And the Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba : A Personal Portrait

By Néstor T. Carbonell

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688072135
• ISBN13: 9780688072131
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The Sad Account of A Cuba that remains to this day without her Freedom.

One day La Patria will be free.. This book exposes the regime from the start, how a psychopath like fidel took advantage of a situation, and how he was and is a utter failure. People who think Batista was as bad, fidel is worst, Sadly Cuba went from one Dictatorship with some trouble to Another Dictatorship more vicious with a true tyrant.

highly informative

I recently finished this higly informative book. I did not realize how deeply involved the Soviets were in the takeover and subsequent militarization of Cuba. The work is written with the passion of a man personally involved who deeply loves his country. It would be good to see a follow-up analysis in the years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Why does the regime seem to be able to hang on? What effect did the visit of Pope John Paul II have on the island? I recommend this book to be read along with "Against All Hope" by Armando Valladares.

Non-indigenous nature of the communist takeover of Cuba

Carbonell, Nestor T. 1989 And the Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba: A Personal Portrait. William Morrow & Co; New York ISBN-10 0688072135 ISBN-13: 978-0688072131 The strength of this history is its attention to detail and its rejection of academic theories which erroneously postulate an indigenous nature of the communist takeover of Cuba. One notes that such academic theories are generally proposed by non-Cuban scholars who with some reprehensible frequency accept the official Cuban government history of this matter in exchange for edited access to archives in Cuba. The balancing and correcting factor and the strength of this work is the author's personal experience in Cuba, and his deep knowledge of the Cuban condition. For instance, this is one of the few books that document the role of Fabio Grobart, the Stalinist éminence gris, and his machinations that guided Fidel Castro in his take over of Cuba. This diminishes Castro from a genius of evil to the role of a "chosen one;" however, to do otherwise as so many other authors do is to give this now dying leader improbable superhuman qualities and uncanny prescience. One quibble is the characterization of the Güajiro, the proud independent Cuban country folk, as peasants, when in reality their willingness to do battle and their skill in war makes them far more akin to English Yeoman than to downtrodden country laborers; and thus making this culture far more important than is generally viewed in the military history of Cuba.

cm_garcia@msn.com

I enjoyed this book as much as a Tom Clancy novel or a JFK conspiracy story. I couldn't put it down. It revealed interesting details regarding Castro's regime and events surrounding the revolution, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the Cuban missle crisis. The author discusses facts about Cuba that you never hear about (outside of Miami's Cuban community). I think it could make a great movie.