Biography and episodes of life Fidel Castro. When born and died Fidel Castro, memorable places and dates of important events of his life. Quotes from a revolutionary and political figure, Photo and video.

Years of Fidel Castro's life:

born August 13, 1926, died November 25, 2016

Epitaph

“It seems to me that a person should not live after he begins to notice that the years are becoming stronger than him, and the flame bursting from the heart becomes trembling and weak.”
Fidel Castro

Biography

The charismatic Cuban leader Fidel Castro was one of the most famous revolutionaries in recent history. His constant cigars and beard, military caps and berets became in their own way a symbol of the Island of Freedom. And it’s not surprising: Castro was in power for almost half a century, and in the eyes of the whole world, the concepts of “Cuba” and “Fidel” became almost identical.

Meanwhile, the famous rebel did not come from the bottom. His father was a large Cuban landowner, and the young man received a good education, first at an elite college and then at the capital’s university. It was there that Fidel, imbued with leftist views, became interested in politics. The ardent disposition of the future leader greatly contributed to this: everyone who knew Castro throughout his life noted his ardor, courage and active character.

Castro had only graduated from university a couple of years ago when, as a result of a military coup, Fulgencio Batista, who had close ties to the United States, came to power in Cuba. Like many of his compatriots, the young Fidel was outraged by the victory of a regime he considered illegitimate. Together with like-minded people, he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Moncada military barracks, which resulted in Castro’s arrest and prison sentence.

In a political sense, the figure of Castro was associated not only with the revolutionary movement, but also with the subsequent many years of confrontation with the United States. America could not possibly approve of the victorious socialist regime in a country located literally nearby. On the other hand, such a balance of power naturally led to a rapprochement between Cuba and the USSR: in the eyes of many ordinary Soviet people, Fidel Castro was a hero.

Castro's reign in Cuba was one of the longest in the history of world states. Vigorous energy and love of life supported the spirit of the Cuban leader for many decades: Fidel Castro voluntarily abandoned the post of head of the country in favor of his younger brother Raul only at the age of 81. There were many rumors about the deterioration of his health in the last years of his life, but they were most often refuted by Fidel himself or those who communicated with him.

Fidel Castro passed away at the age of 90 (the official cause of death was not disclosed). In connection with his death, nine days of national mourning were declared in Cuba.

Life line

August 13, 1926 Date of birth of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz.
1941 Admission to a Jesuit college.
1945 Graduating from college and entering the University of Havana.
1950 Obtaining a bachelor's and doctorate in civil law, starting legal practice.
1953 Participation in the unsuccessful assault on the Moncada barracks, as a result of which Fidel Castro was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
1955 Release under amnesty and emigration to Mexico, where Fidel Castro, together with his brother Raul and Ernesto Che Guevara, organized the revolutionary July 26 Movement.
1956 Return to Cuba to overthrow the regime of Fulgencio Batista. The beginning of guerrilla warfare and the formation of the Rebel Army under the command of Fidel Castro.
1959 Batista's overthrow. Fidel Castro becomes Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Cuba.
1962“Cuban crisis”, worsening relations between Cuba and the United States.
1963 Fidel Castro receives the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and an honorary Doctor of Law from Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov.
1961-2011 Fidel Castro holds the post of first secretary of the Central Administration of the Communist Party of Cuba.
1976-2008 Fidel Castro holds the post of Chairman of the Council of State of Cuba.
2009 Fidel Castro receives the title of honorary doctor of the Russian Trade and Economic University.
November 25, 2016 Date of death of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz.
December 4, 2016 Funeral of Fidel Castro in Santiago de Cuba.

Memorable places

1. The village of Biran (Oriente province), where Fidel Castro was born.
2. University of Havana, where Fidel Castro studied at the Faculty of Law.
3. The former Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba (now a museum), in which the Castro brothers took part in the armed assault.
4. The former Presidio Modelo prison (now a museum), where Castro spent 22 months in prison.
5. New York, where at a meeting of the UN General Assembly in 1960, Fidel Castro made his famous speech, the longest in the history of the organization (4.5 hours).
6. Murmansk, where Fidel Castro’s visit to the USSR began in 1963.

Episodes of life

Fidel Castro took a personal and active part in the armed operations he planned. His comrades were forced to specifically ask him not to go on the attack himself and not to expose his life to excessive danger.

Initially, Castro did not express overtly socialist sentiments. Only a year and a half after the victory of the revolution, he officially declared its socialist character.

Fidel Castro's life was constantly in danger: the Cuban leader entered the Guinness Book of Records for the number of assassination attempts planned on him - more than 600.

Documentary film "638 ways to kill Castro"

Testaments

“What we did was to teach us that nothing is impossible. After all, what seemed impossible yesterday has become possible today. And therefore nothing will seem impossible to us tomorrow.”

“The reality of the world seems to have been designed to promote selfishness, individualism and the dehumanization of man.”

“The most advanced weapons that fill the arsenals of rich and prosperous nations can easily destroy the uneducated, the sick, the poor and the hungry. But it cannot eliminate ignorance, disease, poverty and hunger.”

“I have never seen any contradiction between the ideas by which I live and the ideas by which Jesus lived.”

“Feelings are more important than knowledge.”

Condolences

“The name of this outstanding statesman is rightfully considered a symbol of an entire era in modern world history.”
Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation

“Fidel Castro lived a great life, full of events and challenges. He was not just a politician and leader. First of all, he was a bright person, a leader. Friendly and allied relations between our country and Cuba were built thanks to his personal participation.”
Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

“For our generation, Fidel is not just a foreign statesman. It seems that he was always with us - when we were children, when we went to school, when we studied at universities, got married, raised our children, worked. We had successive secretaries general and presidents, but Fidel remained.”
Vladimir Medinsky, Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation

He was idolized and hated, extolled and despised. The life path of Fidel Castro can hardly be called unambiguous. And, sometimes, in this turmoil, it is extremely difficult to distinguish truth from lies. However, difficult does not mean impossible. And the life path of Fidel Castro is a vivid example of the correctness of these words.

The Early Years of Fidel Castro

After graduating from college, Fidel decides to continue his studies and goes to Havana, where he enters the law faculty of the local university. Having received a law degree, in 1950 the future politician opened a private practice, but the revolutionary sentiments in the soul of Fidel Castro still turned out to be stronger.

Together with other figures of the Party of the Cuban People, of which he became a member while still studying at the university, he often participates in various political actions, and in 1953 he took part in an adventurous attack on one of the largest garrisons of the then head of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista. .

Such an enterprise turns out to be unsuccessful. A significant part of the conspirators die. The rest receive long prison sentences. Among them is Fidel Castro himself, who receives fifteen years in prison for his participation in the rebellion. However, he will only stay behind bars for two years: in 1955, under public pressure, Batista decides to release the conspirators, and Fidel Castro, among others, will be deported to Mexico.

Cuban Revolution

The guerrilla movement initiated by Castro and Che Guevara would soon gain strength, and already in 1959 rebel troops would capture Havana. Some time later, the Batista regime will be overthrown, and one dictator will be replaced by another. Fidel Castro became the commander-in-chief of the Cuban forces, as well as the head of the country's government. In the first years after the revolution, the United States of America provided active assistance to the new head. But soon relations between the states went wrong. Cuba has set a course towards building socialism. On this basis, all large and medium-sized landowners lost their lands, the property of private companies was nationalized, and Cubans began to leave the country en masse.

However, this was just the beginning. In 1962, based on a preliminary agreement with Moscow, Cuba deployed Soviet ballistic missiles on its territory. In response, the United States is putting its own army on high alert. The whole world is frozen on the brink of nuclear war. The collision is avoided, but after this moment Cuba was never the same. In 1965, Fidel Castro declared himself the first secretary of the Central Committee of Cuba.

Fidel Castro: politician

Problematic moments in the life of Cuba become even more obvious when a political crisis begins in the USSR. Since the mid-80s, the Soviet Union has stopped providing economic assistance to Cuba, and the country's economy has gone into a steep decline. The once developed state is becoming one of the poorest in the region.

Fidel Castro becomes the target of countless assassination attempts, but still remains at the head of the country. Rumors about the death of the dictator appear in the press with varying frequency. The latest reports of this kind began to appear in the media in 2012. However, according to official information, the leader of Cuba is still alive. Due to poor health in 2006, Fidel Castro stepped down from power and handed over the reins of power to his younger brother, Raul Castro.

Fidel Castro: the man

Fidel's first wife was the charming blonde (which is a huge rarity for Cuba) Mirta Diaz Ballart. It is quite remarkable that her father was a prominent minister in the Batista government. However, despite all the obstacles, in 1948 the lovers got married and went on a honeymoon to... the USA. The honeymoon was paid for by the parents of the newlyweds.

Fidel Castro. Outstanding Leader

Soon, the politician’s first son, Fidelito, was born (in the future he will head the Cuban Ministry of Nuclear Energy). Fidel's marriage to Mirta Diaz proceeded decorously and peacefully. But their love will be broken by Fidel’s other passion - the passion for political revolution.

In the fifties, when Fidel was in full swing preparing a revolutionary coup, the two spouses began to move away from each other. Soon another woman will appear in Castro's life - Nati Revuelta, the wife of a Havana doctor and an active supporter of the revolution. Some time later, the couple will have a daughter, Alina. Fidel Castro officially recognizes her only 20 years later, but after his daughter escapes to the United States, he will forbid even mentioning her name in his presence. Alina’s memories will allow us to claim that Fidel Castro has at least five more children born from his common-law wife Deliv Soto. It is quite remarkable that all their names begin with the letter “A” - Antonio, Alex, Alexander, Angelita, Alejandro.

How Moscow greeted Fidel in 1963

The Comandante's last wife was his secretary Celia Sanchos. She helped Fidel in all matters, but later her fate was tragic. In 1985, she committed suicide.

Death of Fidel Castro

Since then, rumors about the death of the Cuban leader appeared in the press regularly, but Fidel invariably denied them when appearing in public. The VII Congress of the Cuban Communist Party was not complete without his presence, and celebrations of his 90th birthday in August 2016 were held on a grand scale.

Fidel Castro is a world-famous commandant and permanent Cuban leader who ruled Cuba for more than half a century. There are many legends about his activities and life, which often contradict each other. It is difficult to give a definite description of the “great and terrible” political figure, since one part of the world community considers him a people’s ruler, and the other – the most brutal dictator of humanity.

The biography of Fidel Castro is full of various events, he survived more than 600 attempts on his life, became the leader of the Cuban revolution and was the most terrible enemy of the United States, who entered into a nuclear and economic alliance with the USSR.

Childhood and youth

Fidel Castro's return to his homeland was fateful both for him and for the entire Cuban people - he and the rebel army were able to capture Havana and overthrow the Batista regime, which allowed him to first become the commander-in-chief of the Cuban troops, and later take the post of prime minister of the country.

Chairman of the State Council of Cuba

For almost 20 years as head of the government of Cuba, Fidel Castro completely transformed the state - the country in a very short time came to prosperity and experienced an unprecedented economic recovery. The new head of Cuba took special care of the social sphere, making medicine free for the population and increasing the level of education to 98%. At the same time, the nationalization of private companies was carried out and a “friendship” with the USSR began.

In 1962, Soviet nuclear missiles were stationed on the island, worsening relations between the United States and Cuba. Hostility with the West provoked the Cuban missile crisis on the island, due to which many of Castro's associates fled the country and took the side of the Americans. Despite this, the Cuban leader continued to act towards the overthrow of world capitalism, supporting foreign revolutionary movements in Angola, Afghanistan, South Yemen, Ethiopia, Syria, Algeria, Nicaragua, Libya and other third world countries.

Economic growth and stability in Cuba stopped in the early 1980s when the USSR stopped providing financial support to the country. This led to an economic crisis that made Cuba the poorest country in the world. Against this background, people began to try by any means to leave their homeland and move to the United States, and in Cuba, oppositionists began to organize a movement to overthrow the Castro regime.

In 2006, for health reasons, the Cuban leader was forced to transfer powers to his brother Raul, who in 2008 became the rightful ruler of Cuba, since Fidel Castro was physically no longer able to govern the country and lead the Cuban army.

Assassinations and health

The attempts on Fidel Castro's life are the most widely discussed chapter of his biography. There is information that during the reign of Cuba and cooperation with the USSR, the American CIA made about 600 attempts to destroy the Cuban leader. All of them, for unknown reasons, were canceled at the last moment and completely stopped by the island’s special agents. They tried to kill Castro while spearfishing, shoot him with a miniature pistol built into a reporter's camera, and poison him with a deadly poison that was soaked in Castro's cigars.

In 2006, Fidel Castro's health deteriorated significantly and fell into the category of state secret of the peninsula. Despite this, some of the Cuban leader’s illnesses became public knowledge and were made public after the declassification of one of the American CIA reports.

It is known that since 1998, Castro began to suffer from Parkinson's disease, which made him a paranoid jealous of all the people's favorites. Also, a local doctor who fled from Cuba said that the politician had rectal cancer and was operated on because of a cerebral hemorrhage back in 1989. Against the backdrop of such data, the famous Cuban commandant was “buried” several times in the media, but he always suddenly appeared in public and denied widespread rumors about his death.

In 2014, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Fidel Castro. After a meeting with the Cuban leader, the Russian Foreign Minister said that he is certainly weak, but his eyes are burning with life and readiness for new revolutionary achievements.

Personal life

The personal life of Fidel Castro, like his health, is a closed and secret topic in society. It is known that in his life there were three truly beloved women who bore him seven children, of which only one son is legitimate. Fidel Castro's first wife, Mirta Diaz Balart, was the daughter of Cuban government minister Batista. She gave birth to the Cuban leader's only official heir, Fidelito, who was at one time married to a Russian woman.

Fidel Castro's second wife was the legendary Havana beauty of the 50s, Nati Revuelta, who gave birth to his daughter Alina. The daughter of the Cuban leader fled from Cuba to the United States in her youth using a fake Spanish passport. According to Alina’s recollections, in addition to Castro, he has at least five more children, whom his beloved woman named Deliv Soto gave birth to. The third wife of the Cuban revolutionary, Celia Sanchez, was Castro's assistant for many years, but in 1985 she committed suicide.

Death

Fidel Castro's fortune as of 2005 reached $550 million, and a year later it increased to almost a billion. In this regard, according to Forbes magazine, he became one of the richest people on the planet. At the same time, the Cuban ruler himself denies his income from state-owned enterprises, but is very fond of luxury, as evidenced by his numerous yachts, residences and thousands of security guards. The extravagant politician does not indulge his children with special attention - he only provided them with food rations and security.

At 22.29 on November 25, 2016 (06.29 Moscow time on November 26), Fidel Castro died. The Cuban revolutionary passed away after a long illness. After his death, Fidel Castro's body was cremated, according to his will.

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro - head of the Republic of Cuba from 1959 to 2008. Revolutionary.
Biography of Fidel Castro: early years
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926 in the city of Biran (Cuba). His father was the owner of a sugar plantation. Since 1941, Castro studied at college: according to the recollections of his teachers, Fidel from childhood was distinguished by great ambitions and determination. In 1945, the future revolutionary entered the law faculty of the University of Havana. Having received his diploma in 1950, he decided to open a private practice, but revolutionary sentiments turned out to be stronger: while still a student, he was a member of the Party of the Cuban People, and in 1953 he took part in an attack on one of the largest garrisons of the Cuban dictator Batista. This enterprise was defeated, many of its participants were killed, and Fidel Castro himself went to prison. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, but was released in 1955 due to public pressure. Castro went to Mexico, and a year later returned to his homeland as part of a group of rebels, which included Ernesto Guevara. This return played a huge role not only in the biography of Castro himself, but also in the fate of Cuba: the partisan movement he initiated quickly gained strength. At the beginning of 1959, Castro's associates managed to conquer the capital of Cuba, Havana. A new stage in the life of the country has begun: Castro becomes both the commander-in-chief and the head of the government of Cuba.
At first, the United States provided assistance to the Cuban revolutionary, but over time, relations between the countries became increasingly tense. The Americans were dissatisfied with both Castro’s rapid rapprochement with the Soviet Union and the agrarian reform he adopted: all large plots of land should have been taken from the owners and, having been divided, given to the peasants. In 1961, Castro declared that Cuba was on the path to socialism. By 1965, Castro's party became communist, and he himself became the first secretary of the Central Committee.
Castro's biography includes dozens of assassination attempts (hundreds, according to the Cubans themselves), and one of the first took place back in 1961, when they tried to poison him. Exploding cigars, a tuberculosis bacillus in scuba gear, capsules with poison, a poisoned ballpoint pen, dynamite under the podium for speeches - the imagination of his ill-wishers was truly limitless, but fate protected the Cuban leader, and the attempts for various reasons were unsuccessful each time.
One of the most tense moments in Castro’s biography was 1962. In the fall, United States intelligence officers discovered ballistic missiles belonging to the USSR on the island. A few days later, an American plane would be shot down in the skies over Cuba, and the planet would be on the brink of nuclear disaster. Fortunately, during negotiations between the leaders of the USSR and the USA, an agreement was reached: it was decided to remove the missiles from Cuba, and the Americans in response abandoned their intention to invade Cuba.
Biography of Fidel Castro: mature years
The years of Castro's rule were in many ways Cuba's heyday: the country had free health care, education, a literacy rate of more than 90 percent, and an unusually low infant mortality rate. However, during the Cold War, the Cuban economy was extremely dependent on supplies from the USSR. After the collapse of the Union, Cuba experienced a serious economic downturn, and even the most necessary goods became scarce. As a result, Fidel Castro had to take previously unimaginable measures: investments from abroad became possible, and foreign currency appeared in Cuba. And since 2000, supplies of medicines and food from America even began.
Castro has also been repeatedly accused of violating human rights in Cuba and suppressing opposition forces. In addition, in 1962, Fidel Castro was excommunicated by the Pope, and only in the mid-90s did relations between Cuba and the Roman Catholic Church warm up somewhat.
Castro's biography includes several false reports of death. Thus, the death of the Cuban dictator was announced in 1985, 1994, and 2007. In recent years, his health has deteriorated somewhat. According to press reports, Castro suffers from cancer, Parkinson's disease, and suffered a stroke. How true this information can be considered is unknown, since since 2006 any information about the health of the Cuban leader has been considered a state secret in the country. However, since 2008, Castro was replaced as head of state by his brother Raul.
According to reputable financial magazines, Fidel Castro is among the richest people on the planet, although he himself categorically denies this fact.
Fidel Castro has been awarded many state and international awards. Castro is a Hero of the Soviet Union, twice awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, 1st degree, and the Gold Star medal. Castro’s biography also includes the unofficial but honorable title of the best speaker of our time: Castro’s fiery speeches can last for several hours in a row. Castro has five sons and two daughters.

Look all portraits

© Biography of Castro. Biography of the President of Cuba. Historical portrait of Castro. Psychological portrait of Castro

Everything happened as predicted by the old witch from the village of Victorino, lost in the very heart of the island - in the spurs of the Sierra Maestra ridge. Fidel no longer remembered her face or her name, and only in his dreams did he hear her senile, rattling voice:

I see that death will forget about the young caballero... When a black man becomes the ruler of the world, when the Old World is under the rule of women, when Rome is ruled by a Latin American, only then will the caballero go to the valley of the shadow of death...

Fidel's friends believed that the witch told him immortality. Where have you seen arrogant gringos ruled by blacks?!

But Fidel himself only chuckled contentedly: rumors about the immortality of the leader of the frantic “Barbudos” benefited the cause of the revolution, instilling terror in the hearts of enemies.

He truly seemed immortal, having survived several hundred attempts on his life - more than any other earthly ruler. He was hunted by CIA agents and Green Berets from American special forces, mercenaries of drug cartels, the Italian Cosa Nostra and the Cuban mafia, but none of the killers could cause Castro any physical or moral harm.

And only very recently Fidel Castro realized that the prophecy of the old witch, whose bones had long since turned to dust, began to come true. And from then on he could only humbly wait in the wings.

Golden Boy

Fidel Alexandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926 in the most luxurious palace on the island - the Miranda estate near the town of Biran, in the province of Oriente. Even then, his father Angel Castro Arjiz was considered one of the richest landowners in Cuba and the most successful businessman.

Angel was born in Spain in the poor village of Lankara, and it seemed that the most ordinary fate of a peasant farmhand awaited him. But in 1898, the American-Spanish War began, and Angel was drafted into the army and sent to Cuba. After the war, Angel decided to stay on the island.

At first he worked as a night watchman in the mines, then as a worker at a sugar factory, and after saving some money, he opened his own small diner. At the age of 25, Angel bought his first 100 acres - a small plot of virgin land covered with forests. Having cut down the trees, Castro planted sugar cane there, and a few years later he expanded his holdings to 9,500 hectares, becoming the owner of his sugar factory in the town of Biran.

Getting back on his feet, Angel decided to get married. His first marriage with a city beauty did not work out, then he got along with a simple peasant woman, Lina Gonzalez Rus. In Cuba they say that when Don Angel first came to Lina’s house, he was amazed by the order and cleanliness, and therefore he proposed not only to the girl, but to her entire family. After getting married, he moved his relatives to Biran, and his father-in-law Francisco Rus became the chief manager of his son-in-law’s entire vast farm. And a very good manager: with the funds of the Castro family, a post office and a school for peasant children, shops, a slaughterhouse and their own bakery were built in the town - so that the sugar factory workers would not be distracted from working on the household.

Seven children were born into the family of Angel and Lina - Angela, Ramon, Fidel, Raul, Juana, Emma and Agustina. Fidel was the third child, and the most beloved.

As fellow villagers recalled, Fidel did not need anything, playing all day long with a pack of domestic dogs. When his son turned 8 years old, his father gave him a horse named El Careto so that his son could become a real caballero - that is, a horseman and nobleman.

At the age of ten, the father sent his son to study at the La Salle Brothers Catholic College in Santiago de Cuba. At that time, this was a very extraordinary decision, because at that time all the rich Cuban planters rarely sent their offspring to study anything.

“In college, everyone tried to boast about the high incomes of their fathers,” recalled Fidel’s sister Juana. “But Fidel came and somehow casually said, answering one of the teachers: “Just think, my father earns up to 300 pesos a day.” And already the next day, everyone noticed how the attitude of the administration and students towards all of us, his brothers and sisters, had changed. From arrogant and contemptuous, it immediately became servile..."

Teachers often asked Fidel what he would like to become. But he only laughed it off then, although many of his friends noticed with what attention and greed he listened to stories about the exploits of the Mambises, soldiers of the Cuban National Liberation Army who fought against the Spaniards during the Ten Years' War of 1868-1878.

“He simply loved listening to war songs then,” recalled his classmate Jose Ignacio Rasco. - I think that back then Fidel dreamed of becoming the coolest of the mambises, so that all the girls would fall at his mere glance.

In 1942, Fidel moved to Havana and entered the Belen College - it was a privileged educational institution for the golden youth of the island. Fidel was involved in horse riding, rowing, and boxing, thanks to which all the college girls were in love with him. In addition, he became interested in literature and even received the first prize for oratory.

Among the few documents about the “pre-revolutionary” period of Fidel’s life, a description written by the director of the college has been preserved: “Bold and harsh. But we have no doubt that he will write more than one brilliant page in the history of Cuba.”

War Hero

After Belen, Fidel entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Havana. He was predicted to have a brilliant career as a metropolitan lawyer or judge, but before graduation, Fidel decided to prove to himself and others that he himself was no worse than the heroic mambises. He dropped out of school and volunteered for a guerrilla detachment that was preparing to sail to the shores of the Dominican Republic with the aim of overthrowing the regime of the local dictator Trujillo.

The composition of the expedition participants was extremely diverse - there were idealistic students who were ready to shed their own and others’ blood for the cause of freedom, and adventurers, and outright bandits who dreamed of profiting from the war. Fidel, after short military training in the camp of the province of Oriente, was appointed lieutenant and put in command of a small detachment in the army of mercenaries, who were stationed on the deserted island of Cayo Confites.

While waiting for the order to attack, the mercenaries sat on the island for several months. Gradually, food and medicine ran out, people went crazy out of despair and began to make rafts to sail somewhere from the cursed island. In the end, it turned out that the United States had reached an agreement with Trujillo and the Cuban Navy was ordered to arrest all members of the expedition.

Few managed to escape from the shameful trial and prison - those who risked throwing themselves from the deck into the sea. Fidel was among the brave souls. Having climbed ashore, Fidel vowed to himself never again to trust the gringo Americans.

Fidel, as if nothing had happened, returned to the University of Havana and continued his studies. But in his fifth year he met the charming blonde Mirta Diaz Balart, the only daughter of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Cuba.

“Mirta had huge green eyes,” recalls Jack Skelly, a former UPI reporter. “She loved to dance so much! All Cubans have an indescribable sense of rhythm, they just live for music and dancing, but Mirta, among all the other Cubans, was the very perfection. They say that when he first saw this charming blonde, young Castro promised: “I will definitely marry her.” And all his classmates made fun of him - they say that such a beauty would never marry a guy who has both left legs and no sense of humor... "

The wedding took place on October 12, 1948 - when the bride was already four months pregnant.

Don Angel, finally deciding that his dreamy son had finally come to his senses, paid for them to have a grand wedding according to all the canons of the then bourgeois society in the best restaurant in Havana and a honeymoon in the United States, where all successful young couples usually went. Fidelito Castro, the only legitimate child of the Cuban commander, was also born in the United States.

Indeed, it seemed to Fidel himself that it was time to settle down and put an end to revolutionary romance. He became a member of the ruling party of orthodox conservatives, and the young handsome lawyer from the richest and most influential family of the island, it would seem, had already been reserved the seat of a deputy in parliament, when suddenly a coup occurred in the country.

Lawyer against the Colonel

...In the early morning of March 10, 1952, a servant woke up Cuban President Prio Socarras and handed him a note: “It’s all over with you! I am the government! Colonel Fulgencio Batista.”

Colonel Fulgencio's real name is Ruben Saldivar. He was born into a poor peasant family. Like many peasant teenagers, he ran away from home and enlisted in the army, which at that time was the ultimate dream for him: they provided free clothes, food and money.

To pay for his way to the city, he stole a watch from one of his neighbors and, fearing prison, signed up for the army under the false name of Fulgencio Batista.

In the army, Batista had to experience everything - hazing and ridicule associated with his skin color - he was a mulatto, but he clenched his teeth and made a career. After completing the stenographer's course, Batista received the post of secretary of the Inspector General of the Army, Colonel Rascoi Ruiz. Batista then joined the semi-fascist ABC party and took an active part in preparing the overthrow of President Gerardo Machado.

A year later, Batista himself organized a military coup and became the de facto dictator of Cuba. However, in 1940, under US pressure, he was forced to soften the regime, and four years later, having been defeated in the presidential elections, he was forced to flee the country.

In 1952, when the United States was afraid of communists in the Western Hemisphere, Batista, with the full blessing of the Americans, returned to Cuba and organized a new military coup.

It was Castro who was instructed by the party leadership to draw up the text of a statement against the military coup and the dictator who seized power. Soon, Fidel submitted a lawsuit to the country's Supreme Court, accusing Batista of violating seven articles of the constitution and demanding life imprisonment for the colonel.

Adventure in Moncada

Batista simply brushed aside the claim, and for about a year Fidel continued to accuse the dictator of every conceivable sin through newspapers.

In the end, remembering the tactics of the Mambises, he decided to capture the military barracks in the Moncada fortress in Santiago de Cuba. As Fidel himself later recalled, this was necessary in order to “win the trust of the people and convince them of the possibility of a successful armed struggle.”

The assault on the fortress was scheduled for July 26, 1953. 165 people, armed with outdated guns, went to the operation.

True, as it turned out later, Castro, due to his inexperience, did not bother to draw up a plan for the barracks, so the revolutionaries quickly got confused in the dark and mistakenly attacked the houses of peaceful townspeople. And when Castro’s vanguard, after much wandering, finally reached the barracks, the soldiers met them with targeted fire.

Having lost 6 people in battle, the revolutionaries fled, so that later the troops had to catch them all in the forests for a long time - as the official version of the Cuban revolution says, during these searches 55 revolutionaries were shot by soldiers without trial.

Fidel himself and his brother Raul were caught in the mountains two weeks later. The reprisal against the “terrorists” was harsh: two dozen ordinary “Moncadists” were sentenced to 10 years in prison, Fidel himself received 15 years.

However, soon Batista, at the request of his father, pardoned the Castro brothers.

Once in prison, Castro wasted no time. He studied "Capital" by Marx and Lenin, and also acquired a mistress. It was the aristocrat Nati Revuelta.

“When Fidel met Nati in the early 1950s, she seemed like a movie star who had been bathed in olive oil by the gods, like Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth,” writes Wendy Jimbel, a biographer of the Castro family. “She had big green eyes, a beautiful mouth and hair the color of a raven's wing. She was a siren who was raised for a good marriage. She looked at Mirta as a simple provincial girl. And Nati also believed that Mirta could not be the kind of wife that a young revolutionary leader needed."

Nati Revuelta enthusiastically supported Fidel's plans to overthrow the Batista regime. She was the first to write a letter to the prisoner containing a declaration of love. Fidel replied: “Dear Nati! I am sending you tender greetings from my prison. I always remember and love you... although I have not known anything about you for a long time. I received that sweet letter that you sent with my mother, and I will always keep I have it with me. Know that I will gladly give my life for your honor and your happiness..."

After Castro’s release, his wife Mirta filed for divorce - as it turned out, the father-in-law of the fiery revolutionary, who retained his ministerial post under Batista, gave his daughter intimate letters from her husband to his mistress.

Mirta’s further fate is as follows: in the early 60s, she emigrated to the USA and took her son Fidelito with her. Cuban intelligence, on Castro's orders, kidnapped him and took him to Havana. Fidel himself raised his heir and even made him director of the Cuban Atomic Energy Agency. True, then Fidelito was suddenly fired - they say that he blurted out something unnecessary about his father, from whom he inherited his daring and sybaritic character.

In 1993, Castro and Nati Revuelta’s daughter Alina Fernandez also fled to the United States. Wearing a wig and holding a fake passport, she secretly left for Spain, and after publicly appealing to the authorities, she was allowed to take her 15-year-old daughter Alina. Fidel reacted violently to his daughter’s act, and even years after the escape, he forbids mentioning the name Fernandez in his presence. But it was thanks to Alina’s book “My Father - Fidel Castro” that the public learned many of the secrets of the Cuban dictator.

"Granma" hike

At the end of June 1955, at the city hospital of Mexico City, two Cubans came for a consultation with the doctor on duty - Argentinean Ernesto Guevara, nicknamed Che - that is, “dude” in Argentine slang, one of whom said that the Cubans who attacked the Moncada barracks Now they have begun to gather in Mexico City to prepare a new expedition to Cuba. Among them were the Castro brothers.

And the doctor Ernesto Guevara hurried to the port of Tuxpan, where a meeting was scheduled for the revolutionaries. On November 25, 1956, at 2 a.m., 82 passengers boarded the small yacht Granma, designed for a maximum of 10 people. 2 anti-tank machine guns, 90 rifles, 3 machine guns, pistols, ammunition and food were loaded onto the yacht. Thus began the famous Granma expedition - a mixture of madness and revolutionary romance.

Government troops discovered the rebels on the approach to Cuba, and Castro had to urgently move the landing to another area - instead of a sandy beach, the revolutionaries landed right in the center of a huge swamp with mangroves near the mouth of the Belik River.

“With a weaving gait,” recalled Ernesto Che Guevara, “we stepped onto solid ground, revealing an army of shadows, an army of ghosts that walked, obeying the impulse of some hidden psychic mechanism.”

It was necessary to walk 40 kilometers to the final point of the route - the Sierra Maestra mountains. In order not to betray their campaign to Batista’s troops, the revolutionaries divided their detachment into groups of 2-3 people and, hungry and in a semi-fainting state, fought their way towards the mountains.

As a result, only 22 people who had only two machine guns reached the appointed place - the estate of Cresencio Perez, one of Fidel's comrades - and the rest died or were arrested. Nevertheless, the whole country followed the fate of a handful of brave men who risked challenging the 30,000-strong regular army.

To further their propaganda, Fidel and other Rebel Army commanders grew beards and long hair, imitating 19th-century Cuban patriots who vowed not to shave until the Spaniards left the island. So the nickname “barbudos” - “bearded men” - immediately became a common name for the rebels.

Even US President Dwight Eisenhower fell under the charm of the “people’s leader” - at that time Castro ruled out any harsh anti-American speeches, giving the White House no reason to worry. In the end, Eisenhower even recommended that Cuban politicians not interfere with the triumph of democracy.

The order of the US President was carried out - and at the New Year's reception on December 31, 1958, Army Commander-in-Chief General Eulogio Cantillo gave Batista an ultimatum: he must leave.

Batista fled to the Dominican Republic, where he lived quietly to the age of 72 and died in his mansion.

First attempt

Castro deceived Eisenhower. Before the revolution, he ardently advocated for a democratic form of government, promised to guarantee freedom of speech and the press, but after the victory of the revolution, Fidel began by executing about a thousand Batista supporters and confiscating all American property on the island worth more than a billion dollars.

In response, the head of the White House ordered the CIA to eliminate the obstinate commander.

The execution of the order was entrusted to Marita Lorenz, a German by birth, whose father was the captain of a cruise ship.

They introduced her into Fidel’s bed very simply,” recalled one of the former intelligence agents. “She just came to Cuba and during the rally she asked Fidel to give her an autograph. But at the last moment she became embarrassed and did not know how to address the leader of the revolution: call him “Your Excellency,” “Mr,” “Doctor,” or something else. When she openly told Fidel about these difficulties, he replied: “Listen, if you managed to get through all the barriers, then just call me Fidel!” In the evening she found herself in the commander’s bedroom. She had a capsule of poison with her, but at the decisive moment she suddenly realized that she could not poison the person she fell in love with.

They spent eight and a half months together and separated only after Castro forced her to have an abortion.

The consequences of Marita and Fidel's love are well known - the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. Castro quickly got his bearings and declared that he had always been a Marxist-Leninist.

Not wanting to have a USSR vassal at hand, the Americans organized an invasion of the Bay of Cochinos in April 1962. The operation to overthrow Castro ended in a complete fiasco by the CIA - of the 1,500 people trained for this expedition, 1,200 were captured, about a hundred were killed, and only a few managed to escape on departing ships.

Comandante and his "angel"

The main role in transforming Castro from an anarchist into a die-hard Marxist was played by his secretary Celia Sanchez, who became not only his “guardian angel”, but also his common-law wife.

“Celia was five years older than Fidel, and she was the only person who could somehow influence him,” recalled Uber Matos, a former ally of Castro. “Only she could tell him: “You are full of crap!” Don’t do this!” She was thin, of average height, neither ugly nor beautiful. A woman with character. It was she who often dictated Cuba’s foreign policy course.”

It was Celia who insisted that Castro in 1965 actually forced Che Guevara to resign from the Cuban government and then leave Cuba (as Juanita Castro, Fidel’s sister, testified, even the Comandante himself called Che Guevara a man without a heart: “Nothing mattered to him.” the trial, nor the investigation. He immediately started shooting...").

Through Celia's labors, the United Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba was renamed the Communist Party of Cuba. Castro himself was elected first secretary of the party's Central Committee.

Celia's life ended tragically: in 1979, she committed suicide by shooting herself in the temple. They say that the reason was her jealousy - there were rumors that a whole system had been developed in Cuba for supplying women for the commander's bed pleasures. Fans of Castro, on the contrary, object that Fidel had no need to use the services of pimps at all - after all, the women themselves clung to him.

However, as Cuban dissidents are sure, Celia’s death was arranged by part of Castro’s entourage, dissatisfied with her influence on the commandant.

One way or another, after the death of Celia, Fidel sybaritized for several years, and then became friends with Dalia Soto del Balle, who gave birth to five sons to the commander. All their names begin with the letter "A": Angel, Alex, Alexander, Alejandro, Antonio. The extent of Castro's sons' influence on public policy is still unknown.

* * *

Decline of the revolution

The collapse of the USSR caused enormous economic problems in Cuba. As a result, Castro was forced to partially abandon the “Soviet model of building socialism,” and at the Fourth Congress of the CPC in 1991, he spoke out in favor of carrying out a number of economic reforms according to the “Chinese model” - that is, liberalization of the economy, subject to the retention of key positions by the state. Moreover, the authorities allowed freedom of religion, the free circulation of the American dollar as a means of payment, and the freedom to create agricultural cooperatives on Liberty Island. In the propaganda of the CCP, the main emphasis began to be placed not on Marxism-Leninism, but on the “ideas of José Martí.”

Cubans say that it was in those years that Fidel admitted to the writer Gabriel Marquez that in fact he did not want to build any socialism at all, but simply to establish the fairest system on the island, when you don’t have to work hard, but you can relax to your heart’s content - drink a little rum, meet a pretty girl, dance to the rhythms of samba...

What would you like to do if you had a lot of free time? - asked the writer.

The Comandante shrugged:

I would just wander around the streets.

Since then, all of Cuba has been waiting for Fidel to finally announce his resignation.

* * *

Death

Reports of Fidel Castro's death appeared in the media, usually once every few years. The first time the Cuban leader was “buried” was in 1986, when doctor Marcelo Fernandez, who fled from the island, reported that in 1989 in Egypt, Fidel was operated on to eliminate the consequences of a cerebral hemorrhage and was given another diagnosis - rectal cancer.

Fidel was buried in 1994 and 2000, publishing information that Fidel Castro suffered from Parkinson's disease, to which Castro invariably grinned:

The enemies of Cuba buried me more than once, wishful thinking. However, I have never felt better than now.

However, since 2006, Fidel Castro began to gradually hand over the reins of government to his brother Raul Castro: “He is the best prepared and has the most experience.”

Raul Castro announced the death of the Comandante: “I am here to inform our people, our friends in America and the world that today, November 25, 2016, at 10:29 p.m., the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, died.”