Capitalism is disgusting. It only carries war, hypocrisy and rivalry.
Fidel Castro
60 years ago, in January 1959, the Cuban Revolution ended. In Cuba, the pro-American Batista regime was overthrown. The formation of a socialist state, headed by Fidel Castro, began.
The preconditions for the revolution were associated with the socio-economic and political situation in Cuba. The island nation was, in fact, a semi-colony of the United States. The available resources were used in the interests of the local criminal oligarchy and American capital. Most of the people did not have access to normal education and health care, and lived in poverty. People received a minimum education only from churchmen. Only the children of wealthy people could get a full secondary and higher education. The island's population was divided into a small caste of "chosen" lords and ordinary people, who were treated like cattle. The peasants lived in squalid huts with an earthen floor, mass epidemics mowed down people, especially children. At the same time, a small group of people - the owners of enterprises (sugar factories, railways, etc.), plantations, high-ranking officials and the military, literally bathed in luxury. Americans even lived in separate neighborhoods where the future had already come: beautiful houses with electricity, various household appliances, expensive furniture, good food, and their own security guards. A characteristic feature of Cuba was mass prostitution, including among children. Cuba was a "US brothel" - a hot spot for the American rich and the military. The States were satisfied with this position of Cuba, so Washington turned a blind eye to the crimes of its "sons of bitches".
The resistance was led by a representative of the local elite, the son of landowner Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. 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 member of the upper class. But Fidel became a defender of the disadvantaged, advocated social justice. As a result, the Comandante became a real people's leader, a legend, the personification of the fight against injustice and predatory capitalism for the whole world!
The revolution began on July 26, 1953 - with an attack by a rebel group led by F. Castro on the barracks of the government forces of Moncanada in Santiago de Cuba (the second largest city in Cuba). The revolutionaries 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 awaiting him. Here Fidel, with his brother Raul and Che Guevara, founded the July 26 movement and began preparations for a new uprising.
The rebels landed in Cuba in December 1956. The landing due to the storm took place later than planned, so the uprising that began in Santiago de Cuba was suppressed. The rebels went to the Sierra Maestra and started a guerrilla war. At first, small rebel groups posed no threat to the Batista regime. However, the general disintegration of the dictatorial regime and the proclamation of land reform in favor of the peasants (the seizure of land from large landowners and their transfer to the peasants) led to massive popular support for the partisans. The Cuban students were actively involved in the struggle against the dictatorial regime. A small revolutionary nucleus united around itself broad strata of the population. As a result, the 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.
Che Guevara (left) and Fidel Castro
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, taking the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the state, fled from the island. On January 8, Fidel Castro, appointed by the Minister of War, arrived in Havana, he will lead 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). 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 the socialist path of development. In 1965, the Cuban Communist Party was created, and Fidel was elected First Secretary of the Party Central Committee. Socialist Cuba became the most important ally of the USSR in the region.
Thus, Fidel and his comrades-in-arms began and carried out the revolution, having only a few dozen associates at its beginning, and then for 60 years they did not succumb and were not sold to the USA, to the world of capital - the "golden calf". Liberty Island survived even after the death of Soviet civilization.
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 retained ties with the people, avoided unnecessary 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 mood of the people opposed to the predatory American imperialism. The enemy was at Cuba's side and people still remembered the country's calamities associated with the domination of American capital. People realized that it was possible to withstand only within the framework of a rigid one-party system (the people can feed only one party that defends national interests) and that hardships are inevitable due to the need for confrontation. Unlike 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 the socialist society and state began, which led to the catastrophe of 1991. When the ideals of socialism were replaced by consumer acquisitiveness, the consumer society ("golden calf") of the USSR was doomed.
At the same time, socialist Cuba, in conditions of a weak resource base and American sanctions, has achieved high social achievements. In particular, the Kuban 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.
As a result, Cuban socialism survived the collapse 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 Yeltsin. Cuba has become a symbol of the 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 become a thing of the past, he disappeared into the future. The image of a free Cuba and Fidel Castro give hope for the revival of a socialist Great Russia (USSR-2).
Fidel Castro and Yuri Gagarin, 1961
