Fidel Castro - Wikimedia Commons Fidel Castro Jump to: navigation , search Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 - 25 November 2016) became head of state in Cuba in 1959, when, leading the 26th of July Movement, he helped overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and turn Cuba into the first Socialist state in the Western Hemisphere. He retired as President of Cuba in February 2008. He held the title of premier until 1976, when he became president of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers. He was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from its inception in 1965. Letter from Fidel Castro to president Roosevelt, 1940 Fidel Castro arrives MATS Terminal, Washington, D.C., 1959 April 15 Fidel Castro, president of Cuba, at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, 1960 Sept.

22 May 1 rally Flag of the Cuban 26th of July Movement Galego: Fidel Castro e Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, en xaneiro do 2009 Cuban revolutionary war | Article about Cuban revolutionary war by The Free Dictionary Cuban revolutionary war | Article about Cuban revolutionary war by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Wikipedia . Related to Cuban revolutionary war: Ernesto Guevara Cuban Revolution a popular, anti-imperialist, agrarian revolution that was victorious on Jan. 1, 1959, and that subsequently developed into a socialist revolution. Breaking the chains of the imperialist yoke in Latin America, the Cuban Revolution led to the establishment of the first socialist state in the western hemisphere, thus marking a historical turning point and opening up a new stage in the revolutionary movement in that part of the world. The Cuban Revolution took place under favorable international circumstances. A new balance of power had emerged as a result of the weakening of the world capitalist system, the growth of force and power in the socialist camp, and the solidarity and aid with which the socialist countries responded to Cuba. “The Cuban Revolution became possible only because the Russian Revolution of 1917 had taken place much earlier” (F.

Castro, Viva Kuba, Moscow, 1963, p. 21). The preconditions for a revolutionary outburst in Cuba included the rule of the latifundismo and the dominance of US capital, which retarded the development of the Cuban economy. Chronic unemployment, poverty, the lack of rights of the working people, and racial discrimination also stimulated the revolution. The contradictions within Cuban society became especially acute as the result of the establishment in 1952 of the dictatorship of Batista y Zaldívar, who unleashed terror against all democratic forces and betrayed the country’s national interests. In the final analysis, the dictatorship was opposed by almost all classes and social groups in the country—industrial and farm workers, small and middle peasants, the intelligentsia, and radical strata of the urban petite bourgeoisie. At first the struggle was, to a considerable degree, spontaneous, owing to the fragmentation of the political forces opposed to the dictatorship and the tendency of bourgeois party leaders to seek agreements with Batista and to practice militant anticommunism. Moreover, at that time Communists did not have sufficient forces to lead a revolution independently. Under these conditions a group of youths led by F.

Castro attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 1953. Their purpose was to capture weapons, arm the common people, and raise a revolt against the dictatorship to gain independence and sovereignty for the nation, to abolish the large estates, and to transfer the land to the peasants. The attack failed, and Castro and his comrades-in-arms were imprisoned. Nevertheless, it had a great influence on the domestic political situation and laid the foundation for the armed struggle against the tyranny. Despite extremely harsh persecution and the necessity of working underground, the Communists led strikes, which became particularly widespread in 1955. They did a great deal of revolutionary propaganda work, calling on all forces that opposed the dictatorship to take united action. In December 1956 a group of revolutionaries brought together by Castro in Mexico, where he had emigrated after being freed from prison, landed in Cuba to continue the armed struggle against the dictatorship. Led by Castro, the group formed a partisan detachment in the Sierra Maestra. Drawing its ranks from the local population, primarily agricultural workers and peasants, the detachment gradually grew into the Rebel Army, which began to make significant attacks on government troops.

This contributed to a further upswing in the revolutionary movement. During the growing struggle against Batista’s tyranny a de facto national democratic anti-imperialist front formed around the Rebel Army. It consisted of the revolutionary-democratic 26th of July Movement, which played a leading role in the coalition, the People’s Socialist Party of Cuba, and the 13th of March Revolutionary Directorate of the Students’ Federation. Batista’s army became demoralized during the second half of 1958 and practically ceased to offer any resistance to the rebels. On Jan. 1, 1959, the Batista government collapsed. Power passed into the hands of the Provisional Government, whose members included right-wing bourgeois leaders who had attached themselves to the revolution but who were opposed to its further development. In the outlying regions, however, power was, in fact, held by the Rebel Army and its revolutionary leaders, headed by Castro. Subsequently, the government was purged of traitors to the revolution. In February 1959, Castro became head of the Revolutionary Government, and in July, O. Dorticós Torrado became president.

The revolution, which had been victorious as the result of the armed struggle by the Rebel Army supported by the popular movement, destroyed the military and state machinery of Batista’s tyranny, as well as the entire semicolonial and latifundiary regime. A new revolutionary regime was established which set as its goal Cuba’s complete liberation from foreign dependence, the promulgation of agrarian reform, and other profound social changes. The Cuban Revolution brought the proletariat to power and the toiling peasantry, who formed a close alliance. It removed from power the native bourgeois landowning oligarchy and put an end to the political and, eventually, the economic dominance of US imperialism in Cuba. The participation in the revolution of the broadest possible spectrum of the popular masses, their determination to build a new life free of poverty and oppression, and the consistency of the Cuban Revolution’s leaders in promulgating socioeconomic changes have ensured the unswerving development of the revolution, as well as its rapid transition from the national liberation stage to that of a socialist revolution.

With the support of the popular masses and the comprehensive aid of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, the revolutionary regime has successfully opposed all subversive actions by the domestic counter-revolution, as well as US political, economic, and military pressure aimed at forcing the people of Cuba to turn away from the path which they have chosen. Examples of US pressure on Cuba include the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. On April 16 and again on May 1, 1961, Castro publicly proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution. By this time the preconditions for building a socialist society had already been created in Cuba. The state had control of the economy, and there was a cultural revolution. In the process of unifying the country’s revolutionary organizations on a Marxist-Leninist basis, a single revolutionary party, the Communist Party of Cuba, was formed. By 1969 the socialist sector encompassed almost the entire national economy. The private sector survived only in agriculture, where (as of 1972), 30 percent of the cultivated land remained in the hands of peasant proprietors.

The country is being industrialized, and a great deal of work is being done to raise the people’s cultural level as well as to train cadres of specialists. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Revolutionary Government, the Cuban people selflessly strive to fulfill the tasks of peaceful construction. The most important factor contributing to the successful building of socialism in Cuba and the strengthening of its international position is the comprehensive aid and support of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. REFERENCES Fidel Castro | political leader of Cuba | Britannica.com political leader of Cuba Alternative Title: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz Fidel Castro Raúl Castro Fidel Castro, in full Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926, near Birán, Cuba—died November 25, 2016, Cuba), political leader of Cuba (1959–2008) who transformed his country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere . Castro became a symbol of communist revolution in Latin America . He held the title of premier until 1976 and then began a long tenure as president of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers.

He handed over provisional power in July 2006 because of health problems and formally relinquished the presidency in February 2008. Fidel Castro, 1995. Jorge Saenz—AP/Wide World Photos Castro was born in southeastern Cuba. His father, Ángel Castro y Argiz, an immigrant from Spain , was a fairly prosperous sugarcane farmer in a locality that had long been dominated by estates of the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company . While married to his first wife, Ángel Castro began an affair with one of his servants, Lina Ruz González, whom he later also married. Together they had seven children; Fidel was one of them, and Raúl , who later became his brother’s chief associate in Cuban affairs, was another. Fidel Castro attended Roman Catholic boarding schools in Santiago de Cuba and then the Catholic high school Belén in Havana , where he proved an outstanding athlete. In 1945 he entered the School of Law of the University of Havana, where organized violent gangs sought to advance a mixture of romantic goals, political aims, and personal careers.

Castro’s main activity at the university was politics, and in 1947 he joined an abortive attempt by Dominican exiles and Cubans to invade the Dominican Republic and overthrow Gen. Rafael Trujillo . He then took part in urban riots that broke out in Bogotá , Colombia , in April 1948. After his graduation in 1950, Castro began to practice law and became a member of the reformist Cuban People’s Party (called Ortodoxos). He became their candidate for a seat in the House of Representatives from a Havana district in the elections scheduled for June 1952. In March of that year, however, the former Cuban president, Gen. Fulgencio Batista , overthrew the government of Pres. Carlos Prío Socarrás and canceled the elections. After legal means failed to dislodge Batista’s new dictatorship, Castro began to organize a rebel force for the task in 1953. On July 26, 1953, he led about 160 men in a suicidal attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba in hopes of sparking a popular uprising.

Most of the men were killed, and Castro himself was arrested. After a trial in which he conducted an impassioned defense, he was sentenced by the government to 15 years’ imprisonment. He and his brother Raúl were released in a political amnesty in 1955, and they went to Mexico to continue their campaign against the Batista regime. There Fidel Castro organized Cuban exiles into a revolutionary group called the 26th of July Movement . Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent On December 2, 1956, Castro and an armed expedition of 81 men landed on the eastern coast of Cuba from the yacht Granma. All of them were killed or captured except Fidel and Raúl Castro, Ernesto (“Che”) Guevara , and nine others, who retreated into the Sierra Maestra to wage guerrilla warfare against the Batista forces. With the help of growing numbers of revolutionary volunteers throughout the island, Fidel Castro’s forces won a string of victories over the Batista government’s demoralized and poorly led armed forces.

Castro’s propaganda efforts proved particularly effective, and as internal political support waned and military defeats multiplied, Batista fled the country on January 1, 1959. Castro’s force of 800 guerrillas had defeated the Cuban government’s 30,000-man professional army. U.S. and Cuba As the undisputed revolutionary leader, Castro became commander in chief of the armed forces in Cuba’s new provisional government, which had Manuel Urrutia, a moderate liberal, as its president. In February 1959 Castro became premier and thus head of the government. By the time Urrutia was forced to resign in July 1959, Castro had taken effective political power into his own hands. Fidel Castro with guerrillas in Havana, Cuba, 1959. Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library Castro had come to power with the support of most Cuban city dwellers on the basis of his promises to restore the 1940 constitution, create an honest administration, reinstate full civil and political liberties, and undertake moderate reforms.

But once established as Cuba’s leader he began to pursue more radical policies: Cuba’s private commerce and industry were nationalized; sweeping land reforms were instituted; and American businesses and agricultural estates were expropriated. The United States was alienated by these policies and offended by Castro’s fiery new anti-American rhetoric . His trade agreement with the Soviet Union in February 1960 further deepened American distrust. In 1960 most economic ties between Cuba and the United States were severed, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with the island country in January 1961. In April of that year the U.S. government secretly equipped thousands of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro’s government; their landing at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, however, was crushed by Castro’s armed forces. Fidel Castro in a Cuban telecast, May 27, 1960. © Bettmann/Corbis Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Cuba also began acquiring weapons from the Soviet Union , which soon became the country’s chief supporter and trade partner.

In 1962 the Soviet Union secretly stationed ballistic missiles in Cuba that could deliver nuclear warheads to American cities, and in the ensuing confrontation with the United States, the world came close to a nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended when the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw its nuclear weapons from Cuba in exchange for a pledge that the United States would withdraw the nuclear-armed missiles it had stationed in Turkey and no longer seek to overthrow Castro’s regime. In the meantime Castro created a one-party government to exercise dictatorial control over all aspects of Cuba’s political, economic, and cultural life. All political dissent and opposition were ruthlessly suppressed. Many members of the Cuban upper and middle classes felt betrayed by these measures and chose to immigrate to the United States. At the same time, Castro vastly expanded the country’s social services, extending them to all classes of society on an equal basis. Educational and health services were made available to Cubans free of charge, and every citizen was guaranteed employment. The Cuban economy, however, failed to achieve significant growth or to reduce its dependence on the country’s chief export, cane sugar. Economic decision-making power was concentrated in a centralized bureaucracy headed by Castro, who proved to be an inept economic manager.

With inefficient industries and a stagnant agriculture, Cuba became increasingly dependent on favourable Soviet trade policies to maintain its modest standard of living in the face of the United States’ continuing trade embargo. Fidel Castro, 1964 Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Castro remained premier until 1976, when a new constitution created a National Assembly and Castro became president of that body’s State Council. He retained the posts of commander in chief of the armed forces and secretary-general of the Communist Party of Cuba —the only legal political party—and he continued to exercise unquestioned and total control over the government. Castro’s brother Raúl, minister of the armed forces, ranked second to him in all government and party posts. Fidel Castro’s early attempts to foment Marxist revolutions elsewhere in Latin America foundered, but Cuban troops played an important role in various conflicts in other less-developed countries, especially in Africa. It was long held that Cuban forces were acting as surrogates for the Soviet Union in these Cold War conflicts.

However, scholarship that emerged in the early 21st century made clear that Cuba had acted at its own behest in Africa as Castro sought to spread the Cuban Revolution internationally and to bolster his standing among nonaligned countries and in the less-developed world. From 1975 to 1989, Cuban expeditionary forces fought in the Angolan civil war on the side of the communistic Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola . In 1978 Cuban troops assisted Ethiopia in repelling an invasion by Somalia . By the 1980s Castro had emerged as one of the leaders of nonaligned countries, despite his ties to the Soviet Union. He continued to signify his willingness to renew diplomatic relations with the United States, provided that it end its trade embargo against Cuba. In 1980 Castro released a flood of immigrants to the United States when he opened the port of Mariel for five months. The 125,000 immigrants, including some criminals, strained the capacity of U.S. immigration and resettlement facilities.

In the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev began to undertake democratic reforms and eastern European countries were allowed to slip out of the Soviet orbit, Castro retained a hard-line stance, espousing the discipline of communism . The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 took him by surprise and meant the end of generous Soviet subsidies to Cuba. Castro countered the resulting economic decline and shortages of consumer goods by allowing some economic liberalization and free-market activities while retaining tight controls over the country’s political life. Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano In late 1993 Castro’s daughter sought asylum in the United States, where she openly criticized her father’s rule. The following year, economic and social unrest led to antigovernment demonstrations, the size of which had not been seen in Cuba in some 35 years. Shortly thereafter Castro lifted restrictions on those wanting to leave the country, and thousands headed for the United States in the largest exodus since the 1980 Mariel “freedom flotilla.” In 1998 Castro allowed Pope John Paul II to visit Cuba for the first time.

In 2003 the National Assembly confirmed Castro as president for another five-year term. During that year the Cuban government arrested dozens of independent journalists and activists in a renewed government crackdown on dissidents, and some 75 activists were convicted for conspiring with the United States to subvert the revolution. The following year Castro strengthened his alliance with Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez by helping him bring to fruition the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas [ALBA]; Alternativa later changed to Alianza [“Alliance”]), a socialist initiative to promote regional commerce, through which Cuba provided health care professionals to Venezuela in exchange for discounted oil. Fidel Castro speaking in Santa Clara, Cuba, during the island’s annual Revolution Day celebration, … Jorge Rey/Getty Images On July 31, 2006, Fidel Castro passed power on a provisional basis to his brother Raúl in order to recover from surgery for a serious intestinal illness. It was the first time since the 1959 revolution that he ceded control.

In February 2008, just days before the National Assembly was to vote for the country’s leader, Fidel Castro (who had not appeared in public for 19 months) officially declared that he would not accept another term as president. His announcement that he was stepping down was made through a letter that was addressed to the country and posted on the Web site of the official Communist Party newspaper, Granma . In part it read, “I do not bid you farewell. My only wish is to fight as a soldier of ideas.” Cuban Pres. Fidel Castro, recuperating after surgery, 2006. AP In the succeeding months, official photos were released of Fidel Castro in private meetings, and in July 2010 he made a public visit to the National Centre for Scientific Research in Havana. In September, on the eve of the release of the first volume of his memoirs, The Strategic Victory, he remarked to a reporter from the United States that “the Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.” Many took his comment as an admission of the failure of communism. However, Fidel Castro was quick to qualify his remarks in a speech that followed a few days later.

Most analysts saw his remarks as offering support for Raúl’s introduction of economic reforms that included a massive layoff of government employees as well as increased toleration of private enterprise. In 2011 Fidel stepped down as secretary-general of the Communist Party of Cuba and was succeeded by Raúl. Cuban leader Fidel Castro (right) reading from a book during a meeting with Venezuelan Pres. Hugo … AP In March 2016 Fidel, who seldom had been seen in public in recent years, made a high-profile appearance in print when he responded to U.S. Pres. Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba with a 1,600-word letter in Granma. In the letter, titled “Brother Obama,” he recapped the aggressive U.S. policy toward Cuba during the Cold War and castigated Obama, the first sitting U.S. president to visit the island in nearly 80 years, for not acknowledging the accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution, including its efforts to eradicate racism. Addressing the warming Cuba-U.S.

relations, Castro wrote, “Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this dignified and selfless country will renounce the glory, the rights, or the spiritual wealth they have gained with the development of education , science and culture.” In April a frail soon-to-be-90-year-old Castro told the Communist Party Congress that he would be dying soon, and he implored party members to work to fulfill his communist vision for Cuba. Additional Media Fidel Castro - Wikiquote Fidel Castro A revolution is a fight to the death between the future and the past . Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz ( 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016 ) was the leader of Cuba from 1959 (when, leading the 26th of July Movement, he helped overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista turning Cuba into the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere) until his resignation in February of 2008. He held the title of premier until 1976, when he became president of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers.

He had been the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Contents Condemn me, it does not matter: history will absolve me. I am not a dictator , and I do not think I will become one. I am a Marxist - Leninist , and I will be a Marxist-Leninist until the last days of my life . What do they think? That this is a bourgeois liberal regime? NO! There is nothing liberal in us! We are collectivists ! We are communists ! There will be no Prague Spring here! I feel my belief in sacrifice and struggle getting stronger. I despise the kind of existence that clings to the miserly trifles of comfort and self-interest. I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened. Letter from prison (19 December 1953) Condemn me, it does not matter: history will absolve me. History Will Absolve Me (1954) , a summary of arguments Castro made in the trial of the Moncada Barracks attack Weapons for what?

(¿Armas, para qué?) To fight against whom? Against the revolutionary government, that has the support of the whole people? … Weapons for what? Hiding weapons for what? To blackmail the President of the Republic? To threaten to break the peace here? To create organizations of gangsters? Is it that we are going to return to gangsterism? Is it that we will return to daily shootouts in the capital? Weapons for what? Speech in Havana (8 January 1959) I am not a dictator, and I do not think I will become one. I will not maintain power with a machine gun. I Won't Be a Dictator, interview with Ruth Lloyd (January 1959), printed in The Spokesman-Review (24 May 1959) Men do not shape destiny. Destiny produces the man for the hour. I Won't Be a Dictator (1959) I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement, but we do not have to say that we are anticommunists just to fawn on foreign powers.

Resignation announcement (17 July 1959) A revolution is not a trail of roses.… A revolution is a fight to the death between the future and the past. Speech on the second anniversary of the triumph of the revolution (2 January 1961) Fellow workers and peasants, this is the socialist and democratic revolution of the working people, with the working people, and for the working people. And for this revolution of the working people, by the working people, and for the working people we are prepared to give our lives. Original Spanish: "Compañeros obreros y campesinos, esta es la Revolución socialista y democrática de los humildes, con los humildes y para los humildes. Y por esta Revolución de los humildes, por los humildes y para los humildes estamos dispuestos a dar la vida." On 16 April 1961, in a funeral oration in Vedado for victims of the air raids the day before, Fidel Castro referring to the January 1959 Cuban Revolution. Quoted in José Ramón Fernández. 2001.

Playa Giron/Bay of Pigs: Washington's First Military Defeat in the Americas, p. 56 If we had paused to tell the people that we were Marxist-Leninists while we were on Pico Turquino and not yet strong, it is possible that we would never have been able to descend to the plains. Speech on the anniversary of the Granma landing (2 December 1961) I am a Marxist-Leninist, and I will be a Marxist-Leninist until the last days of my life. Speech on the anniversary of the Granma landing (2 December 1961) Variant translation: I am a Marxist-Leninist and will be one until the day I die. I propose the immediate launching of a nuclear strike on the United States. The Cuban people are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the cause of the destruction of imperialism and the victory of world revolution. As quoted in "Castro Wanted a Nuclear Strike" in The New York Times (October 23, 1992) The Alliance for Progress is an alliance between one millionaire and many beggars. Interview with C. L.

Sulzberger, The New York Times (November 7, 1964), p. 26. Warfare is a means and not an end. Warfare is a tool of revolutionaries. The important thing is the revolution! The important thing is the revolutionary cause, revolutionary ideas, revolutionary objectives, revolutionary sentiments, revolutionary virtues! Speech at the memorial service of Che Guevara (8 October 1967) We have a theoretical concept of the Revolution which is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters. As quoted in With Fidel : A Portrait of Castro and Cuba (1976) by Frank Mankiewicz and Kirby Jones, p. 83 Variant: The revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters. As quoted in Words of Wisdom : From the Greatest Minds of All Time (2004) edited by Mick Farren, p.

138 With what moral authority can they speak of human rights — the rulers of a nation in which the millionaire and beggar coexist; the Indian is exterminated; the black man is discriminated against; the woman is prostituted; and the great masses of Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Latin Americans are scorned, exploited, and humiliated? How can they do this — the bosses of an empire where the mafia, gambling, and child prostitution are imposed; where the CIA organizes plans of global subversion and espionage, and the Pentagon creates neutron bombs capable of preserving material assets and wiping out human beings; an empire that supports reaction and counter-revolution all over the world; that protects and promotes the exploitation by monopolies of the wealth and the human resources of whole continents, unequal exchange, a protectionist policy, an incredible waste of natural resources, and a system of hunger for the world? I never perceived a contradiction in the political revolutionary field between the ideas I maintained and the idea of that symbol, that extraordinary figure who had been so familiar to me since I began to reason. On Jesus Christ , as quoted in Fidel and Religion (1985) by Frei Betto Let us yield a bit.

Let us grant socialism a few more years. Socialism is so obsolete, it is dying by itself.… Did I say socialism? I assure you on my honor this was not a mental slip. This was a slip of the tongue. Do not forget that. Capitalism—and I say it with such gusto—capitalism is so obsolete that it is dying by itself. Fidel Castro takes over Cuba (1956-1959) - Cold War Facts Fidel Castro takes over Cuba (1956-1959) 1950-1959 ‎ > ‎ Fidel Castro takes over Cuba (1956-1959) Fidel Castro initially tried to take over Cuba in July of 1953 with an army with fewer of 100 men. His attack on the Moncada army barracks was a complete failure. He was captured and sentenced to 15 years in jail. Castro only ended up serving two and when he was released he went into exile in Mexico. There he regrouped and gained a huge base of support from the Mexican revolutionists. Castro and his new soldiers launched his second attack on Cuba in 1956.

They were victorious and completely took over by 1959. He then turned Cuba into the first ever socialist state in the Western Hemisphere. From there he became closely aligned with the Soviet Union which was a mistake, the alliance only brought more problems between the US and Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union fell, it left Cuba in very poor economic standings & it also made Castro look like a horrible leader. Fidel Castro | The Plaid Avenger The Plaid Avenger Years Left in Office: Retired. Kind of. Political Classification: Extreme-left Education: Law degree from U. of Havana Age: 90 (born August 26, 1926) Fidel Castro Facts and Information Important Points Fidel Castro is a Cuban communist politician who became the leader of Cuba in 1959, the first Communist state in the Western hemisphere. Fidel Castro led the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship in 1959. Fidel Castro helped lead the Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro brought social reforms to Cuba but was criticized for oppressing human rights. During Fidel Castro’s time, Cuba had a resentful relationship with the United States which resulted in the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In 2008, Fidel Castro stood down as President and passed on the reigns to his younger brother Raúl Castro, having ruled Cuba for nearly five decades. The Rundown Fidel Castro is considered to be one of the most extraordinary political figures of the 20th century. He is a Communist icon who has ruled Cuba for half a century and who turned it from a colonial paradise to a player on the world stage. A dictator who is only 90 miles from US shore but who has outlived 9 U.S. Presidents and survived 638 assassination attempts by the CIA. The assassination attempts reportedly included cigars poisoned with botulinum toxin, an exploding cigar, a ballpoint pen containing a hypodermic syringe preloaded with the lethal concoction Blackleaf 40, and plain, mafia-style execution endeavors, among others. There were plans to blow up Castro during his visit to Ernest Hemingway’s museum in Cuba. There was even a documentary film entitled ‘638 Ways to Kill Castro.’ Some attempts were made to assassinate his character by using thallium salts to destroying his beard or lacing his studio with LSD so that he would feel disorientated during his broadcast.

Castro once said, in regards to the numerous attempts on his life he believed had been made, “If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal.” A tropical paradise spilling with rum, rumba and roulette. This was the Cuba most Americans knew in the 50s but just below the surface the rhythm of revolution was beating. The Cubans wanted to rid themselves of their Spanish colonial masters but U.S. sent troops to fight for Cuba’s independence. America invested capital in the country which led to a nationalist sentiment in Cuba. PERSONAL LIFE He was born out of wedlock at his father’s farm in the eastern Cuban hamlet of Birán, on August 13, 1926. Ever since childhood, Castro had a love of weapons, in particular guns, and expressed his preference for life in the countryside over the city. He loved reading Ernest Hemingway. He was a sports fan and spent a lot of time exercising regularly. He took a great interest in gastronomy, as well as wine and whisky, and as Cuban leader was known to wander into his kitchen to discuss cookery with his chefs.

However, a book written by one of his bodyguards claims that Castro actually lived quite a luxurious life unaware to the Cuban people. He had several houses and yachts. Castro has been described as “fiercely hard-working, dedicated, loyal… generous and magnanimous” but noted that he could be “vindictive and unforgiving”. He had a sense of humor but if humiliated he would respond with rage. He felt, from the very beginning, that it was his mission to save the Cuban people. Many details of Castro’s private life, particularly involving his family members, are scarce as the state media is forbidden to mention them. Castro’s biographer said that he was unable to have a lasting relationship with any female. He had one son from his first marriage and five more from his second marriage. He had extra-marital affairs and fathered children as well. EDUCATION AND ENTRY INTO POLITICS In 1945, while studying law at the University of Havana, Castro admitted he was ‘politically illiterate’ and became actively involved in the gangsterismo culture within the University. It was here that he adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics.

He openly criticized President Ramón Grau’s government during a public speech in 1946 which caused quite a stir in the media. In 1947, Castro joined the socialist Party of the Cuban People (Partido Ortodoxo), founded by veteran politician Eduardo Chibás. Chibás wanted an honest government, political freedom and social justice. All these reforms resonated with Castro even after Chibás lost the election and so Castro continued to work on his behalf. POLITICAL IDEOLOGY By 1948, Castro had moved further to the left as he began reading more about Marxism and Leninism. He later described Marxism as an ideology that taught him about society and the history of the class struggle without which he felt like a ‘blindfolded man in a forest.’ According to him, Cuba was turning into a ‘dictatorship of the bourgeoisie’ and agreed with Karl Marx’s view that a proletariat revolution was necessary to bring about political change. CASTRO VS BATISTA Castro met with General Fulgencio Batista during his campaign to run for Congress in the June 1952 elections. The former President had returned to politics with his own party.

In March of that year Batista carried out a military coup and seized power resulting in Carlos Prío, who took over the office after President Grau, having to flee to Mexico. Batista refused to hold elections in June and described his new system as ‘disciplined democracy.’ Corruption increased as Batista felt free to dip into the national treasury. Castro, however, saw it as a dictatorship. Slowly, Batista began to sever diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union while strengthening ties with the US. He suppressed trade unions and persecuted socialist groups within the country. It was then that Castro began to plot ways to oust this regime. In 1953, Castro planned the overthrow of US-backed military junta of President Fulgencio Batista. He planned an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba along with 150 comrades. The goal was to seize enough arms to undertake a military revolution. Despite U.S ties to Batista, the CIA covertly funded Castro’s revolutionaries. The operation failed miserably and many were jailed if not already dead. Among them was Castro whose trial was televised – a big mistake.

It gave him the platform he needed to spread his message and capture people’s attention with his stirring oratory. Castro claimed that he was the true defender of the Cuban constitution and that Batista had simply usurped power. From prison, he produced a manuscript of his words, “History will absolve me”. After being released from prison on amnesty, he renamed his group the ‘26th of July Movement’ which soon became a slogan. ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA AND THE MR-26-7 In 1955, in the midst of bombings and demonstrations, Castro and Raúl fled the country to Mexico where they befriended Ernesto Che Guevara, a Marxist-Leninist just like them who was destined to become the world’s most recognized revolutionary. Once Castro’s rebels had been trained in guerrilla warfare and the 26th of July Movement, otherwise known as MR-26-7, had gained momentum in Cuba, Castro purchased a yacht he named ‘Granma’ and set sail for Cuba to fight for the rights he believed him and his people deserved.

They were ambushed by the Cuban army which forced Castro and his men to escape to the Sierra Maestra Mountains where they hid for nearly two years and developed their political strategy and army. Across Cuba, anti-Batista groups carried out bombings to which the police responded with mass arrests, torture and executions. Castro contacted foreign media to spread his message since Cuba’s press was censored and he soon became a celebrity. Meanwhile, his guerrillas increased their attacks on military outposts, forcing the government to retreat. By 1958, Batista was under tremendous pressure by the people of the country. Batista responded to the MR-26-7 with ‘Operation Verano’; an aerial bombardment of areas suspected of aiding the militants but his army did not stand a chance against the tactics of guerrilla warfare. Many in Batista’s army switched sides including the Commander General who secretly agreed to a ceasefire with Castro, promising that Batista would be tried as a war criminal. However, Batista was warned of this and fled into exile with over US$ 3 million. The Commander General tried to seize power but Castro ended the ceasefire and ordered his arrest. Cubans looked at this as a collective victory.

CASTRO TAKES OVER As Castro rolled into Cuba, millions of people took to the street to rejoice. He proclaimed himself Representative of the Rebel Armed Forces of the Presidency. As he was giving his first speech, a few doves flew to his shoulder. The white dove, in Cuban religion, is a very significant animal. The people of Cuba saw this as a signal and saw Castro as ‘the Deliverer’ who was going to transform Cuba into a strong nation. Batista’s government had killed around 20,000 Cubans, and now popular uproar demanded that those responsible be brought to justice. Castro helped set-up many trials, resulting in hundreds of executions that were widely popular domestically but were condemned internationally, particularly by the US. Castro responding by proclaiming that “revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction”. He was acclaimed by many across Latin America and on February 16, 1959, Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba.

He didn’t want to admit to being a communist but he had a lot of Marxists in senior government and military positions including the appointment of Che Guevara as Governor of the Central Bank which forced the Air Force Commander to defect to the US. President Urrutia was worried about the influence of Marxism which angered Castro so much that he resigned as PM only to resume his position once a Marxist was sworn in as President. From that day forward, the U.S. objective was now the overthrow of Castro within one year. Castro began improving Cuba’s standard of living with emphasis on improving the education system. Health care was nationalized and infrastructure was significantly improved. He used radio and television to spread his ideologies. His next move was to redistribute land and continue on with his agrarian reform. What he didn’t realize was that the more he helped improve conditions for the lower class, the middle class began to emigrate from Cuba to the US. Since the middle class consisted of all the professionals in the workforce, this resulted in an economic brain drain in Cuba which led to many counter-revolutionaries and subsequently their arrest. This eventually led to the six-year War against the Bandits.

COLD WAR By 1960, the Cold War had begun between the capitalist liberal democracy America and the socialist state run by a Communist party, USSR. Alarmed by Castro’s revolutionary credentials and friendly relations with the Soviet Union, the U.S. governments of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy unsuccessfully attempted to remove him, by economic blockade, assassination schemes and counter-revolution. Having feared a U.S. backed coup for a while, Castro began to double the size of his armed forces. UNCLE SAM STEPS IN Then in April of 1961, Eisenhower and Kennedy carried out the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The plan was to train Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro. Classified documents show that America had hired the mafia to kill Castro days before the invasion. American forces engaged in a firefight with local revolutionary militia but were forced to surrender within three days. This plan was later dubbed ‘The Perfect Failure.’ Castro visited the exiles in jail and used his powers of persuasion to turn their views around in his favor. The U.S. did not take their failure lightly. President Kennedy encouraged his brother to carry out an ‘ongoing secret war’. This was called Operation Mongoose.

It included bombing sugar mills and factories, burning farms, weekly raids in Cuba and supplying guerrillas within the country with arms. This was an example of low intensity warfare. The CIA even went so far as to plotting to frame Castro if NASA’s mercury rocket exploded while in flight. In August 1961, Richard Goodwin, Kennedy’s advisor, flew to South America for a secret meeting with Che Guevara to broker a deal. Che promised that Cuba would cut down its military ties with the Soviet Union, stop exporting revolution and compensate U.S. companies it had expropriated in the 1960s in return for an end to U.S. involvement in Cuba. Castro had sent a pack of Kennedy’s favorite cigars as a gift. Instead of meeting Cuba halfway, Kennedy took their concessions as a sign of Castro’s weakness ad decided that this was the best time to strengthen their attack. CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS Countering these threats, Castro formed an economic and military alliance with the Soviets.

Militarily weaker than NATO, Nikita Khrushchev who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War wanted to install nuclear missiles on Cuba to which Castro agreed, believing it would guarantee Cuba’s safety and so in October of 1962, nuclear missiles rolled into the country. The U.S. blockaded Cuba and found themselves face to face with Soviet ships. What America did now know was that there were already nuclear weapons on the island. They were later discovered through aerial reconnaissance, thus sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Castro was convinced that the U.S. would launch a nuclear attack. The U.S. saw the missiles as offensive but Castro insisted they were for defense only. Castro wanted Khrushchev to threaten a nuclear strike on the U.S. in case Cuba was attacked. The world was on the brink of a nuclear war and people everywhere waited with bated breath for the crisis to unfold. However, Khrushchev had no intentions of starting a nuclear war. He knew that U.S. missiles outnumbered them and the Soviet Union had already suffered enough during World War I and II.

Soon after, Khrushchev made a secret agreement with the U.S. to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. promise not to invade Cuba and for the removal of their missiles from Turkey. Castro was unaware of this and was furious at Khrushchev. He demanded U.S. to end its embargo and stop violating Cuban air space and territorial waters. The U.S. ignored these demands. KENNEDY’S ASSASSINATION Even though the idea of assassinating Castro wasn’t dead yet, another assassination was impending; the assassination of President Kennedy. The day he was shot, his envoy was negotiating with Castro in Cuba but the meeting came to an end when word reached Cuba of Kennedy’s death. Meanwhile, a CIA officer was meeting with a spy in the Cuban military to give him a poisoned pen with which he could kill Castro. The spy was not impressed and left. CUBAN COMMUNIST PARTY Castro later visited the USSR and returned with new ideas. Soon after, his mother died and this was the last time that Castro’s personal life was in the news. In the years that followed the Cuban Communist Party was formed and Castro became its First Secretary.

He spent the next few years visiting countries like Chile, Panama, Nicaragua and other leftist countries in Europe and Africa to support their governments. In 1967, while Che was supporting revolution in Bolivia, the CIA hired an exile to kill him. He was captured and executed. PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO In 1976, Castro became President with Cuba becoming a one-party state under Communist Party rule; the first of its kind in the western hemisphere. Industry and businesses were nationalized, and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. He opposed drug use, gambling and prostitution. He wanted people to be hard working and have self-discipline, integrity and respect their family values. Castro proclaimed himself to be “a Socialist, a Marxist, and a Leninist”. He used themes of socialism and nationalism together. In the years following his presidency, he supported foreign revolutionary groups abroad in the hope of toppling world capitalism, sending Cuban troops to fight in the Yom Kippur War, Ogaden War, and the Angolan Civil War where he helped left-wing government fight South-African backed rebels. CASHLESS CUBA By the 1980s, Cuba’s economy was in trouble again.

Desperate for money, Cuba’s government secretly sold off paintings from national collections and illicitly traded for U.S. electronic goods through Panama. Many Cubans fled to Florida and this eventually led to a mass exodus of around 125,000 Cubans to the U.S via Mariel port. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became Secretary-General of the Soviet Communist Party. A reformer, he implemented measures to increase freedom of the press and economic decentralization in an attempt to strengthen socialism. Castro feared that the reforms would weaken the socialist state and allow capitalist elements to regain control. Gorbachev conceded to U.S. demands to reduce support for Cuba, with Soviet-Cuban relations deteriorating. Gorbachev told Castro that he was ending subsidies for Cuba. SPECIAL PERIOD Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba into its economic “Special Period”. This was a time period when petrol rations were dramatically reduced, Chinese bicycles were imported to replace cars, and factories performing non-essential tasks were shut down. Between 1989 and 1993, Cuban economy dropped by a third.

To recover from this, Castro brought back tourism and the U.S. dollar. Cuban Americans were allowed to remit dollars to their relatives in Cuba. In August 1994, the most serious anti-Castro demonstration in Cuban history occurred in Havana, as 200 to 300 young men began throwing stones at police, demanding that they be allowed to immigrate to Miami. Within months, more than 35,000 people left Cuba in flimsy rafts and boats, prompting a migration agreement with the United States to allow a minimum of 20,000 legal entry visas to Cubans annually. Drowning in economic problems, Castro decided to forge alliances in the Latin American Pink Tide – namely with Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela – and join the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in 2006. The alliance boosted the economy. RAÚL CASTRO TAKES OVER Castro’s health was worsening quickly from fainting spells at a public rally to smashing his left knee as he fell on the steps of Che Guevara mausoleum to sustained intestinal bleeding. As a result, he transferred his responsibilities to Vice-President Raúl Castro in 2006.

Commenting on Castro’s recovery, U.S. President George W. Bush said: “One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away”. Hearing about this, the atheist Castro ironically replied: “Now I understand why I survived Bush’s plans and the plans of other presidents who ordered my assassination: the good Lord protected me.” In 2008, Raúl formally assumed presidency but he continued to consult Fidel on matters of great importance as he described his brother as ‘no substitutable.’ Following his retirement, his health didn’t get any better but he continued to meet foreign leaders. He made a few public appearances and in 2011, he resigned from the Communist Party central committee. Raúl took his place and is currently the President of Cuba. Photos Fidel Castro led the overthrow of the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 to become the leader of the first communist nation in the Western Hemisphere. - University Historical and Philosophical studies - Marked by Teachers.com Fidel Castro led the overthrow of the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 to become the leader of the first communist nation in the Western Hemisphere. Extracts from this document...

Introduction Introduction: Fidel Castro led the overthrow of the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 to become the leader of the first communist nation in the Western Hemisphere. For several decades, Castro has defied international opposition, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and a collapsing economy to remain president of Cuba. Whether he is a romantic revolutionary or a ruthless dictator, Castro, at the height of his power in the 1960s, could "weave a spell over his masses." (Geyer) Section 1: Worldview and Political Ideology: After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Castro declared Cuba a socialist state and implemented Soviet-style economic central planning. In December 1961 Castro formally adopted Marxism-Leninism, declaring, "I am a Marxist-Leninist, and shall be one until the end of my life." Political activity was restricted to the Communist party of Cuba (PCC), which emerged out of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution. Castro gave communism total power in Cuba, and Communism gave Castro an ideology of total power. Castro remained the sole source of power, and decision-making became highly centralized and hierarchical.

Cuba is a unique Communist country because it is the only one that came into the movement form the outside, and did not develop from within; it was given a doctrine, social and economic pattern, and material assistance. Ideology is the main, actually, the only factor in determining Cuba's allies. Cuba is allied with all the communist countries in the world, and at odds with the majority of the democratic capitalist governments, in particular the United States. Castro embraces communism with a fury, and has made it his personal, and consequently the country's vital interest in spreading it to the rest of Latin America. He views himself as the pioneer of the revolutionary in Latin America, who must lead them in the 'right' socialist way. Castro tried to export his revolution by supporting communist rebels around the globe, and was considered the Soviet Unions chief ally. ...read more. Middle This intellectual insecurity effects decisions in Castro's political life. Castro mistrusts those who are more highly educated, polished, and worldly then him. This is reflected in his cabinet appointees, all of which have been intellectual inferiors.

To keep himself ahead of the game Castro reads widely and makes himself an expert on everything from military strategy to animal husbandry (Quirk 352). He lectures soldiers on military matters, schoolteachers on education, physicians on medicine, agronomists on plant cultivation, the list continues on and on. Castro's debut as a professional politician was made in the Cuban People's Party (Ortodoxos), which avidly supported the constitution of 1940. Castro gained popular support by reinforcing the primary concepts of democratic-reform movements; that is, nationalism, agrarian reform, industrialization, and social welfare, freedom of the press and speech, and massive public education. Castro ran for the House of Representatives on the Ortodoxo ticket in 1952, but before the elections, General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government of President Carlos Pr�o Socarr�s of that year. Castro, a sworn enemy of Batista, began to organize a mass movement for political and social change, and hence the Cuban revolution was started. His followers were sugar cane workers, mountain farmers, intellectuals, students, and labor organizers.

By 1953, an estimated 1,200 men and women called themselves "Fidelistas," pledging absolute loyalty to their leader. The guerillas made several unsuccessful attempts to overthrow the government, but in late 1958 the tide turned in Castro's favor. On December 31, 1958, Batista fled Cuba and Castro began the 600-mile trip to Havana, leading a parade of tanks, armored cars, buses and army trucks, taking over every army barracks. A helicopter brought Castro into Havana, where crowds shouted "Viva Fidel!" threw confetti, and waved revolutionary banners (Castro My Early Years). There is another side to the Castro coin: he is a political opportunist who has a firm will and extraordinary ambition to win and keep power. ...read more. Conclusion He had the ability to look past the hostility with Eisenhower administration, the tension with the cold war, and opposing ideologies, and was able to build a foundation of trust. This made the Bay of Pigs, even thought Fidel anticipated it, more of a stab in the back by the Americans.

On April 17, 1961 a force of some 1,300 Cuban exiles under the unofficial auspices of the United States Central Intelligence Agency launched an invasion attempt at the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on Cuba's southern coast. After the invaders were defeated and most of them taken prisoner, Castro declared triumphantly that the revolution had "destroyed ... the army organized during many months by the imperialist Government of the United States." Castro's victory over what he has called the "foreign mercenary invasion forces" enhanced his stature in his own country and at the same time drew him closer to the Communist world. Conclusion: Fidel Castro is a Marxist-Leninist whose style conforms neither to the Soviet or the Chinese model of Communism, the Cuban premier personifies the revolution that overthrow the dictator in 1959 and brought about the establishment of the first Communist bloc nation in the Western hemisphere. A lawyer who started out with liberal and democratic political convictions, Castro won the loyalty of his countermen during the long struggle that led to his rise to power. His strength as a leader has maintained the support of his country through his own personal ideological changes.

His finesse as a politician has dramatically improved the standard of living and education in Cuba. Under Castro Cuba has weathered grave international crises, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile crisis, and still holds strong. The charismatic speaker, the leader, the revolutionary, still holds the fire he did as youth. This is demonstrated through his continual efforts to expand Communism through Latin America, even without Soviet help. Castro has for the past fifty years, and continues to demonstrate his leadership abilities, by remaining in power through majority support of the people. ...read more. The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our University Degree 1950-1999 section. Found what you're looking for? Start learning 29% faster today 150,000+ documents available Cuban Revolution | Article about Cuban Revolution by The Free Dictionary Cuban Revolution | Article about Cuban Revolution by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Wikipedia . Cuban Revolution a popular, anti-imperialist, agrarian revolution that was victorious on Jan. 1, 1959, and that subsequently developed into a socialist revolution.

Breaking the chains of the imperialist yoke in Latin America, the Cuban Revolution led to the establishment of the first socialist state in the western hemisphere, thus marking a historical turning point and opening up a new stage in the revolutionary movement in that part of the world. The Cuban Revolution took place under favorable international circumstances. A new balance of power had emerged as a result of the weakening of the world capitalist system, the growth of force and power in the socialist camp, and the solidarity and aid with which the socialist countries responded to Cuba. “The Cuban Revolution became possible only because the Russian Revolution of 1917 had taken place much earlier” (F. Castro, Viva Kuba, Moscow, 1963, p. 21). The preconditions for a revolutionary outburst in Cuba included the rule of the latifundismo and the dominance of US capital, which retarded the development of the Cuban economy. Chronic unemployment, poverty, the lack of rights of the working people, and racial discrimination also stimulated the revolution.

The contradictions within Cuban society became especially acute as the result of the establishment in 1952 of the dictatorship of Batista y Zaldívar, who unleashed terror against all democratic forces and betrayed the country’s national interests. In the final analysis, the dictatorship was opposed by almost all classes and social groups in the country—industrial and farm workers, small and middle peasants, the intelligentsia, and radical strata of the urban petite bourgeoisie. At first the struggle was, to a considerable degree, spontaneous, owing to the fragmentation of the political forces opposed to the dictatorship and the tendency of bourgeois party leaders to seek agreements with Batista and to practice militant anticommunism. Moreover, at that time Communists did not have sufficient forces to lead a revolution independently. Under these conditions a group of youths led by F. Castro attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 1953. Their purpose was to capture weapons, arm the common people, and raise a revolt against the dictatorship to gain independence and sovereignty for the nation, to abolish the large estates, and to transfer the land to the peasants. The attack failed, and Castro and his comrades-in-arms were imprisoned.

Nevertheless, it had a great influence on the domestic political situation and laid the foundation for the armed struggle against the tyranny. Despite extremely harsh persecution and the necessity of working underground, the Communists led strikes, which became particularly widespread in 1955. They did a great deal of revolutionary propaganda work, calling on all forces that opposed the dictatorship to take united action. In December 1956 a group of revolutionaries brought together by Castro in Mexico, where he had emigrated after being freed from prison, landed in Cuba to continue the armed struggle against the dictatorship. Led by Castro, the group formed a partisan detachment in the Sierra Maestra. Drawing its ranks from the local population, primarily agricultural workers and peasants, the detachment gradually grew into the Rebel Army, which began to make significant attacks on government troops. This contributed to a further upswing in the revolutionary movement. During the growing struggle against Batista’s tyranny a de facto national democratic anti-imperialist front formed around the Rebel Army. It consisted of the revolutionary-democratic 26th of July Movement, which played a leading role in the coalition, the People’s Socialist Party of Cuba, and the 13th of March Revolutionary Directorate of the Students’ Federation.

Batista’s army became demoralized during the second half of 1958 and practically ceased to offer any resistance to the rebels. On Jan. 1, 1959, the Batista government collapsed. Power passed into the hands of the Provisional Government, whose members included right-wing bourgeois leaders who had attached themselves to the revolution but who were opposed to its further development. In the outlying regions, however, power was, in fact, held by the Rebel Army and its revolutionary leaders, headed by Castro. Subsequently, the government was purged of traitors to the revolution. In February 1959, Castro became head of the Revolutionary Government, and in July, O. Dorticós Torrado became president. The revolution, which had been victorious as the result of the armed struggle by the Rebel Army supported by the popular movement, destroyed the military and state machinery of Batista’s tyranny, as well as the entire semicolonial and latifundiary regime. A new revolutionary regime was established which set as its goal Cuba’s complete liberation from foreign dependence, the promulgation of agrarian reform, and other profound social changes.

The Cuban Revolution brought the proletariat to power and the toiling peasantry, who formed a close alliance. It removed from power the native bourgeois landowning oligarchy and put an end to the political and, eventually, the economic dominance of US imperialism in Cuba. The participation in the revolution of the broadest possible spectrum of the popular masses, their determination to build a new life free of poverty and oppression, and the consistency of the Cuban Revolution’s leaders in promulgating socioeconomic changes have ensured the unswerving development of the revolution, as well as its rapid transition from the national liberation stage to that of a socialist revolution. With the support of the popular masses and the comprehensive aid of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, the revolutionary regime has successfully opposed all subversive actions by the domestic counter-revolution, as well as US political, economic, and military pressure aimed at forcing the people of Cuba to turn away from the path which they have chosen. Examples of US pressure on Cuba include the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. On April 16 and again on May 1, 1961, Castro publicly proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution.

By this time the preconditions for building a socialist society had already been created in Cuba. The state had control of the economy, and there was a cultural revolution. In the process of unifying the country’s revolutionary organizations on a Marxist-Leninist basis, a single revolutionary party, the Communist Party of Cuba, was formed. By 1969 the socialist sector encompassed almost the entire national economy. The private sector survived only in agriculture, where (as of 1972), 30 percent of the cultivated land remained in the hands of peasant proprietors. The country is being industrialized, and a great deal of work is being done to raise the people’s cultural level as well as to train cadres of specialists. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Revolutionary Government, the Cuban people selflessly strive to fulfill the tasks of peaceful construction. The most important factor contributing to the successful building of socialism in Cuba and the strengthening of its international position is the comprehensive aid and support of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. REFERENCES Fidel Castro (Author of My Life) edit data Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (b.

8/13/1926) is a revolutionary & politician who was Prime Minister of Cuba (1959-76) & President (1976-2008). He also served as the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (1959-2008) & as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (1961-2011). Politically a Marxist-Leninist, under his administration the Republic of Cuba became a one-party socialist state. Industry & businesses were nationalized, & socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. Internationally, Castro was also Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement (1979-83 & 2006-08). Illegitimate son of a wealthy farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (b. 8/13/1926) is a revolutionary & politician who was Prime Minister of Cuba (1959-76) & President (1976-2008).

He also served as the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (1959-2008) & as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (1961-2011). Politically a Marxist-Leninist, under his administration the Republic of Cuba became a one-party socialist state. Industry & businesses were nationalized, & socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. Internationally, Castro was also Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement (1979-83 & 2006-08). Illegitimate son of a wealthy farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic & Colombia, he planned the overthrow of the USA-backed military junta of Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, & served a year's imprisonment in 1953 after a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks. On release he went to Mexico, where he formed a revolutionary group with his brother Raúl & friend Dr. Che Guevara, the 26th of July Movement.

Returning to Cuba, he led the revolution which ousted Batista in 1959, & brought his own assumption of military & political power. Alarmed by his revolutionary credentials & cordial relations with the USSR, the Eisenhower & Kennedy administrations unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by economic blockade, assassination & counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro formed an economic & military alliance with the Soviets, & allowed them to place nuclear weapons on the island, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. In 1961 Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of his administration, with Cuba becoming a one-party state under Communist Party rule; the first of its kind in the western hemisphere. Socialist reforms introducing central economic planning & expanding healthcare & education were accompanied by state control of the press & suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported foreign revolutionary groups in the hope of toppling world capitalism, sending Cuban troops to fight in the Yom Kippur War, Ogaden War & Angolan Civil War.

Following the USSR's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba into its economic "Special Period", before forging alliances in the Latin American Pink Tide–-namely with Hugo Chávez' Venezuela–-& joining the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in 2006. Due to failing health, in 2006 he transferred his responsibilities to Vice-President Raúl Castro, who assumed the presidency in 2008. Castro is a controversial & divisive world figure, lauded by his supporters as a champion of socialism, anti-imperialism, humanitarianism & environmentalism, viewed by his critics as a dictator who's overseen multiple human-rights abuses, an exodus of over a million Cubans & the impoverishment of the country's economy. Thru his actions & writings he's significantly influenced the politics of various individuals & groups across the world. ...more Rise of the First Communist Nation - How Communism Works | HowStuffWorks Rise of the First Communist Nation Prev Next Russia was a czarist nation when the philosophies of communism started to take hold. For centuries, Russia was ruled by a monarchy that wielded absolute power over the people: the Romanov Dynasty .

Czar Nicholas II and his wife resisted the shift toward democracy that much of the world was making. The members of Russia's lower classes had long suffered in poverty. These two factors, combined with the huge losses suffered during World War I , made the czar very unpopular. In addition, he and his family were living in luxury while their subjects struggled for basic necessities [source: First World War ]. By February 1917, the war had taken a massive toll on Russia -- both in the loss of human lives and in the form of a severe nationwide famine. When a metalworking plant closed, resulting in the loss of many jobs, strikes and protests broke out. Russia was in a state of chaos. The army was sent in to control the situation, but many of the soldiers sympathized with the workers and defected, choosing to support them instead. As many as 150,000 soldiers joined the massive protest -- which is now known as the February Revolution. Up Next 10 Weirdest Failed Constitutional Amendments The situation went downhill so fast that the military lost control completely. With virtually no support from the military, Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate his throne.

The Russian Provisional Government was set up to take his place, effectively ending the Romanov Dynasty. In July 1918, the Bolsheviks assassinated the czar and his family. In the next section, we'll learn how Vladimir Lenin orchestrated the Communist Party's uprising. After Marx: Other Communist Leaders Dictators have been the driving force behind communism, even from the very beginning. Some of the more influential communist dictators include: Vladimir Ilich Lenin: Although Marx is considered the father of communism, Lenin is the one who put his theories into practice, effectively turning Russia from a czarist nation to a communist one. Lenin ruled Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924. Joseph Stalin: As Lenin's extremely powerful successor, Stalin took communism to new heights when he governed the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1953. Mao Zedong: Mao founded the communist movement in China and ruled the country for more than 25 years until his death in 1976. Ho Chi Minh: Once a covert agent for Moscow, Ho Chi Minh is credited with spreading communism to Vietnam .

A devoted follower of Stalin, he is probably best known for his guerilla warfare tactics. Kim Il-sung: Father of North Korea's current leader, Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung worked closely with the Soviet Union and China to spread communism. North Korea has always remained very isolated from the rest of the world, often causing panic over the country's nuclear capabilities. Fidel Castro: Castro resigned as president of Cuba on Feb. 19, 2008, concluding a nearly 50-year reign. Castro and his revolutionaries overtook the country in 1959 and began a Marxist communist government. Thus, Cuba became the Western Hemisphere's inaugural communist state. Power has really been in the hands of Castro's brother Raul since 2006, when Castro's health began to wane. Raul succeeded his brother as dictator in 2008 [source: New York Times ].

Question: What became, In July 1959, the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere?
Answer: Cuba