MOSCOW. (Vitaly VOROTNIKOV in interview with RIA Novosti defense commentator Viktor LITOVKIN) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro Ruz, who marked his 80th birthday last month, has been and remains a bright political figure. He leaves neither his friends nor foes indifferent.
What kind of man is Fidel? Why has he attracted millions of supporters and followers?
Former Soviet Ambassador to Cuba (1979-1982) and Chairman of the RSFSR Council of Ministers (1983-1989) gave an interview about Fidel Castro to RIA Novosti.
Question: There are quite a few explanations of why Fidel Castro has chosen socialism for Cuba rather than capitalism. Some say that he became a zealous Communist because of the United States. Is this right?
Answer: Fidel himself has given a detailed answer to this question. A number of journalists, who know him well, have also written much about this. Fidel's development as a personality is very interesting. He was born into a peasant family. His father Angel Castro came to Cuba with Spanish troops. But they were routed and left the island. A poor peasant from Galicia, a northern province of Spain, he saved some money and returned to Cuba. He started a farm, and gradually built it up to thousands of hectares of land, becoming a latifundist. Castro's father had hundreds of hired workers. He married a beautiful, hard-working, and very religious Cuban woman. Angel was a devout Catholic himself. They had four children, and gave them a decent education, although their communication with hired workers, who lived nearby, had an influence on them.
Fidel told me: "I didn't have bourgeois habits - I had nowhere to get them from." His parents did not want to raise him and other children as peasants, but the family lived a peasant life. "We grazed cattle - cows and sheep, and tended geese. We used to mix with the poor, and I knew how they lived. Later on, Fidel went to study in Santiago de Cuba and Havana. It was at the capital university that he became politically active. The Cuban Communist Party was very weak. People treated it like "the devil with horns." He could not have Communist views, and was not ready for them.
Q: He didn't accept communist ideas?
A: No he didn't - not at that time. This is how he described his own attitude to communism: "Studying Marx, Lenin, and other socialist and communist leaders, I started thinking that it would be difficult to apply to Cuba what these admittedly progressive figures were trying to do in defense of popular interests." When Fidel graduated from the university, he already had a plan of armed struggle. He believed that his compatriots were ready to oust the corrupt Batista government, that it would be very easy to topple it, and create good living conditions for the people.
You know the rest. The assault on the Moncada Barracks ended in tragedy. Fidel and his friends were tried, and put into prison. But Castro is a brilliant lawyer. He knew law inside out and managed to win public opinion and build his defense in such a way that they were set free in two years. They left for Mexico, from where 81 people, led by Fidel, reached Cuba on a small yacht, the Granma, in 1956. The war broke out, and ended in a coup d'etat.
The Americans did not have a clue as to what road Fidel might choose. Having become Prime Minister, he launched anti-capitalist policy - nationalized banks and industry, gave every peasant family from 60 to 70 hectares of land, and carried out revolutionary reforms in education.
As a result, his relations with Washington deteriorated.
Q: They say he dispossessed his own family...
A: It would be wrong to say so. His family gave its land to the peasants who worked on it. His father was no longer alive by that time, and his mother did not have any objections. She was a deeply religious woman, and saw how unjust life in Cuba was. She understood that something had to be changed but was adamantly against the communists. Only in the last years of her life did she finally believe that if her sons supported the communists, they would not do any harm to Cuba.
Eventually, Fidel wanted to tell the nation where it was moving, and what goals were ahead. He had to explain his intentions to the people. But there was no radio or television, and all he could do was to meet with the people. I am not going into great detail here, because all this has been described more than once. Many ask why Fidel makes such long speeches. He does it in order to explain to semiliterate people what is being done on Cuba and how, what the government wants to achieve, and how it is fighting American expansion and the economic blockade.
Q: Did Fidel make friends with the Soviet Union when he was seeking protection from the U.S.?
A: Needless to say, the Americans provoked and accelerated this process. If it had not been for their impudent aggression in Playa Heron, which ended in total defeat, our relations might not have developed so fast. Washington still perceives Cuba and Fidel as its enemy.
Q: Did the U.S. landing in the Bay of Pigs, when Fidel appealed to the U.S.S.R. for help, become a turning point in our relations?
A: Not really. Cuba's contacts with the Soviet Union started somewhat earlier. Teams of young volunteers came to Cuba for the safra season -- to help harvest the sugar cane. They told Cubans about life in the U.S.S.R. Relations grew stronger, and eventually we built a military bridgehead there. When the Americans found out how far we had gone, they decided to take action before it became too late. They told the Soviets that they would impose a full blockade on Cuba if the Soviets did not withdraw their missiles. The Cuban crisis broke out, and Nikita Khrushchev made a decision to withdraw the missiles. But Fidel did not know about it.
Q: You mean the decision to withdraw the missiles?
A: Yes. It was a unilateral decision. Fidel did not object to it, but he was furious that he hadn't even been told, that he had been ignored as some satellite, and put into a humiliating position... This was a heavy blow to Soviet-Cuban relations. Cooperation still continued in some fields. Our advisors at some Cuban plants were trying to help. But Fidel turned for support to China and North Korea. True, he realized before long that any contacts with Pyongyang made little sense because North Korea had a completely different system. Fidel focused his attention on relations with China, but at that time cooperation did not prove to be as effective as he hoped.
His meeting with Alexei Kosygin in 1972 provided a fresh impetus for new relations with the U.S.S.R. There was a program for developing different industries, and more qualified advisors were chosen for each branch, defense included. They were helping Cuba to do what it wanted rather than act on instructions from Moscow.
Q: Aren't Cuba's current serious economic difficulties, its food rationing system, a consequence of this "aid"? Or have they been caused by the U.S. blockade or the attitude of new Russia, which has left Cuba to its fate? Was Russia unable to continue the relations which the U.S.S.R. had with Cuba?
A: There is a grain of truth in this. The main reason is probably that Boris Yeltsin simply ditched it without any ceremonies. This was very rude. On his instruction, everything was brought back to Russia in a matter of days - consultants, advisers, and equipment. In effect, he severed all contractual relations with Cuba.
Q: Why did he do this?
A: He saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate his ambitions of the leader of a country which had opted for capitalism and acted strictly on the advice of U.S. instructors. In the early 1990s, there were crowds of them in the Kremlin and in Russia in general. He had them in every ministry, every industry, and close to himself. This was not the only thing he did. He took many actions in order to win favor with the West, primarily, the United States. He said: "I flew over the Statue of Liberty twice when I was in America, and forgot all about socialism and communism at once. I realized that this was a country we should learn from. It is free and independent, and life there is luxurious." Yeltsin lived a luxurious life anyway, drinking and eating as much as he wished. He did not worry about the country, actions by his advisors or other members of his entourage.
Putin has gradually cleared the mess, but by that time it had already affected our relations with Cuba. Cooperation with Russia accounted for 80% of its economy, and when it was disrupted, Cuba headed for disaster. However, it was during Gorbachev's reforms and perestroika that Fidel realized that Cuba had gone too far along the Soviet road. He decided to move away from what was seen as a dogmatic political platform.
In the early stages of perestroika we did not plan to give up the socialist system. We were trying to transform it, and create the impetus for productive labor. We wanted to have competition and different forms of ownership, but keep the main structures under government control. I mean the Army, the main industries - oil, coal and other raw materials, metallurgy and energy production. Other spheres, such as services, the food and light industry would be gradually transferred into private hands, and develop in a competitive environment.
Fidel started working on this. He began establishing contacts with other countries, including capitalist ones, and setting up joint ventures. He decided to take this road when I was still there, and we discussed it. He wanted to invite the Canadians and Japanese to work at plants in the processing, chemical and mineral fertilizer industries. I replied that it was worth trying but without losing state control over them. He agreed: "Of course, we won't survive without it." They began to attract investment, and establish joint ventures, which should hopefully give a boost to the economy, improve working conditions, bring in new technologies, and result in higher wages. When people earn more, they can spend more and encourage the development of consumer industries.
Q: Why did Cuba fail?
A: Cuba did not fail, and this is why it survived. Some theorists and economists predicted complete bankruptcy for it. Fidel's decision to cooperate with some capitalist countries and give up certain political slogans was of great help to Cuba.
Q: Did he give up the leading role of the communist party?
A: No, this role is immutable in Cuban society. The main changes took place in the economy. It was re-oriented in favor of tourism. Together with Spanish, Italian, and other specialists, they built top-notch hotels providing excellent services along the wonderful coasts of Cuba. They had golf courses, casinos - everything one could think of. Cuba's tourist mecca is Varadero. It is closed to the public at large, and is totally crime-free. Tourist business became more and more profitable. Eventually, it contributed more to the GDP than any other industry, leaving behind even sugar cane production.
Then they decided to promote contacts with other countries in high tech and raw materials industries. They started cooperation with Canada in the nickel industry. Although Russian specialists had worked there quite well before, and had done a great deal, the Canadians brought with them more modern technologies, and the Cubans doubled or tripled their nickel production.
(the continuation of the interview will be posted soon)
