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And the Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba : A Personal Portrait
This personal account of the author and members of his family spans thirty years, from January 1, 1959, up until the present day where the Soviets continue to use fortified coves to keep their missiles only 90 miles from America's shores. Photos.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
Néstor T. Carbonell
2 books2 followersInternational public affairs and business leader with over 40 years of experience working in Latin America, Europe, India and China.
Published author and journalist on Cuban affairs, history and constitutional law.
Accomplished public speaker addressing international forums.
Published author and journalist on Cuban affairs, history and constitutional law.
Accomplished public speaker addressing international forums.
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December 29, 2025
Author Nestor Carbonell y Cortina married my cousin Rosa Ramirez de Arellano y Cardenas, the great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Mariana Josefa Herrera y Chacon, my great-great-great-great-grandaunt. This is a very well written and researched, insightful account into Cuba's relationship with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) which transformed the republic, its people, and its political landscape. Born and raised in Cuba, Carbonell brings both a personal and scholarly lens to this Cold War history topic, which adds layers of depth regarding revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, a committed communist who placed himself as the head of the Cuban government and the tragic nerve-racking course of events that followed, leading to Cuba's transformation.
The Cuban Revolution rose from dissidents against Fulgencio Batista becoming president of the republic in 1952. On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro led an armed raid against the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Lucky for Cuba, the Castro insurgents were killed by President Fulgencio Batista’s military forces. Unfortunately, Castro managed to escape the battle but thankfully was subsequently arrested and imprisoned. Once freed from prison, Castro fled to Mexico, where he raised a guerilla army of Cuban exiles. In November 1956, Castro and these men sailed from Mexico to Cuba to attack Batista’s regime. Within days of their arrival, Batista’s forces attacked the guerillas, and a little more than a dozen men, including Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, survived and made it into the Sierra Maestra mountains. Once again Cuba was safe from Castro’s insurgency. From there, Castro was able to gather new members and begin a classic guerilla campaign, and sadly gained the upper hand in Cuba, forcing Batista to flee the island on January 1, 1959.
In defense of freedom, capitalism, and innocent lives, in 1959 there came an anti-Castro uprising in Cuba’s Escambray Mountains. None fought harder than the small land owners and tenant farmers. Though poorly coordinated, people in the United States made secretive attempts to get supplies to the resistance. Which led to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency sponsored Brigade 2506, a Cuban-exile invasion force in the Bay of Pigs operation in April 1961. Shortly after the invasion, U.S. President John F. Kennedy withdrew support, including abandoning support in the Escambray Mountains. The freedom fighters were outnumbered and outgunned. Many were imprisoned, some prisoners were executed, private property was confiscated, and crops were destroyed. Then, the Kremlin stepped in.
Carbonell addresses one of the most puzzling questions in history: why Washington D.C. launched the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, then just as quickly withdrew support?
The Soviets were deeply involved in the takeover of Cuba with ideological influences of Marxist-Leninist doctrine, turning the island into a base for communist subversion. The leader of the Soviet Union at the time, Nikita Khrushchev’s policies included sending a contingent of Soviet coaches to a military compound dubbed “KGB redoubt” near the Cuban city of Trinidad. The Soviet Union's premier intelligence and security agency from 1954 to 1991, the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) served the Communist Party in Cuba for domestic surveillance and conducting espionage.
The Soviet presence was greatly unwelcomed by the majority of people in Cuba, including my mother Meaghan Regina Blanco D’Otazzo who was encouraged by members of the Castro regime to learn the Russian language a couple of months before she left the island as an exile. To prevent monarchist resurgence, the Romanovs, Russia's imperial family, were "targeted" by the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, who seized power in the Revolution, replacing the provisional government with communist rule in 1917. Being from a wealthy, aristocratic Spanish family, my mother was terrified of the rifle-toting communist members of the Castro regime, including Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who took control of Cuban bank accounts, stealing her families assets as part of a sweeping socialist transformation. Yet, for one brief moment, my mother Meaghan claimed Ernesto “Che” Guevara was surprisingly nice to her while her passport was reviewed, even helping her to sit down seeing that she was pregnant with my sister Vivian, at the Jose Martí International Airport in Havana on June 22, 1962, the day she flew on Pan American Airways flight 2422 to Miami International Airport in Florida.
It was clear after the Cuban Missile Crisis, (a 13-day standoff in October 1962 when the United States discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, which is ninety miles from America's shores, bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear war), that the United States of America was not going to war to overthrow Fidel Castro.
The author’s point of view in “And the Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba: A Personal Portrait” has everything to do with his firsthand experience of living through the Cuban Revolution and witnessing his beloved country become entwined with the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War. These events affected Cubans’ shift in national identity, and the erosion of their freedoms. The end result is that Carbonell was a militant in the fight for Cuba’s freedom and poured emotional depth and historical insight into this book.
The Cuban Revolution rose from dissidents against Fulgencio Batista becoming president of the republic in 1952. On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro led an armed raid against the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Lucky for Cuba, the Castro insurgents were killed by President Fulgencio Batista’s military forces. Unfortunately, Castro managed to escape the battle but thankfully was subsequently arrested and imprisoned. Once freed from prison, Castro fled to Mexico, where he raised a guerilla army of Cuban exiles. In November 1956, Castro and these men sailed from Mexico to Cuba to attack Batista’s regime. Within days of their arrival, Batista’s forces attacked the guerillas, and a little more than a dozen men, including Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, survived and made it into the Sierra Maestra mountains. Once again Cuba was safe from Castro’s insurgency. From there, Castro was able to gather new members and begin a classic guerilla campaign, and sadly gained the upper hand in Cuba, forcing Batista to flee the island on January 1, 1959.
In defense of freedom, capitalism, and innocent lives, in 1959 there came an anti-Castro uprising in Cuba’s Escambray Mountains. None fought harder than the small land owners and tenant farmers. Though poorly coordinated, people in the United States made secretive attempts to get supplies to the resistance. Which led to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency sponsored Brigade 2506, a Cuban-exile invasion force in the Bay of Pigs operation in April 1961. Shortly after the invasion, U.S. President John F. Kennedy withdrew support, including abandoning support in the Escambray Mountains. The freedom fighters were outnumbered and outgunned. Many were imprisoned, some prisoners were executed, private property was confiscated, and crops were destroyed. Then, the Kremlin stepped in.
Carbonell addresses one of the most puzzling questions in history: why Washington D.C. launched the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, then just as quickly withdrew support?
The Soviets were deeply involved in the takeover of Cuba with ideological influences of Marxist-Leninist doctrine, turning the island into a base for communist subversion. The leader of the Soviet Union at the time, Nikita Khrushchev’s policies included sending a contingent of Soviet coaches to a military compound dubbed “KGB redoubt” near the Cuban city of Trinidad. The Soviet Union's premier intelligence and security agency from 1954 to 1991, the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) served the Communist Party in Cuba for domestic surveillance and conducting espionage.
The Soviet presence was greatly unwelcomed by the majority of people in Cuba, including my mother Meaghan Regina Blanco D’Otazzo who was encouraged by members of the Castro regime to learn the Russian language a couple of months before she left the island as an exile. To prevent monarchist resurgence, the Romanovs, Russia's imperial family, were "targeted" by the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, who seized power in the Revolution, replacing the provisional government with communist rule in 1917. Being from a wealthy, aristocratic Spanish family, my mother was terrified of the rifle-toting communist members of the Castro regime, including Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who took control of Cuban bank accounts, stealing her families assets as part of a sweeping socialist transformation. Yet, for one brief moment, my mother Meaghan claimed Ernesto “Che” Guevara was surprisingly nice to her while her passport was reviewed, even helping her to sit down seeing that she was pregnant with my sister Vivian, at the Jose Martí International Airport in Havana on June 22, 1962, the day she flew on Pan American Airways flight 2422 to Miami International Airport in Florida.
It was clear after the Cuban Missile Crisis, (a 13-day standoff in October 1962 when the United States discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, which is ninety miles from America's shores, bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear war), that the United States of America was not going to war to overthrow Fidel Castro.
The author’s point of view in “And the Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba: A Personal Portrait” has everything to do with his firsthand experience of living through the Cuban Revolution and witnessing his beloved country become entwined with the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War. These events affected Cubans’ shift in national identity, and the erosion of their freedoms. The end result is that Carbonell was a militant in the fight for Cuba’s freedom and poured emotional depth and historical insight into this book.
January 10, 2021
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.
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