By Petr Akopov, columnist in RIA Novosti, Nov 24, 2022
(Original in Russian is here, published on November 24. The English text here below is translated by A Socialist In Canada.)
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has flown from Moscow to Beijing following his three-day state visit. His visit to Russia and now on to China comes one month after the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the most intense moment of the Cold War, during which the US and the USSR were closer than ever to nuclear conflict.
Western commentators like to compare the current times with October 1962, although the situation today is fundamentally different: no one in Moscow and Washington today seriously plans to use nuclear weapons. But for Cuba, over all these decades since, the main thing has not changed – the enmity on the part of the United States remains, while a Castro is still helping to lead Cuba. It’s not Fidel, but his younger brother Raul. He one of the leaders of the 1959 revolution and even now, without holding any government posts, he helps determine the strategic issues of life and politics of the island.
Fidel was the leader of a small country. Cuba is a lesser-income and less developed countries of the world, according to the main indicators. But from the 1960s to the 1980s, it was very influential. In those years, it was Cuba that stood at the forefront of the global anti-imperialist movement – not the big USSR and China, but a small, proud island.
Cuba’s influence was not limited to Latin America. Its influence stretched all the way to the Middle East and Africa. And this was not just an ideological influence; it was also a military influence. Cubans fought in Angola and Ethiopia during the 1980s. [Before that, they provided little known military assistance to Vietnam.]
It’s clear that Cuba received resources for such an active foreign policy by virtue of its participation in the world socialist camp, above all from its economic ties with our country. But the choice of strategy on the world stage was determined by the Castro brothers and Cuba’s leadership team as a whole – by their revolutionary spirit in their confrontation with the United States, and their faith in the victory of socialism on a global scale.
The collapse of the USSR hit Cuba in the strongest way. During the 1990s, the economy and living standards fell sharply as ties and trade with Russia collapsed. But following that, Cuba had an ally in the form of neighboring Venezuela which helped solve its crisis over oil supply. Thi, in turn, allowed Cuba to maintain the socialist system. Yes, the Cuban authorities gradually reformed social relations and the economy – foreign capitalist investment came in, small private businesses were allowed – but in general, Cuba remains a kind of “reserve of socialism”. Of course, this is not a socialism of the North Korean type; it’s also quite far from China or Vietnam, where they also build socialism but in a mixed economy model.
Cuba is a poor but proud country that is of great importance to Russia. That’s not only due to its direct confrontation with the United States (to be clear, it would make no sense for Russia to deploy missiles there today but also due to its economy. Our companies have a lot of projects on the island. Chinese companies as well as a few from Canada and France are also investing. The projects are truly mutually beneficial. The tourist opportunities of Cuba are also huge. This is not a small matter for our citizens, now cut off from European resorts for the coming years, at least.
But the main significance of Cuba is that we have a lot to learn from it. It is impossible for Russia to become a ‘second Cuba’ or a ‘second Iran’. Russia cannot reproduce foreign models at all – neither American or German, nor Chinese or Japanese. The understanding of this fact in itself is the most important lesson learned by us after the insane collapse of the USSR and the rejection of the socialist way of life. We need our own model, based on our own experience but also taking into account the experience of other countries and civilizations.
The Cuban experience is interesting, and not for its economic results. These are more than modest. It is Cuba’s persistence in defending its independence that is the most interesting. This doesn’t mean that Russia should turn into a besieged fortress. Cuba was never such a country anyway – it had lots of friends around the world even in the most difficult years of the 1990s. And it doesn’t mean that Russia should embark on building socialism – we have already turned this page in our history. Nor does this mean that we need to encourage our citizens to make many years of heavy sacrifices in the name of freedom and independence – the weight and resources of Russia are incomparable greater than those of Cuba.
But we need to believe in our own ideals and the ability to stand against a strong opponent, just like the Cubans believed. Yes, there were many who disagreed with Fidel Castro. They disagreed with socialism and with standing up to the enmity from the United States. But it was the Americans who imposed hardships with their blockade of Cuba. They did so purely for imperialist reasons. They didn’t like the fact that some ragtag socialists had come to power in their backyard and not only decided to get rid of the American masters but also made friends with the Americans’ main geopolitical opponent – those Russian communists. The Americans wanted to strangle Cuba, but they couldn’t do it during the 1960s and they couldn’t even do it during the 1990s when Cuba was left without the support of Moscow. Castro challenged America, and to this day Cuba still challenges it.
Russia is challenging the entire West. It wants not only to survive but also to build a new world order based on ‘multipolarity’. Naturally, Russia is not alone. It is not counting anymore on the “world revolution of the proletariat” (as the Soviet leaders thought 100 years ago). But it is using the energy of the global transformation of the world order already well underway, amidst the crisis of the Western and Atlantic models of globalization.
The fight over Ukraine is only the first part of our battle. For success, we must believe in ourselves and our strength, in our victory. This applies not just in Ukraine, where we understand that we are seeking to return to a lost unity and are refusing to allow a temporary split to become permanent. It also applies to the world stage. We must be convinced that we will stand on the world stage because the objective course of world history is moving in our favour. We must be sure to defend our ideals, even those still not fully understood by our elite and still being formulated after decades of thoughtless consumerism.
Moreover, to defend our ideals on the world stage and at home, we must construct a social system to meet our national codes and ideals of justice. Internal and external struggle are inseparable from each other: it is impossible to win on the world stage without believing in that.
Fidel Castro believed in what he fought for. Speaking at the unveiling of the monument to him in Moscow on November 22, Vladimir Putin explained that the Commandante “dedicated his entire life to the selfless struggle for the triumph of the ideas of goodness, peace and justice, for the freedom of the oppressed peoples, for a decent life for ordinary people and social equality.” Speaking about relations between Cuba and Russia, the president said that we “will continue to jointly defend the great values of freedom, equality and justice.”
Not just Vladimir Putin but all of us in Russia need to really believe in the ability to defend our right to an independent, just, united Russia in a new world devoid of Western hegemony. Such confidence in one’s ideals and strengths is the main example that Fidel Castro leaves for us.
