Cuba, Soviet Oil, and the Sanctions that Never Were

An Archival Investigation of Socialist Relations

Bibliographic Data

ID4017945
AuthorsOscar Sanchez-Sibony (0000-0002-2168-7257, University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume54
Issue4
Pages593-616
Publication date2022-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Latin American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-216X • E-ISSN: 1469-767X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022216x22000505
OpenAlexW4296352479
LanguageEN
References cited15

In the winter of 1968, tensions between Cuba and the Soviet Union boiled over as the Cuban leadership's mouthpiece, Granma, accused the Soviet Union of imposing oil sanctions on the island in order to subjugate it. Those accusations went on to become inscribed into the historiography of Soviet-Cuban relations. This intervention into that historiography is two-fold: on the one hand it uses recently declassified documents from the Soviet archives to show that there were no oil sanctions on Cuba, but rather a continuum of logistical and infrastructural challenges that created delays and tensions in the relations between these two socialist allies. On the other hand, the article contextualises the relationship within the capitalist institutions of exchange that in effect mediated it, finding in these not only part of the reason for the setbacks and tensions, but also a wider framework for better understanding the Soviet-Cuban economic relationship

Economic history · Historiography · Inscribed figure · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sanctions · Sociology · Soviet union · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Cuban History and Society · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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