SOVIET-CUBAN TRADE AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS (1960–1972)

The article analyzes evolution of the Soviet-Cuban trade and economic relations in the period of 1960–1972 based on documents from Russian archives that are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. Based on key doctrinal documents, records of negotiations and correspondence of key figures of the period under review: Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Anastas Mikoyan, Alexei Kosygin, Leonid Brezhnev, it shows characteristic features and the logic of certain periods in economic relations. The author proves that in 1960 and 1971 the Soviet Union twice saved the economy of revolutionary Cuba from collapse by promptly providing preferential loans, technical assistance and political support. For the first time, the discussions around the Cuban draft agreement on economic integration with the USSR in 1960 and the negotiations between Soviet and Cuban planners on the problem of the default that threatened Havana in 1971 are shown. The author concludes that despite of a refusal to sign the agreement on integration in 1960, de facto Cuba became a part of the income and expenditure items of the Soviet state budget. The coordination of plans between the two countries from the early 1970s, the confidential exchange of plans for internal development, meant a transition from the initial model of coordinating prices and commodity lists to more complex interstate economic integration, supplemented by Cuba’s entry into the CMEA in 1972.