gaulle said about Stalin, the same can be said about Castro: he did not go into the past, he dissolved into the future. The images of a free Cuba and Fidel Castro entered the world history as symbols of the struggle of the people for freedom and justice.
Yuri Gagarin in Cuba with Fidel Castro - the famous event of 1961, where two great people crossed
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