Bittersweet solidarity

Cuba, Sugar and the Soviet bloc

Bibliographic Data

ID9259059
AuthorsRadoslav Yordanov (0000-0002-2082-1143, Harvard University Press, corresponding author)
Year2021
Issue161
Pages215-240
Publication date2021-07-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRevista de Historia de América (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-8325 • E-ISSN: 2663-371X
PublisherInstituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.35424/rha.161.2021.855
OpenAlexW3188225997
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited11

This paper traces the complex sugar trade between Cuba and the East European Socialist states (the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Hungary) from the Cuban revolution in 1959 until the dissolution of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) in 1991. To Cuba, selling its sugar to the Socialist states at above-world market prices was an expression of East European states’socialist solidarity. To the bloc states, it was a form of economic aid to Cuba. This formulation not only went against the preferred form of exchange within the CMEA, namely cooperation based on mutual interest but also incensed the Cubans who felt the revolution was entitled to the support of all Socialist states from Berlin to Moscow. Amid this complicated relationship, the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev posed a serious challenge to Cuba, which was unprepared to face the free market. The result was a loss of foreign markets and a severe domestic crisis known as the Special Period. This work seeks to provide a new reading of the ebb and flow between Cuba and its Socialist trading partners, relying on the views expressed in the candid reports of the East European diplomats and experts, who were involved in the day-to-day managing of their respective states’ economic relations with the Caribbean nation. It is based on original research in foreign ministry, party, and security services archives of the East European states. It also utilizes primary material originating from the Cuban foreign ministry

China · Communism · Democracy · Eastern Bloc · Economic Diplomacy · Economic history · Economic system · Economics · Economy · Ministry of Foreign Affairs · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Socialist economics · Solidarity · Cuban History and Society · Law

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access