Fulgencio Batista and the Soviet Union

The traditional perception of relations between Moscow and Havana was that the Cuban Revolution of January 1959 was the catalyst for their creation and that prior to January 1959 the Soviet Union had suffered from “geographical fatalism” with regards not just Cuba specifically, but Latin America as a whole, because the continent was perceived as being in Washington’s “sphere of influence.” Although this was the case, this article will argue that a multifaceted relationship between Moscow and Havana existed prior to the Cuban Revolution and also during both Fulgencio Batista’s Presidencies of Cuba (1940-1944, 1952-1959). This multifaceted relationship had been both economic and political. Reasons internal to both the Soviet Union and Cuba (crucially Cuba was perceived as ‘hot bed’ of labor radicalism in the pre1959 era with this originating in large part due to the U.S. economic domination of the island) and international factors, not least Moscow and Havana’s individual relationships with Washington and the impact of both the great Fatherland War and Cold War had underpinned the multifaceted bilateral relationship. A number of these reasons would resurface in the post-Cuban Revolution relationship, but this is not to downplay the historical significance of the relationship that had existed between Moscow and Havana while Fulgencio Batista was President of Cuba.